Hong Kong – January 2012

Qantas A380 Business Class review – QF128 Hong Kong to Sydney

I was originally booked into Qantas Premium Economy as per my outbound ticket, and was considering burning 25,000 Qantas points on a upgrade to Business to maximise sleep opportunities on this overnight flight.

As luck would have it, on rechecking my seat assignment on the morning of the flight, I was no longer shown in my previously allocated exit row Premium Economy seat, but rather had been bumped up to the nice high number of 13K.

Yep, my first upgrade on Qantas had come through just at the right time. I figured Economy and Premium must have been oversold due to the end of the Chinese New Year Holidays, and my luck was in. Continue reading…

Qantas’ (old) Hong Kong International Business Class Lounge Review – Hong Kong Airport

Note that the Qantas Hong Kong lounge has now been full refurbished. This review is kept for archive purposes…

Before spending some time in The Wing, one of Cathay Pacific’s many Business Class lounges in Hong Kong, I scouted out the Qantas Business Lounge which is used for Qantas & British Airways departures to Melbourne, Sydney and London.

You’d be able to access this lounge if travelling with Qantas or British Airways in Business Class, or as a Qantas Club member. Given this is Cathay’s home turf, anyone with oneworld Sapphire (Qantas Gold) status or above is probably going to be better served by a Cathay lounge. Continue reading…

Cathay Pacific’s ‘The Wing’ Business Class Lounge review – Hong Kong Airport

Cathay has 3 major lounges at HKG – The Wing, The Pier (both with Business and First Class sections), and The Cabin (Business class only). On my return to Sydney, I was able to access both The Wing and The Cabin thanks to my Qantas Gold status, and a 2 hour delay which meant me spending around 7 hours at HKG all up, of which I spent a couple in The (new) Wing.

I actually visited the dedicated Qantas lounge first that day, but I’ll post a review of The Wing before as it literally only reopened to the public last week (the first week of February) – and it was a hell of lot nicer, as you’d expect from one of Cathay’s prime home-port lounges.

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking in this review; the lounge’s design was really something to behold – up there with the Qantas First Class Lounge in my opinion. Continue reading…

Qantas 747 Premium Economy Review- QF127 Sydney to Hong Kong

Sydney – Hong Kong QF127 Premium Economy review

My flight up to Hong Kong was on QF127, the daytime departure from Sydney at 11.50am. Although Qantas have recently started flying the A380 on this route, 3 days out of 7 are still operated by a 747 which was the case for this journey.

As this work trip was booked only 10 days before I was due to leave, the choice of seats was pretty minimal. I’d settled on a middle aisle seat, but the day before the flight I noticed that the seatmap had changed, and we had an aircraft swap to the 3 class 747 (with no First class) from the regular 4 class type that usually runs this route. This meant some seats opened up at the front of the cabin, but I struggled to find decent info about this particular configuration, and in the end I made a bad decision and got lumped with a bulkhead seat with no footroom. Continue reading…

Qantas International First Class Lounge Sydney review

I’m fairly fortunate to have Qantas Gold status – I don’t travel ALL that much, especially compared to the real air warriors. I normally bank 4 or 5 international trips a year – but thanks to these and the ability to book Any Seat Awards using points to travel nearer the front of the plane, I’ve managed to attain, and then keep, Gold for the last few years.

As I wrote back in November, this meant I was on the receiving end of Qantas’ apology and scored a First Class lounge invite, so for my latest trip to Hong Kong I cashed it in and spent a few hours before the 11.50am departure of QF127 hanging out in what is reckoned to probably be one of the world’s top 10 airport lounges. At the least, it’s up there, and along with the Melbourne First Lounge, is one the jewels in Qantas’ crown. Continue reading…