Short hair Francis

Introduction

Another Short hair Francis TR so soon, sometimes I’m full of surprises so here is another one. If only I can only courage up and put all my stuff together for May – August 2013, now that would be one Grand Report.

After been away from my YYZ friends for over 4 months, during which time, I was in Singapore a couple times, the 108 Hours Around the World cycle I wrote earlier, and of course went to the land of Drugs, Sex, and Oil in February.
For reference, I’m talking to about a trip to Rangoon, Amsterdam and Baku.

Really loved doing this 1 Long Haul trip a month trend, which I’ve kept up for the 1st Eight Months of 2013, all the fact made easier with all the Rangoon fare out there I had stockpiled previously.
I decided to make another trek back to the Why Why Zee land
With TPAC travel means expanded horizons as to the means of travel, I used one of my EVIPS on PEK-ORD-YYZ for the outbound, but there’s no fun in writing AA Int’l J.
Ex-PEK food has however improved mightily I will add for the last 2 years


Remember this photo from my last Trip Report



I wanted to do Singapore Suites since Krisflyer has allowed award redemptions and since SFO-HKG was changing from 388 back to 77W on March 25, 2013, I was somewhat date restricted, with that I selected Mar 19 as my date of travel.
Luckily Mama SHF had some 71K Krisflyer miles lying around, and since she doesn’t fly without Dad SHF 95% of the time, 71K equals 1 SFO-HKG redemption.

See the perks of being Single-ish
Thanks for the Early Birthday present Momma SHF <3

And if you look at March 19 for SFO-HKG, and I’m HKG based, yes Your right, I decided to go back to the YYZ land and my old alumni on St. Patrick’s Day weekend hehe


Route Map



Flights - (4 Flights, 10092 Miles)
All Flights Flown
American Airlines 4480 – Toronto Pearson to New York Kennedy (Economy Class)
American Airlines 181 – New York Kennedy to Los Angeles (Business Class)
American Airlines 1921 – Los Angeles to San Francisco (Economy Class)
Singapore Airlines 1 – San Francisco to Hong Kong (Suites Class)


Trip Parts
Part 1 – Gonna Miss You, American Flagship Service Boeing 767-200 Business Class
Part 1A - Extra American Airlines Boeing 767-200 First Class Photos
Part 2 – There are Hyatt’s and then there are Hyatt’s
Part 3 – SQ Redeems itself, Singapore Airlines Airbus 380-800 Suites SFO-HKG


Links to Other Written Trip Reports
Click Here for Other Trip Reports

Short hair Francis

Part 1 – Gonna Miss You, American Flagship Service Boeing 767-200 Business Class


As I wrote earlier, I was back in Toronto and Niagara for St. Patty’s Day weekend seeing that’s where my alumni and most of my friends are located.

Yes, being HKG based this past year has been bit of a different shock to the system.
Your average English in YYZ just became excellent in HKG and I’m forced to use Cantonese more.
Your winter temperature is 15 – 20 Celsius vs. – 10 – +10 Celsius.
And instead of shoveling snow off the drive way, I’m tanning outside in my spare time in the Winter.
And I also miss driving, Dr. Pepper, Timmies
That’s just to name a few…..


Overall it was a great weekend obviously to be back, chilling and dinner with loads of friend, went on a date with a cutie , drinks of course, dancing the night away, and luckily bought the 1st Legal Drink for a friend turning 19th (legal drinking age in Ontario) that weekend.
Sadly all things fun must come to a close and back to HKG for work

Mar 18, 2013 – Monday
AA 4480 YYZ – JFK 1:10pm – 2:55pm (ERD/Y)
AA 181 JFK – LAX 4:45pm – 8:05pm (762/J)

The day after St. Patrick’s, drink drink drink, mild hangover….
10:20am approaches and I drive back out to YYZ on the QEW.
Making good time on the road, got back to YYZ around 11:30am to return the rental car back to Hertz, this time a Jetta, not a bad rental overall.

A mostly empty American Airlines counter


Sadly today, I was not yet cleared on my sticker upgrade for JFK-LAX, now that would be a bad flight not to clear, weather was also not good with expected snow storm later in the day.

And with little lines at the US CBP, I was settled in my old Home Club, the YYZ Admiral’s Club that is.
Lucky my upgrade came through at T-5hrs for 181 tonight, a bit of relief and was still able to snag an aisle, not too shabby.

With the increment weather in New York, inbound was slightly late landing at 12:45pm but hey, its easy to turn a ERJ-140.
Down to the Eagle Pen where all American Eagle flight departs for the last 2 yr (Gate A9), Boarding was overlapping with a delayed service to LGA, but the JFK flight started boarding at 1pm exact.

