B Watson
Oct 20, 02, 4:07 pm
5 October
ORD – NRT
UA883
13:30
747
F – seat 5J
Check-in at the United First Class counter in Chicago was the single best handled check-in by United that I have experienced in recent memory. There was no waiting and the individual was extremely capable, efficient, and personable. She noted that my bag was overweight a few pounds but didn’t make an issue out of it – rather simply wanted me to know in case it became a problem at a future stop.
I made my way to the first class lounge which was surprisingly full in light of the fact that there was only one other possible flight scheduled at a close enough time to populate the lounge. In any case, all the sushi and cheese had been depleted and a couple of us grabbed a passing concierge to inquire about getting it restocked. She went to the front desk and retrieved the lounge attendant who I recall having seen sitting chatting with the front desk staff when I checked into the lounge. It was with some great frustration that he came to restock and proceed to go around the lounge cleaning up all of the dirty plates that had been left. I guess I am supposed to feel guilty that I interrupted him from his social afternoon.
This is a trend that I fail to understand in general – why is that it people think that their work time is a social opportunity? They are being paid to perform a function not to “hang out” with their friends. This certainly is not limited to the airline industry but seems to be a chronic problem in the American workplace. I shudder to think about the amount of productivity lost in our society on an the average day from this kind of nonsense.
When boarding was called, there was no concierge escort to the gate meaning that all of us queued up with a significant business class line. I’ve noticed that UA first class concierges seem to be fewer and further between and that boarding assistance is often not provided. One would have to say that this is probably a reasonable economy move from UA’s perspective, but they should at least let us know that this is their policy and not continue to advertise the personal concierge service.
Aside from the large business class queue and the associated delay in boarding, the balance of the boarding process was relatively efficient. First class was full with only a minimal amount of seat trading going on prior to the door closing. Since my assistant was unable to arrange an obento meal prior to my departure, I contacted the purser upon boarding and asked that one be set aside. This worked out and I learned that five obento meals are generally catered for first class. I assume this is load adjusted so that means a five out of fourteen probability of getting the meal if it isn’t preordered. I noted the menu specifically refers to the suggestion that one should preorder if they want the obento meal. Given this is obviously a problem I would assume that they could simply cater additional meals. My guess is that the problem in this case is the cost of the meal and that having any go unused would be simply unpalatable.
I generally can’t stand row 5 on 747 since you end up with a collection of galley smells and noises/light from the galley and the incessant chatter of the flight attendants. The latter is something that I have never understood. If I had this job I would be reading a book when I wasn’t making my duty swings through the cabin. It now strikes me that I have never noticed a flight attendant doing this. Instead the entire time is spent discussing a general collection of inane comments.
Our taxi was a full 25 minutes with no updates from the flight deck explaining the delay. Additionally, channel 9 was not operational so we were totally in the dark.
After takeoff the in-flight entertainment system was experiencing a range of difficulties resulting in the entire aircraft having the cabin power recycled on multiple occasions. Ironically, my system was working fine until the third full reboot and then my screen failed. This proved to be not much of an inconvenience since being seated in 5J means you get the last choice of everything including personal video tapes.
This last choice of everything also applied to my appetizer selection, however in this case I ended up securing my preferred choice. The appetizer options were a coconut shrimp concoction, and prosciutto with provolone and asparagus. The latter was particularly unpopular and was my preferred choice in any case.
I have on a couple of other occasions made disparaging comments about the on-board wine selections on United. Simply put, they are, with the exception of the champagnes, a general selection of low grade wines. At least they are better than the other garbage served in the domestic first class cabin but ultimately I am disappointed at the lack of willingness to commit to any kind of depth in their cellar choices.
For this flight, we were offered a 1999 William Fevre Chablis, a 2000 Clos Du Val Napa Chard, a Château Croix de Beaucaillou Bordeaux which is actually an OK wine – or at least would be in 5 years - and a Mondovi Pinot Noir. This is in contrast to the champagne selection which was La Grande Dame. Now – La Grande Dame is not my favorite champagne but it is certainly an excellent and dignified selection. The challenge is in understanding why this relatively expensive champagne is catered and these very undistinguished wines are selected. I can only assume that passenger polls have identified a “brand name” awareness of champagnes and weakness in other areas of wine. Therefore, perhaps they feel they are getting the “most bang for the buck” by trading the money into a relative high profile champagne. In any case, ultimately it is confusing to me.
The Obento meal was certainly superior in the context of UA catering and vastly inferior to the comparble alternatives on NH, SQ, and CS. In any case, it was obviously better than the other menu choices which were so memorable that as I dictate this an hour after landing I have no recollection of the menu content!
I had an interesting chat with the Purser about sake. I noticed that the 2 passengers adjacent to me ordered the Obento meal and she inquired as to how they wanted her sake -- heated or at room temperature (I guess they don’t understand the concept of chilled but that was neither here nor there). When I observed to the Purser that I failed to understand why people would serve an excellent premium sake heated she confided to me that whenever a passenger asks for heated sake she used the selection from business class saving the first class sake for those who drank it “at room temperature”.
I always think daytime overseas flight to be the most challenging in terms of sleep pattern adjustment so I took the required naps a couple of times as well as catching up on a vast amount of paper work. Fortunately, being a 747 and not a 777, I had no difficulty getting an operational empower port and was able to get quite a bit of work done in the course of the trip.
As an interesting side, this was an extremely rough flight pretty much from Alaska all the way to Japan. Enough so that service was somewhat problematic, particularly during the pre-arrival refreshment.
I ordered a mid-flight nosh since I was feeling a bit peekish. I decided to have the turkey and cheese on focaccia. I have been preconditioned to these in the first class lounge. The sandwich was generally acceptable although I was incredibly disappointed at the presentation. In fact, presentation is a horrific misnomer since the sandwich was simply placed on a cup saucer while still in its plastic packaging. The flight attendant had simply warmed up the sandwich and slapped it on a plate and brought it to me. What was interesting here was that the FA who handled this was a relatively young person and very much not in the category that many of us tend to characterize the UA International FAs . In fact, both FAs and the Purser were generally in evidence and responsive to our questions and service needs. The young lady who handled the sandwich was very friendly, helpful, and alert throughout the flight. Ultimately, the problem here is two fold:
1) An obvious lack of satisfactory training in something this fundamental.
2) Of greater concern is that this individual simply lacks a sufficient personal frame of reference to recognize that this was an inappropriate way to serve a meal of any kind to any passenger let alone an international first class passenger.
I find this whole issue illustrative since it must be incredibly difficult to train people to provide proper service if in their own upbringing they have not learned even the most fundamental concepts.
I skipped the pre-arrival snack and therefore can not offer you any commentary on that subject. As a result of our ground hold in Chicago, our arrival was delayed by approximately 30 minutes. We were met by a concierge who seemed to disappear after passing out first class lounge invitations for transit passengers. Interestingly, certainly half, and I think somewhat more than half, of the first class cabin were in transit so clearly United is getting continued leverage out of this whole deal with their fifth freedom rights ex NRT.
The concierge disappeared and we were on our own to queue up and go through security for transit passengers. This was fairly disappointing since the line was about 15 minutes long and could have been expedited with the assistance of a first class concierge.
The UA First Class lounge in Narita was a disappointing facility in light of how important this intra Asian hub is to the carrier. Particularly shocking for me was that neither lounge area had any food of any variety out during my visit. Literally – nothing. This is simply a travesty – a Red Carpet Club in the US would have been better stocked.
In light of the fact that this is an American airline with many American customers I found it logical and insightful that the lounge had US specification power plugs and data jacks throughout.
6 October
NRT – TPE
UA801
18:25
777
F – seat 2J
I left the first class lounge just a few minutes before departure and I was one of the last people to board the aircraft. There was a strange shuffling of a couple of first class passengers who were settled into their seats but were downgraded to accommodate other passengers. I never really got a handle on this odd process.
Our departure was delayed about 30 minutes as were sequenced into traffic but we did utilize the new runway at Narita. Without working through the numbers, I would expect that we were approaching the weight limit for this new shorter runway. I noted during rollout a couple of Northwest A320s – I find it quite intriguing that they elected to take advantage of this new runway and slots to utilize the A320 for service within Asia from Tokyo. While this is no doubt an excellent business decision for Northwest and frankly quite innovative, I can not imagine actually getting transferred to that aircraft for an additional 2-4 hours of flying.
I was fortunate enough to be on one of the few 777s with operational empower ports but not with channel 9 enabled. The service from this Tokyo based crew was very good as has always been my experience with UA overseas stations. It really is a cultural problem that Americans provide such a horrible standard of service. Here is the same airline with the same policies flying the same aircraft yet it feels like an entirely different carrier when staffed with an Asian based crew. There is a real message wrapped up in that.
Supper service consisted of an appetizer of herb marinated shrimp and four main courses. The options were oriental braised veal chop, lemon pressed chicken with a ginger lime sauce, a combination of chicken, crab, shrimp and scallops in a Thai curry sauce and a hero sub sandwich with New England clam chowder. I tried the mixed seafood in curry and found it acceptable if uninspired. The wine selections on this sector were identical to those offered to Narita from Chicago.
Of particular aggravation was a bit of a problem I had with the overhead lighting. As those of you who fly the first suite on the 777 are aware, the lighting arrangements are somewhat strange. I believe this is a consequence of the retrofit of the first suite and the old design. But in any case, the seat light turns on in sequence; first the light directly above you, then the next light in front of you, both lights together, and finally both lights off. This seems to be a challenge for most passengers since they don’t seem to understand the sequence. In my case, the person behind me who had elected to sleep had the light on which was providing a spotlight glaring down upon me. I finally stopped the purser as he was going through the cabin and explained that the passenger behind me must not be aware of how the lights work and if, as it was so apparent, he was not planning on needing the light perhaps it could be turned off. The amusing part of this is that the purser didn’t understand the light sequences and I had to demonstrate with my own seat how this sequence works between the 2 lights. What shocks me here is how generally unobservant people are. I can not imagine being a purser working on this equipment and not either having enough curiosity or enough attention to detail to have learned this at some point or another in the course of my travels. Do people really have such a little quest/thirst for knowledge?
After the meal I elected to watch a movie instead of finishing up the work that I should be completing. The net result is that I have set myself up for some additional burden once I get to the hotel, but I am a bit tired at the moment and feel that the rest would do me well.
This flight was also full in first class and once again it appeared to be full of revenue passengers just like my ORD-NRT segment. If that is the case, this bodes rather well for United. I would love to see a break out of route profitability since clearly a full first class cabin and a substantial load in business goes a long way to making a flight nicely profitable.
It was not surprising to me that there wasn’t any kind of arrival concierge at Taipei in light of the fact that this is a once a day station for United and a new station at that. I endured the normal extended delay in getting through immigration at CKS airport and noticed two people carrying American passports were pulled aside and marched to the “little room” because they didn’t have Visas. News to me – in my several trips to the ROC I have never had a Visa and it is not a requirement for US citizens. It also can’t have anything to do with mainland China visits since my passport is full of PRC visas.
My luggage was waiting on the carousel upon my arrival which was a good thing since the carousel stopped running right as I entered baggage claim. There were no more than about 25 bags on it at this point and by the time I left the customs area it had not restarted.
I truly despise this airport in every possible way. It is a classic example of ill conceived design built a long time ago, built cheaply, and supported by an economy that has far outpaced its capacity. Now with the significant economic slump that Taiwan has been experiencing, I don’t think we are going to be seeing much in the way of major renovation projects. Taipei clearly is in competition with Bangkok as the worst airport for a major Asian capital. (I even include Manila in that).
I found my driver in short order and headed off for the 45 minutes trip to the city. My hotel choices in Taipei have over the years evolved from the Regent to the Sherwood and now to the Grand Hyatt. There is no doubt that the Sherwood provides a more classically European setting and was my significant preference for several years. However, the Hyatt does a truly amazing job of being a large hotel (860 rooms) and still delivering a high quality of personal service. I am not a big Hyatt fan spending most of my time at either a notable independent or high end major chain like Four Seasons, Peninsula, and Orient Express. Having said that, the Hyatts in Asia are really an entirely different show from the Hyatts in North America. The Park Hyatt Tokyo is one of my favorite hotels and the Grand Hyatt TPE, despite its imposing size, has become my home away from home in Taipei.
The Taiwanese love buffet restaurants which would ordinarily spell complete disaster for me. However, in this hotel there is a unique Japanese restaurant that is set up and run buffet style. However, most of the operation is either cook to order or made to order –if not immediately for you within a few minutes of your approaching the tables. The arrangement is interesting with a large square containing 8-9 chefs working the middle with the food presented around them. If you are going to do buffet style, this is the way to do it and I actually am looking forward to dinner at this restaurant.
Another thing is that if you are gong to stay at one of the Grand Hyatts in Asia be sure to book on the Grand Club level. This is massively more elaborate than a US Regency club providing truly specialized services, check-in facilities within the club lounge, and excellent food and beverage offerings including rather thorough breakfasts. My only frustration with this hotel is they do not seem to in any way recognize my Hyatt Diamond status – as is often the case with hotel affinity programs they work better in the US than they do with their overseas affiliates.
8 October
TPE – HKG
TG631
08:30
777-200
J – seat 15G
I made an early departure from my hotel to catch the morning Thai Airways flight to Hong Kong. Check-in at the airport was efficient with 2 lines dedicated to business class/star gold. As is fairly typical of Asian short haul flights these days, there is no first class service on the TG equipment that operates this route.
Most of the lounge facilities in Taipei terminal 1 are down a mezzanine hallway before departure control. Unfortunately, all of these lounges are rather sad little affairs and the TG operation is no exception. Fortunately, there were a couple of decent early morning food options including a warm cabinet with a selection of pork buns. The lounge had about 25 people waiting for the flight and had the capacity of approximately 40.
It is interesting to note that the SQ lounge, which was formerly across the hall from the TG lounge, has apparently moved. I was unable to determine where it has moved but I hope it has progressed to the other side of departure control and security or perhaps terminal 2. Fundamentally, the only quality lounge in Taipei is the new CX lounge. This exceptionally large and well appointed facility also includes a dedicated first class room and is the clear winner in the lounge competition.
I endured the normal departure control and security lines that CKS airport seems to always create and proceeded directly to the gate. I have always been intrigued at the fact that I do not see any lifts but only a flight of stairs down into each of the departure hold areas at each gate. Surely, even though this airport has been around for awhile, there must be some way to accommodate passengers who cannot scale those steps. Escalators of course would be absolutely out of the question!
