Aren’t you a little young for RTW trips already? (VX F/LH F/LX F/TG F/CX J/QF J/AA F)
Jul 25, 2010, 11:17 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
Aren’t you a little young for RTW trips already? (VX F/LH F/LX F/TG F/CX J/QF J/AA F)
Introduction
First of all, I hope everyone liked my previous TR, A Crazy Way to End Your Junior Year, Link is down below. I'm still working on starting a new photo uploading account and re-doing all the links so this might be a slow process.
At first, my main summer trip wasn’t originally planned to be a RTW trip, it was going to be a simpler Circle Pacific trip. But as June approached, my requalification for AA EXP was becoming a too easy so I desperately needed to burn more miles. I originally had a CX F SFO-HKG award sector for July which I changed to December YYZ-HKG CX F due to my mileage situation this year.
As a loaner of sorts, my family agreed to let me use their AC miles for this crazy feat in return of my AA miles next year. Yes, they loved non-stop CX premium flights ex-HKG. This in combination with my previous ticketed Business Class Circle Pacific ticket provided me with a unique situation which I thought I couldn’t do until later on in my life. A combined First/Business Class RTW ticket.
Route Map
Flights (14 Segments, 32114 Miles)
All flights now flown
Virgin America 203 – Toronto to San Francisco (First Class)
Lufthansa 455 – San Francisco to Frankfurt (First Class)
Swiss International Airlines 1073 – Frankfurt to Zurich (Business Class)
Swiss International Airlines 180 – Zurich to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi(First Class)
Thai International Airways 606 – Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Hong Kong (First Class)
Cathay Pacific Airways 739 – Hong Kong to Singapore (Business Class/First Class Cabin)
Qantas Airways 10 – Singapore to Melboure (Business Class)
Qantas Airways 604 – Melbourne to Brisbane (Business Class)
Qantas Airways 551 – Brisbane to Sydney, Australia (Business Class)
Qantas Airways 3 – Sydney, Australia to Honolulu (Business Class
American Airlines 28 – Honolulu to San Francisco (First Class)
American Airlines 1254 – San Francisco to Los Angeles (First Class)
American Airlines 30 – Los Angeles to New York Kennedy (Business Class)
American Airlines 4550 - New York LaGuardia to Toronto (Economy Class)
Trip Parts
Part 1 – Time to be “De-Virginized”, Virgin America First Class YYZ-SFO
Part 2 - Hyatt Regency San Francisco and a visit to Alcatraz
Part 3 – A try for JFK, UA SFO International First Class Lounge and Lufthansa First SFO-FRA
Part 4 – Lufthansa Frankfurt First Class Terminal and the dreaded Intra-European Business Class
Part 5 – Mini stop in Zurich, Switzerland and the Park Hyatt Zurich
Part 6 – Swiss Int’l Airlines First Class ZRH-BKK and the LX ZRH First Class Lounge
Part 7 – A quick sprint in BKK and TG First Class BKK-HKG
Add-on - Hong Kong Photos Supplement Section
Part 8 – Cathay Pacific Business Class HKG-SIN with a visit to the Pier
Part 9 – Grand Hyatt Singapore
Part 10 – The Big Bird, Qantas Business Class SIN-MEL onboard the Airbus 380
Part 11 – My big mistake in the trip
Part 12 – Brisbane and short hop on Qantas Business BNE-SYD
Part 13 – Park Hyatt Sydney and Qantas First Class Lounge in Sydney
Part 14 – Qantas Business SYD-HNL and Hyatt Regency Waikiki
Part 15 – 7 Day Hawaiian Cruise (stops in Maui/Kaluhui, Hilo, Kona, and Kauai/Nawiliwili)
Part 16 – American First HNL-SFO
Part 17 – Road trip around Northern California
Part 18 – Summer’s over, back to college (SFO-LAX-JFK-YYZ)
Links to Other Written Trip Reports
Click Here for Other Trip Reports
Finally done!
Trip Parts are subject to change of course
and change fees is necessary
First of all, I hope everyone liked my previous TR, A Crazy Way to End Your Junior Year, Link is down below. I'm still working on starting a new photo uploading account and re-doing all the links so this might be a slow process.
At first, my main summer trip wasn’t originally planned to be a RTW trip, it was going to be a simpler Circle Pacific trip. But as June approached, my requalification for AA EXP was becoming a too easy so I desperately needed to burn more miles. I originally had a CX F SFO-HKG award sector for July which I changed to December YYZ-HKG CX F due to my mileage situation this year.
