KL803

PR850 CEB-MNL, B744, Seats 96D/E/F/G, 97D/E (according to seatguru)

The hotel van (this time a private hired one) brought us to the airport. The domestic part of Cebu International is pretty chaotic, security lax and very crowded. Many flights were delayed with no obvious reason, including our PR850, it now showed a departure at 6.10 p.m.


Departure board CEB

Checking-in was no problem, after receiving our boarding-passes, I saw that we were seated in the very last two rows on the full 744! I inquired, if no other seats were available, there weren't, especially for six passengers on one PNR! So the last row was it, oh well, middle seats, too! Fortunately there are many OK-food options in the departure lobby, so we had some dinner there. As soon as the gate was finally manned, I asked about the reason for the delay, it was ATC related out of Manila, not a big surprise that was.

Boarding started at 5.50 p.m. and was messy because there were many passenger waiting for a Zest-Air flight to MNL departing from the same gate and mistakenly thought that the boarding call was for them! As an experienced flyer I knew, that seated in the last row we had to board first which we luckily managed to do.


The last row


The cabin from the back

Despite the full flight, boarding was done within 20 minutes and we pushed back at about 6.15 p.m. This row is quite passable for a domestic flight with minimal passenger traffic to the lavatories and not much galley noise either. But on a long-haul flight, it surely is the last row one would like to be seated. IFE was off for the duration of the flight, not even the safety-video could be played, so the crew had to do it the old-fashioned way. Snacks and drinks were the same as on the prior flight to CEB, so no surprises here. The flight was comfortable and uneventful, I even managed to take a little nap – the seats are quite comfortable.

Of course, deplaning took ages, we waited almost 15 minutes, but it also has its advantages: we used the lavatory and of course, we expected that our bag was already on the conveyor when we arrived at the baggage claim. Because our aircraft docked at the international section of Terminal 2, it was quite a long walk to the domestic baggage claim, but when we arrived, there were still no bags. But after less than five minutes, the bags started to arrive, and our was among the first, quite a surprise!


Summary of the Cebu trip

Most importantly, we had a great time! PR has an OK product for its domestic operations, the 744 is indeed the flagship with IFE and AVOD for international flights. Snack service is minimal, no soft-drinks on offer, just water, and the snacks are very small. The crew is professional and friendly, lots of smiles, very good in my opinion. I cannot comment on the safety standard of PR, in my eyes, they're doing a good job, landing rights in Europe have been revoked due to bad fleet-maintenance, but I can't comment on this (PR has seized operations to Europe years ago, anyway). I just can tell, that I felt very safe.

The Hilton Cebu Resort & Spa is a nice property on Mactan Island. One has to understand that this is Philippines, so you can't compare this resort to a Hilton on Maldives or in the Carribean. Rooms are fine and bright, amenities pretty OK, and of course there's the buffet breakfast which is really superb. The area next to the hotel is far from nice, but again, this is Philippines with a lot of poor people living here. That is why security is pretty tight at the hotel, which is good and unfortunately necessary given the neighborhood. The hotel beach is artificial and rather small, but enough to accommodate the guests. As I mentioned, except for the breakfast, we didn't try any of the hotel's restaurants, so no comment on that. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful all the time. We met the new general manager, who's from Switzerland, which I found cool; a fellow countryman here in Cebu! Something else: there's no WiFi throughout the property. Even the hotel in Baguio City had it, and that was not a 3* hotel at all. So some things can be improved, indeed, but mostly our stay was excellent.

KL803

Part 4: MNL-SIN

@ MNL

MNL isn't really my most favorite airport, it's messy, crowded and not very well organized. Check-in was pretty straight forward despite our itinerary. Our bags were checked all the way to ZRH, and we received lounge invitations. Weight limit wasn't a problem either – three bags with a total of 81 kg were accepted without a single question asked…


SQ check-in

After immigration and security we went to the lounge. Strange thing of the MNL lounge: there was a first-class section, but SQ doesn't offer 1st on its MNL-SIN route, so I wondered who was entitled to enter the first-class section… The business-class section was OK, pretty similar to the KE and KL lounges.