TG operates fundamentally different configurations for their two 777 families. The 200 model, which operated this flight, is with 8 across seating in business class. The 300 model is configured with 7 across, which is of course the more traditional business class implementation. Obviously, the seats are somewhat narrow and the pitch is not terribly generous. While it is perfectly acceptable for this short hall regionally, one would hope they are judicious about never considering putting this equipment on longer haul sectors.
I am either dealing with some sort of optical illusion or personally induced optimism, but I am convinced that the center section has a greater pitch. I was fortunate in that the adjacent seat was empty and I was able to achieve adequate comfort for this short hop. Food service is something they have worked out to pretty well an art form in terms of accommodating the entire cabin as quickly as possible. Initially, the FA’s came through with trays of pre-departure juice and water followed by amenities and printed menus. Breakfast options were a plain omelet with chicken sausages or rice noodles with red snapper and Thai beans. I elected to have the former and my order was secured prior to pushing back.
Our taxi was relatively short and our departure efficient. Meal service began immediately after climb out with linens being initially distributed and then trays being hand carried. TG seems to be in the club with terribly modest expectations in terms of their plastic cutlery. Everything was metal with the exception of the knives which were truly McDonald’s grade in every possible sense. I remain convinced that UA wins the plastic cutlery challenge.
The omelet truly was plain but it was surprisingly fluffy and warm. The chicken sausages were more than adequate and the basket of croissants which progressed through the cabin repeatedly were absolutely fabulous. FAs carried around pots of Chinese tea, English tea, and coffee and everyone was well taken care of without imposing any feeling of being rushed.
Despite my feeling that there was an adequate amount of pitch, the seat recline is quite limited as well as the extension of the leg rest being equally constrained. Again, I reiterate that this would not be a comfortable aircraft to fly for extended periods, however, this needs to be put in the context of single aisle equipment with 34 inch pitch being marketed as perfectly acceptable product for domestic first class in the US for sectors as long as 6 hours. I would like to see the airlines try that in Asia! (It will be interesting to see if this experiment at Narita plays for Northwest).
Arrival in Hong Kong was at a gate out on one of the piers necessitating a trip in the train system. This is probably the most efficient of all of the airport trains and I have always found the process painless. It is rare that I ride these since it seems invariably all of my SQ and CX flights leave from reasonably close gates and United provides buggies for their first class passengers to the Siberian location of their gates.
As I exited the aircraft, the CX ground handling agent meeting the plane had my name on a message board. My assistant had booked accommodations for me at the Mandarin Oriental and had not secured an airport transfer. This is because I was flying in with a colleague whose office was sending a car to pick us up. In any case, the hotel became concerned about this apparent omission and left a message that a car had been arranged at their behest and that I should contact their transportation desk. All of this notwithstanding the fact that during the vast majority of my travels to Hong Kong I utilize the Peninsula. As a result, the Mandarin has a much smaller base of information to work with in terms of identifying my patterns; however, this clearly was a standout since I generally always use a hotel car to and from the airport. Good job Mandarin! Immigration processing was efficient and I was on my way to the city within 30 minutes of landing.
As I mentioned, I almost always stay at the Peninsula. This represents somewhat of a problem for me in that the Mandarin clearly has the vastly superior location yet the Peninsula, in my eyes, is the world’s finest hotel. I find myself motivated to stay at the Mandarin about once a year and invariably I find the experience to be disappointing, and as a result go back to the Peninsula. That was certainly my experience on this trip. The rooms at the Mandarin are small and desperately dated with their single redeeming feature being the balconies. This in contrast to the lavish proportions and appointments of the Peninsula rooms eases the choice. From a service prospective, while the Mandarin is certainly very acceptable, it simply is not in the league of the attention to detail and focus of the Peninsula. The Mandarin is now 40 years old and enjoyed an important reputation at bringing the establishment of a truly international quality luxury hotel to Hong Kong Island. I fear it has been resting on its laurels for at least the last decade and no doubt longer. The opening of the new Four Seasons should raise the bar for everyone and create interesting times for the Hong Kong hotel market.
One of the great qualities of the Mandarin is the superb variety and quality of food service. I am of a mind that the Mandarin has the finest hotel restaurants in Hong Kong which becomes a consideration for me in an attempt to pack in as many meetings as possible in as short of time frame as possible. Leaving the hotel simply becomes somewhat more challenging if I am attempting a one day trip like this one. I am a particular fan of the little lunch buffet at the Captain’s Bar. As a general rule, I can’t stand buffet presentations, but this very intimate room with a nice selection of cold hors d’oeuvres, sushi, nice warm dishes and a slice from the daily roast has become one of my favorite lunches in Central. Additionally, it never seems to be more than half full it certainly makes the process even more attractive.
The other supreme advantage of the Mandarin is its connection to the integrated and interconnected array of buildings of Central. It seems to be possible to get most everywhere I go without ever stepping outside, which can certainly have some advantages during the summer!
I enjoyed an excellent dinner with a fellow FTer and still had time the next day to kill a few minutes shopping. Unfortunately, I was a little overly aggressive in my shopping and now have created a severe weight problem. Given that my primary bag was already overweight and I will be facing with the carry on Nazis in Australia it was time to do the unthinkable – create another box!
For those of you who read my last trip report, I ended up schlepping a box half way around the world with some materials for my office in Australia. In this case, I have now voluntarily strapped myself with a monstrous box holding all of my excessive purchases. This has a couple of penalties, the most obvious one being logistics and the other being the necessity to be scrupulously honest in the customs disclosure form when entering the US. The box is an invitation for inspection and all of my purchases would be nicely segregated for inventory. Regrettably, I will be exceeding the free allowance by an order of magnitude so I suspect my arrival to the US will be delayed with processing my duty.
9 October
HKG – SIN
SQ859
13:30
747
F – seat 1A
My hotel car dropped me at the airport at noon for my 1:30 departure. As is the case with all of the premier hotels in Hong Kong, a hotel attendant met the car and handled my bags and assisted me with the process. My check in at the Singapore first class counter was seamless.
My retroactive PPS club credit seems to have now gone through since I got the appropriate sticker fixed to my boarding pass. I posted a thread in the SQ Forum talking about this little saga – the issue stems from me having a misconception several years ago that I could only accrue miles to my UA account. Now, of course, you can’t double dip on the miles, but there is enough an opportunity to accrue status points with SQ and have the miles accrue with UA. The net result is that I have missed the opportunity for PPS membership. This comes from flying 50,000 paid miles annually (or any rolling 12 month period) in business or first class only for at least 7 years. The benefits are substantial in that SQ goes out of their way to accommodate their PPS customers – often at the expense of Star Gold customers. Additionally, the PPS card for Singapore is also a Star Gold card and I am curious to know if I will end up with any issues in trying to use it at domestic RCCs. Having just renewed my RCC membership, I have a year to test this and determine if it is possible to withdrawl from the membership.
After five consecutive uninterrupted years of PPS club qualification you become PPS Solitaire which is the status obviously reserved for SQ’s most valuable customers. I have easily accrued sufficient mileage over the requisite five year period to qualify, however, the glitch in my understanding about this dual entry system has no doubt made it impossible to obtain retroactive Solitaire membership. I should point out that it was the FT SQ forum that educated me on being able to secure Singapore status and accrue my miles to UA. Thanks again FT!
As I previously commented, the first class lounge for SQ in Hong Kong is a modest affair. It was recently pointed out to me on this board that the previous SQ first class lounge was an even sadder operation. It has only been in the course of the last couple of years that I have flown Singapore at all out of Hong Kong so my only memories go all the way back to Kai Tak where the SQ facilities were no worse and no better than anyone else.
I made my way to gate 24 and began a seating shuffle process when I boarded. This was a consequence of the old first class equipment which means three rows of 2-2 seating and a fourth row of 1-2-1. I always book a seat in the single seat 4th row side with intention of then changing to a seat with an empty adjacent if that becomes available. 4A, which is one of the single seats, is certainly preferable to being seated next to somebody but since it is also by the main entrance door and next to the galley it tends to have a lot of traffic and a lot of noise. The in-flight services supervisor spoke to me as I boarded suggesting that load level is relatively light today and that he was sure that I might be more comfortable in a 2 x 2 seat. He checked the manifest and determined which seat would be available without a companion and I moved myself to 1A. What is significant here is the understanding by this staff that passengers have strong desires for certain types of seating in certain times of circumstances. US airlines tend to prefer arguing with you rather than recognize that simple steps to accommodate your preferences can dramatically increase your perceived value of the experience.
I was on this same flight a few weeks ago and the food and wine choices are unchanged from that report. However, this time I arranged a book the cook meal from the new selection. I had ordered the chicken breast stuffed with cheese and served with a light cream sauce. I must say that this was generally quite wonderful and I enjoyed it. This is one of the items I would probably order again, however, I am certainly looking forward to my Kasieki dinner from Singapore to Sydney. I enjoyed the Wiltinger Scharzberg reisling-- which I eulogized about in the last report. (I enjoyed it enough to order a couple of cases from my wine broker). I also had a spectacular dessert – not a common event on an Asian airline. In this case, dessert was incredibly rich chocolate tart served with a couple of fresh raspberries and a little ice cream. This was generally well done and was quite enjoyable.
Since this was the old first class configuration, the description about the in-flight entertainment, and my frustration at the few aircraft in the Singapore fleet that seem to be equipped with the Wisemen interactive video system is moot. I think the bottom line here is that when it was their main stream configuration, this aircraft design was quite acceptable. The seats do go completely flat, have privacy dividers and interactive video systems. The problem is that the bar has been raised so much, notably by Singapore itself with the sky suite, that this service standard looks rather old at this point. In fact, the seats on this particular aircraft looked old and could stand refurbishing. I have not heard any good answers as to when these configurations will leave the fleet, but I hope it is soon. It is just clearly an inferior product to the sky suite.
The most disturbing aspect of this flight was the fact that my tray table had apparently been greased by maintenance. The net result was that my khakis became greased as my legs pressed against the bottom of the tray table. This is an extremely serious breach in my eyes and had I been wearing a suit the impact could have been substantial. In the event, the flight attendant materialized with a spray on fabric cleaner that did an exceptional job of removing the stain. I think this is an issue that SQ needs to take a serious look at since such a maintenance decision simply cannot be allowed to continue.
I found myself to be rather tired and dozed for about an hour on this flight which arrived on time at SIN. As I dictate this I am headed to the first class lounge to relax and grab a shower prior to my flight for Sydney.
9 October
SIN – SYD
SQ221
20:15
747
F – seat 1B
When I was checking into the first class lounge, I noted that my boarding pass to Sydney is marked with SQ Star Gold rather than UA Star Gold meaning that my mileage accrual would have been to my SilverKris account. I approached the desk expressing a significant concern about this since I had presented my UA card in Hong Kong. He indicated that it would not be possible for him to change the previous sector and that I would have to send in the paper work to United. I indicated that this would be problematic since they weren’t going to give me credit as a result of the fact that credit had already been given to me by SQ. As it turned out, this proved to be irrelevant since the boarding pass for the HKG to SIN sector was properly noted and he therefore simply made the adjustment to my next flight.
As I am sitting in the lounge awaiting my departure I have noticed something which causes me some point of confusion. A passenger has arrived wearing a set of blue coveralls with an enormous logo covering the entire back. I am not one who believes that a long airplane flight is a dress for success opportunity – I myself tend to wear baggy sweats and t-shirts four sizes too big since personal comfort is my primary motivator. I don’t always like feeling a little under dressed before arriving at a hotel like the Peninsula, but obviously coming off an overnight flight the arrival tends to be pretty early anyway so I guess the issue is fundamentally not important. However, while I am sure the coveralls were selected for their comfort, I must say that they really do create an interesting adjunct to our environment here. I say I am confused since I am not sure if I have an articulate position to take – I strongly believe thatpassengers should dress for their personal comfort and not for each others benefit. At the same time, the coveralls with a giant logo of a flaming oil well somehow seems a bit inappropriate.
I have just heard an announcement that the departure of my flight has been delayed nearly an hour. Unfortunately, they say this is because of tail winds shortening flight duration. The net result is that we will be arriving on time shrinking the already precipitously short sleep period on this flight even further. I vastly prefer taking the CX flight from Hong Kong to Australia since these flights are long enough to secure a normal night sleep. This Singapore to Australia route is painful to say the least.
This delay raises an answer to a question that I posed in another report. I understood the city had a firm 6am curfew. Since our flight is scheduled to arrive at 5:30am and an issue was specifically made of the fact that the delay was as a consequence of the strong tail winds, it would appear to me that the correct understanding is a 5:30am curfew. This is in direct contrast with what United told me about 2 months ago when we took a delay out of Los Angeles so that we could arrive for the “6am curfew”.
As a result of the delay our departure ended up being pushed back 45 minutes. There were eight of us in the first class cabin and I was able to get them to start my meal service immediately after take off. Ordinarily, I would forego the meal and bed down immediately, however, I was hungry and had ordered the Kaiseki meal through Book the Cook.
The Kaiseki meal was excellent and was served immediately after take off. This is often a problem since the Singapore attendants have their lock down order of service and tend to get uncomfortable at circumventing the proper sequence. I think the solution in this case may have been that we had an extremely young lead flight attendant in first class who perhaps was less ingrained with the “system”. Interestingly, nearly the entire first class cabin seemed to be eating. A fact I find unusual on such a short overnight flight.
After having two decanters of the excellent sake, the evening was winding down very quickly. I was able to secure my preferred seat 1B, which I have mentioned before is, in my personal opinion, the perfect location on the SQ 747-400. I find this to be preferable because it is all the way in the nose and completely isolates me from the rest of the cabin. For the same reason, other people seem to dislike this seat. I guess I come down on the privacy and isolation side of that debate.
This aircraft was equipped with the new in-flight entertainment system which I discussed in a previous report. The fundamental differences are a crisper screen, a new handset, and an entirely new suite of games. Additionally, this implementation includes a new laptop power port that utilizes the standard 2 prong North American plug. I certainly wouldn’t dispute the logic of moving from proprietary empower port to this model, however the net result is that we all now need to carry both power bricks with us on board when in the past I might occasionally pack my regular AC power in my checked luggage. Moreover, since they have adopted the North American 2 prong standard, one would have to carry with them their power plug adapter which I suspect many people leave in their checked luggage. I have been meaning to inquire if they carry an assortment of adapters on board to deal with such a contingency. In any case, be advised that if you are flying Singapore you need to be prepared for this power connection type.
