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This trip report documents my trip to Tokyo with my brother. I hope you enjoy the commentary and pics (which there are plenty of!), and any feedback would be greatly appreciated! If you spot any obvious errors, please PM me.

Please check out my other recent trip report:
TPA-IAD-LAX-AKL-ZQN-CHC-WLG-AKL-SYD-AKL-LAX-IAD-TPA in C... it was sweet (w/PICS)

Planning:

Back in October of 2006, when Singapore Airlines had just unveiled their new cabin interiors on the brand new 777-300ER, I was obviously very excited. At the time they said it would be on CDG-SIN first, and then ZRH-SIN. Well, since a direct flight to Asia wouldn’t get me the new C, I decided to get an award through Europe. My brother has not had a vacation in a while, so I figured this would be the best way for him to “relax.”

Well, award availability was showing on the ANA award checker for ZRH-SIN, although the system had not updated yet and was still showing the flight as a 747, although everyone knew it would be the new 77W by June.

Thanks to a fantastic Flyertalker and a foul up by the ICC, I eventually managed to book EWR-DUS on Privatair, another product I have always wanted to try, then connecting DUS-ZRH on Eurowings, and then ZRH-SIN in what I had hoped would be the new Singapore Business. The return was SIN-ZRH on SQ, ZRH-FRA on LH, and FRA-EWR on LH. All this for only 90K miles! I decided to see how far I could stretch it so added on SIN-NRT on SQ, and then NRT-SIN on NH, another airline I have not yet flown. They even put SIN-NRT in Business, although the new UA rule technically says US->Asia awards with SQ flights within Asia book into coach, another obvious “enhancement” on UA’s part.

Eventually an agent caught on and said they would honor the ticket but not allow any more changes, which was fine by me at that point. This was over 27K BIS miles in Business Class for 90K miles, a great value, IMO.

As time approached and the ZRH-SIN flight was still not showing as the new interiors, I was getting a bit nervous. Fortunately it was eventually confirmed, and we would be good to go. I called SQ for the seat assignments, and got row 11 both ways on SQ, which is probably the best row they have, so it would be a nice experience! As any UA FF who books an award ticket with no flights on UA metal knows, you can’t see it in "My Itineraries", so the cumbersome and routine process of calling every so often to ask if there are schedule changes began. Fortunately there really weren’t any major ones.

In order to catch up with my brother in New York I had to book tickets from TPA to connect to the flights from EWR, but I procrastinated a little too much. Since I was at a crossroads of either switching some business to Continental or American, I had the hardest time deciding who to book for this. In the end I waited too long and booked JetBlue TPA-JFK-TPA, which would require a transfer in New York. Fortunately the same night I was going to book it I headed to the JetBlue forum for some seating advice, and instead found a $30 off coupon for booking roundtrip JetBlue flights through Expedia! Not great, but it was only $167, and JetBlue is usually excellent onboard!

Here is my itinerary in its entirety:

Saturday, June 16
JetBlue 20
TPA-JFK
6:05AM-8:45AM

Saturday, June 16
LH409 (Operated by PrivatAir)
EWR-DUS
4:40PM-6:15AM (next day)

Sunday, June 17
LH3760 (Operated by Eurowings)
DUS-ZRH
7:50AM-9:05AM

Sunday, June 17
SQ345
ZRH-SIN
1:15PM-7:05AM (next day)

Monday, June 18
SQ12
SIN-NRT
9:45AM-5:35PM

Thursday, June 21
NH901
NRT-SIN
5:40PM-11:40PM

Friday, June 22
SQ346
SIN-ZRH
1:05AM-7:50AM

Friday, June 22
LH3723
ZRH-FRA
10:30AM-11:35AM

Friday, June 22
LH402
FRA-EWR
12:45PM-3:10PM

Friday, June 22
JetBlue 29
JFK-TPA
7:15PM-10:31PM

Day of trip:

I woke up at a delightful 4AM, unenthused at the prospect of flying around more than half of the world, having gotten back from New Zealand a mere four days earlier. I quickly took a shower and finished packing my stuff, and that feeling wore off quickly. I had packed a tote bag and rolling laptop case, which was all I really needed. I packed all of my liquids in my “Kip Hawley is an Idiot” ziploc, and even made an extra bag in case one ripped. At around 4:35AM my dad drove me to the airport, listening to Coast-to-coast AM the whole way, which has to be the biggest nutjob show. For those not familiar with it, it’s basically a show with people sharing their ghost experiences, psychological theories (psycho being the key term), and sometimes they even have some fantastic guests. Some of the stuff they talk about is simply shocking. What amazes me the most is that people actually listen to the show seriously, because I find it incredibly entertaining. We arrived at the airport at around 5:15AM, and I bid my father farewell.

At TPA:

I immediately headed upstairs with the boarding pass I had printed out the day before. I headed towards concourse A, which was the first time I have not flown out of the E concourse, or Ted for that matter, in quite a while. A short tram ride later I was at the security checkpoint and put my stuff on the belt. It seemed like they weren’t staffed all that highly, since there was no one there to help put stuff through the belt. I had my freedom bag (“Kip Hawley is an idiot!”) in the open, but no one saw it. Oh well!

I went into the A concourse and was past security by around 5:25AM, which was very nice. I snapped a few quick pictures of the terminal, and at around 5:30AM the boarding process began, which started with rows 15-25 at gate A12. The gate agent was very friendly, which was the first interaction I had with a JetBlue employee, and one of the most important, IMO. I should add that this was my first time not flying a Star Alliance airline in around three years, so once again something new for me.

Saturday, June 16
JetBlue 20
TPA-JFK
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 16D
Scheduled Departure Time: 6:05AM
Actual Departure Time: 5:55AM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 8:45AM
Actual Arrival Time: 8:35AM
Load: 95%

Immediately upon boarding the captain, who was in a great mood, was greeting everyone. I headed towards seat 16C, which was one of the seats with less legroom, apparently 34 inches of pitch, as opposed to the front of the plane, which has 36 inches. The legroom was nonetheless good. I stowed my carry-ons in the overhead bin and took my seat. The seats, which were leather, are incredibly comfortable. The legroom is also pretty good, and definitely sufficient. The TV’s were playing some flight info and ads and someone took the window seat in my row. As of last night the middle was showing open, so I hoped it would stay that way, which it did! Heck, even on Ted where it’s done proactively I haven’t had an empty middle for quite a while in and out of TPA!

I immediately noticed that the guy behind me was one of the seat grabbers. You know those people that grab onto the back of your seat and pull with all their might everytime they want to get up, reposition themselves in their seat, or seemingly just annoy you! I was getting ready to play the “recline when my seat is touched” game, but decided against it. Of course this is a trade off for the self important businessman on his Bluetooth yelling how he just closed an eight billion dollar deal. I guess you can't get the best of both worlds...

The door closed promptly at 5:55AM, and “Captain Victor” made a few pre-departure comments, announcing our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and flight time of 2hr30min. The safety demonstration immediately commenced, which was manual to my surprise, and it was done before 6AM. We pushed back by around 6:05AM, and quickly taxied to runway 36R. We took off quickly and reached our cruising altitude of 35,000 feet within around 20 minutes, at which point the seatbelt sign was turned off. The FA’s quickly sprung into action and started taking drinks orders. There was no cart service, but rather the FA’s went from seat to seat getting orders, and then brought them around on trays. Fortunately one FA started in row 16, so I was among the first to get served. I went with an orange juice, which was brought in a relatively small can. It seemed like most other drinks were served in larger cans, but this was of course fine, cause it's more than my boy Teddy would ever give me.

I surfed some of the different channels, which there are plenty of! JetBlue also offers pay movies for $5, I believe, which I didn’t do since I had seen them all. Most of the channels were paid programming like that 20 minute abs machine, which I guess is one drawback of a flight this early in the morning when you are dealing with “live” TV.

JetBlue has a fantastic Airshow as well, which is one of the huge advantages of having a PTV. As soon as drink service was complete snack service began, which was in the form of a big basket with all kinds of things, including Terra Blue Chips, animal crackers, chocolate chip cookies, cashews, biscotti, etc. I went with the cookies, which were delicious.

Since there was not much on I eventually settled for the show Exposed on MTV. This has to be one of the dumbest and at the same time one of the funniest shows out there. For those not familiar with the premise, someone goes on a date with two people and asks them all kinds of questions, and apparently all of their answers go through lie detection software. It is so darn scripted though that it’s almost sad. When the one person says “There’s something I have to tell you guys- everything you’ve been saying has been run through lie detection software…” and their jaws drop everytime, it cracks me up. The best part is that at the end of the show it says that the lie detection software is for entertainment purposes only and has no real basis. Funny! I watched that for a little over an hour, at which point I switched to MAD TV. At that point we began our descent into New York and the seatbelt sign was turned on. The TV channels were turned off before the final descent but the Airshow remained on.

We had a smooth landing at 8:22AM, at which point we began our lengthy taxi to the gate. During the taxi one lady just got up to use the restroom, and it seemed like the FA’s didn’t say anything. Hey, if you gotta go you gotta go!

We finally got to the gate at around 8:35AM and I was off within around five minutes. I have to say that overall I was very impressed by Jetblue’s product. They are definitely better than Ted, and possibly better than United domestic First, especially if you get the front of the plane with 36 inches of pitch. I did get very lucky with an empty middle though, so I was very pleased.

At JFK:

I wasn’t awfully impressed by the JetBlue terminal based on what I had heard before, which was that it was great. It was extremely overcrowded and didn’t have very many nice sitting areas, but that was fine by me. As I walked towards the exit I heard all kinds of boarding calls. Something I never get is all of the unnecessary diction in the boarding announcements. Case in point: “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is last and final boarding call for Jetblue flight ___ to ___.” I would love to hear the distinction between the last and final boarding call.

In New York:

Anyway, I headed towards the AirTrain to head to the city, and got on. After riding a round I realized that the one I was on just went between terminals instead of to Jamaica, so I got back off at Terminal 8 and took the correct one. By this time it was around 9AM and I sat in the train just waiting… and waiting… and waiting… and waiting for the door to close. The door remained open for over 30 minutes, and people were getting very angry, especially a JetBlue flight attendant that pushed the emergency call button and said AirTrain is getting worse and worse by the day. There was also an AA flight attendant who shared his feelings.

As I sat there I took the opportunity to observe some of the people, especially my idols, the TSA. Well, one of them decided to take off his clip on tie and was cussing without end to one of his friends. I almost felt like telling him that in such a holy uniform he should be more appropriate, after all he is representing our country in all his actions! Let’s face it afterall, the TSA is the crème de la crème of our country! (Yes, I am being sarcastic, in case you haven’t caught on) Eventually the train door closed and we get to the stop at the rental car lot a few minutes later, where the attendant informs us that “This train be heading to Howard Beach.” Jeez, fantastic! As if the 30 minute wait for the door to close wasn’t enough… People at this point were yelling for obvious reasons, and the guy said he had no clue when the next one to Jamaica was coming.

We all stood there and around 30 more minutes later the correct train came, which did take us to Jamaica. At this point I started talking to the AA FA, who was based in NY and lived in San Juan. He was transferring to LGA to do a quick ORD turn with his friend. He was a very interesting guy and nice to talk to. We eventually arrived after 10AM and I paid the $7 it costs for AirTrain and the subway to Manhattan. I transferred lines then and took the subway to Lexington & 56th. It was quite a long ride, and I got there by around 11AM. A transfer that would otherwise take an hour or so was now well over two hours. I headed outside and was going to meet my brother earlier, but due to some complications only met him at around 1PM, when we were heading to the airport. I walked around Fifth Avenue for a bit on what was a ridiculously hot day. We headed to Penn Station where we took a train to Newark, which was ridiculously overpriced at $15 a head for a 20 minute ride. I guess those are New York prices nowadays…

The train got us to the Newark AirTrain station by around 2PM and we got to the terminal by around 2:15PM. The monorail ride provided some nice views of the tarmac, especially of a bunch of big CO planes as well as some international airlines.

At EWR:

We got into the relatively decent B terminal and headed straight to Lufthansa check-in. We went to the Business line, where there was essentially no wait, and handed over our passports. Within a few minutes we had our boarding passes all the way to NRT printed on Lufty ticket stock, which looked quite nice. The guy who walks around with the tags that say “Lufthansa approved cabin baggage” came by and said that my brother’s bag was too big, but it was fine this time. Since we were doing so many airlines we decided not to check luggage, which turned out to be a good idea as you will see shortly.

After this we headed towards security, where they had a line for C/F passengers. There was essentially no wait again, and began the wonderful TSA process. This time I had two “freedom bag” ziplocs and tried to place them as prominently as possible on the belt. Again there were no agents there, and on the other end it wasn’t really noticed, so no luck again. (As soon as they were through my brother removed them both as quickly as possible and handed them to me.)

We got into the terminal at around 2:45PM and actually had some trouble finding the lounge. I had heard both about the SAS lounge and the Lufthansa Senator lounge, so really wanted to check them out. To my surprise they were both behind the same door and had two counters, one for each. People for the SAS lounge were point to the right and people for the Lufthansa lounge were pointed to the left. I went up to the Lufthansa counter because I wanted to get a quick peak, and the agent said that Business passengers on Lufthansa actually use the SAS lounge because the Lufthansa lounge is very small. I asked if we could just take a quick look at the Lufthansa lounge and the agent gladly obliged and pointed us left.

