Royal Brunei Airlines is a small boutique airline based in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. They only have 14 aircraft, yet are known, at least in Australian frequent flyer circles, for a few key reasons: -- Flying from Melbourne to London (their only two long haul destinations) on Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft with fully flat seating;…
Continue reading: Royal Brunei (Re)Launching Flights To Brisbane
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I used to fly RBA as a kid when my father worked in Brunei, mostly between Bandar and Singapore/Bangkok. Back in the 90s I think they had 2 757s and 2 767s. With a population around 400,000 (up to a quarter expats), it's tough to fill planes to far away places like BNE and LHR with just the residents; you'll have to cater to connecting traffic.
I live the addition of you, James, to the team; but a look at the majority of your recent posts makes the primary source of your information (AusBT.com.au) a bit too obvious...
What is a 'boutique airline'? You and Lucky have called both BI and WY this when they are just the main airlines of their home small sized countires. By extension is e.g. LG, WB and TA also 'boutique airlines' as they are all the main airlines of their small sized countires?
I have back in 2000 on a 767. Their first class seats and lavatory were lavish where they had actual gold used in arm rest and washroom sink/knobs. I "only" flew business class on that flight but the crew was lovely and pro-actively offered a refill of bottled sparkling juice and the food was lovely.
Has anyone recently used Asia Miles to fly Royal Brunei? It appears that this is theoretically possible, but there is not a ton of information online, see e.g.
https://onemileatatime.com/not-earning-miles-for-flight/
https://upgradedpoints.com/how-to-redeem-cathay-pacific-asia-miles/
Royal Brunei and Asia Miles websites both pretty useless for answering this question
@ deepyarn
I answered my own question. I called Asia Miles support and got a helpful agent. She told me it is possible to use Asia Miles on Royal Brunei (unfortunately there was no availability for the dates I wanted).
Being based in MEL, I’ve flown them quite a few times, both to Asia and London. I actually always enjoyed the extra stop in DXB on the way to London - i found breaking it up into three sectors made the trip manageable. Relax on the MEL-BWN sector (~6.5 hours), sleep on the BWN-DXB sector (8 hours), see how I felt on the DXB-LHR sector. Always competitive fares in business out of MEL, and a totally respectable product (aside from the “dry” aspect).. just wish BWN was a little more suited for the 2-3 hour layovers each way (but it’s getting better).
Just one small edit to your post James, MEL and LHR are not the only long haul destinations for BI. They still fly to DXB and to JED.
Glad BI are coming back to BNE. Flew them in economy over 10 years ago as a uni student, when they operated the 767 to BNE. Excellent crew and I still remember how excellent the food was, even in Y. Since then, have flown them ex-MEL, still very good. Unfortunately, while I now fly premium I wouldn't fly BI ex-BNE, that business seat is just not competitive and the lack of comfort isn't worth the savings given those flight times. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Philippine Airlines uses a narrowbody ex-BNE with proper flatbed.
Thanks to the poster for clarifying about Asia Miles. Is it still possible to fly BI and credit mileage to Asia Miles?
Their A320neos have new seats that all feature inflight entertainment and wifi. As such, the flight experience is fine.
That's the first time I've ever seen them described as a "boutique" airline! You do realise boutique doesn't just mean small?
"I didn’t actually know this, but..."
Strange way of writing a blog post... so all the rest of your posts contain information that was already in your knowledge?
I'd encourage you to research all of your articles properly. You don't need to preface a fact this way - the reader doesn't care whether you were previously aware of something or not. Only that the information is accurate.