EDI-LHR-NRT-CHC BD/NH/NZ (all C class except BD)
Dec 22, 2003, 4:21 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Posts: 1,213
EDI-LHR-NRT-CHC BD/NH/NZ (all C class except BD)
Hi folks
Just arrived in NZ and before I start my tour I thought I'd get the trip report out of the way.
My whole trip is a star alliance C class award (obtained through BMI's Diamond Club). For some odd reason it couldn't get me onto a flight down to London on their domestic service although I could buy an online ticket for their cheapest price of 11GBP plus tax!!
Sunday 21 December 2003
EDI-LHR BD59 Y Class
My luggae was checked all the way through to NZ but they couldn't issue any boarding passes other than the EDI-LHR sector as it was seperate tickets. I have had them issue boarding passes for seperate tickets before but was no use.
In the BMI Lounge on e of the lounge attendents said she'd have another go and took my tickets off me. I waited and waited until my flight was called. No sign of her or any other attendants who were all loading my flight. Nearly didn't get my tickets at all!!!
Was an uneventful flight in Y class (Seat 18A). They offered a drink from the bar and some pretzels. Flight was about 75% full (although only the minimum amount of C class seats were offered).
Landed in LHR more or less on time.
Long struggle between terminals in LHR. Was no NH desk in the flight connections centre so didn't get my boarding pass until I got to Terminal 3.
At terminal 3 I tried the SQ lounge and the London Lounge as well as then UA Red Carpet Club that NH uses (I'm * Gold).
Sunday 21 December 2003
NH202 LHR-NRT
Seat 81A - exit row window seat on Upper Deck.
The crew were mostly Japanese but there were three onbaord crew from their London crew station for us westerners. I was told the flight was full but I did notice a few spare seats in C class.
As mentioned before on NH flighst there were NO pre-flight drinks and no amenity kits.
After Take off we were given the sort of drinks you normally expect pre-departure (a tray was offered round with champagne, orange juice and water) and then after that they took orders for more drinks.
I ordered (from their menu) a Kir Royal and it was gorgeous. We had two amuse-bouches...some fishy, creamy thing that I didn't like (but did spill on myself) and some marinated olives.
Dinner was as follows
Kaiseki Course
Savour the refinement of classical Japense cuisine. Our master chef selects nature's finest ingredients to create a menu that evokes the essence of the season. A choice of hand-crafted sake perfectly compliments this speacial dining experience.
Zensai
Simmered Prawn, Salmon Roulade, Deep-freid crab, Broiled Squid, Salt-grilled mackerel, Chicken gratinee, Egg Terrine
Takiawase
Simmered octopus in soy sauce
Braised fried tofu in light soy sauce
Simmered ume-fy (wheat glutten cake) and vegtables
Dainomono
Sake-steamed flounder with savoury vegtable sauce
Kobachi
Marinated salamon roulade and pickled aji (jack mackeral) with Tosa Vinegar
Steamed Rice with wakame seaweed, miso soup and assorted pickels.
Western
Light, easy, uncomplicated dining. Choose the diushes that catch your imagination and each will be plated on board, producing a freshness and taste not unlike a fine resturant dining experience. Naturally we also offer a tempting range of fine wine and sake for your consideration.
Smoked Salmon and scallop tartare with herb vinegrette
Warm spinache and ricotta ravioli with tomato marinara
Fresh Garden Salad with Japenese dressing
Pan fried veal loin with apple and creamy chive sauce
Grilled sea bream with sweet vermouth sauce
Winter vegtable pot-au-feu
Two kinds of bread with a choice of Lescure de Charente butter or extra virgin olive oil
The Desserts were common to both menues and they were
Chilled mango and bitter chocolate cake
Warm pear tart tatin
Fresh seasonal fruit
I chose the Western menu. I was too timid for the Japanese and the UK based FA advised me against it if I wasn't used to it. Didn't want to get ill on such a long journey. My seat oponent was Japanese and had the Japanese meal. I did look beautiful.
