Short hair Francis

I know, the locker room showers was just craptastic!
I know I'm in a developing country but still, really?

The reasoning behind this was that this ticket was done way back in June.
At that time, I didn't have any flexible dates and this was the only routing I could find from HKG-LHR with a F sector. Unfortunately with AC reward tickets, you cannot change your routing once your ticket was done.

briantoronto

You mean once travel has begun. No problem changing routing if you are willing to pay the change fee if it is before departure.

Brian

Short hair Francis

Yes you are very much correct on this fact.
I did however start my travel in July when I didn't have the flexibility of dates.

The first half of the Aeroplan ticket was flown in July 2010
SFO-FRA-ZRH(stop)-BKK-HKG
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...qf-j-aa-f.html

This was the return, Jan 2011
HKG-IST-FRA-LHR(stop)-MUC-JFK-SFO

zcat18

Superb report as usual, SHF. When you gonna be in ORD?

briantoronto

I hear you there. My upcoming Mini-RTW has a split in the middle. My luck, ANA new F will come available the day after I depart... Great report, btw.

Short hair Francis

Thank you zcat18, I'm tentatively going to be ORD 1st weekend of April but things might still change

Damn, I havent seen any ANA reports in a long time, are you going to change to a day later?

Short hair Francis

Part 5 – What a “suite/sweet” of events at the Andaz Liverpool Street

The tube from LHR T1-T3 to Liverpool Street took about 1 hr 5 mins, that was fine seeing I wasn’t in any rush. I was tired having still being on Hong Kong time. Well kinda, I never sleep from 9pm-6am ever so I don’t even know what time zone I was now.

Andaz Liverpool Street




Walk into the Andaz Lobby and was immediately greeted. My 1st night was on award King room, 2nd and 3rd night was Single room rate with a confirmed suite upgrade. I guess that’s what happens when you finally make Hyatt Diamond in December and have to burn 4 suite upgrade certs in 2.5 months.
Check-in, sir. We’ve combined your award and paid reservation and you got upgraded into a King room for the entire stay. That normally would be great except I had a confirmed suite? That took about 40 mins to sort out as reception had to contact the Gold Passport desk, housekeeping to get a room clean, etc. In the meanwhile, I was given tourist instructions for London so I guess time wasn’t all wasted.

Andaz Suite






The end result was that I was upgraded on the award stay and got the Andaz Suite for all 3 nights. I was assigned room 372 looking out into Liverpool Street, it looked exactly like what the website displayed for the andaz suite. They said I would be getting my Diamond welcome amenity. Great! Need to unpack and then sleep, I’m dead tired. Went to sleep at 4:30pm, and having another 13 flights in 6 days, I need all the rest I can get. Woke up at 1am, did some email checks and minor inquiries, back to sleep at 2:30 and woke up at 6:30am. Perfect, that should be enough sleep then.

Downstairs, went to 1901 for the buffet since I haven’t ate since noon of yesterday. At least I expected English breakfast to be underwhelming but being Friday morning, the whole places was filled with under 30 female professionals, hehe

Went out at 9am, saw my check-in person from yesterday, I still haven’t received my Diamond amenity but I need an umbrella because it was pouring outside. Went back around noonish from my soaked adventure for some drying off and some resting, housekeeping hasn’t come yet? Around 1:30 they came and did their work, as they were cleaning my washroom, I left the room for more vacationing. Again came back around 4:30pm, why does my washroom smell of cigarettes. Immediate phone call downstairs, they immediately send up a management level personnel up. The washroom smells of cigarette but nowhere else does. She immediately offer showed the next door room for me. An Andaz Large Suite, it was very similar to the room I was in except the side room that only had a tiny living room had a slightly bigger one. Once again, the washroom smelled of cigarette smoke. She said it might be a ventilation problem but she offered to show me one more suite further away. This suite was perfect for me, somewhat open style studio type, but with high ceilings of at least 15 feet. Being the very happy person that I am for getting this suite, I took up the offer for the move. She offered to get me a drink, and the Diamond amenity. I said as long as it was non-alcoholic, sure, lol. An additional personnel came by my original suite after 15 mins and I was in this bigger sweeter suite.

