UAFlyer

Friday, 26 June 2009 – Tuesday, 7 July 2009 (San Francisco to Beijing via the Atlantic)

We have been traveling to Europe during winter for the past couple years to take advantage of the low fare and rack up some mileage. But one of the main drawback is the cold and gloomy weather. When United raised the mileage requirement end of last year, we decided to burn some miles to see Europe in the summer. It would cost 80000 miles for a round trip ticket on business class to go to Europe, and 90000 miles to go to Asia. But one can also choose to go to North Asia via Europe and pay 105000 miles – the higher of the North America/Europe (80000) and Europe/North Asia mileage (105000) required. This seems to be much better value.

So we first decided on two cities, one in Europe and one in Asia. We would like to visit Krakow Poland and Sapporo Hokkaido Japan. We used the ANA tool extensively to look for availability and possible routings from San Francisco. Booking the tickets took huge amount of patience, as any Flyertalkers can imagine. First agent said United does not fly to Krakow and so I could not redeem award tickets, couple other agents said these required two separate awards. Not deterred by all these, I used the hang up and call back approach, and on one occasion I let the agent make a booking that’s something totally not what I wanted, it’s pointless to argue with him and instead just to let him book and thank him and let the booking expire after 72 hours. There are some good agents though, those must be from the HNL call center, and they are willing to do the research if I asked them on something they are not sure instead of starting to make up their own rules and define their valid routings. Still, I could not get anything book to Sapporo, we could go as far as Tokyo, and after couple more calls we decided to change the destination to Beijing. The 1K award change fee waiver is such a blessing, as we have made about half a dozen changes that required reissuing the tickets, and this would have cost over a thousand dollars ($100 to $150 per ticket per change).

Just when we thought in March we had the perfect trip booked for the Memorial Day week, United came up with the Double EQM promotion. Oh, we have to take advantage of that! So we bought the tickets to Moscow for the Memorial Day weekend, and changed the award booking to the July 4 week, but had to settle for some Economy segments and some less than optimal routings. Then came the hard work to keep monitoring the ANA tool and calling United to improve on the routing and schedule, and finally we got the following :

Awards : 105,000 miles North America to North Asia via Atlantic Business Class

Itinerary : Here’s the ticketed itinerary.
Fri Jun 26 UA 34 SFO 10:20pm JFK 6:59am (+1)
Sat Jun 27 LOT 16 EWR 11:25pm WAW 1:55pm (+1)
Sun Jun 28 LOT 3901 WAW 3:55pm KRK 4:45pm
Wed Jul 1 LH 3335 KRK 5:00pm MUC 6:25pm
Wed Jul 1 LH 722 MUC 7:40pm PEK 11:20am (+1)
Sun Jul 5 CA 834 PEK 1:55pm PVG 4:05pm
Mon Jul 6 LH 729 PVG 1:15pm FRA 6:55pm
Mon Jul 6 LH 982 FRA 8:30pm MUC 9:25pm
Tue Jul 7 UA 907 MUC 12:35pm SFO 3:01pm
Tue Jul 7 UA 907 ORD 5:25pm SFO 8:06pm


Ticketed route : 24971 miles

We think this is as good as we can get. We would have liked to get the direct flight from Munich to San Francisco on Lufthansa on the last segment, as the flight leaves later in the afternoon and still arrives home earlier than the United flight through Chicago, and that would allow more time for us to explore Munich. But Starnet blocking prevented all that Lufthansa had opened up the availability about two weeks prior to the flight date, but United could not see a thing and all the daily calling was fruitless.

Still, we are pretty happy with the results. While Beijing is the destination and Krakow is the stopover, we managed to also route through and spend a day in New York, and overnight in Shanghai and Munich for some bonus side trips using the 24 hour transit rule.

