PDX-BKK AS/ BR (W+C class) but with an In-N-Out twist
Aug 19, 2009, 10:26 pm
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Beaverton OR
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PDX-BKK AS/ BR (W+C class) but with an In-N-Out twist
My seemingly monthly trip to Asia PDX-BKK with AS and BR (W and C class) but with an In-N-Out twist
Less than a month after my last trip, I got the call to go to BKK again. This time I had two different consulting gigs, so I would spend more time in the city. As I mentioned in previous trip reports, I am top tier with EVA (BR), a Diamond member in their Evergreen Club, so using EVA was again a no-brainer for me.
The schedule looked decent for the trans-Pacific segments, but the best fare this time was via LAX. I had two banks of flights to look at for the day I was leaving; I could leave LAX for TPE at either 130AM or 150AM and the TPE-BKK connection would leave at either 830AM or 900AM. I was going to fly in BR’s premium economy class called Elite class, and both LAX-TPE flights were operated by 777-300ER (77W) aircraft with Elite class, but of the two TPE-BKK flights, only the 900AM departure (which continues on to LHR) had Elite class; the earlier 830AM departure was being operated by an A330-200 (332) which does not offer Elite class. So I decided on the 130AM flight from LAX giving me a bit of a cushion, connecting to the 900AM flight into BKK. The return was a much easier choice, I would leave BKK at 1230PM with the TPE connection getting me back to LAX at 355PM the same day. Both of those flights were operated by the 77W and had Elite class. The price was right and I went to grab seats and I was able to get my preferred window seat for only the TPE-BKK_TPE legs, the other two legs showed only center seats left, so I got what I could and a call to BR’s reservation office would be in order.
I did call and got a very good agent. There were Diamond/Gold seats blocked on all four legs which I was able to get my preferred window seats, except for the first leg again where I was given a window on the K side where I like the A side heading over 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. Unfortunately, I had used the last of my systemwide upgrades on my last trip, so I would be in Elite class for the entire trip this time.
Seating taken care of, I then booked my AS flights to and from LAX to match up to the BR flights. Since I would be on two tickets I wanted at least three hours at LAX to connect to BR, but most of the decent fares were gone. In fact to find anything under $400 I had to fly up to SEA and connect to LAX (which isn’t the end of the world – extra miles and an upgrade possibility) while my return would involve a Horizon regional jet on the non-stop back to LAX (no chance for an upgrade). So I ended by with a 500PM flight leaving PDX with my connection in SEA getting me into LAX at 930PM which was OK, and my return leaving LAX at 620PM, getting me back into PDX at 845PM.
The only negative I could think about for the trip was connecting in LAX. My trips through SFO seem to always flow so much better.
The week of my departure, I got in the mood for an In-N-Out burger. We had lived in SAN for almost 20 years before making our move to the Pacific Northwest, and In-N-Out was a semi-regular treat for us. Most times that I connect in LAX I think about going to In-N-Out, but the opportunity just hasn’t come up that would enable me to actually leave the airport to do it. With a four hour connection, I thought that it might be doable on this trip.
I check in on line about 23 hours before my first leg on Horizon, and just for fun try to change to the later (by 10 minutes) non-stop to LAX. No dice. I check Expert Flyer, and it shows just 1 Y seat left on the flight. I decided that when I checked in, I would see if there was any chance of getting on that one. When I woke up the next morning, I went to BR’s web site and checked-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. My wife had some afternoon meetings and had to take me to the airport early, so she dropped me off a few minutes after 1PM.
06Aug09 AS 2641 Y PDX-LAX CR7 N617QX seat 6E
There was no line at the First Class/MVP check in, and I get an agent that is on the ball. When I asked her about getting on the non-stop, she looks, sees the one Y seat (and tells me that there is just the one seat left), and confirms me off the bat. I decide to not check my roll-on bag, I’ll just gate check it and then carry it on to my connecting flights. So now if everything is on time, I should get into LAX around 730PM. I then head to security where there is just a short wait with more lines open than usual for this time of day. This is a real improvement over the last couple of months. It was then off to Alaska’s Board Room to wait for my flight. I have a fairly long time to wait, but I end up working e-mail and making phone calls while sipping my Diet Cokes and the time goes by really quickly. I end up leaving for the gate at 420PM. We were at A-11 tonight, which is a little hike, and when I got to the Horizon gate area, I see that the TSA is setting up to do a gate check for one of the Horizon flights. I watch to see where they are setting up.
Boarding began at 445PM. As I feared, the TSA picked our gate for their check, but they weren’t quite set up yet, so I walked quickly past them, outside to the aircraft. We left the gate right on time and took off at 525PM 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 was good for just about the entire flight, and we are soon on our approach to LAX. I had a look out the window to make sure that the In-N-Out hadn’t moved as we were landing on runway 24R, and we touched down at 717PM after an hour and 52 minutes in the air. We taxied for a few minutes before coming into gate 32. My gate checked bag was the next to last off unfortunately, but it didn’t matter to me as I had plenty of time for my upcoming dinner and connecting flights.
06Aug09 In-N-Out run…total time one hour
I head down to arrivals and await the Parking Spot shuttle under the red sign. There are two Parking Spots, one on Century (not the one you want to go to), and one on Sepulveda (yes, that’s the one). I’m looking for the yellow bus with black spots and almost immediately a Century bus comes by that I let pass by, and then I spot a red bus with white spots – can you believe they have a logo bus in USC colors? I confirm with the driver that the bus is new, and we head out around the other terminals, but there are no other passengers to be had, so we get to the Parking Spot garage in just a few minutes. I make sure to tip the driver and I head behind the cashiers to a gate that is marked In-N-Out Burger. It is literally just a couple of feet between the gate and the restaurant.
I walk in and I’m just behind a group of 25 foreign exchange students. The rest of the restaurant is packed as usual; I don’t think that I have ever been to this place when it is not busy. There is a large contingent eating outside and plane spotting, and I see a seat outside that I will take if no one else grabs it and there is nothing inside. As I’m wondering how long I’ll be waiting, the group leader decides to just get everybody’s order; so I’m able to get to the counter in just a few seconds. I don’t order any of the fancy stuff that is on the secret menu, just a double-double, fries and soda (another Diet Coke for me thanks), pay and get my number. And then miracle of miracles, a table opens up right in front of me which I glom on to. Within a few minutes my number is called and I am in hamburger heaven.
I finish up in seemingly too short a time and gather my stuff and head out the door. As I open the door, an SQ 744 cargo jet is landing right in front of me on runway 24R. I head back through the gate and walk to a waiting bus where I’m the first one on. A couple of more passengers eventually board and off we go back to LAX. We are dropped off upstairs at departure, and again I make sure that I tip the driver and I enter the Tom Bradley Terminal at 830PM; exactly one hour from the time I left the doors of Terminal 3. You have to think that the Parking Spot knows some people use them just for In-N-Out transportation, but the drivers don’t seem to mind, and I would recommend them for parking at LAX just because they are so accommodating.
