EWR first impressions

Old Mar 9, 2014, 9:11 pm
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6,978
EWR first impressions

Driving into EWR is very easy compared to JFK (coming from Eastern PA, thank heavens.) CX is located in level 3 of Terminal B, arrived very early so not many cars.

Went in, since it's only a J-Y+-Y configuration there are only 2 Business counters, PE counter, and 6 Y counters, and hence the first problem. There are only two lines (I'm not counting the self-checked baggage line), 1 line for all J/Y+/MPC members and another for Y. Luckily when I arrived there are only two people ahead of me, but I asked the counter agent if the line gets long and he said: "yeah, sometimes it's longer than Y, isn't that crazy?" .....

There were only two people ahead of me, but it seems all the counters have problems that I can overheard: "Help! Won't print out boarding pass", "Help! Something's wrong with this, I can't check-in", "Help! The seat isn't freed and I don't know how to free one up for him", etc. Each pax that I can observe literally spent at least an extended amount of time that one is used to check-in for CX flight. The poor supervisor of the counters is running from one counter to another helping each help request. I waited at least 15 minutes till my turn.

One security problem I have observed and I told the supervisor about it: a group had an issue because one of their companion reserved the ticket with a different first name (western name) but his passport shows the chinese-transliterated name. He took out his license and "proved" that he is the same person on the passport, his license is the Americanized name. The CX agent said: "Ok, I'll let you go, I don't know if TSA will, just do what you did to me and if they don't let you in come back to me, and I'll go talk to them." I know CX aims to please but isn't this the basic thing that they should be trained to NEVER allowed to do? Especially with what happened lately.... The supervisor upon hearing my side simply told me "thanks for letting me know" without even asking me who it was, and just rushed away to help another HELP call from one of the counter agents....

Went in, used the BA Galleries Lounge which the sign says "First Class, OW Emerald" so I take it this is their special lounge for First Class and Emeralds only? Anyway, the lounge is big (compared to JFK BA F) and more selections. Sandwiches, fruits, variety of snacks and candies, a very good lounge. The only tease is their dinning room is for BA pax only, CX pax need not apply.

Ok, that's it. Hope everyone else have a much better experience than I did.
Cathay Boy is offline  
Old Mar 9, 2014, 9:45 pm
  #2  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Mar 1999
Posts: 12,097
Originally Posted by Cathay Boy
One security problem I have observed and I told the supervisor about it: a group had an issue because one of their companion reserved the ticket with a different first name (western name) but his passport shows the chinese-transliterated name. He took out his license and "proved" that he is the same person on the passport, his license is the Americanized name.
How is that a security issue?

This is not an isolated instance: many countries don't recognize US Court approved name changes. I bet the name on the ticket not only matched the official Government ID he presented for travel (as required by US regulations), but also the name of the credit card used to purchase the ticket and the Secure Flight Passenger Data upon which the TSA cleared him for travel (all PNRs are scrubbed by the TSA under the Secure Flight Program).

I am sure the supervisor thanked you out of customer service courtesy and did nothing, as nothing had to be done.
hillrider is offline  
Old Mar 9, 2014, 10:39 pm
  #3  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6,978
Originally Posted by hillrider
How is that a security issue?

This is not an isolated instance: many countries don't recognize US Court approved name changes. I bet the name on the ticket not only matched the official Government ID he presented for travel (as required by US regulations), but also the name of the credit card used to purchase the ticket and the Secure Flight Passenger Data upon which the TSA cleared him for travel (all PNRs are scrubbed by the TSA under the Secure Flight Program).

I am sure the supervisor thanked you out of customer service courtesy and did nothing, as nothing had to be done.
If you read carefully you will note that I specifically said the ticket and passport names do NOT match, hence the problem. I do not know any "official Government ID" one has to produce to travel internationally outside of a passport.
Cathay Boy is offline  
Old Mar 9, 2014, 11:05 pm
  #4  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 2,377
Was there any congee offered at the BA Galleries?
CanucksHKG is offline  
Old Mar 10, 2014, 6:41 am
  #5  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 3,513
What is the problem with security? Even if the ticket match the passport what does that guarantee?