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Lounge : SFO Singapore Airlines Silver Kris Lounge

The trip starts with a red-eye P.S flight to New York. And couple hours before the flight, we got a page that the flight would delay by 30 minutes and would be leaving at 10:50pm. This gave us the perfect opportunity to see if we could get into the Singapore Airlines lounge in the International terminal. First we checked in, went past security in the domestic terminal, and used the new walkway to get to the International terminal, it’s still only 9:30pm and the lounge was not officially open yet. Luckily the receptionist waved us in, and upon examining our PS flight, she said you were only flying domestic on United ? We thought we might not be able to get in, but politely explained to her that this is the first segment of a very long international trip, and we are connecting to an international flight in New York. She then jotted down our UA frequent flyer information, and welcomed us in

Many have commented that the SQ lounge is better than the RCC lounge - free alcohol and more variety of food, which was our dinner that night. And free wifi too !


SFO Singapore lounge snacks

Then we headed back to the domestic terminal and waited at the gate for our flight to New York. The flight was going to be delayed for another 15 minutes or so, and we heard an announcement that they would be looking for volunteers, offering business class seat flying out the next morning and free domestic round trip ticket. This was quite unexpected as earlier in the day when we checked, the flight was not that full. Well, as we are already in business class, flying out next morning in the same class of service is not really a gain, but a free ticket is a free ticket. So time to rush to the agent and asked to be put on the volunteer’s list.

Flight: UA 34 San Francisco (SFO) 10:20pm New York (JFK) 6:59am next day
Aircraft: 757 - PS
Distance: 2586 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 5 hr 39 min
Class: Business

We were the first to get to the podium and they took our seats right away. While they were about to print out the free ticket, we politely asked if we could get travel credit instead. The agent only commented we should have asked earlier, as he had already entered some information for the free ticket. However, he was glad to re-enter the information to get us the travel credit and the boarding passes for the first flight next morning We also got $15 food voucher each, and a night at the Embassy Suite, but the big gain was definitely the $600 travel credit voucher, which’s good for International travel too!

Hotel: Embassy Suites San Francisco Airport - Burlingame

We then spent the $15 food voucher on some desserts in the airport food court, and saved the other $15 for breakfast next morning. Then we took the shuttle to the Embassy Suites. The hotel was definitely better than other ones we had gotten in the past for getting bumped, and it had a very nice gym and indoor swimming pool. Too bad our flight leaves early in the morning, and we would not be able to take advantage of the cooked to order breakfast, which I think starts at 7:00am.


Embassy Suites Lobby

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Flight: UA 6 San Francisco (SFO) 7:27am New York (JFK) 4:00pm
Aircraft: 757 - PS
Distance: 2586 miles
Class: Business

We took the early morning shuttle to the airport, and grabbed some food in the Lori’s diner before boarding. And now we officially started the trip to New York ! The original plan would have allowed us to roam around in the city for the day, and head to Newark airport in the evening. Now since we don’t arrive till 4:00pm, we wouldn’t be able to do much, but would still be able to meet up with our friends for dinner.

The P.S flight is much better than regular domestic flights, that is, if you are flying Business or First The Westin Heavenly pillows are of much better quality than the ones with blue paper-like pillow case found in regular domestic first class, and the seats have plenty of recline and leg room.



Leather seats with Westin Heavenly Pillows

Menus for breakfast were handed out, and we noticed the Raspberry Mojito on the cocktails section. Hmm, sounds pretty interesting and ordered one J


Raspberry Mojito

Individual personal video was then distributed. We had not flown P.S. for couple years, last time we had to choose specific DVDs for the players. Now the new players all have the films, games, music, etc loaded into the system.


Personal Video

Since I was quite stuffed from the breakfast in the airport Lori’s Diner already, I chose to have the lighter fruit and cereal option for breakfast for the flight.


Breakfast


Dinner : Yama 17 in Village

Since we had to go from JFK to Newark, our friends picked us up and swung by Manhattan for dinner. We chose the Yama restaurant in the Village as we had been there before, and really like the I-Love-Eel sushi roll.


