BearX220

Here I am burning my last Northwest WorldPerks miles and, thanks to the Delta merger, concluding my long, mostly cordial relationship with NW and Skyteam.

In August 2008 I redeemed miles for three business-class seats for me, my wife and son from Seattle to Australia at 150k miles each, which took about eight hours of phone time with the WorldPerks partner desk. Even then we could not all get on the same outbound flights. Mrs. BearX220 and son would fly SEA-HNL in first class on NW, then HNL-SYD in the front cabin on HA, then make their way SYD-PER on a paid ticket. I would simultaneously fly SEA-LAX in first on AS, then LAX-TPE-KUL-PER on Malaysian. We would all come home together, though, on Air Tahiti Nui SYD-PPT-LAX, enjoying a Papeete layover, then on AS LAX-SEA.

Between booking day and departure day, though, our itineraries blew up more often than villains’ lairs in Bond movies. Malaysian cut frequencies out of LAX, wiping out my outbound. Air Tahiti Nui suspended service out of SYD for mid-2009, wiping out our return flight and Tahitian interlude. Each time the NW agents were helpful, if not fully conversant with the fallback options; because I knew them, and my rights under the circumstances, we ended up occupying three award seats up front on NW metal ICN-SEA-NRT when it’s usually difficult to liberate even one.

The international flights described here were paid for with miles; the Australian domestic flights were purchased with cash, a game-of-darts proposition owing to the insane, irrational fluctuations in both ticket prices and the US-Australian exchange rate.

The most striking feature of the trip was the eerie emptiness of premium cabins and airport lounges, proving the severity of the economic crisis. The biggest unanswered question: why airline bosses are letting all this perishable product die each day as throngs of customers are unable to redeem millions of miles.

Here’s the story of our flights – well, the ones I flew, anyway.

22 June: Northwest NW7 SEA-NRT
Scheduled departure: 2:15pm Actual: 3:25pm
Scheduled arrival: 4:40pm Actual: 5:41pm
Aircraft: A330-300 Seat: 3A

I OLCI’d at home the night before departure, confirmed seat 3A, and rolled up to Sea-Tac at noon on departure day. There was a big rugby scrum at the NW check-in desk (not yet combined with DL) and it took about 15 minutes to get up there and check my one bag through to Narita, then it was off to security, the South Satellite and the WorldClub that is always bursting at the seams this time of day with passengers leaving for NRT and AMS as well as AF travelers bound for CDG. All three flights depart around the same time, so the WorldClub is like that stateroom in the Marx Brothers movie, and the discomfort is compounded by the termination a few years ago of the self-service bar; you have to corral an agent to pour you a beer. The only food was brownies, cheese and crackers. I found a seat and for the next hour Blackberry-ied so-long emails to my clients and final notes to my business partner. Our aircraft, parked directly outside, was freshly painted in Delta livery.

Boarding began a little after 1:30pm and I was among the first dozen storming the WBC cabin. Jackets were stowed slowly, with the crew shouting at passengers across the cabin to “hang on a minute!”, and we settled in. As the cabin filled up there was a steady parade of mechanics to and from the flight deck – something was evidently wrong. Also, the power kept cycling off, then on again. After we were all seated we had a terse announcement from up front saying there was a computer malfunction and they were shutting the power on and off to see if it would cure things.

The power-cycling continued for an hour, well past scheduled departure time. We passed our time by choosing menu entrees. The flight had been issued only one BusinessElite menu, so the crew had coded the dinner and breakfast options with big numerals and showed it to each passenger in turn. I therefore can’t recall or reproduce the choices or wines here, with no pilfered menu to refer to, but I chose the Japanese food.

We finally solved our technical problems and got off gate S9 about 1:15 behind schedule, taxied north to Runway 16C and lumbered into the air. Drinks and lunch / dinner quickly followed; darkness stole across the sky more slowly as we chased the sun west across the Aleutians. The cabin lights dimmed and I ground through two movies on the IFE (including Someone Like You, the sort of chick flick a guy like me should only watch in total anonymity, like now) and chatted with my seatmate, a Norwegian consultant on his way to a job in Shanghai whose NRT connection would be mighty close thanks to our departure delay.

Cabin service was a stew of NW and DL elements. The crew wore DL uniforms, the menu and IFE were DL-branded but the Airshow, amenity kit, napkins and utensils bore the NW logo. Great BusinessElite quilts and full-size bed pillows. The seats were NW seats, obviously, still superior to the Delta BE seat I think. WBC – sorry, BE – was entirely full, the only such business class cabin I would encounter on this trip. The staff was cheerful and responsive when visible, but often out of view in the American style.

Breakfast was unremarkable – with no menu at hand I can’t remember a thing about it – and we landed at NRT an hour late on Tuesday afternoon. I rolled through Japanese immigration in record time clutching my shore pass, my bag was among the first off the carousel, and I was outside, blinking, in the late-afternoon murk by 6:15pm, awaiting the free shuttle to the Hilton Narita. The Hilton is a big concrete semicircle planted under one of the main NRT runway approaches, a ten-minute ride from the terminals, kind of prisonlike from the outside but very comfortable and welcoming on the inside. My JPY9000 room was big by Asian standards, well-equipped, and the rate included free transport to and from both the airport and Narita town.

I was wide awake and had no stomach for eating alone in a pricey Hilton restaurant, so rode the Hilton bus to Narita town to explore. Inspired by Mike Newman’s Narita Layover Page, I found my way to Omotesando Street and the Jet Lag Club bar, which was patronized by American airline crews in civvies and served up well-kept Guinness and Victoria Bitter. Had good conversation, modest bar dinner of meat pie and salad, and an evening’s worth of beers for JPY3000, then caught the last Hilton shuttle back to the hotel.

23 June: Malaysian MH89 NRT-KUL
Scheduled departure: 10:30am Actual: 10:29am
Scheduled arrival: 4:40pm Actual: 4:40pm
Aircraft: B777-200 Seat: 2A

Beset by sleeplessness I dressed and checked out of the Hilton early and found myself first in line at the MH Golden Club Class check-in desks before they opened for business at 800am.