MNL lounge

Food options were pretty basic: there was pasta and some other things, cookies and peanuts. Drinks and liquor options were basic, too.


MNL lounge food

There was a boarding announcement so we made our way to the gate. We stopped for a picture of our 777 which was about to bring us to SIN.


SQ 777 at the gate

SQ916 (scheduled departure 18.50 PHT, actual 19.25 – arrival 22.20 SGT, actual 22.43 (Stats: flightstats.com)

We were pretty much the last to board – even a bit late, but in the end it didn't matter because MNL issued a ground-stop due to a heavy thunderstorm. So there we were inside the plane, waiting for clearance. Dinner orders were taken and drinks served, not much to worry about.


Waiting for departure

After about 20 minutes, the ground-stop was lifted and we took off after another 10 minute wait at the runway. The weather was still ferocious and take-off and the climb to cruising altitude pretty bumpy. At one point, our plane was struck by lightning, it was a really big bang, but that was all. After a wild ride for 10-15 minutes, we reached smoother weather, and dinner was served.

The menu for the flight was:

Starter: Combination of seared tuna and eel sushi served with baby mizuna lettuce and soya dressing


Starter

Main: Lamb sauteed with thyme on a thin ratatouille in gravy or Braised chicken with ginger and pineapple, leafy greens, carrots, mushrooms and egg noodles or Marinated bangus fillet with adobo butter, mixed vegetables and rice


Lamb


Chicken

Finale: Japanese green tea ice cream with adzuki bean sauce, Gourmet coffees & selection of fine teas


Ice cream

Except for the ice cream, food was once again very nice and service close to perfection. IFE worked flawlessly, too, and the seats were very comfortable. The rest of the flight went pretty smooth, we even made up some time and arrived at about 10.45.


@ SIN

It was my mistake, that I didn't make a reservation for the transit hotel, after all, I just didn't know that there could be such a big demand for the three transit hotels! We made our way to Terminal 3 (from where our UA flight was leaving the next day) and arrived at the transit hotel just to find out that there was no room available. The wait list for a room after 1 a.m. was already long, so we decided to try our luck at the Silver Kris Lounge. I knew, our chances to get into the lounge without a boarding-pass were pretty slim, but we tried anyway – and were lucky! At the entrance, I explained our situation, that we were in transit to next day's UA flight, that the transit hotel were full and the UA transfer desk was closed. After some investigation, we received access to the first class section, but we had to promise that as soon as we had our UA boarding-passes, we had to show them for scanning…

At this point it was close to midnight, so we just wanted to rest. We settled down in the quiet area at the very end of the lounge. We moved some chairs together so we were able to lay down. A friendly lounge attendant inquired if we would need some blankets and pillows which we gladly accepted, they even turned off the lights!


The “camp” in SKL

My wife slept very well but I couldn't sleep at all, it wasn't too comfortable for me. So I wandered around a bit in the empty lounge.


Empty SKL 2 a.m.

The lounge is very nice, indeed, much nicer than the SKL in Terminal 2. There's also a third section, which I think is for passengers traveling in SQ Suites. Of course, there was not much going on during the night except for the cleaning which started at 2 a.m. exactly with a noisy vacuum cleaner. At 4.30 a.m. I decided to take a shower. Amenities were very nice, lots of towels, a real toothbrush (not just a smallish folding device one might get in an amenity kit…), shaver, lotions etc. etc. I just forgot to take pictures of the very nice bathrooms. After the shower, it was time to wake up my wife who really had a good sleep. But we had to go to the transfer desk to get our boarding-passes. Breakfast buffet wasn't set up yet, so we just had a nice double espresso and left the lounge.