American Airlines 4480
Toronto Pearson to New York Kennedy
1:10pm – 2:55pm, 1 hr 45 min flight
Economy Class, Seat 11A
Food – Beverage Service
Equipment – Embraer 140 Operated By American Eagle

The Good Old Jungle Jet, American Eagle Embraer 140



It’s not a bad plane for a short person

Snag one of the best seats on the plane, Single Side Exit Row


With only 18 passengers today on the 43 seater today,
My luck was very good, the 2 seat side exit row (11B/11C) were both empty, Poor Man’s First Class, Door were closed 2 mins behind schedule at 1:12pm and with 3 plane wait and 15 min taxi to Runway 6R, finally took off at 1:30pm westwards before turning and flying over Lake Ontario.

Lots of High Clouds today for the 1 hr 5 min flight to Kennedy



The usual Snack Bite for EXP members


Sadly with bad weather moving into the NY Metro, was put in a 10 min holding pattern prior to landing on Runway 4R.




Landed at around 2:55pm, and took around 10 mins to taxi to gate 31B.
Luckily AA 181 was departing in the same concourse today, Gate 31B>42 is an easy one.

After hiding in the Admiral’s Club for about 30 minutes, it was really packed on a Monday afternoon, so around 3:55pm decided to head down to gate 42 for the flight.

American Airlines Boeing 767-200


American Airlines 181
New York Kennedy to Los Angeles
4:45pm – 8:05pm, 6 hr 20 min flight
Business Class, Seat 7G
Food – Dinner
Equipment – Boeing 767-200



In a timely transcon boarding manner, boarding started at 4:00pm, 45 minutes prior to departure.

American Airlines Boeing 767-200 Business Class Cabin


American Airlines Boeing 767-200 Business Class Seat


Seems like the American plague, especially with the on-set of baggage fee, it really takes 40 minutes to board a 762. Pre-Departure Beverage were handed out after the majority of the Economy passenger have boarded, in typical AFS style.
Tray service with Orange Juice, Water and Sparkling Wine.
And just as we’re ready for door close, the heavy storm front finally decides to come through.
So in meanwhile, a nice and much needed nappy time, zzz………..

And an hour of ground hold and with the now required, de-icing, and the long long taxi to Runway 31L, was finally airborne at 6:10pm. Luckily tonight’s flight time was 5 hr 25 minutes, so we weren’t running too late getting into LAX.

Thankfully the FAs were as restless as the pax were so the meal service spurned into action very quickly.

AA 181 Dinner

Starter
Cajun-style chicken breast served on corn salad

Salad
Seasonal greens and fresh vegetables on Pepper cream dressing or Premium extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Artichoke, wild mushroom and pea salad

Assorted Gourmet Breads

Main Course
Grilled Beef Fillet
Served over truffles wild mushroom ragout with Merlot sauce, roasted potato wedges and baby squash

Florentine Lasagna Roll
With tomato sauce and mozzarella

Dessert
Ben & Jerry's Traditional Ice Cream Sundae
Vanilla ice cream with your choice of hot fudge, butterscotch or seasonal berry toppings, whipped cream and pecans

Gourmet Cheese Plate
An assortment of fine cheeses with garnishes

The traditional Hot Nuts, decided to hold off the Alcohol tonight


Appetizer Set



Part 1 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Appetizer, Cajun-style chicken breast served on corn salad


Salad


Main Course, Grilled Beef Fillet


My very light butterscotch Sundae


And with the full service finish just around 1 hour, I went off and slept for the next 4.5 hours to Los Angeles

AA 181 Light Refreshment
Fresh Seasonal Fruit
or
Cookies
Freshly baked on board


I did wake up about 45 minutes outside LAX, smelling a chocolate chip cookie.
Sadly camera was put away earlier and with the very late take-off from Kennedy. Landing was at 8:30pm, and finally at the gate at 8:41pm, 35 minutes later than scheduled arrival time.

Now where is that new LAX Hyatt Place???


Next Part
Part 1A – Extra American Airlines Boeing 767-200 First Class Photos

jfkeze

Another Short hair Francis report... looking forward to this one...
very light butterscotch on the sundae?

mkjr

nice TR...it was very cold this last st. pats in YYZ as i recall. thankfully my buddy knows some at the irish embassy and it's a short walk (errr....stumble) from where i am. can you get the salad on AA without the globby dressing? wholly calories bat man...[i would rather get my calories from alcohol...]

offerendum

How I like this 767-200 airplane! Such a great product!!!!!

