[Anonymous]

[Stephen787]

BKK to LHR.
Leaving BKK at around midnight after a visit to the shared BA/QF lounge meant that most business passengers were ready for a quiet flight and some sleep on this 12hr flight to London. I was seated upstairs in 18K, one of the favoured window seats with the handy side lockers. These lockers make a huge difference as your hand luggage is at conveniently at hand removing the need to get up mid-flight to access the overhead lockers or to disturb your sleeping companion.

Champagne, water and a nasty tangerine fruit juice was offered before take-off. Given that this was a night flight with an early morning arrival, Qantas has hotel-style breakfast order cards waiting at your seat so you can order in advance leaving more time for sleep. Menus for supper were also handed out along with amenity kits, pyjamas and noise cancelling headphones so that supper could be served straight after take-off into the humid night air.

On this flight the crew were much more friendly than my flight up from Sydney and the female crew members wore smart black pyjama style outfits. As the upper deck cabin was only half full supper was quickly served. There was a small supper menu consisting of a toasted foccacia with goats cheese, eggplant, dried tomato and pesto; Honey Dijon glazed sea bass; a Thai style duck; and a Lamb and red wine pot pie. Followed by Tiramisu, fresh fruit or cheese for afters. The food was of good quality and presentation, a pity the fish was a little bland.

After supper I settled down with the On Q IFE system. Plenty of choices to keep most people entertained for hours. As I usually do, I caught up on a couple of movies I’d missed out on at the cinema. The lie flat seat was not fully flat but when set at 80% it was at a decent angle for sleep.

Waking up over the Caspian sea at sunrise the view was a treat and quite mesmerising. An excellent breakfast of fresh fruit, yoghurt, with corn cakes and bacon followed while we flow over Poland and Germany. Then it was time to freshen up and change before landing at Heathrow.

Arriving at Terminal 3 was like a step back in time. Those low ceilings and narrow walkways give away its age. It appears that BAA are trying to freshen up the terminal in time for the Olympics but I’m not sure how much you can do with that building. Finally getting to immigration with a fast track card I expected to breeze through the barriers, but in fact we were kept waiting longer than passengers in regular lines thanks to the officials controlling the queues. Over 45 mins waiting in the fast track line was ridiculous, but at least the trip was almost over.

Overall a decent business product that ticked most of the boxes. Once they refit the 747’s with the fully flat seats to bring them in line with the A380 this will be a much better experience.

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