Berlin
Established Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2011
- Posts
- 2,761
- Qantas
- Platinum
I wanted to post this review over a week ago but only now, sitting in the EK lounge in MUC and awaiting my flight back, I actually get the time to do so- apologies! My trip included all the new elements of the QF/EK deal- I flew SYD-MEL-DXB, had the Dubai Connect, and then flew onto Munich on EK and then on to Berlin with Air Berlin. MEL-DXB was upgraded to First and on QF metal, DXB-MUC was Emirates J. I have many more pictures but will post them as well as an update on the trip back once I'm in Australia. Enjoy! 
My driver arrived 5 mins early. The operating company was Brunel chauffeur drive and the car was nothing fancy but rather a Holden Caprice but fairly new and still had a new car smell. Check in at SYD domestic was pretty chaotic and it became clear that the lady at the Business counter was not too used to checking passengers through to an international connection. Checking through my luggage all the way to Berlin seemed to be too much for her so she had to get a supervisor who assured me my luggage would arrive. upon boarding, a priority boarding line existed but staff didn't monitor it, the last one at the gate was very unfriendly and couldn't have cared- one of the dying breed of lazy old Qantas b@$!
The domestic flight itself was lovely- very friendly yet efficient staff up in the J cabin which was full to the last seat. Lunch was a choice of lasagna or prawn salad, as I'm allergic to seafood, it was a no brainer for me. Turned out to be one of the tastiest QF Dom J meals I've ever had but you can't really go very wrong with Lasagna in my eyes (besides all the baby spinach hidden underneath it- yikes!). I didn't like the red choice so went for a nice Riesling from the Clare Valley but kept myself from having more than one top up as there's still plenty of liquid delight coming up on this trip which looks like a very long one indeed!
Arrival in Melbourne- have never connected here so I get quite confused by the signage towards the international terminal. Maybe the glass of wine was already one too many? :-0 Very impressed by security staff, all much friendlier than in Sydney Int and I'm through all this in a breeze. Long walk towards the Flounge is a bit annoying though and the lounge itself feels like a big disappointment architecturally compared to Sydney but service and food is of course equally excellent. Found it quite funny that entire staff was firmly in Asian hands, the first white employee was the lady in the Spa. Squeezed in the Duck larb and a daily special of sausages in just before my Spa treatment which was absolute bliss before my flight.
The only real issue was the aircon: the entire lounge seemed too hot and in the Spa they had coughpy portable aircons standing in where usually the showers are- the massage lady said they always have to do it now as otherwise it gets too hot. Needless to say, it was still a bit too warm in there!
Aaah- the A380, how proud and beautiful this masterpiece of technology looks, standing there at the gate! I'm on rego L so the last one of the QF birds. Boarding works a bit strange in Melbourne as first class passengers get forced to queue up with the great unwashed on the gate finger. Luckily, right like it should be, once I get to the plane, all the annoying families with their screeching children turn to the right and I- hoorray- turn left at the door You may call me a snob and I probably am when it comes to flights and hotels (and food, and alcohol, and...) but I totally think that First class is so worth any penny or, like in this case, frequent flyer mile: The personal service, the fact that you don't get as bored as in the lower classes if you don't want it but you can have your peace and personal space when you need it, it all makes flying so much more than just a mode of transport. Even the space in the toilets it worth it, that extra bit of moving space makes such a difference in there, especially when trying to get into your pyjamas while trying not to touch the toilet bowl with your feet. Okay- maybe that's just me ;-) But you just gotta love those windows in the loo from where you can look out onto the ocean while having a piss! Anyhow, I think the service in First is just special and I get the feeling the staff is enjoying it as much as I am- I certainly have done my fair share of Mecas shfits, call centre duties and the likes to know how it feels to provide a good service and I think the QF staff is pretty good. I hope I show them my appreciation by being extremely polite and grateful during the whole flight.
