SYD-SIN-FCO-LHR-SIN-SYD --- SQ and EK --- First time in International F

[Major]

We just loved the Bordeaux area as well as Epernay. Looks like a great trip

 

[robtemt]

Well, let me start out by saying I apologise for the lack of photos. I have to admit, in a day where everyone (well most everyone) is taking high res photos with smartphones or DSLR cameras, I think a 2MB limit on photos is crazy. I'm not going to spend my time resizing them for now. Those following on the instagram hashtag #townchungdoeseurope will see plenty of photos uploaded by my +1. Otherwise, I will continue to see what to do, but a slide-show movie with titles is probably my best option. Either by a link, or posting on here, we will see...

Today is day 3 in the Champagne region of France, specifically Epernay. We are staying at a champagne house about 100-200m from some of the big names, Pierrer Jouet, Moet & Chandon, Pol Roger.. They are all the same street as our accommodation (Champagne A. Bergere). Although the only big house we have gone to is Mumm.

This was what we wanted. Green, rolling hills of vines, separating little villages. The people here are lovely, the food is out of this world. If you get a chance to come here, Chez Max is a must go. A friendly man, who's parents bought the restaurant from Max, and refuse to change the name in honour of the man who survived being in a concentration camp during the war, and managed to save enough money after to start the little restaurant. Max died a month after selling, as he was very ill when he sold it, but his legend and tradition of home style cooked french cuisine lives on!

Day two was our tour of Mumm, which was arranged by an industry friend of ours, whos company graciously paid for the tickets. I have no idea what they cost, not too much though. We had the "Vintage" tasting, which included, one taste of Vintage 2006 Mumm, which Im happily drinking a bottle of as I update you all on my trip. The tour is interesting. Another pair had the "Black and white tasting", a bland de blanc and a blanc de noir. They said the blanc de blanc was fantastic, and the blanc de noir was awful, and they told the guide, "if we were in a restaurant, we would send it back".

For those that haven't been to Champagne, go to one big house to learn how its made, the history, the process, etc. Then go and do tastings, be it at a cave with a nice pate of meat and cheese, or from house to house, etc., but skip the tours... But also, try to go to small houses. You will be blown away by SOME of their products. There are some bad ones out there, but ask around (or ask us)

We also went shopping for wine and champagne to bring back. We went to CPH La Grande Boutique Du Vin in Reims. They have great prices and selection. The shop keeper was surprised to see us I think (tourists), but spent so much time helping me pick out the perfect Cab Franc to bring back and store for a while.

We tooled around Reims a little, going to some tasting bars, visiting Dom Perignon's tomb, etc.

Today, was the real treat. I've mentioned in other threads, that I store my wine at Wine Arc in Alexandria. They do several events throughout the year, but one big one is the Champagne Galla. Over 100 champagnes to taste. I missed it, as I was sick (too sick to go to this event means SICK). My partner took his friend (who got us our Mumm tickets). Well, he met a gentleman who works for a newer small house called Brimoncourt. They do distribute in Australia, mostly in a few select restaurants (the bridge room in Sydney is one) and at a few select outlets of Vintage Cellars. If you find some, get it as it is out of this world. Anyway, this rep of Brimoncourt arranged for a visit for us to the champagne house, which is normally not open to the public (although they have plans over the next years to do so). We were welcomed by a lovely woman, who first showed us around the house. Located in Ay, the house use to actually be the printing factory for champagne labels. Inside are racks and racks of stone printing plates, including Dom Perignon, Moet, and nearly every other house from the last century. It was a look into history that was just amazing. We have seen family and company libraries of back vintages, store rooms to make you drool, but this, was just special. We were escorted into their elegant tasting room, where we would try 4 bottles, opened just for us. Brut, Blanc de Blancs, Rose, and Extra Brut. Where we typically only like one or two of 4-5 that we taste at a tasting, all were amazing (we knew two of them already from having them in Sydney). After about an hour, in walked Emmanuel, the Chief Operating Officer of Brimoncourt. He asked which we liked best, to which we said the Blanc de Blanc, and he said then he would have a glass with us. We sat and talked about the "struggles" of being a consumer in Australia, and the challenges of being a producer in Champagne. We discussed our likes and dislikes in various houses, rumours about champagne that is exported vs. champagne that is kept in France. A while later, he spoke to our hostess (the business developer for the company) and she hurried off. He told us he wanted to share something else special. They had just finished the primary fermentation yesterday, and were preparing to bottle the newest batch of rose, and had just tasted/tested the "Still Wine", and he wanted us to have a taste. Again for those who don't know, this is the wine, before it is put into the bottle with yeast and sugar for its secondary fermentation. The contrast in colour and of course taste from the still wine to the rose we had just had from the bottle was remarkable. This still wine was pink (being a rose), bright pink, like bubble gum. It was fantastic sharing notes, discussing the nose and taste.

