Strange flights or how I learned to stop worrying and love umm FD and OX?
Jun 4, 2009, 11:28 pm
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Beaverton OR
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Strange flights or how I learned to stop worrying and love umm FD and OX?
To Singapore and Thailand-nine flights with a different bunch of airlines
Another transpacific trip came up for me; instead of just a trip to a single Asian destination like I usually take, an old client of mine wanted me in Singapore, Chiang Rai and Bangkok. They booked me PDX-SIN and return BKK-PDX with a mix of AS and CX. I had to come up with SIN-CEI-BKK. I had to be in CEI by 10AM on a Monday morning, and there was nothing that would get me in until 2PM at the earliest, so I made the decision to just fly to BKK on Sunday and then fly up to CEI first thing in the morning.
Lately, all I have been flying to Asia is EVA. I’m now a Diamond member with them, and I do like their soft product even if their C seats aren’t the greatest. And most times these days, the companies I consult for will only pony up for premium economy, and BR’s Elite class is very decent across the Pacific. This client however has a deal with CX and got me in J to SIN and home from BKK. Up until this year, I was a die hard CX flyer to Asia, almost always in J with the occasional F thrown into the mix. Flying CX got me to AA EXP status for quite a few years and eventually lifetime PLT status, and I love to fly with them. But for the most part, Cathay’s rates have just not been competitive the past year. Funny enough, in my previous 124 lifetime CX flights, I had not stepped behind the curtain into Y at all.
I knew that my SIN-CEI-BKK flights were going to be in the back and I had to balance overall cost with convenience. So my original plan was to stick with CX on their once a day SIN-BKK service figuring I have lounge access since I’m a oneworld Sapphire member, and then use TG on the BKK-CEI-BKK legs. I was set, or so I thought.
A couple of days before leaving the U.S., it was decided that a 10AM arrival into CEI would not be early enough. There was a 630AM Thai Air Asia flight however that would get me in before 8AM, so I made my new arrangements with FD. The price was very reasonable, and I paid for a “hot seat” in row 2 so I could get off of the aircraft quickly. OK, now everything is set, right?
It’s off to the airport for my first flight. My itinerary for this day was PDX-YVR on Horizon at 430PM and YVR-HKG-SIN on Cathay. The YVR-HKG flight isn’t scheduled to depart until 245AM, and I was arriving at 545 PM so I was planning on going to the Fairmont at the airport and throw myself on their mercy and see if they would give me a good rate for a few hours stay.
My goal was to get to the airport by 230PM, but we had to make one pit stop and there was a bunch of traffic, so my wife finally dropped me off at the airport at 310PM. Luckily there was no one in the First Class/MVP line. I told the agent what flight I was on, and she said, “I think that one was canceled. Let me see what I can rebook you on.” The agent next door told her to check my PNR first, because many of us were already rebooked. Sure enough, AS had already rebooked me on the 630PM AC flight. As I’m waiting for the agent to finish up, another passenger that was on the same cancelled flight is getting rebooked via SEA. She asks if she too could get on the AC flight. The agent checks, and says that the AC flight is now full. My agent forced my e-ticket coupon over to AC, gave me a copy of my new itinerary and I was off to the UA check in – UA handles AC at PDX.
There was an agent directing everybody to the check-in kiosks, and I said to her “I’ve been rule 80ed from Horizon, can I use those?” She shakes her head and has me follow her over to the counter where she signs into her system and checks me in. I have one bag for this trip that I only check to YVR; I have had so many bad experiences with interlining bags that when I have the time, I would rather short check the bag and re-check it myself. The agent doesn’t ask me a seat preference but just hands me a boarding pass for 8A which is OK since I prefer the window, but I would really rather be on the other side. I figure I would just check with the gate since the flight was full.
I now have a lot of time to kill that I wasn’t expecting, but I go through security and then head over to Alaska’s Boardroom. I spend a good couple hours there working on my laptop and enjoy a cup of the soup of the day – creamy tomato basil. At 520PM I pack up and take the long hike over to the single AC gate at PDX.
I get to the gate at 530PM and ask the agent if there were any window seats on the other side of the plane. She says that the flight is completely full, so no moving, but my boarding pass and checks her system. She then says to me, “Vancouver is sending us a smaller plane tonight, 37 seats instead of 50. Can you fly tomorrow; we will give you a hotel for the night and a free round trip?” How come I can never get these offers when I have time? I told that I unfortunately couldn’t and she was very pleasant about the situation. She also advised me that we would be about 30 minutes late. When AC downgraded the aircraft, they put everyone that was in row 10 and beyond on the standby list; so if you were already seated in rows 1 though 9 you were OK. So for the next 75 minutes, the agents at the gate were trying to get 13 volunteers. They were able to rebook some people through SEA that same night, but I know that a couple of people were involuntarily denied boarding.
20MAY AC 8126 Y PDX-YVR DH8 C-GONX seat 8A
With all of the seating issues, we eventually left about 40 minutes late. The dash-8 looked tired inside, but it flew just fine and that’s what counts. Due to runway construction at PDX, for the first time since I have lived here, we took off from runway 21, the 6000’ runway. Pretzels and drinks were served and it was a beautiful late afternoon to fly. It took an hour and five minutes of flying this day to get to YVR. Being late has one advantage; there was no one else in line at immigration. I got through very fast for YVR, and my bag was just coming around the carousel when I approached it.
It was now a few minutes after 830PM. I decided to forget the Fairmont idea and see if CX check in was open yet; their flight to JFK leaves at 1045PM, so I thought I might be in luck.
A very pleasant agent said that it was no problem checking in that early, checked my bag through to SIN with business class priority tags, and handed me my boarding passes and lounge invites. I was a little hungry by then, so I went to the food court before they closed to grab a bite for dinner, and I made some phone calls before going through security.
