Japan Asia EG Business HKG-TPE-HKG revisit
Jul 26, 2004, 11:01 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,352
Japan Asia EG Business HKG-TPE-HKG revisit
Dear all,
Here is another trip report. I just got back from a long weekend trip to Taipei with my two best friends in Hong Kong. We bought an air+hotel package with my travel agent, www.tiglion.com, and paid $1050 extra to upgrade to business class. The package itself is $1,990… so it costs $3500 per person including tax. Not a bad deal for the peak summer season. About the upgrades, I am not sure about if it is worthwhile. The service has deteriorated since I flew JAA on the exact route about two years ago. But one thing for sure, JAA is not particularly popular, in both J and Y. I am not sure why JAA is keeping this particular route. I will give you all the basic facts and wine list and menu transcript, and then a brief talk about the trip.
July 24, 2004
EG 218 HKG-TPE Lv0815 Arr0945
July 26, 2004
EG 217 TPE-HKG Lv2000 Arr2145
Aircraft – same for outbound and inbound
Boeing 747-200 JA8131 with the brand new JAL group livery (no JAA logo though)
Aircraft – the classic Boeing 747 is still maintained properly with an uplifting interior and very clean and stylish décor. For business class, the new SEASONS type seats are installed but with no personal television units, and the seat pitch is the typical regional style of forty inches, but legrests and headrests are installed. Business class cabin is arranged in three sections – upper deck, main deck nose with a four abreast seating and a single middle seat at row five, and a second main deck between Door one and two. Row 1 has the best seats with the most legroom but limited view of the mainscreen. For Y, the typical grey seats are featured in ten abreast seating. For an one hour flight, it is more than sufficient.
Check-in: JAA uses the JAL group ground staffs at HKG. The JAA counters are fine and our agent, Ivan Fan, was friendly and efficient (pretty cute too). On the return, China Airlines is the official ground agent at Taipei and the J agent was very friendly and efficient. Very good ground experiences!
Lounge – I did not visit the lounge at HKG, but the Taipei lounge is fine with a full beverage and snacks self-serving bars – no fancy hot food though.
Pre-takeoff – no pre-takeoff beverage is served, as all Japanese carriers no longer serve that. Newspapers are available – local and Japanese newspapers. On the outbound, three Hong Kong papers are available – South China Morning Post (English papers from HK) and two relatively poor Chinese papers – Sing Post and Economics daily. On the return, two Taiwanese evening papers are available with the same Japanese newspapers.
Entertainment – only mainscreen televisions, but there is no video or news shown on this short flight. There are audio channels, and a duty free video is also shown as well. No Live or Sky map is shown – so I guess it is not installed. All the switches are the old style with no electronic buttons.
Food and Wine
Well, the food is served in one tray and beverage is served at the same time. Hot towels are served before each meal. The food is pretty average. The breakfast outbound tastes better than the return. The snack on the return segment is pretty awful. The hot entrée is tasteless and is nothing closed to Yeung Chow fried rice. My impression is that the food is somewhat economy like, and champagnes are served in baby bottles. Nonetheless, the service is still very attentive and the F/As are very cheerful.
JAA Wine Selection
Champagne
Piper Heidsieck Brut
Red Wines
White Wines
Chapelle de Lynch
Dai-Ginjoshu
Japanese Sake Dai-Ginjoshu
OZEKI “OSAKAYA-CHOUBEI”
GEKKEIKAN “HOURIN”
Hong Kong to Taipei
Breakfast
Fruit plate
Assorted Fresh Cut Fruits
Mango, grapes, grapefruit, papaya, & pineapples
Hot Snack
Plain Omelette with Tomato Sauce
Nice omelet – not overcooked; accompanied by a slice of turkey, mushrooms & green peas, and hash brown potatoes; tomato sauce is not bad – pretty good surprisingly
Salad
Fresh Salad
Typical green salad with cucumber slices, cherry tomato, and mini corn, and accompanied by Italian dressing
Cherry Danish
Pre-packaged in a plastic wrap – extremely Y-looking – unacceptable… at least warm your bread or don’t serve them with the plastic bag.
