Another trip to Asia PDX-BKK with AS and BR
Jul 23, 2009, 10:33 am
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Another trip to Asia PDX-BKK with AS and BR
One month to the day of my last Asia trip http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...r-bkk-y-j.html, it was time to go again.
I booked this trip a few days after I got home from my previous Asia trip. I am top tier with EVA (BR), a Diamond member in their Evergreen Club, and the company that I am consulting for will only pay for premium economy, so using EVA was a no-brainer for me.
The schedule looked good for the trans-Pacific segments, I would leave SFO at 140AM and get into BKK at 1120AM the next morning connecting via TPE, and the return would leave BKK at 1215PM with the TPE connection getting me back to SFO at 420PM the same day. All four BR flights would be run by the 777-300ER (77W) with Elite class, the newest name for BR’s premium economy service. The price was right and I went to grab seats and I was able to get a window seat for the first three legs but only a center seat was available for the TPE-SFO leg. I knew that I would want to redo my seats anyway, so a call BR’s reservation office would be in order.
I did call and got a very good agent. There were Diamond/Gold seats blocked (see my previous report for Diamond benefits on EVA) on all four legs which I was able to get my preferred window seats, except for the last leg again where I was given a window on the K side where I like the A side coming home across the Pacific. I figured I would try to change this later on; I’ll just keep an eye on Expert Flyer and see if any other seats open up. I had one systemwide upgrade left in my account, and I was debating which leg to request it on. The return TPE-SFO seemed to be filling up, so if there were any hope for an operational upgrade, that would be the flight, so I requested the upgrade for the SFO-TPE flight. The agent checked, and said that at the moment, it wasn’t available, and she would put me on the wait list. Last month, I was on the wait list for a TPE-SFO upgrade, and it cleared within 24 hours so I was hopeful that the same thing would happen this time.
Seating taken care of, I then booked my AS flights (which were actually on Horizon Air) to and from SFO to match up to the BR flights. Since I would be on two tickets I wanted at least three hours at SFO to connect to BR, and I had two choices, a 750PM that would get in at 940PM or an earlier 525PM that gets in at 710PM. Usually I take the earlier flight and have dinner at SFO or meet up with friends. Last time, I left on a Friday night so I opted for the later flight, this time I decided to go back to the earlier flight just in case of ATC delays, since you never know at SFO and we had some delays on that flight the last time I took it.
The next day, EVA called me first thing in the morning to tell me that my waitlist had cleared. I asked for my preferred bulkhead, seat 6A and it was given to me. I thought I was all set, but I always check my itineraries often, and I noticed that my flight from BKK to TPE had an aircraft change from the 77W to an A330-200 (332). The problem with the 332 is that there is no Elite class offered, just Business and Coach. The last time I had an aircraft switch I was in J class, so it wasn’t an issue and my original seat was still reserved. This time though, I was moved back to coach, and I was bounced from my K seat to an A seat, again opposite of what I like into TPE from BKK. Same row, though. I keep watching to see if the aircraft switches back (that’s been known to happen), but the Airbus still shows as the aircraft flying.
The night before the flight, I check in on-line for my Horizon flight, and during check in I am directed to the screen that says that my flight is overbooked, and asks if I would like to volunteer. I say yes, figuring at the airport they can give me an idea of what my options are if they need my seat.
The morning of the flight arrives and I’m up fairly early for a Sunday. The first thing I do is go on to BR’s web site and check-in. I always look to see what other seats have opened up for check-in and I see nothing new that I would prefer, so I keep my original seat assignments. We spent the day around town, and I was eventually dropped off at the airport at about 325PM.
12Jul09 AS 2501 Y PDX-SFO CR7 N600QX seat 2A
There was a short line at the First Class/MVP check in, but I get to the agent within a coupe of minutes. I ask for and get a duplicate receipt as well as my boarding pass. I then head to security where there is almost zero wait. This is much better than a couple of weeks ago. It was then off to Alaska’s Board Room to wait for my flight. I show the agent my current Board Room card and I’m reaching for my ID, but the concierge says that she knows who I am (gee, do I fly that much) and I find a quiet area to sit and read for a bit while enjoying a diet Coke. I end up leaving for the gate at 430PM. We were at A-11 tonight, which is a little hike, and when I got to the Horizon gate area, almost every flight had a sign out asking if anyone’s plans were flexible. I see the agent and tell her that I volunteered when I checked in yesterday, but she said that the flight had emptied out, and they didn’t need volunteers for this one. In the end, we went out completely full.
Boarding was delayed a couple of times as we were first waiting for our aircraft and then the crew wasn’t ready for us yet. We boarded at 530PM in a rainy mist and left the gate about 20 minutes later. We took off at 601PM from PDX’s runway 28L.
On board a full can of Jones diet cola was handed to me as well as a bag of pretzels. The weather cleared up about a half hour south of PDX and the captain came on the p.a. system and says that things look good and we should be landing at about 720PM, just a few minutes behind schedule. The weather around SFO was gorgeous and we had a great view of The City as we made our approach. We flew to the very end of the bay before turning back toward the airport for a nice landing on SFO’s runway 28L at 723PM, the flight time being an hour and 22 minutes. We exit the plane and start lining up in the jetway of gate 22 to await our gate checked bags, and my bag is the fourth one off. I head over to the international terminal to await the opening of EVA’s check-in.