Once in the lounge I was not impressed at all and would have chosen the SAS lounge anyway. It was very small, had little food, and the design wasn’t all that nice either, as you can see in the pictures. I can definitely see how this could get crowded quickly. It also had a few computer desks, but no free wifi. We then headed to the SAS lounge, which was at least much better in design. It was large, had the same design that is consistent with all SAS lounges I have been to, and had a decent selection of snacks, although nothing great. It had cheese, crackers, bread, cookies, a nice selection of drinks, etc. Unfortunately there was no free wifi, but rather you had to pay for it. Can anyone say glorified Red Carpet Club? They did have some computers, but they were standing only. Another weakness for the club was that there were only three toilets, so there was often a wait of upto seven people!

By around 3:30PM the lounge was completely packed, both from the passengers from our flight as well as the passengers on the SAS flight to Stockholm. We decided to head to gate B61 at around 4:05PM, since boarding was at 4:10PM. I thought I would be among the first since you can pretty much board at your leisure, but an announcement was made at that point that the “remaining passengers on Lufthansa 409 to Dusseldorf should board at this time.” Hmm, that’s strange! Well, we gave them our BP’s and were on our way down the jetway.

Saturday, June 16
LH409 (Operated by PrivatAir)
EWR-DUS
Aircraft: Airbus 319
Seat: 2A
Scheduled Departure Time: 4:40PM
Actual Departure Time: 4:25PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 6:15AM
Actual Arrival Time: 7:42AM
Load: 85%

Immediately upon reaching the door we were greeted by the purser. There were only four passengers aboard, so it definitely wasn’t near the end of the boarding process. We headed to our seats which were only a short distance away, and I definitely liked the feel of the cabin. With only 12 rows and 48 seats it has an incredibly private feel, that’s for sure. The seats themselves looked pretty nice, but not fantastic. Each seat had two pillows, which was great, and a blanket. After I snapped some pics we took our seats and definitely loved the cabin. The bulkhead has a sign that says “Operated by PrivatAir for Lufthansa.” The amenity kit, which consisted of an eyeshade, a toothbrush, a refreshment towel, and earplugs, was located in the seatback pocket, which is where I noticed the first major weakness in the seat. The seatback pocket is rock hard and can’t be moved! In other words, there was no way I could get my Bose headsets or anything else for that matter into the pocket. This is very impractical since there is no other storage space in the seat besides a small place on the side for glasses and the like, so essentially the only place to put anything is on the floor.

The seats themselves are like benches in the back, it looked like, which was just weird. Now, let’s start with the service.

We were offered pre-departure beverages about ten minutes after we boarded, which seemed like an awfully long time to me. The choices were water, OJ, or champagne. I went with an OJ, which was good. Refills were offered. The boarding process continued which wasn’t stressful for obvious reasons, which is a huge advantage of PrivatAir! I looked out the window for a bit, and noticed we had a USA3000 aircraft to our left. Shortly thereafter a selection of newspapers and magazines were brought around, which we declined.

At 4:25PM the door closed with a few open seats on the plane and it started pouring and thundering like crazy. The Captain came on the PA, with a name I simply couldn’t understand, even as a German. He announced our flight time at 7hr20min and said that due to the thunderstorms we would be staying at the gate for a little longer since the airport had been shut down. He said he was optimistic about it though, and it shouldn’t be much longer.

The FA’s commenced their safety demonstration at this point, which didn’t last very long. Shortly thereafter they brought around the menus, which were standard Lufthansa Business menus. Around 15 minutes later the Captain came back on the PA and announced that he was overly optimistic earlier and that it would likely be another 30 minutes or so. The FA’s came around with hot towels, which were the perfect temperature and moisture. Shortly thereafter they brought around the inflight entertainment guides, which had all the stuff that was going to be in the portable entertainment system. I should add that our crew was made up of four people, one older lady who was clearly the “mother” figure, two younger female FA’s, and one younger male FA. The two younger female FA’s consistently provided the best service with a smile, IMO.

As another 20 or so minutes passed the Captain came on the PA again and said we would be pushing back and taxiing towards the runway. He mentioned that while the weather looks good here in Newark, the issue was that the weather system was moving east towards our flight route, so we would have to wait for that to clear or find an alternate route. Well, we did push back (right next to the LH 747 we would be taking on the way back), and no, we didn’t go to the runway. Instead we headed to a somewhat secluded taxiway where we had to continue waiting.

At this point the purser announced that they would begin “aperitif” service, which I think was a poor choice of words for cocktail service. They began service from the front and when orders were taken a bag of cashews were handed out to everyone. I went with water, which was delivered promptly. As soon as one round of drinks was done, which was around 20 minutes, another was offered, once again with a new bag of cashews. I have to say they really were working hard on the ground and did a good job of handling the situation, and allowed cellphone use throughout the process. At this point the engines were shut off, which seemed like a long time to wait. The purser also came to our seats since she noticed we had a connection and told us that the next flight from DUS to ZRH would still get us to ZRH in time for the SQ flight, which was a relief. She nonetheless didn’t seem optimistic about us making our scheduled fight, which had over a 90-minute layover before the delay. Since we were standing still I decided to walk to the back of the cabin to snap a couple of pictures of the cabin.

At around 6:05PM we began our taxi towards the runway and the Captain advised us that we had an alternate flightplan and would be ready to go. The Captain did a fantastic job of keeping us informed throughout the delay, so kudos to him!^ We taxied towards the runway where there were a dozen or so CO planes, all of which we passed, and were right behind the LH 747 that was at the gate next to us earlier. We had a rolling takeoff and were finally airborne after a quick roll, a little over 90 minutes late. We had a relatively smooth climb but the seatbelt sign nonetheless remained on until we finally leveled off. I reclined my seat a bit using the controls in the center console, which were entirely electronic. The seat was a bit hard and not all that comfortable, IMO.

Service began with each passenger getting a bottle of Crystal Geyser water, which I didn’t really understand. It would seem to make more sense to hand this out after dinner, since most people started drinking their bottle at that point instead of the water which came with the dinner. Portable entertainment systems as well as noise cancelling headsets (which were not very good!) were handed out at this point, which was not a DVD player, as I had expected. Instead it had all the movies already built in, which was fantastic, so no fooling around with DVD’s.

The movie selection was as follows:

Shooter
Wild Hogs
Music and Lyrics
Freedom Writers
Four Minutes
Miss Potter
Rocky Balboa
Tempesta
Catch and Release
The Number 23

My brother and I both decided to watch Shooter. Dinner service quickly commenced. The menu read as follows:

Service began with tablecloths, followed immediately by the appetizer and salad. Drinks were offered at that point as well, as was the breadbasket. I went with a sesame roll. The appetizer was fantastic, as was the salad, which had an oil & vinegar dressing!^ As soon as that was cleared, which took a while, the main courses were brought around on a cart. My brother went with the salmon and I asked to see the chicken and pasta. I saw the pasta, which looked fantastic, and immediately said I would take it. The FA candidly said “Are you sure, it takes like nothing?” I suddenly changed my mind and went with the chicken. I doubt the person in the back that got stuck with pasta and actually wanted chicken was a happy camper. Well, I definitely appreciated her honesty, that’s for sure, as the chicken was fantastic!

Since all the FA’s work together from front to the back, it takes a while to get the plates cleared. If anyone does PrivatAir I highly recommend sitting in the front, not only for the quieter ride, but also for prompter service. As soon as everything was cleared, including the trays, dessert service began.

Service began with a choice between fruit, cheese, and the apple pudding. We went with the sweet dessert, which was fantastic once again!^ Next, once that was cleared, coffee and tea were brought around, and I accepted a coffee with milk and sugar. Lastly, each passenger got Giotto chocolate balls!

One final thing that is important to note is that the trays are pretty small so you can fit both the entertainment system and tray on the tray table at the same time!^

At this point Shoother finished up, which was a fantastic movie! My brother decided to start sleeping, and I decided to start my trip report until the battery ran out on my laptop, which was around an hour later. At this point I figured it was time to catch some shuteye, since I wanted to enjoy the SQ experience as much as possible. I quickly checked out the restroom, which had a nice flower, as well as refreshment towels and moisturizers.

I fully reclined my seat, put both pillows by my head, and took advantage of the blanket. I have to say that the seat is not very comfortable. It is obviously a slanted seat but not quite flat. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s just uncomfortable. I know some people have issues with the Spacebed, but I don’t, so it’s not an issue like that. The seat was just very wavy so it was hard to get into a comfortable position, IMO. You really have to push yourself up in order not to slide down, a lot more so than with the Spacebed. The seats have a privacy partition which I pulled up, just because I could. Something I noticed was that the flight hardly ever got totally dark. The sun didn’t totally set for quite a while and rose very early, much more so than on other TATL flights I have taken.

Well, I got around two hours of very light sleep, at which point breakfast service began (a little over two hours prior to landing), with hot towels to start. The menu read as follows:

After the hot towels juice was brought around, and I took an OJ. Immediately thereafter the trays were brought around, and I noticed that the cart said that there were 18 cold meals and 22 hot meals, so I was happy to be in the front so I would get my choice. I decided to go with the omelette, and also took a croissant. I have to say that the presentation was very coach-esque. It was all on a very small tray and all served at once. The omelette tasted like rubber (not that I’ve actually tried rubber!), but for some strange reason I enjoyed it this morning. The fruit portion was somewhat small, which is usually my favorite part of the breakfast after a short transatlantic flight where dinner was just served a few hours earlier.

Breakfast trays were collected over an hour before landing, which seemed awfully early. At that point the entertainment systems were collected, which also seemed too early considering the fact that there is not much else to do until landing. I asked the purser if there were no immigration cards to fill out, and she commented that there were none for Germany, which surprised me, since I thought I remembered some from my last time to FRA! I quickly headed to the bathroom, where I noticed that there was a flower and some toiletries. We eventually began our descent at which point a last round of hot towels was handed out, and touched down on runway 23L at around 7:45AM, a mere five minutes before our connecting flight!

Now, before I move on, I wanted to add my additional commentary (as if there wasn’t enough already) about PrivatAir:

• I don’t know about anyone else, but I think a departure time of 4:40PM is WAY too early for a service like this. If the average person is like me, I can’t fall asleep by 6PM in my time zone, and I would think timing is especially important for most businesspeople. I have promised myself that whenever I actually need to be in Europe I wont take a flight that departs the east coast before 8PM, because I would actually like to sleep. Am I the only one that finds such an early departure incredibly poorly planned? Sure I guess that a 9PM departure may get into DUS too late for a full day of business, but how about at least 6PM, not to mention the current schedule doesn't allow a full day of business in NY.

• I was hoping that an aircraft marketed as a “Business Jet” would not have such unpersonalized service. We were only addressed by name once, and that was when the Purser was looking at the manifest. While the service was pretty good, it wasn’t particularly personalized.

• The portable entertainment system is definitely better than a DVD player since you don’t have all the DVD's to mess with, but I nonetheless prefer a standard PTV by far, since I love Airshow and it doesn’t require you to leave your tray table up when watching a movie.

• Again, for a business service like this I was disappointed that breakfast service already started two hours before landing. When people are trying to sleep as much as possible I would have hoped that they would push the service as close to arrival as possible.

• I LOVE the fact that boarding and disembarkation are a synch. That’s definitely a HUGE plus for this product!^

These are just a few of the points. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy I had the experience, but I would advise people to stick with mainline Lufthansa given the choice. While the more exclusive feel is nice, the seats are not as good and you can see the obvious issues above. Now, to continue my report.

We got to our parking spot by 7:50AM, so I was certain we would miss our connection. The purser announced that we would be bussing to the terminal, and announced that connecting passengers and Senator members that wanted to use the lounge should get on bus one, while passengers terminating in Dusseldorf should use bus two. We walked down the stairs and into bus one, where I would estimate a little over half of the plane went. I was hoping that they were holding our connecting flight, and the time just didn’t seem to pass until everyone was actually aboard! I took a quick pic of our plane, which actually looked huge from our perspective, and I noticed that the plane was actually parked right next to a gate, but I guess we couldn’t use it due to immigration.

At DUS:

So at around 7:55AM our bus began moving and we began our long 13 second journey! Folks, I have seen a lot of ridiculous stuff at airports, but this has to be one of the most ridiculous! The bus literally drove us 80 meters, and then dropped us off right in front! You have got to be kidding me, we hardly moved! At this point I was thinking that this could have been the difference between making our connection and not making it, but we actually both found it funny at the time.

We proceeded into the terminal where there was a security check, and there were about a dozen people in front of us. Much to my surprise there was a Lufthansa agent that loudly yelled our last name as well as the name of one other passenger, telling us to cut the lines and get through security fast! Wow, I was surprised they were holding the plane for us! There was an older lady in front of us who wouldn’t move, and the Lufty agent asked her if she was lucky, and she responded “yes!” Erm, ok… So, we waited for her to go in front of us, and as it turns out she had some issues with going through security. She got a full check, both through her bags and a full body search. The agents just didn’t seem to be very efficient, especially since they could have let us through quickly since they knew a flight was waiting, and just held her at the side. The Lufty agent even asked them to hurry it up a bit.

