Aussie Flyer

Here is a trip report on a recent flight I had with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Melbourne in business class. FLIGHT: SQ217 ROUTE: Singapore to Melbourne CLASS: Business Class SEAT: 91F AIRCRAFT: A380-800 9V-SKQ (5 years old) DEPART: 10.45AM ARRIVE: 9.10PM After a visit to the T3 Silverkris lounge I headed to gate B5  for the departure. I arrived at 10am with boarding not yet started and found 9V-SKQ at the gate. This was one of the newer A380's, only 5 years old. It has the upper deck configured exclusively with business class, 86 flat beds in total! Those that have flown the 2006 SQ business class seat know that the bulkheads are generally preferable as they have more leg space since there is no seat in front. I had chosen the centre bulkhead in the rear cabin, seat 91F. When boarding was called I noticed very few other passengers joining me on the upper deck jetway. 9V-SKQ at the gate

FLIGHT Virgin Australia VA7 AIRCRAFT Boeing 777-300ER VH-VOZ (7 years old) ROUTE Brisbane to Los Angeles CLASS Business Class seat 4A DEPARTURE 10.50AM ARRIVAL 6.55AM DURATION 13 hours 05 minutes So, this review is already out of date because the seats have been replaced but here is a quick look at a flight I took in April this year with Virgin Australia from Brisbane to Los Angeles.  Virgin Australia operate a small fleet of 5 B777-300ER's, serving Los Angeles from both Brisbane and Sydney, along with the Sydney to Abu Dhabi route. This is flight VA7, the daily flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. Virgin compete with Qantas on this route who fly a daily B747-400. Brisbane International Checkin

Virgin have had short haul business class on domestic for a few years now. I have read mixed reviews on the product with some experiencing great service and others being almost ignored. Here is my experience on a recent trip. FLIGHT: Virgin Australia VA309 ROUTE: Melbourne to Brisbane AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUJ (almost 10 years old) DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.10AM DURATION: 2 hrs 10 min My flight this morning was operated by VH-VUJ. This aircraft is almost 10 years old, delivered to Virgin Blue in 2006 and later repainted to the current Virgin Australia livery. The aircraft, like all the other VA 737-800's, has 8 business seats and 168 economy. I was in seat 1A for this sector. Upon arrival at the terminal I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge and snapped a pic of my aircraft which was parked right nearby:

With the suites upgrade on Qantas A330s almost complete, flights across the country are going to finally have a consistent business class product. Here we have my experience about 6 months ago on a dinnertime flight, Perth to Melbourne. Terminal Entry

Just before Christmas I flew over to WA to fly on the Fokker 50 before they were retired from Virgin Australia's fleet. I happened to find myself in Geraldton, an interesting town with some interesting characters. Having flown 3 sectors on the F50 it was time to go back to Melbourne and I redeemed some Qantas points to do it. The routing was Geraldton-Perth-Melbourne and the first leg was on the Fokker 100. This would be a first flight for me on this aircraft type which has become the standard type in use in the WA mining market. It's an aircraft that is long out of production and most airlines have retired it (or are in the process of doing so) but it's somehow found a niche here in Australia and in particular, Western Australia. Flight : QF1619 (Qantaslink operated by Network Aviation) Route : Geraldton to Perth Aircraft : Fokker 100 VH-NHJ Departure : 08.40 AM Arrival : 09.45 AM Flight Duration : 1 hour 05 minutes Qantaslink recently stopped flying the...

