tfung
Apr 2, 01, 6:30 am
Hi everyone,
just got off the plane from the UA JFK-HKG inaugural flight. Here's my flight report from it. It's my first time posting a flight report, so please bear with me.. Please let me know if I can make any improvements and I'll do better on my next one.. =)
Anyways, got to JFK this morning at about 8:15am. Checked in and proceeded to the F class lounge. I walked around the RCC looking for other FTer's, but was not able to spot any.
The airport setup for the innaugural flight was quite interesting. There were models standing in various places around the airport with kenneth cole clothing, and near the gate area, they were serving some food with a chinese musical band playing.
As the plane started to board, there were UA employees by the gates passing out Kenneth Cole bags to people who were boarding the flight. I personally didn't like the bags, so I asked one of the employees for their JFK-HKG nonstop pin that most of them seem to have. Luckily, that one I asked had an extra new one, so I got that instead. The plane we were on was nose number N8016. When I boarded, half of first class was already in their seats already. I took my seat in 3A and dozed off a little. Before the plane doors closed, the UA station manager came around to great all the passengers, and I was given a Kenneth Cole watch as a gift for the inaugural flight. Our flight pushed back on time at 10:50am. Fuel carried on the plane was 380,000 pounds. Flight time was 14 hours 51 minutes, which is a little shorter than the original planned flight time.
As we were pushing back, the first officer told us that there were emergency trucks waiting for us on the tarmac. There were two sitting out there, one on each side of the plane, and as we went through them, they would spray water over the plane. Sort of a congratulations and good luck thing. Anyhow, the next 20 mins I fell asleep, so I had missed that. By the time I woke up, we had already reached 28,000 feet and a FA was already handing out the personal videocassettes. On this trip, the crew was US based, but there were a few Chinese speaking FA's as well.
Hot towels were handed out, and for pre-dinner drinks, I asked for some champagne and saw that they were serving Dom Pérignon for the champagne. Other wines that they had today were:
Meursault 1999
Hanna Russian River Valley 1998
Côte-Rôtie 1996
Beringer North Coast 1997
I was quite disappointed that the decided not to serve any canapés in this flight, and only the nuts. I guess this is one area they're trying to cut costs as well. Even in Business class, they had a bigger bowl of nuts for each passenger. A quick glance at the passenger manifest when the purser was coming around for orders, showed that there was one 1K million miler in F class, 3 1Ks and 2 premiere exec. Surprisingly, there wasn't a SA in F class today. The menu for JFK-HKG is the same one for ORD-PEK. I'm quite surprised they use the same menu. I thought we would be given a completely different menu and maybe even a second large meal, since it is such a long flight. Anyhow, for today's lunch, we had the following menu:
To Begin
Lobster tail and claw with lobster sauce
Fresh mango, lime and red grapefruit
Or
Sliced Parma ham, tomato and mozzarella
Fennel and haricot vert salad
Garden fresh salad
Asian sesame ginger or blue cheese dressing
Main Course
Grilled veal chops with Portobello mushrooms reduction
Cheddar mashed potatoes and vegetable sauté
Brown sugar smoked chicken with mirin soy sauce
Baby bok choy and steamed rice
Wine-marinated salmon with black bean sauce
Steamed rice and a snap pea and carrot medley
Stir-fried scallops with Szechuan garlin sauce
Chinese egg noodles and sugar snap peas
Dessert
Cheeses and Sandeman's Porto
Ben & Jerry's ice cream with sundae topping
I had the lobster for the appetizer, which was very good. I found the portion of the salad was smaller than usual, but it's the first time I chose the asian sesame ginger dressing and I thought it was quite good. I chose the chicken for the main course, as the other main courses didn't sound very exciting at all. I usually never choose the Chinese selections on UA, since I thought they were not very authentic, even when designed by Chinese chefs. However, the chicken I picked out turned out to be cooked in a fusion style, which was really interested and quite good as well. It certainly looked better than what other people were having. I was really quite impressed. Desert was the usual Ben & Jerry's ice cream sundae with vanilla and chocolate. But this time, the FA was very generous with the hot fudge and nuts. After dinner, hot towels were handed out again, and the cabin lights were dimmed and the FA's came around shutting the window shades, as most of the flight will be in daylight.
