Darren
Apr 4, 01, 1:46 am
I feel like the announcer on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
My next few reports will go even further from the technical info and more into my personal feelings about different things that have happened on the flights (to keep in the whole spirit of Flyertalk) and about the places I visited. They are a little long and possibly irreverent at times, so you are warned. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I will do as many as I can in the next week or so while I am home, then I probably will have to stop until I return in mid-May.
As unimpressed as I was with QF's domestic service, I was absolutely blown away with the service on Cathay. I know that some people feel that SQ is better than CX. Honestly, I haven't tried it. But I could not possibly imagine how it could be better. Maybe instead of an FA for every three pax, you have your own FA who reads you stories and rocks you to sleep. I don't know. But the whole experience was superb.
The trip began at Sydney, in the International Terminal Qantas Club. As I said, I adored the Qantas Club in Australia. People were nice, good spread of food and snacks, computers that needed reconfigured, and a decent array of drinks. But the Intl QC wasn't as nice, and I was a bit disappointed. It was small, no computers (big thing for me personally, as that was when I was checking my mail), and more impersonal. I got the feeling that since they share access with at least CX (and I assume AA and BA), that Qantas was less influential in making it like the other QC's. In any event, I wasn't there long and just had my requisite sparkling water and an espresso while I got nose prints on the glass window from watching the planes take off and land.
There she was. Magnificent beast. Where I would call home for the next 11 hours or so. I was pretty excited about the trip, as needless to say, the CX service is legendary. They put me in seat 2a on the flight, which is a good seat on the 747 because there is more room on all sides of you, and generally less traffic walking past. The BA flight had a 16 seat configuration in first. Front to back, it was 2-2-4-4-4. CX had one less row of 4, so it was 2-2-4-4 in the same amount of cabin space. This allowed significantly more room in the "pod", especially by the feet. In BA, the feet are in a little cubby, off to the side of the person in front of you. On CX, you had all that area to yourself. The other cabin difference was that on British Airways, there is a coat and bag closet at the nose of the plane, in between the two seats of row one. On the Cathay plane, it was gone. In short, the cabin seemed huge. The decor was elegant and tasteful, but lacked the class of the BA cabin. In my opinion, you cross the BA style with the CX cabin, and you have my traveling Mecca. The other area that BA beat CX was in the bathroom. The CX loo was made for little people, which I am not one of. So it was a bit less comfortable. They also didn't provide an amenities kit, but rather kept them in the bathroom. Would rather have had the kit. What they did provide was a very classy (but useless) wood box with a selection of goods from Ernio Laslo (or something similar). I asked for a women's version on the JFK trip, and gave them to my parents.
The in seat entertainment included a very nice lcd television (about 9" or so) with an 8mm vcp and the Sony noise-reducing headphones. I watched Angela's Ashes, which was a terrible movie. I even like Robert Carlyle very much, but he couldn't save this depressing Irish tale of sad people doing sad things. I watched it to the end because I wanted to see if anything good would ever happen, but it was not meant to be. Also watched some classics like Dinnerladies (one of my favorites), the Simpsons (my absolute favorite), and Black Adder (I like Rowan Atkinson).
My flight attendant was James, who if you have the chance to meet, say hello and tell him he is great. Very nice man, who made sure that everything was perfect. There is a thread going that talks about the differences of the American (geographical) flight attendants and the Asian FA's. I will give an example of the difference. There was something on the menu that I didn't know what it was. Looked good, but I was a bit leery of ordering it. So he says to try it, and if I don't like it, he will bring something different. Great. Turns out that I enjoyed it very much. This is in contrast to an AA flight that I took yesterday. I was the 5th person to order, and they had already run out of two of the selections. I had granola. Better for me anyway, but it still was irritating. I will get into the food later. But the FA's on the flight were attentive, motivated, and to be commended very highly. If they were talking in the galley, it was because they happened to be working there at the same time. But never once did I feel as if there was a need of mine that was not met. Even during the "sleeping" time, they were usually talking with a pax, not each with each other.
Sleeping. I get more jet lag in the air than on the ground. If it is day outside, I can't sleep. Doesn't matter the time. When I land, if it is day, I am awake and night, I sleep. I guess my body goes by a light clock rather than a time clock. In part because I work and school at erratic hours, so I don't have a set schedule. Anyway, I still wanted to be comfortable. They handed out the duvets, which were nice. (Rich, the only difference between SYD-HKG and HKG-JFK was the caviar) Couldn't get comfortable. So I went to the galley (I don't use the call button unless it's a life and death situation. I have legs, and I am not so lazy as not to use them) and asked for a blanket.
"Blanket? Didn't you get a duvet, we can get a duvet."
"No, thank you, I got a duvet. I would like a blanket, though."
"Are you too cold? (I was, but didn't say so)"
"No, just would like a blanket"
So she goes and gets a blanket, brings it to my seat, and watches in amazement when I lay the duvet on the seat and begin to tuck in the edges. So she begins to mutter in Chinese, and the next thing I know, I have 5 flight attendants watching me make my bed. Felt like the six-fingered kid in the local freakshow! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif But it was like heaven at that point. Think my next bed will be an airline seat and a duvet, because I was able to sleep like a baby for about two hours until a lady behind me started snoring like a chainsaw. That's when I watched my movie. One of the FA's lit up and said she was going to tell management about the "pad". So if CX begins offering mattress pads, you're welcome....and I expect 20%. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 04-04-2001).]