13Jul09 BR 17 C SFO-TPE 77W B-16701 seat 6A
Check-in for EVA doesn’t start until 10PM, so I have a small bite at the food court in the international terminal and then walk around stretching my legs until check-in opens. There was no one in the Diamond line (and I’ve never seen anyone in the Diamond line actually), and I walked over at 955PM. The agent was just setting up, and he helped me as soon as his printer was set up. Last time I checked my roll on bag, but this time I opted to just carry everything on. Before I became a Diamond member my carry ons were always weighed and looked at carefully. However since the magic Diamond tags went on my bags, they are never given a second glance. The agent issues me boarding passes for both flights and lounge invites for both SFO and TPE. I ask about switching to 20K for my TPE-BKK segment, but the agent says it’s not available. I’ve had that come up a few times at U.S. stations, so I figure that I will just check again in TPE. I make my way over to security and there isn’t much of a wait at all even though there is only one line in operation, and I soon find myself in EVA’s Evergreen lounge. There is a separate room for Diamond members, and I’m the only one in there for some time; there are snacks and drinks available, and I grabbed a Diet Coke and made some phone calls. The Diamond room started to get pretty full, so I packed up my things and left the lounge a little early and headed out to the gate.
We were at gate 99 tonight, and the gate area was starting to fill, but it definitely wasn’t a full flight. Soon the announcement was made for Premium Laurel (that’s the name for EVA’s business class), Diamond and Gold members to board, and I made my way on the aircraft and to my bulkhead window seat. I like the bulkheads on EVA because they do allow enough room for the window passenger to get out in C lass without disturbing the person next to you.
The cabin started to fill, and I ended up with a seat mate which was surprising since C class was only about half full. When the doors closed, I mentioned to him that he could move to the center so we both had more room and he asked the flight attendant if it was OK, but she replied that the seat’s recline function wasn’t working. Both jetways were pulled back, and we left the gate 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Menus for the evening and amenity kits were handed out as we were taxiing. Right about that time, one of the flight attendants came by to tell my seat mate that there were a bunch of seat pairs open farther back, but he declined and stayed where he was. After a quick taxi, we were finally airborne at 152AM from runway 28L. We took off to the west and instead of heading north towards the great circle route; we just continued westward and would fly the mid-Pacific route tonight. As soon as we hit 10,000 feet the service started.
EVA has an advance meal ordering system for their Business class passengers much like Singapore Airlines’ Book the Cook. It has to be done on line and offers the standard menu and some additional items. I placed my meal order when my upgrade was confirmed; I liked the standard menu tonight, the additional items would have to wait for another time.
Here are the choices for tonight:
Hors D’oeuvre: Terrine of Oxtail
Main Courses
Wok fried three cup chicken, seasonal vegetables, steamed rice (my choice)
Grilled sea bass with cream sauce asparagus and carrot, angel hair pasta
Beef brisket soup noodles, marinated cucumber and jellyfish, snow cabbage and bean curd
Fresh fruit
The oxtail appetizer was better than I expected, and the chicken had a good spice to it. The flight attendants are really good about starting the service quickly and picking up dishes quickly to maximize sleep time. And sleep I did; after dinner I was out cold for over seven hours.
There was a snack offered on request – Lotus leaf rice with Chicken in XO sauce OR salmon soufflé with hollandaise sauce OR Hot chocolate and cookies.
I didn’t bother with the snack as I knew breakfast would be served fairly soon, so I watched a movie and before I knew it, the lights were turned on for our breakfast service.
Breakfast choices for today:
Chinese Style – selection of tea, fresh fruit, Congee served with traditional hot and cold delicatessens
Western Style – coffee, tea, fresh fruit, choice of bread, cereal and yogurt, spinach and tomato omelet, veal sausage, oven roasted potatoes (my choice)
Premium Laurel Special - selection of tea, fresh fruit, peach and pear compote, mixed nuts and chewy granola bar, mini bagel with gravlax and cream cheese, boiled egg slices, lettuce, onion ring.
Again the breakfast was tasty and I had my diet coke for caffeine, but that didn’t help much as I snoozed again after breakfast until right before landing in TPE. We landed on TPE’s runway 05 at 510AM, 12 hours and 18 minutes after take off, which was almost an hour less of flying time than last month. We came into gate C5 which is very close to transfer security. I was one of the first off the plane, but another aircraft had beaten us in, so there was a short wait for security. I then took the escalator upstairs to the departure area and headed for the EVA lounge complex which is a fancy name for what really exists.
14Jul09 BR 211 C TPE-BKK 77W B-16705 seat 6A
It was about 530AM when I got to the Evergreen lounges. I knew the Diamond lounge didn’t open until 630AM, and besides I really wanted a shower, so I headed into the Evergreen lounge and was pointed into the F section. I immediately went to the restroom instead where the one shower in that lounge is, and it was available. I had a nice long shower as no one was waiting and then headed into the lounge proper. It still wasn’t 630AM when I was out, so I just hung out in the F lounge, again making calls and checking e-mail while having a Coke Light. I went up to the reception desk to make one more stab at trying to nab seat 20K, and sure enough, the agent said it was available, and no one would be in 20H. She called down to seat control, got the seat released for me, and scratched my old seat assignment out and penciled my new one in. She told me to see the gate agent for a new boarding pass. I headed out of the lounge at 735AM and was at the gate, again C5 within five minutes. I expected to see the same aircraft there (SFO-TPE-BKK-TPE is a usual aircraft rotation), but a different 77W was in its place. I’m guessing here that the problem with a couple of the C seats not reclining was about to be rectified.
I head over to see one of the agents to get my new boarding pass, and one agent volunteered to go get it, and he went elsewhere, but came back within a couple of minutes with my 20K boarding pass. I went back to my reading until I saw a couple of wheelchair passengers getting the nod to board, so I started to get my stuff together for the Business class/Diamond/Gold call which came within a minute. I handed the agent my boarding pass and the reader beeped at her. She went over to the counter and plucked another boarding pass from the desk and said that I have a new seat. I must have looked perplexed as I just got my new seat and I knew that the plane was barely half full, so there was no operational need for upgrades. She smiled at me and said, it’s in Business class sir. I thanked her and headed to the plane, unsure of why the upgrade was given, but was definitely glad for it nevertheless.