Restaurant Entrance


I love eel and Shrimp roll

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Our next flight leaves from Newark at 11:25pm, and our friends dropped us off at the airport just before 9:00pm. There was a pretty long line at the LOT check in counter, but luckily, the business class line was empty, and we got our boarding passes and lounge invitation right away.


Newark Airport LOT checkin

Lounge : Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse

The lounge we could use is the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse. We went through the security only to find out the lounge is actually outside of the security. Oh well, better check more carefully next time. Still, we had plenty of time, and went back to the landside and checked out the lounge. There was not much food or drinks offered in the lounge, but the red décor is quite interesting. Wifi was also available. We surfed a bit, then headed back to the security, which fortunately was not really busy.


Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse entrance


Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse interior

Flight: LOT 16 Newark (EWR) 11:25pm Warsaw (WAW) 1:55pm
Aircraft: 767
Distance: 4259 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 8 hr 30 min
Class: Business

This is the first time we flew on LOT. The seats were quite comfortable, and the orange and blue color made the atmosphere quite cheerful. Well, maybe it’s only because we were in vacation mode It took us a while to figure out what all the buttons for the seat control were for, and while the seats were not truly lie flat ones, it’s pretty close. This was a two class configuration plane, so only business and economy class and we certainly were glad to be sitting up front.


Colorful Business Class seats


Seat Control


Amenity Kit

The menu was distributed in a leather folder, a nice little touch. The appetizers contain a number of small plates with smoked salmon, mixture of grilled vegetables, cherry tomato salad and dinner roll with olive oil. I picked the king snapper as the main entrée, which was OK. But of course, it’s hard to compare to the excellent sushi dinner we just had in the Village. I was so stuffed that I had to skip the cheese plate after the main entrée, and went straight to dessert.


Wine menu


Appetizer – Smoked Salmon, grilled bell pepper and eggplant, and cherry tomato salad


King snapper with roasted potatoes


Cream cake, Coffee and Baileys

Just like the United PS flight, individual entertainment system was handed out for business class. But of course the downside is one cannot view the flight map on these portable systems.


Personal Video

Prior to landing, we had some fruits, yogurt, croissants, scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. Or should I say lunch, as it’s around 2pm when we landed.


Breakfast

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Lounge : Warsaw airport Executive lounge “Ballada”

We transited in Warsaw for our flight to Krakow. There was an Executive lounge which was easily spotted on our way to the gate for the Krakow flight. This lounge is for all airlines and not specific to Star Alliance or LOT. The lounge is small, but has a decent selection of snacks and wine.


Warsaw Executive Lounge


Warsaw lounge wine and snacks

Flight: LOT 3901 Warsaw (WAW) 3:50pm Krakow (KRK) 4:45pm
Aircraft: E70
Distance: 153 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 55 min
Class: Business

Our flight to Krakow was a E70 aircraft. The seats were 2 by 2, and we could not really tell the difference between business class and economy class other than business class are in the front few rows. Since the flight is only a short one, we were not expecting to have much service. But there were no pre-departure drinks served, well actually, no drink service on board for the entire flight, even in business class. That’s a bit disappointing, but we knew we had been spoiled in other business class flights.


Business Class seat

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Arrival : Terminal, Train and Taxi

We got off the flight via the movable stairs and walked to the terminal. We saw a lot of old military planes parked when taxiing to the terminal. And while we knew the Krakow airport is not big, we were quite surprised to see the terminal was kind of like just a small garage, people can wait for their luggage while chatting with their friends who came to greet them just across the fence. Though our luggage had the LOT VIP tags, they came out quite late in the second batch of luggage. When we exited the terminal, we had to look quite hard for an ATM. And there were only couple big tour buses and taxis outside, and this really does not seem to be an international airport. Well, then we figured out we were in the domestic terminal, and we just walked a little further around the block and found the international terminal, with all kind of signs to connecting busses, train, and other airport facilities. We walked for another 10 minutes instead of taking the free shuttle bus (because we did not know where it was going!) and found the train station. It began to pour, but it was also perfect timing, as we rushed to the train and just made it before it left the station.


