sl00001
Oct 25, 09, 7:35 am
Just got back home from a 48 hours door-to-door trip from Shanghai to Amsterdam via Hong Kong.
I left office at 12 pm and went to PVG at Friday for the 1430 flight (KA Metal): flight was packed due to the long weekend in HKG and the Friday commuters back to HKG. Service was great as usual on KA and the food is pretty decent as well.
Arrived in HKG on schedule and went to TST for some quick shopping and to have dinner with my friends. Took both ways the airport express, don't you just love this? Easy, quick and convenient!
Back at the airport around 2230 and went to the Pier for some Champagne and some surfing. The bartender was "complaining" that it was a busy Friday night and said that especially the foreigners are free loaders .....drinking until the are almost drunk. Well .....Asians ....do they same but at the buffet :p. Anyway, not going into that discussion as it has been discussed many times here already.....
The flight to AMS was full ....packed ....so headed early to the gate and went to my seat on the upperdeck 81K. Changed into my comfortable pants and relaxed with another glass of Champagne. (Hmmmmm...I am guessing the bartender was also referring to me .....:D, neh ..spoke Canto to hi, but maybe he was thinking it)). Anyway, service on upperdeck was done sometimes with an extra FA from the maindeck and quick. Well, I was in the first rom, one of the reason I like the seat is that you get served first. Food was so-so and my veil was soacked in the sauce .... The flight took about 12 hours and 15 minutes this time, but lucky I could manage to get some decent sleep.
Also discussed many times before on the new seats: I like them better than the old ones. One thing not mentioned before and I had it only on the the return flight on the A seat first row: when lying straight on your back alligning your feet with the ottoman you will need to be very close to the sidewall, while the extra shoulder space is on your left side. So i tried to move my body a bit to the left but finding my feet slipping off the (hitting the small side) of the ottoman.
Arrived in AMS in the morning and went straight to the car rental to pick up my car. I booked the smallest car and got a Volvo C70 instead (YEAHH!!), too bad it was raining and too cold to open up the roof. I thought of it to do anyways but neh didn't want people starring at me and get sick!
Did my stuff back home and went back to the airport at 12pm and checkedin again (OLCI didn't work (again)). The lady was a bit surprised to hear I just arrived this morning and was flying back again the same day ;)
Anyway, went to the lounge ( CX uses the Sakura lounge) just for the internet, as food and drinks are so limited! At the gate it was busy (screening is done there) and good part of CX at Schiphol is that they have blocked of the area near the gate for MPC members, First and Business class passengers. So easier for priority boarding!
The ride back to Hong Kong was very smooth and we landed one hour before scheduled arrival time. Went to the Transit security and to the Pier lounge and waited for my next flight to PVG again.
The 8am (I changed from 9 am ) flight was very empty and service was as great as you can expect from KA. After arrival in PVG took the taxi and got back home just before 12pm (Sunday).
I am a carzy?!?!? Well, I love to fly and I love CX (well, sometimes I hate them as well) ....in order to summarize and my view on recent threads:
J - Seats : you can get worse, but you also can get better seats on other airlines. I am more on the positive side.
Meals : def less quality, catering out of AMS much better than HKG
Drinks: plenty of Champagne ;)
Tomato Juice: I thought of this thread many times during my flights, shall I give it a try, but .....everytime i saw that bottle of Champagne I couldn't resist
Lounges: PVG-its ok, HKG Wing/Pier: used to love them but it is getting old and service is so-so, AMS-sucks
Service: KA excellent / CX - efficient nothing extra(had better before, but still ok)
OLCI: worked only 1 leg of the 4
Gaining or loosing revenue due to the new seats: I dont think so, at least not on the AMS route
Window shades: down, didn't argued
View: difficult to look at of the window, but I always recline my seat a bit more and turn myself half way so I can still enjoy the take off and landing view
Re-qualifying: with this trip ....another Gold year, but maybe they would have done it even without this trip
Despite of the ups and downs (damn it no upgrade to First) I still love to fly them .....