Well, around three minutes and a check through my bag later we were through security, and ran right around the corner, where the agent was waiting for us. We handed her our boarding passes, and she directed us to a little bus where the one other passenger was waiting. We drove to our connecting flight incredibly quickly, and got there a little after 8AM. It was basically like the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt… minus the Porsche… and the comfy F seat… and all the food. Either way the ground service was impressive, and I was surprised that we never really went through customs, since this was a connecting flight within the EU, so I thought we would have to clear customs at our first European gateway. We walked up the stairs and sighed relief…

Sunday, June 17
LH3760 (Operated by Eurowings)
DUS-ZRH
Aircraft: BAe146
Seat: 3F
Scheduled Departure Time: 7:50AM
Actual Departure Time: 8:05AM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 9:05AM
Actual Arrival Time: 9:15AM
Load: 60%C/100%Y

This was my first flight aboard a BAe146, so I was excited about trying it out. We lost our boarding passes somewhere between giving the lady our BP’s and getting to our seats, so we just plopped down in row three, since there were plenty of empty seats. As it turns out we were really in row two, but there was no harm. My first impression of the cabin was that it was very tight. The plane is in a 3-3 configuration throughout, and there is a curtain behind row four, which is where coach starts. For those not familiar with European business class, it is essentially coach with a blocked middle and more service. As soon as we settled down the door closed and we were on our way. The Captain came on the PA apologizing for the delay, and announced our flight time at 55 minutes, saying we should still get in on time.

We pushed back and had a pretty quick taxi to runway 23L, where we had a very slow takeoff. It’s hard to describe, but although the BAe146 has four engines, it’s very gradual in its movement. It just wasn’t a particularly strong aircraft. As we climbed we saw some of the nice German landscape, and I noticed something interesting about the window shades. Instead of there being just one shade, there are two that each go half way, one from the bottom, and one from the top.

The seatbelt sign was turned off about 15 minutes into our flight and service began immediately. The Purser, who was a middle-aged male, was pretty good. He started service by bringing the tray around, which consisted of a croissant, a strawberry drink, and some fruit, meat and cheese. Once that was done he came around with drinks, and I went with some orange juice, which was good. Overall it was a nice service for such a short flight!

Once that was done the purser took the cart to coach, which took most of the flight. The flight got a lot more interesting as we began our approach. The Captain came on the PA announcing that they just changed the arrival runways at ZRH, so it would take us about 15 minutes longer. At this point the person who was seated in 1A got his friend who was seated in coach to sit in 1C. He asked the female FA whether it was ok, and I didn’t exactly hear her answer. At that point the purser notices that he is now seated in 1C, and asks for an explanation. He says that he is in C and the seat next to him was empty, so his friend was going to sit next to him. The purser says that can’t happen, and the guy responds that the other FA said it was fine. He once again says he will have to go back to coach, at which point the C passengers says to the purser “Do you want to fight?” WOW! You have got to be kidding me. The purser responds “Of course I don’t want to fight, and this is my last warning, he will have to go back to coach." He eventually does, and everything was fine. That was simply amazing! Idiots!

We had a beautiful approach and I snapped some pictures of the landscape. Right before landing the Purser came around with a box of pralines for each C passenger. We landed at around 9:08AM, and slowly began our taxi to the gate. I saw plenty of familiar airlines, including the UA 767. We stood still on the taxiway for literally a second, and almost everyone in coach got up and collected their carry-ons. The Captain came on the PA announcing we were not at the gate, and said everyone should remain seated. Half of the people remained standing, and one guy even walked up to 1D so he would be first out. Wow, simply amazing! We eventually got to a gate at 9:15AM, and were on our way to what would be an even more interesting journey…

At ZRH:

My first opinion of ZRH was that it was quite nice. Unfortunately, nice has nothing to do with the practicality of the design. The walk to actually get to the main part of the terminal reminded me a bit of the Frankfurt Airport marathon. It just went on, and on, and on, and on.

Eventually we made it to the main part of the terminal, which was extremely nice. It has tall ceilings, excellent shops, and a very nice overall design, and I even spotted our SQ 77W! This was my first time here, so I wasn’t all too sure with the lounge situation. I remember the Star Alliance lounge and the Swiss lounge, which I have both heard a lot about, so we immediately spotted the Swiss lounge, which was before security. We decided to spend some time there, but it wasn’t that easy. We showed our BP’s for ZRH-SIN and the agent asked if we were sure we wanted to use this lounge and not the lounge past security. I asked if we weren’t able to use both, as Star Alliance Gold C passengers, and he said no, SQ will only pay for you to use one lounge. Erm, what? I then asked him if my Star Gold status couldn’t kick in to get me into another, and he said C class has priority over Star Gold, so that’s what determines what you get into. In other words, if I would have been flying SQ in Y I would be able to use them all… who writes these stupid policies? I finally asked if the lounge that was airside was the Star Alliance lounge and also if it had showers, both of which he responded to in the affirmative, which was fine to me then.

Well, we decided not to risk it so headed to security. This is a serious walk as well! We were departing from the E concourse, so we took the train over there. It is a very interesting train. As you drive it has lots of sounds, including cows, yodeling, talking, etc… pretty neat! Also, there is a screen show on the wall, with a ton of monitors so as you drive by it seems continuous! Fun!^

We got there and at first couldn’t figure out which way to go. We managed to find the right place and went to the C/F security line, where there was no wait. The agent checked our BP’s, and a couple of minutes later we were through. I left my belt and watch on, but had to take off my coat and take out all liquids. The detector beeped and I got searched, but we were through quickly. This part of the terminal was nice as well, and we spotted plenty of interesting airlines, including Thai, Qatar, etc. We headed to what we thought would be the Star Alliance lounge, since I desperately wanted a shower! The lounges are located up a level from the main concourse, and much to my surprise we only found the Bellevue lounge, which is a contracted lounge used by many carriers. We checked in, and I immediately asked about a shower, and she said they didn’t have any! I asked if there was another lounge around that did, and she said it would only be the landside lounges! Darn!

At this point it was around 10:30AM, so we went into the lounge for a bit. There wasn’t much there: really only drinks, hardly any snacks, and nice seating. It did have a fantastic view of the airport, and even had a beautiful balcony, although I’m not sure if we were allowed to use it, since it was locked. The lounge also has around eight laptops to use, but no wifi. Lastly, the lounge had no bathrooms, but rather they were located outside. Overall not impressive at all. My brother was not feeling well and decided to stay in the lounge and take a nap, while I decided to trek back outside security and take a shower. I left the lounge at around 10:45AM, and began the long walk. After getting off the train and being landside I had quite a hard time locating the Star Alliance lounge. Since I am apparently not technically entitled to getting into two lounges I thought I would go to the Star Alliance lounge and see what they say.

I got there at around 11AM, and the agent let me in immediately. She did stamp my BP in green with “Lounge Invitation Used.” Hmmm, maybe they forgot to stamp my BP airside, or maybe they assume no one would go back? This is apparently technically the “Star Alliance” lounge, although it is clearly marked as a Lufthansa Senator Lounge.

I went inside and it was an ok lounge. It had some nice seating and decent views of the tarmac, but the food selection was limited to some pastries. I guess I was just too spoiled with the NZ Koru Clubs. Once I had a look around I asked the agent to take a shower, the reason I came. She gave me the key to a shower right down the hall, and it was marked as “Star Alliance Shower.” I opened it and there indeed was a pretty decent shower. It had no toilet, but just a sink, a mirror, and shower. It had all in one bath gel/shampoo/conditioner, instead of individual ones. I took a quick shower and felt much better. I then headed back towards security, at which point it was around 11:45AM.

I took the train back and went through security, where there was no line!^ I put all my stuff back on the belt, and again decided not to take off my shoes, belt, or watch, so the detector went off. This time instead of using one of those waning things I got “hand checked.” The agent took me into a little room type thing with a curtain, and started patting me down. Quite strange, I have to say… Not sure why the waning wouldn’t have worked, but I guess that’s the price you pay.

I headed back to the Bellevue lounge and on the way saw the Qatar crew, who looked spiffy. I was back in the lounge at noon, and my brother was fast asleep. I woke him up and we decided to go to the gate, since we were bored and assumed boarding began around 45 minutes before departure, not to mention the lounge was totally packed.

We took the elevator down and headed to gate E46, which was relatively empty. The whole SQ crew was sitting there, to my surprise, since I figured they would already be aboard, as well as our immaculate aircraft. As it turns out, according to the monitor, boarding only begins at 12:50PM, which leaves a mere 25 minutes for boarding! WOW! Since we had time I decided to go to the gate agent and get my boarding passes printed on SQ stock, since I know they like having everyone on their own BP’s. Oh boy, this is where the trouble starts…

Here’s the dialogue:

Me: “Hi, we checked in for this flight in Newark yesterday with Lufthansa, do I need to get my tickets reprinted on Singapore ticket stock?”
Agent: “Sure, let me go ahead and do that for you”
***click click click***
Agent: “Ok, your final destination is Singapore?”
Me: “Nope, we are continuing to Tokyo from Singapore on SQ12.”
Agent (calls someone else over): “Hmmm…”

At this point I step back a little and all three agents are looking at my itinerary. They are conversing in Swiss without end, and have very confused looks on their faces. I could understand it a little with my German, but not much.

Me: “Is there a problem with the ticket?”
Agent: “We are trying to figure it out right now. Do you have a ticket with you for this itinerary?”
Me: “Sure, let me get that.”

Since this is an e-ticket I only had a receipt of the e-ticket, which is what I showed the agent. When I gave it to her she kept typing and working on it. I have to mention she was very polite. At this point around 10 more minutes pass, so I try to figure out what is going on.

Me: “Sorry, but is there an issue with the ticket?”
Agent: “Yes, we see your ZRH-SIN-ZRH flights with SQ, but we don’t see the SIN-NRT flight. Do you have a paper ticket for this?”
Me: “Nope, I don’t have a paper ticket, it’s part of the same e-ticket, as you can see on the itinerary. Do you mind if I sit down over there while you work this out.”
Agent: “Sure, I’ll call you up... no, I'll bring it over there myself when we are ready."

Well, another 20 or so minutes pass and the crew is aboard at this time, and I still haven’t heard. I decide to go back up to the agent and see what’s going on.

Me: “Any progress?”
Agent: “We’ve called ANA, United, and our offices and they all can’t find your ticket.”
Me: “How’s that possible? Lufthansa checked us in for the SIN-NRT flights without us even asking, and even had the same seat assignments, and somehow you can’t find it?”
Agent: “It’s a weird system and lets you select seats without actually being fully confirmed on the flight.”

At this point boarding begins, and I am totally in shock by how this happened. I didn’t even want to think about what could happen.

Agent: “I’m going to have to go ahead and offload you from the SIN-NRT flight, since you are not on it. I will have an agent waiting for you in Singapore to discuss it, but I am sure they will take care of you and put you up in a hotel."
Me: “Ma’am, you don’t understand. We actually want to see Tokyo, we have a non-refundable hotel there, and if I don’t take my NRT-SIN flight the rest of my ticket will be cancelled. As you know this is not my fault at all, and while I know it’s not your fault, I’m sure there’s something more SQ can do about this.”
Agent: “I’m very very sorry, and I know exactly how you must feel. If I were in your situation I would be a lot angrier than you are, as this is total sh!t. Just talk to them in Singapore and they can arrange something, maybe. Singapore takes good care of its customers.”

Well, that certainly wasn’t a message of much hope. Not exactly the mindset that I wanted going into my first flight in the new Singapore Business class. I was very disappointed to be offloaded, and treated like that, and it was definitely a burden I thought about the whole flight. We were going to the other side of the world and chances were apparently that we wouldn’t make our SIN-NRT flight. We boarded at around 1PM on the right side and went down the C/F jetway.

Sunday, June 17
SQ345
ZRH-SIN
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 11D
Scheduled Departure Time: 1:15PM
Actual Departure Time: 1:46PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 7:05AM (next day)
Actual Arrival Time: 7:20AM (next day)
Load: 100%C

Upon boarding I could immediately tell that this was an incredibly impressive product. By door 1L was the Inflight Service Manager, who had a nice wooden table out and was working on some paperwork. We went through First, which was amazing, and went right to our not-so-shabby C seats, in the first row. The seats were absolutely huge, almost like individual cabins. On the outside of the seats there are brightly lit neon lights displaying the seat numbers, almost like some fancy movie theater.(has my brother's "Do Not Disturb" sign since he wanted to sleep). No picture can do them justice, but they are amazing. The back of each cabin has a big painting (or print, maybe?), and a lot of the public areas have wooden appointments. I immediately stowed the carry-ons and took a few of pics of the seats, and within a couple of minutes the first FA was there to both take our coats and offer PDB service. I went with an OJ, which was served in fantastic glassware! Unfortunately, it was only about ¼ full, which was pathetic, and something which continued throughout the flight. Refills were offered, though. Newspapers and magazines were also quickly brought around.

