Virgin upper class

isplumm

Hi,

Have you looked at Cathy Pacific ... we flew with them BC to OZ at the end of 2007 .... on the way back we got the new flat bed ... which was fine, if a little narrow .... be aware thou that is not that good if you have a travelling partner, cause you can not actually talk to them, cause of the way the seats are designed .... the food was excellent.

BUT if you are going to Cairns from Hong Kong, well don't bother .... the seats are only slightly bigger than economy .... it is classed as a regional flight (all 8 hours of it), so they use smaller planes .... terrible ... considering that if we had gone into Sydney we would have got proper BC for same price!!! :mad:

Just another point - often Emirates have a sale, where you can get a companion fare for very little ...

Mark

marksoton

Cheers all. As i expected a very mixed bag of opinions !

I am inclined to give Virgin the benefit of the doubt as the flight times suit me best. Also the varying quality on other carriers depending on plane type is a bit off putting.

Lets hope it proves the right choice, if not beardy Branson will be getting a letter

stoneman

marksoton wrote: »

Lets hope it proves the right choice, if not beardy Branson will be getting a letter

Don't hold your breath on that one, they have some of the worst CS I have come accross.

omelette451

If Virgin is the cheapest then really it's a no-brainer. The others you mentioned are good, but not worth spending extra on.

barney2201

Are you going direct or stopping off enroute?

If you fly with Singapore you have the option of using an air side hotel in Singapore Airport when waiting for a connecting flight. You can rent rooms in 3 hour blocks (I think!) there is a roof top swimming pool and restaurant. Really breaks the trip if you have a 4 hour wait, and helps to freshen you up.

I have flown business on Singapore and Emirates plus Upper on VS. In my view Singapore was excellent, espcially with the new A380's, even the older planes all have excellent lie flat beds. As previous poster commented Emirates are good if you can get the new planes, they are currently upgrading there fleet to the new A380's therefore the older planes are seriously showing their age.

Virgin is good if it's the right price. Yes you do feel like you are in coffin with their herringbone seat layout, and the food and wine is ok but not amazing. Again a mixed fleet of older and newer planes. Check out flyer talk for whats operating on the route at the moment.

I think you can safely say which ever airline you opt for it will be 100 times better than cattle class.

blindman

marksoton wrote: »

Cheers all. As i expected a very mixed bag of opinions !

I am inclined to give Virgin the benefit of the doubt as the flight times suit me best. Also the varying quality on other carriers depending on plane type is a bit off putting.

Lets hope it proves the right choice, if not beardy Branson will be getting a letter

Don't forget to go through Quidco!

Sign up to their FF too as this journey will get some serious miles!

snaffs

I agree with the comments re Emirates.
Flew first class (upgraded!) for one leg on one of the older aircraft and while the service was excellent the seats were just big recliners, no lay-flat beds at all.
Flew business on the way back on one of their newer planes and had the lay-flat, massage beds.
Whilst I managed to tick off one of my 'to-do' list by flying first class, I couldn't sleep properly and was much more comfortable in the new business seats.

marksoton

Well i bit the bullet and parted with a substantial amount of money and went with Virgin.:eek:

Booked on the website and got a call back within 2 minutes ! I managed to get a 2 day stopover in Hong Kong on the way back so will get more time in the lounges

Question is how long before the flight are you allowed to check in and go in the lounge ? It's not that i want to bleed them dry for my moneys worth more just interested because of checking out of hotels etc.

Also has anyone else found their hotel booking service very overpriced ? I Managed to get the same room direct from the hotel for 30% less !

Cheers all :beer:

stoneman

marksoton wrote: »

Well i bit the bullet and parted with a substantial amount of money and went with Virgin.:eek:

Booked on the website and got a call back within 2 minutes ! I managed to get a 2 day stopover in Hong Kong on the way back so will get more time in the lounges

Question is how long before the flight are you allowed to check in and go in the lounge ? It's not that i want to bleed them dry for my moneys worth more just interested because of checking out of hotels etc.

Also has anyone else found their hotel booking service very overpriced ? I Managed to get the same room direct from the hotel for 30% less !

Cheers all :beer:

You can check-in 24 hours before departure on-line. The LHR clubhouse opens at 7am. We get there for about 5 past, don't want to be seen as too keen!! Usually 4 hours is suffisiant to fill up and have a treatment. Don't forget to book your treatments in advance, they get full up pretty quick. AFAIK you can book up to 8 weeks in advance

pennylane99

I think I got to the HK Clubhouse about 3 hours before the flight, obviously its no where near as good as the LHR one

theres a video on youtube which shows around the HK CH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keepfv5264U