Security was very quick and in almost no time at all, I was at the CX lounge. There were a few people in there awaiting the JFK flight, and they had out the standard munchies of nuts, cookies, sandwiches along with some dim sum, etc. I had a long wait ahead of me, so I did something that I never do in the lounge – I took a nap. When I woke up, I saw that the HKG flight was now showing delayed, until 330AM.
I read a bit and checked the seat map on Expert Flyer to see how full our 777-300ER was tonight. I was in 21A, and saw that there were still some empty seats, including the bulkhead, row 15. Now as much as I have flown on CX, I had never scored the latest edition of their long haul business class seats. I had heard much about them, and looked forward to finally trying them for myself.
I decided to leave the lounge a little early just to walk a bit, but before leaving I asked the lounge attendant about switching seats. She called load control, but no one answered. I told her that I would just check at the gate. After wandering around and stretching my legs for a while, I made it over to the gate and inquired about the seat change. This agent did get a hold of load control, and I was switched to 15A.
21May CX 889 J YVR-HKG 77W B-KPA seat 15A
The aircraft finally made it to the gate at 230AM, and boarding started at 305AM. We were all on board and pushing back at 335AM.
My verdict on the seat – it took a little getting used to, but I really like it. I got a great sleep on board and I like having both a window and an aisle. The huge monitor with lots to watch on AVOD is great as well.
Back to the flight. Very quickly after takeoff the flight attendants came by with menus and amenity kits. Within a couple of minutes, my table was being set. Tonight’s supper:
Starter:
Spanish paprika prawns
Mains:
Braised bean curd sheet
Grilled lamb chops
Shui gaw in noodle soup
Cheese selection, fruit and a mango with blueberry flan
I decided on the noodle soup which was good and had some cheese and fruit before I drifted off to sleep. And sleep I did, I was out for a good 7+ hours before waking up again and watching a movie. I did not partake in the snack options, but here were the choices:
Braised beef brisket in noodle soup
Barbecued pork bun
Warm grilled ham and Swiss cheese sandwich
Haggen Dazs ice cream
About and hour and half before landing, breakfast was served. This morning’s choices:
Starters:
Juices and energizers
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Assorted cereals
Mains:
Omelet with accompaniments
Stir fried egg noodle with chicken
Shredded pork and mushroom congee
I figured that I was going to have eggs on the SIN flight, so I had some fruit, yogurt and the noodles with chicken which were very good.
Most of the flight attendants were wearing masks. It was a little disconcerting at first, but over the course of all of my CX flights on this trip, I got used to it.
After 12 hours and 50 minutes we arrived into an overcast HKG on runway 7R, and disembarked at gate 70.
I was able to go over to the transfer area near gate 65, and by the time I got through security it was 800AM. My flight to SIN was departing from gate 35, so I walked on to my new gate. I would have loved to spend some time in the Wing or Pier, but I figured I would have a lot of time for that on my return. I did have some phone calls to make, and by the time I got to the gate it was already 820AM and boarding for my next flight was about to commence.
22May CX 717 J HKG-SIN 777 B-HND seat 15K
When I had last checked the seat map, J class looked fairly empty, but there was someone seated next to me. About half way through boarding, my seat mate showed up and I told her that the odds were good that we could each have two seats. She liked the idea and asked the flight attendant where she could move to. The flight attendant said that she would let her know when to move. We turned out to have about a 65% load in J, and my seat mate eventually moved to the empty bulkhead row.
We had an on-time departure at 855AM and took off from runway 7R. We had a little turbulence after departure, but as soon as it subsided, the captain turned the cabin crew loose and menus were soon handed out. Service started very quickly after that. Breakfast this morning was:
Starters:
Juices
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Assorted cereals
Mains:
Frittata with accompaniments
Sautéed Ling fish
Dim Sum
Since I told myself on the previous flight that I was going to have eggs, I did take the frittata, and again it was very good. After breakfast I mostly read and looked out the window – perhaps a short nap was taken. Again masks were worn by most of the cabin crew. Three hours and eight minutes after departure we landed on runway 20C in balmy Singapore.
As usual for Singapore, immigration was very quick; there was only one person in line ahead of me. Luggage delivery though was a little slower than usual, even with the business class priority tags, my bag still came out about the middle of the pack. No wait for a taxi either today; and soon I was off for a couple of days in Singapore.
Two days later, it was back to Changi airport. My flight was at 135PM and I was in a taxi at 1030AM. No traffic to speak of and I was back at Terminal 1 a little before 11AM. I went to CX’s business class check in and there was no wait what so ever. My bag was checked, and again the business class priority tag was place on it, and boarding pass and lounge invite were handed over.
I hadn’t really had a chance to check out Terminal 3 yet, so that’s why I got to the airport so early. I walked up and down the newish terminal and spotted two of SQ’s A380s while I was at it. After I had my fill, I headed off to the BA/QF lounge back in Terminal 1. However, they had just closed up shop, so I kept going to the D concourse and went to CX’s lounge, the Skyview lounge. I have been here multiple times, and the view is better than what they used to have, but just the basics were available, beverages, nuts, a couple of pastries, and some pre-packaged sandwiches. I headed out to the gate at 1230PM, and there was a short line to go through security.
24May CX 712 Y SIN-BKK 773 B-HNP seat 32A
When I checked in on-line there were very few seats left in Y (although J was almost empty), but I was towards the front, just ahead of the wing. This flight was originally scheduled to be a 777-200, but CX ran a 777-300 instead; I guess the load demanded it this day. The aircraft arrived late from HKG and we boarded very close to departure time. We ended up leaving only 5 minutes late though after taking off from runway 20L.
