This is part 3 of a 3-part report, read part 1 here, or part 2 here.
Flight 4 – Kuala Lumpur to Doha
The return leg of this trip was all booked through Qatar as an open jaw return ticket, this leg flying from Kuala Lumpur to Manchester, via Doha of course. However, the first leg was operated by Malaysia Airlines, not Qatar, which proved an interesting experience.
By now I had my One World Emerald status and I was able to head straight to the first class check in area at Kuala Lumpur airport. Which was closed (well it was midnight and my flight was at 2:50am). It took me some time to find it, they don’t seem to advertise very well that they have a whole row of check-in desks dedicated to first and business class. Anyway, the business class area was open and had very little queue, so I checked in there. Another perk I quite like at KLIA is the passport control has a separate queue line for business class, there was nobody waiting there so I was through straight away. This is a “security at the gate airport”, so after passport control you head to a simple security area where you drop your bag in, they scan it and you walk out (no removing laptops etc), this is just a quick check before you enter the main airside area. After that I headed to the Malaysia Airlines lounge, where I was invited into their First-Class section. This is a very nice lounge with nice seating, and at this time of night it was empty. In the past they used to give you full table service here, but the staff seemed very nonchalant here. I poured my own champagne and found some cheese and biscuits to nibble on, (I had had dinner earlier). I think you can request a full meal and order it and there was a deserted restaurant area, but I didn’t need to eat. Given my flight had no first-class section and I think it was the last flight out, there were not many people in the lounge by the time I left. The only people there like me would have had Emerald status. Eventually it was time to head to my flight, I passed through the security at the gate and was invited to board straight away.
This aircraft with its layout is a reasonably uncommon sight, it’s an A330 with a 1-2-2/1-2-1 business class layout. How does this work? Well, the best thing to do is look at the seat map (see below). As you can see, the ‘A’ seats are simply alternating left and right, so when you lie flat your feet go into a cubby hole the protrudes next to the person in front. The D and G seats also alternate in the same way. But clearly, they had more space for more seats, on the H and K side, so they have 2 seats with 1 behind alternating. These single seats get the nickname of the “throne seat”, you can see why from the photo. Malaysia Airlines pride themselves on their excellent service and I wasn’t disappointed. They were very attentive and always there when you wanted something.
One of the things I’d heard about Malaysia Airlines long haul experience is their signature satay dish. So even though it was approaching 4am, I decided I had try them out. And they were amazing!
After my snack I settled down to sleep, which is where the throne seat becomes a coffin! As the seat lowers down between the two protrusions containing the feet of those behind me, you end up in a long, narrow box. Very little room to move and very hard to bend your legs or draw your knees up. Unless you like sleeping in a straight line, this is not a great seat for sleeping in. I managed to find a position that just about worked for me and I slept. I opted to be woken just before landing, so no more food or drink, I was saving that for the lounge after landing. We landed in Doha the next morning and I headed to the lounge for a shower.
Doha Lounges, again!
This time I decided to explore the lounge options, with my new Emerald Status I wanted to see what I was allowed to do. The rules with Qatar are slightly different to the way British Airways works. They generally have 3 types of lounge; First, Business and Frequent flyer. The First lounge is for people actually flying in first-class, and the business lounge is the same for business class passengers, they do not let frequent flyers in with status, that’s what the frequent flyer lounge was for. So unlike BA where a Gold member gets into a First lounge, here my status only gets me into the frequent flyer lounge. So I headed there to see what it was like. The lovely lady on the front desk said I was of course allowed in, but she said the business lounge was far nicer and as I was in business class I could go there. I headed back to the business lounge and went in for a shower. Just like last time they said “there’s a queue, so you might have to wait”, followed immediately by “please go in”. Once showered I relaxed in the lounge and grabbed some light breakfast while waiting for my final long-haul leg to Manchester.
Flight 6 – Doha to Manchester
I was expecting an old 777 with the old business class seats, which are perfectly fine, but I was pleased to see a last-minute aircraft change to a newer 777 with Q-Suites. I’ve written enough reports about Q-Suite flights now for you to know what to expect. I took some champagne and ordered a very nice steak panini for lunch later on. We landed in Manchester on time, and I had a very hard fall from Qatar Q-Suite luxury to Manchester airport hell!
Manchester airport – never again!