07Aug09 BR 1 W LAX-TPE 77W B-16702 seat 20A
Check-in for EVA doesn’t start until 930PM, so I went up to the food court area and grabbed an empty table and just worked e-mail until check-in opened. There was no one in the Diamond line (and I’ve never seen anyone in the Diamond line actually), and I was the first person to be called up to check in at 940PM as the agent was finishing setting up. 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. I ask the agent about getting the bulkhead (which is what I prefer in Elite class but it is not assigned in advance except to passengers with infants) either 20A or 20K and she calls over to the departure control agent to release the seat, and then gives me a boarding pass for 20C. I ask about a window, and she says that 20A is open and she’ll block it, then she has a second thought, and gets me 20A and she tells me that she has blocked 20C. So far so good; the flight looked full in Elite class, but I hope that I luck out with the empty seat next to me. She then gets me by boarding pass for my connecting flights and lounge invites for both LAX and TPE. I make my way over to security and the line is snaking around. I’m not in C class tonight, so I can’t use that entrance, so I wait and shuffle forward, wait and shuffle forward. It takes about 20 minutes to make it all the way through. I then head upstairs to the fourth floor to the “airlines not in an alliance lounge” where I am shown to the First Class section. It’s very quiet in here, with just a few other passengers. There are snacks and drinks available, and I grabbed a Diet Coke and made a couple of phone calls and read for a bit. I headed out to the gate at 1230AM.
We were at gate 105 tonight, and the gate area was starting to fill, but it didn’t look like a totally full flight. Right on schedule at 1250AM 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 both C and W class without disturbing the person next to you.
The cabin started to fill, but low and behold the seat block held. There were a handful of empty seats in W class tonight. Before the doors closed, the Chief Purser came over to me to welcome me on board and handed me a goodie bag with C class slippers, and some items from the amenity kit. After a relatively quick taxi for LAX, we were finally airborne at 143AM from runway 25R. We took off to the west, flew north for about 15 minutes, and then for the second time in a row instead of the great circle route; we just turned westward and would fly the mid-Pacific route tonight. As soon as we hit 10,000 feet the service started.
The Assistant Purser came up to me and asked my dinner preference; the choices were a shrimp fried rice or chicken with rice and I asked for the chicken. A few minute later, the carts were brought out, and I was given my tray and asked for my beverage choice. I actually asked for a club soda since I didn’t want any more caffeine; I was planning on sleeping after dinner. The dinner was a spicy chicken that I remember having before, with rice and veggies. It also came with a side of cold turkey, fruit, a small piece of chocolate cake and a warm soft roll. The dinner was pretty good, but as soon as I finished I was getting very sleepy and soon I drifted off.
I ended up getting a little over six hours of sleep and I woke up and watched a movie. A short time after that, breakfast was served and the choice was congee or western style. I am not a fan of congee, so I had the western which was an omelet, hash brown potatoes, and a veal sausage that was served with fruit, a blueberry muffin and a mixed berry smoothie. All in all, the breakfast was pretty tasty and I had my diet coke for caffeine. After breakfast I watched a TV show and before I knew it we were landing. A typhoon was in the area (and it turned out to do a lot of damage, but not to the airport), but when we were on approach the sun was out with just a few scattered clouds. We landed on TPE’s runway 05 at 555AM, 13 hours and 12 minutes after take off, and taxied to gate C4 which is very short walk to transfer security. A couple of aircraft had arrived at the same time (this is peak time for U.S. arrivals) so there was a short wait for security. I then took the escalator upstairs to the departure area and headed for the EVA lounge area.
08Aug09 BR 67 W TPE-BKK 77W B-16702 seat 20A
It was a few minutes after 600AM 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. Before going though, I asked the agent about getting a bulkhead seat, and she said that 20A was available, and she would call seat control to get it for me, but it would take a few minutes. I left my boarding pass with her and went to see if I could take a shower. In the F side of the lounge, there is only one shower and it was occupied as I came in. I put my bags down and shaved while waiting for the shower to become available. While waiting, three other passengers also came in to attempt to take a shower. EVA really needs to add showers to their lounges. They only have three in total, two in the C section, and one in F section and the Diamond lounge doesn’t even have a restroom, you have to leave the lounge to use the facilities. In a few minutes the shower opened up, and a cleaning crew came in and cleaned it quickly and I finally jumped in. I kept my time to a minimum since I knew how many people were waiting, and when I was done, I went back to the desk to see about my seat change. The agent said, I have your boarding pass here, and handed me my old boarding pass with my new seat – 20C. You know, not everyone likes an aisle. I asked if 20A was open, and she said, yes, scratched out the 20C, replaced it with 20A and told me to get my new boarding pass at the gate (which is standard for BR in TPE as the lounge does not have a boarding pass printer). I thanked her and then headed out and went across the hall to the Diamond lounge. I worked e-mail and made some calls while having a Coke Light and time passed pretty quickly. I headed out of the lounge at 800AM and was at the gate, again C4 within five minutes. I expected to see the same aircraft that I came in on there, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I head over to see one of the agents to get my new boarding pass, and it was given to me with a smile. At exactly 730AM boarding started and I was one of the first on. The Assistant Purser greeted me as I was getting situated, and right on time the doors shut. Again the flight wasn’t full, and the seat stayed empty next to me. We left the gate on schedule, and we were soon headed out to runway 06 for takeoff. We were airborne at 919AM 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 fee. This time a lunch would be served. On some days there are two TPE-BKK flights within a half hour of each other. The earlier flight, BR 211 leaves either at 830AM or 845AM depending on the day, and it serves breakfast. This flight, BR67 flies six days a week, leaves at 900AM and serves lunch.
Before the cart came out, the Assistant Purser was back asking me for my choice which was either chicken or beef along with my beverage preference. Since I had the chicken on my earlier flight, I chose the beef this time and of course asked for a Coke Light. To my surprise my beef dish turned out to be a filet with potatoes which was better than some C class meals that I have had. It was served with a potato/veggie salad, fruit, a warm soft roll and a small piece of cheesecake for dessert. I also was served a full can of Coke Light.
As I finished eating, the Chief Purser came over to check up on me. She saw that my drink of choice was finished and said that she would bring me another can of Coke Light and she took my tray away while she was at it. A good Chief Purser makes all the difference in a flight.
After breakfast, I mostly read and stared out the window – if might have been sunny over the Taipei airport, but it was overcast for 95% of this flight. Drink runs by the flight attendants were frequent throughout the flight with the last one just 15 minutes before landing. As I thought, we did land a couple of minutes ahead of schedule on runway 19L at 1122AM for a flight time of three hours and three minutes. Our gate today was E4, so it was the usual trek to immigration. 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 the foreign passports lines seemed virtually empty. There was one person in front of me that was actually just finishing up as I got into line, so there really wasn’t a wait.