There were only a handful of people in Business class and I had the entirety of row 6 to myself. I was given 6A for my seat assignment which is on the opposite side where I usually like to sit, but I figured that I would be daring and try the other side for a change. It was nice getting a slightly different view.
We left the gate a couple of minutes behind schedule, but we were soon headed back to runway 05 for takeoff. We were airborne at 905AM and it looked like we had a slight tail wind, so landing in BKK might be a couple minutes ahead of schedule. Again the service started as soon as had gotten though 10,000 feet and it was time for my second breakfast of the day.
Breakfast choices for today:
Chinese Style – selection of tea, fresh fruit, Congee served with traditional hot and cold delicatessens
Western Style – coffee, tea, fresh fruit, choice of bread, cereal and yogurt, Spanish omelet, chorizo sausage, bacon, sautéed spinach, roast tomato (my choice)
Since this is a regional flight, breakfast only offers those two choices, but I did enjoy another omelet and a full can of Coke Light. After breakfast, I mostly read and enjoyed the different view. Drink runs by the flight attendants were frequent throughout the flight with the last one just 10 minutes before landing. As I thought, we did land a few minutes ahead of schedule on runway 19R at 1105AM for a flight time of three hours on the nose. We got a good gate today, E1, so the walk to immigration would be a little less than the usual long trek. Last month, the Thai authorities had been asking us to fill out a new health questionnaire, but they dropped that requirement this month. Again this month I was surprised by lack of passengers waiting to go through immigration. Now, I know this is low season for tourism to Thailand, but there was no one in line for foreign passports at all. I was through and in a taxi by the time of our scheduled arrival at 1120AM.
18Jul09 BR 212 C BKK-TPE 332 B-16306 seat 6A
The day before my flight, I checked in on-line, and immediately the seat map for the BKK-TPE popped up. I was a little surprised and then I noticed that my seat, 22A had disappeared, and there wasn’t much else to choose from. There was one aisle seat, 29C that I grabbed and it as everything else was just a center seat. Since there was no Elite Class on this flight, I knew that I would have to get to the airport early to request a window seat that was hopefully being held for airport check in. My departure from BKK was scheduled at 1215PM, so my game plan was to be at the airport by about 915AM to try and snag a window.
My taxi hit some traffic that I wasn’t expecting on Saturday morning, and I ended up at the airport at 910AM. Check in opened up promptly at 920AM and as usual, there was no one in the line for Diamond members. I told the agent about my disappearing seat, and she started attacking the keyboard on her computer. It seemed to take a little longer than usual for check-in and she told me her printer was having some issues. She got the printer fixed she told me that she had a window seat for me from BKK and asked me if I liked my current 22K for the TPE-SFO flight. I asked her if 20A or 22A were open, and she said that she would send a message to TPE to see about getting the seat (she didn’t say which one) released. She then handed me my boarding pass for 22K for the TPE-SFO leg with the lounge invitation stapled to it, and then gave me my lounge invite for BKK and then my boarding pass for BKK-TPE with a smile saying that the flight was very full, so she upgraded me to Business class. Expert Flyer had showed the flight full in Y, but I was surprised (and pleased) that I was given an upgrade at check-in; that’s never happened to me before; my upgrades have come either in the lounge or at the gate with EVA.
There was only one person ahead of me at outbound immigration so I got through fairly quickly, and then I was off to the Evergreen lounge. This lounge is always bright and cheery with plenty of seats, and there were also plenty of decent nibbles at this time of day. I had just gotten into my seat and taken out my laptop when the lounge agent came over to me and said, sir, I have a new seat for you to San Francisco, and handed me a new boarding pass for 20A. Again, that was not something I expected, I thought that I would have to wait to get to TPE to see about if the seat change had come through. I made a couple of calls and had some work to do, so the time went by really quickly and I was headed to our gate which was E-5 today. There was absolutely no wait at security so I was at gate E-5 within a couple of minutes after leaving the lounge.
As expected, the flight was completely full in coach, and there must have been quite a few upgrades since there were only two empty seats in J, and one of them was next to me. We did have a delayed departure as there were still seat issues going on after our scheduled departure time due to the aircraft downgrade which took place a couple of weeks prior. We taxied around to the other side of the airport and took off from runway 19L at 1251PM. As soon as the captain released the flight attendants, the chief purser came over to me to apologize for the delay and told me that they should make up most of the time before our arrival into TPE. I must have been the only Diamond member on board as I didn’t see her approach any other passengers. Menus were passed out, and lunch was soon served:
Hors D’oeuvre: Three pepper and champagne duck liver terrine.
Main Courses
Beef tenderloin with chanterelle mushroom sautéed with fresh thyme, green and white asparagus, gratin dauphinois (my choice)
Chicken teriyaki with sesame teriyaki sauce, Japanese style vegetables, steamed rice with shiso
Sliced pork fillet with garlic pepper corn sauce, mixed vegetables, stir fried noodles
Cheese/Fresh fruit/Pastry
When I saw the menu, I was going to take the chicken, but the flight attendants brought out all three choices, and I liked the look of the beef better, so that’s what I had. Afterwards I had the fruit and cheese, but had no room left for the pastries which looked pretty good. I then turned on a movie which I watched all the way until about 10 minutes before landing. Drink offers were constant, and as the purser predicted, we made up some time during and landed on TPE’s runway 23 at 505PM after three hours and 14 minutes of flying. We were at gate C-4 a few minutes after that.