As a loaner of sorts, my family agreed to let me use their AC miles for this crazy feat in return of my AA miles next year. Yes, they loved non-stop CX premium flights ex-HKG. This in combination with my previous ticketed Business Class Circle Pacific ticket provided me with a unique situation which I thought I couldn’t do until later on in my life. A combined First/Business Class RTW ticket.
Route Map
Flights (14 Segments, 32114 Miles)
All flights now flown
Virgin America 203 – Toronto to San Francisco (First Class)
Lufthansa 455 – San Francisco to Frankfurt (First Class)
Swiss International Airlines 1073 – Frankfurt to Zurich (Business Class)
Swiss International Airlines 180 – Zurich to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi(First Class)
Thai International Airways 606 – Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Hong Kong (First Class)
Cathay Pacific Airways 739 – Hong Kong to Singapore (Business Class/First Class Cabin)
Qantas Airways 10 – Singapore to Melboure (Business Class)
Qantas Airways 604 – Melbourne to Brisbane (Business Class)
Qantas Airways 551 – Brisbane to Sydney, Australia (Business Class)
Qantas Airways 3 – Sydney, Australia to Honolulu (Business Class
American Airlines 28 – Honolulu to San Francisco (First Class)
American Airlines 1254 – San Francisco to Los Angeles (First Class)
American Airlines 30 – Los Angeles to New York Kennedy (Business Class)
American Airlines 4550 - New York LaGuardia to Toronto (Economy Class)
Trip Parts
Part 1 – Time to be “De-Virginized”, Virgin America First Class YYZ-SFO
Part 2 - Hyatt Regency San Francisco and a visit to Alcatraz
Part 3 – A try for JFK, UA SFO International First Class Lounge and Lufthansa First SFO-FRA
Part 4 – Lufthansa Frankfurt First Class Terminal and the dreaded Intra-European Business Class
Part 5 – Mini stop in Zurich, Switzerland and the Park Hyatt Zurich
Part 6 – Swiss Int’l Airlines First Class ZRH-BKK and the LX ZRH First Class Lounge
Part 7 – A quick sprint in BKK and TG First Class BKK-HKG
Add-on - Hong Kong Photos Supplement Section
Part 8 – Cathay Pacific Business Class HKG-SIN with a visit to the Pier
Part 9 – Grand Hyatt Singapore
Part 10 – The Big Bird, Qantas Business Class SIN-MEL onboard the Airbus 380
Part 11 – My big mistake in the trip
Part 12 – Brisbane and short hop on Qantas Business BNE-SYD
Part 13 – Park Hyatt Sydney and Qantas First Class Lounge in Sydney
Part 14 – Qantas Business SYD-HNL and Hyatt Regency Waikiki
Part 15 – 7 Day Hawaiian Cruise (stops in Maui/Kaluhui, Hilo, Kona, and Kauai/Nawiliwili)
Part 16 – American First HNL-SFO
Part 17 – Road trip around Northern California
Part 18 – Summer’s over, back to college (SFO-LAX-JFK-YYZ)
Links to Other Written Trip Reports
Click Here for Other Trip Reports
Finally done!
Trip Parts are subject to change of course
and change fees is necessary
Last edited by Short hair Francis; Nov 6, 2013 at 8:23 am Reason: Finally done
Jul 26, 2010, 10:49 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
Well that's because it's not supposed to be linked
I've only changed that part of the text to red to differentiate the ones already flown vs. the ones still to be flown. This is still a on-going trip. Sorry for the confusion
Jul 27, 2010, 12:34 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
Jul 27, 2010, 12:53 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
Part 1 – Time to be “De-Virginized”, Virgin America First Class YYZ-SFO
Another Shuttle ride to the airport, this time 3:00am. Wow, driver was pretty quick today, driving 80 mp/h all the way out to Toronto. For one, this is finally my summer trip, but it also meant saying good-bye to friends that have graduated this year and are moving away towards their careers. So as much as it is a joy to be going on this trip, it is also saddening to me at the same time.
The new player in town, Virgin America
Jul 12, 2010 - Monday
VX 203 YYZ-SFO 8:15am – 10:40am (319/F)
Virgin America YYZ Counters
Virgin First Class
I was about a half hour early before the counters were open at 5:15am, the weird thing about Virgin is all about the atmosphere. They had a mini-boom box in the check-in area. Right away, they build some sort of an effect right at the beginning. As many others before me, I bought one of those T-6 upgrades. Soon after that, both US customs and security were smooth and once again I’m back at my home club, the YYZ Admiral’s Club. As I gave them my today’s boarding pass, they were surprised to see me flying Virgin America today. The AAngels even noted that VX has done a significant amount of promoting through billboards, and TV and Radio Ads in the Greater Toronto Area. Unfortunately, since I don’t quite live in town, I didn’t see much of this except for the amount of ads that Virgin has inside Terminal 3. At about 45 mins before flight time, I headed down to gate B16 for the flight.
