This is part 2 of a 3-part report, read part 1 here.
Flight 2 – Doha to Singapore
The next flight was an overnight flight on an A350, total flight time 8 hours. Again, I had a Q-Suite, this time 1K. I think you know by now what to expect from a Qatar business flight, and this flight was no different. I decided to eat a full meal, selecting the pasta option, followed by ice cream. All amazing as usual. There are subtle differences between the different aircraft, the A350 version of the Q-suite has a remote which is mostly a handheld touch screen. It lets you do things like check your route whilst still watching a film on the main screen.
The flight was uneventful, after dinner they made up my bed for me while I changed into my “loungewear” as they call their pyjamas. I slept well and woke for a snack breakfast before landing on time at around 9am in Singapore.
Turning Gold
The one important thing for me was this flight with Qatar was going to give me enough tier points to get Gold status with the BA Exec Club (equivalent to One World Emerald, i.e. top level). I should have earned it much earlier due to my previous flights with Cathay, but they still hadn’t awarded me the points (at time of writing I had eventually received these points 3 months later!).
Anyway, this time I got the points from the Qatar flight and BA account flipped over to Gold before I took my next flight to position up to Kuala Lumpur.
Flight 3 – Singapore to Kuala Lumpur
I’d planned to have 4 days off in Singapore to see friends and relax a little before heading to work in Kuala Lumpur. I booked this next flight as a totally separate booking, as for some reason when you include intermediate trips like this on longer trips it gets really expensive. Whereas if you book it directly with the airline as a simple single trip you get a much better price. It’s a 1-hour flight, so I booked a standard economy flight with Malaysia airlines. There are options to fly with budget airlines for a little less or even Singapore Airlines for a lot more. I picked Malaysia for a few reasons; I will never fly budget airlines as part of a big work trip because I usually have large bags, which cost and I need to guarantee my flight and protect against problems, the larger airlines are better at managing that than budget. And of course, I get all my frequent flyer perks with Malaysia Airlines because they are part of One World.
One of the things Malaysia Airlines does is offer a ‘bid to upgrade’ system. Meaning I can put in a bid amount of money to upgrade to business and if they have room they will upgrade me for that amount, the catch being they start with the highest bids first. I did put a low bid in and have been lucky with this in the past, but on this occasion they either had no space, or I was outbid by someone else, so I was flying economy.
After a fun day out in Singapore I headed to Changi Airport for my 7pm flight. Singapore’s main airport (yes there is another), Changi has won multiple awards for being the best airport in the world and I agree with that assessment. I love to wonder around the various things they have to see and do there. If you ever go, check in your luggage and before you go through security head to the shopping centre to experience the Jewel, a giant garden with water falling from the ceiling in the grand central water feature. Once through security there’s koi ponds and a butterfly garden to check out.
I checked in via the business class line thanks to status, where I then experienced something new. They were going to perform a check on my main luggage that I had just checked in. After checking in I was told to go and wait for 5 minutes by a screen. If my name didn’t appear on the screen in 5 minutes I could go. The screen showed a list of names for checking and a security camera where you could see the conveyor belt with the bags going through. I waited 5 minutes and spotted my bag going through, so I headed off to security. Once through, I headed to the lounge. Malaysia airlines have a deal with the SATS Premier lounge, normally a paid for lounge. It’s a pretty standard lounge, nothing special to talk about. There was a small food selection and drinks. I have never tried going to other terminals once airside at this airport, but if it was possible I should in theory be able to visit the Cathay Pacific or BA lounges in other terminals. I was short on time, so I didn’t try any exploring on this occasion.
This flight was on a 737-800, with my status I boarded early, which gave me a good look at the cabin. It looks like they’ve recently refurbished these as the seats looked very clean and new. A nice blue and white colour scheme throughout. One of the things I like (though wasn’t going to get to try) was they offer proper business class seats on these flights, not economy seats with a tray in the middle like European airlines. My economy seat was well designed with a nice tray to support phones and tablets above the standard tray table for food. They served a snack and a drink during the short flight as well, which was nice.
We landed on time in Kuala Lumpur, and I headed to my hotel to get prepared for my week working here.
