Review of Royal Brunei Airlines flight from Beijing to Bandar Seri Begawan in Economy

A Lesson In Translation

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!

This FR will cover my return journey from Beijing to London via Brunei. This, frankly, is a ridiculous route as I'll be flying 5 hours in the wrong direction before heading to London. However, doing so allows me to fly with Royal Brunei on their longest route. Royal Brunei Airlines is the flag carrier of Brunei and (as of the making of this FR) operates a fleet of 7 A320neos and 5 Boeing 787-8s. The airline also has 4 further 787-9s on order. 

The route to Beijing Daxing was operated once a week before being terminated on 26 October 2024 ahead of the winter schedule change. This is also my first time flying out of Daxing so I'm very excited to see what it's like (I've heard great things about it from family members!). Finally, I paid ¥2126 ($293/€282) single flying PKX-BWN-LHR. 25kg checked luggage is included in the price. 

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX)

Heading to the airport by taxi. The journey takes around an hour from the city at night (with no traffic). I wonder how bad the traffic is during the day - one of the things I hate about Capital Airport is the excruciatingly long traffic jams on the expressway leaving the airport. I was stuck in traffic for an hour when I first arrived and that was after Daxing took a lot of the passengers away, imagine the queues before… shudder. 

Anyway, here's a photo of the toll booth. The lettering above spells out 'Daxing New Town' (大兴新城). Unlike Capital Airport, Daxing is named after Daxing District in Beijing, although the airport is actually on the border between Beijing and Langfang. 

And here's the international check-in area - it's a floor above the domestic check-in desks. 

Wow! This is the first time I've seen something like this translated into English. I (being able to read Chinese) have never been able to translate these things into English properly (probably because a lot of the vocabulary used here isn't commonly seen in English). This is fascinating to me!

Just because I find the translation fascinating, I've typed the entire English description below - you'll soon see why they're so difficult to translate. 

"As a major landmark of the capital and a centurial project in pursuit of the new development philosophy. Beijing Daxing International Airport has received special attention and has been promoted by General Secretary of the Community Part of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jiping. The airport, started construction in December 2014, was put into operation on September 25, 2019. President Xi visited the construction site twice and attended the airport's opening ceremony when he announced the start of its operation. "Socialism comes after hard work," and "the Chinese people and China will surely succeed", the President noted. 
When celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China, the airport, as a representation in the category of 'China's Mega Project/The Pillars of a Great Power', was awarded as the National Demonstration Base for Patriotism Education by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. It is the first of the kind in the civil aviation industry."

Anyway, here's another photo of the check-in area. The roof looks pretty cool. 

And… another monument. Keeping up with the theme, the translations on it say 'The Motherland is strong' on the left and 'National Revival/Renaissance' on the right. I might be wrong but I think the one on the right is short for '中华民族伟大复兴', a slogan used by the ruling CCP, according to my (limited) knowledge and what little I can find online. 

Anyway, after having my translation skills tested thoroughly, check-in took around 5 minutes with security taking a further 10 (there isn't a lot of international traffic this early). Here's the main departure area airside. There aren't a lot of duty-free stores, at least for such a large airport. 

The architecture is gorgeous though. 

If you look at an aerial photo of Daxing, it resembles a starfish with 5 'arms' stretching out of the main building. International departures take up 2 with domestic taking up the remaining 3. 

Let's head down one of the 'arms'.

Photo of the apron. 

And here's the highlight of the airport. In the middle of the pier, there's a China Garden with Chinese architecture, music and foliage. 

Not only is it gorgeous, it's also super nice to have some fresh air in an airport (especially if you're here for a long layover.)

And here are the seating at the gate.

An Etihad Boeing 787-9 arriving from Abu Dhabi (AUH).

The flight

Flight time to Brunei will be around 5 hours and here's our route. 

Random aviation fact about China: 

If you look on FlightRadar24, you'll find planes over China cruising at random altitudes (27,600ft, 33,100ft etc.) This is because China uses something known as metric RVSM. Unlike the rest of the world (excluding Mongolia and, to some extent, Russia), China issues altitude clearances in meters as opposed to feet. Now, 1000ft separation is still used (RVSM), however, it's converted from meters (27,600ft = 8400m, 33,100ft = 10,100m, 34,100ft = 10,400m etc.). The extra 100ft comes from rounding (33000ft = 10058.4m). There are handy conversion charts available on Google if you just search 'Chinese RVSM', it's quite a fascinating system. To my knowledge, this is because it's required by the military (they operate in metric), which controls the majority of Chinese airspace. 

Anyway, boarding started on time and here's a photo of the IFE (yes, there are IFE on this A320neo!!) and tray table. 

The legroom is also very good however, the seats are quite hard with not a lot of padding. 

First view out of the window with a China Southern A321 heading to Macao (MFM). I forgot to mention, while I selected seat during booking, the agent changed it during check-in, which was rather disappointing (online check-in wasn't available on this flight). 

On each seat is also a pillow…

… and a blanket. This is pretty awesome for a 5-hour flight and reminds me of my Saudia A320 flight to Tanzania, which I gave a 10/10 rating.

The crew also handed out headphones during boarding. 

A travel prayer is played during pushback along with the safety video. 

I should also mention that the load factor was around 25% with around 1/2 of the passengers being on a tour to Brunei. This is incredibly disappointing and explains why the airline terminated the route.

Takeoff! Bye bye China! 

Not a lot to see sadly. 

Shortly after, the crew came around with a hot meal. 

And here it is - this is one of the most beautiful economy meals I've ever seen. The options were beef or fish, I picked the fish. And yes, it tasted just as good (if not better) as it looked. There's also a salad and a strawberry sponge cake (both amazing). It's nice to have an edible salad for once (if you've read my previous few long-haul FRs… you'll know). All in all, an amazing meal. ;)

Somewhere over Henan (河南) Province 

Let's have a look at the IFE. 

There's plenty of content for all ages including Western and Asian content. The screen is fast and responsive as well. 

Unfortunately, the only complaint I have is the moving map. It's not interactive and it's incredibly unhelpful/frustrating as it never really zooms out to show you where you are. 

It's like a geography/physics test - We're somewhere between Xincai and Zhengyang, now figure out where we are using your geographical knowledge of China and our speed/elapsed time. 

Shortly after, the crew came around with some more snacks. The catering on the flight are some of the best I've seen. 

After that, I slept briefly and watched a film as we flew over the South China Sea. 

Quick photo of the lavatory. It's one of the cleanest I've ever seen (probably because of the low load factor). 

Descending into Brunei with a view of Labuan Island, Malaysia. 

First view of Brunei and its docks in the distance. 

Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. 

Welcome to Brunei! Nice views of the maintenance hangers during landing with an A320neo and 787.

Parked at the gate. 

Brunei International Airport (BWN)

I've got a 4 hour wait here before my long haul to London. 

A random corridor. 

And here's the departures area. 

I'll end this FR here, the next one will kick off from this point. Thanks for reading and see you there! ;)