I had the ravioli, the sald, the veal and the chocoltae cake. - all of which were good although the veal was typical fancy resturant style of well presneted but small portion.
Had some of the Bourgogne Chardonnay Couvent des Jacobins 2000 and Mission Estate Winery Savignon Blanc 2002 to wash it down with.
There is AVOD but the choice is not fantastic. Can't remeber what I watched - I think a couple of episodes of Everyone Loves Raymond (the only comedt shows on offer - and not one that is particular;y worth watching) and some film.
The new C Class seats are electronic and are like NBC on Cathay Pacific. You have a flat, if angles, seat and I did manage at least five hours or so.
They offer you a funny wollen jakcte as cabin wear - sort of like a blue cardigan without buttons. Would have been great if there were trousers too but there wasn't.
Water bottles were handed out before we slept.
During the night you could ask for a selection of snacks such as noodles, pizza, cheese etc. I didn't bother.
Breakfast was as follows:
Japanese
Grilled salmon with snasho peper and assorted delicacies
Steam rice
Freash seasonal fruit
Western
Chef's eggs of the day
Bread roll
Freash seasonal fruit
The egg was a dry, tough omelete. Not nice at all.
We landed and they let C Class off after F, holding back Y until we were off.
Although NH had issued me with a boarding pass for my NRT-CHC flight I thought I'd recheck. This flight was odd as it was a NZ flight but code shared with JL - not their star Alliance partner NH.
JL gave me a new boarding pass. The linge I was directed to wasn't the JL lounges (which look quite good on the web) but some shared generic lounge which was awful. I retreated to NH's Signet lounge on the basis of my Star Gold Card.
I also had a shower for 300 yen. The signs outside the shower place said in English that all the showers were occupied. This never seemed to change and so I went in to enquire. Turns out that there were planty of free showers!!
They even let me pay the 300 yen charge by credit card - good as I had no Japanese money but It wasn't a large amount.
Monday 22 December 2003
NZ90 NRT-CHC (an onward to AKL)
(NZ operated flight code shared with JL)
I was seated in 11A, window exit row on the Upper Deck. Loads of room but, as mentioned on flyer talk before, offers no window.
Pre flight drinks (NB NZ sparkling wine, not champagne) and amenity kits offered.
Dinner
Appetiser
Smoked salmon and crab gateau
Main course
Prime Beef Fillet steak with caramleised onion sauce, roasted potatoes and sugger peas
Saute of chicken with tomato and olive sauce on buttered noodles with asparagus
Traditional Japanese dish of steamed blue fish with vegtable and shiitake glaze and steamed rice.
Miso soup (offered to everyone)
Dessert
Vanilla mouse gateau with fresh food
Chocolate and praline ice-cream selection with orange sauce.
Cheese and Fruit
I had the appetiser, the beef and the ice cream. All of which were good although the potatoes with the beef were bolied not roasted.
There was no wine list so you had to ask what they had. They'd tell you the general type but didn't know anything mcuh more than that.
Having said that, I had three wines - a Chardonay, a resiling and a dessert wine - all from NZ - and all delicious. The dessert wine was especially wonderful and I had two glasses of that.
The individual videos were not AVOD but did offer more choice than NH. I enjoyed Jamie-Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday (just out in the UK) and in the morning I watch a whole load of good comedies (UK and US).
The seats are manually controlled, old fashioned things with no fabtastic recline angle. But again I slept for around 5 hours or so.
Breakfast
Beveridges
Start the day with your choice of juice, freshly brewed or decaffinated coffee, tea, Japanese green tea, herbal tea or hot chocolate.
Continental Selection
Fruit Selection with assorted cereals and youghurts
Croissants, white and wholmeal toast with fruit conserve
Hot options
Spanish omlette with kassler ham, chicken sausage and fried potatoes with herbs
Creamy Srambled eggs in French crepe with pork sausage, freid potatoes, mushrooms and tomato
Japenese style breakfast of backed salmon fillet with soy nean sauce, steam rice and Japanese vegtables.
