Qantas A380 Business Class DXB-LHR, Shorthaul in Europe, Dubai and Riyadh (Part I)

[yflyer]

For various reasons, the first stop on my trip was not London, but Brussels. After landing at Heathrow, I took the Heathrow Express Train to London Paddington station, then as I had rollaboard bag only, it was feasible for me to catch the tube across London to St Pancras to check in for my Eurostar train from London to Brussels.

My scheduled arrival in London Heathrow was 1.50pm, and the actual was fairly close to that. Including clearing immigration (Thankfully almost no queues that day), catching the Heathrow Express, and then the tube to St Pancras, I was at the Eurostar ticketing/check-in area before 4pm which I felt was quite impressive.

I had actually booked a later Eurostar train that evening, but managed to change it (for a hefty fee...) to the 5.04pm service to Brussels, arriving at 8.05pm local time, making this a quick two hour journey.

St Pancras is a bustling and beautiful train station, with many shops and food outlets. You do need to check in fairly early for your train though, as the journey involves security and EU immigration checks prior to boarding.





2nd class seating is 2-2, which was fairly comfortable. The trains are no longer new, but were reasonably well maintained.



The ride itself on the train was a little less smooth than I expected. I'm not sure if this was an issue with this particular train, or if all rides were like that, but there was some amount of swaying and movement in the carriage, which I did not recall from rides on the French TGV or Japanese Shinkansen.



By far the best place to be on the train was the dining car, which had panoramic views of the countryside whizzing by.



F&B onboard the Eurostar was good as well, including a nice selection of hot dishes as well as wine, beer and liquor.



Dishes onboard included that classic British favourite, chicken tikka masala...



Although the journey duration was stated as 2 hours, our train had to slow down enroute, and even stop for a few minutes, as there was a problem with a previous train somewere along the Channel Tunnel. We arrived in Brussels about 30 minutes late, which was not an issue for me, but did cause minor problems for some other passengers who had missed their onward train connections. They would now have to catch later train connections.

[yflyer]

It was a very quick visit to Brussels...just a one night stay at the Sheraton Brussels at Place Charles Rogier. This was an older hotel, almost a throwback to an earlier era, situated in a fairly busy commercial area, about 15 minutes walk from the main square, Grand Place, which I did not actually get to see this time round, as I only had time the next day for business meetings before heading to the airport.

Brussels Airport is a busy airport -- not on the scale of an LHR, AMS or FRA, but I did see many different carriers and aircraft types, mainly short haul/regional but also the occasional widebody. Some part of the airport look fairly old, but large sections are newly built/refurbished, and this made Brussels Airport quite a pleasant place to travel out of.



Does anyone notice the similarity between the airport design in the picture above, and the train station in the previous picture?

Belgium is famous for beer, and there was a LOT of it at the airport, as well as several restaurants serving Belgian specialties. I would definitely recommend sampling the beer while waiting for your flight. The varieties available on tap were just amazing.



Belgium is the home of Tin Tin, and apart from shops selling Tin Tin memorabilia, there were Tin Tin themed art installations within the airport as well.



My BA codeshare flight from Brussels to Rome was operated by Spanish budget airline Vueling (The pronunciation of which rhymes with either "Boiling" or "Fuelling" depending on who you ask...). This flight was subject to rolling delays, and eventually departed more than an hour late, due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft from Rome.

Rome Fiumicino Airport was going through a rough patch, as parts of one of the major terminals, T3, were damaged by a fire earlier in the month, on May 7. As a result, operations in the airport had been re-jigged to move affected airlines to other terminals, and this was causing some amount of chaos and other delays.

Like so many other LCC flights I was on, this plane, an Airbus A320 configured in an all-Y 3-3 layout, was completely full...

[yflyer]

I made my way to my seat near the rear of the A320.



The seat pitch was unlike anything I had ever experienced.



There must have been a space no more than 7 inches / 18cm for your legs. I tested this by placing my iPad Air in the foot well...a snug fit.



I am not a tall person, but even then my knees almost touched the seat in front of me.



There were taller and larger gentlemen seated around me. They sat stoically, in some cases with knees almost half way up to their chest.

This airline must have a sense of humour, because the seats had a recline button which could theoretically allow the seat to recline a few inches. Unfortunately the seats themselves had very soft backs, and the knees of any passenger behind you were very apparent if they pushed into the back of your seat.

For the first time in all my years of travel, the young lady seated in front of my aisle seat actually turned back and asked me (politely) to stop kicking her seat. Me? Kicking her seat? Of course I didn't! But in any case I apologised profusely...all I had done was shift around to try and find a comfortable position and even that must have caused her seat frame to shake. I sat still-as-a-statue for the rest of the flight, taking extra care not to allow my knees to touch the seat ahead.

