kempis
Jun 17, 02, 11:24 am
After being home for a couple of days its time to write a report about my latest trip to China and Beijing.
In mid May SAS did have a special campaign, which offered tickets booked that day for a discount of 50%. Of course I thought it was to good to pass on so I did book XXX-ARN-CPH-BJS for a total of 4500SEK and I paid the ticket with a 400$ voucher that I got in January so in the end I only paid 444SEK for a trip to Beijing and almost 10K status Aeroplan miles.
I left my local airport on the 13th of June and for the first this year I didn’t take the redeye flight but took a flight leaving around lunchtime. I had arrange with my dad that he should drive me and my friend to the airport but as usual my dad was late L It all ended with that around 15-20 minutes before departure the airport called my friends cell phone and asked where we were. We said we will be right there and about one or two minutes later we had checked in as the last passengers (all others where already onboard).
The flight down to Stockholm Arlanda was nothing to write home about. Just a normal SAS domestic flight. In Stockholm we headed straight for the lounge where we sat down and relaxed for a few hours. I know that our flight down to CPH was a bit overbooked so I tried to volunteer but they said its not so much overbooked and we don’t need any volunteers.
The flight down to CPH was my 2nd flight with the new Scandinavian Direct concept. What’s that? SAS has only one cabin now on domestic and intra scand routes. I actually like the concept and the food is superior if you compare what US airlines gives you on short haul routes.
My problems with CPH seem to continue. One hour after our arrival in the Danish capital we heard that the mechanics where on strike! This meant that all flights out of CPH were delayed and our 19.45 departure was not expected until 21.00. Therefore we left the gate and headed for the gate where we waited and watched the monitors.
About 20.30 we heard that SAS was paging two persons from Suomi Finland travelling on SK995 to Beijing but we didn’t pay much more attention to that. A few minutes later we thought it was time to head for the gate. We where surprised when we found the gate area to be empty and everyone was onboard already J When we entered the aircraft the FA gave us a few comments.
I had booked seat 31H and G which was recommend buy someone from FT who had been on the new A340 before. Those seats are great and you have a lot of legroom. I would actually prefer those seats ahead of economy extra (unless you get the first row of economy extra). Another good thing about row 31 is that you have a FA sitting and looking at you during take off and landing. Our FA who was sitting with us was very nice and we talked quite a bit during take off and landing.
So how was the A340 experience?
I would say I fell in love with an aircraft. The new entertainment system was as good as I had expected and I watched one movie (staring Stellan Skarsgårds son) and played a few arcade games. Due to the delay in CPH we arrived in BJS a bit late but we didn’t mind since we had such a great flight over. The flight time was about 8 hours and 45 minutes but it didn’t felt that long.
After arrival in BJS we headed straight for a taxi. Since I always try to fly with just carry on we where the first one reaching the taxis. We took a taxi and soon found out we had been cheated. I heard that a taxi would be around 100CNY to downtown but our guy wanted over 400 to start with. After some dealing the price was 170CNY, which wasn’t to bad, but still I thought it was a bit high (only paid 130 on the return though) but I didn’t want to start to argue about that so we settle with 170.
Our hotel in Beijing for our three days stay was Swissotel which was located in downtown Beijing and had a nice rate of 95$ including taxes and breakfast.
On Saturday (our 2nd day in China) we took a private tour to the Great Wall of China. We did book this through Panda Tours who had a special desk in the lobby area of our hotel. Would I recommend them? Probably not. Why? Well the tour did cost us 400CNY. Actually it was not a tour, just a guy driving is to and from the Great Wall. Admission to the Great Wall was not included and ended up costing another 90CNY. The biggest problem with our driver was that he didn’t know a single word of English, which made communication pretty hard, and if we wanted to say something he did call someone on his cell that could translate.
Finally we reached the Great Wall after about 1,5-2 hours in the car. I am not sure exactly how long it took since I was sleeping most of the time.