Virgin America Airbus 319-100
Virgin America 203
Toronto to San Francisco
8:15am – 10:40am, 5 hr 25 mins flight
First Class, Seat 2C
Food – Breakfast
Aircraft - Airbus 319-100
As I get to the gate, I noticed they have pretty much boarded the entire aircraft, rats; how am I going to take pictures. With the help of today’s in-flight directors, Peter, I managed to get a pretty good selection of pics for this sector despite boarding somewhat late. Once again, music in the jetbridge too.
Virgin America Airbus 319-100 First Class Cabin
Virgin America Airbus 319 First Class Seat
Reclined Seating Mode
Pre-departure drink – Mango Smoothie
Peter our in-flight director took drink and food orders prior to takeoff. This flight ended up only having 3/8 First Class Seats filled with 2 including myself as last minute upgraders. At about 10 mins prior to departure, the doors were shut and soon pushed back from the gate. One of the interesting I found with Virgin seems to be that the crew are a bit more upbeat in their work and that doesn’t matter if it was the captain who came out to talk to first class customers prior to takeoff or the crew members that were doing the safety demos.
Instead of my usual Dr. Pepper, I ended up drinking a lot of Iced Coffee on this flight which was a nice change. Red was exceptionally good for a domestic carrier, I said it can probably even beat some international carrier entertainment offerings
Red Entertainment System
VX 203 Breakfast
Starters
Assorted Fruit Salad with Yogurt
Plain Yogurt with papaya, pineapple, mango, and watermelon
Main Course
Spinach Frittata accompanied with a potato wedges, eggplant, onion, green and red pepper slices
Or
Corn and Spinach Omelette with bacon and sausage
Bread
Banana Bread with cranberries and nuts
Spinach Frittata
Corn and Spinach Omelette
The food however leaves me a little disappointed; I found the food to be somewhat small in terms of portion to the point that I had to eat a second meal. The fruit salad as well looked really old to the point that I refused to eat it despite what the pictures displayed. The frittata was alright although it was very small for a breakfast on a 5 hr flight. The omelette which I had as a second meal was however fairly decent. Soon after, I went back to compiling pictures and writing the trip report. After my sleep, I woke up with the pre-arrival cheese plate next to me. Wow, even the lavatory plays music here.
Cheese Plate with pre-packaged Chocolate chip cookies
During the descent
Due to some fog, we took an extra 10-15 mins late in terms of flight time instead of the original flight time but we’re still on time in terms of slotted time for the flight. The captain had one of the smoothest landing this year and we got to the gate in about 7-10 mins. I bid farewell to the crew then off I went to the baggage claim then onto the Bart for my day trip to Alcatraz Island.
Breakdown of the Virgin America Product
Pros
Very attentive Crew
Comfy F seats well worth the upgrade money
Cozy Atomsphere especially if you’re a young person.
Drink Class were identical to CX F which is good in terms of volume
Cons
The food, at least breakfast leaves me kinda annoyed
Limited Storage space for carry-on, I can see this as a big issue with a full F cabin
Seat is a bit firm and the bottom panel seems really short in the upright position and I’m pretty short already if you have ever meet me
And the seat back pocket is very small to keep items close to you.
My opinion, flame me if you desire
Will I fly VX again?
Of course, if my AA EXP was basically finished like how this year turned out, it’s a great product that I would love to fly on transcon flights despite my allegiance to AAdvantage. The main reason I flew on VX this first time was because of the scheduling which worked for me.
Hope you enjoy this first part and feel free to give me some feedback.
Next Part
Part 2 – Hyatt Regency San Francisco and a trip to Alcatraz
Another Shuttle ride to the airport, this time 3:00am. Wow, driver was pretty quick today, driving 80 mp/h all the way out to Toronto. For one, this is finally my summer trip, but it also meant saying good-bye to friends that have graduated this year and are moving away towards their careers. So as much as it is a joy to be going on this trip, it is also saddening to me at the same time.
The new player in town, Virgin America
Jul 12, 2010 - Monday
VX 203 YYZ-SFO 8:15am – 10:40am (319/F)
Virgin America YYZ Counters
Virgin First Class
I was about a half hour early before the counters were open at 5:15am, the weird thing about Virgin is all about the atmosphere. They had a mini-boom box in the check-in area. Right away, they build some sort of an effect right at the beginning. As many others before me, I bought one of those T-6 upgrades. Soon after that, both US customs and security were smooth and once again I’m back at my home club, the YYZ Admiral’s Club. As I gave them my today’s boarding pass, they were surprised to see me flying Virgin America today. The AAngels even noted that VX has done a significant amount of promoting through billboards, and TV and Radio Ads in the Greater Toronto Area. Unfortunately, since I don’t quite live in town, I didn’t see much of this except for the amount of ads that Virgin has inside Terminal 3. At about 45 mins before flight time, I headed down to gate B16 for the flight.