Andaz Large Suite








One advise for rooms at the Andaz Liverpool Street, they aren’t very standardized. The 2 Large Suites were totally different. One was a bedroom/mini living room design, the other was an open studio design. For one, I found the former design to be awkward at the Andaz since the bedroom was the first thing you saw and the living room was hidden in the back. Maybe I’m more use to traditional suites but that to me was a ridiculous waste of space since I never really used that back space. As well, I was expecting partying guest for the last night, the open studio was way better. My guess was that the latter suite had about 750-900 square feet, the former was maybe 650 at best.
The First thing in the new suite of course was pics pics pics then onto facebook. I was moaning one of my close friends for ditching me on this trip. He was very surprised at what I got, what did I say. If I want to party in a suite, it can be done, lol

Looking at my fellow FTer friendlyskies report from November, I decided to go to the on property sushi place. I barely finished the bento box and didn’t even had to order any other food. I was a bit surprised to say the least. Finish dinner and again pass out again back in the room.

The next morning, I decided to pay a visit to Eastway, again as other have reported, it was considerably better quality of breakfast there vs. the 1901 breakfast. The funniest part of the breakfast was that I was constantly swapping out items in the food items. I did have some beans so yes, that is an English breakfast. Then it came to the iced coffee, for the staff to make my coffee in the morning, they used a mojito mixer to mix the iced coffee together and the liquid sugar came in the form of a shotglass. Now only if I had been drinking last night





Weather turned considerably better on this last day, so I was able to make most of the other sites that I haven’t visited the day before. For one, they were better quality photos with the sun being actually out.

Time was up in London, back into the room, my friends that are London based weren’t available since they were either on a trip or just came back from faraway within the last 2 days.
A licensed minicab was booked for 4:15am to take me back to Heathrow and North America.


Next Part
Part 6 - Simplicity at its greatest, LH First LHR-MUC-JFK

FriendlySkies

Nice report ^ During my November stay at the Andaz, I was just a lowly Hyatt Plat. Hopefully I'll get a suite, similar to the one you got, when I go back to London in May.

tomashi

Thanks again for the great report!

Can't wait for the LH F and Andaz Wall Street parts (I liked the hotel a lot on my last trip to NY)!

-Tom

Short hair Francis

Part 6 – Simplicity at its greatest, Lufthansa First LHR-MUC-JFK

Jan 9, 2011 – Sunday
LH 2483 LHR-MUC 7:15am – 10:05am (320/J)
LH 410 MUC-JFK 11:40am – 2:55pm (346/F)

Back to Terminal 1, the Lufthansa First Check-in took me a couple of mins to locate. Security took no time at all and I was into the Star Alliance First Class Lounge soon after.

London Heathrow Terminal 1



London Heathrow Star Alliance First Class Lounge








No one but me here this morning, shots shots shots! And I don’t mean tequila shots, lol
Due to receiving some bad news from home, I badly needed a drink that morning so out comes the Diet Coke and Jameson at 5am, it’s happy hour somewhere. The food counter lady said they prepared a full English breakfast if you wish to have it. I ate it but return it over half uneaten, simply was no mood to eat.
I didn’t test the showers this morning and soon made my way to the gate



Lufthansa 2483
London Heathrow to Munich
7:15am – 10:05am, 1 hr 50 min flight
Business Class, Seat 2C>1C
Food – Breakfast
Equipment – Airbus 320-200

For some reason, this morning’s flights was loaded with 18-25 y.o of both sexs??? Is this some sort of party flight? Either way departure out of LHR was speedy as the big jets started to arrive from North America. The pullout from London offer a very nice view of the city and soon was across the English Channel.
Hmm, meal.
Sir, your pre-order meal.
I almost never pre-order anything but what the hey, its’ on my table, I’m going to eat it.
Apparently the FA served the Seat 2D vegetarian meal to me but he said he wasn’t going to eat it anyway since he does not eat eggs.