13Aug09 BR 212 W BKK-TPE 77W B-16709 seat 20K
The day before my flight, I checked in on-line, and I noticed that my seat was changed on the TPE-LAX flight to 9C. Great, an upgrade on the long leg and more than 24 hours out as well. This is the first time that I have had an operational upgrade that far out, usually I get them either at the gate or the lounge. I went to look at the seat map on both flights, and on the BKK-TPE leg, the bulkhead was actually open and assignable, so I moved myself to 20K. I was not able to even look at the seat map for the upgraded flight though. However, before I went to sleep that night, I decided to look one more time, and I was able to change my seat, so I got a window, 11A on the long haul leg.
For the first time in ages, I had a hard time getting a taxi to the airport the morning of my flight. It wasn’t raining, there were just not any around. I finally flagged one down and he was a pretty decent driver, and we got to the airport at 920AM. I expected check-in to open at 930AM; but I was happy to see that check-in was already operational when I got to the counter. As usual, there was no one in the line for Diamond members. The same agent that I always see in the Diamond line greeted me and asked me if I had checked in on-line. I replied in the affirmative and told her that I saw my upgrade already on the TPE-LAX flight. I asked her if I could get my favorite C class seat, 6A. She saw that it was open and said that she would call to get it released to me and they would bring me a new boarding pass in the lounge. I was handed boarding passes for both the BKK-TPE and TPE-LAX flights and lounge invitations and wished a pleasant flight.
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 made a couple of calls and had some work to do, so the time again went by really quickly. I was in the middle of sending an e-mail when the lounge agent came up to me with a new boarding pass for seat 6A on the TPE-LAX flight, so I was all set. At 1140AM I headed off to our gate which was E6 today. There was absolutely no wait at security so I was at gate E6 within a couple of minutes after leaving the lounge.
When I boarded, there was no one at the door to greet me which is odd; I did see some flight attendants standing around, but none were at the door. The flight wasn’t completely full, but did have a decent load in both Elite Class and coach. There were only a couple of passengers in J class. Right before the doors closed, one of the flight attendants came over to ask me my lunch choice, either fish with noodles or chicken with rice. I asked for the chicken. A couple of moments later I heard the doors close, and again I lucked out and had an empty seat next to me. We left the gate a couple of minutes behind schedule, had a relatively short taxi to runway 19R, and took off at 1244PM. The captain released the flight attendants when we reached 10,000 feet, but it was a while until they made their appearances. The carts were rolled out, and I was handed my chicken lunch as a “special meal,” and then I was asked for my beverage choice. I of course asked for Coke Light (and was given a UK Diet Coke which is my least favorite; some people are like that about wines, I’m like that about my Diet Coke/Coke Light/Coke Zero – there are differences however slight from each country) and the flight attendant poured me half a glass; so I asked for the can. I’m glad I did because that was it for drinks on this flight. No other drink runs, and outside of the flight attendant coming by to pick up trays and later offer duty free, that was it for seeing the staff. As I mentioned above, a good Chief Purser can really make or break a flight, and this one was not visible at all.
The chicken was served with rice and veggies, along with a warm soft roll, fruit, cheese and crackers and an apple crumb cake for dessert. The food was pretty decent as usual. When I have an empty seat next to me, I always commandeer the screen for the empty seat and have airshow on while I’m watching whatever I feel like on my screen. During lunch I was going back and forth between airshow and my book. After I finished lunch I, but my book on the empty seat and turned on a movie. About an hour later, another passenger comes from somewhere, I didn’t see him in Elite class, so maybe it was regular Y class, and without saying anything, sits down in the empty seat, throws my book in my lap, grabs a headset, and starts to turn on a movie. He must have been in the middle, because he fast forwarded to wherever he was in the movie while I was watching and holding my tongue. He stayed there until his movie ended, and then he left just as suddenly and went back to his seat. Meanwhile once I got over my astonishment, I went back to my movie and watched all the way until about 10 minutes before landing. We landed on TPE’s runway 24 at 506PM after three hours and 22 minutes of flying, and were at gate C-6 a few minutes after that.
13Aug09 BR 12 C TPE-LAX 77W B-16709 Seat 6A
We had arrived at a good time as there were no other flights in so transfer security was not busy at all, in fact it appeared that I was the first one through in a while. 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. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I just snagged a Coke Light and checked to see if I had any e-mail and phone messages before heading back to gate C-6 where the same 777-300ER awaited us.
Before entering the gate there is a passport check, and then we head downstairs to wait for boarding. Business class, Diamond and Gold passengers were again invited to board after wheelchair passengers were boarded. The lounge area was packed, and it turned out that this flight was completely full. I was one of the first on and stored all of my stuff. As soon as I was in my seat, the Chief Purser came over to welcome me aboard. Before the doors were closed, amenity kits were handed out, and menus were given out. Shortly after, I noticed that one of the Assistant Purser’s was taking meal orders in a random fashion; I was one of the first, and my seatmate the last. I wonder if they were using status as I hadn’t seen this before. I do know that when they came for my seatmate’s order that they were already out of one main course.
Speaking of door closure, our doors closed about 10 minutes behind schedule and we started a taxi out to runway 24. We took off at 704PM and as soon as we hit 10,000 feet our service began. The chief purser came by to welcome me aboard again and filled me in on the flight details. Shortly after that, the dinner service commenced. Here are the choices for tonight:
Hors D’oeuvre: Marinated baby lobster on vegetables timbale
Seasonal Salad
Main Courses
Pan fried lamb cutlet topped with walnut & herb crust and rosemary sauce, mixed vegetables, turmeric rice with dried fruit and nuts
Stewed pork belly and stuffed tofu in dong-gian style, mixed vegetables, steamed rice
Pan fried beef filet with red wine sauce, mixed vegetables, roasted chunky potatoes (my choice)
Fresh fruit
Cheese
Pastry
The filet was very good, and I enjoyed my dinner. 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.
When I woke up, I wandered back to the galley area to see what snacks were out. I wasn’t really hungry, but I like to see what is available. The flight attendants were starting to get the breakfast service together, and I didn’t see the snack basket out, so I went back to my seat. Apparently, one of the Assistant Purser’s picked up on what I was doing, and came up to my seat about 30 seconds after I sat back down with the snack basket. I felt like I then had to take something, so I took a package of rice crackers, and she insisted on getting me something to drink, so another Coke Light was delivered to my seat.