The Y seat was fairly comfortable with decent pitch and in seat (but not AVOD) video. About 45 minutes after departure lunch and beverages were served. No menus were handed out, but our choices were either beef and noodles or fish and rice. I went for the beef, and it looked (to put it nicely) icky. But, it tasted pretty good, so you never know. It was served with fruit and a mini candy bar. I ended up just reading the entire flight.
We ended up flying north of the BKK airport and coming back to land on runway 19R after a two hour and 3 minute journey. There was almost no wait for immigration in BKK, that’s a real rarity and bags came out very quickly as well. My bag was in the first 10 this time, so well done CX. No wait for a taxi either which was good as I had an early wake up call the next morning.
And early it was; the alarm went off at 345AM, so I could be in the taxi by 430AM, and I had it timed almost to the minute. I was back at the terminal in BKK before 500AM and checking in with Thai Air Asia. I knew that FD would charge for my bag, so I paid in advance to get a discount. My receipt/boarding pass/bag tag was handed to me, and I had my previously paid for seat, 2A. I then went right through security and into BKK’s domestic area, which does not have many shops or eating areas. The regular terminal is like a mall, so I would call the domestic area the basement. I had a quick bite in the “café” and then headed off to the B gates for my flight.
25May FD 3250 Y BKK-CEI 320 HS-ABG seat 2A
We were at a bus gate, and boarding was called at 605AM with hot seat passengers first. Not that it meant much; I just got to be one of the first on the bus. The bus almost completely filled up and we headed out to the aircraft. The flight this morning was on a less than one year old A320 and it looked like it was in great condition. The seats were leather, but with fairly tight 30 inch pitch.
There was no one else in my row (I guess no one wanted to pay the 250 baht for the hot seat) and only five people in the first five rows, while from row six on it was about 60% full. A couple of passengers tried to move up to the hot seats, but the flight attendants made them go back to their assigned seats. We left the hard stand about 5 minutes before schedule and we were off of runway 19L right at departure time. As expected, everything on board including water was for sale, nothing included in the fare. I didn’t see many takers for the food or drinks offered.
The one hour and six minutes went by quickly and we were soon landing on runway 36. There are two jetways at CEI, but Air Asia chooses not to use them, and we deplaned by stairs. Bags were out within just a few minutes. I was out of the terminal before our scheduled arrival time. Overall, my first experience with Air Asia was a good one.
So this is where my plans went completely off kilter. My day in Chiang Rai turned into spending a night in Mai Sai that was not planned. Originally, I was going to take the TG’s 1020AM flight back into BKK on Tuesday morning, but by 730AM I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I remembered that FD had a flight at 130PM ish so that was going to be my next bet, but I was still tied up, and by 11AM, that one was out of the picture as well. The next flight to BKK wasn’t until TG’s 820PM, so that’s what I thought I would end up on. Well it turned out that my office had another idea. After lunch I was told that they had booked me on the 650PM One-Two-Go (Orient Thai) flight to the old Don Muang airport in Bangkok. I wasn’t thrilled about flying OX, but they had booked another person from the office on the same flight. What I had heard about OX service was pretty horrific, so I was not expecting much, basically that my Thai Air Asia flight was going to look like pure luxury in comparison.
We (I’ll call my travel partner “office girl” from here on out) were dropped off at the terminal at 430PM, and OX opened their check in a few minutes later. Office girl picked this time to go to the restroom, but I checked in anyway and got us on the two seat side of the MD-80, with me taking the window seat, and my boarding pass was handed over with a smile. Office girl showed up right after that and go her boarding pass issued.
26May OX 8117 Y CEI-DMK M80 HS-OMC seat 5C
CEI is really a small airport, once through security (which let me keep my bottle of water that I was going to surrender); there is a mini-shop and a food counter. I did see the TG lounge was basically a separate room with a TV. There really wasn’t a way that I found to get a wireless signal for my laptop, so I ended up reading until the aircraft made its appearance.
Just like FD, OX opts to use stairs instead of a jetway. The plane is in One-Two-Go colors and livery but has a sticker on it that says “operated by Orient Thai” by the entrance door and again the same sticker on the cockpit door. The plane is on the older side; originally delivered to New York Air, and had the tightest pitch that I have ever seen; 29” would be my guess, definitely less than FD. While I’m putting my backpack into the overhead bin, office girl takes her chance, and zooms past me to claim the window seat. We had two windows in our row, and she was leaving forward with her face pined to the forward one, so at least I could look out the second one.
We left the hard stand right on time and back taxied on the runway before taking off on runway 18. I looked back, and we had a decent load, about 70%. A couple minutes after departure, while we are still climbing, the flight attendants start their service. Unlike FD, OX served a sandwich, a bag of peanuts and a drink without charge. Office girl ate the peanuts and put the sandwich in her purse, while I was pretty hungry and ate both fairly quickly. The flight back to DMK was very quick; we landed 56 minutes after departure. It’s was two and a half years since my last visit to Don Muang, and the airport looks like it hadn’t change much. We taxied in and used a jetway to disembark. It was a fairly short walk down to arrivals and baggage claim. Taxis were plentiful, and it was a much shorter ride into town than I have gotten used to with the new airport.
Even though the seat pitch was horrible, for a short flight it was tolerable. And the service was pretty good. I liked the convenience of flying back into the old airport, so I wouldn’t rule out flying OX again, but it would still not be my first choice.
After three days in BKK, it was time to head home. My goal was to be in a taxi at 545AM, and I looked at my watch when I got it, and it was 547AM. There was very little traffic, so we were at the terminal by 610AM. Today I was scheduled to fly BKK-HKG-SFO with two long layovers, four hours in HKG and six hours at SFO.
Again, check in was easy and my bag was checked as far as SFO (with a business class priority tag) and boarding passes and lounge invites were given out. There was only one person in front of me at outbound immigration, and I made it to the lounge before 630AM. The CX lounge at BKK has always been just OK for me; minimal food, but good wireless reception. I saw our aircraft arrive from CMB and headed off to the gate.
