The trip out took a lot longer than usual – apparently traffic was busy through town and so we went on a very roundabout route from East London up the M11 and round the M25. This didn’t do much for my nerves, as the trip took about twice as long as normal, and I couldn’t do on line check in. I shouldn’t have worried, as the terminal was empty and there was no queue at QF business check in. Bag dropped off, boarding pass and luggage tag I headed off to “fast track security” which was pretty fast today. Did a bit of shopping and went to collect my pre-ordered currency only to realise this should have been done landside! Oops, but apparently I am not the only person to make this mistake. Currency collected, I headed off to the BA lounge – I was thinking about trying the AA or CX lounges but due to the long transfer to the airport, I thought I would stick with what I knew. Lounge relatively empty, some breakfast items and the usual drinks selection.
Boarding was called on time and it was a little walk down to the gate, which was empty by the time I got there. Business is upstairs, so I followed the instructions for the upper airbridge and very soon was directed to my seat with a smile and settled in. I had managed to pre-select a window seat, so more luggage bins next to me on the flight. The seats are 2-2-2 with a fixed shell and the seat reclines into a fully-flat bed. Very good amount of leg room and three windows to easily look out of. The cabin was very bright and airy. I had someone next to me, but with the “privacy divide” out, you didn’t really see much of them. Overall, I have to say that the seat and the cabin beat the BA Club World and the VS Upper Class seat hands down! Take-off was pretty much on time, and off to Singapore we headed.
After take-off, the crew came around with a nice amenity kit with a good selection of moisturisers, lip balm, shades and socks – again this beats that BA Club World amenity kit, and well, VS can’t even compare with what they offer these days! We were also offered a pyjama set , with a nice kangaroo on the front – beats BA as you get nothing.
Post-take off drinks orders were taken at this time, along with handing out of the menus and also a breakfast card to complete. Looking at the drinks available, I decided to go for a James Squire Golden Ale – now I am not usually someone who goes for a beer/lager on a flight in business, but this reminded me of a previous trip down under and an afternoon sat in bar drinking James Squire whilst it was raining heavily. The entertainment was turned on pretty much straight after take-off, and there was a good selection of films and TV shows etc. To be more environmentally friendly, there is no TV /film magazine – you have to look through the options on line. This was a little time consuming, and was the main issue with the entertainment system for me. However, it was reliable throughout the flight and the quality was good.
In terms of the menu, on the flight today, the lunch options were:
Entree
Leak and potato soup with thyme croutons
Spicy prawn salad with mint and lime
Main
Four cheese tortellini with braised vegetables
Green curry of monkfish with eggplant, jasmine rice and snow peas
Braised duck in Lui Shui sauce with noodles and gai lan
Beef fillet with fondant potatoes, sautéed cepes, bacon and red wine jus
Dessert
Selection of cheese
Chocolate bread and butter pudding
Sliced fresh fruit
I had the prawn salad, which consisted of four huge tiger prawns and a very nice sauce (added from a bowl at the time of serving). The soup was poured from a thermos flask and the croutons were in a small packet to add. I followed this by the monkfish curry and the chocolate bread and butter pudding. All three courses, were exceptionally good – really fresh food, tasty and also decent sized portions. Again, QF beats both VS and BA hands down on the food front. In terms of wine, there is a book of different wines, and two red and two whites are on each flight – I had both a white (2010 Printhie Mountain Range Sauvingon Blanc – Orange, NSW) and red (2010 Clonakilla Hilltops Shiraz – Hilltops, NSW) (starter / main), both were Australian and of very good quality. The nice thing is that there was a dessert wine to accompany dessert – a Cookoothama Botryis Semillon – Riverina, NSW – this was EXCEPTIONAL!!! I really do like a nice dessert wine, and this seems to be a rare offering in business class (I have had on DL in the past but that is it). There were also some “refreshments” as they called them , including broccoli and stilton tart, toasted sourdough baguette with chipotle pork, gruyere and coleslaw and stir fried rice with chicken and asparagus – unfortunately, I didn’t feel hungry enough during the flight to try any of these (shame as they all sounded very good!).
I settled in to watch some movies and do a little bit of work. During the flight, I wandered to the lounge area – this is unusual use of space and I suppose it depends on who is there as to whether it is friendly. There were a few people sitting and chatting, so I joined them to tick the box of having tried everything. As soon as you went through, a CC came and asked if I wanted a drink – there was also self-service if you wanted (not just here, but also in the main galley area – every time, they checked if you wanted anything to eat /a snack. I decided to wander downstairs – I cheekily used the front stairs, which were not blocked off, and take you through First. I am not sure what I thought of this, but it seemed a little cramped. I then tried to walk down through economy and was told off for using the stairs, but then told I couldn’t go back up. Having negotiated economy, which was almost full, I used the circular stairs at the back only to find this blocked off to prevent trolleys falling down. I was almost stuck in limbo land! However, soon I was heading back through premium economy, which looked pretty decent to me, and back into business.
The flight seemed to pass fairly quickly and I managed to get some sleep. About 2 hours before landing, they started the breakfast service, although I was already awake. I can’t remember exactly what I had, but there was a cooked meat and vegetarian option, along with a more Asian related breakfast. I had the meat cooked breakfast, and had some amazing scrambled eggs. This was served with the usual pastries, tea/coffee, juices, fruits etc. All of the meals were presented very well by the crew.
All too soon, we were landing into Singapore. I have never been here before, and was surprised at how busy the waters outside Singapore are with moored tankers and container ships. During the descent, landing cards were handed out for those leaving in Singapore (this flight continues on to Sydney), and there was the usual mention of not carrying anything you shouldn’t do into Singapore as the penalties are very severe! Gets me scared and I know I am not doing anything wrong! Landed a little late and then it was a longish taxi to the terminal. Again reminders to those continuing on to take everything off the plane and how to transit through the airport. Once we were parked up, two air bridges were quickly put in place and we were soon heading off the plane. Most people either seemed to be continuing on with QF or were transferring to another flight, so very few people headed off to immigration. The airport is so efficient – there were no queues at all at immigration, which was processed very quickly and the bags were starting to come round when I got to baggage reclaim.
My overall impression:
Well you may have guessed from some of my comparisons throughout this trip report, that I thought that the QF A380 business product and service was pretty good! I would really recommend them on this route, definitely over BA (I got off the plane wishing that my return was booked on QF – you will have seen from the trip report that this ended up being BA First instead). The crew were really good on the whole flight and nothing was too much trouble, they were friendly and cheerful from start to finish and had a really positive attitude! Definitely based on my experience on this flight, I would rate QF as significantly better than both BA and VS!
An unbiased comparison of all 3 airlines and clear justification why QF won you over 
A great read for someone who has not experienced travel on an A380 