As for movie selections, I don't remember that well, but it looks remarkably like the March selection. They were also supposed to show Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but somehow the FA announced over the PA system, that particular tape decided to self-destruct in the video player, so they replaced it with something else. Anyhow, I watched Meet the Parents and Charlie's angel while doing some work before sleeping. I awoke nearly 7 hours late, and a look at the map showed us somewhere above Russia with about 5 and a half hours to go. I asked for a mid-flight snack, and there was a selection of noodles, fruits, biscuits and also a hot egg/cheese sandwich. The egg/cheese sandwich was quite good, but it was still one of those prepackaged things. UA could seriously improve on their mid-flight snacks service. Afterwards, in popped another movie, The Con, since they didn't seem to be showing anything on the normal channels.
After the movie, I walked around the whole plane. F and C looked like they were completely full. However, Y was very sparsely populated. Nearly everyone had 3 or 4 seats to themselves, and even then, there were still many empty rows at the back. I don't think the plane was configured with C+, but there was definitely no Y+, although the economy section looked quite new and clean. After doing some more work, I chatted with the FA who was working the F class cabin at that time. Just talked about random stuff and I had also asked if they were giving out certificates for those of us who were on the flight, like other inaugural flights. Indeed we were, and I asked her if it's possible for her to get all the crew members to sign the back of my certificate. She was more than happy to go around and ask for me to get the signatures. In all, I got 17 signatures from all the flight attendants and flight deck crew. Definitely going to get this laminated if I have time in Hong Kong today. I also picked up another blank certificate for my friend Francis, who couldn't make it on the flight today.
At about 2 hours before landing, the FA's came around and asked if I wanted to eat the second meal. For that, we had a selection of the following:
Prior to arrival
Penne pasta and three cheese sauce with roasted chicken
Fresh fruit appetizer
Or
Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt
Frankly, I wasn't very interested in either selection and was hoping that they had the bread bowl soup. But I guess they don't really serve it that often on international flights, and I think I've only had it in business class and never in first. Anyhow, I picked the Pasta, which turned out to be the most disgusting looking thing ever. Basically looked like pasta and puke mixed together. After summing up enough courage and taking a bite out of it, I decided it actually wasn't as bad as it looked. Quite good actually. But seriously, they need to do something about presentation! The fresh fruit appetizer that came with it was quite pathetic looking as well -- basically a few cubes of fruit that didn't really taste like much.
After the meal I wandered around a bit more, slept a few more minutes. We finally started our descent at 1:55pm Hong Kong time, and got into Hong Kong a few minutes ahead of schedule at 14:25. The captain informed us that we still had about 36,000 pounds of fuel left at the end of the flights, which sounded about right because of the small load we were carrying today. I would expect that in the future, when this flight fills up, more fuel would be burnt. Anyhow, that's it for now.. I'm waiting for my connecting flight to SIN.. =)
By the way, for those of you who are interested in the meals served in the other classes, here are the menus for those:
ECONOMY
To Begin
Parma ham with cantaloupe
Cucumber sesame salad
Main Course
Roasted chicken breast
Seasoned rice and tomato salsa
Teriyaki beef
Steamed rice and sugar snap peas
Dessert
Eli's Lemon cheesecake
Prior to Arrival
Thai chicken pasta
Or
Turkey and cheese focaccia
Wines
Georges Duboeuf Merlot
Fortant de France Chardonnay
BUSINESS
To Begin
Cumin scallops and spiced shrimp
Plum tomato petals and sautéed escarole
Garden fresh salad
Asian sesame ginger or blue cheese dressing
Main Course
Filet mignon with barbecue relish
Mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas with cilantro
Grilled sea bass with Asian chutney
Egg noodles with sesame seeds and a vegetable medley
Chicken curry with red bliss potatoes
Steamed rice and haricots verts
Dessert
Whipped Stilton cheese with sautéed sliced bread
Fresh fruit and a glass of Sandeman's Porto
Eli's Praline cheesecake
Prior to Arrival
Identical to First Class
Wines
Brut Carte d'Or non-vintage
Brut Fleur de Champagne non-vintage
Pinot Blanc 1999
Macon Villages 1999
De Loach California 1999
Robert Mondavi-coastal central coast 1999
Chateau St. Bonnet Haut-medoc 1996
Chateau de By Medoc 1998
Kiona Washington 1999
Barossa Valley Estate 1998
just got off the plane from the UA JFK-HKG inaugural flight. Here's my flight report from it. It's my first time posting a flight report, so please bear with me.. Please let me know if I can make any improvements and I'll do better on my next one.. =)
Anyways, got to JFK this morning at about 8:15am. Checked in and proceeded to the F class lounge. I walked around the RCC looking for other FTer's, but was not able to spot any.