I have finally sorted out the mystery of the Sydney curfews. This is tied to the approach routes. If the approach is from the North over the city then the 6am curfew applies. This is relaxed if the over water approach is being utilized. As a result, this better explains the challenges of reroutes and reschedules associated with the curfew issue. I would have thought that this could have been explained better on my previous flights that have encountered this particular delay issue. Thank you to the flight deck on this flight.
Arrival to Sydney was uneventful and I made my way through immigration. With the preprinted express card that SQ provides, I was able to utilize the express line which is usually a bit shorter. Today, it was significantly shorter indicating that another airline must have arrived slightly before us who does not have the capability of generating the preprinted express cards. (For clarification, this isn’t a fast trak type system as in London but the regular immigration card being preprinted with your I.D. and passport number. It is an accommodation generally offered by SQ, QF, CX and a few others.)
Baggage claim was a bit slow as it often tends to be in Sydney. Additionally, since I was now carrying a box with the gifts I had purchased in Hong Kong I ended up having to do a bit of research to determine its arrival location. In the past, if I had a shipping box with me it just came out on the baggage carousel, but today, notwithstanding the fact that this box was no larger or heavier than anything I have used in the past, it came out of the oversized baggage area. This kind of inconsistency is certainly aggravating.
I always find it interesting to note that somehow SQ manages to get first class bags off ahead of business class bags. While this is not an absolute, it is clear that the first class bags are at a minimum mingled in with the early business class bags. I find this to be station specific so it’s obviously a loading issue and what is interesting to me is the differentiation between first and business class luggage. I am convinced that most carriers simply treat priority luggage as priority luggage (if even that) and don’t treat first class luggage differently. This may be a minor issue, but in an aircraft on a long haul flight with a full business class cabin, it’s yet another perk of spending those extra few thousand dollars.
In as much as I have purchased some new chop sticks in Hong Kong, and with Australia being truly rabid about bringing in any wood products, I elected to declare the chop sticks. My caution comes from an experience a couple of years ago when Mrs B Watson and I had spent the Christmas holiday in Fiji and she had purchased several carved wood items and packed them in our luggage. Upon arriving in Sydney she completed our customs declaration and automatically checked off no-no-no-no-no. The net result is that when our bags were x-rayed and then hand checked I ended up pulling out wood piece after wood piece after wood piece. In fact, it seemed that we had an entire forest in our luggage and it is fair to say that the Sydney custom officers weren’t terribly amused.
Today however, a quick 10 second inspection of my chop sticks resulted in them being passed through (just so you don’t think I am entirely crazy here, I am not talking about sushi bar style wood chop sticks, but rather a finished ebony chop stick with a sterling silver cap – I am not sure I really would of bothered to declare the former). What I found interesting about this process is that there was no x-ray of my luggage. I have never gone through the green channel in Sydney without my luggage being interrogated by the x-ray machine. This may be a new technique for me to have some sort of minor piece of wood as a red herring and then slide through the red inspection point without having to take the time and go through the hassle of having my bag x-rayed. We’ll see if this works on my next trip.
I was able to find my driver efficiently enough and head off to the city. Since I was only in town for 10 hours I booked a day room at the Observatory Hotel. I have been quite effusive in other trip reports about the Observatory so I won’t bore everybody again other than to say that this Orient Express property is clearly the finest hotel in Sydney and in my opinion the finest hotel in the South Pacific. If any of you are traveling to Sydney and seek a truly first class property, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me and I can provide you with the name and contact details of the Managing Director.
10 October
SYD – BKK - LHR
QF1
16:55
747
F – seat 3K
I had a day of quick running around to appointments and was back at the airport at about 20 minutes after 3 for my 4:55 flight to London. I presented myself at the QF first class check-in counter which was completely vacant of customers. In the course of the next 10 minutes I was reminded why I try to avoid Qantas as much as possible. While I find that Qantas has made significant improvements to quality of on-board services, the check-in staff in Sydney is an absolute travesty.
Today’s process began with a giant and conspicuous look at her watch and then back to my eyes, back to the watch, back to my eyes and the significant disapproving frown for my having the audacity for checking in a mere 90 minutes before my flight. I presented my ticket and passport and then attempted to hand over my AA Exec Plat card. She looked at the card like it was a piece of dung and told me “I’ll get to that if we have time.” She did however reach forward and literally jerk the rest of my ticket out of my hand without asking. I fully understand that it is often necessary for your ticket to be inspected since some countries require proof of a ticket for your onboard or return journey. However, since our travel agent uses the old style four coupon floppy ticket books, I always tear my own coupon out and hand it over first. I have in the past been in a situation where 2 coupons were accidentally lifted which makes things rather complicated at the next stop. While I am often asked for the whole ticket, I have never had somebody actually reach forward and rip it out of my hands.
Next became the luggage interrogation process. She was extremely unhappy about checking my box and wanted to know in great detail precisely what was inside. I first explained that there were no fragile items, everything was well packed, and I packed it myself and that there were no flammable items. She then reiterated that she wanted detail of each and every single item that was in the box and not to give her “generalities”. Five minutes later after I remembered everything in the box I proceeded to put my primary bag on the belt. Given that this was a fairly busy trip without any time for me to have laundry done, I had a rather heavy bag. I am extremely conscious of and careful to pack as close to the 32 kilo limit as possible without exceeding. Today, my bag weighed in 32.2 which I thought was a wonderful new attempt in my on-going challenge of hitting the mark directly on. However, she made a giant fuss about the whole issue and told me to remove something from the bag and move it to the box, which was underweight.
The box was extremely well sealed and this seemed to be remarkably impractical for a mere weight of POINT 2 kilos. We went back and forth literally for 2 minutes on this before she told me that she would relent. I said that I appreciated the accommodation and then observed that I thought it strange that when I fly SQ and CX out of Sydney, they tend to be very generous about being overweight one or two kilos. I observed that I thought this was unusual since Qantas was their ground handling agent and why is Qantas more strict in enforcing the regulations on their own flights. To this, the agent at the next checkin counter jumped up, came over and informed me that I never would have been allowed to check a 34 kilo bag at the Sydney Singapore counter. I said that I had done this a mere 3 weeks ago and she once again said no you didn’t – that simply wouldn’t be possible. At this point I got frustrated and said “so if I understand you correctly, you are calling me a liar”. Her response was, “I guess that’s what the situation must be since you did not check a bag that weighed more than 32 kilos.”
Next came the battle over my carry on. As I have previously discussed SYD is Nazi like in their enforcement of a 7 kilo minimum for each carry on bag. As a result, I go to some length to pack my briefcase and roll aboard very light whenever I am departing from Sydney. At no other airport in the world in my extended travels have I ever experienced this true obsession with managing carry on weight. Today, I was told to place both of my bags on the belt to be weighed. In both cases, they weighed 8 kilos instead of 7. I was told that I would need to unpack something from each bag in order to reduce their weight. I asked what she suggested I do with these items when I unpacked them since my luggage had already gone down. She explained this was not her problem nor of any interest and that she would not give me my boarding passes until I had disposed of one kilo for each bag. I suggested that perhaps I could take some papers out of each bag and hand carry them. This was unacceptable and only when I pledged to take several papers and throw them away before I got to the gate was I able to ransom back my boarding pass. Obviously, I did not throw away my working documents.
The final step was when the lady at the adjacent checking counter, for an entirely gratuitous reason, stopped me as I was turning to leave and said “you know, they probably won’t load your bag on the plane downstairs since it was .2 overweight.” Thank you so much Qantas – it really is a pleasure flying with you.
I cleared departure control quickly enough and noted that CX first and business class passengers are now able to use the fast trak lane. I still find it amazing that given the extremely intimate relationship between Qantas and British Airways that the BA passengers don’t use this facility or that all premium class passengers are able to use the fast trak as in most airports.
I proceeded past the duty free shops to the Qantas club. It is interesting to note that one of the duty free shops sold a 6 bottle case of wine – in a wooden case I must emphasize. Obviously, even with this weight being way over 7 kilos it was acceptable since it was generating revenue for the airport!
It has been awhile since I have flown QF so I was not aware of the opening of the new Qantas Club. I must say that the new first class lounge, which is located upstairs prior to heading down the concourse where the old lounge was positioned, is an enormous improvement. The facility is much larger, far better designed, and in general a much more positive experience. One interesting note, there are 2 food service areas and they tend to have different selections so if you don’t like what you see in one you need to wander around, find the other and you will a different array of choices.
I took the opportunity to chat with one of the “yellow tie” first class concierge about my check in experience. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and indicated that they had a horrible problem at check in and as yet had not developed a solution. In fact, he said there had been a meeting earlier this week to discuss this topic and that it was well known throughout the system that the check in staff in Sydney were obnoxious. (his choice of words - not mine). He indicated that formerly the first class counters had a dedicated check in staff who were remarkably responsive and quite professional. He said that this changed about a year ago and that it has gotten steadily worse ever since. He gave me his card which provided an array of telephone numbers to contact including a mobile that the lead first class concierge on duty carries. He asked me to please dial this number about 10 minutes before arriving at the airport so that somebody could meet me in the future and escort me through the check in process. He also confirmed that both SQ and CX have their own employees at the counter to monitor their first and business class check in process and immediately jump in if there is a problem. He indicated this keeps the Qantas agents under control (his words – not mine) and prevents the same service problems for those carriers out of SYD. I must say, it was refreshing to find somebody who actually understood and acknowledged the problem rather than simply give me the company line.
I also discussed with him briefly the dilemma of the new lounge location in Bangkok. As many of you are aware, the gate for this transit stop has been moved into a new terminal area and is now a remarkably long distance from the lounge. He indicated to me that a new lounge was being built near the new gate area and would be open sometime in the early part of next year. This is quite a relief since this really has been an on-going issue in the past.
My boarding process was easy and quick since the incredibly arduous hand searching of all carry on luggage for this flight that was implemented post September 11 as been ended. I always found it strange that Qantas and BA were the only airlines out of Sydney that had this invasive search of every single bag for every flight to the US and Europe. In any case, I was in 3K on the 747-400. This is one of the retrofitted aircraft with the new first class cabin which includes an improved entertainment center, larger screen, and most importantly (only five years late) a lap top power port. I always loved how Qantas kept saying that it was for safety reasons that they didn’t include laptop power ports and that they finally relented during their cabin refresh. Whenever I asked the purser about the lap top before I was given the safety answer, I always got the blank stare whenever I responded with my standard line, “so what you are saying is that all of the other airlines in the world are unsafe”.
The consensus of opinion is that QF service is largely dependant on the quality of crew that you draw in the lottery. I apparently drew well since I received what I would characterize as extraordinarily high quality service for the entire flight. It was only one notch below the standard created by the likes of SQ and CX and was generally very well handled.
The menu and wine details are as follows:
Canapé:
>Tartlet of Smoked Chicken and Dill
Starter:
>Cannellini, Leek and Pesto Sour
>Tuna and Rocket Salad with Roasted Capsicum Salsa
Mains:
>Beef Fillet with Pea and Prosciutto
>Snapper with Stir Fried Asian Veggies
>Herb and Spice crusted Spatchcock with Mint Couscous and Coriander Yoghurt
>Spinach, Pine Nut and Feta Cannelloni
Cheese Selection
Dessert – Mediterranean orange cake
Petit Fours
Refreshments available on demand
>Chicken, Noodle and Chinese Broccoli Soup
>Caramelized Onion and Sage Quiche
>Steak Sandwich
>Bowan Island Bakery Berry and Coconut Cake
>Pistachio and Almond Biscuits
>Fruit
>Chocolate Coated Vanilla Ice Creams
Wines:
Champagne:
>Heidsieck and Co. Monopole – Cuvee Diamant Bleu – 95
White:
>Eileen Hardy Chard – 98
>Freycinet Riesling – 2000
>Tower Estate Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc – 2000
Red:
>Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz – 97
>Tarrawarra Estate Yarra Valley Pinot – 99
>Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz – 97
Dessert:
>Miranda Botrytis Semillon - 97
I am convinced that I had this exact same menu about a year ago on this flight and I think I ended up ordering the same things. I started with the tuna and raw salad and had the spatchcock with yogurt sauce as my main course. I remember both as being excellent and they were once again. I have never been a giant fan of Neal Perry but his consultancy to Qantas seems to have resulted in greater food offerings in first class.
The new ”Q” in-flight entertainment system is still a pretty solid generation behind the rest of the world. Though the screen is larger and the touch screen interface is quite well turned out, the breadth of features, availability of those features, and the variety of offerings were still rather limited.
As I indicated, the food was good and the service was excellent. I then made the great mistake of sleeping on this flight. I call this a great mistake in the sense it really is most appropriate to force yourself to stay awake until BKK and then crash for the next sector. Unfortunately, my early arrival into SYD, exacerbated by my short rest the previous night resulted in me conking out a third of the way to BKK. This is going to make matters somewhat problematic on the flight to LHR.
Arrival at BKK was simple enough. I can’t help to be amused at the fact that Qantas now uses reverse thrust on landing. As most of you are aware, QF aggressively discouraged its pilots from using thrust reverse to save the money on overhauling them after X usage cycles. The net result of that was this very flight skidding off a rain soaked runway here at Bangkok. Though there weren’t any material injuries, it was rather an embarrassing incident. I guess that QF’s focus on safety is all well and good unless it gets in the way of profits. In any case, as the thrust reverses are slammed in on landing it never ceases to put a smile on my face.
As we were taxiing to the gate, the in-flight services supervisor came to me and indicated that he had received a message during the flight that I would be met in Bangkok by a special services manager who would escort me to the lounge. The young lady, wearing a BA uniform told me that someone had actually measured the distance and that it was 2 kilometers in each direction. Unfortunately, I suspect this an inaccurate measure http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Naturally, I had barely enough time to synchronize my e-mail before having to begin the trek in reverse. I was one of the last to reboard and settled back into 3K. The first class cabin was completely full to BKK but there were only six of us for the continuing sector. I find this odd since I would kind of expected a larger percentage of through passengers. From the looks of things, there are only a couple of us who are actually through passengers since we have been joined by some new arrivals in Bangkok.