Based on recent FT testimony I had hopes of dodging the notorious, arbitrary MH fuel-and-insurance surcharges collected from award-ticket travelers. These were dashed early when the Japanese MH check-in corps held their pre-opening briefing / pep rally / prayer circle right in front of me, and I saw they all held clipboards with my name on them, along with a notation I couldn’t decipher. When I got to the counter I was politely relieved of JPY12,180 via Visa card, an entirely unexplained, arbitrary amount as far as I could tell. But obviously if you don’t pay whatever they quote, you don’t fly, so you’re over a barrel. What an unfair, unfriendly practice by MH. The agent also declared herself unable to route my checked bag all the way through to PER owing to “security” – I would have to reclaim and recheck at KUL.

Golden Club passengers get access to the Qantas Club in the NRT Terminal 2 satellite, and I was there when it opened at 830am. You get a good ground-level view of the tarmac, a bank of free Internet terminals, full self-serve bar and drinks selection, but rather sparse food: the hostess would lovingly place six or eight lonely, cold breakfast dim sum on the serving platter at a time, then have to replenish them speedily when I ate them. I had a few Bloody Marys and as much breakfast as I could locate, checked office email and Flyertalk, and killed time until 1000am.

There was a pretty thin crowd at the satellite gate a short stroll from the Qantas Club. I arrived just as boarding started. There was a fork in the jetway – left for business class, right for economy – which I love as long as I’m veering left! Today I was one of only 8 or 9 people to do so; as I settled into 2A I found I had not only the seat next to me, but all of row 2, to myself. The economy cabin was less than half occupied. We were all loaded and buttoned up well before pushback, bang on time at 1030am. I was offered Champagne while waiting (Joseph Perrier Cuvee Royale 2002 / 2003).

The 2-3-2, 28-seat J cabin was incredibly roomy – vast leg space, no way to reach the seat pocket in front of you without unbuckling your safety belt and getting up, etc. But it’s a “near flat” seat whose sleeping position reminded me of the old Cathay J seats – you have to sort of stand on the flip-out foot support to keep from sliding, slowly but surely, floorwards.

Lunch menu was as follows:

Appetizers

Malaysian Satay served with Cucumber and Raw Onion in a Dipping Peanut Sauce (chicken, lamb and / or beef)

Lemon Marinated Prawn with Chilli Salmon Potato Timbale

Soba Japanese Yam Noodle with Spring Onion, Wasabi, Dried Seaweed and Soba Sauce

Main Course

Seared Beef Tenderloin with Spicy Vegetables Sauce, Buttered Green Asparagus, Glazed Carrot and Thyme Roasted Potatoes

Japanese Bluefish Saikyo-Yaki with Steamed Rice, Stuffed Bean Curd, and Japanese-Style Vegetables

Chicken and Potato Curry Complemented with Mixed Steamed Rice and Seasonal Vegetables

Dessert

Apple and Rhubarb Tart with Caramel Custard Sauce

Wines

Champagne Joseph Perrier Cuvee Royale 2002 / 2003
Chateau Fontis 2003 Cru Bourgeois AOC Medoc Bordeaux
Domaine Faiveley Rully “Les Villeranges” 2005 Burgundy
Domaine Aleth Chablis 2006, Burgundy
Chateau Thieuley Blance 2005 / 2006, AOC Bordeaux

One was expected to have all three appetizers (and welcome to request a second helping of satay, which I did); the delicious satay was the highlight of the meal. The menu claims more than 20,000 satay sticks are consumed aboard MH flights each day, and I am willing to believe it, having contributed substantially to that total. I had the beef tenderloin as a main and it was OK, standard airline issue, although presentation was absolutely superb.

The MH flight attendants were uniformly wonderful, providing attentive, unhurried service and leaving me hanging on their delicious Malay accents – a concerto of Indian, Singaporean and English boarding school tones. They betrayed no sign of the distress MH’s bean-counters would surely have felt on scanning the nearly-empty Golden Class cabin – and this on what should be an MH trunk route, Tokyo-Kuala Lumpur, which MH has already cut back from about 12X a week to less than daily. Very alarming sign of the times.

I figured out the IFE about halfway into the 7h, 10m flight. Movies seemed to loop rather than start on demand. I stuck to the Airshow for the most part.

We descended through heavy overcast, overflew the peninsula east to west, banked right and landed right on time, deplaning into a totally deserted tentacle of the sprawling, apparently undersubscribed KLIA satellite terminal. It was a long hike past cold, dark gates into the nucleus of the place, which has an ostentatious bit of “rain forest” at its center, where one catches the automated train to the main terminal. KLIA is fond of billing itself as “the best airport in the world,” and it’s new and architecturally impressive in the post-modern Asian technomonumentalist style, but I found the signage and experience design confusing. It’s one of the few international airports I’ve come across where arriving pax from overseas aren’t segregated, but mingle with departing pax, as in an American domestic terminal. It is a real job to navigate one’s way from the arrival gate to the train and on to immigration.

When I first planned this trip I had a 12-hour layover at KUL and booked in at the “airside hotel” in the satellite. When MH cancelled my initial NRT-KUL and rolled me onto the MH89, inflating my layover to 17 hours, I changed plans and booked a cheap, paid-in-advance room at the well-reviewed Hilton Sentral in the city, and this was my destination now. I changed some leftover Japanese yen into Malaysian ringgits, bought a round-trip ticket on the KLIA Ekspres high-speed train into Sentral for RM70 (less than US$20) from the useful desk in the baggage hall, collected my bag and sailed through customs. The purple train was idling in the airport basement station and pulled out moments after I boarded – they go every 15 minutes – and I got a high-speed tour of Kuala Lumpur suburbia under threatening skies.

The Ekspres operates under London Underground ticketing rules – you slide your card through a turnstile on arrival at Sental (and again when departing from there). As I did I saw a young man holding a “Hilton Sentral” sign who directed me outside to await a shuttle van. (The Hilton is actually connected to Sentral station, but the Ekspres arrival station is in a weirdly distant outpost, and the shuttle is useful). It was – and it stands to reason – tropically muggy and densely humid outside, temperature well above 90F, as a clump of us Hiltonians waited 15 minutes for the shuttle, our sign-holding agent in mounting distress as it failed to appear. When it finally did it was only a five-minute ride to the hotel’s front door.