Deplaning at Krakow


Krakow domestic terminal baggage claim


Krakow airport train


Krakow main train station


Hotel : Sheraton Krakow

After we got off from the train station, we took a taxi to our hotel. We chose the Sheraton Krakow because of the good reviews in the TripAdvisor forum. The room was nice, and we could see a bit of the Castle. However, it’s also next to a construction site, but that did not bother us much as we spent most of the time outside to roam around the city. There’s a 24 hour supermarket that’s about 5 minute walk from the hotel, and we went there everyday to pick up some Polish ice cream, drinks and snacks after a hard day of touring. And the hotel is about 15 minute walk to the old town square, our favorite spot to visit in Krakow. Also, while wireless access would cost money, the wired connection to internet is free ! And they also have computers guests can use for free in the business center.


Krakow Sheraton


Krakow Sheraton

Activities : Bike Tour, Central Plaza, Salt Mine, Castle

We had two full days in Krakow, and we managed to squeeze in a half day biking tour, a lunch in the castle, a visit to the Salt mine and a Chopin concert. The bike tour is definitely a better and more fun way to see the city, but that’s also because the weather was cooperating.


Krakow bike tour


Polonia House


Salt Mine

And it’s really fun to go to the old town square watching different artists perform, or just sitting in one of the street cafes zipping coffees knowing it would have cost couple more times for the same in Paris.


Performance in Krakow Old Town Square


Krakow Old Town square at night


Wawel Castle

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We were going to take the taxi and train to the airport, but the taxi driver agreed to just take our last 50 Zloty and drive us all the way to the airport from the hotel. So we had plenty of time when we got to the airport, and check-in for the Munich flight was not open till 2 hours before flight time, and we were going to wait for another half an hour in the terminal. Luckily the agent helped us check-in, and we went to relax in the business lounge.


Lounge : Krakow airport Business Lounge

Similar to the lounge in Warsaw, this is a business lounge for all airlines. It has pretty nice selection of drinks and snacks, for some reason, the wifi was not working for me, but they have a computer section where one can use the wired connection to connect to one’s laptop. Then came an announcement that our flight would be delayed, I was pretty nervous as we did not have much time to connect to our flight to Beijing originally, and any delay would have forced us to rebook to some other flights. I checked with the lounge reception, and they told me not to worry, because it’s only a 20 minute delay.


Krakow airport lounge


Inside Krakow airport lounge


Flight: LH 3335 Krakow (KRK) 5:00pm Munich (MUC) 6:25pm
Aircraft: CR9
Distance: 380 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 1 hr 25 min
Class: Business

For our flight to Munich, it’s a CR9 and the seating was a 2x2 configuration throughout, but Lufthansa blocks off an empty seat for the business class section. This is much better than the LOT flight we flew in from Warsaw to Krakow. And the food was also quite good for such a short flight, with salmon, salad, dinner roll, chocolate and coffee.


Business Class


Krakow to Munich meal


Flight: LH 722 Munich (MUC) 7:40pm Beijing (PEK) 11:20am next day
Aircraft: Airbus 340
Distance: 4798 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 9 hr 40 min
Class: Business

Once we landed in Munich, we looked for the gate to our flight to Beijing. The transit in Munich was great as while we had to go through passport control, we did not have to re-clear security. Still, we did not have much time because of the slight delay of the flight from Krakow, and we had to skip visiting the lounge. People were just about to line up boarding when we arrived at the gate.

