SFO-YVR delay, CP's 747, & UA Asia & SQ First
Jul 25, 2001, 1:32 am
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Join Date: Oct 1999
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SFO-YVR delay, CP's 747, & UA Asia & SQ First
July 16, 2001
UA 1698 SFO-YVR Lv1840 Arr2051 (not really)
Actual Lv2252 Arr0035+1
Airbus A320-200 Change from N442UA to N453UA
Since there were “four” hours layover from my JFK flight to the YVR flight, I had the fortune to meet of the FT talkers. We went to the international terminal for a bit talking and plane spotting. We saw a number of United’s European bound Boeing 767 and 777. Then there were the Aeroflot’s Boeing 777, two Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-400s, Singapore Airlines’ A340 Celestar, and Mexicana’s A320. The new international terminal was really nice with spacious rooms and a lot of natural light. Then I grabbed a bowl of Japanese noodle soup on one of the food courts. Then the nightmare began. The monitor showed that my flight was delayed, but there was no time indicated. Then I went to the F class check-in counter and inquired about the delay. She told me that there was a 8pm decision time. So I proceeded to the gate and discussed the problem with the gate agent. Unlike your typical UA ground personnel at SFO, he was very nice and patiently told each passenger that the original aircraft schedule for this flight was “no good” for flying, so we had to wait for another a/c that would come in from PHL. He then announced that United was giving us a $10 meal coupon, but too bad, Carfield had already spent $10 out of his pocket for an early evening meal. Then we waited till 7:45pm when N442UA pulled up onto gate 78. Then we were told that this plane had problems with the pressurization system. Testing needs to be done and more delays. Finally, this a/c was announced as “no good” and then another A320 would be used. That flight was landing from ORD. Then it took a while for everyone to deplane, and then the caterers need to reload the food. Fortunately, the scene at SFO was calm and no one complained. A few of them used the phone to call their relatives at YVR. Then our next door flight to PDX was canceled and that gate was a mob scene.
Then finally we began boarding at 9:59pm on the gate next door. To my surprise, a United supervisor and a gate agent was handling out $50 coupon to everyone for future travel. They apologize about the delays and everyone seemed to be happy. The load was about 12F and 64Y. About this brand new a/c, it had the new color scheme and the seats are the same comfort as before. But flying a brand new plane obviously did not guarantee a decent and neat copy of Hemisphere. Anyway, we finally pushed back at 10:27pm and slowly rolled towards Runway 1R for a beautiful evening takeoff from the Bay. Wheeled up at 10:52pm and the F/As immediately began showing a movie, “Spy Kid,” unlike your usual short subjects. The in-flight service featured a cold snack box in Y and a full dinner in F. The meals are a bit slow in delivery, but once the Y class F/A came up front, it was done quickly.
Here is menu:
To Begin
Garden Fresh Salad
Balsamic Vinaigrette or honey dijon dressing
Another one tray F class short-haul dinner was served. Surprisingly, these short haul meals remained untouched by the penny pincher of United. The salad bowl contained red and yellow tomato slices, mozzarella cheese, olive, and mesclun greens. Not bad for a salad!
Main Courses
Beef stroganoff with fettuccine
Carrot Batonnets and snow peas
I have too many crab cakes and decided to select this entrée. Although this entrée was a typical economy dish, it was pretty good with good fettuccine (not soggy) and the sauce was excellent.
Or
Crab cakes with sun-dried tomato and dill sauce
Dessert
Eli’s Praline Cheesecake
The move was over by the time we began approaching Vancouver. Channel 9 became rather quiet after passing Oregon, and we were pretty much the only flight landing into YVR from the South. We touched down on R/W8R at 12:35am, and parked at gate 78 after seven minutes of taxing. The immigration was pretty quiet, but with the full staff on station. There was an Air Transat flight from London touched down 30 minutes before us, and that explained the busy baggage claim and custom area. All the LHR passengers were required to go through a second layer of custom. Just beware!
July 17, 2001
AC 3003 YVR-NRT Lv1330 Arr1505+1
Boeing 747-400 C-FBCA Fleet#384
After a great evening at Fairmont YVR, it was great to open my curtain and look at the amount of planes in the USA wing. It was extremely busy at this time of the year. YVR, in general, was busy and the international area seemed to have people everywhere. When I checked in on the J class line, the agents were busy with a Japanese group. Fortunately, a bilingual staff (Japanese) helped me immediately. She was very kind and checked my bags all the way to Singapore, but she could not issue my boarding pass on United (due to the u/g situation). I was off my way to eat in the food court, due to limited selections of food on the MLL. To give them some credit, apples, kimchi noodles, bagles, muffins, melon slices, and the normal nuts and pretzels were available this time.
On a side note, I went to the ticketing office for a refund on an unused ticket. The agent was helpful and the whole process took less than two minutes.
After mingling in the MLL for 30-45 minutes, I decided to head out and to watch planes. Basically I saw the landing of CX 838 from HKG, which was the “Spirit of Children 2000” – B-HOX and the CX agents were excited to see this nice plane. Then I spotted the PR’s A340 (F-OHPJ) touched down and parked at gate 54. I also saw the landing of JL’s Boeing 747-300 from Mexico City. Surprisingly, not many passengers were transiting to NRT, but many Canadian passengers deplaned. Then I spotted a KE’s Boeing 747-400 and spotted a very handsome Korean pilot.