Ten minutes after than I was installed in a beautiful, exquisitely designed high-floor Hilton room with a sweeping view of downtown KL and the Petronas towers, showering and cracking a minibar beer just as a full-scale thunderstorm lashed the city at sunset. The room had hardwood floors, a gorgeous, opulent bathroom that outdid the ones in the Beverly Wilshire, ingenious sliding panels for bathroom privacy, a giant flat screen with TV programming from everywhere, a terrific window-side armchair and an invitingly firm bed. That delicious feeling stole over me of being alone in a new city far from home, in relatively luxurious surroundings, undetected and untracked, with a world of options at my disposal in the evening ahead.

Soon after, fatigue caught up with me – I hadn’t slept much at Narita the previous night – and after I’d laid down for “just a second,” it was after midnight. I tossed, dozed and read until 5:00am, when I rang the “Magic” line and asked if it was too early to order the full Singapore breakfast. Not at all, came the imperturbable voice on the other end, and 20 minutes later a groaning board of delights appeared at my door: Chinese porridge with all the fixings, dim sum, fruit, bread and strong black coffee, all delicious. (The meal was a bargain at 40 ringgit – about US$11; at a Hilton in New York or London it would have cost five times as much.) I ate happily in my tiger robe while watching Sky News, showered again, then packed and checked out. This is one wonderful Hilton. I wish I’d stayed awake to take further advantage.

24 June: Malaysian MH125 KUL-PER
Scheduled departure: 9:40am Actual: 9:40am
Scheduled arrival: 3:00pm Actual: 2:55pm
Aircraft: B777-200 Seat: 2A

The 7:00am KLIA Ekspres from Sentral to the airport was no Ekspres at all but made several unannounced local stops, and I ended up surrendering my seat to a gaggle of elderly ladies amid much bowing and gesturing. I got back to KLIA around 7:45am and found nobody in line for business class check-in. Even though check-in at NRT yesterday had gone seamlessly, the sweet but highly methodical agent had a terrible time verifying my reservation. “Your ticket change,” she managed in halting English. It was true that Northwest had changed my ticket about six times between booking and flying, but not this particular flight! Finally I gave her my printout of the final-version NW trip receipt showing a single ticket number and PNR, which seemed to satisfy her. I retained my seat assignment, 2A again, and was off to the satellite terminal. At immigration I showed a special queue-jumping pass I acquired at check-in and was ushered instantly through a line marked for consular and diplomatic officials, bypassing a large, slow-moving throng.

The Malaysian Airlines Golden Lounge KLIA in the satellite is what other airline lounges want to be when they grow up: spacious, soaring, decorous, sublimely comfortable, chock-a-block with food, alcohol everywhere, screens and newspapers whenever you want them, five-star service. It compares favorably with the CX Wing at HKG and any Virgin Clubhouse anywhere, in my view. As I arrived there was a full hot Western breakfast on offer at one side of the buffet, Malay and other Asian specialties at the other, and a full array of fresh-cut sandwiches, noodles, canapés, you name it. All this at about 8:00am. No trouble finding Bloody Mary fixings – the place is dotted with little self-serve islands stocked not only with Absolut, tomato juice, Worcestershire, etc. but with Champagne, still wine and Heinekens. I am so happy in comfy, time-free cocoons like this overseas, fixing my own drinks, stabbing at the dim sum, reading unfamiliar papers, and waiting to depart for someplace far away... it’s one of the only times I get giddy about travel.

MH management might have been less than giddy about the sparse number of customers enjoying the Golden Lounge, or for that matter the load on MH125. I ambled down to the gate sometime after 9:00am and the load factor was much the same as on yesterday’s NRT-KUL. We boarded around 9:15am and I found 10 of 28 Golden Class seats occupied on this 777-200 (identical to yesterday’s). Another black day for the airline’s accountants, but not for me: 2B vacant next to me, very comfortable seat, more gracious attention from the staff than I could handle.

We left the gate exactly on time and soon after takeoff it was time for Brunch:

Starters

Fruit Yoghurt

Fresh Seasonal Fruits

Bread Variety Fresh from the Oven with Butter, Jam, Honey or Marmalade

Main Course

Spanish Omelette filled with Tomato, Capiscum and Olive accompanied with Chicken Chive Sausage, Grilled Tomato, Asparagus, Sauteed Mushroom and Onion Potato Cake

Nasi Lemak – Traditional Malaysian Breakfast with Squid Flower Sambal and Chicken Rendang, Peanuts, Anchovies, Cucumber and Boiled Egg

Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashew Nut served with Chinese Noodle and Mixed Vegetables with Garlic

Cinnamon French Toast enhanced with Caramelized Banana, Mixed Berries Compote and Maple Syrup

Dessert

Mango Blueberry Pie with Vanilla Sauce

Fresh Seasonal Fruits

I had the Nasi Lemak (“Not too spicy for you?” asked the solicitious FA), which was wonderful, albeit my third great Asian breakfast of the morning. I therefore had no trouble passing up the mango blueberry pie.

I kept an eye out the window for Australian landfall as we flew south, and spotted it about halfway through our 5h 10m flight, but it turned out we flew somewhat inland and the proper side of the plane for admiring the Indian Ocean coastline was to starboard. The weather clouded up again as we neared Perth and we landed on time amid intermittent rain.

The PER international terminal, a strangely isolated five-gate outpost across the airfield from the domestic terminal, is small, a little shabby and dejected-feeling. But I was on the sidewalk by 3:15pm and looking for transport over to the domestic side, where my wife and son were due in on a Virgin Blue service from SYD at 3:20pm.

A fine welcome to Australia, this: there is an inter-terminal bus running on 30-minute headways, but unless you have an onward ticket – that is, unless you yourself are flying out of Perth that day – you’re forbidden to ride it. Even if you’re willing to pay. It makes no sense. So the bus departed with three people aboard while I followed in a taxi that got caught in traffic and cost me AU$30. After the seamless efficiency of NRT and KUL, it was a rude awakening. And when I finally reached the Virgin Blue arrivals hall my family’s flight was running an hour behind anyway.