The airport setup for the innaugural flight was quite interesting. There were models standing in various places around the airport with kenneth cole clothing, and near the gate area, they were serving some food with a chinese musical band playing.
As the plane started to board, there were UA employees by the gates passing out Kenneth Cole bags to people who were boarding the flight. I personally didn't like the bags, so I asked one of the employees for their JFK-HKG nonstop pin that most of them seem to have. Luckily, that one I asked had an extra new one, so I got that instead. The plane we were on was nose number N8016. When I boarded, half of first class was already in their seats already. I took my seat in 3A and dozed off a little. Before the plane doors closed, the UA station manager came around to great all the passengers, and I was given a Kenneth Cole watch as a gift for the inaugural flight. Our flight pushed back on time at 10:50am. Fuel carried on the plane was 380,000 pounds. Flight time was 14 hours 51 minutes, which is a little shorter than the original planned flight time.
As we were pushing back, the first officer told us that there were emergency trucks waiting for us on the tarmac. There were two sitting out there, one on each side of the plane, and as we went through them, they would spray water over the plane. Sort of a congratulations and good luck thing. Anyhow, the next 20 mins I fell asleep, so I had missed that. By the time I woke up, we had already reached 28,000 feet and a FA was already handing out the personal videocassettes. On this trip, the crew was US based, but there were a few Chinese speaking FA's as well.
Hot towels were handed out, and for pre-dinner drinks, I asked for some champagne and saw that they were serving Dom Pérignon for the champagne. Other wines that they had today were:
Meursault 1999
Hanna Russian River Valley 1998
Côte-Rôtie 1996
Beringer North Coast 1997
I was quite disappointed that the decided not to serve any canapés in this flight, and only the nuts. I guess this is one area they're trying to cut costs as well. Even in Business class, they had a bigger bowl of nuts for each passenger. A quick glance at the passenger manifest when the purser was coming around for orders, showed that there was one 1K million miler in F class, 3 1Ks and 2 premiere exec. Surprisingly, there wasn't a SA in F class today. The menu for JFK-HKG is the same one for ORD-PEK. I'm quite surprised they use the same menu. I thought we would be given a completely different menu and maybe even a second large meal, since it is such a long flight. Anyhow, for today's lunch, we had the following menu:
To Begin
Lobster tail and claw with lobster sauce
Fresh mango, lime and red grapefruit
Or
Sliced Parma ham, tomato and mozzarella
Fennel and haricot vert salad
Garden fresh salad
Asian sesame ginger or blue cheese dressing
Main Course
Grilled veal chops with Portobello mushrooms reduction
Cheddar mashed potatoes and vegetable sauté
Brown sugar smoked chicken with mirin soy sauce
Baby bok choy and steamed rice
Wine-marinated salmon with black bean sauce
Steamed rice and a snap pea and carrot medley
Stir-fried scallops with Szechuan garlin sauce
Chinese egg noodles and sugar snap peas
Dessert
Cheeses and Sandeman's Porto
Ben & Jerry's ice cream with sundae topping
I had the lobster for the appetizer, which was very good. I found the portion of the salad was smaller than usual, but it's the first time I chose the asian sesame ginger dressing and I thought it was quite good. I chose the chicken for the main course, as the other main courses didn't sound very exciting at all. I usually never choose the Chinese selections on UA, since I thought they were not very authentic, even when designed by Chinese chefs. However, the chicken I picked out turned out to be cooked in a fusion style, which was really interested and quite good as well. It certainly looked better than what other people were having. I was really quite impressed. Desert was the usual Ben & Jerry's ice cream sundae with vanilla and chocolate. But this time, the FA was very generous with the hot fudge and nuts. After dinner, hot towels were handed out again, and the cabin lights were dimmed and the FA's came around shutting the window shades, as most of the flight will be in daylight.
