Europe2018 Review: Etihad EY454 A380 Apartments Abu Dhabi to Sydney After a quick break in the Abu Dhabi first-class lounge, We made our way to the gate and began boarding EY454 to Sydney. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the lounge, but you can see my previous review here. I have now written about Etihad Apartments a few times
Europe2018 Review: Etihad EY32 A380 Apartments Paris to Abu Dhabi I firmly believe that Etihad Apartments is one of the best uses of Velocity points and to date it has been our favourite way to fly so we were looking forward to coming home on the EY A380. As mentioned in my intro post to this Trip Report, this flight
Europe2018 Review: Etihad First/Business Lounge Paris Airport Our flight was scheduled to depart from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 10:35 am, so we got to the airport around 8 am. Check-in was a breeze with a dedicated desk for first-class passengers. After making our way through security and border control, we popped out in the
Europe2018 Review: Drawing Hotel Paris During the Paris part of our trip, we ended up staying at a great little hotel called 'The Drawing' in the 1st Arrondissement. My original plan was to stay at the Hilton and try our luck on an upgrade again, but the rates were crazy, the cheapest room started at
Europe2018 Travel: Exploring Paris We took the high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, which was a 3.5-hour journey. I really can't speak highly enough of the high-speed rail network in Europe. It is by far the most convenient way to get around and much more comfortable than flying. As I bought the tickets
Europe2018 Review: Hilton Amsterdam The Hilton Amsterdam is an interesting hotel with quite a history, best known for the John Lennon and Yoko 1969 'bed-in for peace'. The Hotel even has a dedicated John and Yoko suite. This hotel probably wouldn't have been my first pick of places in Amsterdam, but it was reasonably
Europe2018 Travel: Exploring Amsterdam Initially, we choose to visit Amsterdam simply because there was plenty of Emirates availability to Amsterdam and we didn't have high expectations of the city. Well, we were pleasantly surprised! We were only in Amsterdam for five days, but overall we were blown away by how beautiful the city was.
Europe2018 Review: Emirates A380 First Class Dubai to Amsterdam After a lacklustre experience in the concourse B First Class lounge, I was eager to get aboard again and settle into the comfortable Emirates First Class Suite. We made our way to gate lounge 32 and proceed to board our A380. As we were at concourse B we boarded via
Europe2018 Review: Emirates Concourse B First Class Lounge Dubai We landed at what seemed to be the furthest possible gate in the terminal and started our walk to transfer and to find the lounge. We were flying out of gate B32 so just kept following signs to concourse B. We finally arrived at the escalators up to the Business
Europe2018 Review: Emirates 777 First Class Hong Kong to Dubai This was a flight of many firsts, my first time trying Emirates First Class, my first time flying a three class 777 and my first time being the only passengers in the First Class cabin. I think I have mentioned a few times now, but I had high hopes for
Europe2018 Review: Emirates Business / First Lounge Hong Kong Our flight to Dubai departed Hong Kong at 7:50 am, so I had arranged to be picked up from the Conrad Hotel at 5:15 am. With our 4:30 am wake-up call, we packed up and made our way downstairs to check out. By the time we finished
Europe2018 Review: Conrad Hong Kong Junior Suite I had made a deliberate choice this holiday to book into a few Hilton properties to test the Hilton HHonors Diamond upgrade benefit and see if we could score an upgrade or two. As we were only planning to stay in Hong Kong for a few nights, I splashed out
Europe2018 Review: Qantas A330 Business Suites Sydney to Hong Kong We arrived at Gate 30 five minutes before boarding was due to start and were second in the priority boarding queue. I always like to try and board early as it makes taking photos much easier. Shortly after we arrived, they announced a 15-20min delay in boarding as, thanks to
Europe2018 Review: Qantas International Business Lounge Sydney To be honest I didn’t have high hopes for the Qantas International Business lounge (not to be confused with the Qantas International First Class Lounge - which I do have high hopes for). Admittedly it has been many years since I have visited the Qantas International lounge and I
Europe2018 Escaping Winter to Europe With a Quick Stopover in Hong Kong The last six months have been quite a busy time for us, so this holiday couldn’t have come sooner! But we are off, in fact, I am writing this at 38,000 feet somewhere near Manila on the first of five flights in this holiday.
Japan-2018 Review: Thai Airways 747 Business Class Bangkok to Sydney As I have already reviewed Thai Airways 747 Business class a few times now, the focus of this review will be on the sleeping experience of the angled lie-flat seat.
Japan-2018 Review: Thai Airways Business Class Sapporo to Bangkok After the disappointment of the Sapporo Royal Lounge, we headed to gate 65 early at 9:10 am. Boarding was scheduled for 9:20 am, however shortly after arrival boarding was delayed to 9:40 am.
Japan-2018 Review: Sapporo New Chitose Royal Lounge We arrived at New Chitose International airport crazy early thanks to a fast private transfer and reasonable road conditions. But unfortunately, check-in hadn't even opened yet and to make matters worse none of the shops in the airport had opened either.
Japan-2018 Travel: Exploring Niseko Niseko is about 2-3 hours drive from Sapporo airport depending on traffic and road conditions. The best way to get there is via a shuttle transfer directly from the Airport. This was my third trip to Niseko and I can safely say it is by far my favourite skiing destination.
Japan-2018 Review: Japan Airlines $10 Class J Upgrade JAL's domestic Business class is branded class J and if purchased in advance will only cost you ~$10 above a normal Economy ticket. The domestic 777's also offer First class but it was a significant step up in cost. So I decided to fork out the extra $10 and give it a try.
Japan-2018 Travel: Exploring Tokyo in the Snow Upon landing into Haneda, we realised that Tokyo had had a lot of snow overnight and found out later on that it was, in fact, the most snow Tokyo had seen in 4 years!
Japan-2018 Review: Thai Airways 777 Business Class Bangkok to Tokyo I was looking forward to this flight from the day I booked it and realised that it was on a 777-300er that had been refitted with Thai Airways new business class product.
Japan-2018 Review: Thai Airways Bangkok Lounge & Spa Probably one of the best things about travelling on Thai Airways business or first class is getting access to the fantastic spa at Bangkok Airport. Business class guests get a complimentary 30-minute back or foot massage and first class guests get a complimentary 60-minute full body massage.
Japan-2018 Review: Thai Airways 747 Business Class Sydney to Bangkok Boarding was scheduled for 3:30pm so we left the Air New Zealand lounge around 3:20pm as I wanted to get on the plane nice and early to take some photos before other passengers boarded. When we got to the gate it was the usual chaos before a flight boarding
Japan-2018 Review: Air New Zealand Sydney Lounge Air New Zealand opened a new lounge at Sydney airport back in 2015. It is accessible to guests travelling in business class on any Star Alliance airline as well as Star Alliance gold members and is located upstairs at Sydney international terminal right next to the Singapore Airlines lounge. After
