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Qantas has announced an aircraft change for its SIN to PER route. From being a twice daily service operated by the narrowbody Boeing 737, Qantas will make it a once daily service utilizing the larger Airbus A330s which also feature their new Business Class and refurbished cabin interiors.
The flight schedule will be as follows:
QF72 – SIN to PER – 6:40PM / 11:55PM
QF71 – PER to SIN – 11:50AM / 5:20PM
After spending a few days in Melbourne, I again flew with Qantas on my journey back to Singapore. For this particular trip, I was flying business class on the Airbus A380. Qantas has a couple of business class configurations and while they flagship business class seats are to be found in their A330s, the A380 flight had a more suitable timing for me.
If you are flying out of Australia’s airports, the benefit of business class becomes palpable as soon as you check-in. For this particular flight, it was too late for me to check-in online so I did it manually at the airport. In contrast to the economy class queue which was pretty long, I was served in no time at the business class queue. Flying business class also gives you access to the express queue at the x-ray machines and saves you time.
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Melbourne has two Oneworld business class lounges in the airport, the Qantas Business Lounge and the Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge. Most passengers transiting in Melbourne probably wonder which oneworld lounge to spend time in. I had this very same thought in my head so when I was flying back to Singapore on Qantas business class, I decided to check out the Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge alongside the Qantas Lounge.
The lounge is located at Level 1, one floor below the gates and within the same level as the Qantas Business Lounge and other business class lounges. Designed by Foster + Partners, the decor is more in keeping with the traditional Cathay Pacific lounge look prior to the transition to the newer design in other venues such as The Pier in Hong Kong International Airport.
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Qantas offers its first class product on just two aircraft, the A380 and the 747. On the 25th of March, 2018; the airline upgraded one of its daily SIN to MEL flights with the A380 and launched a SIN to LHR service. Prior to this date, first class was not available if you are flying between SIN and MEL on Qantas. On the occasion of the inaugural flights with the A380, Qantas invited me to fly to Australia to try out the first class product.
During the time of my flight, the check-in counters at Changi Airport Terminal 1 were in the midst of an upgrade. The airport was building a communal check-in area for passengers flying first or business but this was not completed yet so I opted to check-in at the Qantas premium economy counter.
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Refurbished in 2015, the British Airways Lounge in Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1 has always piqued my curiosity. It’s located along the same stretch as the Qantas Singapore Lounge, the SATS Premier Lounge and the Thai Airways Lounge and while these lounges look more subdued from the outside, the BA Lounge demands attention with the sparkling blue decor that is visible from the glass door.
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I have in the past year been flying with Philippine Airlines with increasing frequency. After encountering a spate of delays (6 out of the last 6 PAL flights I took were delayed by at least an hour), I decided that I’ve had enough.
However, I found out sometime late last year that Philippine Airlines was rolling out its new tri-class A330-300 on the MNL to SIN route. These planes were recently refurbished with fully-flat business class seats with a 1-2-1 configuration. Finally, I thought; PAL now has a decent business class seat (though I thought PAL’s 777-300ER business class was not too bad). This led me to make a J class redemption on one of the A330 flights.
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My recent flights with Emirates to Mauritius and Seychelles gave me the opportunity to spend a couple of hours at Dubai International Airport. It had been some 6 years since I last flew with Emirates and during that interim, Terminal 3 opened with a whole slew of airport lounges. DXB’s Terminal 3 which is dedicated to Emirates flights has three varying Business Class Lounges at Concourse A, B and C respectively. The Concourse A lounge, which is catered to Emirates’ A380 flights, is the largest one while the Concourse C lounge is the smallest.
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The Plaza Premium Network has expanded quite substantially in Asia over the years with a number of lounges within the region’s major airports. During my last trip to Taipei, I checked out the Plaza Premium Lounge in Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 1. Within the airport, there are actually 4 Plaza Premium lounges. Two in Terminal 1 and another two in Terminal 2. During this particular visit to Terminal 1, I checked out the Plaza Premium Lounge marked as Zone D. Passengers with DragonPass, Priority Pass as well as some regional Citibank credit cards are able to access the lounge.
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