The Great Wall was a great experience and an amazing building. It was easily worth the driving time to get there. Its just amazing how they could build something big like that so many years ago. So tell me, do you actually see this from the moon? People says that but the wall isn’t that big or?
On our 2nd day in Beijing it was time to search downtown and look at the Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both of them were quite amazing though I believe the Great Wall was the main event of the trip.
We did also visit the silk market located right by the Cuban and Ethiopian embassy. Wow, that was cheap. I ended up buying so many clothes so I even had to buy a new suitcase but with those prices I don’t mind.
As you might know the World Cup is going on in Korea and Japan during this time and one Sunday it was time for Sweden to play again. I looked at the game against Senegal and a bar with about 30 fellow Swedes. The atmosphere was great until Senegal scored that goal in overtime and ended up winning 2-1. I think that Senegal deserved the win and I am proud of the way Sweden played in this tournament. Only four years til Germany 2006 and then…
So how was Swissotel Beijing?
I liked the hotel though I wouldn’t mind an upgrade but that didn’t happen since I am nowhere gold in the program that Swissotel has. I am actually not even a member but that’s another story. Our room was located on the 4th floor and was ok. The hotel also had a business centre with one of the highest internet rates I have ever seen. I think it was about 3CNY per minute with five minutes of minimum time.
The restaurant where we had breakfast and dinner was good. The breakfast buffet was as big as any European hotel and also had some nice local Chinese food.
The staff at the hotel was very friendly and they wrote us notes in Chinese everytime we had to taxi somewhere. The hotel also had a bank and post office located inside, which was very good to exchange money, and post postcards back home.
Time for the return back to Sweden
I know that our flight back home was pretty overbooked so I was hoping for an OP upgrade or denied boarding when I was sitting in the taxi out to the airport. When we arrived to the airport I headed for the business class check in (Star Gold) and asked them if they needed volunteers. They said no but they also said that the economy cabin was pretty full. I then say, how about an upgrade to business class since I am Star Gold. They did agree and I also try to upgrade my travel companion but that didn’t work. At least he was upgraded to economy extra.
I had seat 8B and this was my first business class segment on the new A340 and it was actually my 2nd OP upgrade intercont on SK for the year. It looks like SAS is one of the best airlines to treat Star Gold. I will continue to have SK as my first choice and hoping that next op upgrade will not be so far away.
So how was business class?
It was a great experience and I only have one bad comment. The entertainment system was exactly the same as economy and you couldn’t choose the starting time of the movies. I did only watch one movie staring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. I don’t recall the title but I could recommend it.
I did forget to bring the menu back home so I can’t give you the meal details. All I know that I had some pork thing for dinner together with red wine which was very good. As usual my friends at work (yes I work for a specific airline) choose to surprise me on the flight. I had expected to get a birthday cake on the flight (Its not my birthday but they seem to think I need a cake or whatever) and I told one of the FA that I had probably a cake ordered but I wasn’t interested in it. She said she take care of that but she was to late and a few minutes later another one of the FA did came with a big birthday cake.
So what did the rest of the business class cabin do? They sang Happy Birthday to me and I wished for the first time in the flight that I were somewhere else. Since the cake was pretty big I ended up sharing with the other passengers seated in the 2nd business class cabin.
Arrival in CPH was on time but as usual the problem started as soon as I had reached CPH airport. Was it a strike this time? No, this time the radar was broken which led into major delays and for a moment I thought I was going to miss my domestic flight back home from Stockholm later in the evening. I tried to rebook my CPH-ARN and get on an earlier aircraft but since I had checked in baggage I couldn’t do that.
In the end the delays weren’t as big as I first expected and I just made it on time for my domestic flight back home. This domestic flight was actually the last for the evening, which would have ment one overnight at Arlanda if I had missed.
So what do I think about this flight?
+ The New Airbus 340. Great
+ OP Upgrade
+ Almost 11K status Aeroplan miles
I hop you enjoyed this reading and I am looking forward to read YOUR trip report in the near future. Have a nice flight and remember that SK flies more routes then BKK-SIN http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by kempis (edited 06-22-2002).]
