Journey –
SYD-HKG
Flight no. –
QF127
Class –
First
Seat –
2A
After a crazy weekend for my birthday staying at the Hilton in Sydney I was very rushed getting ready for the trip. So it was a bleary eyed simongr that was putting the final touches to packing and burning DVDs as the car arrived on Monday morning. This the foggy day in Sydney where a number of flights had been diverted inbound to Sydney.
The new Lane Cove tunnel is a dream and made my trip to the Airport take about 40 minutes rather than 60. At the airport I was through check in quickly as ever in F and its off to the lounge.
Sadly as this is a morning flight I won’t be tucking into the Moet too heavily. A nice little breakfast of ham and cheese rolls and a latte was ok. This lounge with its lack of any view really does need to be closed (and I am now wondering what will happen to it when the new F lounge opens?).
I am still fuming at the lack of free wireless in the lounge. Fortunately I have a Telstra account so it’s a simple connection for me. A little while catching up with AFF after the weekend off and my colleague joins me in the lounge and we discuss my antics over the weekend and our plans for the week. He is disembarking at HKG whilst I head on to PEK.
The flight isn’t quite called but we head off to the gate anyway – unsure how far away it is. After a minute or two waiting to board we are off. On board the F cabin does look a little old. It will be strange (if I get the chance to fly F again soon) to go from the new sleek F lounge to a tired and old looking F seat on QF – that old A380 problem again.
The onboard welcome is great. The staff member takes care of everything with a nice glass of champagne and some almonds (I decline the olives on the grounds that they are the
devil’s fruit). We have a brief chat about the fog at Sydney this morning and the journey in and I am thinking this is going to be a good flight.
I am straight into my PJ’s (I still waited for one person to crack and change first) but tgtwwm is adamant that there are no PJ’s on daytime flights). He does however succumb to a Crown lager after take off whereas I stick to the (now) traditional G&T. This is ok if a little strong.
As ever I have trouble finding the power outlet (yes I now know its near the ottoman) but eventually I am settling in to watch Smallville and Lost from this week. The menu looks interesting but there is nothing that grabs me. Whilst deciding they bring out these fantastic appetisers – Cold cauliflower soup with salmon roe (much, much nicer than it sounds) and a thai beef roll wrapped in seaweed – absolutely lovely.
I opt for the Calzone (I am trying to be more innovative in food choices) but sadly the experiment fails
There is a choice of cheese or tart and of course I opt for the cheese (there are even sufficient biscuits).
I am slowly slugging back the shiraz and sliding down in the chair whilst watching laptopTV and eventually I crash out for a couple of hours (good or bad thing – not sure at this point). Eventually I wake up and find that I don’t have any in seat power any longer even after fiddling with the outlet. Ah well – no work for me then
I then discover that the pax in the seat across the aisle is in fact staff (I see that written on the menu choices that the staff are writing down (I really am too nosey for other people’s own good) and he doesn’t touch a drop of alcohol on the flight – good news for the shareholders
Eventually they run out of crown (I Blame tgtwwm) so I have to switch to HP :bleh:
About 90 minutes before descent I am offered and accept a delicious steak sandwich – this is good preparation for me as I don’t expect food on the ground. It is a really good steak sandwich. As we descend they switch on the purple mood lighting (mrssimongr would love it) and we are soon into HKG.
My reflections on this flight is that the staff were superb and were all asian which makes wonder if they were HKG based staff with an understanding of service, the seats are old and tired but the control panel is neat and effective. Finally I realise that on my last (and only other) QF F flight there are two extra F seats in the cabin. I am sure in the SYD-SIN flight the front two F seats in the centre of the aircraft weren’t there – maybe that was CX…