Back to the boarding phase, boarding seems to be over within seconds, thanks to the very friendly and personal service and most likely also massively assisted by the glass of champagne in front of me. Unfortunately, it's the Taittinger which I never was too fond of. The greatly announced Pol is listed on the wine list but unfortunately not on board :-( What is on board, are the very neat looking new First amenity kits and the re-designed but still ugly pyjamas. Everyone, including the crew, gets a bit of a shock when suddenly Arabic translation sounds within the in-flight video but I guess people will get used to it. What outright annoys me though, is that all meals containing pork have been kicked off the menu which is just pondering too much to the religious fanatics in my eyes. A few teething issues with the new alliance don't go unnoticed in general- I find it very funny to read "Current time in Undefined is 10am and Estimated arrival time in Undefined is 10:53pm" on my little flight info screen ;-)
The first drink arrives a bit late into the flight for my liking but on the positive side, the very friendly lady serving me takes my food order first when I tell her about my seafood allergy. In between comes the customer service manager to personally greet me and acknowledging my Platinum status. He hands me an express card for immigration in Dubai but is very irritated about me having booked the Dubai Connect Service as he was under the understanding there would be some kind of voucher to be handed over in flight which is also the information I got at the end of the booking process. He promises to check with the ground staff as soon as we arrive in Dubai. Just another teething issue I suspect but the guy handled the situation very professionally, apologised five-fold and afterwards thanked me for not making a fuss about it. Not that I would ever do such a thing! ;-)
The food was excellent as always on Qantas if traveling business or first: I started with a Bloody Mary which was very generously mixed and had two of the little canapé corn fritters. The other canapé would have been scallops which I can't eat unfortunately. While nice, the fritters had not been heated properly so one of them was nice and hot while the other one was cold on the outside and lukewarm on the inside. It again takes far too long until the first course of food (apologies to the otherwise really pleasant crew as I suspect you are just not enough staff: An hour wait for what is only a soup and having to press the attendant call button twice within the first hour of flight to get a water or drink top up is just not good enough for anything beyond cattle class, let alone First) so I ask for a second helping of those lovely (and strong!) Bloody Marys in the meantime. As one would, of course ;-) When it arrives, I get a big shock when the cabin lady suddenly pokes into my so-called suite which is one of the few things I really don't like about the QF layout: It's neither a proper suite, nor is it a simple seat so with this open privacy wall in your back, you always get caught in the worst moment and completely unexpected- I don't even wanna know how often the crew has to interrupt someone while he or she is trying to pick a bugger out of their no... :-0 Of all the lovely crew, a guy called Tristan was by far the best and should get a promotion instantly. Very different to certain Asian airlines, he was not just randomly obedient but honestly caring and really really nice- exactly the way it should be in my eyes!
Food wise, the broccoli soup was what a broccoli soup would be, nothing out of the ordinary there. Then I had the "Emirates-style" mezze plate which was quite nice as an in-between, followed by the always yummie steak sandwich and then finally the filet steak as a main. The latter was too dry on the inside, "double well-done" I would call it but that's often the case with steaks as part of airplane food. I decided against having cheese or desert and rather going to bed early, assisted by a glass or two of malt whisky. Unfortunately, Qantas even in First only offers either Shivers or an 18 to Glenlivet which is far too sweet for my taste. Timings on this flight are really starting to mess up my brains: It's bright daylight most of the flight and Qantas of course does keep the main cabin light glaring at you (airlines ALWAYS do the opposite of what I want in this respect- if I want to stay awake, the dim the cabin down and ask to not open the blinds, one of my absolute pet hates, and then you want to sleep and they keep the lights on). Clear case for a Stilnox which worked wonders. Upon arrival, you then get served a second proper meal, the first one was dinner and this one now named supper. I had some lovely chicken dish and an even more lovely veal shank dish but both of them didn't really work at this weird time.