My luck in the Qantas crew lottery continues with the flight attendant working my side of the aisle being an absolutely charming and gorgeous young lady. If these flights are any indication the quality of F service on QF really is steadily improving.
A word on cutlery – I was amused that the first class lounge had plastic forks and knives in Sydney but the flight was catered with metal. Now, for the sector to London, I have all plastic cutlery. Does anybody really think that it would be that hard to have taken a knife in the first sector and hidden it somewhere in my seat? Does anyone actually think about these rules?
The menu selections for this segment were :
Canapé:
>Thai Fish Cakes with Roast Peanut and Cucumber Relish
Starter:
>Chicken, Coconut and Lemongrass Soup
>King Prawn, Asparagus and Roast Tomato Salad
Mains:
>Lamb Fillet with Creamed Pumpkin
>Curry of Roast Duck
>Penne with Tuna, Olive and Caper Sauce
Cheese Selection
Dessert – Mango and Kaffir Lime Ice Cream
Petit Fours
I find myself altogether too awake at the moment so I am going to rely on my friends from Wynns and a little help from melatonin to condition me for the trip.
I selected QF 1 for this trip since it is the latest departing flight to London from Sydney. However, the ancillary benefit of this selection is the Thai cuisine catered exBKK. My fishcake with chili sauce starter was excellent and the coconut and lemon grass soup was truly superb. At this point I was feeling a bit full and selected the caramelized onion quiche from the refreshments menu as my main course.
As I had discussed my check in situation in Sydney with the flight attendant, the purser came over and reviewed the whole matter again with me. He indicated that he had heard about problems in Sydney one too many times and this time he intended to take it quite seriously. He asked if I would be willing to write out a narrative explaining the circumstances of my experience and if I would be further willing to give him a business card. He promised to hand carry these documents back to Sydney and get them in the hands of the right person. Aside from the obvious concern and initiative the crew felt in trying to resolve this issue, it is apparent that my problem was not an isolated incident.
Despite breaking the rules and taking a nap on the way to Bangkok I was apparently tired enough to be able to get a decent sleep on the London sector as well. I awakened about two hours before arrival and had time for a leisurely breakfast consisting of a not very good baked egg tart and assorted meats.
I handed in my narrative and received a lovely bottle of wine for my troubles. I have been pondering how to pack Beverly, the flight attendant, in my carry on luggage and take her home. She has been remarkably friendly, professional, and helpful. Regrettably, taking her home would only put the carryon more overweight! It probably would also not be well received by my wife!!
Arrival in London was slightly delayed and as a result there were no gates available. As a consequence of this, we ended up in the penalty box for about 30 minutes and finally docked at the gate nearly 45 minutes late. This delay caused me some difficulty since I had an appointment scheduled at 9am. I elected to forego using the arrivals facility and try to reschedule my appointment to meet me at my hotel. As a result, I concocted the brilliant plan of taking the Heathrow Express Train to Paddington rather than a taxi. This was necessitated since no hotel driver had been arranged to pick me up in that I planned on using the BA arrivals facility and I felt the train would be faster than a taxi anyway.
This plan proved somewhat flawed when the Heathrow Express took well over 30 minutes to reach Paddington instead of the scheduled 15. As a result I finally gave up and rescheduled my appointment.
I grabbed a taxi and headed to the Lanesborough. The Lanesborough has been my preferred destination in London for several years although I am in the process of giving up on this hotel for reasons I will discuss in this trip report.
While this hotel has one of the finest locations in the city and has historically been flawlessly managed, it has been experiencing significant difficulties over the course of the last year. The lapses in service have begun to be profound and the recent re-flagging as a St. Regis property has done it no good. The two incidents surrounding my current visit were a problem with the air conditioning and difficulty with high speed internet access. The latter has been chronic. In no time during my last 15 visits to the hotel has the high speed internet ever worked without a tremendous amount of tinkering from the hotel staff. They get on the phone with their provider and always seem to work it out, however this inconvenience to me has simply gotten to the point of being unacceptable. When I arrive, I am usually behind schedule and desperately need to synchronize email in order to get caught up with obligations. However at the Lanesborough I spend 90 minutes getting the laptop connected and it something I’m simply not going to tolerate any further.
On this trip, I also experienced another aggravation in the form of the fact that the fan for the HVAC had been turned off at the request of the previous guest. I of course didn’t know that since I was simply continuing to turn the temperature down hoping that the room would eventually cool off. After I returned from a day of meetings and the room had become stuffy, I finally called my butler who concluded that the system must have been disabled and engineering arrived to reset the circuit breaker in the hallway that would bring the room back on line. While I certainly understand the logic that a guest might ask to have the system disabled, the very idea that it wouldn’t be logged appropriately and be rectified prior to the next guest checking in is nothing short of laughable. It would be laughable at a Sheraton property but entirely unacceptable at what is considered to be one of the two flagship St. Regis properties.
12 October
LHR – ORD
AA87
09:45
777
F – seat 1J
While I usually arrange to have a hotel driver pick me up at the airport, I never use a hotel car to go back to the airport in London. Primarily this is since the size of London taxis make them much more comfortable than the typical hotel S Class Mercedes. (The logistics on arrival of having someone grab my trolley and take care of everything seems to be more attractive for me and it also eliminates having to stand in a queue waiting for a taxi at the airport.)
My plan was to arrive extremely early since I needed to stock up at the Caviar House store for a little dinner party I was throwing at my place in Chicago. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the motorway to Heathrow and I ended up arriving a little after 9:00 for my 10:30 flight.
AA has a very convenient curb side check in arrangement called Park Avenue which is directly across from the main terminal entrance. I was originally scheduled to fly BA on this flight however an appointment in Chicago for lunch popped up and as a result, the AA flight became my option which I didn’t find particularly unpleasant because it was supposed to be equipped with the new Flagship Suite.
It was raining and I was disappointed but not entirely surprised to see the two baggage porters that AA hires to work the Park Avenue facility simply standing inside ignoring the driver and I as we schlepped the luggage out of the taxi. God forbid they would actually step into the rain and get themselves wet!
When I approached the counter the gentleman working there took my ticket, passport and EXP card and never broke his conversation with his colleague. As he proceeded to go through the check in process he never spoke to me and made no eye contact whatsoever but maintained a running dialogue with the person with whom he was chatting adjacently. Finally, he ran into some question during the check in process and simply walked away to speak to his supervisor, again with saying a word to me.
Thus ensued a 10 minute operation as they went through the difficulty of trying to deal with the fact that my ticket stock said that I was booked for the BA flight and that my reservation had been changed to the AA flight. One would not think this would be a major event but it was rather complicated. Finally I accepted a boarding pass without receiving any apology for the delay or any acknowledgement of my inconvenience. Great job AA.
I headed across to the terminal where there was no delay in the fast trak security line and I proceeded to finish up my duty free shopping.
I presented myself at the Flagship Lounge approximately 45 minutes prior to departure. They processed me in and logged my flight number and seat. I then took a seat with the intention of having some light refreshments. This plan was foiled by the fact that the only form of food in the entire lounge was a tray with 4 croissants. Perhaps this was because the lounge was absolutely packed with barely an empty seat available, but in any case nothing was being restocked and it was obvious I was going to have to wait until I got on board for anything substantial. And to think that I complained recently in a trip report about the monotonous lack of any variety in the selections across the hall at the UA First Class Lounge – American even upped the anti from that standard. I considered going down to the Admirals Club with the idea that they might have something further but I ended up settling in because I didn’t want to miss my boarding announcement.
My desire to not miss the boarding announcement was moot since apparently my flight had already been called. No comment of this was made to me when I checked in and when about 5 after 10:00 I went to the desk to check on the status of my flight they indicated that it was in the process of closing and asked why I was still waiting in the lounge. I reminded them that I had checked in just 20 minutes before and nobody had said anything to me about heading to the gate and no one had called the flight in the interim. At this, they explained that they were rather busy and couldn’t be responsible in making sure that everybody made it onto the flight. I have absolutely no idea what this comment had to do with my circumstances but in any case after a bit of negoatiating they managed to arrange a buggy to get me down to Gate 22 – a good thing since Gate 22 is as far as you can go. I persuading the buggy driver to call the gate on the radio and let them know I was coming and – shock of shocks nobody hassled me when I got to the gate and I boarded in short order.
Of further shock is that the flight was actually operated with equipment configured in the new first class. And as most of you know, it is rather random on these London departures whether you actually end up with the Atlantic or supposed Pacific fleet configuration. That Atlantic/Pacific designator is laughable since a vast number of 777 operate across the Atlantic in the old first class configuration. In any case, I settled in to 1K and the flight pushed almost immediately thereafter. When flying in the Flagship Suite I always prefer 1K since you are effectively blocked from a view of the galley and gain that sense of privacy that is usually not possible on a 777 – particularly with AA or UA since they now keep all the curtains open.
Then began one of the most amazing experiences I recently had on a flight. The captain came on and gave what can only be described as a soliloquy lasting fully 5 minutes. I’m sure the two first officers must have been rather busy finishing the check list while the captain offered his observations about life, general philosophy, and flying. These included aggressive comments about “inappropriate” use of the lavatories including changing your clothes or attempting to join the “mile high club”. He indicated that you should limit your lavatory visit to 90 seconds and it would cause grave concern and difficulty if anyone was in the lav longer than 90 seconds. He then went through a speech about all of us being part of this security system and that everybody needed to be proactive in an effort to protect the aircraft. He then asked anyone who had any kind of specialized training if they would please identify themselves to the flight attendants so that they could be logged and noted. The normal speech about congregating in the galleys or lavatory’s was cranked up a few notches with the final comment that if we all wanted to get to Chicago on time everybody had best follow to the letter the instructions given since if anyone so much as out of their seat at any time during when a seat belt sign was lit would cause him to divert the flight.
Later when the purser came by I asked her if they were really serious about something so ridiculous as changing your clothes in the lavatory. She went on for 3 minutes about what a “odd case” this particular Captain was. She said that she’d flown with him on a few occasions and that she had gone through some efforts to talk to him and to the company and indicated to me that “if you would believe it he has toned his speech down”. She said that initially it was extremely offensive and included what most people would characterize as racial slurs. She said that I was more than welcome to do most anything I felt like in the lavatory and to please not be offended by his “silly” speech. You really needed to hear the full bore of this captains comments to realize how off color and generally inappropriate they were. I have no problem with the general tone of the fact that security has changed, things need to be taken more seriously and that passengers are expected to honor their commitments as part of the system but this was way overboard.
I was satisfied with the quality of the service on this flight. The arrangement worked with one flight largely dedicated to the galley, the other flight attendant and the purser jointly providing the first class service. They did a good job and while service wasn’t particularly formal it was generally friendly and well executed.
The menu was as follows:
Appetizer
>Smoked Salmon with accompaniment and toast points
Salad Cart
Mains:
>Fillet Mignon
>Horseradish Crusted Salmon
>Farfalle with Wild Mushroom Sauce
>Key West Chicken
Cheese Cart
Sunday Cart
Wines:
NO VINTAGES NOTED – DEALERS CHOICE I GUESS!
Champagne:
>Pommery Cuvee Madame Louise
White:
>Zaca mesa Chard
>Albert Bichot Premier Cru “Vaucoupin” Chablis
>Silverado Sauvignon Blanc
Red:
>Beringer Knights Valley Cab
>Chateau Duhart-Milon Rothschild Grand Cru
>Baileyana Edna Valley Pinot
It was interesting to note that I was on this same flight about three months ago in business class. I had a total of 6 family members accompanying me and decided to cheap out and not buy 7 first class tickets. (Yes – you guessed it – the only award seats available were in economy – so much for mileage upgrades and VIPOW’s) Therefore, all 7 of us were in business and the entrées presented on that trip were absolutely identical to this list in first class, thus confirming what everybody keeps saying over and over that the only differences in UA and AA international service are the china and the hors d’ oeuvres.
There are several attitudes on FT about the Flagship Suite and I must say that I think of it as the No. 2 product in the world today behind the SQ Sky Suite. The swivel function is somewhat interesting and is particularly useful when you have people seated together in the center section. Also, the ability to turn 90% with your back to the aisle and have a separate dedicated work table is tremendously appreciated by myself. However, their decision to locate things such as the laptop power port and the headset connection in such a fashion that there is a presumption that you are using that work table when utilizing these connections is somewhat inconvenient. If you want to work on the main service tray table then you end up with wires traipsing themselves around inconveniently.
For the first salmon course they were rather stingy since apparently a very small amount of salmon was actually catered for the flight. The purser was kind enough to give me an extra piece but indicated that it was a good thing that I was seated in row one. For the salad I must say that I always think the American roaming salad bar concept is actually pretty effective. However, as is often the case I needed to request additional Caesar dressing since the salad was remarkably dry. I started a bit of a riot in that regard since everybody seemed to start waving their hands for more dressing. Both courses were served from the cart. For the main course I settled with the Key West chicken which I have had in the past and find it agreeably edible if not spectacular.
I was disappointed in the wines since I ordered the Silverado Sauvignon Blanc which I maintain in my cellar at home as a cheap table wine and think is actually quite acceptable (better as a biz class wine, but oh well). Unfortunately, it was far less than good on board and I can only assume it had been poorly stored. With the cheese course I was absolutely delighted that they were serving 1983 Grahams port. 83 isn’t a spectacular vintage but certainly beats the 10 year Tawny served on the same route by United. Finally, while the red label Tokaji is far from the finest Tokaji available, it still is a pleasant surprise that they are still serving anything in a dessert wine.
All in all, American absolutely wins over United on this route. Ultimately, there can really be no comparison between the quality of the Flagship Suite, the broader option of in-flight entertainment as well as the larger screen and the vastly superior wine and meal service. Combine that with personal service from the FA’s that was a notch upscale from the UA and you have a clear winner over the Atlantic.
My arrival was at ORD was at gate M11 making it 2 quick escalator trips to the arrivals hall and I managed to get myself out of the terminal in a matter of just about 10 minutes. Despite having declared my gifts at a 5K value, no one made any attempt to collect the duty. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
So here we go in finishing my third trip report. I apologize if I tend to be repeating myself in some observations; however I do tend to fly to the same cities and often the same carriers. Next month my route will include South Africa, Brazil, and Russia so I should be able to supplement my normal commentary with some refreshing changes. As always, I welcome your comments about which areas are of interest and which require further elaboration on my part.