Two hours into our tasting and it was time to go. They made a booking at a favourite bistro just down the street for us, at a place called Rotisserie Henry IV, and they had the most amazing steak tartare I've ever had. They also have a lot of meats just roasting on the rotisserie. It was a true locals place, and we loved it.

I have loved our short time here. If you come to Champagne, stay in Epernay, and not Reims (unless you like the bigger city feel), but Epernay has such a quaint, classic, quiet feel to it. I can't wait to come back, hopefully in 3 years when I can taste the Rose that we had a preview of today.

Tomorrow we drive to Paris, where we will stay for 4 nights, we then take a train to London (I know, a train... please don't kick me out of the group), where we have four nights, and then the Air Geek, Aerosexual, Plane Nerd, Aviation Enthusiast, etc. in you, will get your dose of airport, lounge, and first class reviews/reports as we fly SQ back to SYD with a brief 11 hour stop in SIN for a nap (Aerotel), Chili Crab (not sure where yet), and a quick snack, shower, and bottle of bubbles in the Private Room.

I hope you're enjoying the trip report. It's not as exciting as I wanted it to be, the photos we have ARE worth a 1000 words each if not more, and I wanted to share them with you. If you have any questions about where we stayed, ate, etc. let me know.. Happy to help.

 

[get me outta here]

Sounds like a great trip and I'm enjoying the report. I do wonder though about the 100kg of luggage and mounting.

 

[robtemt]

We just had a little time called, "let's see what you can throw away honey". We "somehow" now have 8 first class amenity kits, 6 pair of pyjamas, 5 bottles of champagne, 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of limoncello, plus a plethora of other shopping items, and we still have Paris shopping to do.

We had about 20-25kg spare on check-in in Sydney, I THINK...........

WE ARE IN TROUBLE. And I forgot my portable scale that I always take.

5kg of extra baggage on SQ=$260some pounds! Bad timing for *A Gold to expire end of March.

 

[get me outta here]

I always ditch the SQ F PJ tops, but keep the bottoms for at home lounging purposes. That'll lighten the luggage a bit. Those SQ jarms are heavy. You'd better start drinking some of those acquisions too.

 

[VPS]

Loving your style- would love more pictures but hopefully they will come later - keep going!!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

@ robtemt

 

[PDog]

Great Trip Report!

We also stayed at Andre Bergere and loved it. Agree with your Epernay vs Reims comments- but didn't realise that till we got there- it was luck rather than good research!

Your luggage situation is freaking me out cause I have been there! Ditch your least favourite clothes that you can replace at home, but whatever you do keep the limoncello (sunshine in a bottle). Looking forward to hearing about the train cause we're doing that next year!

 

[robtemt]

I just logged on to write my post for London, and our flights home, and realised that the post I wrote for Paris is missing. Now this is frustrating, as I wrote one, I know I did, and posted it, I thought.

So I will re-write Paris, write London, and split them into two posts. Flights will be on a third.

Paris…..

The best part about arriving in Paris by car, was dropping the car off! The only rule to driving in Paris I think, is there are no rules. We had to get to our hotel in Marais to drop off our bags, and then it was right back into the car to Gare du Nord to drop off at Hertz. We struggled to get to the hotel, as the route the GPS took us found several closed streets as apparently half the city is refurbishing. We arrived, and managed to find a legal, large, unused parking space immediately outside the front door. After lugging our bags up to the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] floor (1er Etage), hence we learned why the hotel was called 1er Etage. The staircase wasn’t as bad as the one in Bordeaux, but no fun regardless with the bags.

