Flight Report : London Heathrow - Hong Kong

I'm not a big fan of this flight's timing. With a departure at the lunch hour, I cannot sightseeing during the morning anymore. I prefer a night-time departure, arriving in Hong Kong the next afternoon. I have to spend the night on the plane anyway ... might as well make the sacrifice worthwhile.

Qantas flies out of Terminal 4, which meant I had to be a bit more patient with the Piccadilly Line. In the end, I just hopped onto the next train and waited for the Terminal 4 train at Hounslow West. Considering I was only charged £1.1 for this 30-minute trip, Heathrow is definitely the cheapest and fastest airport to reach in London. I saved a fortune from taking the Heathrow Express!

Terminal 4 is a nice facility. It still looks quite new, albeit a little small. There was a line-up at check-in, even though I still had about 2 hours to go. Although the flight was fairly full, I could not mark a Premium Economy seat during on-line check-in, and was not offered a bump either.

Surprise surprise ... 2 big Qantas flights were about to depart next to each other. At this gate, the A380 was being prepared for a Sydney flight, while next to it, my flight to Hong Kong and Melbourne was also being prepared for boarding. Although it seems the air bridges were upgraded, the passenger lounge seems to be forgotten. There was a huge crowd for both flights waiting to board. The small lounge simply could not handle this many people.

I sat at the back, but not near the end where the row of 3 becomes a row of 2. I previously called Qantas to guarantee this window seat. With my window, I continued to enjoy my first encounter with a Qantas A380.

We had to taxi a bit to get to our takeoff position. We waited to cross the southern runway and inched along the line of planes to take off at the north runway towards the west.

Crossing the English Channel, and welcome to the Netherlands!

Breakfast came as we emerged from the night over Russia. I chose the warm breakfast with omlette and sausage. It didn't taste particularly special. The organic yogurt was quite good though.

I liked Qantas' detailed menu though, with times on what will be served. Notice this card not only has the London - Hong Kong flight, but the ongoing Hong Kong - Melbourne flight as well.

We descended into cloudy skies. There wasn't too much to see. I made the gamble to get a left window seat hoping to capture some skyline shots. But we came in from a different direction.

Qantas' service is quite good. There was a lot of food being served, so it was hard to get hungry. I got up once looking for snacks and I was given quite a lot to keep me and my neighbors happy. My only complaints were picky and minor. The in-flight entertainment system didn't work at first, and it had to take a full re-set to get it going. Lunch could have been served a bit earlier in the flight (in an hour after departure) since we left London around lunch already. By the time the carts came it was more like afternoon tea.

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