My brother was not feeling well so asked for some cold medicine, and they seemed quite concerned. They asked him a series of questions, including whether he had any alcohol to drink, etc. They brought him some pills shortly, as well as more water.^

As boarding continued I played around with the seats for quite a while, and as I said earlier, they were extremely impressive. Each seat has a nice blue pillow on it upon boarding. The nice thing about row 11 and row 14, which are the two bulkhead rows, are that they have substantially more space than the rest of the seats. Instead of “digging” into the seat in front of you, you have a huge open space. The TV’s were huge, and they have four different compartments in the front, including a vanity mirror, drink holder, USB card reader and charger, and a storage unit. The tray table pops out from the right side of the seat. Also on the right is a cup area and a compartment where the menus were already stored, as well as the noise canceling headsets. This is also where the seatpocket is located, which is where the in-flight magazine, duty free magazine, safety card, etc. can be found. On the left is the TV controller and seat controls. Both sides have LCD lights, which are fantastic!^ For those not traveling with anyone else, don’t worry about getting either of the two seats in the middle, since you literally can hardly talk to the person next to you since there is a partition and the seats are HUGE!

The seat itself is HUGE! You can literally seat two people in it, which is why the seatbelt itself only starts about six inches from each side. Much like the NZ seatbelt, it is very comfortable and padded (which is actually an airbag!), which is fantastic! The new seat is simply amazing!^

There was some nice classical music playing, which is similar to the one in their promo videos for the new cabins. One thing that I just didn’t understand is why SQ chose not to put overhead bins in the center of Business, or none at all in First, for that matter. In C the side of the planes has overhead bins, while the center is just open space. While it may be nice to have taller ceilings, this is particularly impractical, IMO. One of the nice things about spacious C & F is generally that you can have your own overhead bin, both so that you can just throw stuff in there, and also so you aren’t disturbing anyone else when getting stuff out. Just my opinion…

By around 1:10PM the Captain came on the PA, saying that due to ATC routings today, we would have to wait about half an hour before we could leave. Unfortunately he didn’t provide any other details, such as the flight time, route, etc.

As the door shut around 1:15PM the safety video immediately began, which I always find incredibly unique on SQ. The Captain made one more announcement saying it would take a few more minutes until we could depart, and at 1:46PM we pushed back. We had a long taxi to runway 16 and after an incredibly long roll were airborne.

We slowly began our climb and as we passed through 10K feet I took my shoes off, reclined my seat a bit, and started to play with the entertainment. I immediately noticed that the TV controller has a little screen that says “Time to SIN: 11hr15min,” which I thought was a pretty nifty feature. It also has the FA call button as well as a “Do Not Disturb” button, which will be reflected on the outside of your seat if you so choose. Fantastic feature!^ Unfortunately, as I would quickly find out, there were plenty of flaws in the entertainment system on this flight. Throughout the flight time the airshow was totally inaccurate. For example, the flight time remained at 11hr15min for hours, and then when it actually did change maintained that time for hours as well. That wasn’t very good! Also, while I’m at it, while the movies worked fine, the TV shows didn’t. Most of them showed “this selection is not currently available,” which was a huge letdown considering that I had seen most of the movies I wanted to see. As we passed through around 15K feet the seatbelt sign was turned off, and we continued our incredibly slow climb to our initial cruising altitude of FL350.

As we leveled off service immediately began. The first thing the FA’s did was close all the curtains, including the one right in front of me which said “First Class” at the top, which was interesting. The slippers (or whatever you want to call the shoe type things on SQ) as well as eyeshades were handed out. The FA then came around with hot towels, which were fantastic! They were quickly collected, at which point the initial beverage service began and meal orders were taken. I went with a Diet Coke, while my brother decided to just sleep. He turned his seat into a bed and off he was until landing. He slept for 10 hours! Once again the glass was only about 1/2 full. I swear, this is worse than Ted! I don’t get it, are the SQ FA’s trained to pour incredibly small amounts, or what? As the service progressed I watched Airshow for a bit.

Once the initial beverage service was complete the meal service began. The lunch menu read as follows:

On the new 77W SQ also has new glassware and silverware, which is fantastic! While I initially thought it was hideous in pictures, it quickly grew on me. Service began with satay, which I gladly accepted. This is without question my favorite part about flying SQ! With the new dishes there were three separate dishes, one more the peanut sauce, one more cucumbers, and one for onions. The main plate contained two pieces of chicken satay and one piece of beef satay. Yum! It came with a fork and knife, as well as refreshment towel.

As soon as the satay was collected, the tablecloth, salt & pepper shakers, side plate, and water glass were brought out. Unlike SQ’s old C, the new C does not have tray service, but rather table service. This truly is a fantastic enhancement, and gives the product a real first class feeling!^ Once that was totally set the starter was brought out on a plate, as well as bread from the breadbasket, of which I took garlic bread. Both the garlic bread and starter were phenomenal! Absolutely can’t be beat.

As soon as that was cleared the main course was brought out, and I selected the beef. It was fantastic as well, just how it should be!^ Drink refills were offered at this point, and I asked for some more garlic bread, and the FA said she would get it shortly. Unfortunately I never received it, which was a bit of a letdown since the “Singapore Girls” never fail, in my experience. The FA asked me when she brought the dessert around whether I had received it, and was surprised to hear I hadn’t, but I did turn it down at that point. As soon as that was cleared, which took a few minutes, dessert service began. I went with the ice cream and declined the cheese, since the meal was very filling.

Unfortunately the dessert was not so much ice cream as it was sorbet, which I really wasn’t in the mood for. It was fine though, and the silverware and tablecloth were cleared in due time. Lastly, pralines and coffee were brought around, both of which I declined. At this point we were around 2hr30min into the flight.

Throughout the service there was some consistent light chop, and much to my surprise the seatbelt sign was turned on a few times. In all my flying on SQ I don’t think I have ever seen the seatbelt sign go on, because I was told that when the seatbelt sign goes on the service has to stop completely, so they want to avoid it whenever possible. As a result I was surprised to see the seatbelt sign go on and see service continue. Anyone know the real policy?

I decided to recline my seat a little and test out the lounging position of the seats, since I have heard less than stellar reviews of it. All the seat controls are located on the left side of the seat, and they include recline, the footrest, and the legrest. Something that I found very comfortable instead of the legrest was the front part of the seat, which was where the back end of the bed folded down. It is maybe eight inches long, and is perfect for lounging your feet on when the seat is reclined a bit. The legrest itself is also quite nice, and the recline is sufficient. While you can’t put the seat incredibly far back for lounging, I definitely thought it was adequate and extremely comfortable. Overall I was very impressed by the new product!

I decided to settle in for some TV on the relatively large screen (not as big as those monster screens in F!) I ended up watching reruns of some sitcoms I had already seen before, which was unfortunate. Since many of the ones I wanted to see, like Malcolm in the Middle, Two and a Half Men, The Simpsons, etc. were not working, I went with a British sitcom, After You've Gone. They passed the time, I guess, is the only thing to say. At this point I decided to check out the bathrooms, one of which was absolutely huge (the one on the right side!). I decided to take a picture of the bathroom and the amenities inside, and on the way out got a pretty weird look from the FA’s. I guess I should have explained to them what I was doing.

I decided to work on my trip report, at which point two older men, the ISM and someone else, approach me. Here’s the dialogue:

ISM: “We noticed that you were taking pictures of the bathrooms. The Captain would like to know the reason for this.”
Me: “Oh sorry. I love your new product and was impressed by the size of the bathrooms, so thought I would take a picture. I am really enthusiastic about your new product and am writing a report on it, so I figured that would be important to note. I can show you the pictures I took, if you would like.”
ISM: “Oh no, that’s alright. You have to understand that we have higher security standards as of late and are always careful, so unless you have permission from the crew you can’t take pictures. (He goes on and on, but he had an extremely strong accent, so I couldn’t really understand him. I thought he mentioned something about me talking to the captain after the flight, but I wasn’t exactly sure.) Do you have a business card on you?”
Me: “Sorry, I don’t. Here you can see the report I am working on for this trip that I am taking. I am a member of FlyerTalk (show him the FT luggage tag), which is an organization of flying enthusiasts.”
ISM: “OK, sorry and thank you very much.”

Now, I can understand the fact that he wanted some clarification, and I totally see that I should have asked for permission, and definitely will in the future when taking pictures of anything but my seat/food, but I just have an issue with the way they approached me. First of all, I didn’t much favor the fact that he had to start it with “The Captain.” I don’t know how that helps, other than him clearly trying to make me feel uncomfortable. I think him asking for an explanation would have been more appropriate. Second, I think it was a bit of an overkill for two people to come instead of just the ISM. They were kind of talking over each other in the part I couldn’t understand, and just seemed to be creating an unnecessary hectic to the issue. I think this would have been best dealt with on a one-to-one basis. Like I said I will be more cautious in the future and I appreciate his concern, but I thought it was handled poorly.

At this point there were around eight hours left in the flight, so I decided it was time for some shuteye. Stupidly enough I decided not to change into my PJ’s, and turned the seat into a flat bed. With the new seat you get up, pull the latch, which is located on the back of the seat, and fold over the seat. This connects to the side of the seat and the front of the seat, creating a HUGE surface area. The back side of the seat already has a comforter of sorts, which automatically makes the bed very comfortable. There is a label on the comforter that says “This bed linen has been freshly laundered for your comfort. Have a good rest.” There are also two pillows, the one that was found on the seat from the beginning, as well as a larger one behind. I put both at the head of the bed and pulled the huge blanket over me, and I was asleep in no time. This seat is simply incredible for sleeping!^ I swear, it is just as comfortable as my bed at home, which I think is quite comfortable. I am six feet tall (well 5’11.75” if you want to get technical) and had to lie somewhat diagonally. What I really love about the seat is that you can really stretch your hands and your legs out, and really lie in any position you want.

I got around six hours of real sleep, and was woken up by the cabin lights for breakfast. I was immediately thirsty and saw that the person next to me had a nice bottle of water, so was very surprised to not find a bottle near my seat. I know that normally on SQ even when people are sleeping they will leave a bottle of water on their seat. That was a bit disappointing.

Before I could get my seat back into a suitable position hot towels were brought around. I pondered the idea of breakfast in bed, which I eventually decided against, although it was possible. Another great thing about the seat is the tray. For those of us that like to get up, use the restroom, or get something from the overhead during the flight, this tray table is perfect. It swivels around so you can just turn it a bit and easily slip out of the seat!^ I put the seat back into the upright position, turned on my TV watching Airshow, and breakfast service began. The menu read as follows:

Within a couple of minutes juices were brought around, and I gladly accepted a refreshing OJ. Once that was done the tablecloths were brought around, and the fruit starter was immediately served, which was delicious. What I love about SQ is that they usually only give you the tablecloth when service actually starts, which is great since you don’t sit there for 20 minutes empty-handed. The breadbasket was brought around shortly, and I took a croissant with butter and strawberry jam. I also took a cup of coffee with breakfast.

Once that was done the entrees were brought around, and I went with the waffle option. It too was fantastic! Overall the actual food on SQ is unbeatable, IMO. The tray was cleared once this was finished, at which point my brother woke up after a restful night’s sleep. Just prior to this the FA came to me and asked if he was my brother, and asked if he was really sick, because he was sleeping a lot. I explained that we had been traveling for so long and he maybe caught a cold.

I watched a couple more sitcoms and worked a bit on my trip report, once again, pondering what issues I would encounter in Singapore in regards to the ticket issue and to see if the Captain really did want to talk to me about my pictures. It was definitely a burden (the former, not the latter), and I was looking forward to getting off the plane. The menus were collected at this point, which is unfortunately pretty standard for SQ, although they usually let you keep them upon request. We began our smooth descent and as we descended through 15,000 feet the seatbelt sign was turned on. We began a nice approach into Changi, and had an incredibly smooth landing at around 7:10AM. We taxied to the gate next to a bunch of SQ heavies and even spotted the United 777. We got to the gate, the seatbelt sign was turned off, and we were on our way. Since my brother had slept the whole flight and his hair was pretty out of control, the FA’s brought him a comb and said “Here, I think you need this,” which was cute. They asked him if he flies the route often, which was interesting…

At SIN:

Ah, the fun continues! I was expecting someone waiting for me on the jetway, be it an agent to figure out what went wrong with my itinerary, like I had hoped, or an agent asking about my photography. Almost like roulette. To my surprise, neither was the case. I figured that they didn’t really care about my photography and that my issue for the connecting flight had been sorted out, which I thought was great. We decided to head to the transfer desk to get our connecting BP’s, hopefully. I am a big fan of Changi airport, except for the fact that you have to walk seemingly nearly a mile to get from the far gates to the center of the terminal.

We eventually got to the transfer desk, which is beautiful, and the agent quickly printed out our BP’s. I was thrilled that everything was alright, and couldn’t help but feel gratitude for the wonderful agent in ZRH, who I was sure had sorted it out… or did she? Not only did we get the BP’s but we got them for my preferred seats, the same ones we had before we were "offloaded."

At this point it was approaching 8AM, so we decided to head to the SKL. No layover in SIN is complete without a quick stop at the pond on the way there. My brother and I both decided to pass on anything to eat or drink, and instead worked on checking email, etc. I walked around and took a few pics, and on the way back did something embarrassing.

There was a guy at another computer who I thought was my brother, both because I wasn’t really looking but was rather acting on location, as well as the fact that he looked a little like my brother, who was pulling out a laptop. I go “Wow, I didn’t know you got a new laptop,” at which point he turns around, looks at me like I’m crazy, says “Actually, I’ve had it for a while,” and I realize it’s not him. Hmm, not quite sure what can really be said in a situation like this, so I just say “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.” I conveniently go to the computer directly ahead of his to my brother in total shame. Definitely one of the more embarrassing moments in my life, along with the time that I thought someone else was my mother, but that was when I was seven. Anyway, we checked email, etc., and at around 8:55AM headed towards our gate. Each gate has individual security, so we put all our carry-ons onto the belt and showed the agent our BP’s.