The UA transfer desk is quite far away from the lounge, almost 10 minutes. There was quite a queue lining up already. In fact it was quite a mess, because the flight from HKG to ORD (UA 896) was delayed for 10 hours which caused some problems. Luckily, we weren't affected by this, UA896 to HKG was supposed to leave on time.

The clerk at the transfer desk took his time to issue our boarding-passes. I saw a list of interlined baggage on his desk and saw, that there were only two instead of three tag numbers listed. I inquired, if there was a piece missing. He double checked this and acknowledged there was indeed a tag missing – but only on his list. A short call resolved that problem and we finally had our BP's.

As promised, I went back to SKL so they could scan our BP. I earned nice smiles for this (looks like it wasn't really necessary after all). I rushed back to the gate, because it was getting late already. Boarding was messy, but I reckon, we just witnessed the last call. We flashed our BP stating 1A/K, and suddenly we had an escort down the jet-bridge to door 1L!

KL803

Part 5: SIN-HKG

UA896 (scheduled departure 06.40 SGT, actual 06.39 – arrival 10.30 HKT, actual 10.36) (Stats: flightstats.com)

We received a friendly welcome aboard. The cabin looked a bit old, but the seats were quite comfortable. Seats 1A and K are indeed not too private if traveling alone, but for us as a couple very much acceptable. We received juice as a welcome drink which of course is perfectly acceptable in these early hours.


UA 1st class cabin

The screen is impressive, IFE is actually very good, I also found the noise-canceling ear-phones very good – much like the new ones in TG 1st. I didn't play much with the IFE, soon after breakfast I fell asleep, but my wife said, it was very cool.


IFE screen

Push-back was on time, but then we had a 15 minute wait for our departure slot, time to catch an SQ388 on the taxi-way. They're getting more and more common, but still get my attention.


SQ 388

During take-off from runway 02L, we witnessed a marvelous sunrise. Sitting in the nose of a 744 made picture taking pretty stunning.


Runway 02L


SIN sunrise

Service was very attentive, American style so-to-speak; kinda cool and less formal than on TG or SQ. Not that I didn't like it, it was just so very different from our previous experiences. Soon after take-off, the menu was handed out. Compared to TG and SQ it was rather small with less options than on the Asian carriers.


UA breakfast menu


Fruits


Yogurt – my favorite, and Swiss, too!


The omelette

The omelette wasn't good at all, the egg was dry, the chorizo sausage very fat… We definitely should have taken much more time at the lounge for breakfast. The coffee though was very much my taste, I like the Starbucks Americano, so that fit my taste very well; for my wife, though, it was just too bitter.

As I mentioned before, I napped for most of the time, so at least I wasn't a total Zombie when we arrived at HKG. We touched down and parked next to another UA 744. For most other passengers, this was the start of a 10 hour unexpected layover (the continuation of the flight to ORD was delayed) but for us it was good-bye.




@ HKG

We bid farewell to the crew and entered HKIA. At the end of the jet-bridge, a *A handling agent was waiting for us. She inquired if we were in transit to LX which we acknowledged. We also told her, that we were about to head into the city and that we just needed a boarding-pass for LX. So we made our way to the transfer desk. Man, that lady was a runner! My wife and I aren't the slowest, but this lady had a pace we almost couldn't follow, it almost seemed, that our flight was about to leave in the next 10 minutes! At the transfer desk, our boarding-passes were already waiting for us (during the walk, the handling agent obviously informed the transfer desk about us). We also received the lounge invitation for the CX Wing lounge. We were amazed by this perfect service and thanked our escort for her help. Then we went through immigration and headed to town.

Whenever I'm in Hong Kong, I prefer to take the bus. It's just more of a sightseeing tour than the rush on the Airport Express – and cheaper, too. Bus A21 is my usual choice because it's running right into the center of Mongkok. The same day return fare for Octopus card holders is HK-$ 16.50 only.



The views from the upper deck of the Cityflier is pretty cool.




