Royal Brunei wet leases HiFly A340 for MEL

[MEL_Traveller]

Royal Brunei has leased an HiFly A340-300 for a few weeks to operate the BWN-MEL-BWN rotation.

It's a wet lease, dunno how that affects service. Presume still no alcohol.

First entered service about a week ago. Think it has to do with 787 engine inspections.

The plane is ex Sri Lankan, 24C (79 inch full flat in a 2-2-2 config) and 267Y (2-4-2). Rego 9H-SUN:A340-313 | 9H-SUN - Fleet | Hi Fly

 

[AIRwin]

Was that the all white aircraft I spotted from the F lounge in MEL yesterday?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Was that the all white aircraft I spotted from the F lounge in MEL yesterday?

It was!

 

[Dee Jay]

Just flew back from Brunei to Melboune on the HiFly wet lease plane on Tuesday. We were in business class. The plane felt and looked tired. The seats were narrow (than the 787) and difficult to work with help needed to lower, from a seemingly intermittent button. The cabin crew was a mixture between RBA staff and HiFly crew. Food delivery was not efficient but was nice to eat. We were disappointed to only find out that this 3rd leg of our London to Melbourne was going to be done using the "loaner"! aeroplane when we checked in at Heathrow. To top it off the heated refresher towels offered ended up as just wet rags, having not been heated properly. The toilet tap was inoperable and the inflight entertainment was extremely limited either with the offered small screen ipads, or the screens in the seats.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just flew back from Brunei to Melboune on the HiFly wet lease plane on Tuesday. We were in business class. The plane felt and looked tired. The seats were narrow (than the 787) and difficult to work with help needed to lower, from a seemingly intermittent button. The cabin crew was a mixture between RBA staff and HiFly crew. Food delivery was not efficient but was nice to eat. We were disappointed to only find out that this 3rd leg of our London to Melbourne was going to be done using the "loaner"! aeroplane when we checked in at Heathrow. To top it off the heated refresher towels offered ended up as just wet rags, having not been heated properly. The toilet tap was inoperable and the inflight entertainment was extremely limited either with the offered small screen ipads, or the screens in the seats.

Thanks for the report!

I was wondering, with HiFly operating, did they have alcohol? I'm guessing not, but you never know!

Seems like the flights are wide open, at least in economy. Probably not worth the upgrade bid.

The seats are supposed to be the Sri Lankan full flats. But doesn't sound like they have kept them in good condition.

 

[Dee Jay]

Thanks for the report!

I was wondering, with HiFly operating, did they have alcohol? I'm guessing not, but you never know!

Seems like the flights are wide open, at least in economy. Probably not worth the upgrade bid.

The seats are supposed to be the Sri Lankan full flats. But doesn't sound like they have kept them in good condition.

The plane was dry. The seats were flat but hard to operate. At the start of the flight I was really grateful for the prayer which was relayed via the Brunei hostess' iphone, as a recording held up to the microphone, as there was no visual accompanyment. I said to my wife that it would be good that there are 2 engines per wing as this means we have spares!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The plane was dry. The seats were flat but hard to operate. At the start of the flight I was really grateful for the prayer which was relayed via the Brunei hostess' iphone, as a recording held up to the microphone, as there was no visual accompanyment. I said to my wife that it would be good that there are 2 engines per wing as this means we have spares!

Welcome to AFF!

HiFly seems to have taken many of their planes 'as is' from the last operating carrier. This one is Sri Lankan, the A380 is SQ. Other A340s are from EK with pre-suite F beds. I guess it's hard to keep all those different interiors in tip top shape.

 

[GeeCee]

Just arrived back to MEL on BI53 and found it to be quite a poor experience, especially compared with our MEL-BWN experience from several weeks back on BI54.

We encountered a tired & creaky cabin (economy), broken armrest between our seats, non-working tap in one of the restrooms, very cramped seating, extremely limited entertainment system (8 movies, a single episode each of 2 different TV shows, no map), no individual ventilation in an intermittently stifling cabin, no overhead light switches, and staff with extremely limited English (the safety briefing was almost unintelligible).

We only learnt of the switch upon check-in at BWN. I presume this sort of thing is legal but is there anything to be gained by contacting the airline? This is not the level of service we expected or paid for.

On the plus side side, the food was better than a lot I've had in the past, the staff friendly & accomodating, and I lived to write this post

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just arrived back to MEL on BI53 and found it to be quite a poor experience, especially compared with our MEL-BWN experience from several weeks back on BI54.

We encountered a tired & creaky cabin (economy), broken armrest between our seats, non-working tap in one of the restrooms, very cramped seating, extremely limited entertainment system (8 movies, a single episode each of 2 different TV shows, no map), no individual ventilation in an intermittently stifling cabin, no overhead light switches, and staff with extremely limited English (the safety briefing was almost unintelligible).

We only learnt of the switch upon check-in at BWN. I presume this sort of thing is legal but is there anything to be gained by contacting the airline? This is not the level of service we expected or paid for.

On the plus side side, the food was better than a lot I've had in the past, the staff friendly & accomodating, and I lived to write this post

Hi there are welcome to AFF!

Thanks for the update.

It doesn't sound so good for my upcoming trip

The seating is cramped, but was the flight itself full? They look pretty empty given the seat maps (and that everyone gets free seat assignment at the time of booking).

 

[GeeCee]

There were a couple of vacant seats dotted about the place (mostly the bulkheads/exits/paid seats), but generally it was pretty full. FWIW the outbound (MEL-BWN) flight was a lot less crowded - I had a middle row of 3 seats to myself and there were empty blocks on either side of the plane to enjoy the amazing scenery over the Northern Territory.