ORD – NRT
UA883
13:30
747
F – seat 5J
Check-in at the United First Class counter in Chicago was the single best handled check-in by United that I have experienced in recent memory. There was no waiting and the individual was extremely capable, efficient, and personable. She noted that my bag was overweight a few pounds but didn’t make an issue out of it – rather simply wanted me to know in case it became a problem at a future stop.
I made my way to the first class lounge which was surprisingly full in light of the fact that there was only one other possible flight scheduled at a close enough time to populate the lounge. In any case, all the sushi and cheese had been depleted and a couple of us grabbed a passing concierge to inquire about getting it restocked. She went to the front desk and retrieved the lounge attendant who I recall having seen sitting chatting with the front desk staff when I checked into the lounge. It was with some great frustration that he came to restock and proceed to go around the lounge cleaning up all of the dirty plates that had been left. I guess I am supposed to feel guilty that I interrupted him from his social afternoon.
This is a trend that I fail to understand in general – why is that it people think that their work time is a social opportunity? They are being paid to perform a function not to “hang out” with their friends. This certainly is not limited to the airline industry but seems to be a chronic problem in the American workplace. I shudder to think about the amount of productivity lost in our society on an the average day from this kind of nonsense.
When boarding was called, there was no concierge escort to the gate meaning that all of us queued up with a significant business class line. I’ve noticed that UA first class concierges seem to be fewer and further between and that boarding assistance is often not provided. One would have to say that this is probably a reasonable economy move from UA’s perspective, but they should at least let us know that this is their policy and not continue to advertise the personal concierge service.
Aside from the large business class queue and the associated delay in boarding, the balance of the boarding process was relatively efficient. First class was full with only a minimal amount of seat trading going on prior to the door closing. Since my assistant was unable to arrange an obento meal prior to my departure, I contacted the purser upon boarding and asked that one be set aside. This worked out and I learned that five obento meals are generally catered for first class. I assume this is load adjusted so that means a five out of fourteen probability of getting the meal if it isn’t preordered. I noted the menu specifically refers to the suggestion that one should preorder if they want the obento meal. Given this is obviously a problem I would assume that they could simply cater additional meals. My guess is that the problem in this case is the cost of the meal and that having any go unused would be simply unpalatable.
I generally can’t stand row 5 on 747 since you end up with a collection of galley smells and noises/light from the galley and the incessant chatter of the flight attendants. The latter is something that I have never understood. If I had this job I would be reading a book when I wasn’t making my duty swings through the cabin. It now strikes me that I have never noticed a flight attendant doing this. Instead the entire time is spent discussing a general collection of inane comments.
Our taxi was a full 25 minutes with no updates from the flight deck explaining the delay. Additionally, channel 9 was not operational so we were totally in the dark.
After takeoff the in-flight entertainment system was experiencing a range of difficulties resulting in the entire aircraft having the cabin power recycled on multiple occasions. Ironically, my system was working fine until the third full reboot and then my screen failed. This proved to be not much of an inconvenience since being seated in 5J means you get the last choice of everything including personal video tapes.
This last choice of everything also applied to my appetizer selection, however in this case I ended up securing my preferred choice. The appetizer options were a coconut shrimp concoction, and prosciutto with provolone and asparagus. The latter was particularly unpopular and was my preferred choice in any case.
I have on a couple of other occasions made disparaging comments about the on-board wine selections on United. Simply put, they are, with the exception of the champagnes, a general selection of low grade wines. At least they are better than the other garbage served in the domestic first class cabin but ultimately I am disappointed at the lack of willingness to commit to any kind of depth in their cellar choices.
For this flight, we were offered a 1999 William Fevre Chablis, a 2000 Clos Du Val Napa Chard, a Château Croix de Beaucaillou Bordeaux which is actually an OK wine – or at least would be in 5 years - and a Mondovi Pinot Noir. This is in contrast to the champagne selection which was La Grande Dame. Now – La Grande Dame is not my favorite champagne but it is certainly an excellent and dignified selection. The challenge is in understanding why this relatively expensive champagne is catered and these very undistinguished wines are selected. I can only assume that passenger polls have identified a “brand name” awareness of champagnes and weakness in other areas of wine. Therefore, perhaps they feel they are getting the “most bang for the buck” by trading the money into a relative high profile champagne. In any case, ultimately it is confusing to me.
The Obento meal was certainly superior in the context of UA catering and vastly inferior to the comparble alternatives on NH, SQ, and CS. In any case, it was obviously better than the other menu choices which were so memorable that as I dictate this an hour after landing I have no recollection of the menu content!
I had an interesting chat with the Purser about sake. I noticed that the 2 passengers adjacent to me ordered the Obento meal and she inquired as to how they wanted her sake -- heated or at room temperature (I guess they don’t understand the concept of chilled but that was neither here nor there). When I observed to the Purser that I failed to understand why people would serve an excellent premium sake heated she confided to me that whenever a passenger asks for heated sake she used the selection from business class saving the first class sake for those who drank it “at room temperature”.
I always think daytime overseas flight to be the most challenging in terms of sleep pattern adjustment so I took the required naps a couple of times as well as catching up on a vast amount of paper work. Fortunately, being a 747 and not a 777, I had no difficulty getting an operational empower port and was able to get quite a bit of work done in the course of the trip.
As an interesting side, this was an extremely rough flight pretty much from Alaska all the way to Japan. Enough so that service was somewhat problematic, particularly during the pre-arrival refreshment.
I ordered a mid-flight nosh since I was feeling a bit peekish. I decided to have the turkey and cheese on focaccia. I have been preconditioned to these in the first class lounge. The sandwich was generally acceptable although I was incredibly disappointed at the presentation. In fact, presentation is a horrific misnomer since the sandwich was simply placed on a cup saucer while still in its plastic packaging. The flight attendant had simply warmed up the sandwich and slapped it on a plate and brought it to me. What was interesting here was that the FA who handled this was a relatively young person and very much not in the category that many of us tend to characterize the UA International FAs . In fact, both FAs and the Purser were generally in evidence and responsive to our questions and service needs. The young lady who handled the sandwich was very friendly, helpful, and alert throughout the flight. Ultimately, the problem here is two fold:
1) An obvious lack of satisfactory training in something this fundamental.
2) Of greater concern is that this individual simply lacks a sufficient personal frame of reference to recognize that this was an inappropriate way to serve a meal of any kind to any passenger let alone an international first class passenger.
I find this whole issue illustrative since it must be incredibly difficult to train people to provide proper service if in their own upbringing they have not learned even the most fundamental concepts.
I skipped the pre-arrival snack and therefore can not offer you any commentary on that subject. As a result of our ground hold in Chicago, our arrival was delayed by approximately 30 minutes. We were met by a concierge who seemed to disappear after passing out first class lounge invitations for transit passengers. Interestingly, certainly half, and I think somewhat more than half, of the first class cabin were in transit so clearly United is getting continued leverage out of this whole deal with their fifth freedom rights ex NRT.
The concierge disappeared and we were on our own to queue up and go through security for transit passengers. This was fairly disappointing since the line was about 15 minutes long and could have been expedited with the assistance of a first class concierge.
The UA First Class lounge in Narita was a disappointing facility in light of how important this intra Asian hub is to the carrier. Particularly shocking for me was that neither lounge area had any food of any variety out during my visit. Literally – nothing. This is simply a travesty – a Red Carpet Club in the US would have been better stocked.
In light of the fact that this is an American airline with many American customers I found it logical and insightful that the lounge had US specification power plugs and data jacks throughout.
6 October
NRT – TPE
UA801
18:25
777
F – seat 2J
I left the first class lounge just a few minutes before departure and I was one of the last people to board the aircraft. There was a strange shuffling of a couple of first class passengers who were settled into their seats but were downgraded to accommodate other passengers. I never really got a handle on this odd process.
Our departure was delayed about 30 minutes as were sequenced into traffic but we did utilize the new runway at Narita. Without working through the numbers, I would expect that we were approaching the weight limit for this new shorter runway. I noted during rollout a couple of Northwest A320s – I find it quite intriguing that they elected to take advantage of this new runway and slots to utilize the A320 for service within Asia from Tokyo. While this is no doubt an excellent business decision for Northwest and frankly quite innovative, I can not imagine actually getting transferred to that aircraft for an additional 2-4 hours of flying.
I was fortunate enough to be on one of the few 777s with operational empower ports but not with channel 9 enabled. The service from this Tokyo based crew was very good as has always been my experience with UA overseas stations. It really is a cultural problem that Americans provide such a horrible standard of service. Here is the same airline with the same policies flying the same aircraft yet it feels like an entirely different carrier when staffed with an Asian based crew. There is a real message wrapped up in that.
Supper service consisted of an appetizer of herb marinated shrimp and four main courses. The options were oriental braised veal chop, lemon pressed chicken with a ginger lime sauce, a combination of chicken, crab, shrimp and scallops in a Thai curry sauce and a hero sub sandwich with New England clam chowder. I tried the mixed seafood in curry and found it acceptable if uninspired. The wine selections on this sector were identical to those offered to Narita from Chicago.
Of particular aggravation was a bit of a problem I had with the overhead lighting. As those of you who fly the first suite on the 777 are aware, the lighting arrangements are somewhat strange. I believe this is a consequence of the retrofit of the first suite and the old design. But in any case, the seat light turns on in sequence; first the light directly above you, then the next light in front of you, both lights together, and finally both lights off. This seems to be a challenge for most passengers since they don’t seem to understand the sequence. In my case, the person behind me who had elected to sleep had the light on which was providing a spotlight glaring down upon me. I finally stopped the purser as he was going through the cabin and explained that the passenger behind me must not be aware of how the lights work and if, as it was so apparent, he was not planning on needing the light perhaps it could be turned off. The amusing part of this is that the purser didn’t understand the light sequences and I had to demonstrate with my own seat how this sequence works between the 2 lights. What shocks me here is how generally unobservant people are. I can not imagine being a purser working on this equipment and not either having enough curiosity or enough attention to detail to have learned this at some point or another in the course of my travels. Do people really have such a little quest/thirst for knowledge?
After the meal I elected to watch a movie instead of finishing up the work that I should be completing. The net result is that I have set myself up for some additional burden once I get to the hotel, but I am a bit tired at the moment and feel that the rest would do me well.
This flight was also full in first class and once again it appeared to be full of revenue passengers just like my ORD-NRT segment. If that is the case, this bodes rather well for United. I would love to see a break out of route profitability since clearly a full first class cabin and a substantial load in business goes a long way to making a flight nicely profitable.
It was not surprising to me that there wasn’t any kind of arrival concierge at Taipei in light of the fact that this is a once a day station for United and a new station at that. I endured the normal extended delay in getting through immigration at CKS airport and noticed two people carrying American passports were pulled aside and marched to the “little room” because they didn’t have Visas. News to me – in my several trips to the ROC I have never had a Visa and it is not a requirement for US citizens. It also can’t have anything to do with mainland China visits since my passport is full of PRC visas.
My luggage was waiting on the carousel upon my arrival which was a good thing since the carousel stopped running right as I entered baggage claim. There were no more than about 25 bags on it at this point and by the time I left the customs area it had not restarted.
I truly despise this airport in every possible way. It is a classic example of ill conceived design built a long time ago, built cheaply, and supported by an economy that has far outpaced its capacity. Now with the significant economic slump that Taiwan has been experiencing, I don’t think we are going to be seeing much in the way of major renovation projects. Taipei clearly is in competition with Bangkok as the worst airport for a major Asian capital. (I even include Manila in that).
I found my driver in short order and headed off for the 45 minutes trip to the city. My hotel choices in Taipei have over the years evolved from the Regent to the Sherwood and now to the Grand Hyatt. There is no doubt that the Sherwood provides a more classically European setting and was my significant preference for several years. However, the Hyatt does a truly amazing job of being a large hotel (860 rooms) and still delivering a high quality of personal service. I am not a big Hyatt fan spending most of my time at either a notable independent or high end major chain like Four Seasons, Peninsula, and Orient Express. Having said that, the Hyatts in Asia are really an entirely different show from the Hyatts in North America. The Park Hyatt Tokyo is one of my favorite hotels and the Grand Hyatt TPE, despite its imposing size, has become my home away from home in Taipei.
The Taiwanese love buffet restaurants which would ordinarily spell complete disaster for me. However, in this hotel there is a unique Japanese restaurant that is set up and run buffet style. However, most of the operation is either cook to order or made to order –if not immediately for you within a few minutes of your approaching the tables. The arrangement is interesting with a large square containing 8-9 chefs working the middle with the food presented around them. If you are going to do buffet style, this is the way to do it and I actually am looking forward to dinner at this restaurant.
Another thing is that if you are gong to stay at one of the Grand Hyatts in Asia be sure to book on the Grand Club level. This is massively more elaborate than a US Regency club providing truly specialized services, check-in facilities within the club lounge, and excellent food and beverage offerings including rather thorough breakfasts. My only frustration with this hotel is they do not seem to in any way recognize my Hyatt Diamond status – as is often the case with hotel affinity programs they work better in the US than they do with their overseas affiliates.
8 October
TPE – HKG
TG631
08:30
777-200
J – seat 15G
I made an early departure from my hotel to catch the morning Thai Airways flight to Hong Kong. Check-in at the airport was efficient with 2 lines dedicated to business class/star gold. As is fairly typical of Asian short haul flights these days, there is no first class service on the TG equipment that operates this route.
Most of the lounge facilities in Taipei terminal 1 are down a mezzanine hallway before departure control. Unfortunately, all of these lounges are rather sad little affairs and the TG operation is no exception. Fortunately, there were a couple of decent early morning food options including a warm cabinet with a selection of pork buns. The lounge had about 25 people waiting for the flight and had the capacity of approximately 40.
It is interesting to note that the SQ lounge, which was formerly across the hall from the TG lounge, has apparently moved. I was unable to determine where it has moved but I hope it has progressed to the other side of departure control and security or perhaps terminal 2. Fundamentally, the only quality lounge in Taipei is the new CX lounge. This exceptionally large and well appointed facility also includes a dedicated first class room and is the clear winner in the lounge competition.
I endured the normal departure control and security lines that CKS airport seems to always create and proceeded directly to the gate. I have always been intrigued at the fact that I do not see any lifts but only a flight of stairs down into each of the departure hold areas at each gate. Surely, even though this airport has been around for awhile, there must be some way to accommodate passengers who cannot scale those steps. Escalators of course would be absolutely out of the question!