The hotel itself was nice. There are 5 rooms, ours was one of the smaller I believe, and still decent space, for Paris. There is a common area for breakfast, and lounging if you want to be social. They had a small fridge with juices and water, and tea and coffee facilities. The hotel is not staffed 24 hours a day, but you can contact the owners 24/7.

Dropping the car off was interesting. Again, the GPS had a variety of ways to get us to Gare du Nord, many of them with closed streets and heavy traffic. I decided to not go via a petrol station, and pay the fee instead at Hertz. The fee was $30, and the diesel was only about 5 cents more per litre than if I did it myself, so $30 for sanity was well worth it.

We did the usual…. Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, River Cruise, etc. We had a skip the queue pass, which included all of our admissions, and like it says, skipped the queue.

For eating, we ate at some wonderful places. Chez George was lovely (even though Amex Plat Concierge never actually made our booking), excellent service and delicious french food and generous portions. Pricey though, even for Paris. A

Of course, the best meal of the trip went to Le Cinq. If you’ve been, and if you have read the review by Jay Rayner in The Guardian, then you know that it’s an amazing restaurant, well deserving of 3 stars, and that Jay Rayner must be a miserable sack. We of course loved the four seasons service from the moment we walked into the lobby. We had a coughtail in the bar before going to Le Cinq, where I had a perfectly made Vesper. We were warmly greeted at the restaurant, and taken to our table. The beauty and elegance of this dining room is just breathtaking. We had to do the degustation menu, and we weren’t disappointed. I was feeling particularly pig-like, and added the cheese course, as I had been looking forward to it all week. The cart, hand made specially for Le Cinq, was a work of art and dramatic when it was opened, revealing a beautiful selection of the finest cheeses. The aroma wafted to the next table, who we overheard telling their server they would add the cheese course after all. My partner, who only weights in at 71kg (before the trip), couldn’t do the cheese, but had a taste of one or two of mine. The sommelier was wonderful, and selected wines for us, and thankfully, they were in a very modest price range and we didn’t have to ask for them to be “toned down”. Now, here is where service comes in. The bill was given to be, and I was reviewing it, and made a comment to my partner that they charged us for 2 cheese plates. I’m guessing because they saw him eating some, but by no means 38 euro worth….. What I didn’t know was the manager was approaching the table from my left shoulder with the machine. He grabbed the bill and said he would be right back, he thinks there was an error with our check. He came back, and announced “the cheese is with our compliments”, and handed me the “correct” bill.

We were able to speak with our server quite a bit. She will be leaving four seasons after the summer, to concentrate on her studies… she is going back to school for her masters in hospitality management. We discussed the guardians review, and the impact it had on the restaurant, and what Ray was really like, how he treated staff, and what he said about four seasons in general. We talked about how we had a train ride to London in the morning, and she ran to the kitchen and got us a back of pastries to have for “breakfast” on the train.

We ordered an Uber Berline (Uber X and then some!) to go back to our hotel. When the Mercedes S Class arrived, and I got in, I was in heaven. I kid you not, the seat was more comfortable than my bed at home. The driver was lovely, and we asked if he could take us to a good spot to view the Eiffel tower on the way back. He asked just to look, or did we want photos, as he had several places depending on what we wanted. We wanted photos, so he took us to a good spot, and even got out so we didn’t have to take a selfie (although I love the selfie we took).