 

[Kate Francis]

I've been flying to Melbourne from London twice a year for the last five years. I'm usually wrecked at the end of a flight so have learnt that the best mitigation is to stick to 787s or A380s. I've flown twice before with RB for this reason, and found them to be ok.

When I booked this time with RB I was a bit surprised to see an Airbus 340 for the BWN/MEL leg but presumed it would be to RB's standards. Info said that the operator on all flights was RB. So I was surprised to find last night when I logged in to my account for the first time since booking that this leg was going to be operated by Hi Fly, and appalled when I read the Skytrax reviews which are backed up what I've read here. I've also learnt from this website that RB started using Hi Fly at least a week before I made the booking.

There's no way I'm going to endure Hi Fly, twice, for six hours so I'm cancelling and asking for a full refund. I'm sure RB will try and wriggle out of that, but found this in a recent Daily Telegraph article about wet leasing which is interesting:

" Norwegian’s spokesperson said 'The operator of our flights are visible to customers throughout the booking process on Norwegian.com. If customers had originally booked on to a Norwegian operated service and it changes to a wet leased aircraft, we would contact passengers in advance and offer a free rebooking or refund if they no longer wish to travel.' Guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says airlines must tell passengers “at point of sale” who will be operating the flight. Airlines have an obligation to tell passengers who will be conducting their flight."

Not sure that translates into a legal obligation, but it certainly makes RB's behaviour look thoroughly unethical.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I've been flying to Melbourne from London twice a year for the last five years. I'm usually wrecked at the end of a flight so have learnt that the best mitigation is to stick to 787s or A380s. I've flown twice before with RB for this reason, and found them to be ok.

When I booked this time with RB I was a bit surprised to see an Airbus 340 for the BWN/MEL leg but presumed it would be to RB's standards. Info said that the operator on all flights was RB. So I was surprised to find last night when I logged in to my account for the first time since booking that this leg was going to be operated by Hi Fly, and appalled when I read the Skytrax reviews which are backed up what I've read here. I've also learnt from this website that RB started using Hi Fly at least a week before I made the booking.

There's no way I'm going to endure Hi Fly, twice, for six hours so I'm cancelling and asking for a full refund. I'm sure RB will try and wriggle out of that, but found this in a recent Daily Telegraph article about wet leasing which is interesting:

" Norwegian’s spokesperson said 'The operator of our flights are visible to customers throughout the booking process on Norwegian.com. If customers had originally booked on to a Norwegian operated service and it changes to a wet leased aircraft, we would contact passengers in advance and offer a free rebooking or refund if they no longer wish to travel.' Guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says airlines must tell passengers “at point of sale” who will be operating the flight. Airlines have an obligation to tell passengers who will be conducting their flight."

Not sure that translates into a legal obligation, but it certainly makes RB's behaviour look thoroughly unethical.

Hi and welcome to AFF!

In my dealings with RB I found them to be excellent in terms of customer service! I think if you request a refund it will be forthcoming. An option if you have a cheap calling card/phone plan for overseas is to also call their reservations in Brunei. They were very good.

I think we have some protections here under Aussie consumer law... a wet-leased HiFly plane, with the associated comments world-wide about HiFly service would mean we have not received the product we purchased (entitling RB to either fix that by putting us on a comparable carrier or offering a refund).

Let us know how you go and if they are reluctant to refund, come back here for potential next steps

 

[GeeCee]

Hi and welcome to AFF!

In my dealings with RB I found them to be excellent in terms of customer service! I think if you request a refund it will be forthcoming. An option if you have a cheap calling card/phone plan for overseas is to also call their reservations in Brunei. They were very good.

I think we have some protections here under Aussie consumer law... a wet-leased HiFly plane, with the associated comments world-wide about HiFly service would mean we have not received the product we purchased (entitling RB to either fix that by putting us on a comparable carrier or offering a refund).

Let us know how you go and if they are reluctant to refund, come back here for potential next steps

Hi MEL_Traveller,

I'm in the middle of drafting a Please Explain email to RB regarding our HiFly bait'n'switch from a few weeks ago. In your experience, are we likely to get much more than an apology from the airline? (I'm wondering if cc'ing the ACCC will have any bearing on the outcome )

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi MEL_Traveller,

I'm in the middle of drafting a Please Explain email to RB regarding our HiFly bait'n'switch from a few weeks ago. In your experience, are we likely to get much more than an apology from the airline? (I'm wondering if cc'ing the ACCC will have any bearing on the outcome )

I'm not sure this is really a 'bait and switch'? The HiFly lease is mentioned on the RB home page of their website, and also in the booking stages. (Admittedly it took them a few days to update the website.)

For many folk the HiFly leg would only have been one or two sectors as part of a longer itinerary, so in that sense the rest of the ticket remained the same. And for the price I paid on RB I couldn't even get Jetstar, AirAsia or Scoot anywhere close!

Many airlines with 787s have been in the same situation with mandated safety checks requiring aircraft to be taken out of service... even Air new Zeland had to lease a plane from HiFly. So it's not like RB is cutting corners compared to the more 'premium' carriers. (One exception was Scoot where they were able to substitute mainline Singapore Airlines aircraft, but that was pretty much the exception).

I agree it's not perfect, I didn't end up flying RB in the end (due to a delay), but they did what they could. HiFly's service is what it is (mediocre at best).

If you want compensation it would be a good idea to quantify your loss and specify exactly what you want, otherwise it might be hard for the airline to work it out (they transported you, although there was, I understand, deficiencies with IFE).

 

[jb747]

This is happening because the 787 engines are showing a nasty habit of failing. Way too often. If anything, it’s showing that the regulators who gave a brand new aircraft variant, extremely long ETOPS approvals were mostly indulging in wishful thinking.