I read my book for a few minutes and then the lights started to come on. It was now time 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, cheese omelet and beef steak, chicken sausage, cherry tomato, roesti potato (my choice)
Premium Laurel Special - selection of tea, fresh fruit, double boiled black bone chicken broth with Chinese herbs, marinated jelly fish salad, savory glutinous rice “Formosa style”
The western breakfast main course was OK, but the croissants and rolls were really fresh and very good. As people finished their breakfasts, trays were cleared quickly. I just read until our arrival. We didn’t have a decent tail wind at all, and landed on LAX’s runway 24R at 355PM after 11 hours and 41 minutes of flying. It was another few minutes of taxi time over to our gate, which was 119 today, and then we had to wait to be towed into the gate. Once I got into the immigration area, the lines were a zoo. It looked like six wide body jets came in at once and the place was a mob scene. It took a half hour to get to an immigration person, but only 10 seconds to get though. Then, even though I had no bags, it was another 20 minutes to make it through the line for customs inspection even going through the “green” line. And I wasn’t stopped; it was just a mass of humanity. I finally made it out of the pit, and thought to myself that I really deserved that double-double on the outbound.
13Aug09 AS 2600 Y LAX-PDX CR7 N612QX seat 2E
I had already checked-in for this flight when I was in the lounge in BKK, but did not print my boarding pass. There was no wait in the First Class line, and the agent quickly printed up my boarding pass, told me the flight was on time, and wished me a nice flight. There was virtually no wait for the TSA ID checker in terminal three, but once I took the elevator upstairs, again it was another mess. There were only two TSA lines open with a bunch of Alaska flights as well as a couple of Virgin America and the V Australia passengers were starting to arrive as well. Another 20 minutes to wait until I was clear of security, but I still had a few minutes to go up to the Board Room, where I had an apple and a Diet Coke and checked e-mail. I saw that we had an aircraft at the gate, so I headed down at 600PM and boarding had not yet commenced. There were already a couple of people in the First Class/MVP Gold area, so the agent let those people on before he announced boarding; I saw what was happening and went to join them. This aircraft was again completely full, but we pulled away from the gate a couple of minutes early, and taxied out to runway 24R, where we took off at 625PM. The flight attendants did a drink service where I had my can of diet Jones Cola and snack mix and then they came around and offered a second round for those who wanted one. Pretty soon we were descending into PDX. We touched down on runway 28L at 819PM after a brief hour and 54 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 another excursion to Asia. Overall it was a very nice trip; I was a little disappointed in the one flight from BKK to TPE, but if that’s the worst flight of the lot, I did well indeed.
Less than a month after my last trip, I got the call to go to BKK again. This time I had two different consulting gigs, so I would spend more time in the city. As I mentioned in previous trip reports, I am top tier with EVA (BR), a Diamond member in their Evergreen Club, so using EVA was again a no-brainer for me.
The schedule looked decent for the trans-Pacific segments, but the best fare this time was via LAX. I had two banks of flights to look at for the day I was leaving; I could leave LAX for TPE at either 130AM or 150AM and the TPE-BKK connection would leave at either 830AM or 900AM. I was going to fly in BR’s premium economy class called Elite class, and both LAX-TPE flights were operated by 777-300ER (77W) aircraft with Elite class, but of the two TPE-BKK flights, only the 900AM departure (which continues on to LHR) had Elite class; the earlier 830AM departure was being operated by an A330-200 (332) which does not offer Elite class. So I decided on the 130AM flight from LAX giving me a bit of a cushion, connecting to the 900AM flight into BKK. The return was a much easier choice, I would leave BKK at 1230PM with the TPE connection getting me back to LAX at 355PM the same day. Both of those flights were operated by the 77W and had Elite class. The price was right and I went to grab seats and I was able to get my preferred window seat for only the TPE-BKK_TPE legs, the other two legs showed only center seats left, so I got what I could and a call to BR’s reservation office would be in order.
I did call and got a very good agent. There were Diamond/Gold seats blocked on all four legs which I was able to get my preferred window seats, except for the first leg again where I was given a window on the K side where I like the A side heading over 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. Unfortunately, I had used the last of my systemwide upgrades on my last trip, so I would be in Elite class for the entire trip this time.
Seating taken care of, I then booked my AS flights to and from LAX to match up to the BR flights. Since I would be on two tickets I wanted at least three hours at LAX to connect to BR, but most of the decent fares were gone. In fact to find anything under $400 I had to fly up to SEA and connect to LAX (which isn’t the end of the world – extra miles and an upgrade possibility) while my return would involve a Horizon regional jet on the non-stop back to LAX (no chance for an upgrade). So I ended by with a 500PM flight leaving PDX with my connection in SEA getting me into LAX at 930PM which was OK, and my return leaving LAX at 620PM, getting me back into PDX at 845PM.
The only negative I could think about for the trip was connecting in LAX. My trips through SFO seem to always flow so much better.
The week of my departure, I got in the mood for an In-N-Out burger. We had lived in SAN for almost 20 years before making our move to the Pacific Northwest, and In-N-Out was a semi-regular treat for us. Most times that I connect in LAX I think about going to In-N-Out, but the opportunity just hasn’t come up that would enable me to actually leave the airport to do it. With a four hour connection, I thought that it might be doable on this trip.
I check in on line about 23 hours before my first leg on Horizon, and just for fun try to change to the later (by 10 minutes) non-stop to LAX. No dice. I check Expert Flyer, and it shows just 1 Y seat left on the flight. I decided that when I checked in, I would see if there was any chance of getting on that one. When I woke up the next morning, I went to BR’s web site and checked-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. My wife had some afternoon meetings and had to take me to the airport early, so she dropped me off a few minutes after 1PM.
06Aug09 AS 2641 Y PDX-LAX CR7 N617QX seat 6E
There was no line at the First Class/MVP check in, and I get an agent that is on the ball. When I asked her about getting on the non-stop, she looks, sees the one Y seat (and tells me that there is just the one seat left), and confirms me off the bat. I decide to not check my roll-on bag, I’ll just gate check it and then carry it on to my connecting flights. So now if everything is on time, I should get into LAX around 730PM. I then head to security where there is just a short wait with more lines open than usual for this time of day. This is a real improvement over the last couple of months. It was then off to Alaska’s Board Room to wait for my flight. I have a fairly long time to wait, but I end up working e-mail and making phone calls while sipping my Diet Cokes and the time goes by really quickly. I end up leaving for the gate at 420PM. We were at A-11 tonight, which is a little hike, and when I got to the Horizon gate area, I see that the TSA is setting up to do a gate check for one of the Horizon flights. I watch to see where they are setting up.
Boarding began at 445PM. As I feared, the TSA picked our gate for their check, but they weren’t quite set up yet, so I walked quickly past them, outside to the aircraft. We left the gate right on time and took off at 525PM 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 was good for just about the entire flight, and we are soon on our approach to LAX. I had a look out the window to make sure that the In-N-Out hadn’t moved as we were landing on runway 24R, and we touched down at 717PM after an hour and 52 minutes in the air. We taxied for a few minutes before coming into gate 32. My gate checked bag was the next to last off unfortunately, but it didn’t matter to me as I had plenty of time for my upcoming dinner and connecting flights.