The official boarding time of 1pm arrived, but when I looked at this Canadian/ Maple Leaf hybrid painted 747, the engine cowl on the second right hand engine was opened. The delay gods refused to leave me alone. The gate agent announced that our plane would delay our departure due to an engine problem but they were on the final stage of testing the engines. On a side note, our gate was changed from D75 to D55 last minutes. My guess was that this a/c was originally used on the KIX route, but then the maintenance determined that it would take a while to fix the plane, so they did an airplane change. They would use the original NRT flight for the already delayed KIX flight, and vice versa. KIX flight was therefore only late for thirty minutes. Finally, boarding began at 1:49pm, and due to the light load, the doors were closed at 2:16pm. This Boeing 747 still had the CP seats with the old purple upholstery, instead of the muddy color featured by the last Club Empress advertisement. Nevertheless, it had the 65 inches of legroom, which made it better than the old F class used by most airlines in the 90s. 1A was nice, although a bit narrow up front. The F/A immediately offered me the space on the front closet for my carry on. There were two F/As serving up front and I believed they were possibly all ex-CP. The MD J class had only 9 passengers and I got no neighbor. The normal pre-takeoff beverage were offered with newspapers and wine lists. I was surprised that they did not pass out the printed menus at this time. Finally, we took off from Runway 8R at 2:31pm.
Surprisingly the pilots did not make one single announcement throughout the flight, except to tell us that we had to wait for a gate at NRT. Anyway, the flying time was nine hours and ten minutes, and the route was rather northern today. We flew along the coast of Alaska and turned towards the Bering Sea after passing Anchorage. We flew along the coast of Russia and entered the Japanese coastline on Ivaki. We flew on various attitudes and 37,000ft was our final cruising attitude.
Shortly after takeoff, the F/As passed out amenity kits and socks, which are surprisingly CP – not the really nice Aveda kits, but grey kits with basic things such as eye shades, toothbrush set, and few other things. Those are pretty much the only CP stuffs I saw on this flight – the headsets are CP and some of the forks or knives are CP. Then they passed out drinks with AC’s Japanese rice crackers. And then there was a round of canapés, which contained a wrapped cucumber rolls with julienne of red peppers, carrots, and celery, smoked trout and cheese on toast, and chicken breast & pickled cabbage on bread. Then the Japanese speaking F/As came to take our meal orders. She apologized that the wrong menus were loaded and could you imagine the look on my face? No printed menus… Therefore the menu descriptions are done Carfield’s style today. Bad news continued next… The purser announced that we were having problems with the audio system on this aircraft. Then I asked myself, “what is going on today? How bad can things be? Well, I hope they can fix it during lunch.” Then the F/As began our lunch service today. There was a choice of Japanese Kaiseki meals or Western meals. I had the Japanese meal, due to pleasant experience the previous occasion. Surprisingly, most Japanese neighbors picked the Western meals, so I could report on their meals.
For appetizers, the Western meals had a smoked salmon appetizer, but they did not have the green salad bowl like other AC flights. For Japanese meals, it had basically the following dishes –
Rolled smoked salmon with alfafa and bean sprouts
Chicken roll stuffed with eggs, corns, and diced carrots
Braised eggplant with miso sauce
Octopus sashimi
Shrimp with Japanese melon
Stewed vegetables (string beans, bamboo shoots, & black mushrooms)
-It was quite delicious and I continued to enjoy the high quality of food prepared by Air Canada.
For entrees, the Western folks had either beef steak or Chinese style prawns with fried rice.
For the Japanese entrée, we had two flowered egg crepes with gravy. The presentation was amazing. The egg crepes were basically filled with fish, corn and carrots, and the F/As also gave me steamed rice and miso soup with bean curd skins and spring onions.
The meals ended with the cheese tray (camembert, cheddar or Bel Paste) with crackers, and fruit brochette (strawberry, pineapple, and melon), and then there was the dessert tray – raspberry sorbet or coffee/mocha cake. Then the F/As came to take our tea/coffee orders and passed out Lindt’s Fioretto Nougat chocolate. The meals are your typical Air Canada’ style. But the difference between my previous AC and this ex-CP flight is the F/As. They were efficient and a bit more approachable than the young F/As on my last couple AC flights. They were friendly and when you asked for beverage in the galley, they would offer you nuts. They kept my ginger ale filled for most of the flight.
Then bad news arrived when I was sipping my ginger ale. The audio system broke down, despite the supervisor tried to restart the system multiple times. Then she walked towards the J cabin and passed out customer compensation forms. She was very apologetic, but I just could not believe that this CP farewell flight turned out to have no menu and no entertainment. What could I do for the next six hours or so? I slept a bit, but could not sleep much due to the daytime. But all my Japanese neighbors slept the whole flight. Then I read various newspapers and magazines, and even finished a whole Chinese novel. Maybe the DVD players are not bad ideas.
Finally the F/As came with hot towel and juices, as we got closer to Japan. Instead of serving everything on one tray like AC, the F/As first came with the appetizer, which was another scallop thing with soba noodle salad and seaweed salad. The fruit dish had grapes, melon slices, pineapple slices, and grapefruit segment. Then the entrees were featured on a trolley, since we did not know what it was. The choices are salmon, pork with vermecelli, or stir-fry chicken in ginger sauce with steamed rice and bak choy. I had the chicken, which was excellent. The meals were served in a relaxed manner, rather than the rush manners featured by AC. Then we began our descent into NRT. Another round of hot towels was passed out when the seat belt sign was turned on for the final approach. We touched down at R/W 16 on 3:39pm Tokyo time. Despite our arrival, we had to wait for the Continental’s Boeing 777 at our gate, 91, and we sat on the tarmac for twenty-three minutes.