In Europe and many other places to travel internationally you may not need a passport.
correctioncx is offline  
Old Mar 10, 2014, 4:40 pm
  #6  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 100
CathyBoy
Thanks for posting. How was the flight itself?
PaulaJK is offline  
Old Mar 10, 2014, 6:35 pm
  #7  
Suspended
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: HKG
Programs: A3, TK *G; JL JGC; SPG,Hilton Gold
Posts: 9,952
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B142 Safari/8536.25)

Originally Posted by correctioncx
What is the problem with security? Even if the ticket match the passport what does that guarantee?

In Europe and many other places to travel internationally you may not need a passport.
But you need a proof of ur actual name, which the eu id card does give proof
kaka is offline  
Old Mar 10, 2014, 6:40 pm
  #8  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 3,513
Originally Posted by kaka
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B142 Safari/8536.25)



But you need a proof of ur actual name, which the eu id card does give proof
Yes but I am staying that passport is. It the only thing
Also op did not actually know the full
Story?? Maybe the other Id which may be hkid shows the Correct name and this is accepted for border control in hkia. However it is not acceptable form of id for tsa.
correctioncx is offline  
Old Mar 10, 2014, 8:19 pm
  #9  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6,978
Originally Posted by PaulaJK
CathyBoy
Thanks for posting. How was the flight itself?
Going onto the plane took a long time because there's only one entry way. We sit in the plane for a long time the Captain's explanation is they are waiting for transferred pax's luggage. The actual ride is excellent. I sat in J and got the usual good J service. Felt asleep for most of the flight, but everything is usual CX level. Landed in about an hour late.

that's it
Cathay Boy is offline  
Old Mar 10, 2014, 8:57 pm
  #10  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: BOS/UTH
Programs: AA LT PLT; QR GLD; Bonvoy LT TIT
Posts: 12,655
Originally Posted by Cathay Boy
One security problem I have observed and I told the supervisor about it: a group had an issue because one of their companion reserved the ticket with a different first name (western name) but his passport shows the chinese-transliterated name. He took out his license and "proved" that he is the same person on the passport, his license is the Americanized name. The CX agent said: "Ok, I'll let you go, I don't know if TSA will, just do what you did to me and if they don't let you in come back to me, and I'll go talk to them."
Why not just show TSA the license, bearing the name which matches the ticket? U.S. drivers license (I believe that all states now have photo licenses) is acceptable ID at TSA checkpoints.
Dr. HFH is offline  
Old Mar 12, 2014, 10:56 am
  #11  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: EWR
Programs: SQ - Gold; HHonors - Silver
Posts: 226
I'm due to fly this later this year, but in steerage (with the family). I'm curious, what is open past security near those gates at Newark? It looks like CX is the last passenger flight out of Newark by a good couple of hours.

Thx,
B
global_b is offline  
Old Mar 12, 2014, 4:53 pm
  #12  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6,978
Originally Posted by global_b
I'm due to fly this later this year, but in steerage (with the family). I'm curious, what is open past security near those gates at Newark? It looks like CX is the last passenger flight out of Newark by a good couple of hours.

Thx,
B
This should give you all the info, but be warn they might not open that late

http://www.travelnerd.com/airports/n...l-b/40/lounges
Cathay Boy is offline  
Old Mar 13, 2014, 5:12 am
  #13  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Programs: CX, UA, Shangri-La, Hyatt, Starwood
Posts: 7,704
thx for starting this thread, I was going to post something similar after just getting back from EWR. I also sat in J class. A few observations:

EWR itself: -
Sucked. Nearly missed my flight due to my first and last ride on the Air Train. I took Amtrak to EWR station, then Air Train. What a disaster. I spent 35+ minutes from the EWR Air Train station getting to CX in Terminal B....the last leg of which involved me running outside with my luggage from Terminal C to Terminal B, due to a lack of Air Trains after having to transfer. I'm not sure if this is par for the course, EWR just giving the middle finger to CX, or a one-off, but I got to CX check-in ~50-55 minutes before departure and nearly missed the flight despite arriving at Air Train a full 90 minutes before departure. I am not an EWR regular and have never departed EWR this late before (nor had I tried Air Train), but lesson learned. Car or taxi to the airport going forward. Fwiw CX appears to be the only flight departing this late and at least yesterday, NJ/NY Port Authority decided screw CX passengers.

