Aussie Flyer

I recently visited Vietnam for the first time and flew in to the country via Hanoi on Malaysia Airlines as I reported here . My next city was the large commercial hub, Ho Chi Minh, and to get there I booked a Vietnam Airlines service on the Airbus A330. Around a month or so before the flight there was a change of equipment to the Boeing 777 and I decided to use the standby upgrade service provided by optiontown.com. For only about USD25 each I had a chance at being upgraded to business and I was happy to receive an email the night before the flight confirming I had been successful. Knowing this in advance I headed straight to the business class counters at Hanoi airport. Hanoi Airport Departures

 Some of you may have read my recent report on Malaysia Airlines intra-asia business class on the flight Yangon to Kuala Lumpur . Well now I have had a chance to try them in economy class on a flight of similar length, Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi. I took this flight as part of a recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal. Let's have a look and see how it went...

The recent change of Qantas' international strategy whereby they partnered with Emirates and changed their stopover point for London flights from Singapore to Dubai has seen many changes in the Qantas network. Before this year Qantas operated the A380 on the Melbourne to Singapore route and the aircraft continued on to London, the flight departed in the mid afternoon with a late arrival in Singapore. Now the flight ends in Singapore and is operated by the A330 and has a mid morning departure so people can continue on the same day to other Asian destinations (on other carriers like Jetstar Asia). As a result of this change there is no longer First Class or Premium Economy offered on the route, and the business class seat is the older skybed which is angled compared to being flat on the A380. This is disappointing but apparently the business class product on the A330's will be upgraded in the next 1 to 2 years. Whether this new strategy is going to be a success is yet t...