Hong Kong Long Weekend – Savy’s excellent adventure.

(Victoria Harbour at night)

A short prelude if I may.

A 5 day long weekend does not happen too often in Australia. This is because we have a national holiday Anzac Day on the 25th to remember the soldiers of Aus and NZ that died at Gallipoli in WW1. An extra day was added to the Easter break this year.

As my points balance had been building up, ideas for a short trip began to form. My first find was an F saver award seat from Singapore to Auckland. I ended up booking this flight and ringing SQ to apply for an Air New Zealand award to get back to Brisbane. As I wanted to fly at the end of the Easter break, there were no award bookings to get me home. I cancelled that flight (S$38) and started again.

Next I found an F saver award seat - Singapore to Melbourne. The other flight to Singapore looked fine so I booked that flight. I then noticed that there was an F saver award seat available from Hong Kong to Singapore earlier that day (Hong Kong to Melbourne being the same points.) I rang the SQ Sydney office and asked for this leg to be added to my first flight. After talks with the supervisor they said no. I then cancelled the flight to Melbourne (another S$38 fee) and booked the flight online Hong Kong – Singapore – Melbourne.

The final step was to sure up the flight to Hong Kong, there is no first class available out of Brisbane. I got my flight sorted, but noticed that there was a business class saver award seat on an A380 available for Singapore to Hong Kong. I could not link the 2 segments up on the web page so I rang SQ Sydney again and after a bit of discussion, I was allowed to change to the A380 without losing my 15% online booking discount.

So I was going to do quite a bit of comparison of the SQ offer.

BNE – SIN Air Bus 330 Business Class
SIN – HKG Air Bus 380 Business Class Total 38250 points

HKG – SIN Boeing 777-300 ER First Class
SIN – MEL Boeing 747-400 First Class Total 59500 points

A few more points were needed to get me down to Brisbane, and then on return
from Melbourne up the coast to Central Queensland.

I have stayed at Langham Place twice before and feel at home there. The fact that they were having a suite deal for Easter, pay for 2 nights and get 1 free made the choice of accommodation a few minutes work.

More on the flights and holiday soon.

 

A good start Savy, did you take the photograph?

 

Yes, and to get that you need a steady hand to move across. Quite surprised as I had indulged in quite a bit of the amber fluid over the course of that day

 

An interesting start to this journey, I had to depart my home base at 5.30pm to catch a flight to Brisbane. At 4.55pm a truck pulled up outside my place of work and started to unload a stock order. This truck normally arrives at 9.30am but things must have been a bit hectic given the short week. All stock was confirmed and signed off by 5.15pm leaving me 15 minutes to shower, change and check I had everything.

The flight from Brisbane seems to be a contracted one. Alliance Airlines acting for Q Link (QANTAS) two rows of three seats and quite comfortable. Chatted to a friendly Englishman who migrated here many years ago and now gets checked on his Aussie accent when he goes back home. He sounded entirely English to me but there must be something that changed. A beer and a laugh made the flight a good one.

Outside Brisbane domestic the Air Train had finished for the night, and with planes still landing the queue for taxis was stretching out as far as I could see. I wandered down to where some buses were pulled up and found that an inter-airport bus would be along shortly. Indeed it was and after paying $5 I got to Brisbane International without delay.

With my luggage checked through to Hong Kong, I breezed through customs and walked past all shops and straight into the SQ lounge.




As people were arriving for the next SQ flight there was a flurry of activity to get the food offerings up and running. I had my first Tiger Beer then served myself up some Moroccan lamb. This was a good match for the beer, and soon more was needed.




My first visit to a Lounge since I joined MP and it was fun to sit back and have a few drinks while posting to you all. I ended up having 4 tiger beers and it was time to board.




SQ A330

My seat was front row, middle right. These are quite comfortable, but I do find the angled position when sleeping a bit of a drag.

 

LOL I was expecting you pay the S$38 fee for your third change

 

It's the amber fluid that steadied the hand

Good start to the report savy

 

all worries about those mistakes and the fees were forgotten when the Dom started flowing

 

The quality of trip reports has been excellent this week

 

yes, yours was great when I was travelling. I read it again today on my big monitor just to see the pictures in all their glory.