29May CX 700 J BKK-HKG 773 B-NHP seat 16A
I had checked the seat map on Expert Flyer while still in the lounge and J class was very light on this flight. The seat next to me was still showing open, and it stayed that way as the doors shut. We left very close to on time and were soon taking off on runway 19L. This was the same aircraft that I had flown in to BKK on from SIN and it had the newest regional J seats which always take me a little while to feel comfortable in. It was a fairly smooth climb out, and the in-flight service started quickly. Breakfast was on the agenda for this flight:
Starters:
Juices
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Mains:
Omelet with accompaniments
Braised chicken with red Thai ginger sauce
When I saw the menu, my original thought was the chicken, but when the flight attendant came by with the choices; I didn’t like the look of it and went for the omelet, which was pretty good.
Our route was little farther north than usual on this flight, we flew between mainland China and Hainan island. Again I read for most of the flight and we were soon headed for a landing on HKG’s runway 7L after two and a half hours of flying. We soon pulled up to gate 50 and there was nobody else in transfer security, so I made it through very quickly. I did have a four hour layover, so I immediately headed to the Pier. When I came in, it was not very busy, but I soon noticed that it was getting louder and louder as more passengers came in. I gave up on working and headed to the back noodle bar for a Dan Dan noodle soup to keep me going until dinner on the plane. I decided to stretch my legs after my noodle break and walked all the way out to the central terminal area where all the shops are and headed for the BA/QF lounge. I knew that at this time of day it would be very quiet, and it was as there were only three people in there besides myself. A little more than an hour before departure I started my walk to our departure gate, which was 34 this day.
29May CX 872 J HKG-SFO 744 B-HUB seat 12A
This flight was going to be fairly full, I only spotted a few empty seats in J and F, and Y was at 95% occupancy. My hope was for an early or at worst on-time arrival so I could try to hop on an earlier SFO-PDX Horizon flight, but at departure time we were still missing a passenger so their bag had to be found and off loaded.
That process didn’t take as long as I feared and we ended up with only a short wait for takeoff on runway 7R. Amenity kits were handed out before take off, and menus came out shortly after takeoff. This flight had the full dinner, so here is what was offered:
Starter:
Loch fyne salmon and marinated prawns
Mixes salad with citrus vinaigrette
Mains:
Stewed pork belly
Beef stroganoff
Szechuanese chili chicken
Sweet potato cannelloni
Cheese selection, fruit and an orange ganache tart
I thought I would see what looked better between the beef and the chicken, but when the flight attendant got to me the beef was gone, so the chicken it was. It turned out to be an excellent choice and I really enjoyed it. I also had some cheese and fruit (and just a taste of the tart) before it was time for me to sleep. Again I slept very well in the new seats and again I was out for a good 7+ hours before waking up again and watching a movie and a documentary. I did not partake in the snack options, but here were the choices:
Chicken and black mushrooms in noodle soup
Shrimp wantons in noodle soup
Beef and vegetable pie
Assorted sandwiches
Haggen Dazs ice cream
A little less than an hour and half before landing, breakfast was served. This morning’s choices:
Starters:
Juices and smoothies
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Assorted cereals
Mains:
Cheese and onion frittata with accompaniments
Dim Sum
Dried bonito and peanut congee
I always like the Dim Sum served out of HKG, so I made that my choice and again it was very good. As we got closer to SFO, I kept checking airshow to see how close we were to on-time, and it looked like we would be in within a few minutes of schedule.
After exactly 12 hours of flying time, we landed on runway 28R at SFO and had no wait to cross 28L, but then we stopped. The captain said that there was a lot of ground traffic at this time of day and it would be a very slow taxi to the gate. We eventually made it in, and I was one of the first few people off of the aircraft.
I really enjoyed my CX flights again, and hope to get another chance to fly them soon.
So at the end of the jetway U.S. CBP officers were checking passports and that slowed things down a touch. I did get through immigration very quickly, but then the wait came for the bags. It took about 15 minutes until the first bags started coming out, and my bag took another five. Customs decided that I was acceptable this time, so I got right through and I started on a very quick pace out of the customs area and headed over to Alaska’s check-in area. It was about 235PM now, and I wanted to go standby on the 325PM Horizon flight.
I got to the counter at 240PM and told the agent that I wanted to try and get on the 325PM flight. When I checked in HKG, it looked like there were a few seats still available. The agent put me on the stand by list, but when she went to check my bag, the time had clicked over to 241PM, so my bag was now late. She gave me a voluntary separation tag and said that it should be no problem, and handed me a stand by boarding pass to get through security and told me to check at the gate for my seat. Security wasn’t as bad as it sometimes gets in that terminal at SFO and I was off to the gate within just a couple of minutes. As I walk up, the gate agent asks me for my last name, and hands me my boarding pass and lets me know that boarding will begin in a couple of minutes.
29May AS 2524 Y SFO-PDX CR7 N604QX seat 2B
There were no windows left, so I settled in to my seat hoping that I would be able to see out over my seat mate. Things were going well as we taxied out and took off on runway 1R at SFO, but about a minute after take off my seat mate put down the window shade and promptly went to sleep. Oh well, back to my book. A full can of Jones soda was offered along with a bag of pretzels on this flight. We had a bit of a tail wind and made the trip up to PDX in only an hour and nine minutes. My seat mate finally opened up the shade after we landed on runway 28L.
I was pretty confident that my bag would make the flight, and it did come out fairly quickly, so good marks for Horizon on this leg.
Home again. Well for at least a couple of weeks until I get to fly EVA’s Elite class again.