In general, it was a pretty good flight and I enjoyed the meals, despite all the mishaps concerning the tired looking cabins, audio system, and printed menus’ problems. CP will be deeply missed and I will miss seeing the flying goose. If you had a choice, these CP’s Boeing 747-400s had the best J class seats. I can see if Empress is upset when AC uses the A340s for the HKG runs. Those SE seats are nothing compared to CP’s Club Empress seats on the Boeing 747s. At the gate, AC had already booked a bus for two other passengers and I, who were connecting to Terminal one for the United’s flight to Singapore.
July 18, 2001
UA 897 NRT-SIN Lv1755 Arr2335
Boeing 747-400 N172UA
After arriving at Terminal one, it was rather confusing to find the transit desks. By the time I found it, United decided to close the counters. Economy class passengers were directed to wait at the gates, and the agent directed me to the lounge. I went to the lounge receptions for check-in and then I got to the F class lounge. The snack selections were okay, but no sushi for us this time. These Japanese staffs continued to be the nicest on United’s international network. They were polite and looked out for the passengers. I got some drinks and sat next to the windows facing Runway 16/34 and saw so many Boeing 747s landing and taking off. Then I saw a special United’s Boeing 747-400 with a sticker on the nose area. It was a teddy bear with some balloons and the tail number is N120UA. Anyone know anything about this particular plane.
After some shopping, I went to Gate 25 for boarding. The flight was pretty full in all cabin classes and the Singapore based F/As continued to be top notch. We were offered with pre-takeoff beverage immediately after we were seated. Then the purser went to each of us, introduced herself to us, and told us about our flight plan. She ever told each of us about the choices of a quick supper service or full service. She also came with trays of VCR tapes and newspapers. Of course, she made sure that we knew how the seats operated. I selected a number of VCR tapes for this flight because I was so sick of reading as of this point. The service was nonstop from the moment I boarded the plane till we deplaned in SIN. The doors were closed at 5:50pm – a bit earlier than scheduled. We pushed back immediately and there was the usual live safety demonstration. Then the F/As passed out menus and headphones. They even unwrapped the headphone for you, instead of throwing the headsets at you. Those are the tiny things that made United Asia so special and highly praised. We took off from R/W16 at 6:14pm after an Air France’s Boeing 747-400 landed.
The service began immediately after the pilots turned off the seat belt sign. Flying time was six hours and three minutes, and the flight route was pretty typical. Towards Taiwan, the Philippines and then onto Singapore. The cruising attitudes range from 31,000ft to 35,000ft. The F/As passed out warmed mixed nuts and our drink. Then the purser took the entrée order from each of us. When I chose the full service, the purser told me that the dinner would begin 25 minutes later.
Here is the menu transcript:
To Begin:
Crab cake and spicy mango papaya salsa
Barbecue pork with mushroom relish
The crab cakes were warmed and this appetizer was delicious. This menu was designed by the chefs of Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore and United showed a short video prior serving dinner.
Main Courses
Capitol pork ribs with sweet soy sauce
Egg fried rice and vegetable stir-fry
This entrée was my first choice, and it was quite good. The pork meats were moist and not like your typical rubber pork chops. The F/As even included two wet towels for me. Once again, these thoughtful items made this flight so different from your United’s domestic flight.
Roasted chicken breast and king prawn with Thai chili sauce
Spicy canopy potatoes and kailan with oyster sauce
Sauteed sea bass with coriander crab sauce
Polenta and spinach with garlic
The Early Setting meal offers a complete meal served all at once
Chunky potato leek soup with shredded Cajun chicken breast
Sauteed scallops with oven-roasted potato salad
Eli’s Milk Chocolate Caramel Mousse Cake
Dessert
International Cheese sampler with a glass of Sanderman’s Porto
Brie, Red Cheddar, and Emmental cheese
Eli’s Milk Chocolate Carmel Mousse cake
Fresh seasonal fruit
2 cherries, grapes, watermelon, pineapple, and melon
My comment about this dinner is great food, but United can use a separate soup and salad course as well. If passengers want to rest, you will get the early setting meal, but most passengers choose to eat, United needs to serve a complete dinner service, with the Japanese bento option. Singapore Airlines served a full hot dinner on this same flight. Northwest Airlines serve a full dinner as well. UA has no excuse to be cheap. Fortunately the United’s Singaporean crews helped United to gain so many points. The F/As did not stop offering us water and other beverages throughout the flight. BTW, there was no amenity kit given to us. It was unacceptable. It was a long overwater flight and the amenity kit is not high quality stuff anyway. Even Northwest gives its WBC passengers an amenity kit.
For the rest of the flight, Carfield indulged himself onto the world of Hollywood’s sentimental world. I watched “The Wedding Planner” and “Pay It Forward,” which made me cry nonstop. “The Wedding Planner” was surprisingly good and Matthew McConahey drove me crazy. I had to rewind the tapes a couple times because he was so handsome. I watched the ending twice. Gosh! Was I crazy or what? “Pay It Forward” was a good movie and the message was great – some kind of hopes in this hopeless world, but the ending was heart broken to watch.
Due to storm activites, the F/As had to take their seats during the meal service a couple times and the purser apologized each time. Then the F/As turned on the flight a bit earlier due to possible turbulence during the final approach. The F/As passed out glasses of water to everyone and helped each passenger to reset their seats. The flight was wonderful. We landed on R/W20R at 11:17pm and Singapore Changi airport was pretty quiet by then. We quickly parked at Gate C22 and within 20 minutes, I was on my way to the Le Meridien Changi.
