QF BNE-SYD-DFW-BNA-LAX in Y and LAX-BNE in J (also Sydney Flounge)

[Septemberfury]

Hi Guys, first time poster, thought I would put together a quick TR, mainly to give a shout out to NTflyer for generously providing me with an invite to the first lounge in Sydney, and also due to my first ever J. Warning, I've only got an iPhone so don't expect miracles with the photos!


BNE-SYD
QF521 (767)
Dep: 10:25
Arr: 13:00


Nothing exciting to report, exit row, didn't get a refurb 767 (is there only one at this stage?), took off a few minutes late, a light snack of some kind of sausage roll thing which I passed on in anticipation of stuffing my face in the Flounge.


Sydney
Arrived right on time at gate 4 domestic, walked down straight on to a T1 shuttle bus, perfect timing so far. Breezed through immigration and security courtesy of the express pass the check in lady had provided me in BNE when I explained that I would love the opportunity to maximize my time in the Flounge!


First Class Lounge
No words could aptly describe how excited I was walking on past the living wall and up the escalator to the lounge, considering this was my first ever visit to a lounge, handed over my pass to the lady behind the counter and was ushered through. Having read enough posts on AFF I knew my first stop should be the spa so as to ensure I could get an appointment, was able to nab a 30 min massage for 2:30 which would give me plenty of time to eat and chill out for a while.




Cruised back to the restaurant and was shown to a table, provided a menu and had my drink order taken. Not being much of a drinker I went with lemon lime bitters which I might say was one of the better LLBs I've had.



Had the green calamari as an entree which was just amazing, the dipping sauces were delicious and the calamari somehow tasted light despite being deep fried!




I ordered the steak as a main, keep in mind that I loved every minute I was in the lounge and could barely keep a smile off my face for the whole 2 1/2 hours, but I would say that thesteak was the lowlight of the my visit to the lounge. It was just awful. It was thin, looked like it had been broiled, tasted like it was chuck or blade. The chips and greens I had on the side were delicious. You might notice in the photo that my entree plate had not been cleared, I didn't mind but I just thought it was a bit weird considering the quality & attentiveness of the service.




Enjoyed the panna cotta for dessert which came with some kind of fairy floss, along with a superb cappuccino.

 

[Septemberfury]

After dessert I did a few laps of the lounge, I liked the fact that each part of the lounge seemed to have a different feel, especially liked the library end of the lounge it seemed like a nice chill out place.




Made a bee line for the spa and was ushered through to the treatment room, the room itself was amazing, from the smell of incense to the living wall and the tranquil meditation style music it was just the most luxurious atmosphere. Had my half hour massage which relaxed me to the point of almost falling asleep.



After the massage I had a quick shower, the shower room was nicely appointed (and had a rainfall style shower head) and came with a bunch of different toiletries.

All in all the lounge experience was incredible, I've done my fair share of international Y travel (as far as self funded 24 year olds go) and it was so different to actually walk on to a plane feeling so relaxed!

SYD-DFW
QF7
Dep: 15:40
Arr:13:45
72K

Rolled downstairs to find I was one of the last to board the plane, got settled in to my seat and worked out what I was going to watch. Not much really to report about the flight, watched a few movies, tv shows, slept for 5 hours, service was good, had lunch after take off followed by snack offerings every few hours or so then breakfast 2 hours out of DFW. Keep in mind that nothing could dampen my enthusiasm for flying, but given I've done a lot of long haul Y in the past year, all I'll say is SYD-DFW is a bloody long way.

Sunset over the pacific



landed in DFW about 20 minutes late, huge line up for immigration, a Lufthansa flight arrived at the same time, was almost asleep standing up. Wandered around for 2 hours, DFW is a cool enough terminal, the skyrail system is really really effective.

Flight to BNA was uneventful, sat next to an off duty AA MD-80 pilot who was very friendly so it was cool to hear the inside word on what was happening during the trip.

I'll post about LAX-BNE in J in a few days so keep your eyes out.

 

[cove]

Great photos Septemberfury! You made me feel like I was there.
Going to DFW from SYD is a very long flight. It is a nice start at the First lounge that's for sure.

 

[RB]

A good read, well done!

 

[NTflyer]

Glad you enjoyed the Flounge Septemberfury

 

[flyingfan]

Nice report, the F lounge is a fantastic way to start a trip (especially long-haul in Y).

You might notice in the photo that my entree plate had not been cleared, I didn't mind but I just thought it was a bit weird considering the quality & attentiveness of the service.

Unused plates were cleared at our table swiftly so hopefully it was just a bit of a lapse in service, which tends to be pretty strong in my (limited) experience.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Enjoy the rest of the trip. Y was built for younger bodies!

 

[amaroo]

Nice TR......how good is it that your first ever lounge visit is SYD F

 

[Septemberfury]

Pretty much the day after I arrived in Nashville, I received one of "Limited time offer: Request an upgrade on your upcoming flight". My heart skipped a beat as I only travel on sale airfares so I've never had the opportunity to request for an upgrade. I had no idea what the load factor was but I knew I was in with a chance being a silver. I also opted for the upgrade at the gate option.


