Checked in at LHR and got the bad news that it was not to be the retrofitted aircraft for this flight, so no flat bed or in seat IFE, oh no...gutted. Rushed through to departures and stocked up on PSP films, more about that later.
Royal Brunei use the SAS lounge (the London Room) at LHR, two floor lounge with plenty of space to relax in, plenty of snacks and drinks to fill up on and a cinema room as well, looks a little bit like Ikea in places but still it was great to be away from a very busy Terminal 3 Departure lounge.
Flight was called for boarding on time and off we went to see what seats we would have for the next 17 hours.
Well.....we got the old first class cabin which was pink and gold...yuck. Shag pile carpet on the walls, screen at the front of the cabin and the seats were pink leather, i had to laugh.
Plenty of room so no complaints in that respect, seated towards the front of the cabin so we could see the screen no problems.
Cabin lay out was a bit odd, 2-1-2 but this was a 767 so i suppose it makes the best use of the space available.
Royal Brunei is a dry airline but you can bring your own booze on board so we had our champagne put in the fridge before take off and sat back to listen to the pre take off prayer....no i'm not joking, there is a pre take off prayer!
Cabin service was good although very different to Virgin service, no real drink service as such but they do offer a similar eat when you want option. Food was good a plentiful even though it took a while to arrive, they seemed to ask each person what they wanted, go and heat it up, bring it to the seat and then ask the next passenger and so on.
Anyway 1 bottle of champagne later and it was time for some films, didnt want to watch King Kong again (cut to 130 mins) on the main screen so out came the PSP, popped in a film....oh no ive got a USA PSP and ive just bought 5 UK PSP films so none of them worked. Bugger!
Stopped in Dubai for a brief refuel and then off again for another 7 hours to Brunei.
The toilets in the J class cabin have to be seen to be believed, again Gold and Pink and carpeted but when you walk in it's almost like where is the toilet? It's hidden under a flip up cushion so when you walk in all you see is a small couch, very strange. Broken mirror was a bit off putting as well, but all facilities were clean which is the main thing i guess.
Different crew from Dubai to Brunei (all male) and they seemed a bit slower in meal service but by then i'd had a bottle of wine and three large G&T's so i wasnt too bothered. Fell asleep and woke up as the seat belt signs came on for landing in Brunei.
Got an amazing view of the Sultans Palace as we came in on approach.
2 hour stop in Brunei and made use of the excellent Sky Lounge in the airport, again no booze but the food and other facilites made up for this and anyway i had a stinking hangover starting.
the next leg was a very short up and down flight into Kota Kinabalu, quiet literally go up and then start the descent, newer plane with different seats, about 4 inches more room than Premium Economy but for such a short flight it didnt really matter.
All sectors left on time and no real gripes about any of it, it was certainly a different J class experience to a Virgin flight and it made me appreciate the Virgin Upper Class flights ive done so much more, how i missed the fully flat bed!
Overall about 7 out of 10, if we had the newer seats then it wold have been 8.5 out of 10.
Would i use them again..yes probably if was doing the same routing. i could have used Malaysian but their fare for the same route was 2700 and no matter how much booze i can consume it certainly wasnt a 1000 worth.
Return leg to follow....