July 19, 2001
SQ 866 SIN-HKG Lv1330 Arr1715
Boeing 747-400 9V-SMO
I finally got to fly Singapore Airlines’ first class. This flight proved to be excellent, except a little disappointment with the Silver Kris lounge. The F class check in agent was efficient but still decided not to give me a F class ticket envelope. But then, there were abundant amounts of red F class ticket envelopes in the F class lounge. The Silver Kris F class lounge had more comfortable leather chairs and the food selections were about the same as Business Class. The foods are a bit better and they had the Krug champagne on the lounge too. It was pretty good for F class lounges.
Boarding took place at gate E3 and the gate was pretty packed this afternoon. Once I stepped onto the F class cabin, I was escorted to the seat and was given a choice of newspapers, magazines, headset and menu immediately. The F/A served me my choice of pre-takeoff beverage and the freshly squeezed orange juice was excellent. F class had five passengers this afternoon, including an old time TV actress and her husband. The passengers are pretty interesting mix and the SQ F/As worked nonstop. Doors were closed at 1:30pm and we pushed back immediately. Flying time was three hours and four minutes and we cruised at 33,000ft. The F/As barely had time to take their seats as we began our takeoff run at 1:40pm from R/W20L.
The seats are definitely more comfortable than CX and UA suites. The brown leathers are very good-looking. The control buttons were conveniently located the large TV screens were excellent. The seats gave good lumbar supports and the width was abundant. However, due to the installation of the suites, most airlines could no longer serve meals from a trolley, except CX. Anyway, seat belt sign turned off at 1:48pm, but then turned back on immediately. Anyway, the F/As passed out blankets to everyone. She unwrapped each blanket individually and placed them on you. I passed on the blankets because I was not going to sleep on this short flight. They also passed out slippers, which were pretty awful looking. It was basically the ones used on Raffles Class but slightly larger in size. I think SQ can invest on some real slippers like Japan Airlines and ANA. Then drink service began with a nice plate of warm cashews, a glass of Krug chamagne and a glass of fresh orange juice for me. The meals began immediately after more champagne and the F/As took the meal orders – which courses that you are having…
Appetizer
Chilled malossol Caviar
With melba toast and condiments
Or
Assorted hors d’oeuvre
Marinated lobster, roasted duck, and duck liver mousse
I had the second option, as I did not eat caviar. The table was set up individually by the F/A and the bread plate was warmed. The appetizer was excellent. I enjoyed every bit of it.
From the bakery
Oven fresh rolls with a choice of extra virgin olive oil or butter
Garlic Bread
Did not take notes on the bread – I think I had a piece of Foccacia bread, but they did have the virgin olive oil in small bottles.
Soup
Oriental chicken soup with quail egg and mixed vegetable
Excellent soup with all the right ingredients… a good broth.
Salad
Caesar salad
Romaine lettuce with bacon, Parmesan cheese, croutons, and anchovy-garlic dressing
A huge bowl of fresh salad
Main Courses
Veal cutlet baked en-papillote with spaghetti, ham, shiitake mushrooms and tomato
Excellent dish… The veals were moist and the whole entrée was wrapped inside of a paper.
Or
Soya sauce chicken, black mushrooms and leafy greens with fragrant rice
Or
Grilled sea bass with red wine butter sauce, sauteed capsicums, zucchini and boiled potatoes
Or
Wok fried Scallops in Szechuan peppercorn sauce, Chinese green, black mushrooms, red capsicums, and egg noodles
Cheese
Selection of cheese with garnishes
Brie and two other kinds with walnuts, dried apricots and crackers
Fresh fruit
A selection of fresh fruit
Mango, cherry, grapes, pears, and banana
Dessert
Raspberry sorbet with saffron flavoured pineapple compote
Strange dessert
The meal was excellent and definitely the best I have on an airplane so far. SQ really lives up to its reputation and this meal shows how SQ pays attention to details. Even it has two beverage menus – one for wines and one for coffee.
Champagne
Dom Perignon 1993
Krug Grande Cuvee
White Wines
Puligny-montrachet 1997 chartron et trebuchet
Chablis premier cru vaillons 1998 bouchard pere et fils
1997 wehlener sonnenuhr riesling spatlese
Red Wines
Beaune Premier Cru 1996 Bouchard Pere et Fils
Beaune Avaux Premier Cru 1996 Bouchard pere & fils
Chateau D’issan 1997 margaux aoc
Port
Dow’s 20 year old tawny port
For the rest of the flight, I watched a couple situation comedies and wrote a letter to the Nightflyers using the beautiful F class stationary. There was a drawer beneath each TV set with letter pads, envelopes, pens, and postcards. The F/A saw me writing the letter and offered to mail it for me. Wow, SQ paid for the postage. Hong Kong was pretty cloudy but we had a good view of the city as we began our final approach. We landed on Runway 25R at 4:52pm. We parked at the gate eleven minutes later at Gate 23.
Here is the end to my trip report!
I hope you enjoy reading it!
