How Good is British Airways’ New Club World and Club Europe Dining?

July 20, 2019July 20, 2019 ~ j ~ Leave a comment

In my last post, I talked about my experience with British Airways’ Club World and Club Europe hard product. To my surprise, I found that the seats weren’t quite as bad as most people have made it out to be. With that in mind, I wanted to follow up on that post by sharing some of my thoughts about British Airways’ new Club World and Club Europe soft product offerings, especially considering the recent upgrades that have been made.

British Airways Boeing 777-200ER Club World Cabin

Last year, British Airways rolled out a new service style for their Club World cabins, which was created in collaboration with Do&Co. While the service initially included an elaborate trolley service, this was cut back in favour of a simpler hand-delivered tray service for convenience. In the meantime, British Airways have also rolled out improvements to their Club Europe dining. Having heard quite good things about both of these meal service enhancements, I was excited to give it a go for myself.

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Review: Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo

July 18, 2019July 18, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Introduction: Revisiting Tokyo…Twice
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong
Japan Airlines 777-200 Business Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
A Tale Of Two Observation Decks: Tokyo Haneda vs. Narita
Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo
Scoot 787 ScootBiz Tokyo to Taipei
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific A330 Economy Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific 777 Economy Class Tokyo to Hong Kong

I’m glad I manage to do what I do on this site, which is review a bunch of airlines and hotels from a well-informed perspective. I always aim to fly new airlines and stay at new properties whenever I’m presented with the need (or the opportunity), and have been fortunate to fly a variety of new airline products and stay at a variety of hotels over the past few years.

This wasn’t always the case. My parents love Japan, and as a kid we would always fly to Sapporo for a ski trip during the winter and visit Tokyo during the summer, using the miles Dad earned for his business trips to redeem flights on Cathay Pacific. During our Tokyo visits, we’d always stay at the Century Southern Tower, as it was affordable, had a great location, and had a room that could accommodate all four of us. I learned a lot about hotels from this place, and after so many years of writing, I thought it was “unfinished business” that I hadn’t written a review of this place. So we booked a twin room at the Century Southern Tower for ~HK$1,900 a night (our first three nights cost HK$1,800, whereas the last night cost more), and rolled up to the hotel at around 10:30 PM after our flight on Japan Airlines.

The Hotel Century Southern Tower takes up the top 15 floors of the Odakyu Southern Tower, which is a minute away from Shinjuku station, near the New South Exit. It’s accessible through a large pedestrian street called the Shinjuku Southern Terrace, which is a really nice walkway (on a nice day).

Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo

Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo Entrance

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British Airways’ Club World Seat Is NOT THAT BAD!

July 16, 2019July 19, 2019 ~ j ~ Leave a comment

British Airways’ “Club” business class cabins are some of the most extensively reviewed products out there, and the consensus seems pretty simple: it’s not that great. The current “dorm-style” Club World cabin has been panned by everyone and their mother and their Club Europe product is little more than an economy seat with a blocked middle seat and free food.

British Airways Boeing 777-200ER Club World Cabin

However, on a recent trip, British Airways offered some really compelling fares to Europe from Bangkok, so I decided to bite the bullet and try the product out for myself to see how the product fared, especially when compared to some more highly regarded competitors such as Cathay Pacific and Finnair.

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A Tale Of Two Observation Decks: Tokyo Haneda vs. Narita

July 12, 2019July 12, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Airports are exciting places. Sometimes it’s fun to gaze at airport terminals and wonder about how everyone you see will be scattered all around the world by this time tomorrow. Sometimes it’s fun to watch departures boards, looking at all the places you’re literally a plane ride away from. But as an aviation geek, one of the things that’s been nearest and dearest to my heart is watching planes roll by the tarmac, wondering where they’ve been yesterday and where they’ve been tomorrow.

Most cities have one large airport. Tokyo houses two. I prefer one airport to the other in almost every regard, though both of them feature outdoor observation decks, which is what I wanted to dedicate a separate post to.

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Review: Japan Airlines 777-200 Business Class Hong Kong to Tokyo

July 4, 2019July 4, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

After briefly checking out a couple of lounges, it was time to fly to Tokyo in Japan Airlines’ business class. We were able to see our 777 from the Qantas lounge, since we were departing from gate 6. Since I wanted to be first onboard and people were starting to line up just as I reached the gate, I didn’t get the opportunity to take a great photo of the plane from the gate, however.

Japan Airlines Boeing 777-200 Hong Kong Airport

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FINALLY: Cathay Pacific Adds Much Needed Long-Haul Business Class Amenities

June 24, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ 2 Comments

Cathay Pacific has a business class product that I find incredibly solid. Now that Cathay Pacific is installing WiFi onto a majority of their fleet, I actually find their premium cabins a very pleasant way to fly. Their A350 business class is currently my favourite business class seat out there – the sleeping surface is maximised, the storage is done right, and reverse herringbone seats are incredibly pleasant to start with.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 Business Class Bed

Unfortunately as of now they don’t exactly have the amenities to match. While Cathay Pacific has a decent pillow and blanket on longhaul flights, I find some of the basics to be lacking. One of the most annoying things about Cathay Pacific amenities is that they provide socks…and no slippers. Who wants to be walking towards an airplane bathroom in socks, soaking up all the…nevermind.