We spent a night in Perth at the Novotel Langley, notable primarily for an excellent, teenager-sating breakfast buffet, then hired a campervan and spent a week touring the northwest, Shark Bay and Monkey Mia – lovely time – details on request.

Part II below.

BearX220

3 July: Qantas QF1922 PER-AYQ
Scheduled departure: 10:05am; actual: 10:10am
Scheduled arrival: 1:50pm; actual: 2:00pm
Aircraft: B717 Seat: 17D

The three of us were travelling together today to Cairns. The prior night, before dining in Fremantle, we hit an Internet café and did OLCI at about 16 hours prior to departure, only to find that our seat assignments for both today’s flights, booked months before on a single PNR, had been scattered around the aircraft by QF and the online seating plan offered no alternatives. In my prior experience QF took pains to keep same-PNR pax seated together, especially obvious families with a common surname, but on this flight we had 16D, 17D and 21D. In olden days when my son was young this would have been a real problem; now it was only an irritation.

We’d booked a 730am airport shuttle from our Fremantle hotel (the Tradewinds, a three-star motel masquerading online as a four-star resort– meh), but the driver got caught in traffic and appeared 35 minutes late. Aargh – whenever I opt against taxis, as on this occasion per the hotel clerk’s advice, it’s against my better judgment. The shuttle driver issued a flurry of apologies and plunged us down a labyrinth of back streets to get us to the Qantas curb at PER by 8:50am. We hustled our stuff inside and joined a massive, sloth-speed line for bag check-in, getting our stuff tagged at 9:20am – 15 minutes before the acceptance deadline.

There are plentiful signs around PER promising a better terminal in 2010, and all I can say is it can’t come too soon. The approach road and set-down area is torn up by construction, interior facilities are way overtaxed and understaffed, the post-security QF departure area heaves with people like the poop deck of the Titanic as she heeled over, and our boarding process meant a long outdoor hike through Jersey wall and improvised barriers to an aircraft stand a long way from the terminal. Didn’t like it any more on departure than on arrival. (My son and I later picked up the current issue of Australian Aviation magazine which contained a feature on PER headlined “Western Australia’s Embarrassment,” so I don’t think my assessment is unique.)

This was a Qantaslink service to Ayers Rock – a nice, clean, sold-out Boeing 717 with no premium-class seating or IFE but an outgoing, top-notch crew, one of whom was a Canadian woman doing the PA announcements. We were agroan with families, school holidays having just kicked in. We pushed back about ten minutes late and took off quickly into a blue sky, turning inland immediately. Imagine my surprise when this “commuter” iteration of the Qantas brand produced a full trayed lunch – cold pasta salad, roll, cheese and crackers, chockies and more – with a smile.

As we approached Ayers Rock Airport my seatmate in 17E, a young woman who’d dozed through lunch, stirred and pointed out the Olgas and Uluru as they slid by on the right side of the plane – magnificent sights from any angle. She’d worked in Alice Springs for a few years and seemed pleased that my family and I had visited Alice, Uluru, and more three years ago. We agreed that not enough people, especially not enough Australians, make it out here.

I was interested to see AYQ and the QF operation there. We landed ten minutes late, rolled out, then did a 180-degree turn and taxied up to a terminal that might have fit comfortably into my suburban house plat back home in the States. One little baggage area, one ticket desk the size of a kitchen counter, a post-security lounge the size of my living room, and there you were. It makes the Alice Springs airport 300 miles to the northeast look like O'Hare. We needn’t have worried about being late for our connection to CNS because our airplane was the connection to CNS; it was the only airliner out there, or indeed for miles and miles around.

3 July: Qantas QF1850 AYQ-CNS
Scheduled departure: 2:30pm; actual: 2:35pm
Scheduled arrival: 5:30pm; actual: 5:40pm
Aircraft: B717 Seat: 20F

For reasons known only to QF we were trooped off our Boeing 717, into the AYQ arrivals hall, through a security screening, and back aboard the same 717, with a different flight number and different seat assignments. During boarding I asked the FA why they didn’t just sell PER-AYQ-CNS as a one-stop with one flight number, and she didn’t have a very good answer – something about picking up more bookings AYQ-CNS, or giving incoming pax from PER a little longer layover in AYQ if they wish; there was another AYQ-CNS service an hour behind us.

This flight was full too. Ninety-something percent of us had come in from Perth on QF1922 and been redistributed, pointlessly, in new seats around the cabin. We taxied off the stand, then held for ten minutes while another Qantaslink 717 landed, taxied in and cleared the skinny ribbon of tarmac between the terminal and the runway. After it shut down we were on our way in seconds, heading northeast for Cairns.

I was in 20F this time, with the starboard jet whirling about five feet from my head. I sat next to a mum and two young children who – despite my inward groan – turned out to be good as gold, although various other ex-Perth small children began exploding around the cabin as the day wore on. The cabin staff, same group as on PER-AYQ but with a different one playing lead on this segment and handling the PA announcements, outdid themselves by producing a hot trayed dinner. It was a beef-and-pasta goulash affair, not exactly Escoffier, but streets ahead of anything you’d get in the States on a comparable sector – and served with a smile, too. Excellent, friendly service all the way around, right down to the tray of Mentos passed before landing (on both QF flights).

At AU$507 per head for the PER-AYQ-CNS trip, this was our most expensive flying. Oddly, the Qantaslink routing with the stop at Ayers Rock was by far the most efficient non-redeye method of getting to Cairns; the Qantas mainline options were all pricier still and included dogleg connections in MEL or SYD.

We swept into CNS on that dramatic over-the-Coral Sea approach only a few minutes off schedule, close to sunset, and discovered another Australian airport in severe disrepair, the domestic terminal, which I recalled as “charming” and “quaint” on my last visit, completely torn up and full of weird detours disrupting passenger flow. Our bags all made it and we rented a superb cherry-red Ford Falcon from Avis – the kind of Ford you just wish you could buy in the States, because you would, too, in a twinkling – and drove to the Hilton Cairns, where we were shown to a lovely spa-floor room overlooking the Esplanade, lagoon, and – most important to my son – the airport approach pattern.

Five lovely days of reef diving, rainforest exploring, high-volume eating, etc. ensued – along with a great award stay at a fine Hilton property – details on request.

