Short hair Francis

Don't be envy of me, I still get a decent amount of help from home. If it's anybody that you should be envious of, it should be our Talkboard Vice President, Lucky9876coins. Now that guy travels

UA_Flyer

This is excellent. I look forward to the rest of the report

Short hair Francis

Part 2 – Hyatt Regency San Francisco and a trip to Alcatraz

At the organization part of this trip, I’ve been to San Francisco 4 times before but yet I’ve never been to Alcatraz yet, since I was starting from SFO rather than YYZ to get a longer TATL flight, what a perfect opportunity for 1/2 day.

Hyatt Regency San Francisco





After a short 30 min trip on BART, I arrived at Embarcadero station where above is the Hyatt Regency. A speedy check-in, I even got a surprisingly upgrade to the club floor facing the Bay Bridge as a result of an oversold hotel because of a doctor’s convention. So I ended up on the top floor. However, Hyatt didn’t give me club privileges. That being said, I got an amazing view of the Bay Bridge which I just loved.

Club Level Room





Outside View from the room


After working on some paperwork, I made my way to the Muni F line to go to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz cruise which was pre-booked, on the advice of Alpha

View of Alcatraz


Oh no, am I trespassing


Now I’ve got more than I bargained for, I shouldn’t have wore t-shirts, shorts and flip flops today, way too cold on the cruise and after a 15 min cruise, I was looking forward to the hike up Alcatraz Island and towards the jailhouse.

Alcatraz Front Side


Rules and Regulations


Shower Room


Michigan Avenue and B block



Library


Times Square


Gun Gallery


Recreational Ground


Part 2 Continues below

Short hair Francis

D Block


Isolation Cells


Watch Tower


I ended up finishing my time on Alcatraz in 1 ½ hours. Man I find jails creepy and I have a friend that is a jailguard. I even joked with him all the time, How is Juvie? Back on the mainland, I took the F Muni train back. Why did 3 trains pass me straight? Oh right, rush hour. I got back to the room, got a nice shower and some computer work done. At 6pm, I headed down to lobby to meet flyertalker SFO777 for dinner. We exchanged alot of travel stories and mileage strategies. We even did it so much that we annoyed the waiter serving us because we were too interested to trade stories than read the menu and order our food. Finally, I bid farewell to SFO777 as both of us had travel the next day. Back to the room to finish up some work and off to sleep for United PS. First to New York Kennedy or so I thought I did???

Next Part
Part 3 – A try for JFK, UA SFO International First Class Lounge and Lufthansa First SFO-FRA

Seat 2A

I really like Virgin Atlantic's First Class seat but I can't say I'm too enamored of the cabin. As for that First Class breakfast on a five and a half hour flight, I remember similarly sized breakfasts on 1-2 hour flights in economy back in the 70s. Still, that fritatta did look pretty tasty...

Short hair Francis

Hi Seat 2A, I flew Virgin America and not Virgin Atlantic. The problem with the frittata was that itself literally was a size of a tart. Hardly enough to fill up for 5 1/2 hr flight. As to flying economy in the 70s, I wouldn't know

MatthewLAX

Really enjoying your trip report so far, Francis!

Nice pictures of the F cabin on Virgin.

royalflight

You and Al Capone now have something in common: a visit to Alcatraz, although yours was certainly more pleasant and much shorter.

Madinat

cool iten. how long will it take you to fly all the segments?

Short hair Francis

This trip will be done around early-mid september, safe travels.

Short hair Francis

Part 3 – A try for JFK, UA SFO International First Class Lounge and Lufthansa First SFO-FRA

Jul 13, 2010 – Tuesday
<Original Routing>
UA 8 SFO-JFK 9:05am - 6:00pm (752/F)
LH 405 JFK-FRA 9:40pm – 11:30am(+1) (744/F)
<New Routing>
LH 455 SFO-FRA 2:15pm - 10:05am(+1) (744/F)

Now anyone would ask, why fly United to Kennedy when you have the non-stop to Frankfurt. This trip originally was designed to try as many different first class products as possible which me, as an oneworld flyer wouldn’t normally fly. Also, I also wanted to try to compare the 3 different transcon products, AA 3 class first, VX First and United P.S first.

My day started at 5:45am as I received my wake-up call and got a shower. By 6:15am, I was already to go back to SFO via. BART. By 7:10am, I arrived at SFO and went directly the United Global Services/Premium Service First Class counter. Yay! Gold Boarding Pass. The TA’s own station only gave out white BPs but he walked over to another kiosk and came back with the Gold. I’m starting to actually understand the differentiation between 1K over GS, it’s the little things one of which showed at security and later on as well. At this point, I made my way to the International First Class lounge on G side. The lounge lady gladly allowed me in a few minutes before 8 and I quickly got to work in getting some pics done.