LH 2483 Breakfast


The northern Alps and Munich was covered with snow although it was very clear this morning.


Into Munich, wow, that walk from one side of the terminal to another was so long. And there was no signage where the lounge was.

The Munich First Class Lounge was designed just liked its counterpart in FRA, the amenity were all the same, same bar counters with same selections, food, seating, cigar lounge and shower. Unfortunately, no tubs so no Lufthansa FTL rubber ducky

Munich Lufthansa First Class Lounge







A quick shower and some email checks and out to the bar, another drink coke and Jameson please, I need to drink away my misery very badly today.

Lufthansa Airbus 340-600


Part 6 continues below

Short hair Francis

Lufthansa 410
Munich to New York Kennedy
11:45am – 2:55pm, 9 hr 5 min flight
First Class, Seat 2K
Food – Lunch, Snack
Equipment – Airbus 340-600


Somewhat woozy made my way to the US departure area where more patdowns and luggage checks.
Beware of my rollaboard, its packed very full due to the long time of travel. Got to the F/J line for LH 410, the DYKWIA seated in J standing in front of me was saying why was I in such a hurry, he told me to settle down??? Well I’m in First, who cares about what you think, past him on the jetway, got my photos then saw him pass through the F cabin on his way to J. I really had to throw a smirk at him and periodically look back into J during boarding, someone really wanted to pissed me off this morning.
Some cabin photos followed by some lookbacks into the Business Class cabin

Lufthansa Airbus 340-600 First Class Cabin



Lufthansa Airbus 340-600 First Class Seat





Pre Departure Beverage, "Rare" Champagne Piper-Heidsieck


Pushback on right on schedule with the air time at 8 hr 10 mins, during the taxi, we came upon some new paint CO version of United Boeing 777-200. We flew over Amsterdam and Scotland during the lunch sector.

Take-off Snack, someone tell me what this is, I still haven’t figured it out?


LH 410 Lunch

Appetizer
Caviar with the traditional garnishes
Duck Foie Gras and chicken in aspic with celery salad and beetroot vinaigrette
Salmon Tartare with Lemon Confit and fennel Salad
Mousse of Tomatoes and Bell Pepper with Pine Nut Pesto

Salad or Soup
Fresh Leaf Salad with fried Oyster mushroom, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper and toasted pine nuts served with your choice of vinaigrette or French Dressing
Or
White Onion Cream Soup with parmesan Croutons

Main Courses
Filet of Sole and Crayfish on Tarragon Sauce with Leaf Spinach and Tagliatelle

Flour Dumpling with Balck salsify

Spring Chicken on Rosemary sauce served Brussels Sprout and Rosti

Konigsberger Klopse, Meatballs in Caper Sauce, Beetroot and Parsley Potatoes

Selection of Cheese and Dessert
Bleu d’Auvergne, Fougerus, Comte, Livarot and ashed Goat Cheese
Lea’s Crème Brulee with Macadamia Nut ice Cream
Carree of Mousse au Chocolat served with Orange Sauce

For today’s lunch, I went with the caviar, foie gras and the salmon tartare. The first 2 was as good as I expected, the last one tasted nowhere near what I expected unfortunately





The soup was just awful, it came out completely cold and needed to be sent back. When it came back, it was still pretty lukewarm at best but I didn’t have the patience of waiting longer.



The crayfish is the main course I ended up choosing, didn’t know what to expect but it was alright, nothing as bad as the salmon tartare.



Due to the lack of appetite, I only had the crème brulee which was simply fantastic.
After the meal service, I went back into recline and for about 2 hrs of sleep.
Having no sleep the previous night because of the bad news didn’t help me at all.




Woke up, snack/brunch wasn’t ready yet, but the crew had an extra Konigsberger Klopse which is Meatballs in Caper Sauce, Beetroot and Parsley Potatoes leftover from the lunch service. I don’t know if I enjoy german cuisine but it did the trick of filling me up. Unfortunately, it also meant I was full so I couldn’t eat the snack/brunch food.