8 July: Virgin Blue DJ1418 CNS-SYD
Scheduled departure: 12:25pm; actual: 12:35pm
Scheduled arrival: 3:25pm; actual: 3:15pm
Aircraft: B737-800 Seat: 13D

Mrs. BearX220 departed with relations on an earlier Virgin Blue flight to BNE, planning to rejoin us in SYD at the weekend, so for my son and I it was Boy’s Day Out. We did OLCI for DJ1418 from the Hilton business center and found ourselves together in 13E and 13F on a very light-looking flight. We fueled up that great Falcon and sadly turned it in, then headed for the virtually deserted Virgin Blue bag drop at CNS; after our poor experience with QF at Perth I had allowed time for a long wait, but we were in and out of there in 60 seconds. The terminal being amid heavy renovations, we had to go back outside and follow a long yellow pavement a couple of hundred meters to the domestic terminal security checkpoint. Once in – quickly and painlessly – we found we were in the friendly dome-style departure lounge with the coral-blue carpeting we’d liked so much the last time we were in Cairns, but it was having a series of big, unpleasant “improvements” done to it, rendering it noisier, more claustrophobic and generally unrecognizable. We had a grim bacon-and-egg sandwich breakfast in a café and absorbed the news that the 737 doing duty as our flight was 20 minutes late incoming from SYD.

Not to worry, though. Our flight was called for boarding 20 minutes late – 12:15pm instead of 11:55am – but thanks to a light load we managed to slam the doors and get rolling only ten minutes late. Boarding at CNS through gates 21-22 means a lengthy walk, indoors and out, past all manner of construction mess and out to some makeshift stands a long way from the terminal – it reminded me of the hike to the commuter gates at SLC or, until recently, CVG. But when you get to the plane it’s outside in the tropical sun and you can admire it as you climb the airstairs, and it’s very nice.

The flight was less than half full and I was able to slide over to 13D while my son held onto 13F. Great, comfortable dark-blue leather seats with good recline. Legroom was terrific, akin to (or better than) JetBlue; some of the channels on the live-TV seatback system weren’t working, so the crew comped everybody; the DJ staff were uniformly great. We zoomed out of CNS and down to SYD like hellhounds were chasing us, actually landing 10 minutes early. There’s a fee for all food and drink, but at the rate we paid (I booked our seats online months prior and paid US$120 apiece, and that included our checked-bag fees) it was hard to complain. The only sour note wasn’t DJ’s fault: I paid AU$7.50 for a canned Jim Beam-and-Cola concoction that was horrible. Other than that, a flawless flight.

When we arrived at SYD we deplaned through the rear airstairs for another tarmac walk, and my son snapped a few excellent digital pictures as we strolled slowly around the port wing. A DJ agent watched him for a few seconds, then after he'd gotten the shots he wanted, stepped forward and told him, in a not unfriendly way, that tarmac photography was forbidden.

Incredibly, our bags rolled off the carousel at SYD in lickety-split fashion and we caught CityRail into the CBD, arriving at our hotel – The Menzies, across from Wynyard Station in the heart of Sydney – by 415pm.

Here ensued touristy activities with teen son, from the Bridge Climb to Taronga Zoo to Harry’s Café de Wheels in Woolloomooloo, before Mrs. BearX220 rejoined us Sunday evening. Because we had an early Monday morning departure my son and I relocated Sunday afternoon to the Sir Stamford Plaza across the street from SYD and paid a little extra for a high-floor airport-side room whose minibar was agreeably stocked with canned Gilbey gin-and-tonics (much better than that Jim Beam emetic) and where we settled in to do some pre-sundown planespotting. We had the pleasure of seeing an SQ A380 lumber into the air right past our heads, plus other fine heavy metal, before walking across to the JetStar gates in T2 to meet Mrs. BearX220 off a flight from Gold Coast. You can absolutely walk from the Stamford to the domestic terminal in about seven minutes, negating the need for a shuttle, no matter how hard the concierge sells it.

Part III next.

BearX220

13 July: Korean Air KE122 SYD-ICN
Scheduled departure: 7:55am; actual; 8:15am
Scheduled arrival: 5:40pm; actual: 5:55pm
Aircraft: A330-300 Seat: 8B

We booked the 5:30am shuttle to SYD’s international terminal and by 5:50am we were standing in the Prestige Class check-in line trying to catch someone’s eye. Sometimes when families travel together in business class I find the penny doesn’t drop with airline staff; we don’t fit the profile. Indeed, we were asked pointedly when we got to the desk if we really were travelling in J. Otherwise, check-in was easy and we confirmed our pre-selected seats: 8A (son), 8B (me), 8D (across the aisle for Mrs. BearX220).

Immigration at SYD is always friendly, I find, and we fell into conversation with our agent about the wonders of Western Australia. Soon we were ensconced in the Air New Zealand Koru Club one floor above the departure gates. We got a cheery welcome from the lovely Kiwi at the front desk, but like most of the other premium lounges we visited on this trip, this one was very thinly attended. The sun had not yet risen, but through the gloom outside we could see our Korean Air equipment staggering in from the arrival runway about 20 minutes behind schedule. As we helped ourselves to eggs and biscuits, chipolatas, pastries, Bloody Marys and Internet access, we saw VS, UA, TG, SQ and EK vessels appear. First time I have ever seen two A380s (SQ and EK) at one time.

We went down to gate 54 prematurely, at 7:25am, and ended up cooling our heels in an overcrowded boarding area while frantic KE agents buzzed around and regarded the hubbub with mounting distress. Finally we were allowed aboard at 7:50am.

Ever since learning this spring that KE was downgrading this route to an unrenovated A330-330 for the Oceania winter, I had been braced for a suboptimal business cabin. I was still surprised by what we found: the lowliest, least competitive iteration of Prestige Class anywhere in the KE network. 28 cramped, crowded, slight-recline, tight-pitch (41” according to SeatGuru, and it felt like less) seafoam-green seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. It all suggested a green-tinted TWA L-1011 F cabin from the mid-1980s. Very disappointing compared to the NW and MH cabins earlier in the trip. 8D was staggered rearwards so conversation with Mrs. BearX220 was difficult. The flight attendants, all young and female except for an older gentleman with a white shirt and epaulets who could have passed for a relief pilot, flitted around before takeoff passing juices and water – but no Champagne.