In mid May SAS did have a special campaign, which offered tickets booked that day for a discount of 50%. Of course I thought it was to good to pass on so I did book XXX-ARN-CPH-BJS for a total of 4500SEK and I paid the ticket with a 400$ voucher that I got in January so in the end I only paid 444SEK for a trip to Beijing and almost 10K status Aeroplan miles.
I left my local airport on the 13th of June and for the first this year I didn’t take the redeye flight but took a flight leaving around lunchtime. I had arrange with my dad that he should drive me and my friend to the airport but as usual my dad was late L It all ended with that around 15-20 minutes before departure the airport called my friends cell phone and asked where we were. We said we will be right there and about one or two minutes later we had checked in as the last passengers (all others where already onboard).
The flight down to Stockholm Arlanda was nothing to write home about. Just a normal SAS domestic flight. In Stockholm we headed straight for the lounge where we sat down and relaxed for a few hours. I know that our flight down to CPH was a bit overbooked so I tried to volunteer but they said its not so much overbooked and we don’t need any volunteers.
The flight down to CPH was my 2nd flight with the new Scandinavian Direct concept. What’s that? SAS has only one cabin now on domestic and intra scand routes. I actually like the concept and the food is superior if you compare what US airlines gives you on short haul routes.
My problems with CPH seem to continue. One hour after our arrival in the Danish capital we heard that the mechanics where on strike! This meant that all flights out of CPH were delayed and our 19.45 departure was not expected until 21.00. Therefore we left the gate and headed for the gate where we waited and watched the monitors.
About 20.30 we heard that SAS was paging two persons from Suomi Finland travelling on SK995 to Beijing but we didn’t pay much more attention to that. A few minutes later we thought it was time to head for the gate. We where surprised when we found the gate area to be empty and everyone was onboard already J When we entered the aircraft the FA gave us a few comments.
I had booked seat 31H and G which was recommend buy someone from FT who had been on the new A340 before. Those seats are great and you have a lot of legroom. I would actually prefer those seats ahead of economy extra (unless you get the first row of economy extra). Another good thing about row 31 is that you have a FA sitting and looking at you during take off and landing. Our FA who was sitting with us was very nice and we talked quite a bit during take off and landing.
So how was the A340 experience?
I would say I fell in love with an aircraft. The new entertainment system was as good as I had expected and I watched one movie (staring Stellan Skarsgårds son) and played a few arcade games. Due to the delay in CPH we arrived in BJS a bit late but we didn’t mind since we had such a great flight over. The flight time was about 8 hours and 45 minutes but it didn’t felt that long.
After arrival in BJS we headed straight for a taxi. Since I always try to fly with just carry on we where the first one reaching the taxis. We took a taxi and soon found out we had been cheated. I heard that a taxi would be around 100CNY to downtown but our guy wanted over 400 to start with. After some dealing the price was 170CNY, which wasn’t to bad, but still I thought it was a bit high (only paid 130 on the return though) but I didn’t want to start to argue about that so we settle with 170.
Our hotel in Beijing for our three days stay was Swissotel which was located in downtown Beijing and had a nice rate of 95$ including taxes and breakfast.
On Saturday (our 2nd day in China) we took a private tour to the Great Wall of China. We did book this through Panda Tours who had a special desk in the lobby area of our hotel. Would I recommend them? Probably not. Why? Well the tour did cost us 400CNY. Actually it was not a tour, just a guy driving is to and from the Great Wall. Admission to the Great Wall was not included and ended up costing another 90CNY. The biggest problem with our driver was that he didn’t know a single word of English, which made communication pretty hard, and if we wanted to say something he did call someone on his cell that could translate.
Finally we reached the Great Wall after about 1,5-2 hours in the car. I am not sure exactly how long it took since I was sleeping most of the time.
The Great Wall was a great experience and an amazing building. It was easily worth the driving time to get there. Its just amazing how they could build something big like that so many years ago. So tell me, do you actually see this from the moon? People says that but the wall isn’t that big or?