06Aug09 In-N-Out run…total time one hour
I head down to arrivals and await the Parking Spot shuttle under the red sign. There are two Parking Spots, one on Century (not the one you want to go to), and one on Sepulveda (yes, that’s the one). I’m looking for the yellow bus with black spots and almost immediately a Century bus comes by that I let pass by, and then I spot a red bus with white spots – can you believe they have a logo bus in USC colors? I confirm with the driver that the bus is new, and we head out around the other terminals, but there are no other passengers to be had, so we get to the Parking Spot garage in just a few minutes. I make sure to tip the driver and I head behind the cashiers to a gate that is marked In-N-Out Burger. It is literally just a couple of feet between the gate and the restaurant.
I walk in and I’m just behind a group of 25 foreign exchange students. The rest of the restaurant is packed as usual; I don’t think that I have ever been to this place when it is not busy. There is a large contingent eating outside and plane spotting, and I see a seat outside that I will take if no one else grabs it and there is nothing inside. As I’m wondering how long I’ll be waiting, the group leader decides to just get everybody’s order; so I’m able to get to the counter in just a few seconds. I don’t order any of the fancy stuff that is on the secret menu, just a double-double, fries and soda (another Diet Coke for me thanks), pay and get my number. And then miracle of miracles, a table opens up right in front of me which I glom on to. Within a few minutes my number is called and I am in hamburger heaven.
I finish up in seemingly too short a time and gather my stuff and head out the door. As I open the door, an SQ 744 cargo jet is landing right in front of me on runway 24R. I head back through the gate and walk to a waiting bus where I’m the first one on. A couple of more passengers eventually board and off we go back to LAX. We are dropped off upstairs at departure, and again I make sure that I tip the driver and I enter the Tom Bradley Terminal at 830PM; exactly one hour from the time I left the doors of Terminal 3. You have to think that the Parking Spot knows some people use them just for In-N-Out transportation, but the drivers don’t seem to mind, and I would recommend them for parking at LAX just because they are so accommodating.
07Aug09 BR 1 W LAX-TPE 77W B-16702 seat 20A
Check-in for EVA doesn’t start until 930PM, so I went up to the food court area and grabbed an empty table and just worked e-mail until check-in opened. There was no one in the Diamond line (and I’ve never seen anyone in the Diamond line actually), and I was the first person to be called up to check in at 940PM as the agent was finishing setting up. 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. I ask the agent about getting the bulkhead (which is what I prefer in Elite class but it is not assigned in advance except to passengers with infants) either 20A or 20K and she calls over to the departure control agent to release the seat, and then gives me a boarding pass for 20C. I ask about a window, and she says that 20A is open and she’ll block it, then she has a second thought, and gets me 20A and she tells me that she has blocked 20C. So far so good; the flight looked full in Elite class, but I hope that I luck out with the empty seat next to me. She then gets me by boarding pass for my connecting flights and lounge invites for both LAX and TPE. I make my way over to security and the line is snaking around. I’m not in C class tonight, so I can’t use that entrance, so I wait and shuffle forward, wait and shuffle forward. It takes about 20 minutes to make it all the way through. I then head upstairs to the fourth floor to the “airlines not in an alliance lounge” where I am shown to the First Class section. It’s very quiet in here, with just a few other passengers. There are snacks and drinks available, and I grabbed a Diet Coke and made a couple of phone calls and read for a bit. I headed out to the gate at 1230AM.
We were at gate 105 tonight, and the gate area was starting to fill, but it didn’t look like a totally full flight. Right on schedule at 1250AM 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 both C and W class without disturbing the person next to you.
The cabin started to fill, but low and behold the seat block held. There were a handful of empty seats in W class tonight. Before the doors closed, the Chief Purser came over to me to welcome me on board and handed me a goodie bag with C class slippers, and some items from the amenity kit. After a relatively quick taxi for LAX, we were finally airborne at 143AM from runway 25R. We took off to the west, flew north for about 15 minutes, and then for the second time in a row instead of the great circle route; we just turned westward and would fly the mid-Pacific route tonight. As soon as we hit 10,000 feet the service started.
The Assistant Purser came up to me and asked my dinner preference; the choices were a shrimp fried rice or chicken with rice and I asked for the chicken. A few minute later, the carts were brought out, and I was given my tray and asked for my beverage choice. I actually asked for a club soda since I didn’t want any more caffeine; I was planning on sleeping after dinner. The dinner was a spicy chicken that I remember having before, with rice and veggies. It also came with a side of cold turkey, fruit, a small piece of chocolate cake and a warm soft roll. The dinner was pretty good, but as soon as I finished I was getting very sleepy and soon I drifted off.
I ended up getting a little over six hours of sleep and I woke up and watched a movie. A short time after that, breakfast was served and the choice was congee or western style. I am not a fan of congee, so I had the western which was an omelet, hash brown potatoes, and a veal sausage that was served with fruit, a blueberry muffin and a mixed berry smoothie. All in all, the breakfast was pretty tasty and I had my diet coke for caffeine. After breakfast I watched a TV show and before I knew it we were landing. A typhoon was in the area (and it turned out to do a lot of damage, but not to the airport), but when we were on approach the sun was out with just a few scattered clouds. We landed on TPE’s runway 05 at 555AM, 13 hours and 12 minutes after take off, and taxied to gate C4 which is very short walk to transfer security. A couple of aircraft had arrived at the same time (this is peak time for U.S. arrivals) so there was a short wait for security. I then took the escalator upstairs to the departure area and headed for the EVA lounge area.
08Aug09 BR 67 W TPE-BKK 77W B-16702 seat 20A
It was a few minutes after 600AM 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. Before going though, I asked the agent about getting a bulkhead seat, and she said that 20A was available, and she would call seat control to get it for me, but it would take a few minutes. I left my boarding pass with her and went to see if I could take a shower. In the F side of the lounge, there is only one shower and it was occupied as I came in. I put my bags down and shaved while waiting for the shower to become available. While waiting, three other passengers also came in to attempt to take a shower. EVA really needs to add showers to their lounges. They only have three in total, two in the C section, and one in F section and the Diamond lounge doesn’t even have a restroom, you have to leave the lounge to use the facilities. In a few minutes the shower opened up, and a cleaning crew came in and cleaned it quickly and I finally jumped in. I kept my time to a minimum since I knew how many people were waiting, and when I was done, I went back to the desk to see about my seat change. The agent said, I have your boarding pass here, and handed me my old boarding pass with my new seat – 20C. You know, not everyone likes an aisle. I asked if 20A was open, and she said, yes, scratched out the 20C, replaced it with 20A and told me to get my new boarding pass at the gate (which is standard for BR in TPE as the lounge does not have a boarding pass printer). I thanked her and then headed out and went across the hall to the Diamond lounge. I worked e-mail and made some calls while having a Coke Light and time passed pretty quickly. I headed out of the lounge at 800AM and was at the gate, again C4 within five minutes. I expected to see the same aircraft that I came in on there, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I head over to see one of the agents to get my new boarding pass, and it was given to me with a smile. At exactly 730AM boarding started and I was one of the first on. The Assistant Purser greeted me as I was getting situated, and right on time the doors shut. Again the flight wasn’t full, and the seat stayed empty next to me. We left the gate on schedule, and we were soon headed out to runway 06 for takeoff. We were airborne at 919AM 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 fee. This time a lunch would be served. On some days there are two TPE-BKK flights within a half hour of each other. The earlier flight, BR 211 leaves either at 830AM or 845AM depending on the day, and it serves breakfast. This flight, BR67 flies six days a week, leaves at 900AM and serves lunch.