THE TRAIN:

As I’ve mentioned, the our luggage was not on the light side. 4 large suitcases, and 2 cabin bags, plus 2 laptop bags, and the new LV shopping tote that my partner was treating like a newborn child. We decided to use a luggage service to send two of our bags ahead. They would do door to door service for two bags for 130 pounds, or we could take the bags to Gare Du Nord, and collect them at the station in London for 60. We chose the 60 process. Easy, done. Now, the process of actually catching the train is, well, stupid to be honest, and thank Christ we dropped off two bags the day before. The cab dropped us off on the street, and we dragged our remaining cough across the cobble stones, and up the escalator, where the queue was massive. There were two lines, each with a massive group of school kids going on a trip to London. Imagine 30-40 kids in line, handing passports to a less than enthusiastic border agent. It took forever. The day before, we chatted with a Eurostar employee who told us our train wasn’t too full the next day (after looking at the lists), and said 30-45 minutes early would be fine. After getting our exit stamp for France, we were sent to the next queue, for an entry stamp for the UK. Again, same kids in front. And of course, after all the kids were processed, the idiot teacher couldn’t find her passport, and held the line up for 5 minutes, until another staff member brought it to her. After this line, is the line to have your bags scanned. THEN, after that, you queue to rush to the train in hopes you get space at the end of your carriage for your bags. The entire process took an hour, and I have vowed to never take the train again.

Next stop, London.

 

[robtemt]

London:

Picking up the luggage we sent in advance was easy. We then ordered an uber XL to take us (and our luggage) to our hotel. Despite my partner previously working for Hilton (including at Park Lane in London), we didn't take advantage of any friends and family rates, and instead stayed in a different part of London at the South Place Hotel. This boutique hotel had a happening bar scene on the ground floor (perhaps since its in a bit of a financial district), and decent size rooms, with a comfortable bed. It was about 300m from Morrgate Station, which was a good starting point when taking the tube to various places.

Now, we arrived in London one day after the Manchester bombing. As I work in emergency services, and have many friends in London Ambulance service, I was a but on edge, so I honestly found it hard to relax in London, which may have impacted my visit and enjoyment of the city. Plus it was a heat wave while we were there, and even the locals seemed miserable.

We did the usual stuff. Harrods, H&M, Marks and Spencer food shops, markets, the emirates sky tram thing, river cruise, changing of the guard, hyde park, etc. We also made the rounds to a few hotels to meet up with my partners friends from the hotel days.

Despite American Express platinum lifestyles constant F*&k ups with out bookings, and not making a booking at the Ledbury, we managed to get a table for dinner here. This is a restaurant not to be missed.

We also had dinner at Pollen St Social, and got to say hello to Jason Atherton. Another must do eat at, if you are in London.

To be honest, by this part of our trip, I think we were getting tired from always being on the go, and we were looking forward to our suites on SQ coming up.

 

[mattm199]

Great trip report, and I for one appreciate every little food and wine detail!
When visiting London I love visiting as many starred restaurants as possible to squeeze in! Happy travels, and look forward to hearing about the coming SQ flights.

 

[robtemt]

OK, its time to go home….

We booked a driver to pick us up from the hotel at 0700, for a flat rate of 57 pounds from the South Place Hotel, to LHR. Emailed the day before to confirm, no worries. We got up at 0600, and were in the lobby for check-out. At 0659, my mobile rings...... "I'm running about 45 minutes late, what time is your flight?" First, it doesn't matter what time my flight was, I had stuff to do at LHR.... So we booked an Uber XL (in case you forgot, we had bags++). It cost 58 pounds. We happened to fly on the same day as the big BA computer issue, but it had no impact on us. I think we were either drinking Krug by the time it happened.

We arrived at LHR at around 0800, on a Saturday. We went directly to the tax refund office behind the SQ check-in desk area. There was no line. 3 people working behind the desk, one woman was being helped, who was obviously not prepared and testing the patience of the poor girl at the counter. We walked up, handed our well organised paperwork, and our boarding passes. She scanned each one, and of the 5 we had, 4 were instantly approved and applied to our credit card, and 1 had to go to the office for processing (3-4 weeks to credit to the card I think). Bam, 5 minutes and we were done.

Next we went to the SQ check-in area. We missed out being able to use the SQ First Class check-in at Changi, which is probably a good thing as it would have made checking in at LHR very underwhelming. But the guy was very nice, made sure to put several priority tags (and heavy tags) on our bags, and gave us directions to getting to the lounge.

