btang

A long year of college has finally come to an end, and the time has come to return home. The original flight plan involved Turkish Airlines on the trans-atlantic leg, and Swiss on the last leg to Hong Kong. But a schedule change meant throwing all of that out of the window. Disheartened, I was informed by the US call agent that the only route available out of Philadelphia was on the old US Airways 767 to Zurich.

Listening on the phone as my original itinerary was cancelled and changed, I experienced a moment of anguish, helplessness, a sense of betrayal by the schedule change, but I recovered fast. If I was going to loose my perfect itinerary, I might as well make a few more changes and turn this into a short trip. And so, with the help of award inventory search engine on the United and Aeroplan website, I decided to tag along a few flights on Singapore Airlines so I could make a short visit to one of my favorite cities in Southeast Asia, Singapore, as well as my first visit to the largest city in Switzerland, Zurich.

The agent who helped me with assembling this new itinerary commented how this was “going into his record book for most complex routing”. He was not far from the truth. How the ground staff is going to tag my checked in bags will be quite a sight for me, all that’s assuming they can manage to comprehend the complexity of my entire itinerary.



As a sort of experiment, before you start reading this trip report, may I invite you to click on this link, listen to the music in the background whilst you are reading. I would like to hear some feedback and see if this enhances the entire reading experience haha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELB-Azm9tvo

Anyways, ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip report brought to you by btang.

Table of Content

SYR-PHL US Airways US 4027

Transit in Philadelphia Airport: British Airways Lounge

PHL-ZRH US Airways US 710

The Most Expensive City In The World: Glimpse of Downtown Zurich, Swiss/Panorama Lounge ZRH
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

ZRH-PEK Swiss International Airlines LX 196
Part 1 Part 2

First Class Lounge with Star Alliance Gold Card: Transit in Beijing Terminal 3, Air China First Class Lounge

PEK-SIN Singapore Airlines SQ 805

From Singapore With Satay: Day Trip to Singapore CBD, Silver Kris Lounge

SIN-HKG Singapore Airlines SQ 868

btang

The positioning flight to Philadelphia is out of Syracuse, not my favorite airport, but it’s close to where I live and has a lot of options to the rest of the country. The entire check in process was friendly but confusing, at least for the check in agent. She first asked why the machine couldn’t “process” me, to which I replied because my itinerary was too complex for the computer. She then took a closer look at my itinerary, and after a long silent pause, exclaimed, “Jesus! Who put you up for such an ordeal?” We had a good laugh about the US Airways reservation system, which we ultimately both agreed upon was not especially user-friendly. Then came the bad news, because my itinerary had a lot of connections, she would not be able to tag it all the way to Hong Kong, unless she manually wrote one out. This was quite funny actually, here we are in 2014, and baggage tags could conceivably be hand-written. I was not about to take such a chance, and she recommended I collect my bags in Zurich and re-check it then, and I took her advice.
With that problem out of the way, my bags were given the priority tag, and my boarding passes issued for the next 3 flights, and a smile to wish me a pleasant but long flight.



There were no lines at security, and therefore it was not necessary for me to use the priority lane to expedite the process. It’s really sad to see that the only “real” concession store is the Dunkin Donuts; hopefully they can introduce some more other retailers.



The flight itself was rather uneventful, and because of the early departure from Syracuse, we arrived in Philadelphia 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. Great! More lounge time for me, which is always much appreciated.

yerffej201

looking forward to the tr!

putongo

Yes, we are waiting with baited breath for a peak at all the lounges you've passed through. Can't wait!

p

btang

I have a love hate relationship with PHL. I love that it is a major hub for US Airways, but I hate that the terminals are somewhat in a bad shape, feels like going back to the 80’s. Transfer from Terminal F to Terminal A was painless, as there were shuttle buses to take you from one end to another. Knowing that the US Airways Club is nothing to write home about, and I’ve been to the one in Terminal F, I decided to try out the British Airways lounge in Terminal A. To be honest, I’ve never been to a BA lounge, maybe because I fly almost exclusively with Star Alliance (look at that brand loyalty). However, I was pleasantly surprised. The décor was nice and modern, with plenty of seating and a good selection of warm finger sandwiches, chips and a vast selection of drinks. There must have been a couple of different brands of beer, two types of red and white, and other non-alcoholic beverages.