Before the cart came out, the Assistant Purser was back asking me for my choice which was either chicken or beef along with my beverage preference. Since I had the chicken on my earlier flight, I chose the beef this time and of course asked for a Coke Light. To my surprise my beef dish turned out to be a filet with potatoes which was better than some C class meals that I have had. It was served with a potato/veggie salad, fruit, a warm soft roll and a small piece of cheesecake for dessert. I also was served a full can of Coke Light.
As I finished eating, the Chief Purser came over to check up on me. She saw that my drink of choice was finished and said that she would bring me another can of Coke Light and she took my tray away while she was at it. A good Chief Purser makes all the difference in a flight.
After breakfast, I mostly read and stared out the window – if might have been sunny over the Taipei airport, but it was overcast for 95% of this flight. Drink runs by the flight attendants were frequent throughout the flight with the last one just 15 minutes before landing. As I thought, we did land a couple of minutes ahead of schedule on runway 19L at 1122AM for a flight time of three hours and three minutes. Our gate today was E4, so it was the usual trek to immigration. 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 the foreign passports lines seemed virtually empty. There was one person in front of me that was actually just finishing up as I got into line, so there really wasn’t a wait.
13Aug09 BR 212 W BKK-TPE 77W B-16709 seat 20K
The day before my flight, I checked in on-line, and I noticed that my seat was changed on the TPE-LAX flight to 9C. Great, an upgrade on the long leg and more than 24 hours out as well. This is the first time that I have had an operational upgrade that far out, usually I get them either at the gate or the lounge. I went to look at the seat map on both flights, and on the BKK-TPE leg, the bulkhead was actually open and assignable, so I moved myself to 20K. I was not able to even look at the seat map for the upgraded flight though. However, before I went to sleep that night, I decided to look one more time, and I was able to change my seat, so I got a window, 11A on the long haul leg.
For the first time in ages, I had a hard time getting a taxi to the airport the morning of my flight. It wasn’t raining, there were just not any around. I finally flagged one down and he was a pretty decent driver, and we got to the airport at 920AM. I expected check-in to open at 930AM; but I was happy to see that check-in was already operational when I got to the counter. As usual, there was no one in the line for Diamond members. The same agent that I always see in the Diamond line greeted me and asked me if I had checked in on-line. I replied in the affirmative and told her that I saw my upgrade already on the TPE-LAX flight. I asked her if I could get my favorite C class seat, 6A. She saw that it was open and said that she would call to get it released to me and they would bring me a new boarding pass in the lounge. I was handed boarding passes for both the BKK-TPE and TPE-LAX flights and lounge invitations and wished a pleasant flight.
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 made a couple of calls and had some work to do, so the time again went by really quickly. I was in the middle of sending an e-mail when the lounge agent came up to me with a new boarding pass for seat 6A on the TPE-LAX flight, so I was all set. At 1140AM I headed off to our gate which was E6 today. There was absolutely no wait at security so I was at gate E6 within a couple of minutes after leaving the lounge.
When I boarded, there was no one at the door to greet me which is odd; I did see some flight attendants standing around, but none were at the door. The flight wasn’t completely full, but did have a decent load in both Elite Class and coach. There were only a couple of passengers in J class. Right before the doors closed, one of the flight attendants came over to ask me my lunch choice, either fish with noodles or chicken with rice. I asked for the chicken. A couple of moments later I heard the doors close, and again I lucked out and had an empty seat next to me. We left the gate a couple of minutes behind schedule, had a relatively short taxi to runway 19R, and took off at 1244PM. The captain released the flight attendants when we reached 10,000 feet, but it was a while until they made their appearances. The carts were rolled out, and I was handed my chicken lunch as a “special meal,” and then I was asked for my beverage choice. I of course asked for Coke Light (and was given a UK Diet Coke which is my least favorite; some people are like that about wines, I’m like that about my Diet Coke/Coke Light/Coke Zero – there are differences however slight from each country) and the flight attendant poured me half a glass; so I asked for the can. I’m glad I did because that was it for drinks on this flight. No other drink runs, and outside of the flight attendant coming by to pick up trays and later offer duty free, that was it for seeing the staff. As I mentioned above, a good Chief Purser can really make or break a flight, and this one was not visible at all.
The chicken was served with rice and veggies, along with a warm soft roll, fruit, cheese and crackers and an apple crumb cake for dessert. The food was pretty decent as usual. When I have an empty seat next to me, I always commandeer the screen for the empty seat and have airshow on while I’m watching whatever I feel like on my screen. During lunch I was going back and forth between airshow and my book. After I finished lunch I, but my book on the empty seat and turned on a movie. About an hour later, another passenger comes from somewhere, I didn’t see him in Elite class, so maybe it was regular Y class, and without saying anything, sits down in the empty seat, throws my book in my lap, grabs a headset, and starts to turn on a movie. He must have been in the middle, because he fast forwarded to wherever he was in the movie while I was watching and holding my tongue. He stayed there until his movie ended, and then he left just as suddenly and went back to his seat. Meanwhile once I got over my astonishment, I went back to my movie and watched all the way until about 10 minutes before landing. We landed on TPE’s runway 24 at 506PM after three hours and 22 minutes of flying, and were at gate C-6 a few minutes after that.
13Aug09 BR 12 C TPE-LAX 77W B-16709 Seat 6A
We had arrived at a good time as there were no other flights in so transfer security was not busy at all, in fact it appeared that I was the first one through in a while. 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. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I just snagged a Coke Light and checked to see if I had any e-mail and phone messages before heading back to gate C-6 where the same 777-300ER awaited us.