Security was interesting, again, no line for premium pax. There were two couples in front of us, one with a child in a pram, and one with two children and two prams. There were also two lines, and they had each occupied. I don't have kids, but omg, I've never seen anything take longer at security. I think there could be a non-english speaking man in a wheel chair, with all metal limbs, and carry on full of 120ml bottles of unlabelled gel, holding a knife, and THAT would have been a shorter wait to stand behind. So, the process was scan the boarding pass at a turnstile type thing (picture tapping off the train and exiting), walk up to a x-ray machine, toss your bag on the belt, walk through the scanner or metal detector (can't remember), and off you go.

We then proceeded to do a little shopping, just to get rid of the few GBP (Toberlone, a teddy bear beefeater for the God Daughter, and who knows what else). Then it was time to go to the hallway just near "special assistance". Yes, we took the buggy for first class pax. We had to, just for the novelty. If two perfectly healthy young(?) men riding a buggy through the terminal doesn't attract enough looks, the fact that they have to have the BEEP BEEP BEEP thing on the entire time surely gets the rest of the people to look. And in case not everyone was looking, my +1 videoing the whole thing got those two people to look. I think my favourite part was driving the buggy into a lift, where there was a man who somehow was already in the lift, but didn't need to get out, and was standing in the middle of the lift. Our driver just gunned it through the doors, pinning the poor guy against the opposite doors, and it takes about 15 seconds for the beeping to stop (after the doors closed).

As we pulled up to the lift for the SQ lounge, we remembered we wanted to go to United's lounge first, and the driver looked at me like I was from outer space when I made such a odd request. Why would you want to go to United, your flying Singapore First Class? He shrugged, and drove is the 1 minute to UA's lounge. But then, gave us him mobile number and said "call me and I'll come collect you to go to the Singapore lounge when you are finished here". I told him I think we can make it. But what service.

OK, the United Global First Lounge. I was impressed. I've been to lots of red carpet lounges, so I had to see this for myself, and glad I did. The staff here were so, not United. Very friendly, willing to go out of their way to help. We went right for the dining room, where the wine fridge that I would like for my house sits. Its more of a temple to give thanks to the grape gods, but still, I loved it. Also loved the big clock in the lounge (big ben replica?). The food did not disappoint either. Delicious eggs benedict, and a great bloody mary (better than the one I had at Duck and Waffle in London). We lounged around a while, as it was quiet and peaceful, and we wanted to fill our bags with snacks from the lounge (caramel popcorn…..)

We of course had to go to the SQ F lounge. It was full. I knew our flight had a full F cabin, so expected it to be busy an hour before boarding. To be honest, it was just kind of, meh. It lacked privacy, the buffet area was not appealing, and the selection of booze was not on par with first class offerings. We decided to leave and stretch our lags before jamming ourselves into our suites. We walked to the gate, and they were already boarding (not announced in the lounge though). As I approached the first class lane, a friendly staff member said to me, “economy passengers board over there”….. I looked at her as if to say, kiss my…. And handed her my boarding pass, where her face and tone changed immediately. Cow.

Despite not having shown our boarding passes to anyone past the gate yet, we were greeted by the CSM, who said “Mr X and My Y, welcome back”. The typical SQ service one would expect in F/R followed. We both did book the cook. I did the short ribs based on other posts on here….. it was ok. My partner did the lobster noodles, and I think I said something like “you always get the better dish” (yup, I’m 5 years old at heart). Plenty of glasses of Krug later, we had the beds converted (we again had the middle seats so had the double), and off to sleep we went.

Gotta go to the movies, so I will do the next sector another time.

 

[robtemt]

OK, I promised photos. This was the best I could do. Its a 23 minute video, so if you are bored and have a few spare moments, it's 3 1/2 weeks, 3 countries, 5 flights, and a car trip condensed down..... It was actually easier to do that (and a soundtrack) than to post photos on here!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoy it. I'm happy to answer questions you may have.

[video=youtube_share;49sSsP8Em9o]https://youtu.be/49sSsP8Em9o[/video]

 

[kermatu]

Nice video. Great soundtrack choices too!