Well ....some call me insane doing this trip (including my whole family) but I can't wait to do another one .....anyone else here that insane as well??
I left office at 12 pm and went to PVG at Friday for the 1430 flight (KA Metal): flight was packed due to the long weekend in HKG and the Friday commuters back to HKG. Service was great as usual on KA and the food is pretty decent as well.
Arrived in HKG on schedule and went to TST for some quick shopping and to have dinner with my friends. Took both ways the airport express, don't you just love this? Easy, quick and convenient!
Back at the airport around 2230 and went to the Pier for some Champagne and some surfing. The bartender was "complaining" that it was a busy Friday night and said that especially the foreigners are free loaders .....drinking until the are almost drunk. Well .....Asians ....do they same but at the buffet :p. Anyway, not going into that discussion as it has been discussed many times here already.....
The flight to AMS was full ....packed ....so headed early to the gate and went to my seat on the upperdeck 81K. Changed into my comfortable pants and relaxed with another glass of Champagne. (Hmmmmm...I am guessing the bartender was also referring to me .....:D, neh ..spoke Canto to hi, but maybe he was thinking it)). Anyway, service on upperdeck was done sometimes with an extra FA from the maindeck and quick. Well, I was in the first rom, one of the reason I like the seat is that you get served first. Food was so-so and my veil was soacked in the sauce .... The flight took about 12 hours and 15 minutes this time, but lucky I could manage to get some decent sleep.
Also discussed many times before on the new seats: I like them better than the old ones. One thing not mentioned before and I had it only on the the return flight on the A seat first row: when lying straight on your back alligning your feet with the ottoman you will need to be very close to the sidewall, while the extra shoulder space is on your left side. So i tried to move my body a bit to the left but finding my feet slipping off the (hitting the small side) of the ottoman.
Arrived in AMS in the morning and went straight to the car rental to pick up my car. I booked the smallest car and got a Volvo C70 instead (YEAHH!!), too bad it was raining and too cold to open up the roof. I thought of it to do anyways but neh didn't want people starring at me and get sick!
Did my stuff back home and went back to the airport at 12pm and checkedin again (OLCI didn't work (again)). The lady was a bit surprised to hear I just arrived this morning and was flying back again the same day ;)
Anyway, went to the lounge ( CX uses the Sakura lounge) just for the internet, as food and drinks are so limited! At the gate it was busy (screening is done there) and good part of CX at Schiphol is that they have blocked of the area near the gate for MPC members, First and Business class passengers. So easier for priority boarding!
The ride back to Hong Kong was very smooth and we landed one hour before scheduled arrival time. Went to the Transit security and to the Pier lounge and waited for my next flight to PVG again.
The 8am (I changed from 9 am ) flight was very empty and service was as great as you can expect from KA. After arrival in PVG took the taxi and got back home just before 12pm (Sunday).
I am a carzy?!?!? Well, I love to fly and I love CX (well, sometimes I hate them as well) ....in order to summarize and my view on recent threads:
J - Seats : you can get worse, but you also can get better seats on other airlines. I am more on the positive side.
Meals : def less quality, catering out of AMS much better than HKG
Drinks: plenty of Champagne ;)
Tomato Juice: I thought of this thread many times during my flights, shall I give it a try, but .....everytime i saw that bottle of Champagne I couldn't resist
Lounges: PVG-its ok, HKG Wing/Pier: used to love them but it is getting old and service is so-so, AMS-sucks
Service: KA excellent / CX - efficient nothing extra(had better before, but still ok)
OLCI: worked only 1 leg of the 4
Gaining or loosing revenue due to the new seats: I dont think so, at least not on the AMS route
Window shades: down, didn't argued
View: difficult to look at of the window, but I always recline my seat a bit more and turn myself half way so I can still enjoy the take off and landing view
Re-qualifying: with this trip ....another Gold year, but maybe they would have done it even without this trip
Despite of the ups and downs (damn it no upgrade to First) I still love to fly them .....
Well ....some call me insane doing this trip (including my whole family) but I can't wait to do another one .....anyone else here that insane as well??