Another transpacific trip came up for me; instead of just a trip to a single Asian destination like I usually take, an old client of mine wanted me in Singapore, Chiang Rai and Bangkok. They booked me PDX-SIN and return BKK-PDX with a mix of AS and CX. I had to come up with SIN-CEI-BKK. I had to be in CEI by 10AM on a Monday morning, and there was nothing that would get me in until 2PM at the earliest, so I made the decision to just fly to BKK on Sunday and then fly up to CEI first thing in the morning.
Lately, all I have been flying to Asia is EVA. I’m now a Diamond member with them, and I do like their soft product even if their C seats aren’t the greatest. And most times these days, the companies I consult for will only pony up for premium economy, and BR’s Elite class is very decent across the Pacific. This client however has a deal with CX and got me in J to SIN and home from BKK. Up until this year, I was a die hard CX flyer to Asia, almost always in J with the occasional F thrown into the mix. Flying CX got me to AA EXP status for quite a few years and eventually lifetime PLT status, and I love to fly with them. But for the most part, Cathay’s rates have just not been competitive the past year. Funny enough, in my previous 124 lifetime CX flights, I had not stepped behind the curtain into Y at all.
I knew that my SIN-CEI-BKK flights were going to be in the back and I had to balance overall cost with convenience. So my original plan was to stick with CX on their once a day SIN-BKK service figuring I have lounge access since I’m a oneworld Sapphire member, and then use TG on the BKK-CEI-BKK legs. I was set, or so I thought.
A couple of days before leaving the U.S., it was decided that a 10AM arrival into CEI would not be early enough. There was a 630AM Thai Air Asia flight however that would get me in before 8AM, so I made my new arrangements with FD. The price was very reasonable, and I paid for a “hot seat” in row 2 so I could get off of the aircraft quickly. OK, now everything is set, right?
It’s off to the airport for my first flight. My itinerary for this day was PDX-YVR on Horizon at 430PM and YVR-HKG-SIN on Cathay. The YVR-HKG flight isn’t scheduled to depart until 245AM, and I was arriving at 545 PM so I was planning on going to the Fairmont at the airport and throw myself on their mercy and see if they would give me a good rate for a few hours stay.
My goal was to get to the airport by 230PM, but we had to make one pit stop and there was a bunch of traffic, so my wife finally dropped me off at the airport at 310PM. Luckily there was no one in the First Class/MVP line. I told the agent what flight I was on, and she said, “I think that one was canceled. Let me see what I can rebook you on.” The agent next door told her to check my PNR first, because many of us were already rebooked. Sure enough, AS had already rebooked me on the 630PM AC flight. As I’m waiting for the agent to finish up, another passenger that was on the same cancelled flight is getting rebooked via SEA. She asks if she too could get on the AC flight. The agent checks, and says that the AC flight is now full. My agent forced my e-ticket coupon over to AC, gave me a copy of my new itinerary and I was off to the UA check in – UA handles AC at PDX.
There was an agent directing everybody to the check-in kiosks, and I said to her “I’ve been rule 80ed from Horizon, can I use those?” She shakes her head and has me follow her over to the counter where she signs into her system and checks me in. I have one bag for this trip that I only check to YVR; I have had so many bad experiences with interlining bags that when I have the time, I would rather short check the bag and re-check it myself. The agent doesn’t ask me a seat preference but just hands me a boarding pass for 8A which is OK since I prefer the window, but I would really rather be on the other side. I figure I would just check with the gate since the flight was full.
I now have a lot of time to kill that I wasn’t expecting, but I go through security and then head over to Alaska’s Boardroom. I spend a good couple hours there working on my laptop and enjoy a cup of the soup of the day – creamy tomato basil. At 520PM I pack up and take the long hike over to the single AC gate at PDX.
I get to the gate at 530PM and ask the agent if there were any window seats on the other side of the plane. She says that the flight is completely full, so no moving, but my boarding pass and checks her system. She then says to me, “Vancouver is sending us a smaller plane tonight, 37 seats instead of 50. Can you fly tomorrow; we will give you a hotel for the night and a free round trip?” How come I can never get these offers when I have time? I told that I unfortunately couldn’t and she was very pleasant about the situation. She also advised me that we would be about 30 minutes late. When AC downgraded the aircraft, they put everyone that was in row 10 and beyond on the standby list; so if you were already seated in rows 1 though 9 you were OK. So for the next 75 minutes, the agents at the gate were trying to get 13 volunteers. They were able to rebook some people through SEA that same night, but I know that a couple of people were involuntarily denied boarding.
20MAY AC 8126 Y PDX-YVR DH8 C-GONX seat 8A
With all of the seating issues, we eventually left about 40 minutes late. The dash-8 looked tired inside, but it flew just fine and that’s what counts. Due to runway construction at PDX, for the first time since I have lived here, we took off from runway 21, the 6000’ runway. Pretzels and drinks were served and it was a beautiful late afternoon to fly. It took an hour and five minutes of flying this day to get to YVR. Being late has one advantage; there was no one else in line at immigration. I got through very fast for YVR, and my bag was just coming around the carousel when I approached it.
It was now a few minutes after 830PM. I decided to forget the Fairmont idea and see if CX check in was open yet; their flight to JFK leaves at 1045PM, so I thought I might be in luck.
A very pleasant agent said that it was no problem checking in that early, checked my bag through to SIN with business class priority tags, and handed me my boarding passes and lounge invites. I was a little hungry by then, so I went to the food court before they closed to grab a bite for dinner, and I made some phone calls before going through security.
Security was very quick and in almost no time at all, I was at the CX lounge. There were a few people in there awaiting the JFK flight, and they had out the standard munchies of nuts, cookies, sandwiches along with some dim sum, etc. I had a long wait ahead of me, so I did something that I never do in the lounge – I took a nap. When I woke up, I saw that the HKG flight was now showing delayed, until 330AM.
