I had to fly back to London in July and ended up booking an Oasis flight. The main reason was they had the business class 2 for 1 offer. My ticket came out to HK$24k with a free ticket. I ended up transferring that to someone else. I thought it would just be a straight transfer, but found out that there was extra tax on the second ticket. Therefore the total price of two tickets was around HK$26k (HK$13k a ticket), which, especially after flying with Oasis, thought that was very good value.
I had problems booking my ticket online (it wouldn’t accept my credit card). In any case I was able to book over the phone. Very efficient service, no issues. Once I had my booking ref I was able to go online and choose my seat (top deck for both flights). I was not able to select meal choice (I needed to book a special meal) but was able to call up and sort that out. Was charged HK$150 for my vegetarian meals for my two flights.
I was able to check in online for my flight. Thought it was 24 hours in advance, but in fact can check in 72 hours in advance. By the time I checked in, all seats were taken. Luckily I had already pre-selected 15H on the top deck.
Day of flight I checked in using In Town check in where I was given my boarding pass and my lounge invitation. I then to airport express to HKG.
HKG now has two terminals. T2 is used by Oasis and Emirates and everyone else uses T1. T2 is only for check in. It’s a HUGE terminal with lots of shops and facilities, but very quiet as there are only two airlines that use it (one flying just to BKK and DXB and the other flying to LGW and YVR) therefore its not that busy. Anyway I digress slightly. The point is that for departures the airlines still use the main terminal. So what this means is one checks in at T2, goes through security and then has to take a train (and maybe another one) to the main terminal. The total time of doing this is about 20 – 40 minutes.
Now as I already had my boarding pass, there was no point of me going to T2 and I was able to deal with security at T1 (I still don’t know the point of having T2 if people are able to bypass T2 all together like I did). T1 security was very quiet, so I was through security in about 5 minutes.
I had arrived to the airport about 3 hours before the flight, so I had plenty of time to kill. First thing I did was go to the BA lounge. There I had some food and a shower. Spent about an hour there. I then went to do a bit of shopping and got myself a complimentary back massage thanks to my Citibank Cathay card.
I then proceeded to the CNAC lounge near gate 16 (the lounge Oasis use). It is a very spacious lounge overlooking gate 16. However it felt a tiny bit sterile, unlike the BA lounge, which while smaller felt much more comfortable. However there was a decent food selection including warm food (pasta and noodles) along with a decent drink selection. There was also free wifi (password provided at the front desk). The lounge also had several computers and a quite section with loungers. In all a decent lounge.
The flight was slightly delayed and we were eventually called to board. Seemed as though it was a full flight but there was a separate line for biz pax. Anyway proceeded to board. Entered the plane at the front of the plane. There the front section was also biz seats. However there was LOTS of room up at the front of the plane near the nose (I’m thinking about trying to get a seat at the front of the plane for my return flight).
I went up to the top deck to get to my seat. The overhead bin was too small for my roll bag, so the FA took it away and put it in the closet. The FA’s were also taking peoples coats to store. Up top the configuration was 2-2 and there were about 20 seats. The window seats had a little bin to put your stuff in. Row 14 was the exit seat row, I think for future I would try and get a window seat in row 14.
The seats themselves were very large, comfortable and spacious. They were cradle seats, and while not fully flat they did recline to about 60%. The room, even after the person in front of me had reclined, was plenty. The cabin was very clean, if slightly dated. The seat electronics were also a tiny bit worn. The IFE was a pretty small 7 inch screen and was stowed in the arm rest.
Oasis provided headsets and the FA’s walked around offering eye mask, socks and ear plugs. Along with a blanket, that was it in terms of amenities. Oasis now have an in-flight magazine, which isn’t all that bad.
Once boarded the FA came round offering water or OJ and hot towels. We then had the safety brief. This was by way of a pull down screen at the front of the plane. Because of the size of the seats, I couldn’t see the briefing at all!!
Once we took off the FA’s came round offering champagne (I think it was Piper Heidsieck Brut reserve). I also got some veggie canapés with my champers. Pretty tasty actually (but cannot remember what they were). Dinner came shortly after that. Everyone else had a choice of a western or Chinese meal. I got my veggie meal which was a pasta. There was also a salad, some buns and a dessert. The food was fine, nothing worse than other airline food in econ. The food was laid out on a try and everything was already opened (I suspect in econ you would have to open everything up). Wine and other booze was offered, but I declined.
I sat down to watch a movie while I ate dinner. The IFE on Oasis is pretty limited. In econ I think there is a choice of 16 video channels and in Biz its three extra. The mix of channels are a few western movies, a few Chinese movies and a few generic channels. The extra biz channels had some more recent movies. I watched Last King of Scotland. After the movie was over I put the seat the full recline, but my MP3 player on and fell asleep.
I awoke to the smell of airline breakfast and daylight outside. I think I got just over 8 hours pretty much solid sleep. Breakfast was served about 2 hours before our arrival. For me it was omelette and mushrooms and hot muffins and croissant along with some fruit and yoghurt. For everyone else there was a choice Western and Chinese breakfast.
We landed about 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival time. There was a five minute delay while they had problems trying connect something (I wasn’t paying attention). Biz pax disembarked first.
Made it to immigration in about 5 mins. Seemed quite a few flights had arrived at the same time, so this would mean a chav charter scrum (Gatwick South is the airport gateway for the chav masses). However BAA were surprisingly efficient and had all their counters open and ready for the scrum. Luckily I was able to use IRIS, so breezed through.
The baggage hall was packed, and there were no spare trolleys to be found (I eventually found them at in corner, the other side of the hall from the Oasis belt). Anyway the belt had already started by the time I had arrived there and baggage came shortly afterwards (very very surprised at the efficiency of BAA on this point). My bag was priority tagged, however it seemed econ bags were arriving before the biz pax bags. Saying that I didn’t have to wait too long for my bags.
Made it out to the departure lounge to be greeted by the families of the chav masses and a very busy Gatwick South.
Overall a very very good flight on Oasis. The Oasis business class product is very good and extremely competitively priced, I was impressed. A few issues, but overall very happy. One major thing, is that I would have so much liked Oasis to have used the much calmer Gatwick North rather than chav charter heaven (Gatwick South). I am not looking forward to dealing with Gatwick South departures when I fly back to HK.