Bus stop on Nathan Road, Mongkok


On the upper deck

We spent about 5 hours in Mongkok, we would have more time, but were a bit tired. And the weather wasn't so good, too, for doing something else than mall-browsing. We returned to the airport at about 6 p.m. and went straight to the lounge.

The Wing lounge is located just left after south-immigration. It is quite different from other first-class airport lounges, it's not a room, it's rather hovering above the terminal. This gives the lounge an airy feeling but you also can hear all the noise from the terminal. Especially that noise with all the boarding calls and private messages can be irritating. I guess, that's why there's a library, which is very quiet…

When we sat down, a waiter took our drink orders, pretty much like in a restaurant. For dinner, there was a full-scale dinner buffet in the restaurant, with lots of choices. For noodle lovers, there's the noodle-bar in the business-class section.


Dinner at The Wing


Only the knives are plastic!

Yea, it's a shame, that in such a nice lounge, the knives have to be plastic. I don't understand why. That was disappointing. Everything else is just fine. The nice showers, the long bar, the entertainment room, but plastic knives, strange.


The long bar


View from the long bar

Both my wife and I took a shower before we went to the gate for boarding our last flight. We thought that we'll have an escort again, but that wasn't the case. So we were quite late (again) at the gate and missed the whole boarding process – when we arrived, it was already the last call.

KL803

Part 6: HKG-ZRH

LX139 (scheduled departure 22.55 HKT – actual 23.22, arrival 06.10 CEST actual 06.17) (Stats: flightstats.com)

This never happened to me before: Nobody welcoming me aboard! But as we entered the Swiss A343 through door 1L, there was nobody, no purser, no flight attendant. Uhm, very strange. It turned out, that we were the last first-class passengers to board, so we took our seats 2 D/G. It didn't take long and a FA came to us and welcomed us – belated – on board. A pre-departure amouse-buche and champagne was served.


LX 1st cabin


LX 1st pre-departure snack

After 5 minutes or so, the chief-purser came along, too, to wish us a friendly welcome aboard. It was my first flight on LX since 2002, so it actually felt a bit strange to talk to the crew in my native tongue. That was a weird experience for me. The captain came on and informed us about a delay of about 30 minutes but also insured us a pretty on-time landing in ZRH due to favorable winds. Flight time would be close to 13 hrs, this is because LX has to circumnavigate Russian airspace on this route.

Soon after take-off, dinner service started.

This was the menu:


Once again, my wife and I chose to take dinner tête-à-tête, which is a very nice option on both LX and TG.


Lobster filled pancake


Smoked salmon confit, cucumber salad and crème fraîche


Fresh garden salad


Vegetable cannelloni with tomato sauce


”Züri-Gschnätzlets” (veal Zurich-style with Rösti)


Red wine poached pear with pear jelly white chocolate ice cream


Macallan Fine Oak 18yrs

The food was excellent and service extremely friendly but not exaggerated, just perfect. One could criticize that LX has a less international catering, on the other hand, that's why a lot of people choose LX. For my wife and me, it was very much OK. After dinner, the crew prepared our beds, and this is a big difference to TG: There's real bedding and a feather blanket which makes the sleeping experience much nicer.


LX bed

A word about IFE: I didn't use it much, after dinner I slept pretty straight for more than 8 hours, so I didn't use it much. The screen is a bit small, movie selection much less than on UA and SQ about equal to TG. There were noise-canceling ear-phones, but I didn't wear them for sleeping, that's just too uncomfortable, good old ear-plugs did the job.

When I woke up, we were already over Hungarian airspace, less than two hours before landing.


Flight map

So it was time for a real Swiss breakfast:


Muesli, Zopf, croissant

That was wonderful, but the omelette with hash-browns was pretty awful, it tasted like rubber, the potatoes were still raw and cold, the sausage and ham were the only edible things on this plate.