I read a bit and checked the seat map on Expert Flyer to see how full our 777-300ER was tonight. I was in 21A, and saw that there were still some empty seats, including the bulkhead, row 15. Now as much as I have flown on CX, I had never scored the latest edition of their long haul business class seats. I had heard much about them, and looked forward to finally trying them for myself.
I decided to leave the lounge a little early just to walk a bit, but before leaving I asked the lounge attendant about switching seats. She called load control, but no one answered. I told her that I would just check at the gate. After wandering around and stretching my legs for a while, I made it over to the gate and inquired about the seat change. This agent did get a hold of load control, and I was switched to 15A.
21May CX 889 J YVR-HKG 77W B-KPA seat 15A
The aircraft finally made it to the gate at 230AM, and boarding started at 305AM. We were all on board and pushing back at 335AM.
My verdict on the seat – it took a little getting used to, but I really like it. I got a great sleep on board and I like having both a window and an aisle. The huge monitor with lots to watch on AVOD is great as well.
Back to the flight. Very quickly after takeoff the flight attendants came by with menus and amenity kits. Within a couple of minutes, my table was being set. Tonight’s supper:
Starter:
Spanish paprika prawns
Mains:
Braised bean curd sheet
Grilled lamb chops
Shui gaw in noodle soup
Cheese selection, fruit and a mango with blueberry flan
I decided on the noodle soup which was good and had some cheese and fruit before I drifted off to sleep. And sleep I did, I was out for a good 7+ hours before waking up again and watching a movie. I did not partake in the snack options, but here were the choices:
Braised beef brisket in noodle soup
Barbecued pork bun
Warm grilled ham and Swiss cheese sandwich
Haggen Dazs ice cream
About and hour and half before landing, breakfast was served. This morning’s choices:
Starters:
Juices and energizers
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Assorted cereals
Mains:
Omelet with accompaniments
Stir fried egg noodle with chicken
Shredded pork and mushroom congee
I figured that I was going to have eggs on the SIN flight, so I had some fruit, yogurt and the noodles with chicken which were very good.
Most of the flight attendants were wearing masks. It was a little disconcerting at first, but over the course of all of my CX flights on this trip, I got used to it.
After 12 hours and 50 minutes we arrived into an overcast HKG on runway 7R, and disembarked at gate 70.
I was able to go over to the transfer area near gate 65, and by the time I got through security it was 800AM. My flight to SIN was departing from gate 35, so I walked on to my new gate. I would have loved to spend some time in the Wing or Pier, but I figured I would have a lot of time for that on my return. I did have some phone calls to make, and by the time I got to the gate it was already 820AM and boarding for my next flight was about to commence.
22May CX 717 J HKG-SIN 777 B-HND seat 15K
When I had last checked the seat map, J class looked fairly empty, but there was someone seated next to me. About half way through boarding, my seat mate showed up and I told her that the odds were good that we could each have two seats. She liked the idea and asked the flight attendant where she could move to. The flight attendant said that she would let her know when to move. We turned out to have about a 65% load in J, and my seat mate eventually moved to the empty bulkhead row.
We had an on-time departure at 855AM and took off from runway 7R. We had a little turbulence after departure, but as soon as it subsided, the captain turned the cabin crew loose and menus were soon handed out. Service started very quickly after that. Breakfast this morning was:
Starters:
Juices
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Assorted cereals
Mains:
Frittata with accompaniments
Sautéed Ling fish
Dim Sum
Since I told myself on the previous flight that I was going to have eggs, I did take the frittata, and again it was very good. After breakfast I mostly read and looked out the window – perhaps a short nap was taken. Again masks were worn by most of the cabin crew. Three hours and eight minutes after departure we landed on runway 20C in balmy Singapore.
As usual for Singapore, immigration was very quick; there was only one person in line ahead of me. Luggage delivery though was a little slower than usual, even with the business class priority tags, my bag still came out about the middle of the pack. No wait for a taxi either today; and soon I was off for a couple of days in Singapore.
Two days later, it was back to Changi airport. My flight was at 135PM and I was in a taxi at 1030AM. No traffic to speak of and I was back at Terminal 1 a little before 11AM. I went to CX’s business class check in and there was no wait what so ever. My bag was checked, and again the business class priority tag was place on it, and boarding pass and lounge invite were handed over.
I hadn’t really had a chance to check out Terminal 3 yet, so that’s why I got to the airport so early. I walked up and down the newish terminal and spotted two of SQ’s A380s while I was at it. After I had my fill, I headed off to the BA/QF lounge back in Terminal 1. However, they had just closed up shop, so I kept going to the D concourse and went to CX’s lounge, the Skyview lounge. I have been here multiple times, and the view is better than what they used to have, but just the basics were available, beverages, nuts, a couple of pastries, and some pre-packaged sandwiches. I headed out to the gate at 1230PM, and there was a short line to go through security.
24May CX 712 Y SIN-BKK 773 B-HNP seat 32A
When I checked in on-line there were very few seats left in Y (although J was almost empty), but I was towards the front, just ahead of the wing. This flight was originally scheduled to be a 777-200, but CX ran a 777-300 instead; I guess the load demanded it this day. The aircraft arrived late from HKG and we boarded very close to departure time. We ended up leaving only 5 minutes late though after taking off from runway 20L.
The Y seat was fairly comfortable with decent pitch and in seat (but not AVOD) video. About 45 minutes after departure lunch and beverages were served. No menus were handed out, but our choices were either beef and noodles or fish and rice. I went for the beef, and it looked (to put it nicely) icky. But, it tasted pretty good, so you never know. It was served with fruit and a mini candy bar. I ended up just reading the entire flight.
We ended up flying north of the BKK airport and coming back to land on runway 19R after a two hour and 3 minute journey. There was almost no wait for immigration in BKK, that’s a real rarity and bags came out very quickly as well. My bag was in the first 10 this time, so well done CX. No wait for a taxi either which was good as I had an early wake up call the next morning.
