Aussie Flyer

My last few posts I have been talking about Australian domestic flying, so let's mix it up a bit and have a quick look at a  flight I took 2 months back from Ho Chi Minh to Siem Reap, probably one of the most expensive 45 minute flights I've taken in my life at almost $200 one way! They sure know how to rip off the tourists heading for Angkor Wat!! I doubt many locals would pay that, most would take the bus.

After my recent experiment of flying both Virgin Australia and Qantas in business class on the trans-continental run between Melbourne and Perth I am going to discuss a few of the pros and cons of each. SEATS Winner: Virgin Australia Despite Qantas offering some flights with their international skybeds, the vast majority of services are operated by A330's with recliners with very poor pitch and some have seven abreast seating with a middle seat blocked for extra space. So this one is a very easy win to Virgin who offer either an angled lie flat seat or a very deep reclining international style business class seat with fabulous pitch. SCHEDULE Winner: Qantas Qantas have more options with more daily flights and almost all are A330s. On weekends Virgin has been putting in quite a few B737-800's with much lower standard seating. CATERING Winner: Qantas The overall catering experience with Qantas was better. I much prefer the proper table service with table cl

PART 2 : QANTAS Following on from Part 1  this part shows the return to Melbourne, this time on Qantas. FLIGHT:                     QF772 ROUTE:                      Perth to Melbourne AIRCRAFT:               Airbus A330-200 VH-EBM SEAT:                          2A (Business Class) DEPARTURE:           10.00 (Scheduled)  09.55 (Actual) ARRIVAL:                 15.30 (Schedules)  14.55 (Actual) 35 Minutes Early!  VH-EBM at the gate Upon arrival at the terminal I proceeded straight through security and up to the lounge. Priority security screening was available for Business Class and Platinum card holders although at 9am on this Monday the line was almost empty so it was not required. The lounge is 'airside' meaning you don't need to factor in a security check after leaving the lounge for the aircraft. Perth has just a single Qantas Club and no separate business class lounge but I found it to be quite decent. It is large and has nice tarmac vi

INTRODUCTION The days of Qantas' monopoly of the business and premium travel market between the east and west coast of Australia are now well and truly over. Since Virgin Australia's introduction of their domestic Airbus A330 in 2011 it has been an increasingly intense competition between the 2 carriers as to who can offer the best product, not only in business class but also in economy. Virgin have moved away from a low cost offering to a full service product in economy on its trans-con flights with meals and drinks included in direct competition with Qantas. Virgin have branded the new product the 'Coast to Coast' service Both carriers now also operate the majority of their flights between Perth and Sydney or Melbourne with widebody Airbus A330s. However, depending on which aircraft you get on the day both airlines have wildly varying configurations on the seats! At this stage Qantas is operating with at least 3 different seat types in business and Virgin ha

I recently flew on the Emirates A380 in First Class. I was very impressed and decided to upload a video. I will follow up soon with a full trip report but in the mean time, check out the video:

Earlier on in the year I took a flight on Thai's 747 in First Class from Bangkok to Sydney. This is not going to be a full review but a quick run down of the Royal First experience. The flight was operated on an aircraft configured with 10 First Class seats which is typical for the Sydney run and half of the Thai 747 fleet is configured this way. The other half are now in a 'suites' configuration but mostly those aircraft fly to Europe and Japan.