TG operates fundamentally different configurations for their two 777 families. The 200 model, which operated this flight, is with 8 across seating in business class. The 300 model is configured with 7 across, which is of course the more traditional business class implementation. Obviously, the seats are somewhat narrow and the pitch is not terribly generous. While it is perfectly acceptable for this short hall regionally, one would hope they are judicious about never considering putting this equipment on longer haul sectors.
I am either dealing with some sort of optical illusion or personally induced optimism, but I am convinced that the center section has a greater pitch. I was fortunate in that the adjacent seat was empty and I was able to achieve adequate comfort for this short hop. Food service is something they have worked out to pretty well an art form in terms of accommodating the entire cabin as quickly as possible. Initially, the FA’s came through with trays of pre-departure juice and water followed by amenities and printed menus. Breakfast options were a plain omelet with chicken sausages or rice noodles with red snapper and Thai beans. I elected to have the former and my order was secured prior to pushing back.
Our taxi was relatively short and our departure efficient. Meal service began immediately after climb out with linens being initially distributed and then trays being hand carried. TG seems to be in the club with terribly modest expectations in terms of their plastic cutlery. Everything was metal with the exception of the knives which were truly McDonald’s grade in every possible sense. I remain convinced that UA wins the plastic cutlery challenge.
The omelet truly was plain but it was surprisingly fluffy and warm. The chicken sausages were more than adequate and the basket of croissants which progressed through the cabin repeatedly were absolutely fabulous. FAs carried around pots of Chinese tea, English tea, and coffee and everyone was well taken care of without imposing any feeling of being rushed.
Despite my feeling that there was an adequate amount of pitch, the seat recline is quite limited as well as the extension of the leg rest being equally constrained. Again, I reiterate that this would not be a comfortable aircraft to fly for extended periods, however, this needs to be put in the context of single aisle equipment with 34 inch pitch being marketed as perfectly acceptable product for domestic first class in the US for sectors as long as 6 hours. I would like to see the airlines try that in Asia! (It will be interesting to see if this experiment at Narita plays for Northwest).
Arrival in Hong Kong was at a gate out on one of the piers necessitating a trip in the train system. This is probably the most efficient of all of the airport trains and I have always found the process painless. It is rare that I ride these since it seems invariably all of my SQ and CX flights leave from reasonably close gates and United provides buggies for their first class passengers to the Siberian location of their gates.
As I exited the aircraft, the CX ground handling agent meeting the plane had my name on a message board. My assistant had booked accommodations for me at the Mandarin Oriental and had not secured an airport transfer. This is because I was flying in with a colleague whose office was sending a car to pick us up. In any case, the hotel became concerned about this apparent omission and left a message that a car had been arranged at their behest and that I should contact their transportation desk. All of this notwithstanding the fact that during the vast majority of my travels to Hong Kong I utilize the Peninsula. As a result, the Mandarin has a much smaller base of information to work with in terms of identifying my patterns; however, this clearly was a standout since I generally always use a hotel car to and from the airport. Good job Mandarin! Immigration processing was efficient and I was on my way to the city within 30 minutes of landing.
As I mentioned, I almost always stay at the Peninsula. This represents somewhat of a problem for me in that the Mandarin clearly has the vastly superior location yet the Peninsula, in my eyes, is the world’s finest hotel. I find myself motivated to stay at the Mandarin about once a year and invariably I find the experience to be disappointing, and as a result go back to the Peninsula. That was certainly my experience on this trip. The rooms at the Mandarin are small and desperately dated with their single redeeming feature being the balconies. This in contrast to the lavish proportions and appointments of the Peninsula rooms eases the choice. From a service prospective, while the Mandarin is certainly very acceptable, it simply is not in the league of the attention to detail and focus of the Peninsula. The Mandarin is now 40 years old and enjoyed an important reputation at bringing the establishment of a truly international quality luxury hotel to Hong Kong Island. I fear it has been resting on its laurels for at least the last decade and no doubt longer. The opening of the new Four Seasons should raise the bar for everyone and create interesting times for the Hong Kong hotel market.
One of the great qualities of the Mandarin is the superb variety and quality of food service. I am of a mind that the Mandarin has the finest hotel restaurants in Hong Kong which becomes a consideration for me in an attempt to pack in as many meetings as possible in as short of time frame as possible. Leaving the hotel simply becomes somewhat more challenging if I am attempting a one day trip like this one. I am a particular fan of the little lunch buffet at the Captain’s Bar. As a general rule, I can’t stand buffet presentations, but this very intimate room with a nice selection of cold hors d’oeuvres, sushi, nice warm dishes and a slice from the daily roast has become one of my favorite lunches in Central. Additionally, it never seems to be more than half full it certainly makes the process even more attractive.
The other supreme advantage of the Mandarin is its connection to the integrated and interconnected array of buildings of Central. It seems to be possible to get most everywhere I go without ever stepping outside, which can certainly have some advantages during the summer!
I enjoyed an excellent dinner with a fellow FTer and still had time the next day to kill a few minutes shopping. Unfortunately, I was a little overly aggressive in my shopping and now have created a severe weight problem. Given that my primary bag was already overweight and I will be facing with the carry on Nazis in Australia it was time to do the unthinkable – create another box!
For those of you who read my last trip report, I ended up schlepping a box half way around the world with some materials for my office in Australia. In this case, I have now voluntarily strapped myself with a monstrous box holding all of my excessive purchases. This has a couple of penalties, the most obvious one being logistics and the other being the necessity to be scrupulously honest in the customs disclosure form when entering the US. The box is an invitation for inspection and all of my purchases would be nicely segregated for inventory. Regrettably, I will be exceeding the free allowance by an order of magnitude so I suspect my arrival to the US will be delayed with processing my duty.
9 October
HKG – SIN
SQ859
13:30
747
F – seat 1A
My hotel car dropped me at the airport at noon for my 1:30 departure. As is the case with all of the premier hotels in Hong Kong, a hotel attendant met the car and handled my bags and assisted me with the process. My check in at the Singapore first class counter was seamless.
My retroactive PPS club credit seems to have now gone through since I got the appropriate sticker fixed to my boarding pass. I posted a thread in the SQ Forum talking about this little saga – the issue stems from me having a misconception several years ago that I could only accrue miles to my UA account. Now, of course, you can’t double dip on the miles, but there is enough an opportunity to accrue status points with SQ and have the miles accrue with UA. The net result is that I have missed the opportunity for PPS membership. This comes from flying 50,000 paid miles annually (or any rolling 12 month period) in business or first class only for at least 7 years. The benefits are substantial in that SQ goes out of their way to accommodate their PPS customers – often at the expense of Star Gold customers. Additionally, the PPS card for Singapore is also a Star Gold card and I am curious to know if I will end up with any issues in trying to use it at domestic RCCs. Having just renewed my RCC membership, I have a year to test this and determine if it is possible to withdrawl from the membership.
After five consecutive uninterrupted years of PPS club qualification you become PPS Solitaire which is the status obviously reserved for SQ’s most valuable customers. I have easily accrued sufficient mileage over the requisite five year period to qualify, however, the glitch in my understanding about this dual entry system has no doubt made it impossible to obtain retroactive Solitaire membership. I should point out that it was the FT SQ forum that educated me on being able to secure Singapore status and accrue my miles to UA. Thanks again FT!
As I previously commented, the first class lounge for SQ in Hong Kong is a modest affair. It was recently pointed out to me on this board that the previous SQ first class lounge was an even sadder operation. It has only been in the course of the last couple of years that I have flown Singapore at all out of Hong Kong so my only memories go all the way back to Kai Tak where the SQ facilities were no worse and no better than anyone else.
I made my way to gate 24 and began a seating shuffle process when I boarded. This was a consequence of the old first class equipment which means three rows of 2-2 seating and a fourth row of 1-2-1. I always book a seat in the single seat 4th row side with intention of then changing to a seat with an empty adjacent if that becomes available. 4A, which is one of the single seats, is certainly preferable to being seated next to somebody but since it is also by the main entrance door and next to the galley it tends to have a lot of traffic and a lot of noise. The in-flight services supervisor spoke to me as I boarded suggesting that load level is relatively light today and that he was sure that I might be more comfortable in a 2 x 2 seat. He checked the manifest and determined which seat would be available without a companion and I moved myself to 1A. What is significant here is the understanding by this staff that passengers have strong desires for certain types of seating in certain times of circumstances. US airlines tend to prefer arguing with you rather than recognize that simple steps to accommodate your preferences can dramatically increase your perceived value of the experience.
I was on this same flight a few weeks ago and the food and wine choices are unchanged from that report. However, this time I arranged a book the cook meal from the new selection. I had ordered the chicken breast stuffed with cheese and served with a light cream sauce. I must say that this was generally quite wonderful and I enjoyed it. This is one of the items I would probably order again, however, I am certainly looking forward to my Kasieki dinner from Singapore to Sydney. I enjoyed the Wiltinger Scharzberg reisling-- which I eulogized about in the last report. (I enjoyed it enough to order a couple of cases from my wine broker). I also had a spectacular dessert – not a common event on an Asian airline. In this case, dessert was incredibly rich chocolate tart served with a couple of fresh raspberries and a little ice cream. This was generally well done and was quite enjoyable.
Since this was the old first class configuration, the description about the in-flight entertainment, and my frustration at the few aircraft in the Singapore fleet that seem to be equipped with the Wisemen interactive video system is moot. I think the bottom line here is that when it was their main stream configuration, this aircraft design was quite acceptable. The seats do go completely flat, have privacy dividers and interactive video systems. The problem is that the bar has been raised so much, notably by Singapore itself with the sky suite, that this service standard looks rather old at this point. In fact, the seats on this particular aircraft looked old and could stand refurbishing. I have not heard any good answers as to when these configurations will leave the fleet, but I hope it is soon. It is just clearly an inferior product to the sky suite.
The most disturbing aspect of this flight was the fact that my tray table had apparently been greased by maintenance. The net result was that my khakis became greased as my legs pressed against the bottom of the tray table. This is an extremely serious breach in my eyes and had I been wearing a suit the impact could have been substantial. In the event, the flight attendant materialized with a spray on fabric cleaner that did an exceptional job of removing the stain. I think this is an issue that SQ needs to take a serious look at since such a maintenance decision simply cannot be allowed to continue.
I found myself to be rather tired and dozed for about an hour on this flight which arrived on time at SIN. As I dictate this I am headed to the first class lounge to relax and grab a shower prior to my flight for Sydney.
9 October
SIN – SYD
SQ221
20:15
747
F – seat 1B
When I was checking into the first class lounge, I noted that my boarding pass to Sydney is marked with SQ Star Gold rather than UA Star Gold meaning that my mileage accrual would have been to my SilverKris account. I approached the desk expressing a significant concern about this since I had presented my UA card in Hong Kong. He indicated that it would not be possible for him to change the previous sector and that I would have to send in the paper work to United. I indicated that this would be problematic since they weren’t going to give me credit as a result of the fact that credit had already been given to me by SQ. As it turned out, this proved to be irrelevant since the boarding pass for the HKG to SIN sector was properly noted and he therefore simply made the adjustment to my next flight.
As I am sitting in the lounge awaiting my departure I have noticed something which causes me some point of confusion. A passenger has arrived wearing a set of blue coveralls with an enormous logo covering the entire back. I am not one who believes that a long airplane flight is a dress for success opportunity – I myself tend to wear baggy sweats and t-shirts four sizes too big since personal comfort is my primary motivator. I don’t always like feeling a little under dressed before arriving at a hotel like the Peninsula, but obviously coming off an overnight flight the arrival tends to be pretty early anyway so I guess the issue is fundamentally not important. However, while I am sure the coveralls were selected for their comfort, I must say that they really do create an interesting adjunct to our environment here. I say I am confused since I am not sure if I have an articulate position to take – I strongly believe thatpassengers should dress for their personal comfort and not for each others benefit. At the same time, the coveralls with a giant logo of a flaming oil well somehow seems a bit inappropriate.
I have just heard an announcement that the departure of my flight has been delayed nearly an hour. Unfortunately, they say this is because of tail winds shortening flight duration. The net result is that we will be arriving on time shrinking the already precipitously short sleep period on this flight even further. I vastly prefer taking the CX flight from Hong Kong to Australia since these flights are long enough to secure a normal night sleep. This Singapore to Australia route is painful to say the least.
This delay raises an answer to a question that I posed in another report. I understood the city had a firm 6am curfew. Since our flight is scheduled to arrive at 5:30am and an issue was specifically made of the fact that the delay was as a consequence of the strong tail winds, it would appear to me that the correct understanding is a 5:30am curfew. This is in direct contrast with what United told me about 2 months ago when we took a delay out of Los Angeles so that we could arrive for the “6am curfew”.
As a result of the delay our departure ended up being pushed back 45 minutes. There were eight of us in the first class cabin and I was able to get them to start my meal service immediately after take off. Ordinarily, I would forego the meal and bed down immediately, however, I was hungry and had ordered the Kaiseki meal through Book the Cook.
The Kaiseki meal was excellent and was served immediately after take off. This is often a problem since the Singapore attendants have their lock down order of service and tend to get uncomfortable at circumventing the proper sequence. I think the solution in this case may have been that we had an extremely young lead flight attendant in first class who perhaps was less ingrained with the “system”. Interestingly, nearly the entire first class cabin seemed to be eating. A fact I find unusual on such a short overnight flight.
After having two decanters of the excellent sake, the evening was winding down very quickly. I was able to secure my preferred seat 1B, which I have mentioned before is, in my personal opinion, the perfect location on the SQ 747-400. I find this to be preferable because it is all the way in the nose and completely isolates me from the rest of the cabin. For the same reason, other people seem to dislike this seat. I guess I come down on the privacy and isolation side of that debate.
This aircraft was equipped with the new in-flight entertainment system which I discussed in a previous report. The fundamental differences are a crisper screen, a new handset, and an entirely new suite of games. Additionally, this implementation includes a new laptop power port that utilizes the standard 2 prong North American plug. I certainly wouldn’t dispute the logic of moving from proprietary empower port to this model, however the net result is that we all now need to carry both power bricks with us on board when in the past I might occasionally pack my regular AC power in my checked luggage. Moreover, since they have adopted the North American 2 prong standard, one would have to carry with them their power plug adapter which I suspect many people leave in their checked luggage. I have been meaning to inquire if they carry an assortment of adapters on board to deal with such a contingency. In any case, be advised that if you are flying Singapore you need to be prepared for this power connection type.