Before entering the gate there is a passport check, and then we head downstairs to wait for boarding. Business class, Diamond and Gold passengers were again invited to board after wheelchair passengers were boarded. The lounge area was packed, and it turned out that this flight was completely full. I was one of the first on and stored all of my stuff. As soon as I was in my seat, the Chief Purser came over to welcome me aboard. Before the doors were closed, amenity kits were handed out, and menus were given out. Shortly after, I noticed that one of the Assistant Purser’s was taking meal orders in a random fashion; I was one of the first, and my seatmate the last. I wonder if they were using status as I hadn’t seen this before. I do know that when they came for my seatmate’s order that they were already out of one main course.
Speaking of door closure, our doors closed about 10 minutes behind schedule and we started a taxi out to runway 24. We took off at 704PM and as soon as we hit 10,000 feet our service began. The chief purser came by to welcome me aboard again and filled me in on the flight details. Shortly after that, the dinner service commenced. Here are the choices for tonight:
Hors D’oeuvre: Marinated baby lobster on vegetables timbale
Seasonal Salad
Main Courses
Pan fried lamb cutlet topped with walnut & herb crust and rosemary sauce, mixed vegetables, turmeric rice with dried fruit and nuts
Stewed pork belly and stuffed tofu in dong-gian style, mixed vegetables, steamed rice
Pan fried beef filet with red wine sauce, mixed vegetables, roasted chunky potatoes (my choice)
Fresh fruit
Cheese
Pastry
The filet was very good, and I enjoyed my dinner. 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.
When I woke up, I wandered back to the galley area to see what snacks were out. I wasn’t really hungry, but I like to see what is available. The flight attendants were starting to get the breakfast service together, and I didn’t see the snack basket out, so I went back to my seat. Apparently, one of the Assistant Purser’s picked up on what I was doing, and came up to my seat about 30 seconds after I sat back down with the snack basket. I felt like I then had to take something, so I took a package of rice crackers, and she insisted on getting me something to drink, so another Coke Light was delivered to my seat.
I read my book for a few minutes and then the lights started to come on. It was now time 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, cheese omelet and beef steak, chicken sausage, cherry tomato, roesti potato (my choice)
Premium Laurel Special - selection of tea, fresh fruit, double boiled black bone chicken broth with Chinese herbs, marinated jelly fish salad, savory glutinous rice “Formosa style”
The western breakfast main course was OK, but the croissants and rolls were really fresh and very good. As people finished their breakfasts, trays were cleared quickly. I just read until our arrival. We didn’t have a decent tail wind at all, and landed on LAX’s runway 24R at 355PM after 11 hours and 41 minutes of flying. It was another few minutes of taxi time over to our gate, which was 119 today, and then we had to wait to be towed into the gate. Once I got into the immigration area, the lines were a zoo. It looked like six wide body jets came in at once and the place was a mob scene. It took a half hour to get to an immigration person, but only 10 seconds to get though. Then, even though I had no bags, it was another 20 minutes to make it through the line for customs inspection even going through the “green” line. And I wasn’t stopped; it was just a mass of humanity. I finally made it out of the pit, and thought to myself that I really deserved that double-double on the outbound.
13Aug09 AS 2600 Y LAX-PDX CR7 N612QX seat 2E
I had already checked-in for this flight when I was in the lounge in BKK, but did not print my boarding pass. There was no wait in the First Class line, and the agent quickly printed up my boarding pass, told me the flight was on time, and wished me a nice flight. There was virtually no wait for the TSA ID checker in terminal three, but once I took the elevator upstairs, again it was another mess. There were only two TSA lines open with a bunch of Alaska flights as well as a couple of Virgin America and the V Australia passengers were starting to arrive as well. Another 20 minutes to wait until I was clear of security, but I still had a few minutes to go up to the Board Room, where I had an apple and a Diet Coke and checked e-mail. I saw that we had an aircraft at the gate, so I headed down at 600PM and boarding had not yet commenced. There were already a couple of people in the First Class/MVP Gold area, so the agent let those people on before he announced boarding; I saw what was happening and went to join them. This aircraft was again completely full, but we pulled away from the gate a couple of minutes early, and taxied out to runway 24R, where we took off at 625PM. The flight attendants did a drink service where I had my can of diet Jones Cola and snack mix and then they came around and offered a second round for those who wanted one. Pretty soon we were descending into PDX. We touched down on runway 28L at 819PM after a brief hour and 54 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 another excursion to Asia. Overall it was a very nice trip; I was a little disappointed in the one flight from BKK to TPE, but if that’s the worst flight of the lot, I did well indeed.
Aug 20, 2009, 12:22 pm
#5
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Hsinchu (Taiwan), Saigon, London
Programs: EVA (diamond), A3, BMI, VN
Posts: 2,960
Brilliant report.... It must have taken ages. Haven't flown EVA for about 6 weeks.. so it almost seemed nostalgic!
Some comments:
I make my way over to security and the line is snaking around. I’m not in C class tonight, so I can’t use that entrance,
A bit tough! At LHR it seems to be an "unofficial" benefit that Elite class travellers can use priority security. This seems to be an airport discretion thing. The official story is that it's C or F or a sticker on the boarding pass only. (Some airlines, not EVA, sticker economy BPs for their FFs.)
I then head upstairs to the fourth floor to the “airlines not in an alliance lounge” where I am shown to the First Class section.
Did you show your Diamond card to get this benefit? Or was the invite marked?
The dinner was a spicy chicken that I remember having before, with rice and veggies.
I really think a useful perk for Diamonds would be to allow online ordering - perhaps a main from the PL menu. If you fly that much, it can be really annoying to face the exactly the same meal as you had before. They only change them quarterly.
It was a few minutes after 600AM when I got to the Evergreen lounges. I knew the Diamond lounge didn’t open until 630AM,
Pretty lousy since they know when their transpac flights arrive...
They only have three in total, two in the C section, and one in F section and the Diamond lounge doesn’t even have a restroom, you have to leave the lounge to use the facilities. In a few minutes the shower opened up, and a cleaning crew came in and cleaned it quickly and I finally jumped in.
Yep. Given that an economy silver flying TPE-HKG only is competing with a transpac Diamond in PL it is all a bit ridiculous (though granted not for the single F section shower). And yep, they do use them - some of long bus journeys from other parts of Taiwan before arriving at TPE.
To my surprise my beef dish turned out to be a filet with potatoes which was better than some C class meals that I have had.
I really do think they've improved Elite-class food over the last couple of years. For a while it was little better than economy (except for the chinaware). Now it's a real step up.
The day before my flight, I checked in on-line, and I noticed that my seat was changed on the TPE-LAX flight to 9C. Great, an upgrade on the long leg and more than 24 hours out as well. This is the first time that I have had an operational upgrade that far out, usually I get them either at the gate or the lounge.
Yep... unusual. By the way, if you check your booking online whilst in the lounge, you can sometimes see that you are going to be upgraded at the gate.