18Jul09 BR 18 W TPE-SFO 77W B-16703 Seat 20A
We had arrived at the same time as another flight, but even so, transfer security was quick. It was then off to EVA’s Diamond lounge. This lounge is located directly across from the Evergreen lounge and is actually open to the airport itself. The food is much better in this lounge; a noodle bar is available as well as many hot dishes to choose from. There is also a full bar with bartender and not just a help yourself section. However, I did take a bottle of water with me to take on the plane figuring that I wasn’t going to be upgraded on this leg as I was given the bulkhead seat early on. So much for my guess work on upgrade possibilites.
I didn’t have as much e-mail to catch up as I did earlier, so I mostly spent my time reading before heading out to our gate, C-7 about an hour before departure. Before entering the gate there is a passport check, and then we head downstairs to await boarding. Business class, Diamond and Gold passengers were again invited to board after wheelchair passengers were boarded. I was one of the first on and stored all of my stuff. No one was next to me for the longest time until right before door closing, when my seat mate arrived; he also had Diamond tags on his bags. It turned out there were four of us Diamonds in Elite class, three in the bulkhead, and one a couple of rows back. We were all greeted by the deputy purser before the doors closed.
Speaking of door closure, our doors closed right on time and we started a taxi out to runway 24. We took off at 800PM and as soon as we hit 10,000 feet our service began. The chief purser came by with “goodie bags” for each of the Diamond members; in it were an eye shade, ear plugs, J class slippers and a bottle of water. She asked me if I need anything, and I asked for a second pillow; she went into J and brought back a J pillow then for each of the Diamond members and gave them out when she handed out the bags. Dinner was then rolled out. Usually one of the flight attendants will ask each of the Diamond members what their preferred entrée is and bring it out with the special meals, but since most of the Diamonds were in the bulkhead, they just started with us. Choices were either a spicy chicken with rice and vegetables or beef and potatoes with vegetables. I went for the chicken this time and it was very good. It was served with a container of smoked turkey and olives as well as some fruit, a warm soft roll, and a plain cheesecake for dessert.
As soon as my try was cleared I drifted off to sleep. I can sleep pretty well in the Elite class seats, and I was out for six hours before waking up. I grabbed my toiletry kit from my backpack in the overhead and went back to the toilet where I had to wait. There was no line, but apparently the gentleman in there was trying to take a sponge bath and water was all over the place (his hair was wet too as he was leaving). I did my ablutions and headed back to my seat where I watched a movie until breakfast was served. Breakfast choices were either congee or an omelet, and I went for the omelet. It came with potatoes and turkey sausage as well as a cheese and tomato salad and a portion of fruit. The usual warm soft roll was served along with a bran muffin. I thought this meal was just OK; I have had much better Elite class meals from TPE.
As people finished their breakfasts, trays were cleared quickly. I just read until our arrival. We didn’t get a good tail wind, and landed on SFO’s runway 28R at 422PM after 11 hours and 22 minutes of flying. It was about another 10 minutes of taxi time over to our gate, which was G-99 today. The flight attendants let the business class passengers disembark, but there was a delay as they were waiting for a wheelchair for two of the J passengers. Once those passengers were accommodated, then they let the rest of the plane disembark. It was a busy time as a couple of other aircraft had also just arrived. The wait was not very long for U.S. citizens though, and I managed to get through both immigration and customs within just a few minutes and I headed over to Alaska’s check-in area.
18Jul AS 2518 Y SFO-PDX CR7 N600QX seat 2E
I had already checked to see if there was any earlier flight that I could get on, but there wasn’t, so I checked in at the kiosk and then had a decision to make. It was Saturday, and Alaska’s Board Room closes early, so I could either go to the Delta Sky Club or the Continental President’s Club. Both are outside of security, so that wouldn’t be a factor in my decision making. I decided that there were less CO flights so I figured that club would be quieter. And it was – there were only two other passengers in there. I had a Diet Coke and checked my e-mail. I was getting hungry and started to grab some of the munchies when I thought that I wanted some real food, so I left the club and headed back to the international terminal to the food court and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. Then I headed back to the CO club until about an hour before departure when I figured I could head to security. There was a large group of school kids ahead of me and it took about 15 minutes to get through. For the second time in a row at SFO, when I went through the metal detector the screener wanted me to submit for a quick pat down. I still don’t know why; last time I thought it was random, now I’m not so sure.
I sat at gate 20 and read and in a couple of minutes our aircraft arrived. I had overheard the gate agents saying that they were going to try and get us out early. Boarding started at 720PM for this 745PM flight, and we were finished by 730PM. A couple of minutes later, we left the gate, and taxied out to runway 28L, where we took off at 749PM. For the first time in ages I had no one next to me on a Horizon flight. The flight attendants did a quick drink service where I had my can of diet Jones Cola and before I knew it we were descending into PDX. We touched down on runway 28L at 901PM after a brief hour and 12 minute flight and taxied over to the A gates where we disembarked over 20 minutes early. My gate checked bag arrived within a couple of minutes and I was done with this excursion to Asia. Overall it was a very nice trip. Thanks to EVA Air for the operational upgrades, they were greatly appreciated.
I booked this trip a few days after I got home from my previous Asia trip. I am top tier with EVA (BR), a Diamond member in their Evergreen Club, and the company that I am consulting for will only pay for premium economy, so using EVA was a no-brainer for me.