I have finally sorted out the mystery of the Sydney curfews. This is tied to the approach routes. If the approach is from the North over the city then the 6am curfew applies. This is relaxed if the over water approach is being utilized. As a result, this better explains the challenges of reroutes and reschedules associated with the curfew issue. I would have thought that this could have been explained better on my previous flights that have encountered this particular delay issue. Thank you to the flight deck on this flight.
Arrival to Sydney was uneventful and I made my way through immigration. With the preprinted express card that SQ provides, I was able to utilize the express line which is usually a bit shorter. Today, it was significantly shorter indicating that another airline must have arrived slightly before us who does not have the capability of generating the preprinted express cards. (For clarification, this isn’t a fast trak type system as in London but the regular immigration card being preprinted with your I.D. and passport number. It is an accommodation generally offered by SQ, QF, CX and a few others.)
Baggage claim was a bit slow as it often tends to be in Sydney. Additionally, since I was now carrying a box with the gifts I had purchased in Hong Kong I ended up having to do a bit of research to determine its arrival location. In the past, if I had a shipping box with me it just came out on the baggage carousel, but today, notwithstanding the fact that this box was no larger or heavier than anything I have used in the past, it came out of the oversized baggage area. This kind of inconsistency is certainly aggravating.
I always find it interesting to note that somehow SQ manages to get first class bags off ahead of business class bags. While this is not an absolute, it is clear that the first class bags are at a minimum mingled in with the early business class bags. I find this to be station specific so it’s obviously a loading issue and what is interesting to me is the differentiation between first and business class luggage. I am convinced that most carriers simply treat priority luggage as priority luggage (if even that) and don’t treat first class luggage differently. This may be a minor issue, but in an aircraft on a long haul flight with a full business class cabin, it’s yet another perk of spending those extra few thousand dollars.
In as much as I have purchased some new chop sticks in Hong Kong, and with Australia being truly rabid about bringing in any wood products, I elected to declare the chop sticks. My caution comes from an experience a couple of years ago when Mrs B Watson and I had spent the Christmas holiday in Fiji and she had purchased several carved wood items and packed them in our luggage. Upon arriving in Sydney she completed our customs declaration and automatically checked off no-no-no-no-no. The net result is that when our bags were x-rayed and then hand checked I ended up pulling out wood piece after wood piece after wood piece. In fact, it seemed that we had an entire forest in our luggage and it is fair to say that the Sydney custom officers weren’t terribly amused.
Today however, a quick 10 second inspection of my chop sticks resulted in them being passed through (just so you don’t think I am entirely crazy here, I am not talking about sushi bar style wood chop sticks, but rather a finished ebony chop stick with a sterling silver cap – I am not sure I really would of bothered to declare the former). What I found interesting about this process is that there was no x-ray of my luggage. I have never gone through the green channel in Sydney without my luggage being interrogated by the x-ray machine. This may be a new technique for me to have some sort of minor piece of wood as a red herring and then slide through the red inspection point without having to take the time and go through the hassle of having my bag x-rayed. We’ll see if this works on my next trip.
I was able to find my driver efficiently enough and head off to the city. Since I was only in town for 10 hours I booked a day room at the Observatory Hotel. I have been quite effusive in other trip reports about the Observatory so I won’t bore everybody again other than to say that this Orient Express property is clearly the finest hotel in Sydney and in my opinion the finest hotel in the South Pacific. If any of you are traveling to Sydney and seek a truly first class property, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me and I can provide you with the name and contact details of the Managing Director.
10 October
SYD – BKK - LHR
QF1
16:55
747
F – seat 3K
I had a day of quick running around to appointments and was back at the airport at about 20 minutes after 3 for my 4:55 flight to London. I presented myself at the QF first class check-in counter which was completely vacant of customers. In the course of the next 10 minutes I was reminded why I try to avoid Qantas as much as possible. While I find that Qantas has made significant improvements to quality of on-board services, the check-in staff in Sydney is an absolute travesty.
Today’s process began with a giant and conspicuous look at her watch and then back to my eyes, back to the watch, back to my eyes and the significant disapproving frown for my having the audacity for checking in a mere 90 minutes before my flight. I presented my ticket and passport and then attempted to hand over my AA Exec Plat card. She looked at the card like it was a piece of dung and told me “I’ll get to that if we have time.” She did however reach forward and literally jerk the rest of my ticket out of my hand without asking. I fully understand that it is often necessary for your ticket to be inspected since some countries require proof of a ticket for your onboard or return journey. However, since our travel agent uses the old style four coupon floppy ticket books, I always tear my own coupon out and hand it over first. I have in the past been in a situation where 2 coupons were accidentally lifted which makes things rather complicated at the next stop. While I am often asked for the whole ticket, I have never had somebody actually reach forward and rip it out of my hands.
Next became the luggage interrogation process. She was extremely unhappy about checking my box and wanted to know in great detail precisely what was inside. I first explained that there were no fragile items, everything was well packed, and I packed it myself and that there were no flammable items. She then reiterated that she wanted detail of each and every single item that was in the box and not to give her “generalities”. Five minutes later after I remembered everything in the box I proceeded to put my primary bag on the belt. Given that this was a fairly busy trip without any time for me to have laundry done, I had a rather heavy bag. I am extremely conscious of and careful to pack as close to the 32 kilo limit as possible without exceeding. Today, my bag weighed in 32.2 which I thought was a wonderful new attempt in my on-going challenge of hitting the mark directly on. However, she made a giant fuss about the whole issue and told me to remove something from the bag and move it to the box, which was underweight.
The box was extremely well sealed and this seemed to be remarkably impractical for a mere weight of POINT 2 kilos. We went back and forth literally for 2 minutes on this before she told me that she would relent. I said that I appreciated the accommodation and then observed that I thought it strange that when I fly SQ and CX out of Sydney, they tend to be very generous about being overweight one or two kilos. I observed that I thought this was unusual since Qantas was their ground handling agent and why is Qantas more strict in enforcing the regulations on their own flights. To this, the agent at the next checkin counter jumped up, came over and informed me that I never would have been allowed to check a 34 kilo bag at the Sydney Singapore counter. I said that I had done this a mere 3 weeks ago and she once again said no you didn’t – that simply wouldn’t be possible. At this point I got frustrated and said “so if I understand you correctly, you are calling me a liar”. Her response was, “I guess that’s what the situation must be since you did not check a bag that weighed more than 32 kilos.”
Next came the battle over my carry on. As I have previously discussed SYD is Nazi like in their enforcement of a 7 kilo minimum for each carry on bag. As a result, I go to some length to pack my briefcase and roll aboard very light whenever I am departing from Sydney. At no other airport in the world in my extended travels have I ever experienced this true obsession with managing carry on weight. Today, I was told to place both of my bags on the belt to be weighed. In both cases, they weighed 8 kilos instead of 7. I was told that I would need to unpack something from each bag in order to reduce their weight. I asked what she suggested I do with these items when I unpacked them since my luggage had already gone down. She explained this was not her problem nor of any interest and that she would not give me my boarding passes until I had disposed of one kilo for each bag. I suggested that perhaps I could take some papers out of each bag and hand carry them. This was unacceptable and only when I pledged to take several papers and throw them away before I got to the gate was I able to ransom back my boarding pass. Obviously, I did not throw away my working documents.
The final step was when the lady at the adjacent checking counter, for an entirely gratuitous reason, stopped me as I was turning to leave and said “you know, they probably won’t load your bag on the plane downstairs since it was .2 overweight.” Thank you so much Qantas – it really is a pleasure flying with you.
I cleared departure control quickly enough and noted that CX first and business class passengers are now able to use the fast trak lane. I still find it amazing that given the extremely intimate relationship between Qantas and British Airways that the BA passengers don’t use this facility or that all premium class passengers are able to use the fast trak as in most airports.
I proceeded past the duty free shops to the Qantas club. It is interesting to note that one of the duty free shops sold a 6 bottle case of wine – in a wooden case I must emphasize. Obviously, even with this weight being way over 7 kilos it was acceptable since it was generating revenue for the airport!
It has been awhile since I have flown QF so I was not aware of the opening of the new Qantas Club. I must say that the new first class lounge, which is located upstairs prior to heading down the concourse where the old lounge was positioned, is an enormous improvement. The facility is much larger, far better designed, and in general a much more positive experience. One interesting note, there are 2 food service areas and they tend to have different selections so if you don’t like what you see in one you need to wander around, find the other and you will a different array of choices.
I took the opportunity to chat with one of the “yellow tie” first class concierge about my check in experience. He rolled his eyes, shook his head, and indicated that they had a horrible problem at check in and as yet had not developed a solution. In fact, he said there had been a meeting earlier this week to discuss this topic and that it was well known throughout the system that the check in staff in Sydney were obnoxious. (his choice of words - not mine). He indicated that formerly the first class counters had a dedicated check in staff who were remarkably responsive and quite professional. He said that this changed about a year ago and that it has gotten steadily worse ever since. He gave me his card which provided an array of telephone numbers to contact including a mobile that the lead first class concierge on duty carries. He asked me to please dial this number about 10 minutes before arriving at the airport so that somebody could meet me in the future and escort me through the check in process. He also confirmed that both SQ and CX have their own employees at the counter to monitor their first and business class check in process and immediately jump in if there is a problem. He indicated this keeps the Qantas agents under control (his words – not mine) and prevents the same service problems for those carriers out of SYD. I must say, it was refreshing to find somebody who actually understood and acknowledged the problem rather than simply give me the company line.
I also discussed with him briefly the dilemma of the new lounge location in Bangkok. As many of you are aware, the gate for this transit stop has been moved into a new terminal area and is now a remarkably long distance from the lounge. He indicated to me that a new lounge was being built near the new gate area and would be open sometime in the early part of next year. This is quite a relief since this really has been an on-going issue in the past.
My boarding process was easy and quick since the incredibly arduous hand searching of all carry on luggage for this flight that was implemented post September 11 as been ended. I always found it strange that Qantas and BA were the only airlines out of Sydney that had this invasive search of every single bag for every flight to the US and Europe. In any case, I was in 3K on the 747-400. This is one of the retrofitted aircraft with the new first class cabin which includes an improved entertainment center, larger screen, and most importantly (only five years late) a lap top power port. I always loved how Qantas kept saying that it was for safety reasons that they didn’t include laptop power ports and that they finally relented during their cabin refresh. Whenever I asked the purser about the lap top before I was given the safety answer, I always got the blank stare whenever I responded with my standard line, “so what you are saying is that all of the other airlines in the world are unsafe”.
The consensus of opinion is that QF service is largely dependant on the quality of crew that you draw in the lottery. I apparently drew well since I received what I would characterize as extraordinarily high quality service for the entire flight. It was only one notch below the standard created by the likes of SQ and CX and was generally very well handled.
The menu and wine details are as follows:
Canapé:
>Tartlet of Smoked Chicken and Dill
Starter:
>Cannellini, Leek and Pesto Sour
>Tuna and Rocket Salad with Roasted Capsicum Salsa
Mains:
>Beef Fillet with Pea and Prosciutto
>Snapper with Stir Fried Asian Veggies
>Herb and Spice crusted Spatchcock with Mint Couscous and Coriander Yoghurt
>Spinach, Pine Nut and Feta Cannelloni
Cheese Selection
Dessert – Mediterranean orange cake
Petit Fours
Refreshments available on demand
>Chicken, Noodle and Chinese Broccoli Soup
>Caramelized Onion and Sage Quiche
>Steak Sandwich
>Bowan Island Bakery Berry and Coconut Cake
>Pistachio and Almond Biscuits
>Fruit
>Chocolate Coated Vanilla Ice Creams
Wines:
Champagne:
>Heidsieck and Co. Monopole – Cuvee Diamant Bleu – 95
White:
>Eileen Hardy Chard – 98
>Freycinet Riesling – 2000
>Tower Estate Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc – 2000
Red:
>Wynns Coonawarra Estate Michael Shiraz – 97
>Tarrawarra Estate Yarra Valley Pinot – 99
>Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz – 97
Dessert:
>Miranda Botrytis Semillon - 97
I am convinced that I had this exact same menu about a year ago on this flight and I think I ended up ordering the same things. I started with the tuna and raw salad and had the spatchcock with yogurt sauce as my main course. I remember both as being excellent and they were once again. I have never been a giant fan of Neal Perry but his consultancy to Qantas seems to have resulted in greater food offerings in first class.
The new ”Q” in-flight entertainment system is still a pretty solid generation behind the rest of the world. Though the screen is larger and the touch screen interface is quite well turned out, the breadth of features, availability of those features, and the variety of offerings were still rather limited.
As I indicated, the food was good and the service was excellent. I then made the great mistake of sleeping on this flight. I call this a great mistake in the sense it really is most appropriate to force yourself to stay awake until BKK and then crash for the next sector. Unfortunately, my early arrival into SYD, exacerbated by my short rest the previous night resulted in me conking out a third of the way to BKK. This is going to make matters somewhat problematic on the flight to LHR.
Arrival at BKK was simple enough. I can’t help to be amused at the fact that Qantas now uses reverse thrust on landing. As most of you are aware, QF aggressively discouraged its pilots from using thrust reverse to save the money on overhauling them after X usage cycles. The net result of that was this very flight skidding off a rain soaked runway here at Bangkok. Though there weren’t any material injuries, it was rather an embarrassing incident. I guess that QF’s focus on safety is all well and good unless it gets in the way of profits. In any case, as the thrust reverses are slammed in on landing it never ceases to put a smile on my face.
As we were taxiing to the gate, the in-flight services supervisor came to me and indicated that he had received a message during the flight that I would be met in Bangkok by a special services manager who would escort me to the lounge. The young lady, wearing a BA uniform told me that someone had actually measured the distance and that it was 2 kilometers in each direction. Unfortunately, I suspect this an inaccurate measure http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Naturally, I had barely enough time to synchronize my e-mail before having to begin the trek in reverse. I was one of the last to reboard and settled back into 3K. The first class cabin was completely full to BKK but there were only six of us for the continuing sector. I find this odd since I would kind of expected a larger percentage of through passengers. From the looks of things, there are only a couple of us who are actually through passengers since we have been joined by some new arrivals in Bangkok.