An interesting note was that the agent asked the lady in front of us “Would you mind please removing your coat,” to which she responded “Yes I would,” and walked through. Jeez! We got through just before 9AM for our boarding time of 9:20AM. After the security check is the passport and BP check, at which point we hand over our BP’s and the fun starts once again, and we were also handed the immigration cards for Japan.

After the lady types for a few minutes and looks at the screen she says “Sir, do you have a ticket for this segment please?” I show her my e-ticket receipt, and she gets another gentlemen at the gate for help. He says that this was not booked properly and would require a paper ticket, and I just use my only defense, which is “Sir, I booked this itinerary as one ticket, here is the e-ticket, it really isn’t my fault if it got messed up, and we have a non-refundable hotel in Tokyo.” At this point he keeps working at it and I am once again getting nervous. After a while (around 15 minutes), the guy goes “Ok, thank you, you can board.” WHEW!

I would love if someone had some info on this issue. I assume he didn’t all of a sudden find something but rather just let us on since we had BP’s, were past security, etc., and it’s kind of hard to deny someone on the flight at that point. Either way, I was happy to be aboard! We walked down the jetway towards door 1L.

Monday, June 18
SQ12
SIN-NRT
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Seat: 19A
Scheduled Departure Time: 9:45AM
Actual Departure Time: 9:48AM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 5:35PM
Actual Arrival Time: 5:22PM
Load: 90%C

We were immediately directed towards the staircase by the ISM, and were upstairs within a few seconds. We placed all our carry-ons in the overhead bin, and surprisingly they all fit, since the upper deck generally has tiny bins. My coat was taken within a minute, and the very friendly FA offered us pre-departure drinks, the choice being between OJ, water, and champagne. I went with an OJ and my brother with water. Newspapers, magazines, etc. were also brought around at this point. It was incredibly warm in the cabin at this point, and actually throughout the whole flight, for that matter, and I just can’t understand why most non-US airlines don’t have individual air vents. Someone, please give me a reason!

For those not familiar with the SQ product, this route has the Spacebed product in Business Class, which is a slanted flat bed. It is also known as the “old Singapore Business,” now that they have the newer one, but is still a competitive international product, and there’s hardly anything “old” about it. The seats are very nice and the TV is of a nice size. The upper deck also has storage bins on the side, which are very practical. Unfortunately instead of having 100 movies like the previous flight this one only had 80.

The FA also came around with the menus and wine list, and only gave us the wine list, since we had "booked the cook." I asked for a menu anyway, and she gladly obliged. I had forgotten that we did BTC, but she confirmed that I ordered chicken and my brother ordered “chicken bass.” So, much like one of our favorite celebrities, I asked “So, is it chicken or is it fish?” knowing darn well she meant chilean bass. She got a good laugh out of the question, and came back confirming it was indeed chilean bass. The door closed just a couple of minutes late, the captain made some general announcements, and the safety video commenced almost immediately.

As that wrapped up we began our quick taxi to the runway, where we were airborne after an extremely long takeoff roll. As we climbed through around 10,000 feet I began to recline my seat, get comfortable, and turn on the TV. I immediately noticed that there were around 5hr45min left in the flight according to Airshow, which made the entire flight time around six hours. I decided to get the immigration forms out immediately and fill them out, and they were done within 10 minutes.

As we leveled off at our cruising altitude, service began and I started my movie, Starter for 10. Hot towels were immediately brought around by one of the three FA’s on the UD (one female, two male), and drink service began, followed quickly by lunc. The menu read as follows:

Satay was quickly brought around, this time still on the old china. We were asked whether we preferred chicken, beef, or both, and we both went for both. Delicious!

After that the tablecloth and starter was brought out, all of which I ate except for the duck. Within a few more minutes the main course was brought around, and the chicken was absolutely fantastic, including the sides. My brother also liked his bass.^ Shortly thereafter dessert was brought around, and I took the ice cream, which I thought was not going to be good, but turned out to be fantastic. Lastly I took one of those delicious pralines, which was a great conclusion to an awesome meal!

Shortly thereafter individual bottles of water as well as eyeshades and socks were brought around, which will be great to add to the collection.;0

At this point I decided to work on my trip report for a little bit, since I was really falling behind. If I don’t write within a certain amount of time the notes that I take during the flight stop to make sense, so I worked on it for a little over an hour. At that point there were around 2.5 hours left in-flight, and I decided to take a nap. I woke up as we were beginning our descent. I put my seat back into the upright position and we had a pretty bumpy landing at around 5:15PM. We got to our gate within a few more minutes, and finally reached our destination.

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At NRT:

We walked as fast as we could towards immigration, since we really wanted to get to the hotel and relax. There was a 10 minute line at most at immigration, which wasn’t bad. We were asked by someone at the beginning of the immigration line to bring something to the immigration officer, which was an informal survey of the wait times. We were through immigration quickly without any questions, and then headed immediately to customs, where there was about a five-minute line. There are individual agents in areas similar to supermarket check-out counters, where they search you if they feel like it, it seems. If they do, the whole line is held up, since you queue for one specific line instead of the next available one. There was a lady in front of us that got her bag searched, but that didn’t take forever, fortunately. The agent just asked if we had any food with us, we said no, and he let us through. We were totally through by around 5:45PM.

The arrivals area is quite nice, and we immediately proceeded to the bus counter for the Friendly Limousine Bus which was recommended to us by our hotel. Since Narita airport is over an hour from Tokyo, a cab is way too expensive, so it’s between a train, which requires a cab from the station, and a direct bus. The direct bus was 3,000 Yen per person, which was a reasonable deal. We headed outside, where it was disgustingly hot and humid, towards our departure “gate,” which was gate 11, where the bus was leaving at 6:15PM. I swear they run the bus service like an airline. There are a bunch of baggage handlers, you get a stub corresponding to your bag, they make boarding announcements, and they have gates. What more could we ask for? During the ride there is an automated message which is pretty funny, which goes like this: “Portable telephones should not be used on the bus as they annoy the neigbors.” Another funny thing on the ride home was that there were three American engineers in front of us that couldn’t figure out the time difference between the east coast and Tokyo for the life of them. They knew it was 13 hours, but couldn’t actually do the math, or at least agree on it

We finally got to the hotel at around 7:40PM and were happy to have finally made it!

Here is my report on the recently rebranded ANA Intercontinental Tokyo, a stay we really enjoyed:

Our Stay in Tokyo:

Tokyo is simply a fascinating city. While we were only there for a little under three days, I believe we saw a lot. We explored various regions of Tokyo, including Odaiba, Ginza, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Akihabara, Ueno, and Asakusa.

One of the best things about Tokyo is it's functionality and the people. Unlike in NYC, I didn't see a single person honk their horn in Tokyo. I hardly saw a wrapper on the street, a homeless bum drinking beer, or a disrespectful person. This is why I love many larage Asian cities, like Seoul, Honk Kong (well, part of it), and Tokyo. We managed to transport ourselves on the subways with no grasp of the Japanese language, and it was safe, easy, and cheap.

The concierge arranged a self-guided walking tour for us the first day, which was very hot and humid, and we explored Ginza, including the 4-chome Intersection, as well as the Sony Building. We then headed to the Tsukiji Market, which is the largest wholesesale market in Japan.

We then headed over to Asakusa, which was quite a walk, and had some interesting stuff on the way, including a temple. There were some cool outdoor shopping areas, which were interesting to walk through. We got to Sensoji Temple, which we explored for a bit.

We then took a water taxi back towards our area of town, and on the way saw Asahi Breweries, which eventually brought us to the Botanic Gardens, which were beautiful, and also boasts a 300-year-old tree.

The next day we explored Odaiba, and went up to the top of the Fuji TV Headquarters, which is a large sphere that boasts great views of Tokyo!

After that we headed to an area that was recommended in the United Three Perfect Days article as one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world, and it sure lived up to its title! We walked around the streets near it, which were a totally new side of Tokyo for us, and we saw one of the most interesting things. There was a one-lane street and one car just decided to park right in the middle. This caused a backup of around 50+ cars, since there was no way out, so two cops were there taking pics of the car. The amazing part was that there wasn't a single honk and no one showed any anger. I could only imagine what would happen if this were NYC! Eventually a young lady comes trotting up to the car as if she didn't do anything wrong, and one cop took her to the side while the other moved her car.

That night we went to what was recommended as a "traditional Japanese restaurant," Gonpachi. Hmm, it was traditional alright. While the interior was much to our liking, I can't say the same about the food. We ordered the course meal, and the starter was a "green salad." Great, I figure, nothing creative here! Now, if you are thinking I am a completely bland eater that is scared to try something new you would be absolutely... correct! My brother didn't eat the salad because he said he didn't like it. He failed to inform me that those little things that I thought were crunchies were actually miniature fish! When I asked the waitress when she came back what it was, she said "Oh, just little fishes." Needless to say (for me, at least), I was done for the night. Don't get me wrong, I am not putting down that type of food, I am just saying it's not "my" type of food. Some good sake did the job of washing it down, though.

The next day we took an airport shuttle at 1:30PM, for what was an uneventful ride to the airport.

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At NRT:

We arrived at Terminal 1 in NRT at around 2:45PM, and immediately walked into the new Star Alliance terminal. The new terminal is fantastic, easy to navigate, and practical. As you walk in the left side is all for coach, as is marked on the huge overhead signs, the center-right for Business, further right for First, and the furthest right for Star Gold. We quickly found the ANA check-in, where there was no line at all. I was concerned that maybe they couldn’t find our ticket either since I added the SIN-NRT-SIN at the same time, but they had no issues!^

Once again, this is where the fun resumes. As we are checking in there is a Japanese businessman talking to an agent, kind of kneeling down. I can see they are talking about our bags, and clearly look at them. On a completely unrelated note our agent asks how many bags we are going to check, and we say none. She comes around to our side, and says that my brother’s bag is too big. She puts it on the scale and it weighs 10kg, which she points out. My brother asks what the maximum weight is, and she says “There is none, t’s too big.” Erm, why she put it on the scale then is beyond me. My brother asked how big it can be, and instead of telling him, she rolls over that “your bag must fit in here” thing from the other side of check-in. You have got to be kidding me! She asks my brother to put his carry-on in there, and it just hardly doesn’t fit. My brother tries to fit it in for a few minutes, but it's literally just a tad too big.

Next she brings over the measurement tape. Wow, this is getting comical! She measures my brother’s carry-on, and it is precisely one centimeter too wide and one centimeter too long, so you think that would be ok, right? Oh, no! “Sorry sir, you can’t take that aboard!” My brother goes “Please, you have to understand we are flying three airlines with short connections and we know it will get lost, so please let me take it aboard.” At this point there were three agents involved, and they stood there conversing in Japanese for around 10 minutes, constantly looking at the carry-on and measuring it over and over, as if the dimensions change every minute. They just weren’t decisive, which is why we kept trying.

I am simply shocked that they would make all this fuss over one centimeter for a C passenger! Eventually my brother gives in and says “Fine, check it,” at which point they spend a couple of minutes looking at the computer, saying “OK, so you want it checked to Singapore?” He then again explained the fact that we had three connections and we would need it checked all the way to Newark. The agents then converse among each other, and then one goes “Sorry sir, but unfortunately you are going to have to carry this bag aboard.” You have got to be kidding me! WOW! If I wouldn’t know any better I would have thought we were on Boiling Point or some other freak show.

To be honest I wasn’t really surprised, though, since I know Japanese society as a whole is generally very “by the book,” and don't usually make exceptions. Well, at least we eventually had our BP’s all the way to ZRH, as well as a lounge invitation. The agents apologized for taking so long, and directed us in the direction of security.

Security was located just a minute away, and hardly had a line, which was nice. The agent was very friendly, bowed to every passenger, and thanked us. While the process is just as annoying as the TSA, it’s the friendliness and professionalism that makes the process all the more bearable, IMO.

Once we were through security we had to go to the departures passport check, which took foeva’. There were pretty long lines, and it took around 20 minutes, which I guess isn’t all that bad. We observed all the crews going through the crew lane, all of which were actually United folks. I believe we saw three individual crews go through, or at least three cockpit crews. There was this one guy who showed up running with his family of five, and was brought to the special lane. He apparently lost the arrivals card so had to fill out the whole card, and was screaming how “[his] flight leaves in 15 minutes,” trying to get around filling it out, and how he doesn't have time for it. It was pretty interesting to watch.

By around 3:45PM we were in the airside area and my brother had to do some duty free shopping. I have to say that the terminal was much nicer than I had remembered, which is maybe because there have been changes since the Star Alliance moved under one roof. Either way, NRT turned into a much nicer airport since last time, and actually one which was pretty decent! I saw plenty of United and ANA planes, which provided great viewing. At around 4:15PM we headed to the ANA lounge, where we handed them our invite and were directed to the left. This place has to be the epitome of overstaffed. There must have been eight agents there just to great people. Jeez, almost embarrassing to go in there!