And early it was; the alarm went off at 345AM, so I could be in the taxi by 430AM, and I had it timed almost to the minute. I was back at the terminal in BKK before 500AM and checking in with Thai Air Asia. I knew that FD would charge for my bag, so I paid in advance to get a discount. My receipt/boarding pass/bag tag was handed to me, and I had my previously paid for seat, 2A. I then went right through security and into BKK’s domestic area, which does not have many shops or eating areas. The regular terminal is like a mall, so I would call the domestic area the basement. I had a quick bite in the “café” and then headed off to the B gates for my flight.
25May FD 3250 Y BKK-CEI 320 HS-ABG seat 2A
We were at a bus gate, and boarding was called at 605AM with hot seat passengers first. Not that it meant much; I just got to be one of the first on the bus. The bus almost completely filled up and we headed out to the aircraft. The flight this morning was on a less than one year old A320 and it looked like it was in great condition. The seats were leather, but with fairly tight 30 inch pitch.
There was no one else in my row (I guess no one wanted to pay the 250 baht for the hot seat) and only five people in the first five rows, while from row six on it was about 60% full. A couple of passengers tried to move up to the hot seats, but the flight attendants made them go back to their assigned seats. We left the hard stand about 5 minutes before schedule and we were off of runway 19L right at departure time. As expected, everything on board including water was for sale, nothing included in the fare. I didn’t see many takers for the food or drinks offered.
The one hour and six minutes went by quickly and we were soon landing on runway 36. There are two jetways at CEI, but Air Asia chooses not to use them, and we deplaned by stairs. Bags were out within just a few minutes. I was out of the terminal before our scheduled arrival time. Overall, my first experience with Air Asia was a good one.
So this is where my plans went completely off kilter. My day in Chiang Rai turned into spending a night in Mai Sai that was not planned. Originally, I was going to take the TG’s 1020AM flight back into BKK on Tuesday morning, but by 730AM I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I remembered that FD had a flight at 130PM ish so that was going to be my next bet, but I was still tied up, and by 11AM, that one was out of the picture as well. The next flight to BKK wasn’t until TG’s 820PM, so that’s what I thought I would end up on. Well it turned out that my office had another idea. After lunch I was told that they had booked me on the 650PM One-Two-Go (Orient Thai) flight to the old Don Muang airport in Bangkok. I wasn’t thrilled about flying OX, but they had booked another person from the office on the same flight. What I had heard about OX service was pretty horrific, so I was not expecting much, basically that my Thai Air Asia flight was going to look like pure luxury in comparison.
We (I’ll call my travel partner “office girl” from here on out) were dropped off at the terminal at 430PM, and OX opened their check in a few minutes later. Office girl picked this time to go to the restroom, but I checked in anyway and got us on the two seat side of the MD-80, with me taking the window seat, and my boarding pass was handed over with a smile. Office girl showed up right after that and go her boarding pass issued.
26May OX 8117 Y CEI-DMK M80 HS-OMC seat 5C
CEI is really a small airport, once through security (which let me keep my bottle of water that I was going to surrender); there is a mini-shop and a food counter. I did see the TG lounge was basically a separate room with a TV. There really wasn’t a way that I found to get a wireless signal for my laptop, so I ended up reading until the aircraft made its appearance.
Just like FD, OX opts to use stairs instead of a jetway. The plane is in One-Two-Go colors and livery but has a sticker on it that says “operated by Orient Thai” by the entrance door and again the same sticker on the cockpit door. The plane is on the older side; originally delivered to New York Air, and had the tightest pitch that I have ever seen; 29” would be my guess, definitely less than FD. While I’m putting my backpack into the overhead bin, office girl takes her chance, and zooms past me to claim the window seat. We had two windows in our row, and she was leaving forward with her face pined to the forward one, so at least I could look out the second one.
We left the hard stand right on time and back taxied on the runway before taking off on runway 18. I looked back, and we had a decent load, about 70%. A couple minutes after departure, while we are still climbing, the flight attendants start their service. Unlike FD, OX served a sandwich, a bag of peanuts and a drink without charge. Office girl ate the peanuts and put the sandwich in her purse, while I was pretty hungry and ate both fairly quickly. The flight back to DMK was very quick; we landed 56 minutes after departure. It’s was two and a half years since my last visit to Don Muang, and the airport looks like it hadn’t change much. We taxied in and used a jetway to disembark. It was a fairly short walk down to arrivals and baggage claim. Taxis were plentiful, and it was a much shorter ride into town than I have gotten used to with the new airport.
Even though the seat pitch was horrible, for a short flight it was tolerable. And the service was pretty good. I liked the convenience of flying back into the old airport, so I wouldn’t rule out flying OX again, but it would still not be my first choice.
After three days in BKK, it was time to head home. My goal was to be in a taxi at 545AM, and I looked at my watch when I got it, and it was 547AM. There was very little traffic, so we were at the terminal by 610AM. Today I was scheduled to fly BKK-HKG-SFO with two long layovers, four hours in HKG and six hours at SFO.
Again, check in was easy and my bag was checked as far as SFO (with a business class priority tag) and boarding passes and lounge invites were given out. There was only one person in front of me at outbound immigration, and I made it to the lounge before 630AM. The CX lounge at BKK has always been just OK for me; minimal food, but good wireless reception. I saw our aircraft arrive from CMB and headed off to the gate.