Beverage
Taipei to Hong Kong
Snack
Hors D’Oeuvre
Smoked Salmon Bag
Grilled Scallop
The smoked salmon bag is interesting – smoked salmon slice wrapped with chopped salmon inside – okay appetizer
Hot Snack
Fried Rice Young Chou Style
Poorly cooked – fried rice is tasteless and nothing close to Yeung Chow style, which is fried with egg, ham, green peas, and shrimps – another poor choice
Fruit – kiwi, watermelon balls, grapefruit, and canned peach slice
Dessert
Brownie
Beverage
Flights itself – gate is 47, and the outbound took off from Runway 7R at 8:38pm, after a SQ 744 freighter landed (9V-SFH), and flying time was an hour and twenty minutes. It landed at Runway 24 at 9:58pm, and parked at gate B7, next to FAT’s Boeing 757 B-27021, PR’s A330-300 F-OHZN, and CX 777 (B-HNE).
We parked next to CI 343 B-18802 heading to DEL, CI 744 B-18274 to BKK and AMS, and our gate is B8. The return took off from Runway 06 at 8:14pm, and flying time was an hour and fifteen minutes. We landed on Runway 7L at 9:29pm.
Hotel – we stayed at Cosmos hotel, which is a tourist hotel, and it is like Days Inn or slightly better. Pretty chaotic during peak hours, but it is fine.
Tourist attractions – not really, but for aviation fans, you may want to visit the Airshop, which is pretty nice. It is a small shop, but there are many plane models. It is located closed to the Technology Building stop at its subway system. There are also some Chinese aviation books and past issues of the only Chinese aviation magazine -- "AIRWAYS". The books are filled with pictures and there is a bookstand with all the book sample -- so you can check out the pictures. Here is a detailed direction to the AIRSHOP.
Direction to Taipei Air Shop
MUZHA {Brown} line
Second stop from Zhongxiao Fuxing towards Taipei Zoo
Exit Station “TECHNOLOGY BUILDING”
Turn left from the exit – stay on the same side as the station and stay on “Fuxing South Road.”
You will walk past McDonald, various coffee shops, and a Toyota showroom.
You only cross one set of traffic lights.
Well, pictures will available after I return to the US at the end of August, but I took a few pictures of the meal and one picture of the cabin.
Carfield
Here is another trip report. I just got back from a long weekend trip to Taipei with my two best friends in Hong Kong. We bought an air+hotel package with my travel agent, www.tiglion.com, and paid $1050 extra to upgrade to business class. The package itself is $1,990… so it costs $3500 per person including tax. Not a bad deal for the peak summer season. About the upgrades, I am not sure about if it is worthwhile. The service has deteriorated since I flew JAA on the exact route about two years ago. But one thing for sure, JAA is not particularly popular, in both J and Y. I am not sure why JAA is keeping this particular route. I will give you all the basic facts and wine list and menu transcript, and then a brief talk about the trip.
July 24, 2004
EG 218 HKG-TPE Lv0815 Arr0945
July 26, 2004
EG 217 TPE-HKG Lv2000 Arr2145
Aircraft – same for outbound and inbound
Boeing 747-200 JA8131 with the brand new JAL group livery (no JAA logo though)
Aircraft – the classic Boeing 747 is still maintained properly with an uplifting interior and very clean and stylish décor. For business class, the new SEASONS type seats are installed but with no personal television units, and the seat pitch is the typical regional style of forty inches, but legrests and headrests are installed. Business class cabin is arranged in three sections – upper deck, main deck nose with a four abreast seating and a single middle seat at row five, and a second main deck between Door one and two. Row 1 has the best seats with the most legroom but limited view of the mainscreen. For Y, the typical grey seats are featured in ten abreast seating. For an one hour flight, it is more than sufficient.
Check-in: JAA uses the JAL group ground staffs at HKG. The JAA counters are fine and our agent, Ivan Fan, was friendly and efficient (pretty cute too). On the return, China Airlines is the official ground agent at Taipei and the J agent was very friendly and efficient. Very good ground experiences!
Lounge – I did not visit the lounge at HKG, but the Taipei lounge is fine with a full beverage and snacks self-serving bars – no fancy hot food though.
Pre-takeoff – no pre-takeoff beverage is served, as all Japanese carriers no longer serve that. Newspapers are available – local and Japanese newspapers. On the outbound, three Hong Kong papers are available – South China Morning Post (English papers from HK) and two relatively poor Chinese papers – Sing Post and Economics daily. On the return, two Taiwanese evening papers are available with the same Japanese newspapers.