At the gate, I got picked up by a Qantas lady and soon a second QF staff member joined in. The latter told me that he's actually a First host in the Melbourne lounge and just got deployed to Dubai for a month to train the new recruits here locally. They escorted me all the way through the terminal which I otherwise would have had real trouble finding, given I was half asleep. They sorted the chauffeur and hotel for me and were an absolute delight to deal with. Actually, that guy from Melbourne would have been one of the very best QF staff members I've ever dealt with and there are quite a number of really good ones around, I feel bad but can't recall his name anymore. Unfortunately, the hotel I ended up in was the Millenium and having had only bad experiences with this chain over in New Zealand, I feared the worst. However, the hotel was brand new, the room clean and the matress was firm so what else can you ask for on such a short six hour stay. I got transferred there in a very nice black Mercedes but on the way back they told me to use the less nice hotel shuttle bus. Not sure if that was an error or if it always works that way but again, for a 5 minutes transfer I don't really care too much.
Everything went smoothly at the terminal in Dubai- the bus dropped me at a special facility for business and first customers so security was easy and there were no idiots in line who have never heard of the no liquid rule ;-) The First terminal on concurrent A is really amazing, I love how you don't even have to the see the great mass of Economy pax but rather have an entire floor for First and another one for J passengers. I sat down for a breakfast in the restaurant dining area (which is not that easy to find in this huge lounge) which was nice but I regret not getting the chance for a proper meal there in neither direction. You actually get the choice between buffet and a la carte dining which is great. Boarding ends up being even more fascinating as you go to your gate number and then an elevator gets you straight down to the lower boarding level for the unwashed and the higher one for Biz and First. I wonder how this will work with a QF plane where First is down with Eco but will find out on my way back.
The EK trip in J to Munich is pretty much what I expected, crew friendly but inconsistent and hard product simply amazing on the A380 with the smart staggered layout. Food was nice but nothing too special while I was delighted to not getting served simple Moët like I'm used from EK's trans-Tasman route but rather delicious Vintage Veuve of which I had quite a few glasses which made the 6 hour or so flight go past in no time. Upon arrival in Munich, I get horribly lost on my way to connect to Air Berlin to Tegel as the signing is totally chaotic and not really helping but luckily, I am able to decipher really strong Bavarian German and end up at the right gate in the end. To a non-German speaker, I can only warmly recommend to give Munich a miss! Even though an AB agent enters my suitcase number again in the system it ensure it makes it, in the end I arrive in Berlin and- hey, you guessed it- my luggage is elsewhere. It turns out to actually having been stuck only in Munich which I had feared all along and I get it delivered the next morning. Having had only a T-shirt with me and my thick Winter jacket being packed in the list suitcase, this one evening was enough to give me a full blown nasty cold which is following me on the entire Europe trip.
My driver arrived 5 mins early. The operating company was Brunel chauffeur drive and the car was nothing fancy but rather a Holden Caprice but fairly new and still had a new car smell. Check in at SYD domestic was pretty chaotic and it became clear that the lady at the Business counter was not too used to checking passengers through to an international connection. Checking through my luggage all the way to Berlin seemed to be too much for her so she had to get a supervisor who assured me my luggage would arrive. upon boarding, a priority boarding line existed but staff didn't monitor it, the last one at the gate was very unfriendly and couldn't have cared- one of the dying breed of lazy old Qantas b@$!
The domestic flight itself was lovely- very friendly yet efficient staff up in the J cabin which was full to the last seat. Lunch was a choice of lasagna or prawn salad, as I'm allergic to seafood, it was a no brainer for me. Turned out to be one of the tastiest QF Dom J meals I've ever had but you can't really go very wrong with Lasagna in my eyes (besides all the baby spinach hidden underneath it- yikes!). I didn't like the red choice so went for a nice Riesling from the Clare Valley but kept myself from having more than one top up as there's still plenty of liquid delight coming up on this trip which looks like a very long one indeed!
Arrival in Melbourne- have never connected here so I get quite confused by the signage towards the international terminal. Maybe the glass of wine was already one too many? :-0 Very impressed by security staff, all much friendlier than in Sydney Int and I'm through all this in a breeze. Long walk towards the Flounge is a bit annoying though and the lounge itself feels like a big disappointment architecturally compared to Sydney but service and food is of course equally excellent. Found it quite funny that entire staff was firmly in Asian hands, the first white employee was the lady in the Spa. Squeezed in the Duck larb and a daily special of sausages in just before my Spa treatment which was absolute bliss before my flight.