Virgin America Airbus 319-100
Virgin America 203
Toronto to San Francisco
8:15am – 10:40am, 5 hr 25 mins flight
First Class, Seat 2C
Food – Breakfast
Aircraft - Airbus 319-100
As I get to the gate, I noticed they have pretty much boarded the entire aircraft, rats; how am I going to take pictures. With the help of today’s in-flight directors, Peter, I managed to get a pretty good selection of pics for this sector despite boarding somewhat late. Once again, music in the jetbridge too.
Virgin America Airbus 319-100 First Class Cabin
Virgin America Airbus 319 First Class Seat
Reclined Seating Mode
Pre-departure drink – Mango Smoothie
Peter our in-flight director took drink and food orders prior to takeoff. This flight ended up only having 3/8 First Class Seats filled with 2 including myself as last minute upgraders. At about 10 mins prior to departure, the doors were shut and soon pushed back from the gate. One of the interesting I found with Virgin seems to be that the crew are a bit more upbeat in their work and that doesn’t matter if it was the captain who came out to talk to first class customers prior to takeoff or the crew members that were doing the safety demos.
Instead of my usual Dr. Pepper, I ended up drinking a lot of Iced Coffee on this flight which was a nice change. Red was exceptionally good for a domestic carrier, I said it can probably even beat some international carrier entertainment offerings
Red Entertainment System
VX 203 Breakfast
Starters
Assorted Fruit Salad with Yogurt
Plain Yogurt with papaya, pineapple, mango, and watermelon
Main Course
Spinach Frittata accompanied with a potato wedges, eggplant, onion, green and red pepper slices
Or
Corn and Spinach Omelette with bacon and sausage
Bread
Banana Bread with cranberries and nuts
Spinach Frittata
Corn and Spinach Omelette
The food however leaves me a little disappointed; I found the food to be somewhat small in terms of portion to the point that I had to eat a second meal. The fruit salad as well looked really old to the point that I refused to eat it despite what the pictures displayed. The frittata was alright although it was very small for a breakfast on a 5 hr flight. The omelette which I had as a second meal was however fairly decent. Soon after, I went back to compiling pictures and writing the trip report. After my sleep, I woke up with the pre-arrival cheese plate next to me. Wow, even the lavatory plays music here.
Cheese Plate with pre-packaged Chocolate chip cookies
During the descent
Due to some fog, we took an extra 10-15 mins late in terms of flight time instead of the original flight time but we’re still on time in terms of slotted time for the flight. The captain had one of the smoothest landing this year and we got to the gate in about 7-10 mins. I bid farewell to the crew then off I went to the baggage claim then onto the Bart for my day trip to Alcatraz Island.
Breakdown of the Virgin America Product
Pros
Very attentive Crew
Comfy F seats well worth the upgrade money
Cozy Atomsphere especially if you’re a young person.
Drink Class were identical to CX F which is good in terms of volume
Cons
The food, at least breakfast leaves me kinda annoyed
Limited Storage space for carry-on, I can see this as a big issue with a full F cabin
Seat is a bit firm and the bottom panel seems really short in the upright position and I’m pretty short already if you have ever meet me
And the seat back pocket is very small to keep items close to you.
My opinion, flame me if you desire
Will I fly VX again?
Of course, if my AA EXP was basically finished like how this year turned out, it’s a great product that I would love to fly on transcon flights despite my allegiance to AAdvantage. The main reason I flew on VX this first time was because of the scheduling which worked for me.
Hope you enjoy this first part and feel free to give me some feedback.
Next Part
Part 2 – Hyatt Regency San Francisco and a trip to Alcatraz
Last edited by Short hair Francis; Oct 27, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Jul 27, 2010, 10:17 am
#9
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,211
Virgin America looks okay to me. The seats remind me of AZ Magnifica Class which I found very comfortable. Great pictures by the way. ^
Jul 28, 2010, 2:46 pm
#15
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: DFW/SEA
Programs: *A Silver, AA Gold + Miles Scattered Everywhere.
Posts: 2,045
wow. i envy you! I don't think many college students or even recent grads like myself could have the miles or cash to afford such a trip. AND IN PREMIUM CLASSES! I consider myself pretty lucky to have been able to do a circle pacific trip (NZ, AU, and SE Asia) this summer on miles..but only in Y. This was after i spent all of last summer hauling car loads of coins to the bank!