On our 2nd day in Beijing it was time to search downtown and look at the Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both of them were quite amazing though I believe the Great Wall was the main event of the trip.
We did also visit the silk market located right by the Cuban and Ethiopian embassy. Wow, that was cheap. I ended up buying so many clothes so I even had to buy a new suitcase but with those prices I don’t mind.
As you might know the World Cup is going on in Korea and Japan during this time and one Sunday it was time for Sweden to play again. I looked at the game against Senegal and a bar with about 30 fellow Swedes. The atmosphere was great until Senegal scored that goal in overtime and ended up winning 2-1. I think that Senegal deserved the win and I am proud of the way Sweden played in this tournament. Only four years til Germany 2006 and then…
So how was Swissotel Beijing?
I liked the hotel though I wouldn’t mind an upgrade but that didn’t happen since I am nowhere gold in the program that Swissotel has. I am actually not even a member but that’s another story. Our room was located on the 4th floor and was ok. The hotel also had a business centre with one of the highest internet rates I have ever seen. I think it was about 3CNY per minute with five minutes of minimum time.
The restaurant where we had breakfast and dinner was good. The breakfast buffet was as big as any European hotel and also had some nice local Chinese food.
The staff at the hotel was very friendly and they wrote us notes in Chinese everytime we had to taxi somewhere. The hotel also had a bank and post office located inside, which was very good to exchange money, and post postcards back home.
Time for the return back to Sweden
I know that our flight back home was pretty overbooked so I was hoping for an OP upgrade or denied boarding when I was sitting in the taxi out to the airport. When we arrived to the airport I headed for the business class check in (Star Gold) and asked them if they needed volunteers. They said no but they also said that the economy cabin was pretty full. I then say, how about an upgrade to business class since I am Star Gold. They did agree and I also try to upgrade my travel companion but that didn’t work. At least he was upgraded to economy extra.
I had seat 8B and this was my first business class segment on the new A340 and it was actually my 2nd OP upgrade intercont on SK for the year. It looks like SAS is one of the best airlines to treat Star Gold. I will continue to have SK as my first choice and hoping that next op upgrade will not be so far away.
So how was business class?
It was a great experience and I only have one bad comment. The entertainment system was exactly the same as economy and you couldn’t choose the starting time of the movies. I did only watch one movie staring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. I don’t recall the title but I could recommend it.
I did forget to bring the menu back home so I can’t give you the meal details. All I know that I had some pork thing for dinner together with red wine which was very good. As usual my friends at work (yes I work for a specific airline) choose to surprise me on the flight. I had expected to get a birthday cake on the flight (Its not my birthday but they seem to think I need a cake or whatever) and I told one of the FA that I had probably a cake ordered but I wasn’t interested in it. She said she take care of that but she was to late and a few minutes later another one of the FA did came with a big birthday cake.
So what did the rest of the business class cabin do? They sang Happy Birthday to me and I wished for the first time in the flight that I were somewhere else. Since the cake was pretty big I ended up sharing with the other passengers seated in the 2nd business class cabin.
Arrival in CPH was on time but as usual the problem started as soon as I had reached CPH airport. Was it a strike this time? No, this time the radar was broken which led into major delays and for a moment I thought I was going to miss my domestic flight back home from Stockholm later in the evening. I tried to rebook my CPH-ARN and get on an earlier aircraft but since I had checked in baggage I couldn’t do that.
In the end the delays weren’t as big as I first expected and I just made it on time for my domestic flight back home. This domestic flight was actually the last for the evening, which would have ment one overnight at Arlanda if I had missed.
So what do I think about this flight?
+ The New Airbus 340. Great
+ OP Upgrade
+ Almost 11K status Aeroplan miles
I hop you enjoyed this reading and I am looking forward to read YOUR trip report in the near future. Have a nice flight and remember that SK flies more routes then BKK-SIN http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by kempis (edited 06-22-2002).]