I has apple jiuce, hot chocolate (not on the menu but easily provided when I ask - and it tasted fab), fruit, youghurt and the eggs. The eggs were just right and this was much much better than the NH breakfast.
We landed ontime and those like me who weren't continuing onto AKL, headed off into a desserted airport and an overcast, showering Christchurch.
All in all, the seat was much better on NH - by far. The food on NH was better presented than NZ but NZ had more variety and tasted better. Although NH had AVOD they had such a poor selection that NZ beat them despite the lack of AVOD. The FAs were great on both.
Sorry for the no doubt many mistakes - I am too tired to read it over!
Stephen
[This message has been edited by sjharte (edited Dec 22, 2003).]
[This message has been edited by sjharte (edited Dec 22, 2003).]
Just arrived in NZ and before I start my tour I thought I'd get the trip report out of the way.
My whole trip is a star alliance C class award (obtained through BMI's Diamond Club). For some odd reason it couldn't get me onto a flight down to London on their domestic service although I could buy an online ticket for their cheapest price of 11GBP plus tax!!
Sunday 21 December 2003
EDI-LHR BD59 Y Class
My luggae was checked all the way through to NZ but they couldn't issue any boarding passes other than the EDI-LHR sector as it was seperate tickets. I have had them issue boarding passes for seperate tickets before but was no use.
In the BMI Lounge on e of the lounge attendents said she'd have another go and took my tickets off me. I waited and waited until my flight was called. No sign of her or any other attendants who were all loading my flight. Nearly didn't get my tickets at all!!!
Was an uneventful flight in Y class (Seat 18A). They offered a drink from the bar and some pretzels. Flight was about 75% full (although only the minimum amount of C class seats were offered).
Landed in LHR more or less on time.
Long struggle between terminals in LHR. Was no NH desk in the flight connections centre so didn't get my boarding pass until I got to Terminal 3.
At terminal 3 I tried the SQ lounge and the London Lounge as well as then UA Red Carpet Club that NH uses (I'm * Gold).
Sunday 21 December 2003
NH202 LHR-NRT
Seat 81A - exit row window seat on Upper Deck.
The crew were mostly Japanese but there were three onbaord crew from their London crew station for us westerners. I was told the flight was full but I did notice a few spare seats in C class.
As mentioned before on NH flighst there were NO pre-flight drinks and no amenity kits.
After Take off we were given the sort of drinks you normally expect pre-departure (a tray was offered round with champagne, orange juice and water) and then after that they took orders for more drinks.
I ordered (from their menu) a Kir Royal and it was gorgeous. We had two amuse-bouches...some fishy, creamy thing that I didn't like (but did spill on myself) and some marinated olives.
Dinner was as follows
Kaiseki Course
Savour the refinement of classical Japense cuisine. Our master chef selects nature's finest ingredients to create a menu that evokes the essence of the season. A choice of hand-crafted sake perfectly compliments this speacial dining experience.
Zensai
Simmered Prawn, Salmon Roulade, Deep-freid crab, Broiled Squid, Salt-grilled mackerel, Chicken gratinee, Egg Terrine
Takiawase
Simmered octopus in soy sauce
Braised fried tofu in light soy sauce
Simmered ume-fy (wheat glutten cake) and vegtables
Dainomono
Sake-steamed flounder with savoury vegtable sauce
Kobachi
Marinated salamon roulade and pickled aji (jack mackeral) with Tosa Vinegar
Steamed Rice with wakame seaweed, miso soup and assorted pickels.
Western
Light, easy, uncomplicated dining. Choose the diushes that catch your imagination and each will be plated on board, producing a freshness and taste not unlike a fine resturant dining experience. Naturally we also offer a tempting range of fine wine and sake for your consideration.