I didn’t see him in Elite class, so maybe it was regular Y class, and without saying anything, sits down in the empty seat, throws my book in my lap, grabs a headset, and starts to turn on a movie.
Oh dear. Sounds like one of the FAs told him to move into Elite to watch the film. Or maybe he was an EVA staff member?? Either way, he should have been shown to the seat and not allowed to self-select. I think you should fill in a comment card about this, or fill in the online form.
Shortly after, I noticed that one of the Assistant Purser’s was taking meal orders in a random fashion; I was one of the first, and my seatmate the last. I wonder if they were using status as I hadn’t seen this before.
I've noticed this. I've assumed it's something to do with some people pre-ordering. When I've pre-ordered they usually check that it's correct before taking orders for everyone else. I have never seen anyone not get their choice. Perhaps they knew that they hadn't loaded enough meals so on this occasion prioritised the FFs.
Yes... you do drink alot of cola! I wonder if there is a parallel report on "colatalk" interspersed with odd references to taking a flight!
Some comments:
I make my way over to security and the line is snaking around. I’m not in C class tonight, so I can’t use that entrance,
A bit tough! At LHR it seems to be an "unofficial" benefit that Elite class travellers can use priority security. This seems to be an airport discretion thing. The official story is that it's C or F or a sticker on the boarding pass only. (Some airlines, not EVA, sticker economy BPs for their FFs.)
I then head upstairs to the fourth floor to the “airlines not in an alliance lounge” where I am shown to the First Class section.
Did you show your Diamond card to get this benefit? Or was the invite marked?
The dinner was a spicy chicken that I remember having before, with rice and veggies.
I really think a useful perk for Diamonds would be to allow online ordering - perhaps a main from the PL menu. If you fly that much, it can be really annoying to face the exactly the same meal as you had before. They only change them quarterly.
It was a few minutes after 600AM when I got to the Evergreen lounges. I knew the Diamond lounge didn’t open until 630AM,
Pretty lousy since they know when their transpac flights arrive...
They only have three in total, two in the C section, and one in F section and the Diamond lounge doesn’t even have a restroom, you have to leave the lounge to use the facilities. In a few minutes the shower opened up, and a cleaning crew came in and cleaned it quickly and I finally jumped in.
Yep. Given that an economy silver flying TPE-HKG only is competing with a transpac Diamond in PL it is all a bit ridiculous (though granted not for the single F section shower). And yep, they do use them - some of long bus journeys from other parts of Taiwan before arriving at TPE.
To my surprise my beef dish turned out to be a filet with potatoes which was better than some C class meals that I have had.
I really do think they've improved Elite-class food over the last couple of years. For a while it was little better than economy (except for the chinaware). Now it's a real step up.
The day before my flight, I checked in on-line, and I noticed that my seat was changed on the TPE-LAX flight to 9C. Great, an upgrade on the long leg and more than 24 hours out as well. This is the first time that I have had an operational upgrade that far out, usually I get them either at the gate or the lounge.
Yep... unusual. By the way, if you check your booking online whilst in the lounge, you can sometimes see that you are going to be upgraded at the gate.
I didn’t see him in Elite class, so maybe it was regular Y class, and without saying anything, sits down in the empty seat, throws my book in my lap, grabs a headset, and starts to turn on a movie.
Oh dear. Sounds like one of the FAs told him to move into Elite to watch the film. Or maybe he was an EVA staff member?? Either way, he should have been shown to the seat and not allowed to self-select. I think you should fill in a comment card about this, or fill in the online form.
Shortly after, I noticed that one of the Assistant Purser’s was taking meal orders in a random fashion; I was one of the first, and my seatmate the last. I wonder if they were using status as I hadn’t seen this before.
I've noticed this. I've assumed it's something to do with some people pre-ordering. When I've pre-ordered they usually check that it's correct before taking orders for everyone else. I have never seen anyone not get their choice. Perhaps they knew that they hadn't loaded enough meals so on this occasion prioritised the FFs.
Yes... you do drink alot of cola! I wonder if there is a parallel report on "colatalk" interspersed with odd references to taking a flight!
Last edited by jimbo99; Aug 20, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Aug 20, 2009, 2:21 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Beaverton OR
Programs: GE, AA PLT/2.6MM, BR Gld, Royal Carib. DM+, Celebrity Elite, NCL PLT, Princess Elite
Posts: 1,643
The check-in agent puts a special sticker on the lounge invite so that lounge staff know which lounge to send the passenger to.
Aug 20, 2009, 5:58 pm
#7
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: SoCal, USA
Programs: BR Gold
Posts: 136
ak333,
I like to fly with BR. They're solid, if not spectacular.
I won't make Diamond unless they keep their upgrade via 8 years as a Gold. I manage 2 C-class treks LAX-BKK a year. As it happens, I have a trip in October.
A question for you. When you were upgraded 24+ hours out, did you think of going to the menu order section of the website to order C-class meals? Looks like you got regular fare, but I was wondering if it was an option available to you. I personally enjoy the internet food options.
Thanks.
I like to fly with BR. They're solid, if not spectacular.
I won't make Diamond unless they keep their upgrade via 8 years as a Gold. I manage 2 C-class treks LAX-BKK a year. As it happens, I have a trip in October.
A question for you. When you were upgraded 24+ hours out, did you think of going to the menu order section of the website to order C-class meals? Looks like you got regular fare, but I was wondering if it was an option available to you. I personally enjoy the internet food options.
Thanks.
Aug 20, 2009, 9:46 pm
#8
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
ak333,
I like to fly with BR. They're solid, if not spectacular.
I won't make Diamond unless they keep their upgrade via 8 years as a Gold. I manage 2 C-class treks LAX-BKK a year. As it happens, I have a trip in October.
A question for you. When you were upgraded 24+ hours out, did you think of going to the menu order section of the website to order C-class meals? Looks like you got regular fare, but I was wondering if it was an option available to you. I personally enjoy the internet food options.
Thanks.
I like to fly with BR. They're solid, if not spectacular.
I won't make Diamond unless they keep their upgrade via 8 years as a Gold. I manage 2 C-class treks LAX-BKK a year. As it happens, I have a trip in October.
A question for you. When you were upgraded 24+ hours out, did you think of going to the menu order section of the website to order C-class meals? Looks like you got regular fare, but I was wondering if it was an option available to you. I personally enjoy the internet food options.
Thanks.
Aug 25, 2009, 12:37 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: MEXICO
Programs: CO GOLD
Posts: 187
EXCELLENT report, THANKS.
I used to fly BR all the time, but after the rift with CO over which fare classes accrued mileage, I doubt I'll ever fly them again. Too bad, coz the service is usually excellent, as you've described very well in your report.
I used to fly BR all the time, but after the rift with CO over which fare classes accrued mileage, I doubt I'll ever fly them again. Too bad, coz the service is usually excellent, as you've described very well in your report.