There was of course no complimentary catering on this flight. However, like the playbook of almost all other LCC's the variety of catering available for purchase was mindboggling, even exceeding what mainline carriers service in business class...



Here are just a few extracts from the menu, which would not have been out of place in a bistro on the ground...





They were doing roaring business...



The family sitting next to me must have cleaned out the inflight stock of instant noodles...slurping up cup after cup...

The flight itself was uneventful, and we landed at Rome Fiumicino late in the evening.



I stayed at the Sheraton Rome Airport, which was a convenient 15 minute walk from the airport terminal along covered walkways and corridors. Note that unlike the airport hotels in London, Frankfurt and elsewhere, there is almost no signage in the terminal that directs you to the hotel. You need to ask the counter staff, or call the hotel, for directions. I wandered aimlessly outside and inside the terminal for a long trying to figure out directions, before finally locating someone who could give me directions to the hotel.

[yflyer]

My visit to Rome was another one day affair, where I spent the entire day in the office, only heading out to a nearby cafe for a pasta lunch and a shot of intensely strong espresso.

By the time I finished meetings, it was close to 6pm. But I was determined to see the city. The weather that day, warm and sunny, was perfect for a run. I headed back to the hotel, changed into jogging attire, and took a taxi to the Colosseum.



From there, I took a run through the city, roughly using a route I had plotted earlier in the day, which took me past many of the main sights in Rome, including the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Vatican City, and the Spanish Steps.

This was not the best time to see the sights: The colosseum had scaffolding around most of the building, except for the section which I photographed, and the Trevi Fountain was completed drained and covered in scaffolding for reconstruction.

But even with all the construction/restoration in progress, Rome is a magical city to walk (and jog) through. It was a spectacular dusk run, as the sun set, through this historic city, around the time where crowds were starting to dissipate, and the streetside restaurants were filling up. Notable segments of the run included crossing the River Tiber to Vatican City and St Peter's Basilica, and the public areas at Piazza del Popolo, and the Spanish Steps.



This was a 12km run that took about an hour and a half to complete. It was a wonderful way to see the sights of Rome. I would definitely recommend a run through Rome for anyone planning to visit, for a fascinating and healthy way to explore the city.

I finished my run back where I started, at the Colosseum. By that time, it was already dark. The Colosseum, lit by orange floodlights, looked even more ancient and imposing than it did during the day.



After cooling down, I strolled over to a nearby street lined with restaurants, and picked an outdoor table in a discrete corner of an Italian restaurant for dinner.

This was past their peak dining hour, and there were many free tables. The atmosphere in these open air restaurants was very relaxed and casual as well, at least in the street dining areas, so I don't think the fact that I was dressed in running attire affected the dining experience of anyone around me.

[yflyer]

The next morning, I caught an early flight on BA from Rome to London Heathrow.

The faint but pungent odor of smoke from the fire earlier in the month still hung in the air within the terminal. This odor was an unpleasant combination of burnt metal and plastic, and all airport staff were given masks to wear, and many did (Though notably not the BA check-in staff).



No masks for passengers though. We would just have to bear with the smell for the short period we were there.

The passenger flow in the airport had to be rerouted to avoid areas closed because of fire damage and repair work. A lot of the airport signage had to be ignored. We relied on freshly posted signs to direct us to the adhoc immigration and boarding/gate areas. The new passenger flow was fairly convoluted and slightly ambiguous at some points. I had to ask staff for directions/confirmation at several points.

My flight was an early morning departure, which meant that crowds were light, and everyone eventually found their way to their respective gates to board their flights. I would not have wanted to be in the terminal later in the day when traffic was heavier. There were bound to have been delays on account of lost and/or confused pax trying to figure out where to go.

[yflyer]

After my experience on Vueling, it was wonderful to board a very new BA A320, complete with the new Sharklets/winglets.

This was the "Business Class" cabin, or at least what passes for business class in Europe.

[Hajimbo]

Awesome TR! I was thankful enough to have seen the full pledge of Trevi Fontaine last easter but I guess for the Colosseum for reconstruction will be in a long run - even when I was there, they've already started the reconstruction on a single section. Is it normal now that Qantas do a short transit at DXB before heading to LHR?

Nice to see you've spotted my national carrier in LHR! hehe

Keep it up

[jammed]

another truly detailed TR, thanks vy much yflyer.

Just a question - were not the Kangaroo-PJs distributed for this QF flight?