Entertainment – only mainscreen televisions, but there is no video or news shown on this short flight. There are audio channels, and a duty free video is also shown as well. No Live or Sky map is shown – so I guess it is not installed. All the switches are the old style with no electronic buttons.
Food and Wine
Well, the food is served in one tray and beverage is served at the same time. Hot towels are served before each meal. The food is pretty average. The breakfast outbound tastes better than the return. The snack on the return segment is pretty awful. The hot entrée is tasteless and is nothing closed to Yeung Chow fried rice. My impression is that the food is somewhat economy like, and champagnes are served in baby bottles. Nonetheless, the service is still very attentive and the F/As are very cheerful.
JAA Wine Selection
Champagne
Piper Heidsieck Brut
Red Wines
White Wines
Chapelle de Lynch
Dai-Ginjoshu
Japanese Sake Dai-Ginjoshu
OZEKI “OSAKAYA-CHOUBEI”
GEKKEIKAN “HOURIN”
Hong Kong to Taipei
Breakfast
Fruit plate
Assorted Fresh Cut Fruits
Mango, grapes, grapefruit, papaya, & pineapples
Hot Snack
Plain Omelette with Tomato Sauce
Nice omelet – not overcooked; accompanied by a slice of turkey, mushrooms & green peas, and hash brown potatoes; tomato sauce is not bad – pretty good surprisingly
Salad
Fresh Salad
Typical green salad with cucumber slices, cherry tomato, and mini corn, and accompanied by Italian dressing
Cherry Danish
Pre-packaged in a plastic wrap – extremely Y-looking – unacceptable… at least warm your bread or don’t serve them with the plastic bag.
Beverage
Taipei to Hong Kong
Snack
Hors D’Oeuvre
Smoked Salmon Bag
Grilled Scallop
The smoked salmon bag is interesting – smoked salmon slice wrapped with chopped salmon inside – okay appetizer
Hot Snack
Fried Rice Young Chou Style
Poorly cooked – fried rice is tasteless and nothing close to Yeung Chow style, which is fried with egg, ham, green peas, and shrimps – another poor choice
Fruit – kiwi, watermelon balls, grapefruit, and canned peach slice
Dessert
Brownie
Beverage
Flights itself – gate is 47, and the outbound took off from Runway 7R at 8:38pm, after a SQ 744 freighter landed (9V-SFH), and flying time was an hour and twenty minutes. It landed at Runway 24 at 9:58pm, and parked at gate B7, next to FAT’s Boeing 757 B-27021, PR’s A330-300 F-OHZN, and CX 777 (B-HNE).
We parked next to CI 343 B-18802 heading to DEL, CI 744 B-18274 to BKK and AMS, and our gate is B8. The return took off from Runway 06 at 8:14pm, and flying time was an hour and fifteen minutes. We landed on Runway 7L at 9:29pm.
Hotel – we stayed at Cosmos hotel, which is a tourist hotel, and it is like Days Inn or slightly better. Pretty chaotic during peak hours, but it is fine.
Tourist attractions – not really, but for aviation fans, you may want to visit the Airshop, which is pretty nice. It is a small shop, but there are many plane models. It is located closed to the Technology Building stop at its subway system. There are also some Chinese aviation books and past issues of the only Chinese aviation magazine -- "AIRWAYS". The books are filled with pictures and there is a bookstand with all the book sample -- so you can check out the pictures. Here is a detailed direction to the AIRSHOP.
Direction to Taipei Air Shop
MUZHA {Brown} line
Second stop from Zhongxiao Fuxing towards Taipei Zoo
Exit Station “TECHNOLOGY BUILDING”
Turn left from the exit – stay on the same side as the station and stay on “Fuxing South Road.”
You will walk past McDonald, various coffee shops, and a Toyota showroom.
You only cross one set of traffic lights.
Well, pictures will available after I return to the US at the end of August, but I took a few pictures of the meal and one picture of the cabin.
Carfield
Jul 26, 2004, 12:22 pm
#2
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: HKG
Posts: 1,077
Originally Posted by Carfield
We bought an air+hotel package with my travel agent, www.tiglion.com, and paid $1050 extra to upgrade to business class. The package itself is $1,990… so it costs $3500 per person including tax.