 

[robtemt]

Singapore Layover- and the last sector to SYD. All good things must come to an end.

We arrived at around 600am (very early, which meant less time in first class). We had booked the Aerotel for 6 hours, and since we were early, extended it to 7 hours for 20 extra SGD (I think). I was asleep immediately. The bed was either very comfy, or I was very tired and had too many Krugs (and wine, and JW Blue) on board. After the nap, we wandered around the terminal again. We intended to go to the staff canteen, but 1) it was not airside, and I didn't want to bother with customs and 2) an airport information person said it actually isn't the staff canteen any more (hadn't read that anywhere, and didn't check it out)... Maybe the employees didin't like all the travelers in their break room?

We killed an hour looking at random little things in the airport, getting sunnies fixed at sunglasses hut, getting a couple things at uniglo (spell), and had a starbucks iced armericano, with vanilla and cinnamon (anyone subscribe to "fly with stella" on you tube?).

Now, the moment I'd been waiting for the entire trip. The private room. I guess people love it or hate it, or some people love to hate it. But, I loved it. It had a warm, homey feel to it. Private, of course. The service was excellent. The lobster was fantastic, and I loved the little (and I mean little) burger with the quail egg. Satay was nice as well. But, what was the let down? NO LAKSA! I couldn't believe it. It wasn't on the menu "this month" or "this week' but the point was, no laksa! Our lovely server did go and check if it could be made, and looked so sad when she came out to tell me, no, no chance. No Laksa. She made up for it by making sure my champagne glass never went below 3/4 full. I loved the Charles Heidsieck that was being served.

After a couple of drinks, we wanted to see how the other half lives, so we went to the first class lounge for a wander. After standing at the bar for a few minutes, with no staff anywhere to be seen, the bartender walked over with some stock items and asked if i needed anything, I asked if they had any other vodka besides (I think it was absolute, but whatever it was it wasn't first class), to which he replied "No, thats all", and walked away. No, "can I interest you in something else, perhaps a singapore sling, or some champagne?".... Nope, just walked away. I waited for him for another few minutes, and then we asked for two glasses of piper rare. He poured them, and turned away to do more busy work. I found him quite rude, and not to a SQ standard. We went back to the private room, where as soon as we looked up from whatever we were doing on our laptops or iPads, someone would rush over to see if we needed anything.

We took showers before it was time to board, and proceeded to leave. No offer to escort us to the gate, or wishing us a safe flight.

As we walked down to the flight, the csm came and greeted my partner, by name again, and started walking him down to the aircraft. I was a little ways behind as the gate agent was trying to scan the wrong side of my boarding pass. I heard the CSM tell my partner, "This way please, Mr. Town will be down that aisle", oh, Mr. Town who wasn't greeted on the way to the aircraft, or ever on the aircraft as I walked to my seat... yeah that Mr. Town, he'll find his way.... The csm did make his way over to welcome me, etc. etc. although he seemed to be serving the other side of the aircraft. I had a lovely, yet robotic flight attendant who I don't think ever cracked a smile, and anything I requested seemed to be a chore. As with all of our flights, we gave 3 large packs of tim tams and one pack of the zumbo edition tim tams to the crew. The FA I gave them to said thank you, but nobody else did. It was very surprising. Not that it's why we dragged the things around for nearly 4 weeks, but it stuck out that of 5 flights, this was the only one without at least one person coming up and saying thank you. Strange.

We chose the Kyo Kaiseki from book the cook, but asked if we could have that as our breakfast, and my FA said, "well, breakfast is only a continental breakfast on this flight", The csm heard this while he was talking to my partner, and said it wouldn't be a problem, they would wake us two hours before landing, and then he glared at the FA who scurried off. Again, bizarre.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. We had the beds made, but I wasn't sleeping well (maybe it was the 7 hour nap and getting up at 2pm). This was not a warm flight though, and it felt like the vent above my bed was on full blast. I never get cold, so that tells you how cold it was.

I have to admit, the flight was underwhelming, for a first class suites flight. My partner had a very different experience though.