The only real issue was the aircon: the entire lounge seemed too hot and in the Spa they had coughpy portable aircons standing in where usually the showers are- the massage lady said they always have to do it now as otherwise it gets too hot. Needless to say, it was still a bit too warm in there!
Aaah- the A380, how proud and beautiful this masterpiece of technology looks, standing there at the gate! I'm on rego L so the last one of the QF birds. Boarding works a bit strange in Melbourne as first class passengers get forced to queue up with the great unwashed on the gate finger. Luckily, right like it should be, once I get to the plane, all the annoying families with their screeching children turn to the right and I- hoorray- turn left at the door
You may call me a snob and I probably am when it comes to flights and hotels (and food, and alcohol, and...) but I totally think that First class is so worth any penny or, like in this case, frequent flyer mile: The personal service, the fact that you don't get as bored as in the lower classes if you don't want it but you can have your peace and personal space when you need it, it all makes flying so much more than just a mode of transport. Even the space in the toilets it worth it, that extra bit of moving space makes such a difference in there, especially when trying to get into your pyjamas while trying not to touch the toilet bowl with your feet. Okay- maybe that's just me ;-) But you just gotta love those windows in the loo from where you can look out onto the ocean while having a piss! Anyhow, I think the service in First is just special and I get the feeling the staff is enjoying it as much as I am- I certainly have done my fair share of Mecas shfits, call centre duties and the likes to know how it feels to provide a good service and I think the QF staff is pretty good. I hope I show them my appreciation by being extremely polite and grateful during the whole flight. Back to the boarding phase, boarding seems to be over within seconds, thanks to the very friendly and personal service and most likely also massively assisted by the glass of champagne in front of me. Unfortunately, it's the Taittinger which I never was too fond of. The greatly announced Pol is listed on the wine list but unfortunately not on board :-( What is on board, are the very neat looking new First amenity kits and the re-designed but still ugly pyjamas. Everyone, including the crew, gets a bit of a shock when suddenly Arabic translation sounds within the in-flight video but I guess people will get used to it. What outright annoys me though, is that all meals containing pork have been kicked off the menu which is just pondering too much to the religious fanatics in my eyes. A few teething issues with the new alliance don't go unnoticed in general- I find it very funny to read "Current time in Undefined is 10am and Estimated arrival time in Undefined is 10:53pm" on my little flight info screen ;-)
The first drink arrives a bit late into the flight for my liking but on the positive side, the very friendly lady serving me takes my food order first when I tell her about my seafood allergy. In between comes the customer service manager to personally greet me and acknowledging my Platinum status. He hands me an express card for immigration in Dubai but is very irritated about me having booked the Dubai Connect Service as he was under the understanding there would be some kind of voucher to be handed over in flight which is also the information I got at the end of the booking process. He promises to check with the ground staff as soon as we arrive in Dubai. Just another teething issue I suspect but the guy handled the situation very professionally, apologised five-fold and afterwards thanked me for not making a fuss about it. Not that I would ever do such a thing! ;-)
The food was excellent as always on Qantas if traveling business or first: I started with a Bloody Mary which was very generously mixed and had two of the little canapé corn fritters. The other canapé would have been scallops which I can't eat unfortunately. While nice, the fritters had not been heated properly so one of them was nice and hot while the other one was cold on the outside and lukewarm on the inside. It again takes far too long until the first course of food (apologies to the otherwise really pleasant crew as I suspect you are just not enough staff: An hour wait for what is only a soup and having to press the attendant call button twice within the first hour of flight to get a water or drink top up is just not good enough for anything beyond cattle class, let alone First) so I ask for a second helping of those lovely (and strong!) Bloody Marys in the meantime. As one would, of course ;-) When it arrives, I get a big shock when the cabin lady suddenly pokes into my so-called suite which is one of the few things I really don't like about the QF layout: It's neither a proper suite, nor is it a simple seat so with this open privacy wall in your back, you always get caught in the worst moment and completely unexpected- I don't even wanna know how often the crew has to interrupt someone while he or she is trying to pick a bugger out of their no... :-0 Of all the lovely crew, a guy called Tristan was by far the best and should get a promotion instantly. Very different to certain Asian airlines, he was not just randomly obedient but honestly caring and really really nice- exactly the way it should be in my eyes!