Carfield
UA 1698 SFO-YVR Lv1840 Arr2051 (not really)
Actual Lv2252 Arr0035+1
Airbus A320-200 Change from N442UA to N453UA
Since there were “four” hours layover from my JFK flight to the YVR flight, I had the fortune to meet of the FT talkers. We went to the international terminal for a bit talking and plane spotting. We saw a number of United’s European bound Boeing 767 and 777. Then there were the Aeroflot’s Boeing 777, two Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-400s, Singapore Airlines’ A340 Celestar, and Mexicana’s A320. The new international terminal was really nice with spacious rooms and a lot of natural light. Then I grabbed a bowl of Japanese noodle soup on one of the food courts. Then the nightmare began. The monitor showed that my flight was delayed, but there was no time indicated. Then I went to the F class check-in counter and inquired about the delay. She told me that there was a 8pm decision time. So I proceeded to the gate and discussed the problem with the gate agent. Unlike your typical UA ground personnel at SFO, he was very nice and patiently told each passenger that the original aircraft schedule for this flight was “no good” for flying, so we had to wait for another a/c that would come in from PHL. He then announced that United was giving us a $10 meal coupon, but too bad, Carfield had already spent $10 out of his pocket for an early evening meal. Then we waited till 7:45pm when N442UA pulled up onto gate 78. Then we were told that this plane had problems with the pressurization system. Testing needs to be done and more delays. Finally, this a/c was announced as “no good” and then another A320 would be used. That flight was landing from ORD. Then it took a while for everyone to deplane, and then the caterers need to reload the food. Fortunately, the scene at SFO was calm and no one complained. A few of them used the phone to call their relatives at YVR. Then our next door flight to PDX was canceled and that gate was a mob scene.
Then finally we began boarding at 9:59pm on the gate next door. To my surprise, a United supervisor and a gate agent was handling out $50 coupon to everyone for future travel. They apologize about the delays and everyone seemed to be happy. The load was about 12F and 64Y. About this brand new a/c, it had the new color scheme and the seats are the same comfort as before. But flying a brand new plane obviously did not guarantee a decent and neat copy of Hemisphere. Anyway, we finally pushed back at 10:27pm and slowly rolled towards Runway 1R for a beautiful evening takeoff from the Bay. Wheeled up at 10:52pm and the F/As immediately began showing a movie, “Spy Kid,” unlike your usual short subjects. The in-flight service featured a cold snack box in Y and a full dinner in F. The meals are a bit slow in delivery, but once the Y class F/A came up front, it was done quickly.
Here is menu:
To Begin
Garden Fresh Salad
Balsamic Vinaigrette or honey dijon dressing
Another one tray F class short-haul dinner was served. Surprisingly, these short haul meals remained untouched by the penny pincher of United. The salad bowl contained red and yellow tomato slices, mozzarella cheese, olive, and mesclun greens. Not bad for a salad!
Main Courses
Beef stroganoff with fettuccine
Carrot Batonnets and snow peas
I have too many crab cakes and decided to select this entrée. Although this entrée was a typical economy dish, it was pretty good with good fettuccine (not soggy) and the sauce was excellent.
Or
Crab cakes with sun-dried tomato and dill sauce
Dessert
Eli’s Praline Cheesecake
The move was over by the time we began approaching Vancouver. Channel 9 became rather quiet after passing Oregon, and we were pretty much the only flight landing into YVR from the South. We touched down on R/W8R at 12:35am, and parked at gate 78 after seven minutes of taxing. The immigration was pretty quiet, but with the full staff on station. There was an Air Transat flight from London touched down 30 minutes before us, and that explained the busy baggage claim and custom area. All the LHR passengers were required to go through a second layer of custom. Just beware!
July 17, 2001
AC 3003 YVR-NRT Lv1330 Arr1505+1
Boeing 747-400 C-FBCA Fleet#384
After a great evening at Fairmont YVR, it was great to open my curtain and look at the amount of planes in the USA wing. It was extremely busy at this time of the year. YVR, in general, was busy and the international area seemed to have people everywhere. When I checked in on the J class line, the agents were busy with a Japanese group. Fortunately, a bilingual staff (Japanese) helped me immediately. She was very kind and checked my bags all the way to Singapore, but she could not issue my boarding pass on United (due to the u/g situation). I was off my way to eat in the food court, due to limited selections of food on the MLL. To give them some credit, apples, kimchi noodles, bagles, muffins, melon slices, and the normal nuts and pretzels were available this time.
On a side note, I went to the ticketing office for a refund on an unused ticket. The agent was helpful and the whole process took less than two minutes.
After mingling in the MLL for 30-45 minutes, I decided to head out and to watch planes. Basically I saw the landing of CX 838 from HKG, which was the “Spirit of Children 2000” – B-HOX and the CX agents were excited to see this nice plane. Then I spotted the PR’s A340 (F-OHPJ) touched down and parked at gate 54. I also saw the landing of JL’s Boeing 747-300 from Mexico City. Surprisingly, not many passengers were transiting to NRT, but many Canadian passengers deplaned. Then I spotted a KE’s Boeing 747-400 and spotted a very handsome Korean pilot.
The official boarding time of 1pm arrived, but when I looked at this Canadian/ Maple Leaf hybrid painted 747, the engine cowl on the second right hand engine was opened. The delay gods refused to leave me alone. The gate agent announced that our plane would delay our departure due to an engine problem but they were on the final stage of testing the engines. On a side note, our gate was changed from D75 to D55 last minutes. My guess was that this a/c was originally used on the KIX route, but then the maintenance determined that it would take a while to fix the plane, so they did an airplane change. They would use the original NRT flight for the already delayed KIX flight, and vice versa. KIX flight was therefore only late for thirty minutes. Finally, boarding began at 1:49pm, and due to the light load, the doors were closed at 2:16pm. This Boeing 747 still had the CP seats with the old purple upholstery, instead of the muddy color featured by the last Club Empress advertisement. Nevertheless, it had the 65 inches of legroom, which made it better than the old F class used by most airlines in the 90s. 1A was nice, although a bit narrow up front. The F/A immediately offered me the space on the front closet for my carry on. There were two F/As serving up front and I believed they were possibly all ex-CP. The MD J class had only 9 passengers and I got no neighbor. The normal pre-takeoff beverage were offered with newspapers and wine lists. I was surprised that they did not pass out the printed menus at this time. Finally, we took off from Runway 8R at 2:31pm.