29May CX 700 J BKK-HKG 773 B-NHP seat 16A
I had checked the seat map on Expert Flyer while still in the lounge and J class was very light on this flight. The seat next to me was still showing open, and it stayed that way as the doors shut. We left very close to on time and were soon taking off on runway 19L. This was the same aircraft that I had flown in to BKK on from SIN and it had the newest regional J seats which always take me a little while to feel comfortable in. It was a fairly smooth climb out, and the in-flight service started quickly. Breakfast was on the agenda for this flight:
Starters:
Juices
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Mains:
Omelet with accompaniments
Braised chicken with red Thai ginger sauce
When I saw the menu, my original thought was the chicken, but when the flight attendant came by with the choices; I didn’t like the look of it and went for the omelet, which was pretty good.
Our route was little farther north than usual on this flight, we flew between mainland China and Hainan island. Again I read for most of the flight and we were soon headed for a landing on HKG’s runway 7L after two and a half hours of flying. We soon pulled up to gate 50 and there was nobody else in transfer security, so I made it through very quickly. I did have a four hour layover, so I immediately headed to the Pier. When I came in, it was not very busy, but I soon noticed that it was getting louder and louder as more passengers came in. I gave up on working and headed to the back noodle bar for a Dan Dan noodle soup to keep me going until dinner on the plane. I decided to stretch my legs after my noodle break and walked all the way out to the central terminal area where all the shops are and headed for the BA/QF lounge. I knew that at this time of day it would be very quiet, and it was as there were only three people in there besides myself. A little more than an hour before departure I started my walk to our departure gate, which was 34 this day.
29May CX 872 J HKG-SFO 744 B-HUB seat 12A
This flight was going to be fairly full, I only spotted a few empty seats in J and F, and Y was at 95% occupancy. My hope was for an early or at worst on-time arrival so I could try to hop on an earlier SFO-PDX Horizon flight, but at departure time we were still missing a passenger so their bag had to be found and off loaded.
That process didn’t take as long as I feared and we ended up with only a short wait for takeoff on runway 7R. Amenity kits were handed out before take off, and menus came out shortly after takeoff. This flight had the full dinner, so here is what was offered:
Starter:
Loch fyne salmon and marinated prawns
Mixes salad with citrus vinaigrette
Mains:
Stewed pork belly
Beef stroganoff
Szechuanese chili chicken
Sweet potato cannelloni
Cheese selection, fruit and an orange ganache tart
I thought I would see what looked better between the beef and the chicken, but when the flight attendant got to me the beef was gone, so the chicken it was. It turned out to be an excellent choice and I really enjoyed it. I also had some cheese and fruit (and just a taste of the tart) before it was time for me to sleep. Again I slept very well in the new seats and again I was out for a good 7+ hours before waking up again and watching a movie and a documentary. I did not partake in the snack options, but here were the choices:
Chicken and black mushrooms in noodle soup
Shrimp wantons in noodle soup
Beef and vegetable pie
Assorted sandwiches
Haggen Dazs ice cream
A little less than an hour and half before landing, breakfast was served. This morning’s choices:
Starters:
Juices and smoothies
Fresh fruit
Fruit yogurt
Assorted cereals
Mains:
Cheese and onion frittata with accompaniments
Dim Sum
Dried bonito and peanut congee
I always like the Dim Sum served out of HKG, so I made that my choice and again it was very good. As we got closer to SFO, I kept checking airshow to see how close we were to on-time, and it looked like we would be in within a few minutes of schedule.
After exactly 12 hours of flying time, we landed on runway 28R at SFO and had no wait to cross 28L, but then we stopped. The captain said that there was a lot of ground traffic at this time of day and it would be a very slow taxi to the gate. We eventually made it in, and I was one of the first few people off of the aircraft.
I really enjoyed my CX flights again, and hope to get another chance to fly them soon.
So at the end of the jetway U.S. CBP officers were checking passports and that slowed things down a touch. I did get through immigration very quickly, but then the wait came for the bags. It took about 15 minutes until the first bags started coming out, and my bag took another five. Customs decided that I was acceptable this time, so I got right through and I started on a very quick pace out of the customs area and headed over to Alaska’s check-in area. It was about 235PM now, and I wanted to go standby on the 325PM Horizon flight.
I got to the counter at 240PM and told the agent that I wanted to try and get on the 325PM flight. When I checked in HKG, it looked like there were a few seats still available. The agent put me on the stand by list, but when she went to check my bag, the time had clicked over to 241PM, so my bag was now late. She gave me a voluntary separation tag and said that it should be no problem, and handed me a stand by boarding pass to get through security and told me to check at the gate for my seat. Security wasn’t as bad as it sometimes gets in that terminal at SFO and I was off to the gate within just a couple of minutes. As I walk up, the gate agent asks me for my last name, and hands me my boarding pass and lets me know that boarding will begin in a couple of minutes.
29May AS 2524 Y SFO-PDX CR7 N604QX seat 2B
There were no windows left, so I settled in to my seat hoping that I would be able to see out over my seat mate. Things were going well as we taxied out and took off on runway 1R at SFO, but about a minute after take off my seat mate put down the window shade and promptly went to sleep. Oh well, back to my book. A full can of Jones soda was offered along with a bag of pretzels on this flight. We had a bit of a tail wind and made the trip up to PDX in only an hour and nine minutes. My seat mate finally opened up the shade after we landed on runway 28L.
I was pretty confident that my bag would make the flight, and it did come out fairly quickly, so good marks for Horizon on this leg.
Home again. Well for at least a couple of weeks until I get to fly EVA’s Elite class again.
Jun 6, 2009, 3:11 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Beaverton OR
Programs: GE, AA PLT/2.6MM, BR Gld, Royal Carib. DM+, Celebrity Elite, NCL PLT, Princess Elite
Posts: 1,643
The last CX F award I used was in the previous version of F.
Jun 9, 2009, 5:23 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Beaverton OR
Programs: GE, AA PLT/2.6MM, BR Gld, Royal Carib. DM+, Celebrity Elite, NCL PLT, Princess Elite
Posts: 1,643