Sjoerd

Business trip to Hanoi

Wednesday 7 January
CX 270 Amsterdam - Hong Kong, Airbus 340-300
Scheduled 13:20 - 08:00*, actual 13:44 - 07:55*

Train to Schiphol. Pick up my ticket and go to Cathay Pacific check-in.
Relatively long lines for economy class check-in, nobody for business and
first class check-in. I reserved seat 11 C and forget to check if I get the
right seat on my boarding pass. They can't give me a business class boarding
pass for HKG - HAN and advice me to go to the transit desk in Hong Kong.
Security / passport control is a non-event as usual. (3 minutes) Do some tax
free shopping (bottles of jenever as gifts for our clients for Vietnamese
(lunar) new year) Have time for a drink in the lounge, check my boarding
pass and see that they gave me 12 D.

Go to the gate and ask if I can still get 11C or 15C. Upon seeing my
business class boarding pass, the gate manager (a Dutch Chinese man) takes
over from the more junior gate agent. He looks into the system and starts
smiling. I have already seen a first class boarding pass waiting for
somebody, and know immediately that it must be mine. Anyway, the guy starts
a story about travel agents telling their clients that seat xxx has been
reserved while in fact they never reserve the seat with the airline, and how
the airline than gets the complaint when the seat is no longer available. I
can't give you 11C or 15C, he says, still smiling, but perhaps seat 1G will
do?, handing me the first class boarding pass. I decide not to be a
difficult passenger and accept seat 1G.

Full flight. 8 first class seats on CX's 340-300's, 1 - 2 - 1 seating and
two rows only. I have one of the two middle seats. Take off is just a bit
late, and soon we are on our way via Northern Netherlands - Northern
Germany - South of Copenhagen - Southern Sweden - Estonia - just South of
St. Petersburg - North of Moscow - lots of Eastern Russia and Siberia -
Western Mongolia - China to Hong Kong.

Lunch is served which is:

Caviar and Balik Delight
Oscietra Caviar
and
Balik Salmon "Tsar Nicolaj" served with Warm New Potatoes and Creme Fraiche

(I eat the caviar and wonder why people like it. It is just an ordinary
salty fish taste IMHO. I would never pay for it. However, the salmon is
delicious)

Soup
Spicy Pumpkin Cream Soup (delicious)

Salad
Mixed Salad with Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella served with Pesto Dressing

Main courses
Beef fillet .........(not for me)
Chicken breast.........(not for me)
Mushroom filled ravioli.........(not for me)
Steamed Halibut with Ginger, Mushrooms and Black Beans with Steamed Rice and
Pak Choy (nice)

Cheese Board (I skip)

Dessert Selection
Creme Brulee
Chocolate Mascarpone Cake (my choice and it is great!)
Strawberry Ripple Yoghurt, Pecan and Caramel Ice Cream

Tea and Coffee

Pralines and Cookies

And I wash everything away with Olivier Leflaive Puligny Montrachet 1998
Cote de Beaune Burgundy.

Table is huge and the linen is nice too. Just too bad that one of the
(metal) knives that I get still has a large piece of dried food on it.

After dinner it is 4:30 PM Amsterdam time and the flight attendants decide
we need to sleep. We get a toiletries bag (they ran out of the male ones so
I get a female one) and a PJ. (no more L or XL so they give me a M which I
don't even try) We also get a nice clean duvet. Lights are switched off and
the crew disappears.

I watch two movies: Runaway Jury with John Cusack and Gene Hackman, and
There's Something about Mary with Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller. OK movies
but based on 4 returns AMS - HKG in the last 5 months I don't think CX have
a very good choice in movies.

I had expected to be pampered non-stop in first class, but after dinner and
until breakfast the crew is largely invisible. Disappointing.

After the movies I am getting a bit tired and I manage to sleep 3 hours.
Skip breakfast as the choices are not very special (eggs, noodles with pork,
or cold cuts) and the meals on Vietnam Airlines are always very good.

Arrive in HKG and find the CX transfer desk. Ask if they can give me a
business class boarding pass. "You want to use your miles?" she asks. I say
"no, because I have a business class ticket". She studies the ticket and I
have to show her the box "fare basis C". She is still not convinced and
calls a supervisor. Then she needs to fax the ticket to the supervisor and 5
minutes later I have my business class boarding pass.

Have time to go to the lounge "The Pier" and have a coffee. When I arrive at
the gate around 8:40 there is nobody. Very empty flight.