Awful omelette

Soon after we finished breakfast, we already started our descent into ZRH where we arrived just a few minutes behind schedule. We said bye bye to the very friendly crew and made our way to immigration and baggage claim. Priority tags worked very well, we collected our bags within 5 minutes and were on our way home in no time. We reached home exactly one hour after touch down.

cmte_valle

Is it me or you did another trip report in AF First? I'm pretty much sure I saw you and your wife on one of those...

KL803

This trip report comes to a conclusion; it's time for a summary. This was my first time on *A carriers and they made a pretty good impression. After having flown on AF 1st 3 times last year, I feel like I'm capable to compare these premium products by now

Let's start with TG:

• Check-in: I used OLCI, and it worked which surprised me a bit given the fact that our itinerary wasn't all on TG. I just couldn't print a boarding-pass at home which is no big deal as we had luggage to check-in. Check-in agent was friendly, but had her difficulties to print our BP, probably because they have to be printed on special paper. That took unusual long. Rating: 7/10
• Lounges: In ZRH 1st class passengers may use the Senator Lounge which is very nice, but far from the gate. As mentioned, there'd be another lounge closer to the gate, but I chose nice over crowded. BKK is certainly one of the nicest lounges, Spa-service is unrivaled. Morning is probably not the best time for this lounge, and for the best experience, the layover should be 3hrs +. Rating: 10/10
• Ground-Services: In ZRH even 1st class passengers are on their own. This could be improved, a handling agent could escort passengers for example. 1st class passengers may use the fast-track at security in Terminal E. At BKK, there's the golf-cart service, which is nice and saves a lot of walking. There weren't many people at security, so no special line was needed. I can't tell, if there's a priority line. Out of the lounge, there may or may not be a golf-cart service. This is much better on AF where there's always limousine service in and out of CDG's La Première lounge (except if the gate is next to the lounge - then there's an escort). Rating: 7/10
• Boarding: Premium and elites are called first and in both ZRH and BKK have separate lines. Economy passengers are boarded by rows which seems to be working as far as I can tell. Rating: 9/10
• Inflight-Services: Food on TG is very good, beats AF and for selection LX. Service is very friendly but almost obedient, LX and AF (on a good day) seem a bit more professional. We were always addressed by name. IFE works well but has a limited selection, UA, AF and SQ have a much better selection. The noise-canceling ear-phones are very good. The amenity kit is fine but contains no ear-plugs. The pajamas are – well – pink… but ok. Rating: 8/10
• Cabin: Seat is the same on AF and LX A343. It's showing a bit it's age but is still comfortable. A very nice thing is the possibility to eat tête-à-tête. There's not much privacy, but it's first class, so there's no throng anyway. The bathrooms have nice amenities, nice lotion and cologne. For sleeping, there's no bedding unlike on AF and LX, this is the only really negative thing. Rating: 7/10

SQ (Business class only):

• Check-in: OLCI out of MNL worked, seat assignments could be changed and BP for the first segment printed without problems. In MNL very professional, a supervisor was needed to tag our bags to ZRH; but of course, our itinerary was weird and included 3 carriers. Rating: 9/10
• Lounges: SKL in SIN T2 is a bit dark, but has very good options food-wise. Showers are nice, too. SKL in T3 is roomier and brighter. There could be a room for sleeping, though, something like a day room. Staff in all lounges are very nice, friendly and extremely helpful. The lounge in MNL is OK for the location, with a mysterious 1st class section. Rating: 9/10
• Ground-Services: In SIN friendly at the transfer desk, but couldn't print our SIN-MNL BP due to the AC change. They told us to come back and didn't think of the lounge. Rating: 7/10
• Boarding: Boarding process on both flights was fine, of course the equipment change in SIN made things a bit messier than it should be. Rating: 8/10
• Inflight-Services: SQ C would count as F on a lot of other carriers! IFE is probably the best I've ever encountered, tons of options, movies, games, music. Ear-phones are noise-canceling, too. Food is very good for an intra-asian flight, better than TG C, similar to KE. Cabin crew is also perfect and handled the equipment change professionally and cool. Rating:10/10
• Cabin: The seat is angled lie flat and very comfortable. They are great if traveling with a companion, but there's also a small divider which gives a bit of privacy if traveling alone. The cabin is very clean and the bathrooms have nice amenities, too. Rating: 9/10