San Francisco United International First Class lounge












United Airlines 8 (Attempted Flight)
San Francisco to New York Kennedy
9:05am – 6:00pm
P.S First Class, Seat 2C
Food - Breakfast
Equipment – Boeing 757-200

The plane, so close and yet so far away


I’ve got myself a light breakfast of Danish and instant noodle and soon got change into a lighter clothes for my flight. Just about when we’re to board for UA 8, ATC issued a delay for JFK due to thunderstorms. And the flight was delayed to 9:30am. As I was unwilling to walk way back to Int’l lounge, I went instead into the Domestic RCC. After sitting for about 10 mins, UA 8 was once again delayed, this time to 10:15am. As now I have more time, I went back to the IFL for a bigger breakfast which I originally planned to eat enroute. During my heartier breakfast, it was again pushed back to 11:00am, which now pushed my connection time in JFK to 2 hrs.

Additional Breakfast



By 10:30am, I went back toward gate 82 where UA 8 was scheduled to depart. The original GAs were now gone since their shifts were over. Just about couple minutes before boarding, UA 8 was once again delayed to 12:45pm, seeing now that I had no chance to make the connecting LH flight. I asked the GAs to meter the bag to baggage claim and I made my way back to IFL for some internet and phone access to call up Aeroplan. This time, I went and got my flight to be rerouted on LH First SFO-FRA as it was the most logical option, additionally, I had also changed my stopover to London in January as my friend was moving to LHR this year. As a result, the ticketing took close to one hour which isn’t bad from getting the flights changes set, uncheck the UA flight, and to get it ticketed to fly on LH. Afterwards, I left my carry ons in the IFL since I was coming back for them and went out to baggage claim. Apparently, down at baggage claim, they didn’t fish out my bag out of UA 8 since all the ramp crew went elsewhere since the Boeing 757 was already loaded up ready to go at 8:30am. Therefore I was stuck thinking how to retrieve this bag which was going to sit at JFK while I’m going off FRA and beyond. Back to the Ticket counter, my GS check-in TA was still there and was now starting to make some phone calls concerning the bag, and United entered my new Lufthansa flight info into the system. Additionally they also once again send another meter my bag. Defeated, I made my way to Int’l terminal to check-in at the Lufthansa desk without a hard copy of the ticket . At security, I was following the LH crew in line, one of them that I talked to was actually going to be working in first class. Back in the IFL, the lounge/Global Service agent who checked me in at 8am as the first person to come in the lounge today gave me good news as I came back. Apparently she called down to the ramp, there was a shift change and therefore despite an early page, no one retrieved my luggage. But she ended up getting a supervisor to retrieve my bag and has now sent the bag to baggage claim where I just came back from. Now we had a problem of the bag sitting in SFO instead of JFK, as I was running out of time to transfer the bags to LH myself and she once again made more phone calls for me and got the bag retagged onto the LH flight for me.

After such a long day with 3-4 walks between domestic and international terminal, I had a somewhat of a lunch in the lounge, quickly fired off some emails especially to my parents since my ticket is now totally redone again. Second Int’l First ticket redone in 3 months!!! I’ve had such bad luck with travel this year it seems. Just when I was about to leave for the LH flight, another lounge agent delivered the new baggage tags for me from outside baggage claim. I truly understand why some of you praised Global Services. Afterwards I made my way to the gate for my first ever trip to Europe.

Lufthansa Boeing 747-400




Deutsche Lufthansa 455
San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany
2:15pm – 10:05am (+1)[Jul 14], 10 hr 50 mins flight
First Class, Seat 83A
Food - Dinner, Breakfast
Equipment - Boeing 747-400

Wow, US CBSA officers at the jetbridge?? I don’t think I’ve seen this ever, must be trying hard to nab more Russian Spies I was soon welcomed upstairs in the first class cabin. As noted by many others, the overhead are extremely small and aren’t large enough to have rollaboards in them. Soon one of the FAs quickly deliver my PDB of 2000 Champagne Laurent-Perrier, Frankreich.

Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 First Class Cabin





Part 3 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Lufthansa LH 747 First Class Seat





Now I think, this seat is a little old but still a relatively good design for an F seat. What I’ve been so far lucky has been the emptiness of the cabin which I’m flying, only 3/8 filled yesterday on VX and today 4/16. This completely changes the atmosphere of the F cabin, 16/16 would’ve been very packed but 4/16 represents elusiveness and luxury which most of us strive for when flying int’l First. Therefore, I once again had another empty row all to myself.

Lavatory


Is it just me but I loved having a window in an airplane lavatory, and the LH auto-faucet was also a new first for me, just awesome.

Pre-departure drink - 2000 Champagne Laurent-Perrier, Frankreich



After 10 mins of taxiing, we were taking off towards the northwest on runway 28R, bye-bye North America. Our Boeing 747 was making the turns towards northeast near Point Mugu. As such, it gave the entire right side of the plane very good photo shoots of San Francisco.