The lounge servers were extremely friendly and helpful, the moment I found a seat they immediately rushed over and asked if I would like anything to drink. I politely declined the offer as I could serve myself just fine. My stay was not long, only about 20 minutes, but I was impressed, certainly one of the better lounges I have been to in the US. Even the bathrooms were much nicer, so go figure.




I decided to take a leisurely pace walking towards gate A18, where my flight US 710 would be departing for Zurich, by the time I got to the gate, it was right smack at the beginning of boarding time, 5:40 p.m., but I was shocked to realize that they had already called for general boarding, meaning I was one of the last bunch of people to get there. Really? Could this mean an empty flight? Turned out there were many connecting passengers that arrived a little later than I did, and by the time doors closed, the business class cabin was completely full and the economy cabin around 85% full.

btang

Flying me to Zurich was a US Airways antiqued 767-200. From the paneling of the interior and the shape of the overhead bins, you could instantly tell this was quite an old aircraft. Luckily, it was overall still in quite decent shape, unlike the United domestic 767 I flew 2 years ago that really lives up to the name of “ghetto bird”, a term both appropriately and inappropriately coined by some flyertalkers. I did not have high expectations when I knew I had to fly this particular aircraft type, given that the seats were neither the most cutting edge, nor the cabin the most recently updated.



Warmly receiving me at the door was a German American purser, who took a quick glance at my boarding pass, and jokingly said, “Now that’s a good seat, right this way sir”. Now come on, I shouldn’t be expecting to be led to my seat. Shame on me for thinking that, but I just couldn’t resist the thought, especially after being spoilt for years flying with Asian carriers. As I took my seat 2F, one of the flight stewards came by and offered a choice of orange juice and champagne, and I took the former. Whilst I was busy storing my luggage and pulling out my pair of pajamas for inflight use, the crew was busily distributing newspapers and magazines. Later on, one of the flight purser came around and handed out amenity kits, which looked fine, but the content was very poor, just a few packets of lotion, cream and other useless stuff.





Serving the business class cabin were two gentlemen, Orlando, the younger one and another seemingly more senior, but more underdressed chief purser (he was not wearing a jacket or a tie). Together, they worked as an effective team that made this flight one of the better flights that I have ever flown. Surprising right? Especially on a US carrier where bad reviews almost seem like the norm. Everything in the “usual” pre-departure service was delivered so far with a warm smile, and this was to be the predominant tone for the rest of the flight. Right before taxing out, the chief purser, seemingly the more professional one (actually they were both professional), came around and asked for each passenger’s meal choices. Evidently, elite members had their orders taken first, and I was only a lowly Star Alliance Gold. Nonetheless, by the time he reached to my seat, only the pasta ran out, and so my first choice, the beef tenderloin was still available.




Here is the menu for the entire flight. As you can see, dinner options were nothing fancy, just hearty comfort food, and breakfast was disappointingly just fruits or quiche, which I’m not that big of a fan.




As we reached cruising altitude, the crew busily began the process of warming the nuts, cooking the main course, dressing the table in each seat and rolling out the drinks cart. In addition, a cart full of Samsung tablets and Bose headphones was rolled around and each passenger was assigned a tablet and pair of headphones each. The tablet was quite easy to use. Movie selection was pretty good, with many recent blockbuster hits and a good selection of musical albums. I really like the Bose noise-cancelling headphones that American offers, and now that US Airways has it as well, the entertainment option altogether for this leg of flight was actually not bad.




To start off dinner this evening, I chose to have a glass of Californian Pinot Noir, which was okay, but still, what did I expect? Lynch Bage like on Cathay’s first class LOL?