UA (short segment only)

• Ground-Services: Transfer desk in SIN was very busy, mostly dealing with the delay of the HKG-ORD segment which took some time. Service was professional but could be a bit more efficient. Rating: 6/10
• Boarding: Once again, we didn't witness the boarding process from the beginning, so I can't tell, if it was OK or not. At least there was a separate line for premium and elites, so we were able to cut the queue. Rating: 7/10
• Inflight-Services: Service is professional and of course very American. The crew took good care of us 4 First Class passengers. IFE is very good, a large screen and lots of choices. Noise-canceling ear-phones are great. Food service though is very limited, in no way it can be compared to TG or SQ on this intra-asian flight. Rating: 7/10
• Cabin: UA uses a lot of gray tones for its cabin which once looked pretty noble I think, but is now rather depressing for the eye. However, the seat is comfortable and is fully lie-flat; good for a comfortable sleep. The cabin layout gives a lot of privacy which is a great plus if traveling alone but can be a bit more difficult if traveling with a partner. Rating: 8/10

LX

• Ground-Services: I can only judge on ground-services in HKG here. We were surprised that we had an escort waiting for us at the UA arrival gate to guide us to the transfer desk and organizing our boarding-pass! That was very nice and saved time. Rating: 10/10
• Lounge: In LX First you can use the Cathay Pacific Wing first class lounge. It's very much OK, but the location above the main terminal makes it unusually noisy for a lounge. Shower rooms are good, but I found them not as nice as in SKL or AF La Première. The restaurant has a good buffet but my gosh, using plastic knives is nothing I expect in a lounge! So quite a mixed feeling about this lounge. Rating: 6/10
• Boarding: Again, we didn't witness the boarding process from the beginning, so I can't tell, if it was OK or not. There was a separate line for premium and elites, so we were able to cut the queue. The fact, that nobody was waiting at door 1L to welcome passengers, is not negligible; that should not happen. Rating: 6/10
• Inflight-Services: Service is something, LX does right. Very friendly, professional but not obedient like on TG, very good. Food is very good, my wife loved that Swiss speciality and also my Cannelloni were very good, indeed. I'm sure, there are a lot of Dom Perignon lovers here on FT, but I have to admit, that I liked Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle better; but of course, tastes are very different. The wine selection was good, anyway; the local wine from Basel region surprisingly good. IFE is something, LX can and should improve, the system is a bit dated on the A343; on the other hand, it didn't matter to me much, because I slept for most of the time. The pajamas are nice, the amenity kit sufficiently stocked. Rating: 9/10
• Cabin: The seats are very much the same like on TG and AF. They transform in a comfortable bed with real bedding. I slept very well. Like on TG, it's a great plus that a partner can dine tête-à-tête. I found the cabin on the A343 quieter than on AF 777, I guess, the aircraft does matter after all. Rating: 9/10

Conclusion:
First Class travel on *A is very good, something, one can get used to! The various options of carriers actually offering First Class makes *A the much better choice for premium traveling than ST. Directly compared, I wouldn't rate AF far below TG or LX. As mentioned on numerous posts, AF is constantly improving its La Première product, so they're not far behind TG or LX. Lounge wise, SQ beats all other carriers. Also, SQ is offering the best business-class service in SE-Asia. What is disturbing me most, SQ's intra-asian service is better than AF long-haul business-class IMO.

I hope this trip report didn't get too long… thanks for reading anyway!

KL803

Ah yea, that was last year…

Scousie

Thanks for posting!

thyeri

Nice report ! ^

And thanks US Airways