Surprisingly the pilots did not make one single announcement throughout the flight, except to tell us that we had to wait for a gate at NRT. Anyway, the flying time was nine hours and ten minutes, and the route was rather northern today. We flew along the coast of Alaska and turned towards the Bering Sea after passing Anchorage. We flew along the coast of Russia and entered the Japanese coastline on Ivaki. We flew on various attitudes and 37,000ft was our final cruising attitude.
Shortly after takeoff, the F/As passed out amenity kits and socks, which are surprisingly CP – not the really nice Aveda kits, but grey kits with basic things such as eye shades, toothbrush set, and few other things. Those are pretty much the only CP stuffs I saw on this flight – the headsets are CP and some of the forks or knives are CP. Then they passed out drinks with AC’s Japanese rice crackers. And then there was a round of canapés, which contained a wrapped cucumber rolls with julienne of red peppers, carrots, and celery, smoked trout and cheese on toast, and chicken breast & pickled cabbage on bread. Then the Japanese speaking F/As came to take our meal orders. She apologized that the wrong menus were loaded and could you imagine the look on my face? No printed menus… Therefore the menu descriptions are done Carfield’s style today. Bad news continued next… The purser announced that we were having problems with the audio system on this aircraft. Then I asked myself, “what is going on today? How bad can things be? Well, I hope they can fix it during lunch.” Then the F/As began our lunch service today. There was a choice of Japanese Kaiseki meals or Western meals. I had the Japanese meal, due to pleasant experience the previous occasion. Surprisingly, most Japanese neighbors picked the Western meals, so I could report on their meals.
For appetizers, the Western meals had a smoked salmon appetizer, but they did not have the green salad bowl like other AC flights. For Japanese meals, it had basically the following dishes –
Rolled smoked salmon with alfafa and bean sprouts
Chicken roll stuffed with eggs, corns, and diced carrots
Braised eggplant with miso sauce
Octopus sashimi
Shrimp with Japanese melon
Stewed vegetables (string beans, bamboo shoots, & black mushrooms)
-It was quite delicious and I continued to enjoy the high quality of food prepared by Air Canada.
For entrees, the Western folks had either beef steak or Chinese style prawns with fried rice.
For the Japanese entrée, we had two flowered egg crepes with gravy. The presentation was amazing. The egg crepes were basically filled with fish, corn and carrots, and the F/As also gave me steamed rice and miso soup with bean curd skins and spring onions.
The meals ended with the cheese tray (camembert, cheddar or Bel Paste) with crackers, and fruit brochette (strawberry, pineapple, and melon), and then there was the dessert tray – raspberry sorbet or coffee/mocha cake. Then the F/As came to take our tea/coffee orders and passed out Lindt’s Fioretto Nougat chocolate. The meals are your typical Air Canada’ style. But the difference between my previous AC and this ex-CP flight is the F/As. They were efficient and a bit more approachable than the young F/As on my last couple AC flights. They were friendly and when you asked for beverage in the galley, they would offer you nuts. They kept my ginger ale filled for most of the flight.
Then bad news arrived when I was sipping my ginger ale. The audio system broke down, despite the supervisor tried to restart the system multiple times. Then she walked towards the J cabin and passed out customer compensation forms. She was very apologetic, but I just could not believe that this CP farewell flight turned out to have no menu and no entertainment. What could I do for the next six hours or so? I slept a bit, but could not sleep much due to the daytime. But all my Japanese neighbors slept the whole flight. Then I read various newspapers and magazines, and even finished a whole Chinese novel. Maybe the DVD players are not bad ideas.
Finally the F/As came with hot towel and juices, as we got closer to Japan. Instead of serving everything on one tray like AC, the F/As first came with the appetizer, which was another scallop thing with soba noodle salad and seaweed salad. The fruit dish had grapes, melon slices, pineapple slices, and grapefruit segment. Then the entrees were featured on a trolley, since we did not know what it was. The choices are salmon, pork with vermecelli, or stir-fry chicken in ginger sauce with steamed rice and bak choy. I had the chicken, which was excellent. The meals were served in a relaxed manner, rather than the rush manners featured by AC. Then we began our descent into NRT. Another round of hot towels was passed out when the seat belt sign was turned on for the final approach. We touched down at R/W 16 on 3:39pm Tokyo time. Despite our arrival, we had to wait for the Continental’s Boeing 777 at our gate, 91, and we sat on the tarmac for twenty-three minutes.
In general, it was a pretty good flight and I enjoyed the meals, despite all the mishaps concerning the tired looking cabins, audio system, and printed menus’ problems. CP will be deeply missed and I will miss seeing the flying goose. If you had a choice, these CP’s Boeing 747-400s had the best J class seats. I can see if Empress is upset when AC uses the A340s for the HKG runs. Those SE seats are nothing compared to CP’s Club Empress seats on the Boeing 747s. At the gate, AC had already booked a bus for two other passengers and I, who were connecting to Terminal one for the United’s flight to Singapore.