While we found the Lufthansa economy seats too cramped, the business class seats were quite good. Like the LOT flight, the seat in the sleep position is almost lie flat, but at a slanted angle. We found it actually easier to sleep at a regular recline angle. The amenity kit is also quite nicely packed, and the blue bag is nicer looking than the United’s nylon bag.


Lufthansa business class seat


Amenity Kit

The menus are printed in a A4 paper size booklet. I had the roast beef and bean salad for appetizer, and the chicken braised in red wine for the main entrée. I think the food quality was only OK, but it’s made up with the delicious chocolate cake for dessert. And the Mozart chocolate was a nice bonus also.


Menu


Appetizer


Chicken braised in Red Wine


Fruit, Cake and Baileys


Chocolate and Coffee


Breakfast was a Turkey Ham and Tomato omelet, with some diced potato and a croissant. We were well fed when we arrived in Beijing.


Breakfast

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Arrival : Train and Taxi

When we landed, they had some health officials to come onboard to check everyone’s temperature for the H1N1 prevention, and no one was allowed to deplane until they finish checking everyone. Then they said we might be hold up, as one passenger was showing some sign of fever and had to be re-checked more carefully. Everyone was quite worried, but finally the pilot announced it was not a problem and we all deplaned uneventfully.

After we cleared immigration and customs, we took the airport train to the city. The driver-less train was just opened last year for the Olympics, and it costs RMB25 to get to town. But then we must have gotten off at the wrong location at the DongZhiMen station, while it connects well to the subway, we had to lug our bags up and down the stairs to get outside of the station to find a taxi to the hotel. Well, it was only a cheap RMB14 ride (around US$2).


Beijing airport express

Hotel : Hotel Kapok

We also checked out the TripAdvisor’s forum for the hotels in Beijing, and the Hotel Kapok just outside the palace has pretty good reviews. So we booked a stay of 3 nights here. The interior was super modern, and the rate on Orbitz was actually cheaper than booking directly from the hotel.


Hotel Kapok


Glass door bathroom


Activities : Bike Tour, Tinnamen Square, Great Wall, Olympic Stadium (Bird’s Nest), Summer Palace, Peking Duck, Palace

We checked out the night market nearby the hotel in our first night in Beijing, and also went to the WangFuJing shopping area. No, we did not try the scorpions on a stick


Night market

The Krakow bike tour was a very good experience, and we wanted to try this out in Beijing also. Only problem is it’s around 35C in Beijing, and we would be melted in the heat before we could bike. But we can’t let the heat spoil our vacation, can we? So we went to the bike tour office, and asked about the tour options. While they had regular scheduled tours, we were the only two customers interested that day, but the owner was very glad to give us a private tour at the regular price, and also loaded us with plenty of bottled waters. He also helped us take pictures as we were biking ! And we biked around the palace, visited the Hutong and many other interesting sites. Now we need to plan which city to bike next…


Biking in Hutong


Private bike tour

After a very tiring bike tour, it’s time to get re-energized with some good food, and we went to a restaurant near the hotel for some Peking noodle, sesame paste eggplant, preserved duck eggs and mustard cabbage. The food was good, only complaint is the soda can is only medium cold, not like the super ice cold one we need in this type of heat !


Famous Peking Noodle

Then we took a taxi to see the Tinnamen Square, and struck a deal with the taxi driver to take us to the Great Wall the next day.


Tinnanmen Square

We think taking a taxi to see the Great Wall is a better way than joining the tours offered by the hotel. The tours would probably cost about the same for 2 people compared to hiring a taxi for the whole day. But then by taking the taxi, we can go to the Great Wall early in the morning when it’s not as crowded or as hot. The regular tour all starts with visiting the Ming tombs in the morning, then go to the Great Wall in the afternoon and some require a forced stopover to visit a factory for some souvenir shopping, and we could better use our time if we have our own taxi.

We were also lucky that the taxi we hired was a British style one. There are two forward facing seats, and two fold down backward facing seats. Since there were only two of us, the backward facing seats were not used and we got tons of leg room in the taxi. This made it so much more comfortable for the long ride for the day.