Another thinly occupied premium cabin: 12 out of 28 seats taken (but if a smart traveler had the option of flying to ICN via CX/HKG or SQ/SIN instead, you’d do it). Mrs. BearX220 had no seatmate and was one of just two women in the cabin, both Caucasian. The first class cabin ahead of us was dark and empty; KE had sold no F tickets at all for this run.

IFE was terrible. Nothing on demand, just six or seven looping movies and a small handful of TV shows, delivered through a haze of static – absolutely unacceptable and uncompetitive for a long-haul flight on a premium Asian carrier. (We all resorted to our iPods by halfway through the flight.) There was no amenity kit, unless a cheap pair of slippers in a paper bag counts. A menu was found stuck in our seatback rather than presented, and orders for both breakfast and lunch were taken prior to departure.

Breakfast

Yoghurt

Korean Style Porridge served with Savory Korean Side Dishes

Mozzarella and Tomato Quiche served with Grilled Pork Sausage, Spicy Fried Potatoes and Sauteed Spinach
Egg Noodle Soup with Pork Wonton, Chinese Greens and Bamboo Shoot

Seasonal Fresh Fruit

Bread Selection

Lunch

Pre-Drink Service

Baby Mozzarella and Tomato with Rocket Pesto

Appetizer

Shrimp on Roasted Zucchini and Walnut Lemon Oil Dressing

Soup

Cauliflower Cream Soup (offered with western main course)

Main Course

Korean Bibimbap offered with Minced Beef and Seasonal Vegetables, accompanied by Sesame Oil and Korean Hot Pepper Paste

Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce and Mushroom servied with Egg Noodles and Stir-Fried Kailan

Roasted Chicken Breast and Port Wine Balsamic Sauce served with Mashed Potato and Seasonal Vegetables

Cheese Tray

Camembert, Cheddar, blue Brie

Dessert

Ice Cream or Apple Crumble Cake

Bread Selection

Pumpkin Seed Roll, Poppy Seed Roll, White Soft Roll

No wine list that I recall. (Wines at lunch were presented in a wicker basket that hung around the FA's neck yoke-style, the four bottles' labels forward so you could read them and point.)

I object a little to being forced to choose lunch before breakfast is served, but I opted for the Korean porridge for breakfast, bibimbap for lunch. When I chose the latter the FA asked, “It is your first Korean lunch?” I didn’t know if she meant on Korean Air or in general, but I said yes and she presented me with an English / Korean “cheat sheet” explaining how to mix up and consume a bibimbap.

We left SYD about 20 minutes late and got airborne and northbound pretty quickly. Breakfast was delicious, the “Korean porridge” frankly indistinguishable from the Chinese congee I’ve had on CX or the Singaporean version I had back in Kuala Lumpur but just fine.

Although the first beverage service was cleared designated “cocktails” in the graphic service plan for KE122 printed in the back of Morning Calm magazine, there was no alcohol on the beverage cart when it appeared – just juices, soft drinks, coffee and tea. I didn’t ask for anything special, figuring it was God telling me to live off the Bloody Marys I had back in the NZ lounge a little while longer, but it slowly dawned on me that it was just very, very hard to get a drink on this flight. Alcohol was not going to be offered at all unless I asked for it. Finally, three or four hours into the flight with the FAs having been invisible for some time, I got up, went back to the galley and asked politely for a beer. The FA seemed surprised and a little flustered (a Korean FTer in the KE forum has suggested it may have been a cultural faux pas for me to violate the galley rather than ring my call button) but produced a can and told me to return to 8B; she followed, presenting the beer with a flourish. (It was a Korean “high-fiber” beer, not very good.) Soon after Mrs. BearX220 wanted a glass of wine and also visited the galley, but she was given a curt “no” and told lunch service was about to start.

With that exchange, my wife began noticing that she appeared to be booked into a different class of service from me, or indeed all the men in the J cabin. When lunch rolled around – and the bibimbap was great – she seemed to become invisible. I got a roll but not her. I was offered a second glass of wine, but not her. I got offered coffee; she wasn’t offered tea, but had to ask. I had my tray removed promptly, but not her. I began watching the FAs’ traffic around the cabin with a reporter's eye, and there seemed to be a caste system running which dictated attention levels: a Korean guy in 7H, the first row right-side window, got major fawning, with personal visits every 30 to 60 minutes. The other Korean passengers got regular attention. The other Caucasian man and I got less attention; the two Caucasian women were barely attended to. Now, perhaps it was the language barrier, perhaps it was some patriarchal cultural driver I’m not privy to, but we found it weird – and, as Mrs. BearX220 said, if she’d paid her own money for this ticket, she’d have been rather upset. An FTer responded in the KE forum when I posted about this specific, narrow issue: “KE is a very feudal carrer.”

After lunch a rather elaborate cheese cart appeared with port, cognac, etc. uncorked on top, with glasses at the ready. I asked for a glass of port and was given a big plate of Brie. I asked for port again and the poor FA squinted at me, then disappeared in apparent terror, pushing her wares ahead of her. As far as I can tell those bottles never got poured for anyone. I gave up and napped.

Anyway, the flight was over soon enough. We overflew Nagasaki and the Korean Sea and descended through grim weather into ICN only a few minutes off schedule, and docked at a low-number gate at the main terminal. (Prior to disembarking my teen son and I each received a personal, eye-contact thank-you from a female FA; my wife was ignored.) As we disembarked there was a roadblock of health inspectors in haz-mat suits and masks checking our temperatures for H1N1, but we all passed clean and got into the orange-signed immigration line for “FOREIGNERS”. Soon we tumbled into the arrivals hall and rang for our shuttle to Hotel Sky, our layover hotel in Incheon.