BNA-LAX
QF3280 (737)
Dep: 18:30
Arr: 21:00


Nashville has a fairly nice little terminal, I don't know how old it is but it feels modern and has quite a few shops and takeout places, I saw a bar with live music also. Didn't receive a boarding pass for QF16 and the people at the check in counter couldn't provide much more info, this made me think "does this mean an upgrade is in the system?!?!"


Flight to LAX was meh, domestic AA for 4 hours is never much fun, nice view of LA in its entirety coming in to land.


The confirmation on my FF logon said that I would receive notice as to whether my upgrade was successful 5 hours before scheduled departure, however I was on a plane at the 5 hour mark and when I landed at LAX no text came through when I landed. Walked off the plane into T4 gate 4, looked at the board and found out that QF was departing from the same gate in 3 hours time!


There was no one behind the desk and was told that there would be someone there 90 minutes before departure. Waddled off to chillies to eat my feelings about leaving the states and did a few laps of T4, there really isn't that much to see!


cruised back to gate 4 90 minutes out, suffice to say my heart was in my mouth as I approached the service desk, handed over my passport, the guy tapped away at the computer, handed over the boarding pass "15B upstairs sir, you still have time to take advantage of the lounge if you would like". I just about passed out from joy, international J is something I've wanted for as long as I can remember, my face almost hurt from smiling too much.


I went to the lounge upstairs and did a couple of laps and used the computers, also used the showers to freshen up (mainly to get my 72,000 points worth).

View from the lounge



LAX-BNE
QF16
Dep: 23:50
Arr: 7:50


Boarding time finally came, felt good to finally be one of the lucky ones to board first and not get caught in the masses! Walked on to the plane and was directed upstairs, my head was spinning with excitement, this was completely different to trudging back to economy.


Made myself comfortable and was offered champagne/orange juice/water and given a breakfast menu. One of the flight attendants came back with pyjamas shortly after which I quickly changed in to, its quite a weird feeling seeing a random bunch of people mostly 40+ having a pyjama party...

Seat before take off



The Skybed is such an awesome seat in my experience of international J, which is none, but is still a lot better than old 72K! I spent some time fiddling around with the buttons figuring out how it works. Push back seemed to be taking some time, maybe 25 minutes by this stage but i didn't mind, the longer the better.


Flight attendant came through taking dinner orders just before we finally pushed back, this was one of the things I thought gave J a luxury feel compared to what I'm used to in Y, instead of someone shouting "chicken or pasta? sorry we're out of whatever it was you had your heart set on" in front of a trolley, the FA actually came to my seat and took my order before we had even took off. Blew my mind it did.


Finally pushed back, safety demo etc, once the seatbelt sign was off the FAs sprung into action.


One thing I thought was strange, the mood lighting was only turned on at this point, I had always assumed it would be on during boarding, take off, cruising etc? It gave a nice "romance of travel feel".

Kicking back



I was happily watching some TV when dinner came, I had some kind of chicken which was really nice, but unfortunately I overate during my visit to chilies in T4 so I wasn't overly hungry. Great service again during dinner, no lemon lime bitters unfortunately, no worries but the FA couldn't be more apologetic if he tried!

Dinner

 

[Septemberfury]

After dinner I pretty much just watched more TV for a few hours, went for a walk through economy, then decided to call it a night with around 10 hours to go. I set an alarm on my phone so as to only sleep for a few hours so I could make the most of my J experience.

Mood lighting


The flat bed is unreal, I really like the way your head feels like its in a cocoon.


I probably slept lightly for around 3 hours, I didn't really want to sleep because I was just too excited to be in business class finally. I checked my phone and it had gone dead, in the excitement I had forgot to switch it to flight mode so it had been dutifully looking for some signal over the pacific for 6 hours.

I walked in to the galley to ask if I the FA had an iphone charger I could borrow, again he couldn't be more helpful, with my phone on the way back to the land of the living I decided to watch some more TV, I asked the FA for a hot chocolate which was delivered quickly to my seat. Went for a middle of the night walk through economy to reinforce how lucky I was.

Just some more TV watching until breakfast time, I ticked pretty much everything on the breakfast menu to maximise my experience.


Changed out of my pjs about half hour out of Brisbane and went for a quick walk to take some snaps.


Landed right on time in Brisbane.

The FAs upstairs were 2 middle aged guys who were simply amazing. They really made my first J experience as good as I could have hoped for, the were genuine and warm and felt like they couldn't do enough to help. I could have just as easily been stuck with a cranky old cow who would have dampened the mood. As I was getting off the plane I shook both their hands and thanked them for the amazing service they provided in my first J experience.

That's the end of the adventure for now, all in all international J on QF was just awesome. I cant wait to do it all again soon.

 

[docjames]

Congrats on the upgrade and nice TR.

 

[fersea]

Sounds like fun. Stories like this make we wonder whether to get my points up to go RTW in J rather than Y, or whether I would rather just go in Y and have enough points to do it again and go back to places I missed or wanted to see more of.