Short hair Francis

Thanks very much, I promise this will take a Max 1 Week
Already started working on another TR, that one, i make no promises, think of 60+ parts at my pace

Of course, a must of flying on AA, I actually said to the FA "a tiny drop of butterscotch only please"
Look at what happened to the salad

Digital01

Here we go, am definitely looking forward to the SQ flight. This is sure to be another good one!

Short hair Francis

Thank you, mkjr, I promise I'll try my best on this one as well.
Ya all my friends were moaning how cold (around -10C), damp and wet last winter was.
They were saying it would be freezing cold for 3 days, rain for 1 day, then another cold front of snow and more cold for another 3 days.
I was like, please give me the cold, I've had enough of the so-called HKG winter.
Especially when all my HKG co-workers were crying wolf when its 15C outside and I was still wearing short sleeve and enjoying the sunshine
I lucked out and got my wishes, was (-7C, flurries the weekend I was back), did rain and washed out the snow on my last day.
Have to agree it was a weird St. Pats day considering in 2011/2012, we were having 10-17C and drinking outside on the Patio enjoying the Spring Sun.

Thinking of ditching the evil AC and Aeroplan/altitude, mkjr
As one of the former YYZ AAers around, welcome to the AA family!
BTW, did I ever met you at one of globalhappytraveller YYZ mini-do?
Ya, you can tell the FA the amount you want for dressing or butterscotch.
Guess the salad and ice cream shows you the spectrum of speaking up vs. not
One of the things to get used to when flying to AA ^
And of course most of us would love to get our calories from alcohol, with minimal liver damage as a consideration of course, hehe

mkjr

...from time to time work requires me to go on AC, so i keep the account but convert all the miles over to a joint esso account with 5 family members, who can each do the same, and then decide whose RBC account the kitty goes to in order to get into appropriate AA or BA account...

...i mostly earn and burn with BA...BAEC member since 1996!! wife is about 600K member with AA...so we use her AA and my BA for most of our trips.

...have not yet gotten to a GHT do. each time there was one, even though it was right down the street at Jersey Giant, something has come up at the last minute...one day.

Short hair Francis

It is an oldie alright, noisy on take-off and cruise, but you can't beat a widebody.
I also flew the old AC Boeing 767-200 back in 2007 before they retired them, now those were awful.
Product is ok, a bit aged, I would've prefer if AA put the new Transcon product on the 763 and used that as a Premium subfleet personally but they probably can't fill the Y cabin.

Geez, I looked up all of AA's Boeing 767-200ERs.
Last one was made on Jan 11, 1988
Holy Christ the plane is older than me!
And the oldest one still flying was made in 1985, 28 years old N320AA
http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/A...ctive-b767.htm

Short hair Francis

Oh ya, on the SHF's Crazy Eating boat! ^
Pretty sure I had close to 80-100 SQ Suites pics for that part of the TR, shows you how crazy I am with rare flight.

In the meanwhile, I also had SQ F flight (SFO-ICN-SIN)in this report as well if you didn't get a chance to catch before
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...l#post21350346

Short hair Francis

Ya, I admit its hard to walk away from AC on domestic flying, hopefully AA/WS someday can work out an Elite Program, but i'm not holding my breath on that one.

Hmm, i should try to that, I've been trying to get Mama SHF away from AC and scamcharges, and seeing how we use alot of ex-TPE CX J tickets, those Avios positioning flights are pretty handy at 4.5K a pop.
Same goes for YYZ-ORD/NYC, I love Avios for that.
AA for Premium and BA for short-haul, with a mix of US works well for me in general, then RGN mistake fare, very clutch for a guy like me.
My co-workers said I probably flew more times than riding on a bus in a yr

GHT DO are hard, well now they are real hard seeing I need to match my own schedule to the DO.
The old problem for me was I couldn't always leave Niagara on a weekday night, might have had other obligations.
Jersey Giant, at least parking was cheap after 6pm haha
Same for me, one day, I'll be back in YYZ, still miss everyone for sure

offerendum

I flight it on F 3 month ago (report here). A unique experience I whould say Isaw their new peoduct and it looks really nice. Full flat beds. Actually I even thought about flying JFK-LHR LHR-SFO to avoid it

SFO777

Great start Francis.
Really looking forward the SQ A380 Suites review.

I'm not big fan of the 762... too darn noisy for me with air vents at the back of J almost as loud as the engines. Looking forward to the new A321 service on the JFK-LAX/SFO runs.

No pic?