(Incheon Town Square evoked Blade Runner on a rough night, though it seemed mostly deserted... high buildings aglow with neon, occasional rain, thick muggy air, piles of garbage on the sidewalks, misparked cars jumbled everywhere, restaurants open but with no hint of English inside or out. I was game to take us all out for Korean BBQ but didn’t see another woman or child in any of the places we passed. Don’t want to sound like an ugly American, because I’m very adaptive, but I was surprised that a zone 8km from ICN that obviously sees so many overseas visitors pass through had virtually no translated signage, etc. to encourage their custom. Finally we ate in the basement restaurant of another layover hotel, the Sevilla, where they spoke a little English, offered a dual-language menu, and worked hard to make us welcome. I recommend it; try the pork cutlet special. The Hotel Sky is a nice enough place with great, firm beds and a hard-working staff, and there’s a Dunkin Donuts around the corner to meet the cravings of your teen son if you have one.)

14 July: Northwest NW96 ICN-NRT
Scheduled departure: 11:10am; actual: 11:30am
Scheduled arrival: 1:45pm; actual: 1:55pm
Aircraft: N757-200 Seat: 3C

Homebound day. We were back in the ICN departures hall by 9:15am via the Hotel Sky shuttle and checked our bags straight through to Seattle. Standing at the top of the business class queue, we were pointedly ignored by the Korean check-in desk staffers until a uniformed “floater” ushered us over. At security, each of us, and many other Westerners, were singled out for extra inspections; I was told my wallet was a problem and had to be scanned by itself, a global first for me. Ridiculous.

At one point ICN-NRT-SEA was a through same-plane flight on an A330; a few months before our trip the ICN-NRT hop was downgraded to a B752, which I took as cause for disappointment. Having actually taken the flight, how wrong I was.

Northwest still has an exterior sign at ICN, outside the D and E check-in piers, but when you get inside the electronic signage is all Delta, all the time. Our aircraft, however, was still in NW colors.

We cooled our heels before departure in the KE Morning Calm lounge out in the ICN satellite terminal, high above gate 115. A very stark, striking room filled with modular foam-rubber furniture in the KE corporate palette. There was a modest mix of breakfast foods, sliced baguettes with meat, pastries and cookies, drinks and beers; a thin selection of spirits with no vodka or tomato juice in evidence. Good view of the tarmac and main terminal – an Air Uzbekistan flight to Tashkent was being readied on the stand next to our plane – and we sat and watched the ground crews battling terrible rain and wind.

We boarded NW96, sat in seats 3B, 3C and 3D, and I was immediately offered a beer by a terrific HNL-based NW flight attendant. (She later produced a double Jack Daniels with a grin. Much easier to get a drink today than yesterday.) The intra-Asian Northwest 757 business class product is, as another FTer advised me, a sort of cross between true WBC and domestic F; WBC seat fabric and pitch, PTVs, but domestic F recline and no motors / servos in the seats' innards. Very comfortable though. Like all the business class cabins I’d seen on this trip except the first, this one had plenty of empty seats – 4 or 5 at least. Strange.

We were about twenty minutes late off the stand because the winds were too strong for a 757 takeoff, but once we were aloft the bad weather disappeared behind us quickly. Lunch menus were passed, and I unfortunately neglected to pilfer one so can’t reproduce it here, but my son and I both had a Korean BBQ entrée with kimchi on the side. (“Oh, they’re going to love you on the next flight,” said our jovial FA.) The meal was superb, the wine flowed liberally (I recall that none of the selections in the printed menu had actually been boarded, so we had beakers of an anonymous Chilean red), and the cabin crew outdid themselves, thanking each front-cabin passenger individually for flying. It turned out they were long-standing Northwest people struggling to get used to the Delta brand trappings and unsure about their future – they know the Delta brand has no standing in Asia. It was an outstanding, too-short flight and we were all old friends by the time we disembarked at NRT just a few minutes behind schedule.

The usual big scrum at NRT security for transferring passengers, but 20 minutes later we were up in the WorldClub – er, Delta SkyClub – playing with the Sapporo dispenser and awaiting our last leg home.

14 July: Northwest NW8 NRT-SEA
Scheduled departure: 4:10pm; actual: 4:15pm
Scheduled arrival: 9:15am; actual: 9:19am
Aircraft: A330-300 Seat: 3H

This A330 was in Northwest livery – one of the last, I believe. Boarding was right on time and we settled into seats 3G, 3H and 3J on the right side. The coach load looked good, but we closed the door with a few empty seats in WBC and three or four deadheading or relief pilots occupying space... haven’t seen so low a load on NW long-haul in maybe ten years.

This time there was a menu for everybody:

First Course

Selection of Sushi served with Wasabi, Soy Sauce and Picked Ginger

Carrot and Ginger Soup

Fresh Seasonal Salad

Main Course

Roasted Chicken Breast with Balsamic Cipollini Onions and Blue Cheese Sauce, served with Mashed Potatoes and Sauteed Spinach

Fillet of Beef with Port Wine Sauce, accompanied by Potato Wedges and Asparagus

Seared Cod Fillet with Tomato and Olive Ragout, accompanied by Potato Galettes and Sauteed Leeks

Roasted Chicken Thigh with Korean Barbecue Sauce and Mixed Vegetables offered with Bean Noodles

A Selection of Japanese Fare including Sashimi, Aemono, Mushimono, and an Entrée of Roasted Alfonsino with Nimono

Dessert

Seasonal Fresh Fruit

Fine Cheeses

All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae with Choices of Sauces, Whipped Cream and Chopped Nuts, garnished with a Pirouline Cookie

Wines

Pacific Rim Dry Riesling, California, 2007
Bonterra Sauvignon Blanc, Mendocino, California, 2008
Wakefield Promised Land Shiraz Cabernet, Australia, 2005
Chateau Greysac Medoc Cru Bourgeois, France, 2002
Plunkett’s Blackwood Ridge Botryitis Semillion, Australia, NV
Ferreira Dona Antonia Reserve Port, Portugal, NV
Scharffenberger Brut Sparking Wine, California, NV

I had the roasted chicken breast because it was “Delta Chef Michelle Bernstein’s Selection,” but my son beside me went for the seared cod fillet and really scored – it was much better. All the promised wines were aboard this flight, too, and the Riesling was really good. After that we made an effort to sleep, frustrated somewhat by a good IFE lineup (Gran Torino, I Love You, Man, Watchmen) and the sloping profile of the seat in full rest mode. About an hour before landing the lights flicked on and we were offered a chilly fruit plate past its prime (woody pineapple, mushy watermelon) with decent coffee and breakfast bread, and before we knew it we were flying up the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We crossed the threshold at SEA right on time.