[yflyer]

Awesome TR! I was thankful enough to have seen the full pledge of Trevi Fontaine last easter but I guess for the Colosseum for reconstruction will be in a long run - even when I was there, they've already started the reconstruction on a single section. Is it normal now that Qantas do a short transit at DXB before heading to LHR?

Nice to see you've spotted my national carrier in LHR! hehe

Keep it up

Thanks Hajimbo! In fact I have also seen the RBA 787's at Changi, and they sure look good in their livery!

For Qantas, their flights to London originating from Australia (SYD, MEL etc) all have a short transit stop in DXB on the way to LHR. There is no longer any QF flight to LHR that stops in SIN.

As I start my trips from SIN, I usually take EK (QF codeshare, so that I get status credit on QF's FF programme) to DXB, then fly on a QF service onward to LHR.

When on EK, I usually take their A380's for SIN-DXB, which in Y is far superior to their 777's. Also, the evening 9.25pm EK A380 departure out of SIN has been very lightly loaded every time I have flown it. The problem is that this time round, I was coming in from Shanghai on SQ from another trip before heading to Dubai on EK, and that flight landed at SIN too late for me to catch the EK A380. So I had to bite the bullet and fly the 1.40am EK 777 to DXB instead.

[yflyer]

another truly detailed TR, thanks vy much yflyer.

Just a question - were not the Kangaroo-PJs distributed for this QF flight?

Thanks, jammed!

Nope, I did not receive PJ's on either the QF9 DXB-LHR sector or the QF10 LHR-DXB sector, which were both daytime sectors.

Maybe they are handed out on the longer SYD-DXB or MEL-DXB sectors...

[yflyer]

And after the LCC experience from BRU-FCO, I felt irrationally happy when I entered the Y cabin configured in ordinary 3-3 with normal seat pitch...



Suddenly, standard Y pitch seemed generous! I would have room to stretch out!



Everything looked brand new. The leather seats, the carpet... I was a happy camper...

At that point, nothing would upset me...not even the cold pretzel roll that BA provided as catering on this flight...



We landed on schedule in T5, on a wet rainy day in London.

[yflyer]

I spent a few days in the UK before my flight from London to Dubai.

They have launched both the Apple Watch and the new MacBook in the UK...neither of which are available in Singapore at the moment.

And my colleagues at work were early adopters of both! I was envious!





The new super slim MacBook was really impressive too, except that there were just no accessories available for the new USB port...

[yflyer]

I stayed at the Hilton London Hyde Park again, and at the end of the week, after a hectic work day, I managed find a little time in the evening to go for a run through Kensington Gardens / Hyde Park, to Buckingham Palace and then through St James Park to Big Ben before retracing my steps.

This time round, I was surprised to see that instead of the Coldstream Guards at Buckingham Palace, it was the Gurkhas on duty.





I have the greatest respect for the Gurkhas. There is a small Gurkha contingent present in Singapore as well, where they play an important role in ensuring Singapore's security alongside our Home Team. It was good to see them on ceremonial guard duties at Buckingham Palace -- an honour that the Gurkha Regiment well deserves.

Further along the route, I also jogged through St James Park. This is a view of the London Eye from within St James Park...

[yflyer]

The next day, I headed to Heathrow T3 for my 1.45pm departure to Dubai on QF10.



Boarding commenced on time...



I entered through the upper deck door, directly into the J cabin...



Today I snagged the first row bulkhead aisle seat, in row 11, in the mini J cabin ahead of the main J cabin.







The bulkhead has a handy storage compartment with a padded holder which is just right for a 15-inch MacBook Pro.



This is view of the forward bulkhead window seats.



Sitting in the front mini cabin, the real revelation was that there was a small onboard lounge area ahead of the cabin on the starboard side, which had a sofa that seated 5 (with seatbelts available) and a magazine rack. I had no idea this onboard lounge area existed!



I wonder how many J pax further back in the cabin were aware that this lounge was available. It was certainly not mentioned during inflight announcements, and when I was sitting in the main J cabin on previous flights, I had no idea this lounge existed.

Sitting just across from this lounge at row 11, I made a mental note to explore this later on in the flight.

[yflyer]

Pre-take off champagne...





A very steep take-off (By A380 standards) out of Dubai...



After the seat belt signs went off, I unbuckled my seatbelt and walked over to check out the onboard lounge.



This was a comfortable spot for a bit of peace and quiet, or for a discussion with other passengers without bothering other J pax.



I found this to be a very pleasant place to spend a few minutes away from my seat, if only to stretch my legs for a little while.

During the flight, the lounge was in use by different people at least part of the time.

A look down the front stairs...