The schedule looked good for the trans-Pacific segments, I would leave SFO at 140AM and get into BKK at 1120AM the next morning connecting via TPE, and the return would leave BKK at 1215PM with the TPE connection getting me back to SFO at 420PM the same day. All four BR flights would be run by the 777-300ER (77W) with Elite class, the newest name for BR’s premium economy service. The price was right and I went to grab seats and I was able to get a window seat for the first three legs but only a center seat was available for the TPE-SFO leg. I knew that I would want to redo my seats anyway, so a call BR’s reservation office would be in order.
I did call and got a very good agent. There were Diamond/Gold seats blocked (see my previous report for Diamond benefits on EVA) on all four legs which I was able to get my preferred window seats, except for the last leg again where I was given a window on the K side where I like the A side coming home across the Pacific. I figured I would try to change this later on; I’ll just keep an eye on Expert Flyer and see if any other seats open up. I had one systemwide upgrade left in my account, and I was debating which leg to request it on. The return TPE-SFO seemed to be filling up, so if there were any hope for an operational upgrade, that would be the flight, so I requested the upgrade for the SFO-TPE flight. The agent checked, and said that at the moment, it wasn’t available, and she would put me on the wait list. Last month, I was on the wait list for a TPE-SFO upgrade, and it cleared within 24 hours so I was hopeful that the same thing would happen this time.
Seating taken care of, I then booked my AS flights (which were actually on Horizon Air) to and from SFO to match up to the BR flights. Since I would be on two tickets I wanted at least three hours at SFO to connect to BR, and I had two choices, a 750PM that would get in at 940PM or an earlier 525PM that gets in at 710PM. Usually I take the earlier flight and have dinner at SFO or meet up with friends. Last time, I left on a Friday night so I opted for the later flight, this time I decided to go back to the earlier flight just in case of ATC delays, since you never know at SFO and we had some delays on that flight the last time I took it.
The next day, EVA called me first thing in the morning to tell me that my waitlist had cleared. I asked for my preferred bulkhead, seat 6A and it was given to me. I thought I was all set, but I always check my itineraries often, and I noticed that my flight from BKK to TPE had an aircraft change from the 77W to an A330-200 (332). The problem with the 332 is that there is no Elite class offered, just Business and Coach. The last time I had an aircraft switch I was in J class, so it wasn’t an issue and my original seat was still reserved. This time though, I was moved back to coach, and I was bounced from my K seat to an A seat, again opposite of what I like into TPE from BKK. Same row, though. I keep watching to see if the aircraft switches back (that’s been known to happen), but the Airbus still shows as the aircraft flying.
The night before the flight, I check in on-line for my Horizon flight, and during check in I am directed to the screen that says that my flight is overbooked, and asks if I would like to volunteer. I say yes, figuring at the airport they can give me an idea of what my options are if they need my seat.
The morning of the flight arrives and I’m up fairly early for a Sunday. The first thing I do is go on to BR’s web site and check-in. I always look to see what other seats have opened up for check-in and I see nothing new that I would prefer, so I keep my original seat assignments. We spent the day around town, and I was eventually dropped off at the airport at about 325PM.
12Jul09 AS 2501 Y PDX-SFO CR7 N600QX seat 2A
There was a short line at the First Class/MVP check in, but I get to the agent within a coupe of minutes. I ask for and get a duplicate receipt as well as my boarding pass. I then head to security where there is almost zero wait. This is much better than a couple of weeks ago. It was then off to Alaska’s Board Room to wait for my flight. I show the agent my current Board Room card and I’m reaching for my ID, but the concierge says that she knows who I am (gee, do I fly that much) and I find a quiet area to sit and read for a bit while enjoying a diet Coke. I end up leaving for the gate at 430PM. We were at A-11 tonight, which is a little hike, and when I got to the Horizon gate area, almost every flight had a sign out asking if anyone’s plans were flexible. I see the agent and tell her that I volunteered when I checked in yesterday, but she said that the flight had emptied out, and they didn’t need volunteers for this one. In the end, we went out completely full.
Boarding was delayed a couple of times as we were first waiting for our aircraft and then the crew wasn’t ready for us yet. We boarded at 530PM in a rainy mist and left the gate about 20 minutes later. We took off at 601PM from PDX’s runway 28L.
On board a full can of Jones diet cola was handed to me as well as a bag of pretzels. The weather cleared up about a half hour south of PDX and the captain came on the p.a. system and says that things look good and we should be landing at about 720PM, just a few minutes behind schedule. The weather around SFO was gorgeous and we had a great view of The City as we made our approach. We flew to the very end of the bay before turning back toward the airport for a nice landing on SFO’s runway 28L at 723PM, the flight time being an hour and 22 minutes. We exit the plane and start lining up in the jetway of gate 22 to await our gate checked bags, and my bag is the fourth one off. I head over to the international terminal to await the opening of EVA’s check-in.
13Jul09 BR 17 C SFO-TPE 77W B-16701 seat 6A
Check-in for EVA doesn’t start until 10PM, so I have a small bite at the food court in the international terminal and then walk around stretching my legs until check-in opens. There was no one in the Diamond line (and I’ve never seen anyone in the Diamond line actually), and I walked over at 955PM. The agent was just setting up, and he helped me as soon as his printer was set up. Last time I checked my roll on bag, but this time I opted to just carry everything on. Before I became a Diamond member my carry ons were always weighed and looked at carefully. However since the magic Diamond tags went on my bags, they are never given a second glance. The agent issues me boarding passes for both flights and lounge invites for both SFO and TPE. I ask about switching to 20K for my TPE-BKK segment, but the agent says it’s not available. I’ve had that come up a few times at U.S. stations, so I figure that I will just check again in TPE. I make my way over to security and there isn’t much of a wait at all even though there is only one line in operation, and I soon find myself in EVA’s Evergreen lounge. There is a separate room for Diamond members, and I’m the only one in there for some time; there are snacks and drinks available, and I grabbed a Diet Coke and made some phone calls. The Diamond room started to get pretty full, so I packed up my things and left the lounge a little early and headed out to the gate.
