Perth to London with Qatar Airways

At the last minute I decided to attend my cousin’s wedding in the UK so set about finding a flight. It would be the third time in the UK this year, so maybe after this I might have some points! Qatar Airways have the reputation for having the best economy class and they also have a small upper deck in economy, of course for additional cost. Still because it was short notice and high season it was expensive.

Booking a flexible ticket rather than just the basic enabled me to choose my seats at no extra charge. I weighed up the basic with paid chosen seats and the flexible ticket and the flexible ticket came out slightly cheaper.

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Perth to Doha

The flight time is 11 hours and 15 minutes. The upper deck consists of 56 seats with a 2-4-2 seat configuration. When I booked my ticket all the 2 seats had already been taken. So I took an aisle seat. I thought I had struck lucky with the only spare seat next to me, just as the announcement came that all passengers had now boarded, a lady appeared dressed in flowing black robes and took that seat. As she settled herself in I watched in astonishment as she proceeded to get into the lotus position, contorting herself in the process. She managed one leg. Throughout the flight though she tried on several occasions to raise the other leg. The man behind me was over 6ft and built like a rugby player and it seemed he couldn’t fold his tray without banging it roughly into the back of my seat.

Front and back views of the upper deck. Courtesy of Business Traveller

The service is exemplary and the meals and drinks are served quickly and efficiently. I suppose the cons of this deck would be that you cannot walk far, so there isn’t much space to wander around to stretch your legs.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to sleep very much due to catching yet another cold the same day.

Doha to London

I had just over two hours in Doha before the next flight, so once I had cleared transit I looked around for somewhere to have a much needed coffee. I settled on Harrod’s Tea Rooms and was happy I did. After a great coffee and a healthy bowl of porridge I felt revived.

Above is the famous Golden/Yellow Bear at Hammad International Airport, Doha.

A few facts about this famous bear. The big yellow teddy bear is known as “Untitled (Lamp/Bear),” and it was designed by Swiss contemporary artist Urs Fischer. The teddy bear is 23 feet tall and weighs 35,000 pounds, as it is sculpted from bronze.
This is the same teddy that used to be displayed in front of the Seagram Building on New York’s Park Avenue, but was bought by a member of Qatari royal family for almost $ 7 million. Source: Afar.Com

Boarding time was soon here and this flight takes 7 hours 15 minutes. I was hoping to get more sleep on this flight and was soon dozing off just after takeoff, only to be rudely awakened by someone’s foot poking my arm! I turned around and saw the girl behind me had her feet on both my armrests. I didn’t say anything at first, but after being poked for the third time I did have to ask her to remove her feet.

You would think with a smaller deck it would be quieter, but no. Across the aisle there was a father travelling alone with his four children, I would say ten and under. Oh boy did they yell and shout, at one point I woke up to see half the other passengers all looking. Absolutely no control. He was up and down the whole flight taking turns to sit with each child.

Out of all the airlines I feel Qatar is the best, especially if you can obtain a seat on the upper deck. Ease of check-in, boarding and retrieving luggage is smooth and efficient. Of course if you can manage business class all the better!

~ Packing our suitcases and flying to Malaysia! ~

We’ve finally booked our next trip and tomorrow we fly to Malaysia. We have the same old conversation every time we travel, what suitcases shall we take. Not that we have many! We recently bought a new one in the UK, average price, the handle broke when Anthony picked it up from the conveyor belt. Every time we do travel my dear husband asks the same question “can I share your suitcase?” “Sure” I reply “if you are planning on just a change of underwear”. So he has to resort to packing his own case. He always manages to surprise me though as his suitcase appears to be some sort of tardis, there seems to be an enormous pile of clothes going in. The suitcase pictured is not mine or his!

A couple of years ago a friend bought me some travel pouches and I’ve used these ever since. They come in different sizes and I can find everything easily, instead of rifling through and upending clothes to find a particular top. My shoes are covered by the disposable shower caps that you get free in hotels, although as we haven’t stayed in any hotels recently my stock has dwindled.

How about you, are you a roller or a stacker? Do you use travel pouches? Do you take just enough clothes or like me take a different outfit for every day!

My two bags for the plane, one for my laptop, iPad and scarf/cardigan and my Hedgren security bag for passports, credit cards and phone. Nothing can be scanned through this!

Before we get to the packing stage though we have the debate about how to get there, what airline, the times and most important of all according to Anthony the plane itself. He wanted to go via Singapore from Perth and then travel by bus into Malaysia! I asked him why we couldn’t just fly directly and he said he doesn’t like Malaysian planes. Anyway that’s not happening. We fly directly to Kuala Lumpur for one night on MAS, before departing the next day for Penang.

I researched nearly every hotel on Booking.Com and booked, cancelled and rebooked until I was fairly satisfied. You have to read between the lines somewhat about the reviews!

Do you use Booking.Com or another similar website or go straight to the hotel direct. How about flights, a travel agent or do-it-yourself?

Getting to the airport and going through security is another hassle, especially when we disagree when to leave the house. I am the type of person who likes to get there on time and with time to spare. On the other hand dear husband likes to arrive shortly before take off! His mantra “they won’t leave without us” . Really, I say, are you the pilot then? Security is another problem. When the security officer asks “any tablets, laptops phones etc” he promptly hands over his medicine bag. Then we have the problem of his titanium shoulder, backwards and forwards he goes, then has to be frisked from top to bottom.

Do you arrive with minutes to spare or like to check in early and relax?

I will hopefully be posting regular updates of our travels to Malaysia and any hiccups we experience.

✈️ Have a great weekend ✈️

✈️Flying Foreign Skies again✈️

We finally took the plunge and left Australia behind for a while. It’s been two years since we visited the UK, so on 29th December we departed Perth. What a rigamarole it was though, from booking the flights and having tests and completing forms. I knew of course we would have to have a pre-Covid test before but didn’t realise it had to be pre-booked and pre-paid. So that was the first hurdle.

Next was pre-booking and paying for Covid tests in the UK, writing down reference numbers and filling out the Passenger Locator Application for the UK. Before all this though we had our booster shots and had to download a Covid International Passport. Trying to scan all the QR codes was impossible and we had to wait until we got to the airport.

We flew Scoot to Singapore and then Singapore Airlines to London. Our flight was 9.15 pm and we arrived around 7pm. The flight was less than half full, but we still had to queue for 30 minutes and then stand at the counter for another 30 minutes while all our documents were scanned through. Fortunately our luggage was able to go directly to London. I was told on this flight that I couldn’t wear my cloth mask and had to wear a paper one.

Arriving in Singapore at 2.15 am we had to make our way to another terminal. As the Skytrain was not operating we had at least a 30 minute walk from the plane to the next gate. Good job for travellators! We had a 7 hour layover in Singapore but were able to use the lounge as we were flying business class to London. This was a lifesaver and we both were able to lay down on a settee and had a few hours sleep. One of the ground staff also brought us pillows and duvets.

The next leg of our journey was wonderful with such “first class” attention from the staff. Our section of the cabin was empty apart from us and I think the cabin crew were bored. We could have walked off the plane sideways from the amount of times we were offered drinks.

I passed the time by reading a great book I had just downloaded and of course sleeping.

Once we disembarked I thought we would have a very long wait at immigration, but from landing and going through the exit was just 30 minutes! Maybe because I had all the correct documents.

We only need to isolate for two days and today sent back our “do it yourself” Covid tests and once we get the results back we are free to roam the outdoors.