As for movie selections, I don't remember that well, but it looks remarkably like the March selection. They were also supposed to show Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but somehow the FA announced over the PA system, that particular tape decided to self-destruct in the video player, so they replaced it with something else. Anyhow, I watched Meet the Parents and Charlie's angel while doing some work before sleeping. I awoke nearly 7 hours late, and a look at the map showed us somewhere above Russia with about 5 and a half hours to go. I asked for a mid-flight snack, and there was a selection of noodles, fruits, biscuits and also a hot egg/cheese sandwich. The egg/cheese sandwich was quite good, but it was still one of those prepackaged things. UA could seriously improve on their mid-flight snacks service. Afterwards, in popped another movie, The Con, since they didn't seem to be showing anything on the normal channels.
After the movie, I walked around the whole plane. F and C looked like they were completely full. However, Y was very sparsely populated. Nearly everyone had 3 or 4 seats to themselves, and even then, there were still many empty rows at the back. I don't think the plane was configured with C+, but there was definitely no Y+, although the economy section looked quite new and clean. After doing some more work, I chatted with the FA who was working the F class cabin at that time. Just talked about random stuff and I had also asked if they were giving out certificates for those of us who were on the flight, like other inaugural flights. Indeed we were, and I asked her if it's possible for her to get all the crew members to sign the back of my certificate. She was more than happy to go around and ask for me to get the signatures. In all, I got 17 signatures from all the flight attendants and flight deck crew. Definitely going to get this laminated if I have time in Hong Kong today. I also picked up another blank certificate for my friend Francis, who couldn't make it on the flight today.
At about 2 hours before landing, the FA's came around and asked if I wanted to eat the second meal. For that, we had a selection of the following:
Prior to arrival
Penne pasta and three cheese sauce with roasted chicken
Fresh fruit appetizer
Or
Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt
Frankly, I wasn't very interested in either selection and was hoping that they had the bread bowl soup. But I guess they don't really serve it that often on international flights, and I think I've only had it in business class and never in first. Anyhow, I picked the Pasta, which turned out to be the most disgusting looking thing ever. Basically looked like pasta and puke mixed together. After summing up enough courage and taking a bite out of it, I decided it actually wasn't as bad as it looked. Quite good actually. But seriously, they need to do something about presentation! The fresh fruit appetizer that came with it was quite pathetic looking as well -- basically a few cubes of fruit that didn't really taste like much.
After the meal I wandered around a bit more, slept a few more minutes. We finally started our descent at 1:55pm Hong Kong time, and got into Hong Kong a few minutes ahead of schedule at 14:25. The captain informed us that we still had about 36,000 pounds of fuel left at the end of the flights, which sounded about right because of the small load we were carrying today. I would expect that in the future, when this flight fills up, more fuel would be burnt. Anyhow, that's it for now.. I'm waiting for my connecting flight to SIN.. =)
By the way, for those of you who are interested in the meals served in the other classes, here are the menus for those:
ECONOMY
To Begin
Parma ham with cantaloupe
Cucumber sesame salad
Main Course
Roasted chicken breast
Seasoned rice and tomato salsa
Teriyaki beef
Steamed rice and sugar snap peas
Dessert
Eli's Lemon cheesecake
Prior to Arrival
Thai chicken pasta
Or
Turkey and cheese focaccia
Wines
Georges Duboeuf Merlot
Fortant de France Chardonnay
BUSINESS
To Begin
Cumin scallops and spiced shrimp
Plum tomato petals and sautéed escarole
Garden fresh salad
Asian sesame ginger or blue cheese dressing
Main Course
Filet mignon with barbecue relish
Mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas with cilantro
Grilled sea bass with Asian chutney
Egg noodles with sesame seeds and a vegetable medley
Chicken curry with red bliss potatoes
Steamed rice and haricots verts
Dessert
Whipped Stilton cheese with sautéed sliced bread
Fresh fruit and a glass of Sandeman's Porto
Eli's Praline cheesecake
Prior to Arrival
Identical to First Class
Wines
Brut Carte d'Or non-vintage
Brut Fleur de Champagne non-vintage
Pinot Blanc 1999
Macon Villages 1999
De Loach California 1999
Robert Mondavi-coastal central coast 1999
Chateau St. Bonnet Haut-medoc 1996
Chateau de By Medoc 1998
Kiona Washington 1999
Barossa Valley Estate 1998