Ground staff: +
Excellent, although it seems like they'd gone through war. Granted I arrived 50 minutes before departure and sweating from just having run from Terminal C. Unlike the OP I didn't see any lines because I barely made the flight, so I suspect if you arrive 2-3 hours in advance you might run into the problems the OP had. I was also handled by the station manager. But it was nice to be greeted with "Mr. QRC, we've been waiting for you". I was then escorted through security (nobody was there), and escorted to the lounge, and finally escorted to the gate at the very end. All-in a great experience. I suspect they don't have too many DMs, or perhaps the staff there are trying to do their best after a disastrous first week. But my impression of the ground staff was they really were going out of their way to be nice to me.

Lounge +
Pretty much what the OP says. This was my first time in the Galleries lounge at EWR...thought it was hands down superior to the F lounge at JFK. Not much to add just it's superior in every way I could see.

Flight: +
Extremely low pax numbers. As a result we had great service. All J pax were seated in the front section, which at first I was disappointed with (I tried to move to the back mini-cabin), but it turned out to be superb. Because we all were in the front section service was highly attentive, similar to what I'm used to on CX F. Drinks were constantly refilled, FAs coming down the aisle offering bread refills, etc it was very personalized and sharp. #s were ~20/40 in J, <50% in PEY, and ~60% in EY.

I had an excellent crew, but this isn't an EWR thing - they're rostered out of HKG. Luck of the draw.

Catering: -
I'll update the meal thread separately. ex-EWR in J is the standard late-night supper thing with a light meal option offered. Breakfast before landing. For dinner, two main courses in J, while the light meal had the soup in a cup thing and a salad with chicken. While CX nailed the soup as they usually do, the chicken on the salad was nearly inedible and was far worse than the salad I recently ate to LAX and back from SFO a month ago. I have been flying North America so much lately I feel like these anecdotes hold some merit.

I will note the catering on this flight - particularly breakfast - are subpar compared to ex-LAX and ex-SFO late night departures. For breakfast there were no bagels, no skim milk (2% was the best they had), and no Odwalla/fresh orange juice as I'm used to. CX usually nails the midnight departure/morning arrival breakfasts with ex-North America flights and EWR was worse than what I'm used to in J. If this is a downgrade overall on CX it happened in the last 3 weeks since I last flew CX873 ex-SFO (when I received the standard J class breakfast catering), otherwise it's an EWR-specific catering issue.



All in I'll probably fly ex-EWR again, but won't be taking the Air Train. Other than that it worked out fine.

Last edited by QRC3288; Mar 13, 2014 at 5:19 am Reason: edits to EWR section
QRC3288 is offline  
Old Mar 13, 2014, 4:43 pm
  #14  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6,978
Let me know next time if any of you have any questions. EWR Air Train is notorious of late and cutting availability with no prior warnings. Unless you have hours to burn never use the Air Train. I usually do cab myself if no one else can drop me off.
Cathay Boy is offline  
Old Mar 13, 2014, 4:59 pm
  #15  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Hong Kong
Programs: CX, UA, Shangri-La, Hyatt, Starwood
Posts: 7,704
Originally Posted by Cathay Boy
Let me know next time if any of you have any questions. EWR Air Train is notorious of late and cutting availability with no prior warnings. Unless you have hours to burn never use the Air Train. I usually do cab myself if no one else can drop me off.
i will...wish I had before relying on Air Train. What made Air Train even more infuriating is that empty trains were running every 2-3 minutes on the opposite track, but we weren't allowed to board. Maddening.

In hindsight it helped me get a good 5 minute burst of exercise pre-flight, but yea I think a car or cab is a necessity next time I take that flight
QRC3288 is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.