Richard Moross Richard Moross

12 Hours in Mumbai

It begins!

Our trip started, as many good trips do, in the British Airways First Class lounge at London Heathrow, waiting for our flight to Mumbai. We were on BA199, a very old 777 with the newish Club Suites for our 9 hour, 4,500 mile flight.

In my opinion the single greatest benefit of One World Emerald (BA Gold) is the use of the First Class check in and dedicated security area at Terminal 5. From arrival at the airport it takes less than 10 minutes to get to the lounge. Unfortunately, once you are there it’s inevitably completely rammed and impossible to get a good seat. Hopefully the (extremely unpopular) shakeup of BA’s Executive Club will drive down the numbers, and drive up the experience.

Our stopover in Mumbai was driven by three reasons. Firstly, Mumbai to Singapore is one of the routes that Singapore Airlines flies its A380s, which feature their First Class Suites. The route is fairly easy to snag a miles ticket and, even if you can’t, it’s one of the cheapest Suites tickets you can buy with cash. A second driver was the fact that Business and First award seats to India on BA are widely available and not too expensive in miles terms. Thirdly, Mumbai is just an incredible foodie city.

We arranged to meet an old friend of ours who runs Greaves, a luxury India tours business. She flew up from Goa, meeting us with a driver at the airport. Our first stop was Soho House Mumbai for a shower, change of clothes, and a bite of lunch. Soho House Mumbai is in an incredible townhouse building, with a sea view gym, a small but beautiful rooftop pool, and a cinema. We had coffee and a light lunch before setting out on our tour.

We had decided to stay in the western suburb of Bandra for the day as it’s close to the airport and we had limited time before our next flight that evening. Our walking tour took us through Ranwar Village, a tiny enclave of charming colonial bungalows and Art Deco townhouses.

From there it was on to second lunch at around five in the afternoon. We headed to Elco Panipuri, stopping outside first to indulge in the their street food puri, which were filled with crushed pistachios and then dunked in tamarind water: a delicious start!

Inside we moved on to Dahi Puri, Pav Bhaji, and finished off with an excellent Kulfi. I especially enjoyed the sweet buttered buns dipped in the rich veggie curry.

After our second lunch we headed to Pali Bhavan, a dimly lit, stylish restaurant. We had a brace of espresso martini’s before tucking in to an early supper. Of special note was the Avocado Bhel which was both creamy and crunchy and uncommon but most welcome combination.

By 9pm it was time to leave for the airport and our overnight flight in Singapore Airlines Suites.

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Richard Moross Richard Moross

132 Hour Reverse-Raw Dog: Mumbai, Singapore, & Hong Kong

I am about to embark on an air miles-powered short trip to Asia with an old friend. In stark contrast to the recent trend of raw-dogging flights, we will be doing the exact opposite: a ‘reverse raw-dog’, where we will be eating and drinking everything on offer, whilst attempting to enjoy every perk of the in flight experience, fighting extreme jet-lag as we go.

The flights were booked over six months ago, using a combination of Avios, KrisFlyer, and AAdvantage miles. We only have a short window for the trip, just 132 hours between the departure of our outbound flight and arrival back in the UK, so we are going to maximise the experience over the 13,600 miles we will travel. Our average speed will be over 100 miles an hour (including time on the ground)!

This trip is very much about the journey and, as we are both air miles nerds and foodies, we designed it around certain premium airline products, both in the air and on the ground, complemented by a plan to try some amazing food whilst exploring the cities we’ll be visiting (briefly).

Our itinerary is as follows - 

(Red eye from London to Mumbai)
Mumbai - 12 hours
(Red eye from Mumbai to Singapore)
Singapore - 24 hours
(Day flight from Singapore to Hong Kong)
Hong Kong - 48 hours
(Evening flight from Hong Kong to Doha)
Doha - 3 hrs
(Red eye from Doha to London)

Of the six nights away, we will be spending three on planes, which would normally suck. However, as we’re using miles for premium cabins, these will be some of the most comfortable beds in the sky.

Our flights are as follows:

Included with these are the airline’s amazing ground experiences, which cover 3 of the world’s best airline lounges: The Private Room in Singapore, The Wing and Pier in Hong Kong, and the Al Safwa lounge in Doha. We plan to explore and enjoy these to the full.

I’ll keep a log of all the best things from along the way. See you on the flip side!

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