After gliding through a series of exquisite Asian airports, returning to sad little SEA, where the signage to immigration is a set of lopsided dog-eared cardboard placards and the lone baggage carousel in the customs hall takes 40 minutes to grind to life after a single international arrival, brings the stabbing realization that the United States ain’t exactly winning the world science fair. Still, we’re home.

Rating the Flights

On a 1-to-10 scale:

NW7 SEA-NRT: 6. Overtaxed lounge at SEA, late off the stand, poor communication about the delay, service an uneasy mishmash of NW and DL elements, but the crew was on deck and trying their best. Certainly seen far worse on NW long-haul.

MH89 NRT-KUL: 8. World-class cabin service, FAs and cuisine easily the equal of CX. Points off for nasty out-of-the-blue fuel surcharge, J seat that doesn’t quite lie flat, and refusal to join an airline alliance which means, delightful as the flight was, I doubt I’ll have the opportunity to fly MH again.

MH125 NRT-PER: 8. See above.

QF1922 PER-AYQ: 7. Overpriced, and no thanks to QF for scattering a family booking to seats around the plane, but the service experience was great.

QF1850 AYQ-CNS: 8. Astonished to see Qantaslink produce a hot dinner on a two-hour segment between two secondary destinations.

DJ1418 CNS-SYD: 9. Unbeatable economy experience: great price, great service, great seats and legroom, great fast aircraft turn at CNS to get us into SYD ahead of schedule. If only they didn’t charge for soft drinks.

KE122 SYD-ICN: 4. Atrocious hard product, weirdly spotty service, alcohol stock fiercely protected, no amenity kit, tragically poor IFE; perhaps my worst flight on an theoretically top-tier Asian carrier. They couldn’t get away with this on a service to Europe or North America. The food was good, though, and we were close to on time.

NW96 ICN-NRT: 9. Ran a little late, and none of the wines in the menu were available, but a wonderful Honolulu-based crew made this my best NW flight in years. If only the dragons based at DTW could get a load of them.

NW8 NRT-SEA: 8. On time, great seats, friendly service, reasonably good food and enough IFE to get us home. I thought on our homebound trip Korean Air would be the treat, NW the endurance contest, but it was the other way around all the way.

Thanks for reading. Comments welcome.

VanMan

A very nice report, thanks.

Just a comment on your experience in KL Sentral. The Hilton, and also the Le Meridien, are about a five minute walk from the KLIA Express (through the station complex, up an escalator, and across the street)...I wouldn't want to wait for a shuttle bus.

sobore

Wow, nice report! Sorry to hear about the KE discrimination.

camsean

Thanks for a very interesting series of trip reports.

Maybe you should suggest exporting the Falcon to Ford Australia? It's interesting to hear an American say they like an Australian car. The press in Australia is always saying Australian designed or made cars don't sell well in the U.S.

I was also interested in your comments about KE. I flew them in prestige class back in 2006. I was also very unimpressed. I'm glad it wasn't just me with the drinks, they really were scarce! As were flight attendents. My flight was a 747 that was really showing its age and the J cabin felt like an early 80's flashback.

Your comments about prioritizing Koreans also ring true. When I was living in Korea it was not uncommon to talk to people who were quite open about their preference in dealing with their 'own kind', meaning other Koreans. I found it a quite a xenophobic society, coupled with an odd need for the rest of the world to 'value' and 'approve' of them.

The_Rockaway_Kid

Great post. Thanks for the TR.

BearX220

Thanks for that - I had understood that to be the case, but I didn't know the territory, it looked like the heavens were about to open, and it looked like the young bellman's whole future depended on getting us safely aboard that shuttle van.

I hear the enthusiast community say regularly that Ford would do better in the US if they junked their Stateside lineup and imported Aussie / Euro alternatives... I saw the new Fiesta on the streets, too, and it's terrific.

Thanks -- I find a wide divergence of opinion about KE service.

Carfield

Thanks for a nice trip report!

The Korean Air experience is interesting and I sort of agree with you... KE seems to be good in certain aspects, but poor in others. The lack of a proper amenity kit on a long haul flight continues to bother me much, but food wise, KE is pretty good. The F/As are very formal. I also think KE is very stingy when it comes to wines and the F/As follow the service schedule rigorously with no flexibility. That perhaps is the issue. I guess we just need to get use to the idea of "asking"... they are fine, but have to request...

Northwest and Delta (the new Delta) seem to get better in flight these days. I had many good BE flights, but the ground experience continues to be bad and DL can't seem to do anything about it.

Thanks,
Carfield

adampenrith

Great TR - excellent read.

SYD ICN - not sure how it works with ticketing and alliances - but OZ would be the airline of choice for this routing. The timings are pretty similar - maybe 30 mins different - BUT OZ has a much higher standard of service and very highly regarded.
Adam

bowdenj

Entertaining trip reports - thanks for taking the time.

ArizonaGuy

Wow. I must say I'm glad I'm a *A person and my recent July flight SYD-ICN was on OZ. The J cabin of the 777 was far beyond the outdated cabin on your particular KE aircraft. The J cabin was at least 25 full out of 35. Maybe more but I never made a full count. The same aircraft was 31/35 on ICN-LAX.

There was no "caste system" that I could discern, certainly none when comparing service received by my wife. We are two caucasian travelers. And the how-to for bibimbap (and ssambap on the 2nd flight) were included on the trays, though I assume that was automatic just because we're westerners.

BearX220

Thanks for your comments, esp. insights into KE culture. ArizonaGuy, I have always heard what you say about OZ vs. KE (and once, about 15 years ago, even did a little marketing writing for OZ... never flew with them though) but now that the sun has set on my NW/DL/Skyteam relationship I expect I'll have opportunities to sample. Were you able to fly SYD-ICN-LAX on OZ on a *A award, or was that a paid dogleg trip?

tlhanger

I really enjoyed reading your flight report. You are very experienced flyer. I worked for an airline and you gave me some pointers. Thank you.

mjcewl1284

Nice Trip Report.