The first course was beef on skewer. Now I know what you’re thinking, why are you having beef for both appetizer and main? I don’t really know, maybe none of the other mains really tempted me enough to try it.



The main course of grilled beef tenderloin was actually quite good, maybe just slightly too red in the center, but better undercooked than overcooked. However, the spinach side was absolutely disgusting. It tasted of nothing and had the texture of seaweeds, which is almost never a good sign.



Desert was cookies and cream ice cream. Taste was okay but I was pretty full by then, so no loss even if the taste was bad.



I was really tired before the FA came around to collect the trays, and so unconsciously fell asleep. The seat was slanted, and so I had to constantly fight gravity so as to not slip to the bottom of the seat, but I managed four hours worth of sleep. A few bumps along the flight did little to disturb my sleep, and by the time I was conscious once again, the cabin lights have been turned on. The distinctive aroma from reheating cinnamon buns was an inviting smell to start off the morning. Feeling the need to be healthy, I chose to have fruits for breakfast, along with a cup of coffee and orange juice.




I must commend the efforts of the crew on this flight. For the dinner service, drink and bread refills were plentiful. They always attempted to anticipate the needs of the passengers. I observed that both during dinner and breakfast, they constantly surveyed the cabin to make sure everyone was content. Of course the service was never as polished as that offered usually by the crew of ANA or Singapore Airlines, but the two FA’s were genuinely trying to make the entire experience a pleasant one, and so kudos to them for giving that effort. Maybe I just got lucky to have a good set of crew.

Landing into Zurich was smooth and on time. The views of the countryside on descent was absolutely stunning, and with the announcement over the PA “Willkommen auf dem Flughafen Zürich”, a warm reminder that I had just landed into one of the most beautiful yet most expensive cities in the world.

Last look at the cabin before leaving

aviatorzz

Still trying to get used to seeing the AA brand on the US product.

Great start! Looking forward to the rest

dylanks

Something I was taught by Thai Airways a while back: they can just print two bag tags for one bag. US Airways has been able to do this several times. There's a limit of the number of connections per bag tag, but not on the number of bag tags applied to each bag. Each time I've told them to just print two bag tags, they're pretty surprised to learn they can do actually do it.

Melbourne

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate ...

You could have squeezed in a dog leg from SIN down to DRW. It's only a few hours then it would have been 4 continents in about 40 hours

btang

Zurich is such a fascinating city. It is a city in a technical sense, but apparently because of building regulations, no building is over a few stories tall, not even the offices of UBS or Credit Suisse. It is one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. To give you an idea, one of the recent estimates say that you would need a minimum monthly salary of 4400 CHF to live here. #%$#^&%#$%#$%.



I wanted to take a shower first before heading out into the city, and so I went through security up to the Swiss Lounge D. The lounge attendant led me to a room outside of the lounge, which was the shower, and I was surprised by how small the room was. However, it was well stocked and quite decent, the water pressure was good and in no time I was rejuvenated. I took a quick glance at the senator lounge and found it to be decent, albeit on the small side.








I then had to collect my bags from the baggage carousel and recheck them. But before that, I had to go through passport immigration, and the fun thing I learned awhile back was that you didn’t have to fill in any declaration forms or immigration forms, you just had to present your passport. I was asked how long my stay in Zurich would be, and after realizing I was going for a short excursion to downtown Zurich, he immediately recommended a few places that I should go visit, such a nice person, and certainly a breath of fresh air from the CBP agents who consistently think you’re somehow trying to illegally enter the US.



Checking in my bags was a painless process, with all bags tagged to the final destination, Hong Kong. New boarding passes were issued, and I was wished a pleasant flight.

purcitron

so how long did you spend outside of airports during your trip?