British style taxi


More leg room than Economy Plus

We went to the MuTianYu section of the Great Wall, as while it’s a little farther, it’s not as over crowded as the BaDaLing section. Going up we took the ski lift, and coming down we had the option to take either the ski lift or the slideway. These facilities certainly add more excitement to the Great Wall visit. We hiked for about an hour in the Great Wall, and came down just when it began to get crowded around noon time.


Ski lift to the Great Wall


The Great Wall in Mutianyu


Slideway down

Then we stopped by the Olympic stadium for some picture taking, and onto the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a big big park that one could spend the whole day there, and the exit our driver waited for us required us to walk around pretty much the whole park from where we entered. But the scenery is worth the long walk.


Olympic Stadium – Bird Nest


Summer Palace

We had a blast visiting the Great Wall, the Olympic Stadium and the Summer Palace. Then we were starving for some famous Peking Duck. We went to the Houhai area, had the duck dinner there and stopped by some bars for some enjoyable music afterwards.


Quan Ju De Peking Duck restaurant


Peking Duck


Bar in Houhai Lake

The next morning we took advantage of our hotel’s close proximity to the Palace Museum, and paid a quick visit before heading to the airport.


Palace museum

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Lounge : Beijing airport Terminal 3 Air China lounge

We took a taxi to the airport directly, as it’s a Sunday and we would not get stuck in the traffic jam. Otherwise we would have taken the Airport Express again. After a smooth check-in, we went to the Air China lounge. The lounge was very spacious, but the food and wine selection was quite limited. The best part is probably the cooked to order noodles, but note that they only serve that before 1:00pm. Wifi was not working, but that’s OK as we did not have a lot of time in the lounge anyways.


Beijing Airport Air China lounge


Beijing Airport Air China lounge


Noodle and snack

Flight: CA 934 Beijing (PEK) 1:55pm Shanghai Pudong (PVG) 4:05pm
Aircraft: Airbus 340
Distance: 676 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 2 hr 10 min
Class: Business

We had to take a shuttle bus to the plane as there was not a designated gate for our flight, but Air China did make sure the Business/First Class passengers get preferential treatment by having separate busses.


Shuttle bus to plane for Economy class


VIP van to plane for Business and First class


Boarding Flight to Shanghai

While this is a short domestic flight, the aircraft is an International configuration767A340, and this is very comfortable for the short hop to Shanghai. Lunch was chicken noodle and some fruits, and it’s actually quite good.


Business Class seat


Flight map


Lunch

Hotel : Westin Bund Center

Upon arrival in Shanghai, we took a taxi to our hotel at the Westin Bund Center. We had taken the fastest train Maglev before, and that would have required a transfer to taxi also, so we decided to skip that this time. The Westin is a very nice hotel, and is very close to the Nanjing East Road shopping district and what else, the Bund. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of construction in the Bund area, probably in preparation for the 2010 Expo, so it’s not as nice an area to walk around these days.


Shanghai Westin Bund Center


Room in Shanghai Westin Bund Center


View from room

Activities : Nanjing East Road, Heng Shan Road Pub

Since we only had one night in Shanghai, we decided to walk around the Nanjing East road shopping area, and then took the subway to visit a pub in the HengShan road bar district for dinner as well as some music entertainment. We stayed till midnight, and it’s time to return to the hotel to catch the remaining of the magnificent Wimbledon final on TV


Nanjing East Road shopping district


Hengshan Road Bar

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After a leisurely swim in the hotel in the morning, we took a taxi to the airport. Check in was again smooth, and they offered to check us all the way to Chicago, but we indicated we were going to spend a night in Munich, and asked that the luggage be checked only to Munich. Then we visited the Shanghai Airlines lounge. While there’s wifi, the signal was quite weak and we saw a few people walking around with their notebook to search for better wifi reception area. There were quite a few snacks and fruits to choose from in the lounge.