LH 410 Snack/Brunch

Hot and Cold Specialites
Pastries filled with Cream Cheese, Olive and sun-dried tomato
Canapes with Porcini marinated Roast Beef
Sandwiches with smoked salmon, bell pepper and cucumber
Mixed Pickels
Mixed Meat and Vegetable Casserole Stew

Dessert
Orange Cake and Chocolate Eclairs
Vanilla Cream with fresh fruit and cherry tart
Fresh Fruit



The snack/brunch was served about 90 mins out from JFK. I simply went back to having ginger ale due to the full appetite and a lack of desire of drinking additional alcohol. I was looking forward to seeing my friend in NYC. Descent seem to take forever as majority of the inbound Europe flights were coming into JFK. Got into T1 customs, guess who landed right before us, a MU flight from PVG full of mainland Chinese students with student visa papers, each of them took at least 10 mins to process so immigration took close to a full hour.

Next Part
Part 7 – What a “Suite/Sweet” Version 2. Andaz Wall Street

Short hair Francis

Sorry for the 6 weeks sabbicatal, I really should be the last person writing trip reports, since I do write slower than turtles crawling
Now I have another possible report coming up, i need to finish this one quicker

johndeere19

Glad you're back! Wish I could help with the egg shell app...

General_Flyer

Thanks Francis for the CX F part of the RTW! I'm starting to book that second trip already!

Short hair Francis

Part 7 – What a “Suite/Sweet” Version 2. Andaz Wall Street

Arrive into JFK and onto the CBP checkpoint, the visitor line was just crowded and especially landing after a MU flight from PVG, you’re just asking to be stuck. The place was full of Asia and European students with student visa papers. That was even worse than just the iris and fingerprints for most ESTA and other US visa visitors. This stalled me about 35 mins. Got onto the A train, which I only waited 2 mins at Howard Beach, it wasn’t bad but everybody was hiding in the station since it was in the mid 20s outside. What was even funnier was seeing someone like me walking outside with a large coat but it wasn’t even buttoned guess that’s what happen when your taught how to live through Upstate winter weather.

The A train took approx. 1 hr which was the usual norm for me. Transfer to 2/3 train to Wall Street. And there I was, my friend coming to join me for the night was already been sitting there and had already inquired if I had checked in yet. At check-in, I enquired if they had done my suite upgrade reservation correctly as I was messed up last time at Liverpool Street. No troubles today, I enquired about what suite I was put in. The agent said Buttonwood suite, wow, now that was a suite. I immediately told my friend it was going to be sick suite tonight. My friend personally enjoys the Andaz on 5th Avenue more but I personally enjoy Wall Street. Slightly bigger room and overall lower rates at Wall Street is a big motivator, and I have a bit of a history staying at the property which definitely helps.

Andaz Wall Street















The suite as I have seen some photos of it was simply fabulous, 1.5 bathrooms, ½ kitchen, 12 person dining table with 2 full sets of couches, and a full bedroom hidden away on one side of the suite. This is how a suite should be! Due to the cold temperature and my lack of appetite, we just used the hotel restaurant for a light dinner. Back upstairs to enjoy the room a little and off to bed at 8pm, I was just dead and I still have 3 full days of Mileage runs to look forward to. Needed all the rest I can get.

Now what did I think about this suite, it was a bit of a waste for an overnight but I like staying there so whatever. What I really would died for of course is to have this suite for my birthday, you can throw a 30 person party in this room and there would still be enough room for it. You can even use the table to play beer pong and flip cup, haha!

I slightly woke up around 12am then was back to sleep til about 3:30am which was just about the time to wake up for my 7am flight out of JFK. Consulting the MTA website for trains was a great idea due to low frequency of trains at that hour. Left the Andaz at 4:30am and got to JFK by 5:45am which was pretty good since they were running local lines only through Brooklyn.

Next Part
Part 8 – Only a ½ year late, United P.S First JFK-SFO