While we have truly been able to enjoy some cool places so far on our trip, another highlight has been our flight and lounge experiences. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey! Ok well it’s both. But with most of our long flights behind us, I wanted to share some of our amazing experiences. I booked our flights as a One World Round the World (RTW) ticket (https://www.oneworld.com/round-the-world). One World is the airline alliance that includes, American Airlines, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Qatar, and a bunch of others. Star Alliance (United, Lufthansa, etc) also has a similar option. I think Sky Team (Delta, KLM, Air France) used to have one but they don’t anymore. The One World RTW experience is pretty amazing – we were able to plan out your route and get an idea of cost then call the RTW desk for American and book it. We called and talked to an agent named Kim for around 40 minutes – she helped us get it booked and was just amazing. I think it’s a pretty small office that is specific to this type of ticket so it was a great experience. You can also make date changes at no cost (if you change a city pair it’s $125 change fee – still not bad). We planned out the long/major flights knowing we could fill in the in-between travel (shorter flights, trains, etc) later.
Since I didn’t know where we’d end up flying from, we booked our first flight out of DFW. Qantas has non-stop flights from DFW and LAX to Sydney daily (and I think 1-2 nonstops per day from Honolulu). We chose DFW since it’s an AA hub and centrally located in the US then just booked a pre-positioning flight later to get to DFW (we ultimately ended up flying from Charleston).
The RTW ticket is a pretty deeply discounted ticket so we got business class seats around the world on 5 long-haul flights (plus a couple of shorter flights – Sydney to Queenstown and Cairns to Sydney) for around the cost of a single round trip business class seat between the US and Sydney.
From DFW we were able to use the American Airlines Flagship Lounge (the fancier version of the Admirals Club lounge options). They have some great food and they greet you at the door with champagne. They also have showers and a sleep room (we took advantage of that after a red eye from Vegas to DFW on our way to Tokyo back in 2020).
Part of the reason we chose a Qantas flight (versus an American Airlines flight) to Sydney was that Qantas flies an A380 on the DFW to Sydney route – the A380 is the only double decker plane that currently flies passenger flights (the 747 is mainly a cargo plane these days). We had been on the top deck of the A380 once before (British Airways has some economy seats on the top deck) but had not done business class. The Qantas layout has business class and premium economy on the top deck with first class and regular economy on the bottom deck. Their configuration also has a lounge up front on the top deck. It was such a cool experience – particularly for a 17 hour flight! DFW only has a handful of gates that can accommodate an A380 so unfortunately a delay at the gate next to ours on Finnair caused our flight to be delayed by a couple hours because our plane couldn’t get to our gate. The plane had also been on site since mid-day but they can’t fill it up in the hanger because then it weighs too much to tow to the gate. So they had to fuel up at the gate once we boarded – which took about an hour. But thankfully we got to hang out in our comfy seats while they refueled (and the crew served us champagne while we waited!).
We also got pajamas on this flight (and several other flights for that matter) so we were able to get comfy before we even took off. I also loved the punches for the amenity kits.
They kept the drinks coming then served us a meal after takeoff – despite it being relatively late (dinner around 10pm), it was very good and we had plenty of time to relax afterward. It’s the only flight I’ve ever booked that had a +2 after the date – so not just an overnight flight but we took off the evening of 03 Nov and landed in Sydney the morning of 05 Nov. We basically lost an entire day! Pretty crazy. The seats also had a massage function!
The lounge up front was very cool! Not something either of us had ever experienced so we definitely took full advantage of it. The seats in the lounge even had seatbelts so if you were chilling out and turbulence was coming you could just belt in right there (sorry the video is so dark – the iPhone video could only do so much in that lighting).
Our next couple of flights were within/between Australia and New Zealand. Our flight from Sydney to Queenstown was a relatively short (3 hour) flight in economy but because I have One World Emerald status, we were able to access the Qantas First Lounge in Sydney. And I am now forever ruined for any other lounges!
They have à la carte beverages and food – which they bring to your seat. The breakfast menu was pretty extensive – we got smoked salmon eggs benedict and Chris also tried some Vegemite (I think it’s probably an acquired taste though!).