 

I settled in and enjoyed my first glass of champagne. This is an overnight flight and book the cook is not available. I normally select a seafood meal, but this time I ordered off the menu.




Nasi Lemak a spicy Malay dish which I enjoyed. I am not a great fan of breakfasts on the plane, so I normally take my meal straight away, then movie and drinks until I feel like having a sleep.




I had 3 glasses of champagne before making the switch to cocktails. First up was the
Silver Kris Sling which packs quite a punch.




This was followed by a Singapore Sling. By this stage the cabin was in darkness so I had to make use of the attendant button. No trouble and as I watched the movie I ordered 3 Sky Highs which gave me a pretty good buzz. I got about 4 hours sleep before landing in Singapore.

 

Some info on those drinks - With thanks to w.baermann of TOBB

Silver Kris Sling: One of Singapore Airlines’ special touches, this cocktail is a delicious mix of gin, Cointreau, orange juice and pineapple juice, topped with champagne.

SQ Singapore Sling: A famous cocktail since the early 1900s, made from dry gin, DOM Benedictine, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Angosture bitters, Grenadine, lime and pineapple juice.

Skyhigh: An invigorating recipe featuring vodka, Cointreau and lemon, topped with 7-Up

 

Terminal 3 Singapore Airport.




I felt all of those drinks the next morning as I sat in the Silver Kris Lounge and had a
couple of coffees.







I saw a batch of omelettes being put out and grabbed myself one along with a spicy rice dish that had some baby shrimp mixed through it. The shrimp dish was a bit much at 6am so gave up on it soon after beginning. The omelette and coffee were good and I also had 2 small bread and butter pudding slices.



With about an hour to go till boarding, I headed off to the showers as is my ritual. I pack one change of clothes in my carry-on and using an eagle creek folder makes the space it takes up next to nothing.




Showers in the T3 Silver Kris Lounge – Watch your step though.

 

I felt pretty good after the shower and headed out the door to catch my flight. I gave the lounge dragons a big smile, as I would be back to negotiate entry into The Private Room in a few days time.




Soon the time came to board the A380 very big bird.








A380 and A330 side by side



Business is seated upstairs, so you are quite separated from reality. I did see that the suite passengers had their own entry door lucky people. We had delays but finally got going takeoff was smooth and it was really quiet in air, improvement on most planes.

My seat was wide, so wide they give you a padded rectangle the same as your seat, so you can choose where you want to rest your arm. The seat could be adjusted into a very comfortable set up for relaxing and watching a movie. It did not go all the way back, so I am not sure if this was set-up for the Hong Kong route or whether the FA does something further. As it was morning, I didn't want it flat anyway.

 

That is all for tonight. We might actually get to Hong Kong tomorrow. Good night to all

 

Thanks savy. I enjoyed the trip report. I look forward to the next installment.

 

Wow nice report SD!

 

I enjoyed reading your report so far, Savy.

The seat on the 380 looks HUGE!!!

 

Thanks for the report. The pictures are good.

 

Great start...good pics

You went check-in for the long weekend ??

 

dog brush, dog bowl, dog blanket, dog house...it all adds up

 

Thank you for the report.

Is KF Saver inventory the same as *A partner inventory, or do KF members get preferential treatment? Because I have a pile of US miles I'd like to use to get to Australia someday, and having SQ A388s and 77Ws be options would be nice...

 

Great TR so far. I'm looking forward to the next installments.

 

Thank you for the nice report so far.
Just for clarification, yes, the seat in A380 is only can recline that far in seating position. So, it's nothing to do with HKG route.
If you want it flat as a bed, you need to (or you can ask FA) set it up as a bed. You pull down the back seat where the head cover is. The comforter and pillow usually are located in the area behind your back seat. (You see the gap in the picture).

 

Great read and pics, you're certainly making it sound like good fun

 

Hi Savy Looks like an awesome time. I can't wait to see the rest of your trip pics.