July 18, 2001
UA 897 NRT-SIN Lv1755 Arr2335
Boeing 747-400 N172UA
After arriving at Terminal one, it was rather confusing to find the transit desks. By the time I found it, United decided to close the counters. Economy class passengers were directed to wait at the gates, and the agent directed me to the lounge. I went to the lounge receptions for check-in and then I got to the F class lounge. The snack selections were okay, but no sushi for us this time. These Japanese staffs continued to be the nicest on United’s international network. They were polite and looked out for the passengers. I got some drinks and sat next to the windows facing Runway 16/34 and saw so many Boeing 747s landing and taking off. Then I saw a special United’s Boeing 747-400 with a sticker on the nose area. It was a teddy bear with some balloons and the tail number is N120UA. Anyone know anything about this particular plane.
After some shopping, I went to Gate 25 for boarding. The flight was pretty full in all cabin classes and the Singapore based F/As continued to be top notch. We were offered with pre-takeoff beverage immediately after we were seated. Then the purser went to each of us, introduced herself to us, and told us about our flight plan. She ever told each of us about the choices of a quick supper service or full service. She also came with trays of VCR tapes and newspapers. Of course, she made sure that we knew how the seats operated. I selected a number of VCR tapes for this flight because I was so sick of reading as of this point. The service was nonstop from the moment I boarded the plane till we deplaned in SIN. The doors were closed at 5:50pm – a bit earlier than scheduled. We pushed back immediately and there was the usual live safety demonstration. Then the F/As passed out menus and headphones. They even unwrapped the headphone for you, instead of throwing the headsets at you. Those are the tiny things that made United Asia so special and highly praised. We took off from R/W16 at 6:14pm after an Air France’s Boeing 747-400 landed.
The service began immediately after the pilots turned off the seat belt sign. Flying time was six hours and three minutes, and the flight route was pretty typical. Towards Taiwan, the Philippines and then onto Singapore. The cruising attitudes range from 31,000ft to 35,000ft. The F/As passed out warmed mixed nuts and our drink. Then the purser took the entrée order from each of us. When I chose the full service, the purser told me that the dinner would begin 25 minutes later.
Here is the menu transcript:
To Begin:
Crab cake and spicy mango papaya salsa
Barbecue pork with mushroom relish
The crab cakes were warmed and this appetizer was delicious. This menu was designed by the chefs of Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore and United showed a short video prior serving dinner.
Main Courses
Capitol pork ribs with sweet soy sauce
Egg fried rice and vegetable stir-fry
This entrée was my first choice, and it was quite good. The pork meats were moist and not like your typical rubber pork chops. The F/As even included two wet towels for me. Once again, these thoughtful items made this flight so different from your United’s domestic flight.
Roasted chicken breast and king prawn with Thai chili sauce
Spicy canopy potatoes and kailan with oyster sauce
Sauteed sea bass with coriander crab sauce
Polenta and spinach with garlic
The Early Setting meal offers a complete meal served all at once
Chunky potato leek soup with shredded Cajun chicken breast
Sauteed scallops with oven-roasted potato salad
Eli’s Milk Chocolate Caramel Mousse Cake
Dessert
International Cheese sampler with a glass of Sanderman’s Porto
Brie, Red Cheddar, and Emmental cheese
Eli’s Milk Chocolate Carmel Mousse cake
Fresh seasonal fruit
2 cherries, grapes, watermelon, pineapple, and melon
My comment about this dinner is great food, but United can use a separate soup and salad course as well. If passengers want to rest, you will get the early setting meal, but most passengers choose to eat, United needs to serve a complete dinner service, with the Japanese bento option. Singapore Airlines served a full hot dinner on this same flight. Northwest Airlines serve a full dinner as well. UA has no excuse to be cheap. Fortunately the United’s Singaporean crews helped United to gain so many points. The F/As did not stop offering us water and other beverages throughout the flight. BTW, there was no amenity kit given to us. It was unacceptable. It was a long overwater flight and the amenity kit is not high quality stuff anyway. Even Northwest gives its WBC passengers an amenity kit.
For the rest of the flight, Carfield indulged himself onto the world of Hollywood’s sentimental world. I watched “The Wedding Planner” and “Pay It Forward,” which made me cry nonstop. “The Wedding Planner” was surprisingly good and Matthew McConahey drove me crazy. I had to rewind the tapes a couple times because he was so handsome. I watched the ending twice. Gosh! Was I crazy or what? “Pay It Forward” was a good movie and the message was great – some kind of hopes in this hopeless world, but the ending was heart broken to watch.
Due to storm activites, the F/As had to take their seats during the meal service a couple times and the purser apologized each time. Then the F/As turned on the flight a bit earlier due to possible turbulence during the final approach. The F/As passed out glasses of water to everyone and helped each passenger to reset their seats. The flight was wonderful. We landed on R/W20R at 11:17pm and Singapore Changi airport was pretty quiet by then. We quickly parked at Gate C22 and within 20 minutes, I was on my way to the Le Meridien Changi.
July 19, 2001
SQ 866 SIN-HKG Lv1330 Arr1715
Boeing 747-400 9V-SMO
I finally got to fly Singapore Airlines’ first class. This flight proved to be excellent, except a little disappointment with the Silver Kris lounge. The F class check in agent was efficient but still decided not to give me a F class ticket envelope. But then, there were abundant amounts of red F class ticket envelopes in the F class lounge. The Silver Kris F class lounge had more comfortable leather chairs and the food selections were about the same as Business Class. The foods are a bit better and they had the Krug champagne on the lounge too. It was pretty good for F class lounges.