Takeoff pictures






I also fiddled with the Lufthansa entertainment system, the screen was just so small. I’ve seen economy TVs bigger than this. That being said, I did see some of the movies selections they were showing were pretty good selections. However since neither the music selection nor the headsets were of my variety, I only used it for the airmap for the flight and used my computer and the power outlet for this flight.

LH 455 Dinner

To start
Chopped celery and crab meat on cucumber

Appetizer
Caviar with the traditional Garnishes
Cold Water Arctic Char, shaved fennel salad and Dill cream
Pressed Veal Shank, Celery Apple Salad
White and green Asparagus, orange segments and citrus Vinaigrette

Salad
Seasonal Salad with red Cherry Tomatoes and Parmesan presented with your choice of dressing

Main Course
Tenderloin of Beef, Potato Galettes, Baby Carrots, and Cabernet Reduction
Or
Seared Sea Scallop with Pancetta Crisp, Parsnip Puree and English Potato Dressing
Or
Lamb Noisette and Shank accompanied by oven dried tomatoes and Sour Dough Dumpling
Or
Buttermilk Gnocchi, roasted Squash and Tarragon Aioli

Selection of Cheese and Dessert
Humboldt Fog, Camembert, Manchego and Gorgonzola Cheese
Paris-Brest with Raspberry Coulis
Orange Mango Soup with seasonal Berries and Raspberry Sorbet
Speciality Dessert Wines

The Lufthansa Rose


To start – Chopped celery and crab meat on cucumber


Appetizer – Caviar with the traditional Garnishes


3 level set Appetizer


Wow, the appetizers just wowed me away, it was the most impressive appetizer I have had on a plane by a long stretch. Both looks, taste were just spectacular

Salad – Seasonal Salad with Cherry tomatoes and Parmesan


Due to my usual appetite, I once again like the April Cathay Pacific First Class ate two meals, first was the

Main Course - Tenderloin of Beef, Potato Galettes, Baby Carrots, and Cabernet Reduction


The first course also surprised my expectation, it just looked very simple which I was absolutely surprised. Earlier this week on the AA forum, some of us commented that AA somehow serves a very good beef steak and this LH steak just tasted like shoe rubber. It was just plain bad, cooked close to well done and lack any beef taste whatsoever so I was very disappointed.

2nd Main Course - Lamb Noisette and Shank accompanied by oven dried tomatoes and Sour Dough Dumpling


The lamb was 100 times better than the beef, much better in terms of texture and in taste. Lufthansa just redeemed themselves

I declined the fruit and cheese plate but it’s still pictured


Dessert - Orange Mango Soup with seasonal Berries and Raspberry Sorbet



This was also done very well but unfortunately food is of course opinionated and therefore I still have to miss my American fresh made sundaes. After, the FAs brought some after-dinner chocolate and I ordered an iced coffee. After the meal service, I went back to work on my totally redesigned ticket and to write this report.

With about 5 hrs before landing, the FAs prepared the seat for me into bed mode. We put an additional 2 blankets on the bottom of the seat to make it higher and easier to sleep in. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really sleep much and only ended up with 1.5 hrs of sleep. I swear I’m not going to live very long, what’s with me and food??? Unfortunately LH doesn’t do overnight snacks and I went back to some chocolate to satisfy my stomach temporarily.

Back to more work and another cup of Iced coffee, soon breakfast was served.

Part 3 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

LH 455 Breakfast

Starters
Freshly squeezed Orange Juice

Fresh Fruit

Yogurt with dried Fruit, Cereal Granola Mix
Smoked Salmon
Turkey Pastrami, Roast Beef Deli Style, grilled Chicken breast
Emmental, Cheddar, and Brie Cheese

Scrambled Eggs freshly prepared upon your request
With your choice of bacon and chives

Starters



Scrambled Eggs


I declined the fresh orange juice as I’m not much of a fan of citrus fruit. Surprisingly before the breakfast service, the FAs said save my stomach for the First Class terminal as it is better. The food was alright, nothing crazy but there is only so much you can do with breakfast meals. And soon we made our descent into Frankfurt.

We got a remote stand which is fine but.
Yay! The FAs blocked the 2nd door for the F passengers only to have the 1st door open first and half of the J passenger stole our private bus to immigration. I guess the driver was too stupid realize that even 16 F can’t fill up even half the bus. Don’t think I can blame LH on the part but certainly annoying of course.

Next Part
Part 4 – Lufthansa Frankfurt First Class Terminal and the dreaded Inter-European Business Class

FlyingDoctorwu

Wow nice report so far.. I didn't know that the UA IFL had Bookers bourbon- I have rarely seen a small batch bourbon at any lounge!

FDW

SFO777

Great pics Francis, although I'm not sure the guy in 82A would be too pleased. At least he wasn't showing any more skin.
Wow, what a mess at SFO that morning between the delays, the bag and rebooking... enough to test anyone. Looking forward to more.