Thursday 8 January
VN/CX 793 Hong Kong - Hanoi, Airbus 320, operated by Vietnam Airlines
Scheduled 09:00 - 10:00, actual 09:20 - 09:58

Smooth flight. Have a beef with rice brunch which as usual in VN business
class is excellent. Landing at 09:58, at the gate at 10:01 and via
immigration, bag pick-up, customs and currency exchange in the taxi at
10:16.


Friday 16 January
VN/CX 792 Hanoi - Hong Kong, Airbus 320, operated by Vietnam Airlines
Scheduled 19:10 - 21:55, actual 19:30 - 21:58

All flights between Hanoi and Hong Kong are VN / CX codeshares operated by
Vietnam Airlines. This means that often you can't get a reservation in
business class because VN will keep half of the C class seats "reserved"
until the last moment before they release them to passengers holding a CX
ticket. There are four of us (colleagues) on this flight tonight and 3
manage to get a C class seat, one has to stay in Y.

Check-in is quick, pay the USD 14 airport tax, proceed via passport control
and security check to the lounge and have a few wodka / oranges and talk
with the colleagues. A VN check-in agent enters the lounge and asks one of
my colleagues if "you can please help me" because "there is another
passenger who wants to be in business class and he is difficult" and "can
you please sit in economy class". My colleague gives the only correct answer
"I can be difficult, too" and the girl disappears.

Uneventful flight with very good food again:

Smoked Salmon Roll with Fish Eggs

Choice of:

Fillet of Beef from Australia Steak, Buttered Potatoes, Snow Bean and Carrot
OR
Stirfried Prawn with Onion, Stirfried Noodles, Poached Snow Bean
OR
Steamed Rice, Duck in Orange Sauce, Sauteed Mustard Leaves

Fresh Fruit Slice

Tea and Coffee

I have the prawns which are excellent and my colleague tells me that the
duck is excellent too.


In Hong Kong our temperature is checked and the two colleagues who couldn't
get a boarding pass HKG - AMS in Hanoi (for unknown reasons) go to the
transfer desk.

I go to the lounge which is very crowded. No available seats in the business
section and I sneak into the first class section where fortunately nobody
check my boarding pass. Read three newspapers and when it is time to go to
the gate (almost two hours later) I find my colleagues who tell me that they
just got their boarding passes. The flight is overbooked and the agent
offered them a downgrade (with no compensation offered!) and later a
re-route via Paris. They refused and told her that they have OK tickets and
reservations and they should find another solution. In the end, they get on
the flight in C class.

Saturday 17 January
CX 271 Hong Kong - Amsterdam, A340-300
Scheduled 00:15 - 06:30, actual 00:25 - 05:59

I have a busy day ahead of me, have already eaten so immediately after take
off I hit the bed and try to sleep. I want to sleep badly and ofcourse now I
can't. After two and a half hours of non-sleep and twisting and turning, I
decide to watch a movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" with Raoul Bova and Diane
Lane. After the movie I have a few glasses of wine and I manage to sleep 3
hours. When I wake up I watch an episode of "Are you being served" (always
funny) and "Queer Eye for a Straight Guy".
Have good Dim Sum for breakfast.

Arrival at a far G gate in AMS, bag is quick, and in the taxi at 06:30.

Sjoerd

airoli

Thanks for this report. VN seems to have an interesting way to decide who sits in which cabin...

Do they have printed menus on the Hanoi - Hong Kong segments?

------------------
truly yours. airOli.
March 1st 2004: Morgestraich Do!

MikeFly

Too bad your flight was not up to par. I just flew from JFK-YVR and had excellent service my only complaint was the cheap Salmon instead of the Balik.

daniellam

Why would you need to ask for a business class boarding pass when you aready have a ticket in business class? This seems confusing.

pallensf

thanks for this wonderful report...

------------------
Patrick A. Inouye, LMT
volunteer trip reports moderator

inkoherent

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy as IFE? Wow ;-)

Great report BTW

Sjoerd

It is a hit and miss. This trip they had them on the HAN - HKG leg, but not on HKG - HAN.

Sjoerd

It IS confusing. More often than not, check-in staff in AMS can't give me a business class boarding pass for the HKG - HAN segment. They give me a Y class boarding pass and tell me to try to get a C class in HKG. All this when travelling on a normal, paid for, business class ticket.