We got to experience this lounge a 2nd time before our evening flight from Sydney to Tokyo and they had a different menu that night. I particularly enjoyed the affogato with hazelnut liqueur!
The reclining seats with a great view of a bunch of planes (in particular A380s) was very cool. And of course they have the usual showers – but also a spa! Unfortunately we didn’t get to take advantage of the spa on either visit to this lounge so I guess we’ll have to come back!
I particularly loved the old school flight status board! Wish I had taken a video of it changing but it was actually a functional board with current flight status updates.
There were not any lounges in Queenstown when we left there to fly to Auckland (also we were on Jetstar booked outside of the Round the World ticket). When we flew from Auckland to Cairns (our only flight with a connection – in Brisbane), I wasn’t sure what lounges would be available to us since it’s not a Qantas hub. They do have a Qantas lounge but it was closed for renovations – so we got lucky and got to go in the Emirates Lounge instead, which was a treat!
We were delayed a bit leaving Auckland and when we got to Brisbane we had to go through passport control and customs then take a bus over to the domestic terminal for our connection to Cairns. I was a little worried about that connection and it turned out we had tons of time! We even still got to check out the Qantas lounge in Brisbane (not as fancy as the Qantas First lounge but still a nice place to relax!).
After we spent some more time in Sydney, we got to spend a 2nd time in the Qantas First Lounge in Sydney then hopped on our 10 hour overnight flight from Sydney to Haneda (Tokyo) in Qantas Business on an A330. The food and beverages on Qantas are great (and as usual we got champagne once we boarded) and the service was amazing every time. Plus we got another set of Qantas pajamas!
After our time in Japan, we flew out of Narita for our most anticipated flight – Qatar QSuites to Doha! We spent some time in the JAL First Lounge at Narita – it was nice but the Haneda one is nicer (I got to experience that in 2023 after the Tokyo marathon). They have self-serve machines for beer, wine, and sake (and a little machine for hot towels to clean your hands!) and also have an app to order food and to schedule a shower. So of course we took advantage of all of those things!
After we ate and showered, we moved to a different area of the lounge (away from the dining area) and enjoyed the massage chairs!
Eventually it was time to go board our Qatar flight. This was on a 777 – one that had QSuites available. They have a 1-2-1 seating configuration in business class (2 aisles so the 2 in the middle both still have direct aisle access). For the 2 seats in the middle, the forward-facing ones are angled slightly away from each other and the rear-facing ones are close together – for those you can put the divider down all the way and have a mini cabin together that effectively has a queen bed. We picked this type and I was really looking forward to this for our 13 hour overnight flight. Plus very nice pajamas and a Dyptique (https://www.diptyqueparis.com/en_us/) amenity kit.
The food selection was also excellent on Qatar – as was the presentation! My favorite was the Qatari mezzo trio with pita bread. It included hummus, tabouleh, and something called muhammara (a roasted rep pepper dip) – that last one was my favorite! In the morning when we woke up, I had a bit of a sore throat and sounded hoarse – the flight attendant noticed and brought me tea and stem ginger cookies to help me feel better. Qatar service was just top notch!
Once we got into Doha (around 4:30 am) and got through immigration and customs, we realized there was an arrivals lounge where we could freshen up (including taking a shower and changing clothes) and have some coffee before heading over to our hotel. That picture below of the shower room was the individual shower room – not shared! It was huge.
After spending a day and overnight in Doha, we headed back to the Doha airport for our afternoon/evening flight to Frankfurt. The Doha airport is huge and pretty fancy – they even have a garden/orchard! Qatar has 2 business lounges in Doha (Al Mourjan Business Lounges) – one of them overlooks the orchard so we headed to that one (it also happened to be the one closer to our gate).
We had a 6 hour flight that left Doha around 2 pm and got into Frankfurt around 8pm. This one was also in business class (this time on a 787) but since it was evening and not overnight, we just chilled out and watched movies instead of sleeping (although we did still get pajamas to change into!). And of course more excellent food!
Since arriving in the EU, we have been using a mostly trains (and 1 rental car) to get around. Our next long-haul flight will be our one back to the US (London to Dallas on American Airlines). I think we are ruined forever after all those fancy flights and lounges though!