We were at gate 99 tonight, and the gate area was starting to fill, but it definitely wasn’t a full flight. Soon the announcement was made for Premium Laurel (that’s the name for EVA’s business class), Diamond and Gold members to board, and I made my way on the aircraft and to my bulkhead window seat. I like the bulkheads on EVA because they do allow enough room for the window passenger to get out in C lass without disturbing the person next to you.
The cabin started to fill, and I ended up with a seat mate which was surprising since C class was only about half full. When the doors closed, I mentioned to him that he could move to the center so we both had more room and he asked the flight attendant if it was OK, but she replied that the seat’s recline function wasn’t working. Both jetways were pulled back, and we left the gate 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Menus for the evening and amenity kits were handed out as we were taxiing. Right about that time, one of the flight attendants came by to tell my seat mate that there were a bunch of seat pairs open farther back, but he declined and stayed where he was. After a quick taxi, we were finally airborne at 152AM from runway 28L. We took off to the west and instead of heading north towards the great circle route; we just continued westward and would fly the mid-Pacific route tonight. As soon as we hit 10,000 feet the service started.
EVA has an advance meal ordering system for their Business class passengers much like Singapore Airlines’ Book the Cook. It has to be done on line and offers the standard menu and some additional items. I placed my meal order when my upgrade was confirmed; I liked the standard menu tonight, the additional items would have to wait for another time.
Here are the choices for tonight:
Hors D’oeuvre: Terrine of Oxtail
Main Courses
Wok fried three cup chicken, seasonal vegetables, steamed rice (my choice)
Grilled sea bass with cream sauce asparagus and carrot, angel hair pasta
Beef brisket soup noodles, marinated cucumber and jellyfish, snow cabbage and bean curd
Fresh fruit
The oxtail appetizer was better than I expected, and the chicken had a good spice to it. The flight attendants are really good about starting the service quickly and picking up dishes quickly to maximize sleep time. And sleep I did; after dinner I was out cold for over seven hours.
There was a snack offered on request – Lotus leaf rice with Chicken in XO sauce OR salmon soufflé with hollandaise sauce OR Hot chocolate and cookies.
I didn’t bother with the snack as I knew breakfast would be served fairly soon, so I watched a movie and before I knew it, the lights were turned on for our breakfast service.
Breakfast choices for today:
Chinese Style – selection of tea, fresh fruit, Congee served with traditional hot and cold delicatessens
Western Style – coffee, tea, fresh fruit, choice of bread, cereal and yogurt, spinach and tomato omelet, veal sausage, oven roasted potatoes (my choice)
Premium Laurel Special - selection of tea, fresh fruit, peach and pear compote, mixed nuts and chewy granola bar, mini bagel with gravlax and cream cheese, boiled egg slices, lettuce, onion ring.
Again the breakfast was tasty and I had my diet coke for caffeine, but that didn’t help much as I snoozed again after breakfast until right before landing in TPE. We landed on TPE’s runway 05 at 510AM, 12 hours and 18 minutes after take off, which was almost an hour less of flying time than last month. We came into gate C5 which is very close to transfer security. I was one of the first off the plane, but another aircraft had beaten us in, so there was a short wait for security. I then took the escalator upstairs to the departure area and headed for the EVA lounge complex which is a fancy name for what really exists.
14Jul09 BR 211 C TPE-BKK 77W B-16705 seat 6A
It was about 530AM when I got to the Evergreen lounges. I knew the Diamond lounge didn’t open until 630AM, and besides I really wanted a shower, so I headed into the Evergreen lounge and was pointed into the F section. I immediately went to the restroom instead where the one shower in that lounge is, and it was available. I had a nice long shower as no one was waiting and then headed into the lounge proper. It still wasn’t 630AM when I was out, so I just hung out in the F lounge, again making calls and checking e-mail while having a Coke Light. I went up to the reception desk to make one more stab at trying to nab seat 20K, and sure enough, the agent said it was available, and no one would be in 20H. She called down to seat control, got the seat released for me, and scratched my old seat assignment out and penciled my new one in. She told me to see the gate agent for a new boarding pass. I headed out of the lounge at 735AM and was at the gate, again C5 within five minutes. I expected to see the same aircraft there (SFO-TPE-BKK-TPE is a usual aircraft rotation), but a different 77W was in its place. I’m guessing here that the problem with a couple of the C seats not reclining was about to be rectified.
I head over to see one of the agents to get my new boarding pass, and one agent volunteered to go get it, and he went elsewhere, but came back within a couple of minutes with my 20K boarding pass. I went back to my reading until I saw a couple of wheelchair passengers getting the nod to board, so I started to get my stuff together for the Business class/Diamond/Gold call which came within a minute. I handed the agent my boarding pass and the reader beeped at her. She went over to the counter and plucked another boarding pass from the desk and said that I have a new seat. I must have looked perplexed as I just got my new seat and I knew that the plane was barely half full, so there was no operational need for upgrades. She smiled at me and said, it’s in Business class sir. I thanked her and headed to the plane, unsure of why the upgrade was given, but was definitely glad for it nevertheless.
There were only a handful of people in Business class and I had the entirety of row 6 to myself. I was given 6A for my seat assignment which is on the opposite side where I usually like to sit, but I figured that I would be daring and try the other side for a change. It was nice getting a slightly different view.