Smoked Salmon and scallop tartare with herb vinegrette
Warm spinache and ricotta ravioli with tomato marinara
Fresh Garden Salad with Japenese dressing
Pan fried veal loin with apple and creamy chive sauce
Grilled sea bream with sweet vermouth sauce
Winter vegtable pot-au-feu
Two kinds of bread with a choice of Lescure de Charente butter or extra virgin olive oil
The Desserts were common to both menues and they were
Chilled mango and bitter chocolate cake
Warm pear tart tatin
Fresh seasonal fruit
I chose the Western menu. I was too timid for the Japanese and the UK based FA advised me against it if I wasn't used to it. Didn't want to get ill on such a long journey. My seat oponent was Japanese and had the Japanese meal. I did look beautiful.
I had the ravioli, the sald, the veal and the chocoltae cake. - all of which were good although the veal was typical fancy resturant style of well presneted but small portion.
Had some of the Bourgogne Chardonnay Couvent des Jacobins 2000 and Mission Estate Winery Savignon Blanc 2002 to wash it down with.
There is AVOD but the choice is not fantastic. Can't remeber what I watched - I think a couple of episodes of Everyone Loves Raymond (the only comedt shows on offer - and not one that is particular;y worth watching) and some film.
The new C Class seats are electronic and are like NBC on Cathay Pacific. You have a flat, if angles, seat and I did manage at least five hours or so.
They offer you a funny wollen jakcte as cabin wear - sort of like a blue cardigan without buttons. Would have been great if there were trousers too but there wasn't.
Water bottles were handed out before we slept.
During the night you could ask for a selection of snacks such as noodles, pizza, cheese etc. I didn't bother.
Breakfast was as follows:
Japanese
Grilled salmon with snasho peper and assorted delicacies
Steam rice
Freash seasonal fruit
Western
Chef's eggs of the day
Bread roll
Freash seasonal fruit
The egg was a dry, tough omelete. Not nice at all.
We landed and they let C Class off after F, holding back Y until we were off.
Although NH had issued me with a boarding pass for my NRT-CHC flight I thought I'd recheck. This flight was odd as it was a NZ flight but code shared with JL - not their star Alliance partner NH.
JL gave me a new boarding pass. The linge I was directed to wasn't the JL lounges (which look quite good on the web) but some shared generic lounge which was awful. I retreated to NH's Signet lounge on the basis of my Star Gold Card.
I also had a shower for 300 yen. The signs outside the shower place said in English that all the showers were occupied. This never seemed to change and so I went in to enquire. Turns out that there were planty of free showers!!
They even let me pay the 300 yen charge by credit card - good as I had no Japanese money but It wasn't a large amount.
Monday 22 December 2003
NZ90 NRT-CHC (an onward to AKL)
(NZ operated flight code shared with JL)
I was seated in 11A, window exit row on the Upper Deck. Loads of room but, as mentioned on flyer talk before, offers no window.
Pre flight drinks (NB NZ sparkling wine, not champagne) and amenity kits offered.
Dinner
Appetiser
Smoked salmon and crab gateau
Main course
Prime Beef Fillet steak with caramleised onion sauce, roasted potatoes and sugger peas
Saute of chicken with tomato and olive sauce on buttered noodles with asparagus
Traditional Japanese dish of steamed blue fish with vegtable and shiitake glaze and steamed rice.
Miso soup (offered to everyone)
Dessert
Vanilla mouse gateau with fresh food
Chocolate and praline ice-cream selection with orange sauce.
Cheese and Fruit
I had the appetiser, the beef and the ice cream. All of which were good although the potatoes with the beef were bolied not roasted.
There was no wine list so you had to ask what they had. They'd tell you the general type but didn't know anything mcuh more than that.
Having said that, I had three wines - a Chardonay, a resiling and a dessert wine - all from NZ - and all delicious. The dessert wine was especially wonderful and I had two glasses of that.