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Review: Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong

June 21, 2019June 21, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Introduction: Revisiting Tokyo…Twice
Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong
Japan Airlines 777-200 Business Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
Hotel Century Southern Tower Tokyo
Scoot 787 ScootBiz Tokyo to Taipei
Cathay Pacific A350-1000 Business Class Taipei to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific A330 Economy Class Hong Kong to Tokyo
Cathay Pacific 777 Economy Class Tokyo to Hong Kong

In 2015, Cathay Pacific opened a couple of lounges under a brand new design, which they created in partnership with London-based design brand Studiolise. While many newer lounges worldwide have upped their game recently, I don’t think any lounges have been as widely appraised as Cathay Pacific’s since this partnership started. In 2016, Cathay Pacific opened The Pier’s business class section at Hong Kong Airport, which serves as their flagship lounge alongside the adjacent First Class section. I had the chance to visit The Pier shortly after it opened, and it continues to be one of my favourite lounges today.

The same year they closed the G16 lounge, a lounge that used to belong to Dragonair but was redundant now that Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon shared the same lounge access policies, for renovation. I visited the lounge shortly before it closed, and yeah, it was a bit of a dump. In March 2018 the lounge reopened as The Deck, which was their second lounge in Hong Kong designed under the same ethos.

The lounge is located by gate 6 (Hong Kong Airport changed their gate numbers slightly – gates 15 to 22 have become gates 5 to 12, as they’re building a footbridge to the North Satellite Concourse and renumbering gates 501-510 as gates 13-22), where signage leads passengers up an escalator and into a slick matte-finished entrance.

Cathay Pacific The Deck Lounge Hong Kong Entrance

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Introduction: Revisiting Tokyo…Twice

June 21, 2019June 21, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Before I start this trip report, I’m fully aware that I never managed to finish my Bangkok trip report. I’ll get back to that, but now that I’m back in somewhat of a trip report writing slump, I wanted to write about something that I like writing about – flying. (While there’s a flight report I’ve yet to write in the Bangkok series, I’d still like to document my time at the Siam Kempinski Bangkok – which takes a while.)

The inspiration for the trip began when I was looking at a short excursion abroad using expiring Asia Miles after my exams. I’m trying to make a switchover to American AAdvantage (which has been a complete PITA, though I’m finding a few workarounds as of late), so I’m trying to use Asia Miles to fly premium products that I otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to. One of the airlines I’ve really wanted to fly is Japan Airlines, so I found some award space between Hong Kong and Tokyo Haneda. I haven’t been to Tokyo since 2010, so it seemed like a good time to revisit a city I remember loving. (They also had award space on a morning flight to Tokyo Narita, which I would’ve otherwise preferred, though flying their reverse herringbone product seemed more exciting than flying their last-generation angled flat product.) This cost 30,000 Asia Miles per person.

Japan Airlines Boeing 777 Business Class

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What Is Cathay Pacific’s 10-Abreast 777 Economy Class Like?

June 17, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Ah, finally. After so many speculative posts, the time had come for me to try out Cathay Pacific’s 10-abreast economy class configuration. Boeing 777s were created so they could fit 9 economy seats across one row, though the norm for airline gradually shifted to cramming in an extra seat in order to maximise capacity. Cathay Pacific decided to jump onto the bandwagon in 2017, while the first aircraft with narrower seats started flying in April 2018.

I’ve been very critical of Cathay Pacific’s decision to switch their comfortable economy seats, which I found one of the world’s best, to these seats. I was convinced that even disregarding width, they wouldn’t be as comfortable. So I was intentional to book myself a flight in these seats on a recent trip to Tokyo, so I could personally see what the seats were like.

Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 Tokyo Narita Airport

Generally I consider myself to predict the quality of a hard product very accurately. I’ve been blogging in the aviation industry for 6+ years, and I’m also an aspiring engineer. The least I could do is accurately predict how comfortable a seat will be, right?

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What Is Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 Business Class Like?

June 11, 2019 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

I’m home for a little bit after a nice trip to Tokyo. My relax time is cut short since I’m flying back to Tokyo to spend some time with a group of friends tomorrow (yes, this is the coveted graduation trip), though I had commitments in the area today.

One of the main reasons I went to Tokyo was to review Japan Airlines’ 777 business class and Scoot’s 787 ScootBiz, though once space opened up I jumped on the opportunity to fly Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000 business class from Taipei to Hong Kong. I used 1,000 Asia Miles to change my flight (from a 777-300), and flew the hourlong flight last night.

Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-1000 Hong Kong Airport

So how was my experience in Cathay Pacific’s A350-1000? Surprisingly, it was excellent, and easily the best out of the three flights I’d taken on this trip.

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