This was my first time in this ANA lounge, I believe, and I was extremely impressed. The lounge has fantastic tarmac views, very nice interiors, and a decent selection of drinks and snacks. While I just remember packaged snack mix last time, this time they had sushi, finger sandwiches, and all kinds of packaged goodies, which were perfect since we were incredibly hungry. Also, they have ice cream available upon request!

Since the lounge is so extremely overstaffed and they have agents all around, it’s almost like they are hawking over you as you go to the food and drink area. I asked an agent if I would take a picture of the buffet (the lesson I learned from SQ), and she said yes and even opened the panels for better viewing!^

As soon as we were done snacking we headed to the laptop area to check email, etc. At around 5:10PM we decided to head to gate 52 for boarding, which was at 5:15PM.

We got there exactly at 5:15PM, at which point the agents held up a sign for Business and a sign for Coach, one for each lane. The sign said we should form a single filed line to board the aircraft within our respective cabins. I am not sure if I understand the logic behind doing it this way, since making coach passengers line up single file doesn’t seem to speed up the boarding process. Nonetheless, I was absolutely impressed by the order in which people proceeded, especially compared to boarding of a Lufthansa flight, for example. Within a couple more minutes boarding began and we were in the early stages of our journey home…

Thursday, June 21
NH901
NRT-SIN
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Seat: 3A
Scheduled Departure Time: 5:40PM
Actual Departure Time: 5:30PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 11:40PM
Actual Arrival Time: 11:25PM
Load: 100%C

I should preface this by saying that I had extremely low expectations coming aboard, since I have heard that NH regional business is less than stellar. That being said, I was very impressed by the product! There were three FA’s at the door ready to direct us to our seats. We were in row three, which is actually the second row. In Business Class on this aircraft NH seems to skip every second row, and just have odd numbered rows.

Within a few minutes coats were hung, and within a couple more minutes newspapers and magazines were brought around. The seat itself was not bad. The pitch was around 50”, they were nicely appointed with wood-like center consoles, and unlike other airlines, it’s in a nice 2-1-2 configuration!^ Each seat already had a set of slippers in the seatback pocket, as well as the inflight magazine, duty free magazine, an explanation of using the power for laptops, and the movie selection.
The movie choices were quite impressive, and were as follows:

Ghost Rider
Music and Lyrics
A Good Year
Bubble Fiction… Boom or Burst
Dororo
I Just Didn’t Do It
Big River
Red Beard
Freedom Writers
The Holiday
Rocky Balboa
Déjà vu
Stranger Than Fiction
Papillon
The Goodbye Girl

Within a few more minutes an FA came around with cardigans, which we accepted but never ended up using. There were no pre-departure beverages offered. According to some people on the NH forum it is illegal for Japanese carriers to serve pre-departure beverages (even juice and water) prior to takeoff. Anyone know the reason for this rule? There was the standard boarding music of Another Sky by Taro Hakase playing faintly in the background!^

As the door was about to close there was an etiquette type video, which was quite funny. It was made up of little stick figures, which were showing what isn’t appropriate on an airplane. At that point the door closed and we pushed back. I snapped a quick picture of the plane next to us, which looked huge in comparison. I was surprised that the safety demonstration was very brief, and didn’t talk about oxygen masks, life vests, etc. The FA then announced the flight time of 6hr36min, which was the only flight info we heard, since there were no announcements from the flight deck whatsoever.

As we began our taxi to 16R the monitors in the front of the cabin were showing the view from the nose wheel camera, which was awesome, and stayed on for most of the climb and came back on for the descent!^ After a lengthy taxi we got to runway 16R and immediately took off, climbing right over the water.

As we passed through around 10K feet the seatbelt sign was turned off, and I began experimenting with the seat. While it was not all that spacious, the storage was pretty good, and the legrest was comfortable. The seat was very easy to use, and quite comfortable for lounging. I took out the PTV and we decided to watch A Good Year, which I have already seen on a Ted flight, but my brother had not. Since it was a great movie I thought it would be worth seeing again, which it was. One issue with the PTV’s is that while they are a good size, it is very hard to position them. They don’t have any locked positions, so you just have to hope they stay. My brother actually had to hold his PTV the whole flight, since it didn’t want to stay in any one position. As we leveled off at FL360 service promptly began.

First the menus were handed out, followed immediately by the drink service from a tray, which just consisted of champagne and green tea, and I went with the champagne. Within ten minutes the main meal service began. The menu read as follows:

Service began with a round of drinks and a “snack basket.” I chose a Diet Coke as a drink, and I found it interesting how it was served. First the FA poured the drink, and then she added two ice cubes, causing the glass to spill over. I noticed that was standard procedure throughout the flight, although that seems incredibly impractical, both in terms of spills, as well as the “plopping.”

The drink was served with the snack basket, which consisted of three types of snacks in a snack basket. I found the instructions on the back of the menu quite entertaining. Sounded a bit like third grade snack time to me.

Fun time with fresh snacks!

These scrumptious snacks are served in separate packs to assure their fresh flavour. Enjoy them as follows:

1.Remove three snack packs from bamboo basket.

2. Empty snack contents into basket (used as a dish).

3. Neatly collect empty packs. Enjoy your snacks!

Needless to say I found the instructions pretty funny, kind of like the instructions on the back of a box of Pop Tarts. Gotta say they were pretty good though!

At this point the tablecloths were distributed and the appetizer was served, along with a refill of drinks. To be honest I am not much of an exotic eater, and after what I had eaten the night before, wasn’t a huge fan of it, although it looked very good if you like that kind of food. The salad was quite good despite being very small. At this point rolls were brought around, and by default everyone with the international meal got two of them.

Within another 15 minutes the main course was brought around, which was pretty lousy. The meat was very fat, but the rest was good. Another 20 minutes later dessert was brought around, which consisted of some delicious (not to mention well decorated!) cake and fruit, as well as coffee! Lastly, once everything was cleared, truffles were brought around, which were in individual boxes.

I have to say the service was absolutely fantastic! I have always thought that an airline's FA’s tell you so much about their respective countries and cultures. The NH service was fantastic! It was very well polished, incredibly professional, very precise, yet at the same time not servant like and over-attentive, and I was never addressed by name. I really enjoyed this type of service, and am already looking forward to flying them longhaul from IAD-NRT in two weeks!^

As soon as that was totally wrapped up, individual bottles of Evian water were brought around!^ As the movie finished up I decided to work a little on my trip report, since the seats did have power ports, and also watch Airshow. We hit what I would consider some moderate turbulence in the middle of the flight, yet the seatbelt sign was never turned on. What I found interesting was that it was turned on for a few minutes in the middle of the flight when there was no turbulence whatsoever. Strange. I napped for around an hour, and the recline was pretty decent. While not as good as UA C, the excellent legrest really made the seat all the more comfortable.

Around an hour before landing FA’s came around with juice and water, and I took an apple juice. This was followed very shortly by Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream on a plate, which was delicious! I am very surprised that NH chose this kind of a snack, since I know that many Asians are lactose intolerant, which is why, I believe, that UA doesn’t serve ice cream on their routes to Asia in C.

Unfortunately I spilled some apple juice all over the center console, and the FA’s literally ran to my seat. They helped clean it up, and no harm was done in the end. We began our descent about 30 minutes out, and landed early at around 11:20PM, getting to the gate only five minutes later. The NH 767’s have the doors that open upwards, and while we were waiting to depart the aircraft the Purser asked us if we finally arrived at our destination, and my brother explained it was actually the beginning of our journey. We bid the crew farewell and were on our way.

At SIN:

We got into gate D36 in Terminal 1, which was entirely deserted. We made the five minute trek to the train which would take us to Terminal 2, where our flight was leaving from and where the SKL is located. We proceeded directly to the SKL, and were there at around 11:40PM. I checked my email and had a couple of bottles of water so I would be hydrated for the next flight, and checked the monitors for our departure. First of all, I was surprised by how many flights SQ has at this time of night! That being said, I was even more surprised that the SKL was relatively empty.

Our flight was already showing “Boarding” by midnight and “Last Call” by 12:20AM, which made no sense since boarding was at 12:35AM. We decided nonetheless to head over to F58, our departure gate, and understood why they said boarding was so early. This gate is pretty far away, and was a 15-minute walk. While I love Changi airport, it’s definitely a good airport to transit if you want exercise, much like Frankfurt.

We got to the gate just before 12:35AM and proceeded immediately through security. One thing I never understand about security in Asia (or the airports I have traveled through in Asia), is that they always tell you to leave your belt on, but when you do, the metal detector always goes off and you have to get extra screening. Either way the agents were nice and even put all of my toiletries in a new ziploc bag for me, since mine was visibly worn.

Once through security we were checked in for the flight and part of our boarding passes were taken. Once you are in the gate area you are already technically boarded on the flight.

At precisely 12:35AM people were going down the jetway, although I never actually heard a boarding announcement. There was no priority line for C/F, or for that matter no individual boarding calls. We took a left turn to the first jetway and were on our way to another great flight.

Friday, June 22
SQ346
SIN-ZRH
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 11D
Scheduled Departure Time: 1:05AM
Actual Departure Time: 12:55AM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 7:50AM
Actual Arrival Time: 7:45AM
Load: 100%C

Wow, the cabin seemed even nicer this time than last time. Upon reaching our seats I tried to find space for my carry-on, but the person next to me already took “our” whole bin with his Louis Vuitton luggage. I ended up squeezing it in the bin behind. I once again just don’t understand why there are no bins in the center. Of course that was all fine as soon as the fantastic service began.

Within five minutes of being seated my coat was hung, I was offered a drink (this time not ¼ full!^), and was offered newspapers/magazines. As the boarding process continued I decided it was time to change into PJ’s, shockingly the first time for this whole trip! I plopped back down and by 12:55AM the door was closed. At that point the Captain came on the PA and made his welcome announcements, which wouldn’t transmit. All we heard was “Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Mr. Whatever and I will be your Captain for today. Welcome aboard SQ...” at which point his transmission cut off. The ISM was standing behind me and immediately walked up to the cockpit, at which point the captain began once again. Once again it cut out, and then he did it for a third time really quickly, and it worked.

Before pushback we were offered hot towels to start off the flight, followed shortly thereafter by drink orders. Instead of being addressed by name it was just “Can I get you a drink after takeoff?” which was actually consistent throughout the whole flight. Not once were we addressed by name. I just asked for water, since I was feeling incredibly tired at this point. At 1:08AM we pushed back and began our very slow and lengthy taxi to 20R, which lasted for 15 minutes.

Upon reaching 20R we had a long takeoff roll. Instead of starting the engines at around 40% power it seemed like we were doing 10-15% for the first five seconds, at which point we proceeded to a much higher power level. We were eventually airborne and began our very gradual climb to our cruising level. As we passed through 10K feet the seatbelt sign was turned off, and I immediately noticed that our flight time was showing at 12 hours even. Similar to the last flight, the Airshow was once again broken in terms of showing the time left in-flight, which was disappointing.

As we passed through 10K feet the seatbelt sign was turned off and within a few minutes the initial drinks were brought around. I was feeling extremely tired and was looking forward to some sleep. I decided to watch a movie with dinner to keep me awake, and settled for Honeymoon In Vegas, with Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker. FA’s came around asking for dinner orders, and were surprised to hear that we had booked the cook. She asked what we ordered, and I said the ribeye steak. At this point eyeshades and socks were also distributed. Around ten minutes later the silverware and tablecloth were brought out and supper service began. The menu read as follows:

The starter was immediately brought out, which was great. It was served with dressing, and I chose balsamic vinaigrette. I was immediately offered garlic bread and a roll, which I accepted, along with some olive oil.

As soon as that was finished our ribeye steak was brought out, which was ok. It had a bit of fat on it, but was good nonetheless.

At this point dessert was brought out, which unfortunately was only fruit. I went with some grapes, which were pretty good. It seems like SQ really downgrades these supper flights both with the lack of satay and lack of a proper dessert. I delined the rest of the dessert and reclined my seat to finish up the movie. Water bottles were distributed at this point.

As soon as the movie was finished, which was ok, although I remembered at the end that I had seen it before, I turned my seat into a bed. I decided to first watch a quick episode of Two and a Half Men before sleeping, which is always hilarious. At this point there were around ten hours left in the flight, so this would allow me to get around seven hours of sleep and still have plenty of time for breakfast and a movie.

While I don’t remember the exact details, I woke up at some point with a bit of a nosebleed, and quickly ran to the bathroom. The FA’s seemed very worried, asking if I was ok, and I proceeded immediately back to sleep again. I woke up as the cabin lights turned on for breakfast, around 2.5 hours prior to arrival. The menu read as follows:

Service immediately began with a fresh glass of orange juice, which helped me to wake up. As I was playing with the glass I noticed that it was un-tippable. Even if you put it on its side, it would go back up. I found that to be pretty neat. I took the opportunity to turn the bed back into a seat. I saw that my brother was totally awake, and he told me he had watched several movies and just slept a few hours. He also mentioned that he ordered the french toast for breakfast already, and seemed to have enjoyed some of the midflight snacks. Since he was sick on the outbound I was happy to see that he was finally enjoyed our convoluted routing! Around 10 minutes later the FA came around asking what I wanted for breakfast, and I also ordered the french toast. She came back ten seconds later saying they ran out, so I just went with the eggs, although neither alternate choice was even remotely appealing to me.