The individual videos were not AVOD but did offer more choice than NH. I enjoyed Jamie-Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday (just out in the UK) and in the morning I watch a whole load of good comedies (UK and US).
The seats are manually controlled, old fashioned things with no fabtastic recline angle. But again I slept for around 5 hours or so.
Breakfast
Beveridges
Start the day with your choice of juice, freshly brewed or decaffinated coffee, tea, Japanese green tea, herbal tea or hot chocolate.
Continental Selection
Fruit Selection with assorted cereals and youghurts
Croissants, white and wholmeal toast with fruit conserve
Hot options
Spanish omlette with kassler ham, chicken sausage and fried potatoes with herbs
Creamy Srambled eggs in French crepe with pork sausage, freid potatoes, mushrooms and tomato
Japenese style breakfast of backed salmon fillet with soy nean sauce, steam rice and Japanese vegtables.
I has apple jiuce, hot chocolate (not on the menu but easily provided when I ask - and it tasted fab), fruit, youghurt and the eggs. The eggs were just right and this was much much better than the NH breakfast.
We landed ontime and those like me who weren't continuing onto AKL, headed off into a desserted airport and an overcast, showering Christchurch.
All in all, the seat was much better on NH - by far. The food on NH was better presented than NZ but NZ had more variety and tasted better. Although NH had AVOD they had such a poor selection that NZ beat them despite the lack of AVOD. The FAs were great on both.
Sorry for the no doubt many mistakes - I am too tired to read it over!
Stephen
[This message has been edited by sjharte (edited Dec 22, 2003).]
[This message has been edited by sjharte (edited Dec 22, 2003).]
Dec 22, 2003, 4:49 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: London. Edinburgh, Cornwall
Programs: BA GGL, British Midland Lifetime* Loser
Posts: 7,950
I feel hungry after reading all those menus 
Thanks for posting so soon; have a good time in New Zealand.
Actually you were on the same EDI-LHR flight as a certain someone I know...but he was probably in 9F as he likes to cross-examine whichever poor cabin crew member who has to sit on the exit row jumpseat for juicy crew-room gossip.
Thanks for posting so soon; have a good time in New Zealand.Actually you were on the same EDI-LHR flight as a certain someone I know...but he was probably in 9F as he likes to cross-examine whichever poor cabin crew member who has to sit on the exit row jumpseat for juicy crew-room gossip.
Dec 26, 2003, 5:40 am
#4
Moderator, Hilton Honors
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: on a short leash
Programs: some
Posts: 71,422
Glad you enjoyed your trip. How long are you over in NZ for?
I'm surprised at this. I cant remember a time when I didnt get a wine list.
Yeah I like the desert wine too.
Yes quite comfortable seats despite being rather old.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sjharte:
There was no wine list so you had to ask what they had. They'd tell you the general type but didn't know anything mcuh more than that.</font>
There was no wine list so you had to ask what they had. They'd tell you the general type but didn't know anything mcuh more than that.</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Having said that, I had three wines - a Chardonay, a resiling and a dessert wine - all from NZ - and all delicious. The dessert wine was especially wonderful and I had two glasses of that.</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The seats are manually controlled, old fashioned things with no fabtastic recline angle. But again I slept for around 5 hours or so.</font>
Dec 26, 2003, 5:45 am
#5
Moderator, Hilton Honors
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: on a short leash
Programs: some
Posts: 71,422
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Lux:
Wow, the food sounds great. I'm off to NZ in a couple of days so look forward to more of your weather reports
Shame that CHC is rainy. Beautiful NZ huh?!</font>
Wow, the food sounds great. I'm off to NZ in a couple of days so look forward to more of your weather reports
Shame that CHC is rainy. Beautiful NZ huh?!</font>
Here is a link to the Auckland newspaper weather page. This time of the year shouldnt be more than a day or so that is wet before clearing up. January and February are generally the most settled weather.