We left the gate a couple of minutes behind schedule, but we were soon headed back to runway 05 for takeoff. We were airborne at 905AM and it looked like we had a slight tail wind, so landing in BKK might be a couple minutes ahead of schedule. Again the service started as soon as had gotten though 10,000 feet and it was time for my second breakfast of the day.
Breakfast choices for today:
Chinese Style – selection of tea, fresh fruit, Congee served with traditional hot and cold delicatessens
Western Style – coffee, tea, fresh fruit, choice of bread, cereal and yogurt, Spanish omelet, chorizo sausage, bacon, sautéed spinach, roast tomato (my choice)
Since this is a regional flight, breakfast only offers those two choices, but I did enjoy another omelet and a full can of Coke Light. After breakfast, I mostly read and enjoyed the different view. Drink runs by the flight attendants were frequent throughout the flight with the last one just 10 minutes before landing. As I thought, we did land a few minutes ahead of schedule on runway 19R at 1105AM for a flight time of three hours on the nose. We got a good gate today, E1, so the walk to immigration would be a little less than the usual long trek. Last month, the Thai authorities had been asking us to fill out a new health questionnaire, but they dropped that requirement this month. Again this month I was surprised by lack of passengers waiting to go through immigration. Now, I know this is low season for tourism to Thailand, but there was no one in line for foreign passports at all. I was through and in a taxi by the time of our scheduled arrival at 1120AM.
18Jul09 BR 212 C BKK-TPE 332 B-16306 seat 6A
The day before my flight, I checked in on-line, and immediately the seat map for the BKK-TPE popped up. I was a little surprised and then I noticed that my seat, 22A had disappeared, and there wasn’t much else to choose from. There was one aisle seat, 29C that I grabbed and it as everything else was just a center seat. Since there was no Elite Class on this flight, I knew that I would have to get to the airport early to request a window seat that was hopefully being held for airport check in. My departure from BKK was scheduled at 1215PM, so my game plan was to be at the airport by about 915AM to try and snag a window.
My taxi hit some traffic that I wasn’t expecting on Saturday morning, and I ended up at the airport at 910AM. Check in opened up promptly at 920AM and as usual, there was no one in the line for Diamond members. I told the agent about my disappearing seat, and she started attacking the keyboard on her computer. It seemed to take a little longer than usual for check-in and she told me her printer was having some issues. She got the printer fixed she told me that she had a window seat for me from BKK and asked me if I liked my current 22K for the TPE-SFO flight. I asked her if 20A or 22A were open, and she said that she would send a message to TPE to see about getting the seat (she didn’t say which one) released. She then handed me my boarding pass for 22K for the TPE-SFO leg with the lounge invitation stapled to it, and then gave me my lounge invite for BKK and then my boarding pass for BKK-TPE with a smile saying that the flight was very full, so she upgraded me to Business class. Expert Flyer had showed the flight full in Y, but I was surprised (and pleased) that I was given an upgrade at check-in; that’s never happened to me before; my upgrades have come either in the lounge or at the gate with EVA.
There was only one person ahead of me at outbound immigration so I got through fairly quickly, and then I was off to the Evergreen lounge. This lounge is always bright and cheery with plenty of seats, and there were also plenty of decent nibbles at this time of day. I had just gotten into my seat and taken out my laptop when the lounge agent came over to me and said, sir, I have a new seat for you to San Francisco, and handed me a new boarding pass for 20A. Again, that was not something I expected, I thought that I would have to wait to get to TPE to see about if the seat change had come through. I made a couple of calls and had some work to do, so the time went by really quickly and I was headed to our gate which was E-5 today. There was absolutely no wait at security so I was at gate E-5 within a couple of minutes after leaving the lounge.
As expected, the flight was completely full in coach, and there must have been quite a few upgrades since there were only two empty seats in J, and one of them was next to me. We did have a delayed departure as there were still seat issues going on after our scheduled departure time due to the aircraft downgrade which took place a couple of weeks prior. We taxied around to the other side of the airport and took off from runway 19L at 1251PM. As soon as the captain released the flight attendants, the chief purser came over to me to apologize for the delay and told me that they should make up most of the time before our arrival into TPE. I must have been the only Diamond member on board as I didn’t see her approach any other passengers. Menus were passed out, and lunch was soon served:
Hors D’oeuvre: Three pepper and champagne duck liver terrine.
Main Courses
Beef tenderloin with chanterelle mushroom sautéed with fresh thyme, green and white asparagus, gratin dauphinois (my choice)
Chicken teriyaki with sesame teriyaki sauce, Japanese style vegetables, steamed rice with shiso
Sliced pork fillet with garlic pepper corn sauce, mixed vegetables, stir fried noodles
Cheese/Fresh fruit/Pastry
When I saw the menu, I was going to take the chicken, but the flight attendants brought out all three choices, and I liked the look of the beef better, so that’s what I had. Afterwards I had the fruit and cheese, but had no room left for the pastries which looked pretty good. I then turned on a movie which I watched all the way until about 10 minutes before landing. Drink offers were constant, and as the purser predicted, we made up some time during and landed on TPE’s runway 23 at 505PM after three hours and 14 minutes of flying. We were at gate C-4 a few minutes after that.
18Jul09 BR 18 W TPE-SFO 77W B-16703 Seat 20A
We had arrived at the same time as another flight, but even so, transfer security was quick. It was then off to EVA’s Diamond lounge. This lounge is located directly across from the Evergreen lounge and is actually open to the airport itself. The food is much better in this lounge; a noodle bar is available as well as many hot dishes to choose from. There is also a full bar with bartender and not just a help yourself section. However, I did take a bottle of water with me to take on the plane figuring that I wasn’t going to be upgraded on this leg as I was given the bulkhead seat early on. So much for my guess work on upgrade possibilites.