My next few reports will go even further from the technical info and more into my personal feelings about different things that have happened on the flights (to keep in the whole spirit of Flyertalk) and about the places I visited. They are a little long and possibly irreverent at times, so you are warned. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I will do as many as I can in the next week or so while I am home, then I probably will have to stop until I return in mid-May.
As unimpressed as I was with QF's domestic service, I was absolutely blown away with the service on Cathay. I know that some people feel that SQ is better than CX. Honestly, I haven't tried it. But I could not possibly imagine how it could be better. Maybe instead of an FA for every three pax, you have your own FA who reads you stories and rocks you to sleep. I don't know. But the whole experience was superb.
The trip began at Sydney, in the International Terminal Qantas Club. As I said, I adored the Qantas Club in Australia. People were nice, good spread of food and snacks, computers that needed reconfigured, and a decent array of drinks. But the Intl QC wasn't as nice, and I was a bit disappointed. It was small, no computers (big thing for me personally, as that was when I was checking my mail), and more impersonal. I got the feeling that since they share access with at least CX (and I assume AA and BA), that Qantas was less influential in making it like the other QC's. In any event, I wasn't there long and just had my requisite sparkling water and an espresso while I got nose prints on the glass window from watching the planes take off and land.
There she was. Magnificent beast. Where I would call home for the next 11 hours or so. I was pretty excited about the trip, as needless to say, the CX service is legendary. They put me in seat 2a on the flight, which is a good seat on the 747 because there is more room on all sides of you, and generally less traffic walking past. The BA flight had a 16 seat configuration in first. Front to back, it was 2-2-4-4-4. CX had one less row of 4, so it was 2-2-4-4 in the same amount of cabin space. This allowed significantly more room in the "pod", especially by the feet. In BA, the feet are in a little cubby, off to the side of the person in front of you. On CX, you had all that area to yourself. The other cabin difference was that on British Airways, there is a coat and bag closet at the nose of the plane, in between the two seats of row one. On the Cathay plane, it was gone. In short, the cabin seemed huge. The decor was elegant and tasteful, but lacked the class of the BA cabin. In my opinion, you cross the BA style with the CX cabin, and you have my traveling Mecca. The other area that BA beat CX was in the bathroom. The CX loo was made for little people, which I am not one of. So it was a bit less comfortable. They also didn't provide an amenities kit, but rather kept them in the bathroom. Would rather have had the kit. What they did provide was a very classy (but useless) wood box with a selection of goods from Ernio Laslo (or something similar). I asked for a women's version on the JFK trip, and gave them to my parents.
The in seat entertainment included a very nice lcd television (about 9" or so) with an 8mm vcp and the Sony noise-reducing headphones. I watched Angela's Ashes, which was a terrible movie. I even like Robert Carlyle very much, but he couldn't save this depressing Irish tale of sad people doing sad things. I watched it to the end because I wanted to see if anything good would ever happen, but it was not meant to be. Also watched some classics like Dinnerladies (one of my favorites), the Simpsons (my absolute favorite), and Black Adder (I like Rowan Atkinson).
My flight attendant was James, who if you have the chance to meet, say hello and tell him he is great. Very nice man, who made sure that everything was perfect. There is a thread going that talks about the differences of the American (geographical) flight attendants and the Asian FA's. I will give an example of the difference. There was something on the menu that I didn't know what it was. Looked good, but I was a bit leery of ordering it. So he says to try it, and if I don't like it, he will bring something different. Great. Turns out that I enjoyed it very much. This is in contrast to an AA flight that I took yesterday. I was the 5th person to order, and they had already run out of two of the selections. I had granola. Better for me anyway, but it still was irritating. I will get into the food later. But the FA's on the flight were attentive, motivated, and to be commended very highly. If they were talking in the galley, it was because they happened to be working there at the same time. But never once did I feel as if there was a need of mine that was not met. Even during the "sleeping" time, they were usually talking with a pax, not each with each other.
Sleeping. I get more jet lag in the air than on the ground. If it is day outside, I can't sleep. Doesn't matter the time. When I land, if it is day, I am awake and night, I sleep. I guess my body goes by a light clock rather than a time clock. In part because I work and school at erratic hours, so I don't have a set schedule. Anyway, I still wanted to be comfortable. They handed out the duvets, which were nice. (Rich, the only difference between SYD-HKG and HKG-JFK was the caviar) Couldn't get comfortable. So I went to the galley (I don't use the call button unless it's a life and death situation. I have legs, and I am not so lazy as not to use them) and asked for a blanket.
"Blanket? Didn't you get a duvet, we can get a duvet."
"No, thank you, I got a duvet. I would like a blanket, though."
"Are you too cold? (I was, but didn't say so)"
"No, just would like a blanket"
So she goes and gets a blanket, brings it to my seat, and watches in amazement when I lay the duvet on the seat and begin to tuck in the edges. So she begins to mutter in Chinese, and the next thing I know, I have 5 flight attendants watching me make my bed. Felt like the six-fingered kid in the local freakshow! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif But it was like heaven at that point. Think my next bed will be an airline seat and a duvet, because I was able to sleep like a baby for about two hours until a lady behind me started snoring like a chainsaw. That's when I watched my movie. One of the FA's lit up and said she was going to tell management about the "pad". So if CX begins offering mattress pads, you're welcome....and I expect 20%. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
[This message has been edited by Darren (edited 04-04-2001).]