AvidFlyer1990

That was probably a smart thing you did, not checking it the entire way. This January, I also had kinda complicated itinerary:

ZRH-ATL-ORD (DL J) -PHX (US F) -ATL-MCO (DL F)

The check-in agent commented that it was one of the most complicated itinerary she had ever seen. And it was smack-in-the-middle of the snow storm in JFK and ORD. She was not able to tag my bags all the way to MCO as the system reached its max limit for no. of flights , however, she did tag my bags to PHX. I put this in bold, as I was transferring from a SkyTeam carrier (where I have an E+ status) to Star Alliance (no status ). I was really skeptical, however, everything went fine and I was able to get my bag at PHX, just in time for my PHX-ATL-MCO leg!

themapelligroup

Nice report! What a complex itinerary, Zurich is indeed a very expensive city. Looking forward to the rest.

btang

After dropping off my carryon in the left baggage counter, I immediately headed down to take the train to Zurich Haupttbahnhof. I bought a 24-hour pass, which cost around 13 CHF, quite expensive but it was good for round trip. Here came trouble, because all the signs were in German (excuse me Swiss German), I had a little trouble finding the right train to Zurich HB initially, but after talking to one of the agents at the information desk, I realized that basically every train, whether it be labeled IR or S-Bahn, was eligible with my ticket. Great! Problem Solved.





The next train was leaving just 3 minutes after I finally figured things out, and so I dashed towards the platform, arriving just when the train was pulling into the station.





The entire 13 minute journey was comfortable and on time. Literally, when S-Bahn tells you we would be arriving at Zurich HB at 9:27 am, we would arrive at 9:27 am sharp, no earlier, no later. The main station was a stunning masterpiece, the architecture was exquisite, and just like many of the buildings in downtown Zurich, it had a distinctive Beaux Art feel to it (correct me if I am wrong, I am no architecture or art history major).

I’ll let the pictures do the talking from here on.








On my list of places to see in Zurich was ETH Zurich, but I was not prepared to walk up that steep hill. Instead, I took the polybahn, which was a short 3 minutes tram ride up the hill provided by UBS (why am I not surprised?).






What an interesting design!


The ETH Zurich main building is only a short walk away from the polybahn station. I don’t if it’s the case for all European universities, I didn’t realize that literally there was only one major building, and that was it in terms of campus, much like Imperial College London and UCL. Nonetheless, the building was absolutely stunning.

btang

Just another picture of the interior of the ETH Zurich complex.



The views from the backside of the building was also very beautiful, a picturesque view of Zurich as a whole.




A little coffee shop! Really expensive though, a cup of espresso costs 6 CHF.



After taking the polybahn back down, I decided to just walk around the city and look at the buildings and shops, and especially how well dressed people were. Seriously, everyone was in a suit, of if not, in a business casual outfit.





This is the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, right next to the main train station. I didn't have enough time to go in, but I'm sure it would have been quite educational.



With a few hours well spent in the city, it was time to head back. I wanted to visit the main Swiss lounge, but was advised at the lounge counter that it would be better for me to use the Swiss lounge in Concourse E. Now there were two problems here. Numero Uno, Swiss doesn’t have a lounge in Concourse E, so I assume she was referring to the Panorama lounge. Numero Dos, the lounge dragon didn’t seem like she was going to let me in, because she said “you would have to leave in 10 minutes”, despite boarding time an hour away. I didn’t try to fight back, so I just walked to Concourse E instead. The entire passport control/security control/train process took only 15 minutes by the way, but I appreciate the lounge dragon’s good intentions to make sure I don’t miss my flight.




The Panorama lounge, as most people here at Flyertalk probably know, is nothing special. There was a decent selection of wine and beer, as well as a few hot options such as rice and vegetable soup. There were also decent lounge chairs and a bar area for those inclined to drink in the afternoon (me!). I put together a bit of everything and poured myself some champagne. The champagne tasted quite bad actually, and after taking a few sips I did not find myself able to go on. I’d much rather save my quota for the wine onboard.






I also found myself bogged down with a last minute conference call, and so by the time I was done, I only had a few minutes to rush down to the gate, just in time for the final call for all passengers to board.