I didn’t have as much e-mail to catch up as I did earlier, so I mostly spent my time reading before heading out to our gate, C-7 about an hour before departure. Before entering the gate there is a passport check, and then we head downstairs to await boarding. Business class, Diamond and Gold passengers were again invited to board after wheelchair passengers were boarded. I was one of the first on and stored all of my stuff. No one was next to me for the longest time until right before door closing, when my seat mate arrived; he also had Diamond tags on his bags. It turned out there were four of us Diamonds in Elite class, three in the bulkhead, and one a couple of rows back. We were all greeted by the deputy purser before the doors closed.
Speaking of door closure, our doors closed right on time and we started a taxi out to runway 24. We took off at 800PM and as soon as we hit 10,000 feet our service began. The chief purser came by with “goodie bags” for each of the Diamond members; in it were an eye shade, ear plugs, J class slippers and a bottle of water. She asked me if I need anything, and I asked for a second pillow; she went into J and brought back a J pillow then for each of the Diamond members and gave them out when she handed out the bags. Dinner was then rolled out. Usually one of the flight attendants will ask each of the Diamond members what their preferred entrée is and bring it out with the special meals, but since most of the Diamonds were in the bulkhead, they just started with us. Choices were either a spicy chicken with rice and vegetables or beef and potatoes with vegetables. I went for the chicken this time and it was very good. It was served with a container of smoked turkey and olives as well as some fruit, a warm soft roll, and a plain cheesecake for dessert.
As soon as my try was cleared I drifted off to sleep. I can sleep pretty well in the Elite class seats, and I was out for six hours before waking up. I grabbed my toiletry kit from my backpack in the overhead and went back to the toilet where I had to wait. There was no line, but apparently the gentleman in there was trying to take a sponge bath and water was all over the place (his hair was wet too as he was leaving). I did my ablutions and headed back to my seat where I watched a movie until breakfast was served. Breakfast choices were either congee or an omelet, and I went for the omelet. It came with potatoes and turkey sausage as well as a cheese and tomato salad and a portion of fruit. The usual warm soft roll was served along with a bran muffin. I thought this meal was just OK; I have had much better Elite class meals from TPE.
As people finished their breakfasts, trays were cleared quickly. I just read until our arrival. We didn’t get a good tail wind, and landed on SFO’s runway 28R at 422PM after 11 hours and 22 minutes of flying. It was about another 10 minutes of taxi time over to our gate, which was G-99 today. The flight attendants let the business class passengers disembark, but there was a delay as they were waiting for a wheelchair for two of the J passengers. Once those passengers were accommodated, then they let the rest of the plane disembark. It was a busy time as a couple of other aircraft had also just arrived. The wait was not very long for U.S. citizens though, and I managed to get through both immigration and customs within just a few minutes and I headed over to Alaska’s check-in area.
18Jul AS 2518 Y SFO-PDX CR7 N600QX seat 2E
I had already checked to see if there was any earlier flight that I could get on, but there wasn’t, so I checked in at the kiosk and then had a decision to make. It was Saturday, and Alaska’s Board Room closes early, so I could either go to the Delta Sky Club or the Continental President’s Club. Both are outside of security, so that wouldn’t be a factor in my decision making. I decided that there were less CO flights so I figured that club would be quieter. And it was – there were only two other passengers in there. I had a Diet Coke and checked my e-mail. I was getting hungry and started to grab some of the munchies when I thought that I wanted some real food, so I left the club and headed back to the international terminal to the food court and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. Then I headed back to the CO club until about an hour before departure when I figured I could head to security. There was a large group of school kids ahead of me and it took about 15 minutes to get through. For the second time in a row at SFO, when I went through the metal detector the screener wanted me to submit for a quick pat down. I still don’t know why; last time I thought it was random, now I’m not so sure.
I sat at gate 20 and read and in a couple of minutes our aircraft arrived. I had overheard the gate agents saying that they were going to try and get us out early. Boarding started at 720PM for this 745PM flight, and we were finished by 730PM. A couple of minutes later, we left the gate, and taxied out to runway 28L, where we took off at 749PM. For the first time in ages I had no one next to me on a Horizon flight. The flight attendants did a quick drink service where I had my can of diet Jones Cola and before I knew it we were descending into PDX. We touched down on runway 28L at 901PM after a brief hour and 12 minute flight and taxied over to the A gates where we disembarked over 20 minutes early. My gate checked bag arrived within a couple of minutes and I was done with this excursion to Asia. Overall it was a very nice trip. Thanks to EVA Air for the operational upgrades, they were greatly appreciated.
Jul 26, 2009, 11:36 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Hsinchu (Taiwan), Saigon, London
Programs: EVA (diamond), A3, BMI, VN
Posts: 2,960
Great report... and in such detail too!
Outbound at SFO you reported "The Diamond room started to get pretty full, so I packed up my things and left the lounge a little early and headed out to the gate." ... do you think they were all diamonds? Are there that many diamonds out there?
Outbound at SFO you reported "The Diamond room started to get pretty full, so I packed up my things and left the lounge a little early and headed out to the gate." ... do you think they were all diamonds? Are there that many diamonds out there?
Jul 26, 2009, 9:19 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
Great report... and in such detail too!
Outbound at SFO you reported "The Diamond room started to get pretty full, so I packed up my things and left the lounge a little early and headed out to the gate." ... do you think they were all diamonds? Are there that many diamonds out there?
Outbound at SFO you reported "The Diamond room started to get pretty full, so I packed up my things and left the lounge a little early and headed out to the gate." ... do you think they were all diamonds? Are there that many diamonds out there?