Another ten minutes later the huge tablecloths were brought out, as well as the fruit plate and a croissant, which were delicious!^

As soon as that was finished my fruit plate was cleared and I was offered cereal or muesli, and while I originally chose cereal, I saw the muesli and quickly changed my mind. It was fantastic, with fresh strawberries, yoghurt, granola, and strawberry flavored stuff!

Shortly thereafter the main course was brought out, and I showed it to my brother. He said he would like that just as much as his freedom toast(), so he gladly switched. The toast tasted just like it was described. It was very good! He said he liked his meal as well.

As the plates were cleared there was about an hour left in-flight, and I decided to watch an episode of The Simpsons. I noticed that the two seats behind us, 12D & 12F were labeled “Reserved for Supplementary Crew,” which I did not notice on the way out. I saw them used by people in civilian clothing most of the flight, but they were again empty for landing. While I never actually confirmed it was the same people going up to the cockpit, I saw several people in civilian clothing go between our cabin and First Class. Anyone know if those are the pilots, and that they actually change for their rest? I found that interesting.

The Captain came on the PA 30 minutes before landing, and the FA’s prepared for landing. I switched out of my PJ’s, stored all my luggage, and my coat was returned. I was well rested and ready to fly another 4,000 miles! We touched down at around 7:35AM and began a slow taxi to the gate. As we arrived at the gate we retrieved out belongings and thanked the crew.

Before I go any further I would like to say that the ISM’s on both the ZRH-SIN and SIN-ZRH flight were sub-par, IMO, and I am not just saying that because I am sour about the outbound. In both cases they never introduced themselves to anyone in C that I could see, and they always seemed to create an incredible amount of unnecessary hectic aboard. They are running around, talking loudly often, etc. They were definitely not as good as others I have experienced in the past on SQ.

At ZRH:

Upon arrival in ZRH we began our long trek towards the Swiss lounge, which is where we really wanted to go last time around. We took the completely packed train to terminal B and looked for the transfer desk. We quickly found it and got in the Business Class queue, which was quite short. The agent quickly printed our remaining boarding passes, and even offered to put us on the earlier flight to FRA, since our current flight would leave us a short connecting time in FRA. While we wanted to check out the lounge in ZRH, we decided to accept the offer, and the agent called somewhere to see if they still had meals for us on the flight. We even got the same seat assignment, although it was a different aircraft!

We quickly proceeded to the Swiss lounge, which was only a minute away. At this point it was around 8:05AM, so we decided to just have a look around. The lounge was nothing fantastic. On the second floor it had a huge seating area with some standing-only computers, as well as light snacks, like chocolate, cookies, and croissants. The third floor is pretty neat, and has the world’s longest airport bar!^ It was still early, so that level was relatively empty. After sitting down for a bit we left at around 8:35AM.

We headed through security and to gate A04, which we didn’t realize was a remote gate until we got there. The gates in this area only have bussing space, and our bus was already waiting. They started boarding in no particular order, and we were on our way to the plane at around 8:50AM. It was around a five minute ride, and a pretty cool one at that! We taxied near some pretty cool aircraft, and then stopped right in front of our 737. We used the stairs to board the plane.

Friday, June 22
LH3721
ZRH-FRA
Aircraft: Boeing 737
Seat: 4F
Scheduled Departure Time: 9:10AM
Actual Departure Time: 9:05AM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 10:15AM
Actual Arrival Time: 10:05AM
Load: 70%C

We tried to stuff all of our luggage into the overhead bin and immediately took our seats. The purser and forward FA were happily chatting, laughing their rears off telling stories. Unfortunately that means the passengers weren’t recognized until the safety demonstration, if that’s what you want to call it. At around 9:00AM the second bus of passengers came, and there were still plenty of open seats in C. These seats were a bit more comfortable than those from DUS-ZRH, and you could tell much newer as well.

Across from us was a businessman who had the look (and wrinkles!) as if he had never smiled in his life, which is unfortunate. The safety demonstration began, and our flight time was announced at 45 minutes. As the safety checks were done the FA noticed both of our coats in the middle seats, and hung them. We taxied towards the runway and had a pretty steep climb, as is typical for the 737-300. As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, service began, which was quite apathetic. The meal was brought out, which was delicious, along with a round of drinks. The FA’s chatted away the rest of the flight.

We landed early and proceeded to our remote gate, and at no point were our coats handed back. We had to get them ourselves on the way out. Overall this was quite disappointing.

At FRA:

There were two buses waiting to pick us up, and they left within a few minutes. Man, this is probably the first time it’s happened to me, but I actually enjoyed being at a remote gate. The ride to the terminal was completely breathtaking. We passed to many heavies within just feet, which is always an incredible sight! The ride took in excess of five minutes, and I enjoyed every second of it, much like the transfer from the FCT to the plane.

As we got into the smelly FRA terminal we followed the signs to the “Business Lounge,” which was a good ten minute walk. When we got there the agent recommended we go to the other lounge, which is located closer to our gate, B26, which we accepted. On the way we had to go through security, which was quick but no fun, just like the TSA, and also went through the LH check where they check your boarding pass and put a stamp on it, as well as hand you that required form to fill out that really isn’t required. We walked for another ten minutes to the lounge, and trekked up the stairs with our luggage to the lounge.

Inside we were greeted by an agent that could easily work the Red Carpet Club at Dulles, if you know what I mean. She begrudgingly let us in, and I inquired about US power adapters. With that wonderful Lufty attitude she responded “There’s one somewhere over there,” pointing to the desk areas. Wow, thanks!

I noticed immediately that this was a T-Mobile HotSpot, so UA isn’t the only one without free internet. The lounge was totally packed so we took some seats in the table area, since no lounge chairs were empty. We headed to the food area to see what they had, and the offerings were meager: peanuts, snack mix, cookies, crunchy chocolate stuff, and some cheese & crackers. I took a Fanta (which is the best, but not the American kind!), and some of the snacks. I never understand those that are impressed by the Lufty Senator/Business lounges, because I sure am not.

My brother got on the waitlist for the shower and I worked a bit on my trip report and watched all the heavies take off. As much as I despise FRA, nothing is better than the fantastic array of traffic they have.

At around 11:30AM we went to check the status of our flight, and noticed that it was showing a departure time of 1:15PM. I was a bit worried since I had a completely unrelated connection in New York and had to transfer to JFK, so we went to the front desk to find out the details. We mentioned to the wonderful agent that the flight was showing delayed, and wanted to confirm the boarding time and whether she thought that delay would be final, or whether it was still pending a further delay. She snarled that the flight was not delayed, and I mentioned that the departures board shows it as leaving at 1:15PM. She says that she can’t see anything without her glasses, so she fetches those and takes a look, saying boarding would now be at 12:45PM. We asked once again whether this delay would likely increase, and she just said boarding was at 12:45PM. Oh well.

We went back into the lounge for a bit, and at 12:30PM headed down to the gate, where there were plenty of people already in the gate area. In order to get into the gate area they check your passport, which was quick. I was looking forward to showing my brother how good the Germans are at boarding airplanes (Hey, we're both German!), and also show the real benefit behind the FCT, namely staying far away from the boarding process!

As they called boarding at around 12:40PM they clearly announced that it was for First/Business class only and that everyone else should remain well clear of the door. Nonetheless the whole gate area stormed the jetway door as if World War III just broke out, which is actually quite comical. As C/F passengers squeezed their way through there was slowly some space, and we eventually made it through. We entered through the first jetway and took a left turn.

Friday, June 22
LH402
FRA-EWR
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Seat: 3A
Scheduled Departure Time: 12:45PM
Actual Departure Time: 1:15PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 3:10PM
Actual Arrival Time: 3:08PM
Load: 100%C

I should preface this by saying it was my first LH C flight in a long time, and my first LH new C flight altogether. We boarded, showed our BP’s, and were directed to the nose. I always love flying in the nose of the 747, even more than the upper deck, since it’s always incredibly spacious with lots of open space, and this was no exception! My first reaction was quite positive, since I really like the way the new LH C looks. It just has a very modern, bright, and positive vibe to it. We stored our carry-ons in the overhead, and removed the nicely designed pillow and blanket from our seats and placed them on the floor. Upon sitting down I immediately noticed that the seats were not very heavily upholstered, which can be good or bad, depending on the day.

I explored the seat for a bit, and noticed some interesting things. First of all, the PTV seemed quite low and also seemed to have quite a bit of glare. The seat controls looked quite confusing, which turned out to be true. Fortunately the storage is pretty good, with a shoe storage inbetween the seats, and a little pocket for “soft articles” in the front right by the magazine rack. The magazine rack already had the Media World magazine as well as a pamphlet explaining the new seat sticking out. In the back of the center console is where the amenity kit is located, which is kind of like a bag, and can also be used for storage. The headsets are located in the center console, and the earbuds for the headsets are located in the amenity kit, which confused quite a few passengers.

After we settled in for a bit I decided to observe the cabin, which turned out to be quite comical. First I saw the FA ask the person in 3K whether they would be willing to switch, since the two people in front of me were father and son, and the daughter was in the back of business. The FA did a professional job handling it, specifically phrasing it as “It’s only a question, feel free to say no…” He had no problem switching, and the daughter quickly took his seat.

After that an older couple, maybe in their seventies, came to take 5H/K. The older lady noticed that the aisle seat was already taken, so fetched an FA. The FA asked for the guy's boarding pass, and he goes “This is 83K, right?” LMAO, you have got to be kidding me! For those of you not familiar, LH F on the 747 is rows 81-84, which is always weird, and on the upper deck. I am hesitant to call this guy an idiot, but I don’t know what he was thinking, or for that matter drinking. The FA says “No sir, this is not, you are seated in First Class, please follow me!” Wow, I don’t even want to think how this could possibly have happened. You would think if you are flying paid C internationally upgraded to F, paid F, or award F, that you would be somewhat familiar with the product, but who knows…

As soon as most people were settled in pre-departure beverages were brought around, and the maybe 12-year-old kid in front of me tried to take champagne and the FA goes “sorry, that’s not for you.” I went with an OJ and my brother took some champagne. The Captain came on the PA saying they were waiting for some late connecting passengers, and said we would still arrive on time to EWR thanks to a quick flying time, although he never mentioned what it would be.

We began our pushback at 1:15PM and the safety video began. As we taxied towards our departure runway I started looking at the movie selection since the entertainment system is turned on immediately.^ As we got to the runway we were waiting for an LH Star Alliance livery A346 to takeoff. After that a Swiss A320 landed, at which point we taxied into position, powered up, and rocketed off. We had a pretty bumpy climb to our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, and I quickly noticed that the flight time was only around seven hours, according to Airshow.

As we passed through around 20K feet, which seemed like an eternity, the seatbelt was signed off. Within a few minutes the FA’s filled the center table in the cabin with bottles of water, glasses, etc. We tried to decide what movie to watch from the following selection:

Eragon
Dhoom 2- Back in Action
Shooter
Wild Hogs
Hula Girls
Music and Lyrics
Night at the Museum
4 Weddings and a Funeral
The Astronaut Farmer
The Painted Veil
Miss Potter
Easy Rider
Bobby
Four Minutes
Downtown Girls
La Mome
Invincible
Rocky Balboa
Guru
The Good Shepher
Freedom Writers
Notes on a Scandal
The Incredibles

I chose to go with 4 Weddings and a Funeral to begin, while by brother chose to go with Music and Lyrics. We both decided to watch Bobby later in the flight. It took about 30 minutes for the menus to be handed out, which were followed immediately by tablecloths and immigration cards, which I filled out immediately. The lunch menu read as follows:

Now, when tablecloths are handed out I typically think the food is coming… eventually, but oh no, not on Lufty! We sat there with totally empty tray tables for 20 minutes. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer to get the tablecloth when I am ready to eat so it’s easier to get up, recline, etc. At that point drinks were served along with snack mix, but I still fail to see why the tablecloths were needed for the snacks. When the FA got to us for drinks I was watching the funniest scene in 4 Weddings and a Funeral, and quite possibly one of the funniest movie scenes ever. I couldn’t stop laughing so the FA couldn’t take my order for a while. When I showed my brother the scene he literally cried of laughter. Now when I watch it in retrospect it doesn’t seem that funny, so maybe it was just the moment I was in, or maybe it’s just the first time, but I don’t think I have ever laughed that hard! The FA eventually could take our orders, and I went with a Diet Coke. Either way that took around 30 more minutes, at which point the starter was brought out, which consisted of either shrimp or chicken. I went with the chicken and my brother chose the shrimp.

The starter was served on the same tray as the salad, as well as the bread basket, from which I just took a generic roll. I honestly didn’t like the appetizer very much, but I guess it just wasn’t my kind of food. The salad was small but pretty good, with cucumbers and tomatoes. It was served with a small cup of tomato dressing.

It took about half an hour for the crew to actually remove the trays, and took even longer to actually get the main course. Instead of taking orders they came around with all the options, and I went with the pasta and my brother went with the chicken. It was ok. Nothing great, nothing terrible. Once again it took half an hour for them to clear the tray, and even longer for the dessert to be served.