Having arrived at Manchester I then needed to get home. I could have booked the train, but given I was already in the airport I decided just to get a BA flight down to Heathrow to get home easily. I booked my flight with Avios, so it only cost me £1 in cash for a reward flight. I landed at terminal 2 and BA operate from terminal 3, so I collected my rather large bag and started walking over. It turned out to be a very long walk, through lots of overhead tunnels, which all had moving walkways, not one of them working! This made the walk a lot longer and slower, and with my heavy bag I was sweating quite a bit by time I got to T3. The walk was also quite convoluted, sometimes going outside, crossing a road, into T1, through to the other side. Really not well thought out or convenient. They could really use a shuttle to run between terminals. When I arrived, I found the BA check-in area crammed into the corner, part way down a corridor, all very odd. There were two queues, economy and club/exec club members with status. I headed to the club queue and there was quite a wait, mostly because the one person checking people in liked to have a good old chat with everyone about where they were going. It looked like most people on this flight were just starting a much longer trip connecting through Heathrow, which also added to the processing time as they needed to do passport and visa checks. Once I had checked in, I headed to security, being told to use the fast-track lane. This was being guarded by a very officious looking woman, I showed her my boarding pass and she opened the lane for me to pass. It turns out that fast track simply skips the queue to go to the same security machines as everyone else. It looked like total chaos when I got there. There was a guy organising which machines to go to, I seemed to be the only person using fast track and he didn’t seem sure what to do with me. He then directed me to a machine that was off to one side, dedicated for disabled passengers. It was a bit quieter here and I went straight to load my tray with my hand luggage. The machines here are old and my bag was selected for a deeper search. They asked me if I had any accessories in my bag, which I did, so they asked me to remove them. I had Bluetooth headphones and keyboard in my bag. They removed both of these from their cases and scanned them again. Something I’ve never had happen to me on any flight, and if you’ve been reading my reports you know how much I fly. Anyway, I was eventually let go from security and I headed into the very overcrowded airside area, full of holiday makers and hen do’s!
Wasting no time, I bolted for the lounge in the hope of escaping the madness, but I was not going to be in luck. The lounge at Manchester is a public paid for lounge, the “Escape Lounge”, a misleading name. Upon arrival I was asked if I had a booking as it was full, I showed my BA boarding pass and the guy at the desk directed me in. He told me there was a reserved area for BA over behind the glass panels. I found 3 rows of single seats, all facing in the same direction overlooking an atrium of the area below. Really not very inviting or comfortable, and it was full. Luckily someone was just leaving so I grabbed her seat. There was a queue of holiday makers at the bar, desperately trying to start their holiday with free booze, so I avoided that. There was at least a self-serve soft drinks station, next to some hot food. At least I think it was food, looked like bangers and mash that had been left out too long, really not appetising at all. I risked a biscuit and a coke and went to sit in my single seat with all the other people facing the atrium. All very odd. And very loud, the holiday makers in the main part of the lounge were certainly in the holiday spirit. After escaping the escape lounge I headed to my gate. Well, not a gate, more a corridor with a door in it. There were a few seats along the corridor, but basically and entire A321’s supply of people queueing down the length of a corridor. They had at least split business and economy by the door, so I queued on the other side of the door in the other direction down the corridor. Eventually they started boarding, after a long old wait standing around, and they called group 1. Nobody seemed to know what this meant, so I skipped past everyone and got myself onboard.
The final flight
At last, a little civilisation onboard a BA plane. It was a short flight, less than an hour, down to London. I was quite impressed that they managed to serve a full cream tea, with alcohol service to 10 rows of business class in such a short time. They even managed to get second drinks out before landing.
The final insult on this little trip from Manchester was the arrival at T5 Heathrow. Domestic flights tend to park down one end so they can all disembark straight to the first two luggage belts, avoiding passport control. There are some windows at this end and you can see the plane. So I watched them take over half an hour to get the bags off, move them the 50m needed to get to the belt where I was standing.
It was long enough to work out how to complain to Heathrow about how long it takes to get bags. Their answer, by the way, which came back a few days later, was to complain to the airline. I’ve done this before and they said to complain to the airport, joy!
I eventually got my bag, found my taxi and my 6 flights and a train trip was over.
Bottom line
I did this trip from Paris and back to Manchester to test out the ultimate open jaw ticket, and to fly business class for not a lot more cost than a direct premium economy ticket.
It was certainly more time consuming, so if you’re planning to do this, make sure you have the time. Don’t forget if you miss the first flight in a sequence and it’s not the airline’s fault, they may not be able to do much about it, so don’t take any risks. For this trip I would have either planned to arrive in Paris way earlier than needed if it was the same day I was flying or do what I did and go the night before. That way the chances of missing my flight was less. I really liked flying from Paris, it was easy, organised and had a nice lounge.
As for Manchester, well I will do everything I can to avoid that airport. Definitely if I had an offer like this one again, I would take the train home and do anything I can to avoid flying out of there. That said, I have heard that there’s a private terminal you can pay to use, and it’s not too expensive, so next time, maybe something to try.