Boarding took place at gate E3 and the gate was pretty packed this afternoon. Once I stepped onto the F class cabin, I was escorted to the seat and was given a choice of newspapers, magazines, headset and menu immediately. The F/A served me my choice of pre-takeoff beverage and the freshly squeezed orange juice was excellent. F class had five passengers this afternoon, including an old time TV actress and her husband. The passengers are pretty interesting mix and the SQ F/As worked nonstop. Doors were closed at 1:30pm and we pushed back immediately. Flying time was three hours and four minutes and we cruised at 33,000ft. The F/As barely had time to take their seats as we began our takeoff run at 1:40pm from R/W20L.
The seats are definitely more comfortable than CX and UA suites. The brown leathers are very good-looking. The control buttons were conveniently located the large TV screens were excellent. The seats gave good lumbar supports and the width was abundant. However, due to the installation of the suites, most airlines could no longer serve meals from a trolley, except CX. Anyway, seat belt sign turned off at 1:48pm, but then turned back on immediately. Anyway, the F/As passed out blankets to everyone. She unwrapped each blanket individually and placed them on you. I passed on the blankets because I was not going to sleep on this short flight. They also passed out slippers, which were pretty awful looking. It was basically the ones used on Raffles Class but slightly larger in size. I think SQ can invest on some real slippers like Japan Airlines and ANA. Then drink service began with a nice plate of warm cashews, a glass of Krug chamagne and a glass of fresh orange juice for me. The meals began immediately after more champagne and the F/As took the meal orders – which courses that you are having…
Appetizer
Chilled malossol Caviar
With melba toast and condiments
Or
Assorted hors d’oeuvre
Marinated lobster, roasted duck, and duck liver mousse
I had the second option, as I did not eat caviar. The table was set up individually by the F/A and the bread plate was warmed. The appetizer was excellent. I enjoyed every bit of it.
From the bakery
Oven fresh rolls with a choice of extra virgin olive oil or butter
Garlic Bread
Did not take notes on the bread – I think I had a piece of Foccacia bread, but they did have the virgin olive oil in small bottles.
Soup
Oriental chicken soup with quail egg and mixed vegetable
Excellent soup with all the right ingredients… a good broth.
Salad
Caesar salad
Romaine lettuce with bacon, Parmesan cheese, croutons, and anchovy-garlic dressing
A huge bowl of fresh salad
Main Courses
Veal cutlet baked en-papillote with spaghetti, ham, shiitake mushrooms and tomato
Excellent dish… The veals were moist and the whole entrée was wrapped inside of a paper.
Or
Soya sauce chicken, black mushrooms and leafy greens with fragrant rice
Or
Grilled sea bass with red wine butter sauce, sauteed capsicums, zucchini and boiled potatoes
Or
Wok fried Scallops in Szechuan peppercorn sauce, Chinese green, black mushrooms, red capsicums, and egg noodles
Cheese
Selection of cheese with garnishes
Brie and two other kinds with walnuts, dried apricots and crackers
Fresh fruit
A selection of fresh fruit
Mango, cherry, grapes, pears, and banana
Dessert
Raspberry sorbet with saffron flavoured pineapple compote
Strange dessert
The meal was excellent and definitely the best I have on an airplane so far. SQ really lives up to its reputation and this meal shows how SQ pays attention to details. Even it has two beverage menus – one for wines and one for coffee.
Champagne
Dom Perignon 1993
Krug Grande Cuvee
White Wines
Puligny-montrachet 1997 chartron et trebuchet
Chablis premier cru vaillons 1998 bouchard pere et fils
1997 wehlener sonnenuhr riesling spatlese
Red Wines
Beaune Premier Cru 1996 Bouchard Pere et Fils
Beaune Avaux Premier Cru 1996 Bouchard pere & fils
Chateau D’issan 1997 margaux aoc
Port
Dow’s 20 year old tawny port
For the rest of the flight, I watched a couple situation comedies and wrote a letter to the Nightflyers using the beautiful F class stationary. There was a drawer beneath each TV set with letter pads, envelopes, pens, and postcards. The F/A saw me writing the letter and offered to mail it for me. Wow, SQ paid for the postage. Hong Kong was pretty cloudy but we had a good view of the city as we began our final approach. We landed on Runway 25R at 4:52pm. We parked at the gate eleven minutes later at Gate 23.
Here is the end to my trip report!
I hope you enjoy reading it!
Carfield
Jul 25, 2001, 9:13 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: NYC
Programs: UA MileagePlus 2MM
Posts: 1,567
carfield nice long report and very interesting to read - as a ua flyer i am always envious to hear about sq service standards and food options.
although as everyone keeps saying, the ua asia f/a's are pretty awesome in their own right. last time i went nrt to sin in c class the apu had broken down and since the plane had been parked at a remote hardstand, it was absolutely baking inside the cabin. not only were the f/a's compassionate but passed out water and juice and champagne about 5 times before we departed. the attitude of not letting anything get in the way of good service is so nice to see on ua!!!!
thanks for your report
adam
although as everyone keeps saying, the ua asia f/a's are pretty awesome in their own right. last time i went nrt to sin in c class the apu had broken down and since the plane had been parked at a remote hardstand, it was absolutely baking inside the cabin. not only were the f/a's compassionate but passed out water and juice and champagne about 5 times before we departed. the attitude of not letting anything get in the way of good service is so nice to see on ua!!!!
thanks for your report
adam