Food wise, the broccoli soup was what a broccoli soup would be, nothing out of the ordinary there. Then I had the "Emirates-style" mezze plate which was quite nice as an in-between, followed by the always yummie steak sandwich and then finally the filet steak as a main. The latter was too dry on the inside, "double well-done" I would call it but that's often the case with steaks as part of airplane food. I decided against having cheese or desert and rather going to bed early, assisted by a glass or two of malt whisky. Unfortunately, Qantas even in First only offers either Shivers or an 18 to Glenlivet which is far too sweet for my taste. Timings on this flight are really starting to mess up my brains: It's bright daylight most of the flight and Qantas of course does keep the main cabin light glaring at you (airlines ALWAYS do the opposite of what I want in this respect- if I want to stay awake, the dim the cabin down and ask to not open the blinds, one of my absolute pet hates, and then you want to sleep and they keep the lights on). Clear case for a Stilnox which worked wonders. Upon arrival, you then get served a second proper meal, the first one was dinner and this one now named supper. I had some lovely chicken dish and an even more lovely veal shank dish but both of them didn't really work at this weird time.
At the gate, I got picked up by a Qantas lady and soon a second QF staff member joined in. The latter told me that he's actually a First host in the Melbourne lounge and just got deployed to Dubai for a month to train the new recruits here locally. They escorted me all the way through the terminal which I otherwise would have had real trouble finding, given I was half asleep. They sorted the chauffeur and hotel for me and were an absolute delight to deal with. Actually, that guy from Melbourne would have been one of the very best QF staff members I've ever dealt with and there are quite a number of really good ones around, I feel bad but can't recall his name anymore. Unfortunately, the hotel I ended up in was the Millenium and having had only bad experiences with this chain over in New Zealand, I feared the worst. However, the hotel was brand new, the room clean and the matress was firm so what else can you ask for on such a short six hour stay. I got transferred there in a very nice black Mercedes but on the way back they told me to use the less nice hotel shuttle bus. Not sure if that was an error or if it always works that way but again, for a 5 minutes transfer I don't really care too much.
Everything went smoothly at the terminal in Dubai- the bus dropped me at a special facility for business and first customers so security was easy and there were no idiots in line who have never heard of the no liquid rule ;-) The First terminal on concurrent A is really amazing, I love how you don't even have to the see the great mass of Economy pax but rather have an entire floor for First and another one for J passengers. I sat down for a breakfast in the restaurant dining area (which is not that easy to find in this huge lounge) which was nice but I regret not getting the chance for a proper meal there in neither direction. You actually get the choice between buffet and a la carte dining which is great. Boarding ends up being even more fascinating as you go to your gate number and then an elevator gets you straight down to the lower boarding level for the unwashed and the higher one for Biz and First. I wonder how this will work with a QF plane where First is down with Eco but will find out on my way back.
The EK trip in J to Munich is pretty much what I expected, crew friendly but inconsistent and hard product simply amazing on the A380 with the smart staggered layout. Food was nice but nothing too special while I was delighted to not getting served simple Moët like I'm used from EK's trans-Tasman route but rather delicious Vintage Veuve of which I had quite a few glasses which made the 6 hour or so flight go past in no time. Upon arrival in Munich, I get horribly lost on my way to connect to Air Berlin to Tegel as the signing is totally chaotic and not really helping but luckily, I am able to decipher really strong Bavarian German and end up at the right gate in the end. To a non-German speaker, I can only warmly recommend to give Munich a miss! Even though an AB agent enters my suitcase number again in the system it ensure it makes it, in the end I arrive in Berlin and- hey, you guessed it- my luggage is elsewhere. It turns out to actually having been stuck only in Munich which I had feared all along and I get it delivered the next morning. Having had only a T-shirt with me and my thick Winter jacket being packed in the list suitcase, this one evening was enough to give me a full blown nasty cold which is following me on the entire Europe trip.