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This post follows on from Part 1 . This second report was for my return to Perth from Albany, on the Virgin Australia (Skywest) Fokker 50. FLIGHT 2: VA2526 ~ PERTH to ALBANY ~ 1525/1640  ~ Fokker 50 VH-FNH  ~ SEAT 9G I arrived at the airport a bit over an hour before departure and checked in for my flight to Perth, I was continuing on to Geraldton so I got the boarding pass for both sectors. Then it was through security where I was amazed to see that it took 3 security staff to process this small flight. It must be a costly process, and is something REX manages to avoid with it's smaller Saab 340 aircraft since they took over the route earlier this year. Albany Airport Terminal

I recently got to go to St Maarten and I absolutely loved it! It's a plane spotters paradise. I recommend everyone visit at least once if you are an aviation geek at all. Even if you are not you will truly enjoy sitting by the beach sipping on some Carib beers and watching the planes come in. Here is a bunch of my favourite photos that I took while at St Maarten recently. These are unedited raw pictures from my Nikon D3200. I am not a good photographer but I think they look pretty awesome. United Boeing 737-700

I have very fond memories as a teenager of flying between Sydney and Wagga Wagga on Ansett Fokker 50's. I believe I did 2 return trips before the Saab 340's took over the run with Kendall Airlines back in the mid 1990s.  A number of the ex-Ansett Fokker's saw themselves transferred to Western Australia in the Skywest fleet which was later taken over by Virgin Australia. Late in 2015 it was announced that the Skywest Fokker 50 fleet was to be retired and routes to Albany, Esperance and Ravensthorpe terminated. Since I had an emotional connection to the aircraft type and it's operation in Australia I decided I had to go over to Perth and fly on them before they went. So, in December 2015, and about 20 years since I had last been in a Fokker aircraft I found myself at Perth Airport in the recently built 'regional' terminal. My routing on the Fokker 50 was booked Perth-Albany-Perth-Esperance. All 3 sectors were scheduled to be flown by the Fokker 50. FLIGHT 1: V...

First an apology.... this report is well overdue. I completed this flight in November last year. This is Singapore Airlines flight SQ323 from Amsterdam to Singapore. Currently a B777-300ER route but it will soon feature the brand new Airbus A350 instead. When that change is completed then Amsterdam will lose First Class service from SQ. This flight departs Amsterdam daily at 10.25am, arriving in Singapore at 5.55am the following day. On my flight the aircraft operating the service was 9V-SWA, 9 years old at the time of the flight. I believe it was the first -300ER in the Singapore Airlines fleet. It's still flying in the same interior configuration now as it was when it was delivered. Despite the age of these seats, they are still market leaders in terms of their size! 9V-SWA waiting at the gate at AMS

Hi All, Due to a death in the family the blog has not been updated for some time. I am still here and will start publishing updates again over the coming weeks. I have a trip over to the USA and Caribbean coming up next week which will mean I have lot's more to write about. Thanks for your understanding. Aussie Flyer

I had the great privilege to fly on what is probably the world's most luxurious first class product late last year, the Etihad Airbus A380 Apartments. Here is my experience on this wonderful aircraft! FLIGHT : EY19 AIRLINE : Etihad Airways AIRCRAFT : Airbus A380-800 A6-APB SEAT : 4K ROUTE : Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow I arrived at T3 checkin simply by walking across from the Premier Inn hotel which joins the terminal complex. Upon arrival I was met by the porters but I declined their assistance with my bags. I headed to the dedicated first class checkin zone and soon had my boarding pass and was on my way through security and into the terminal. At the time of this flight and still at the time of writing there is no Etihad first class lounge at Abu Dhabi, instead it is the 'Premium' lounge in T3 which is shared with business class. There is however a small roped off area for first class passengers. The lounge is quite good with a salon and spa available...

Singapore is one of the destinations that saw the introduction of Dreamliner service in 2015 with Etihad Airways, previously the Airbus A330 operated on this route. This review is of flight EY473, a 7.20pm departure from Singapore. Firstly, the lounge. Well it is a massive disappointment. The lounge is the Terminal 2 SATS lounge, which is a generic lounge used by various airlines (including TIGER AIRWAYS...  yes that's right, Etihad First class passengers are using the same lounge as Tiger Airways). There is a very small area reserved for First Class passengers, separated by a few pot plants from the rest of the lounge. The 'First Class Zone' in the SATS lounge

A little under 3 years ago Cathay Pacific debuted their new 'Regional Business Class' product. It's a recliner seat in fixed shells and now features throughout the Cathay fleet on regional configured Boeing 777's and A330's. Cathay Regional Business Class