Lounge : Shanghai Pudong airport Terminal 2 Shanghai Airlines lounge


Shanghai airport lounge


Shanghai airport lounge snack


Flight: LH 729 Shanghai Pudong (PVG) 1:15pm Frankfurt (FRA) 6:55pm
Aircraft: 747
Distance: 5495 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 11 hr 40 min
Class: Business

The business class seat on the 747 was the same as that of the A340. However, this time we were in seat 2A and 2C, the very front of the aircraft. On United’s 747 flight, this would have been the First class section. We did enjoy this section of the plane more, as the seat configuration is 2x2 as opposed to the 2-3-2 in the rear section.


Business seat

We had spicy tuna and Chili spiced chicken for appetizer, and they were actually better than the main entrée Potato Gnocchi. Then we had chocolate mousse cake and fruits for dessert, followed by Lindt’s chocolate and coffee. They also offered cup noodles and banana for mid-flight snacks. And before landing, we had the duck and prawn for the second dinner meal service.


Appetizer


Appetizer


Potato Gnocchi


Fruits, Cake and Wine


Mid flight snack


Smoked Duck and Stir fried Prawn

We flew past Poland on our way to Frankfurt, and we really wanted to visit Krakow again. Oh well, we are sure we will do that some time in the future.


Approaching Frankfurt

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Lounge : Frankfurt Airport Lufthansa Business Lounge

After we landed in Frankfurt, we had to take a long walk and re-cleared security to get to the gate for our Munich flight. We still managed to spend about 10 minutes in the Lufthansa business lounge, and luckily it’s not as crowded during the evening hour and we were able to find a place to sit and relax.


Frankfurt Airport Lufthansa business lounge

Flight: LH 982 Frankfurt (FRA) 8:30pm Munich (MUC) 9:25pm
Aircraft: 321
Distance: 186 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 55 min
Class: Business

Our flight to Munich is a Airbus 320 aircraft. The seating is a 3x3 configuration throughout, but for business class, all the middle seats are blocked off with a foldable tray. Given that we had absolutely no service on the short Warsaw to Krakow flight, we really did not expect anything other than the disposable refreshing towels that were handed to us once we were onboard. After all, this is a 55 minute flight, just a little longer than the Warsaw Krakow flight. But we were wrong, we did have full dinner service, and it just amazed us how they managed to do that for such a short flight, and the attendant was busy handing out ice cream cone as we were about to descend to Munich !


Business Class seats


Refreshment towel


Beer and Dinner


Mini Ice Cream Cone

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Hotel : Four Points Munich Central

Since our scheduled flight leaves pretty early the next morning, we picked a simple hotel near the train station in Munich. The Four Points Munich Central was quite convenient, just about 5 minute walk from the Hackerbrucke station. The room is very simple, and though there’s no air conditioner, it was cool enough in the evening when we were there, and we did not really need to use the fan either. This was a much welcome change from the extreme hot weather in Beijing.

I did not get to sleep much, as I got an email from United about our connecting flight from Chicago to San Francisco being cancelled the next day. I thought this would have been a good chance to ask United to put us on the direct Lufthansa flight from Munich to San Francisco, and thus allowing us more time in Munich. I called United on Skype many times, and this is a very good way as the call to the 800 number is free on Skype. However, different agents said no for different reasons, and it’s still a no at the end They put us on the later Chicago to San Francisco flight on First class, and we would arrive at San Francisco around 9:30pm. Since the original flight arrived at 8:00pm, they said that we should be OK with the slight delay. Oh well.


Four Points Munich Central


Room in Four Points Munich Central


Bathroom

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Munich activities : Marien Plaza

Since we could not extend our stay in Munich, we headed out to the town bright and early in the morning instead. We took some pictures in the Marien Plaza, which was only two stops from the Hackerbrucke station. When we visited two years ago, it was full of tourists, but not at 7am in the morning this time. We found a café that’s open for breakfast, and had some pastry and coffee and then we went to the main train station, took a quick walk back to the hotel to pick up the luggage and headed to the airport.