*When I say CSM, I refer to Anthony, our IFM....

When we landed at SYD, we of course were one of the first off. Also, we landed very early, it must have been only 530 when we got off the plane, which I didn't know anyone landed before 6. We were through immigration in seconds, as we had to have been the first flight in. Our bags were out in a few minutes, and even being stopped at customs for ticking "over the alcohol limit" and "having meat products ", we told them that someone gave us a gift before leaving europe and that bottle of wine put us over the combined max, and the meat was fois gras. We were thanked for our honesty and waved past. We were in a taxi by 555am, so of course had to pay night tariff, which cost us $61 to get to five dock. Its moments like that I have no sympathy for the decline of business for taxis.... an Uber Black would have cost us $52 according to the app.

Well...... thats the trip. It took us about a week to get over the jet lag. I've never had such an awful time adjusting to getting home and back on the right time. I felt like a rookie traveler.

We are looking to book a *A award through SQ for next July, in F to the USA. Any tips, I've posted on another thread seeking help.... I promise I'll do a better trip report on that trip if someone helps us with this booking.

Safe travels everyone!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As with all of our flights, we gave 3 large packs of tim tams and one pack of the zumbo edition tim tams to the crew. The FA I gave them to said thank you, but nobody else did. It was very surprising. Not that it's why we dragged the things around for nearly 4 weeks, but it stuck out that of 5 flights, this was the only one without at least one person coming up and saying thank you. Strange.

Appreciate you might have felt a bit upset by this... but what are they supposed to do with them? They're flying on a flight to Australia where they can buy them if they want. I'm not even sure if they can take them off them plane with them? (although they don't have to be declared anymore). And Tim Tams are hardly suitable for those who might be on a diet. If you give a gift to strangers you can't really expect them to fall over themselves thanking you.

 

[robtemt]

Never said I expected them to fall all over themselves. And I didn't say I was upset, I was surprised, and it simply increased my perception that the service on THIS flight in particular was robotic, and insincere.

I didn't have any expectations, not do I ever when I give gifts. It's not like they are going to upgrade me, or bring me something not available in my cabin.... It was a gesture of appreciation for a crew (like most crews) who probably are treated like servants more than professionals a majority of the time, and go days without a genuine thank you from a customer.

Yes, they're on a flight to Australia, and you can buy them everywhere, including duty free, but doesn't mean they're going to buy them. When someone comes over to your house, and brings you a token gift (chocolates, wine, etc.), that you can buy anywhere, do you take it and walk away and think, I can buy this myself.... and not thank them?

On every other flight, the crews devoured them, and on EK, they actually were falling over themselves to thank us, especially the FA from Australia, so I don't think diet was a big concern for most of them.

But thanks for your supercilious addition to my trip report Mel-Traveller.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Never said I expected them to fall all over themselves. And I didn't say I was upset, I was surprised, and it simply increased my perception that the service on THIS flight in particular was robotic, and insincere.

I didn't have any expectations, not do I ever when I give gifts. It's not like they are going to upgrade me, or bring me something not available in my cabin.... It was a gesture of appreciation for a crew (like most crews) who probably are treated like servants more than professionals a majority of the time, and go days without a genuine thank you from a customer.

Yes, they're on a flight to Australia, and you can buy them everywhere, including duty free, but doesn't mean they're going to buy them. When someone comes over to your house, and brings you a token gift (chocolates, wine, etc.), that you can buy anywhere, do you take it and walk away and think, I can buy this myself.... and not thank them?

On every other flight, the crews devoured them, and on EK, they actually were falling over themselves to thank us, especially the FA from Australia, so I don't think diet was a big concern for most of them.

But thanks for your supercilious addition to my trip report Mel-Traveller.

Apologies if you took my comments in this particular way. I was just making a objective comment on the situation. It was a nice gesture on your behalf, just perhaps there are reasons why multiple crew (other than the first one) didn't come by to thank you for them, and not necessarily reflective of their professionalism or attitude towards service.

 

[Straubs]

Nice Trip Report - I can live vicariously through you for now while I await my first F experience ... one day.