Dessert service began with cheeses, “cake,” and fruit, of which I took the “cake” and my brother took the cheese, which came with a roll. The tart was ok as well. Lastly, coffee was served another while later, which came with Giotto chocolate!^

Once the dessert service was totally finished we were over three hours into the flight! Since the pre-arrival meal is served two hours before landing, that leaves a mere two hours between meals! Now, I know I will get bashed for this, but I just can’t even begin to understand people who think LH service is so great, especially in C. The meal service was by no means elaborate, and I would argue no better than UA C, not to mention it took twice as long. I much prefer to recline my seat than sit with a tray for three! I don’t wanna name any names (you know who you are) but I would love to hear why you guys think service like this is so great.

The service overall was fine. Some FA’s were nice and smiling, while others were excelling in mediocrity, overall just like any other UA flight.

I reclined my seat and have to say that I found the controls incredibly to difficult to use. It was very hard to just lounge the seat, and to this minute I still don’t know how you can simply recline the seat for a nice cradling position. At this point we decided to start the movie Bobby, starring Lindsay Lohan (hey, I am copying the inflight magazine, no clue how she got the first spot!), Helen Hunt, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, and Sharon Stone. While the story really didn’t connect for well over the first hour, I would say it was a pretty decent movie in the end.

Just as the movie finished I went to the FA so my brother and I could purchase a Duty Free gift for my mother. The FA was friendly about it and quite helpful, which was nice. The pre-arrival meal then began, and it seemed like no one was hungry The menu read as follows:

At this point I watched Desperate Housewives (don't tell me, I know I complained about it in my last report, but it was all that on, and it's one of th best comedies out there!) The tablecloths were handed out almost immediately, and it took a while for the cart to come around with drinks and food. The arrival service is very simple. One FA comes with the drink cart while the other comes with the meals. In this case it was the Purser asking “Hot or Cold?” and we both went with the hot option. It came with some bread, which seemed like a laugenbrotchen type bread, which is the best!^

The Purser made a funny comment about my brother’s watch, saying he had the same one except it was made in China. When he asked my brother if he wanted something to drink and he stuck with water instead, the Purser commented “don’t worry, it’s all free!” He was a nice guy, and not as stuck up as a lot of other LH cabin crew I have interacted with.

The presentation of this meal was pretty much economy-like, IMO, and I just don’t see why they have to serve a single tray two hours before arrival! This could easily be served 1.5 or even one hour before landing with plenty of time! The main was quite good, but the dessert couldn’t have fed an ant!

My brother and I both watched Two and a Half Men before arrival, an episode I have seen before but was nonetheless funny. The FO came on the PA around 45 minutes before landing giving us arrival information, and he seemed very young.

We already began our descent at that point, and seemed to be very low, very early. We were already at 12,000 feet over 60 miles out, and there was quite a bit of chop in the nose. I am not sure what exactly the noise was, but we continuously heard a very loud pumping air type noise. Any experts know what exactly that was, cause we heard it at least a handful of times?

We eventually landed at Newark early and had a pretty quick taxi to the gate. Unfortunately they were only opening door 2L, and it took around five minutes after the seatbelt sign was turned off for us to actually get out.

We bid farewell to the FA’s and headed out the jetway, relived that our journey, although a fantastic one, was almost over!

At EWR:

The walk to immigration was a long one, and took around 10 minutes. There were obviously those people who run to immigration, so we were beat by quite a few folks. When we got there the line for US Citizens wasn’t too long, and took all of ten minutes. Since my brother and I were separated by one person in line I said “Go ahead sir, I’m waiting for someone,” and he goes “Wow, I’m in the US for five minutes and I’m already being called a sir.” Eh, ok?

The immigration officer was actually nice (yeah, you heard me right!), which seems to be a rarity nowadays, and he let us through within seconds. After taking a wrong turn we proceeded through customs and into the EWR terminal, where we tried to find AirTrain so we could take the train to Penn Station. We had a wee bit of trouble finding it, although my brother is a self-proclaimed expert at it.

As we eventually found it I saw a Qatar advertisement (a different one than I saw on the way out), which included a picture of the in-flight crew. I swear the male FA was the same one I saw in ZRH, or so I thought.
tried to rip her off on the way out.
My brother bought the tickets for the train and we quickly headed to the platform, where there was a monorail within minutes. This monorail is made up of several small cars, ideally of four or so people, so it was just my brother and one other person. My brother pointed out the helicopter that flies to the city to me, and we talked about it for a second (I remember someone saying it’s something like $159), at which point the New Yaaaaka lady starts talking about how the cab driver tried to rip her off.

We get to the train platform within a few minutes, where we take the train to Penn Station. At Penn Station I bid my brother farewell and took the subway in order to transfer to the AirTrain to JFK. The subway took about 40 minutes, and the AirTrain around 15 minutes, getting me to JFK by around 5:30PM, which left plenty of time.

At JFK:

As if flying coach after all those flights isn’t enough, I kind of messed up on JetBlue’s website when selecting a seat. While I chose some nice aisle seats for both flights, I didn’t realize that you have to push “Confirm” twice in order to change such simple things as seats! As a result, since this flight was already full at the time, I had no seat assignment. Much to my delight when I used the kiosk to check-in it had an aisle seat selected for me, which was a relief.

I headed straight past the landside shops, which were decent, and straight to security. All I can say is WOW, if this is our national defense, then, well, you know… While there was no line there were five people "manning" my line. The lady that does nothing but stand at the metal detector was doing her job… just standing there. The guy who looks at the bags on the screen was talking with his three “homies” (his words, not mine), about parties and other people, hardly looking at the screen. The bins piled up all the way to the point that the belt was totally full, so I had to stack the empty ones myself, since I guess they were too "busy." I really felt like taking all their names down and giving them an earful, but I know better.

The airside terminal JetBlue has here is a total zoo. I went for a slice of pizza at that pizza stand, which was actually pretty good, except for the way the manager was acting. He was taking all the orders with a wonderful “Whaddya want?” pointing at you with his sharp cutter-spatula-thingy when he was ready for you. Oh well!

At around 6:15PM I tried to find the gate, at which point I realized that I had to take a bus to get to the departure gate for my flight, gate 19. Fortunately the bus runs all the time, so that wasn’t an issue, and I was over there within three minutes. If you think terminal A at IAD is ugly, this is worse. The only good thing is that while they are “remodeling” it there is free wifi!^

I took advantage of that for a bit, and put it away at 6:40PM, since boarding was just about to start. I checked the departures screen and saw that we were showing on-time, although the entire crew was still in the gate area.

At around 6:50PM I notice that the Captain of the flight is in the corner, right by me, on his cell. His call went something like this(“……” means something is being said on the other end that I can't hear): “Hi, this is [insert name], and I’m the Captain of JetBlue 29 to TPA tonight. I am standing at the gate without an aircraft, and we’re supposed to depart in 25 minutes and I have a plane at the international terminal that was supposed to be here an hour ago. Something needs to be done about this...... No, maybe you don’t understand, this is NOT tough luck. I’m at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a Friday evening with a full load of passengers that want to get to Tampa. More needs to be done about this than just saying “tough luck.” I was supposed to have a plane at 5:49PM, and we still have nothing! After our meltdown when I was briefed on what we would do differently your attitude certainly wasn’t among it, and we need change here. This is unacceptable…..”

A couple of minutes later he gets on the PA at the gate, introducing himself as the Captain of JetBlue 29 who is going to be taking us to his hometown of Tampa today, saying that we were supposed to have a plane here at 5:49PM, which was supposed to be taxied here from the international terminal. He said that ATC has not given it taxi clearance, and as soon as the plane arrives we would be on our way. You could hear moaning all over, including people yelling “Why can’t we bus over there?” and “Why is it taking so long?”

As the Captain stood by the window he eventually spotted the aircraft, and got back on the PA. “Folks, sorry about the delay. I’ve piloted more than a thousand JetBlue flights and I can tell you right now I have seen a fully loaded A320 board in 15 minutes and in 45 minutes. When we depart all depends on how efficiently we board. Please get all the belongings you need during the flight out right now so that you can take your seats immediately. We just quickly have to check the aircraft for departure and should start boarding in 5-10 minutes.”

Friday, June 22
JetBlue 29
JFK-TPA
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 18D
Scheduled Departure Time: 7:15PM
Actual Departure Time: 7:53PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 10:31PM
Actual Arrival Time: 11:15PM
Load: 100%

Well, it ended up being 15 minutes, but the boarding process was efficient. I noticed one New Yorker mother who was traveling with her 16ish year old daughter and maybe 13ish year old son. First of all, she looked like she had never smiled in her life. She got in a verbal argument with her daughter in front of the whole plane because she couldn’t find her boarding pass. The daughter goes “Maa, I gave it to ya,” and the mother responds “Yea, well maybe ya shouldn be handin me everythin’ damnit, I can’t do everythin’ for ya,” and “I’m sick of you doing this sh!t to me!” and “Yous’ an idiot!” It went on and on for about five minutes, and everyone in our area of the plane heard it. I was about ready to ask them to save their childish argument for some other time… man, it was annoying!

As soon as we were all aboard the Captain stood in the front of the plane facing the passengers, giving a motivational speech, it seemed, which I don’t think was the best idea for a delay at this point. He mentioned how for those seats in rows 1-9 they cut a row of seats out for you, so you now have more legroom than First Class on four major carriers. I would love to hear what carriers those would be. He added that there is also especially roomy legroom in the back, and that we would be enjoying award winning service, and he introduced the Purser. He also announced the flight time at 2hr20min and the total time gate-to-gate at 3hr10min. I have to give him credit, he was trying his hardest!^

We eventually pushed back at around 8PM and taxied towards the runway. On the way the Captain announced we were number 27 for takeoff, and you could hear moans through the cabin. OK, maybe I am missing something, but that means about 40 minutes till takeoff. Unless I missed something obvious, that puts us well within the block time. It’s amazing how people ..... and moan about stuff like this. What do you expect out of JFK on a Friday afternoon, to be first for takeoff?!?! The Captain also remarked that last night he was number 78 for takeoff after JFK shut down for a while, which gave me a good chuckle.

I sat next to a retired NYPD officer, who was very interesting to talk to. He had just retired and him and his wife were looking for houses in Florida. Since I usually fly UA in F thanks to the generous upgrade system I rarely sit next to infrequent flyers/people that don’t know what to expect/people that are scared of flying, so this was interesting. He told me how he had no clue that the gate we left from required a bus, and that no one told him. He said he would write JetBlue about it since they usually send you a credit when you complain, he explained. Wow is all I can say. The bus ride was maybe a three minute process at most, so this was shocking. Next he told me how noisy it is by the engine, and he said he would switch seats on the way back. I recommended he take the front of the plane which would be more quiet and also have more legroom, but he replied that his wife is scared of sitting in the front because she is scared when the nose is higher during takeoff. I responded “Well, I would sure hope it’s higher!”

Service was pretty mediocre. Since I was asleep when they served drinks I went to the back for some drinks, and the FA offered me two bottles of water and some Blue Chips. They weren’t particularly friendly. I watched some “Friday Night Stand Up” on Comedy Central, as well as “1 vs. 100.” There was a girl across from me that sneezed at least three dozen times during the flight. Yuck!

As we were over South Carolina I noticed that the noise level was going down and the nose was going up. The guy next to me explained that he thought we were climbing, but I explained that we were probably slowing down, either due to sequencing or something in TPA. As was no surprise, the Captain comes on the PA shortly and says that TPA airport has been shutdown due to bad weather, and he hoped it wouldn’t be more than 45 minutes. He said we were at our lowest practical speed, and since we had 20 extra minutes of fuel we shouldn’t be worried at this point. Again there was a bunch of moaning in the cabin, as if it was the Captain’s fault.

Well, sure enough we began our descent and around 30 minutes before landing the Captain came on the PA saying we were number 17 to land, and the airport was reopened. Once again this was met by moans. Now, it may not be the smartest thing to say that, since I knew that there were planes ready to land so 17 planes in 30 minutes could translate to no holding whatsoever.

As we passed through around 20,000 feet the guy next to me commented that the landing gear just came out, and I explained that those were likely the spoilers.

Anyway, we eventually landed late in TPA, and the Captain bid us all farewell. He did a fantastic job handling the situation, and it certainly wasn’t the uneventful last flight I was hoping for after such a long journey! While I had a fantastic trip, it was nice to be home again (for now!).

peteropny

Another great report

Kiwi Flyer

wow thanks lucky9876coins ^

gvdIAD

Most impressive. The details drew me in and kept me reading. Thanks for taking the time and making the effort. I've definitely enjoyed your take on the various *Gold lounges.

Gargoyle

A fun trip you had there, and well worth the 90k miles.

kkjay77

Great report lucky! Getting an award that complicated is always fun, though you had to sweat a little bit @ ZRH.

At NRT, did you stop by at the RCC to ge H2O kit?

RTW4

What a fabulous report.... Thanks so much. Your description of the SQ 77W flights were excellent. Thanks so much.....

civicmon

Your pics remind me of the first time I went to Tokyo.

It was the same reaction to the Shibuya intersection and the subways there.

Great report. Glad you had fun.

czhang

Excellent trip report, lucky987coins! I always enjoy reading them...

DiscoPapa

Another great report! Thanks for the pictures of TPA...it's my home airport, but I never get tired of seeing good pictures of one of the country's BEST airports!

elitetraveler

Great Report as usual and great pics ^^^ Thanks!

More Champagne Sir?

B R I L L I A N T!

sobore

CONFESSION TIME: I think I might be a lucky groupie.
Killer trip report!! ^