Marien Plaza


Breakfast


Munich Train Station

At check in, we found out that United had arranged a different flight UA 9805 for our canceled 907 flight from Chicago to San Francisco. It’s also the same 3-class configuration aircraft, with the new lie flat seats. And the departure time was like 10 minutes after our new 2-class configuration flight. We asked to be booked on that flight, as they would have been the case if we had not called United to change to the 2-class flight. But the system would not allow the agent to do this, but at least the supervisor got us on to the FFCC standby list, and also checked our luggage onto this flight.

Lounge : Munich Airport Lufthansa Business Lounge

We then stopped by the Business lounge for some snacks before heading to the gate.


Munich airport Lufthansa lounge


Business Lounge

Flight: UA 907 Munich (MUC) 12:35pm Chicago (ORD) 3:01pm
Aircraft: 777
Distance: 4342 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 9 hr 26 min
Class: Business

We were in seat 9H and 9J, the front business class cabin. And while the leg room is a little less, we did enjoy the quietness of the front cabin more. This is the only flight we would have needed the empower adapter to use our notebooks, and we decided it’s not worth to take the adapter for just this one flight, and only used the notebook for couple hours till the battery was used up. The service was typical of United, and we did appreciate the warm nuts very much


United old Business Class seat


Warm nuts and drinks

For lunch, we had the Mango salad with shrimp for appetizer, and the Herb roasted orange chicken with Basmati rice for the main entrée. This was followed by a chocolate mousse cake for dessert, and before we knew, it’s time to choose either the cheese plate or the turkey sandwich for breakfast.


Appetizer


Lunch


Dessert, Coffee and Baileys


Fruit and Cheese


Lounge : Chicago O’hare Airport C17 Red Carpet and Arrivals

After we landed and cleared custom and immigration, we went to the C concourse for our connecting flight. We were still confirmed on flight 153 (2-class aircraft that leaves at 6:47pm) First class and waitlisted on flight 9805 Business class that leaves at 7:00pm. The 9805 flight was booked full in business class, so our chances did not look good. We asked at the RCC to let us use the Arrivals shower suites, as our XC ticket should allow us access. The agent asked us for the invitation, and we told her the Munich check-in agents could not print those, so we don’t have any. Then the RCC agent printed out the invitations for us instead. It’s great to be able to take a shower after the long flight.


Chicago airport RCC


Arrivals Suite in Chicago RCC


Flight : UA 9805 Chicago (ORD) 7:00pm San Francisco (SFO) 9:30pm
Aircraft: 767 new configuration
Distance: 1846 miles
Scheduled Flight Time : 3 hr 59 min
Class: Business

We were still hanging out near the flight 9805 gate even though the flight 153 was going to start boarding, and then the agent told us we would be able to get on the flight ! This is great ! The new lie flat seats are definitely way better than the domestic first class seat on a 757 aircraft, which the flight 153 was using. We did realize there’s no hot meal for domestic business class anymore, but that’s a small sacrifice. And after all, the cold turkey ham sandwich was not that bad either


New Business Class configuration


Nuts and Drinks


Turkey sandwich dinner

We landed pretty much on time to San Francisco, and our luggage came out very quickly thanks to the priority luggage tags, I guess The vacation was now officially over But we had so much fun in this trip, that it’s not too early to start planning another US to Asia via the Atlantic award trip again for next year !

Thanks for reading my first FT Trip Report, hope you like it.

RTW4

Congrats.. This is such a fine trip report that I think I may want to take my family to China for our family vacation in December... I thank you.....

CMK10

Thank you for the excellent and detailed report. May I also add that your sushi was the best looking sushi I've ever gazed upon?