My luck in the Qantas crew lottery continues with the flight attendant working my side of the aisle being an absolutely charming and gorgeous young lady. If these flights are any indication the quality of F service on QF really is steadily improving.
A word on cutlery – I was amused that the first class lounge had plastic forks and knives in Sydney but the flight was catered with metal. Now, for the sector to London, I have all plastic cutlery. Does anybody really think that it would be that hard to have taken a knife in the first sector and hidden it somewhere in my seat? Does anyone actually think about these rules?
The menu selections for this segment were :
Canapé:
>Thai Fish Cakes with Roast Peanut and Cucumber Relish
Starter:
>Chicken, Coconut and Lemongrass Soup
>King Prawn, Asparagus and Roast Tomato Salad
Mains:
>Lamb Fillet with Creamed Pumpkin
>Curry of Roast Duck
>Penne with Tuna, Olive and Caper Sauce
Cheese Selection
Dessert – Mango and Kaffir Lime Ice Cream
Petit Fours
I find myself altogether too awake at the moment so I am going to rely on my friends from Wynns and a little help from melatonin to condition me for the trip.
I selected QF 1 for this trip since it is the latest departing flight to London from Sydney. However, the ancillary benefit of this selection is the Thai cuisine catered exBKK. My fishcake with chili sauce starter was excellent and the coconut and lemon grass soup was truly superb. At this point I was feeling a bit full and selected the caramelized onion quiche from the refreshments menu as my main course.
As I had discussed my check in situation in Sydney with the flight attendant, the purser came over and reviewed the whole matter again with me. He indicated that he had heard about problems in Sydney one too many times and this time he intended to take it quite seriously. He asked if I would be willing to write out a narrative explaining the circumstances of my experience and if I would be further willing to give him a business card. He promised to hand carry these documents back to Sydney and get them in the hands of the right person. Aside from the obvious concern and initiative the crew felt in trying to resolve this issue, it is apparent that my problem was not an isolated incident.
Despite breaking the rules and taking a nap on the way to Bangkok I was apparently tired enough to be able to get a decent sleep on the London sector as well. I awakened about two hours before arrival and had time for a leisurely breakfast consisting of a not very good baked egg tart and assorted meats.
I handed in my narrative and received a lovely bottle of wine for my troubles. I have been pondering how to pack Beverly, the flight attendant, in my carry on luggage and take her home. She has been remarkably friendly, professional, and helpful. Regrettably, taking her home would only put the carryon more overweight! It probably would also not be well received by my wife!!
Arrival in London was slightly delayed and as a result there were no gates available. As a consequence of this, we ended up in the penalty box for about 30 minutes and finally docked at the gate nearly 45 minutes late. This delay caused me some difficulty since I had an appointment scheduled at 9am. I elected to forego using the arrivals facility and try to reschedule my appointment to meet me at my hotel. As a result, I concocted the brilliant plan of taking the Heathrow Express Train to Paddington rather than a taxi. This was necessitated since no hotel driver had been arranged to pick me up in that I planned on using the BA arrivals facility and I felt the train would be faster than a taxi anyway.
This plan proved somewhat flawed when the Heathrow Express took well over 30 minutes to reach Paddington instead of the scheduled 15. As a result I finally gave up and rescheduled my appointment.
I grabbed a taxi and headed to the Lanesborough. The Lanesborough has been my preferred destination in London for several years although I am in the process of giving up on this hotel for reasons I will discuss in this trip report.
While this hotel has one of the finest locations in the city and has historically been flawlessly managed, it has been experiencing significant difficulties over the course of the last year. The lapses in service have begun to be profound and the recent re-flagging as a St. Regis property has done it no good. The two incidents surrounding my current visit were a problem with the air conditioning and difficulty with high speed internet access. The latter has been chronic. In no time during my last 15 visits to the hotel has the high speed internet ever worked without a tremendous amount of tinkering from the hotel staff. They get on the phone with their provider and always seem to work it out, however this inconvenience to me has simply gotten to the point of being unacceptable. When I arrive, I am usually behind schedule and desperately need to synchronize email in order to get caught up with obligations. However at the Lanesborough I spend 90 minutes getting the laptop connected and it something I’m simply not going to tolerate any further.
On this trip, I also experienced another aggravation in the form of the fact that the fan for the HVAC had been turned off at the request of the previous guest. I of course didn’t know that since I was simply continuing to turn the temperature down hoping that the room would eventually cool off. After I returned from a day of meetings and the room had become stuffy, I finally called my butler who concluded that the system must have been disabled and engineering arrived to reset the circuit breaker in the hallway that would bring the room back on line. While I certainly understand the logic that a guest might ask to have the system disabled, the very idea that it wouldn’t be logged appropriately and be rectified prior to the next guest checking in is nothing short of laughable. It would be laughable at a Sheraton property but entirely unacceptable at what is considered to be one of the two flagship St. Regis properties.
12 October
LHR – ORD
AA87
09:45
777
F – seat 1J
While I usually arrange to have a hotel driver pick me up at the airport, I never use a hotel car to go back to the airport in London. Primarily this is since the size of London taxis make them much more comfortable than the typical hotel S Class Mercedes. (The logistics on arrival of having someone grab my trolley and take care of everything seems to be more attractive for me and it also eliminates having to stand in a queue waiting for a taxi at the airport.)
My plan was to arrive extremely early since I needed to stock up at the Caviar House store for a little dinner party I was throwing at my place in Chicago. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the motorway to Heathrow and I ended up arriving a little after 9:00 for my 10:30 flight.
AA has a very convenient curb side check in arrangement called Park Avenue which is directly across from the main terminal entrance. I was originally scheduled to fly BA on this flight however an appointment in Chicago for lunch popped up and as a result, the AA flight became my option which I didn’t find particularly unpleasant because it was supposed to be equipped with the new Flagship Suite.
It was raining and I was disappointed but not entirely surprised to see the two baggage porters that AA hires to work the Park Avenue facility simply standing inside ignoring the driver and I as we schlepped the luggage out of the taxi. God forbid they would actually step into the rain and get themselves wet!
When I approached the counter the gentleman working there took my ticket, passport and EXP card and never broke his conversation with his colleague. As he proceeded to go through the check in process he never spoke to me and made no eye contact whatsoever but maintained a running dialogue with the person with whom he was chatting adjacently. Finally, he ran into some question during the check in process and simply walked away to speak to his supervisor, again with saying a word to me.
Thus ensued a 10 minute operation as they went through the difficulty of trying to deal with the fact that my ticket stock said that I was booked for the BA flight and that my reservation had been changed to the AA flight. One would not think this would be a major event but it was rather complicated. Finally I accepted a boarding pass without receiving any apology for the delay or any acknowledgement of my inconvenience. Great job AA.
I headed across to the terminal where there was no delay in the fast trak security line and I proceeded to finish up my duty free shopping.
I presented myself at the Flagship Lounge approximately 45 minutes prior to departure. They processed me in and logged my flight number and seat. I then took a seat with the intention of having some light refreshments. This plan was foiled by the fact that the only form of food in the entire lounge was a tray with 4 croissants. Perhaps this was because the lounge was absolutely packed with barely an empty seat available, but in any case nothing was being restocked and it was obvious I was going to have to wait until I got on board for anything substantial. And to think that I complained recently in a trip report about the monotonous lack of any variety in the selections across the hall at the UA First Class Lounge – American even upped the anti from that standard. I considered going down to the Admirals Club with the idea that they might have something further but I ended up settling in because I didn’t want to miss my boarding announcement.
My desire to not miss the boarding announcement was moot since apparently my flight had already been called. No comment of this was made to me when I checked in and when about 5 after 10:00 I went to the desk to check on the status of my flight they indicated that it was in the process of closing and asked why I was still waiting in the lounge. I reminded them that I had checked in just 20 minutes before and nobody had said anything to me about heading to the gate and no one had called the flight in the interim. At this, they explained that they were rather busy and couldn’t be responsible in making sure that everybody made it onto the flight. I have absolutely no idea what this comment had to do with my circumstances but in any case after a bit of negoatiating they managed to arrange a buggy to get me down to Gate 22 – a good thing since Gate 22 is as far as you can go. I persuading the buggy driver to call the gate on the radio and let them know I was coming and – shock of shocks nobody hassled me when I got to the gate and I boarded in short order.
Of further shock is that the flight was actually operated with equipment configured in the new first class. And as most of you know, it is rather random on these London departures whether you actually end up with the Atlantic or supposed Pacific fleet configuration. That Atlantic/Pacific designator is laughable since a vast number of 777 operate across the Atlantic in the old first class configuration. In any case, I settled in to 1K and the flight pushed almost immediately thereafter. When flying in the Flagship Suite I always prefer 1K since you are effectively blocked from a view of the galley and gain that sense of privacy that is usually not possible on a 777 – particularly with AA or UA since they now keep all the curtains open.
Then began one of the most amazing experiences I recently had on a flight. The captain came on and gave what can only be described as a soliloquy lasting fully 5 minutes. I’m sure the two first officers must have been rather busy finishing the check list while the captain offered his observations about life, general philosophy, and flying. These included aggressive comments about “inappropriate” use of the lavatories including changing your clothes or attempting to join the “mile high club”. He indicated that you should limit your lavatory visit to 90 seconds and it would cause grave concern and difficulty if anyone was in the lav longer than 90 seconds. He then went through a speech about all of us being part of this security system and that everybody needed to be proactive in an effort to protect the aircraft. He then asked anyone who had any kind of specialized training if they would please identify themselves to the flight attendants so that they could be logged and noted. The normal speech about congregating in the galleys or lavatory’s was cranked up a few notches with the final comment that if we all wanted to get to Chicago on time everybody had best follow to the letter the instructions given since if anyone so much as out of their seat at any time during when a seat belt sign was lit would cause him to divert the flight.
Later when the purser came by I asked her if they were really serious about something so ridiculous as changing your clothes in the lavatory. She went on for 3 minutes about what a “odd case” this particular Captain was. She said that she’d flown with him on a few occasions and that she had gone through some efforts to talk to him and to the company and indicated to me that “if you would believe it he has toned his speech down”. She said that initially it was extremely offensive and included what most people would characterize as racial slurs. She said that I was more than welcome to do most anything I felt like in the lavatory and to please not be offended by his “silly” speech. You really needed to hear the full bore of this captains comments to realize how off color and generally inappropriate they were. I have no problem with the general tone of the fact that security has changed, things need to be taken more seriously and that passengers are expected to honor their commitments as part of the system but this was way overboard.
I was satisfied with the quality of the service on this flight. The arrangement worked with one flight largely dedicated to the galley, the other flight attendant and the purser jointly providing the first class service. They did a good job and while service wasn’t particularly formal it was generally friendly and well executed.
The menu was as follows:
Appetizer
>Smoked Salmon with accompaniment and toast points
Salad Cart
Mains:
>Fillet Mignon
>Horseradish Crusted Salmon
>Farfalle with Wild Mushroom Sauce
>Key West Chicken
Cheese Cart
Sunday Cart
Wines:
NO VINTAGES NOTED – DEALERS CHOICE I GUESS!
Champagne:
>Pommery Cuvee Madame Louise
White:
>Zaca mesa Chard
>Albert Bichot Premier Cru “Vaucoupin” Chablis
>Silverado Sauvignon Blanc
Red:
>Beringer Knights Valley Cab
>Chateau Duhart-Milon Rothschild Grand Cru
>Baileyana Edna Valley Pinot
It was interesting to note that I was on this same flight about three months ago in business class. I had a total of 6 family members accompanying me and decided to cheap out and not buy 7 first class tickets. (Yes – you guessed it – the only award seats available were in economy – so much for mileage upgrades and VIPOW’s) Therefore, all 7 of us were in business and the entrées presented on that trip were absolutely identical to this list in first class, thus confirming what everybody keeps saying over and over that the only differences in UA and AA international service are the china and the hors d’ oeuvres.
There are several attitudes on FT about the Flagship Suite and I must say that I think of it as the No. 2 product in the world today behind the SQ Sky Suite. The swivel function is somewhat interesting and is particularly useful when you have people seated together in the center section. Also, the ability to turn 90% with your back to the aisle and have a separate dedicated work table is tremendously appreciated by myself. However, their decision to locate things such as the laptop power port and the headset connection in such a fashion that there is a presumption that you are using that work table when utilizing these connections is somewhat inconvenient. If you want to work on the main service tray table then you end up with wires traipsing themselves around inconveniently.
For the first salmon course they were rather stingy since apparently a very small amount of salmon was actually catered for the flight. The purser was kind enough to give me an extra piece but indicated that it was a good thing that I was seated in row one. For the salad I must say that I always think the American roaming salad bar concept is actually pretty effective. However, as is often the case I needed to request additional Caesar dressing since the salad was remarkably dry. I started a bit of a riot in that regard since everybody seemed to start waving their hands for more dressing. Both courses were served from the cart. For the main course I settled with the Key West chicken which I have had in the past and find it agreeably edible if not spectacular.
I was disappointed in the wines since I ordered the Silverado Sauvignon Blanc which I maintain in my cellar at home as a cheap table wine and think is actually quite acceptable (better as a biz class wine, but oh well). Unfortunately, it was far less than good on board and I can only assume it had been poorly stored. With the cheese course I was absolutely delighted that they were serving 1983 Grahams port. 83 isn’t a spectacular vintage but certainly beats the 10 year Tawny served on the same route by United. Finally, while the red label Tokaji is far from the finest Tokaji available, it still is a pleasant surprise that they are still serving anything in a dessert wine.
All in all, American absolutely wins over United on this route. Ultimately, there can really be no comparison between the quality of the Flagship Suite, the broader option of in-flight entertainment as well as the larger screen and the vastly superior wine and meal service. Combine that with personal service from the FA’s that was a notch upscale from the UA and you have a clear winner over the Atlantic.
My arrival was at ORD was at gate M11 making it 2 quick escalator trips to the arrivals hall and I managed to get myself out of the terminal in a matter of just about 10 minutes. Despite having declared my gifts at a 5K value, no one made any attempt to collect the duty. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
So here we go in finishing my third trip report. I apologize if I tend to be repeating myself in some observations; however I do tend to fly to the same cities and often the same carriers. Next month my route will include South Africa, Brazil, and Russia so I should be able to supplement my normal commentary with some refreshing changes. As always, I welcome your comments about which areas are of interest and which require further elaboration on my part.