It has been 5 years since my last flight. So you can expect that I will be excited about this one.
The background for this flight was paying a visit to a close family who lives in Taipei, Taiwan.
This is my first trip report so please be easy on me
Wednesday, March 19th 2008
The Flight to Hong Kong is departing during the evening. So instead of going to school I’ve stayed home and got ready for the long flight to Hong Kong. We packed out stuff and headed out to the airport at around 17:00 as the departure time being 20:50.
Ben Gurion airport at this time is quite empty as the rush hour was 3 hours ago. We directly went to the airport security and we queue for 10 minutes before it was our turn to be questioned by the security officer. After the usual questions we got our bags scans.
From there we went straight to the online check in counter which was empty and without any queue.
With our papers and passports we asked the check in agent to tag our bags to Taiwan instead of just Hong Kong, although it’s another flight and not EL AL’s or any code share with EL AL. Our request was complied and we got our boarding passes.
Between the check in area and the immigration there is a small mall with restaurants and shops.
A few friends of mine were being there after a meeting in EL AL offices so we chatted for a while and they wished me a great trip and we paid our goodbyes.
Immigration was a breeze and we were airside in no time.
After the normal 10 minutes walk to the Duty free area I arrived for the first time to Terminal 3.(as mentioned before, my last flight was 5 years ago, at that time Terminal 1 was still active)
The Duty Free area.
The terminal was very calm and quite which was a nice experience; we bought some stuff and ate some as we were hungry.
I checked before the flight to see which plane is going to take me to Hong Kong, and the source told me 4X-ECD and he was right! Too bad, as I wanted to try the new EL AL product in the new plane (4X-ECE AND 4X-ECF).Nevertheless, I returned to the shops area as there was 2 hours to go.
Checking the FIDS to see whether there is a delay. Our gate is B8 which is quite unusual as normally EL AL is using D gates.
We decided to head to the gate which was empty as it was still early.
My boarding pass.
Finally at 20:20 boarding began and a huge line was formed to board the plane.
After 15 minutes of queuing it was my turn and the agent took her portion of the boarding pass and I was heading to the bridge.
Airline: EL AL Israel Airline
Flight No.: ELY075
Scheduled Routing: Tel Aviv-Hong Kong
Date:19\03\2008
Scheduled Departure Time: 20:50 PM
Actual Departure Time: 20:58 PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 13:35 PM
Actual Arrival Time: 14:02 PM
Equipment: Boeing 777-200
Registration: 4X-ECD
At the door we were greeted by the flight attendance which looked at my boarding pass and instructed us to the seat by passing the aisle and to the right.
Our seats were 24 G H and J.
The PTV, with the infamous movie with various locations in Israel (this movie is played in ELAL boarding phase for the last 10 years)
We settled in our seats and immediately I noticed the lack of seat pitch. As you can see from the picture my knees are touching the seat in front.(I’m 183 cm tall) not looking very promising for this 11 hours flight.
Normal security movie appeared and the Captain came on to tell us about the flight and the weather and countries we will be flying over.
Pushback commenced and we stated our quite long taxi to runway 26.
Approximately at 21:20 the engine came to life and we left Israel for Hong Kong.
At 23:30 Israel time, Dinner service began.
When I did the online check-in I choose also the meal, Chicken. This was a very good choice as there was no chicken on the normal service. The normal service had only Beef with Pasta which was terrible (my brother choose this one.)
Because I pre-ordered the meal, I received the meal 10 minutes before everyone else.
The meal was fine, as airplane food expected to be in coach. Unfortunately it was dark and I wasn’t allowed to use flash because people were already asleep. The chicken came with Humus, a piece of bread and a cup of cold fruits (they were quite good consider the conditions).
Overall the meal was fine and eatable.
After meal service the lights were turned off and the flight attendances just disappeared. There was no sign of them for 6 hours. I couldn’t fall asleep so I had to watch the movies in the PTV (no AVOD, cycles).
After 4 hours the system just crashed and the movies weren’t played for 2 hours until the system came back. Luckily I bought at the terminal the Top Gear magazine so I had a reading material until the system came back.
Rest of the flight was uneventful except some turbulence over Russia.
Over Almaty the sun came up.
Some info from the PTV.
The crew came back to life and appeared again with water for everyone who woke up.
Sometime later the crew began the breakfast service, I wasn’t hungry so I declined but the service was the normal EL AL breakfast, Omelet with bread.
Somewhere over China an ever before flight attendance approached me and asked If I would like to enter the cockpit, As I’ve sent the captain a letter when I boarded the plane. The question was a rhetorical and I immediately accepted the invitation.
On the way to the cockpit I passed by the first class and jealousy took over me. So much space and so much comfort compared to the sardine box in coach.
Passing the doors and I was in! Cockpit was quite smaller then I imagined, but the experience was fantastic!
The pilots were terrific and very nice; we talked for a while about various issues and topics
Here are some shots of the cockpit:
Side view from the cockpit.
They were on their way to a simulator session in Macau.
I thank them for welcoming me to the cockpit and return to my seat.
Approximately 30 minutes before descent, the crew distributed water for anyone who wanted.
Captain came on PA again and informed us about the weather condition at Hong Kong and the route for our arrival.
Start of descent.
Because of a shortcut air traffic control gave, we descended quite fast and the ear pressure was intense.
We continued to descent and finally we break through the clouds and the famous green sea of Hong Kong was in front of us.
On short final to runway 07L.
Landed and we slowed down to vacate the runway.
The tower.
Passing some planes on our way to the gate S45.
Passing the Singapore 77W, the wide body traffic in Hong Kong is amazing.
Turning in gate S45 and we stopped.
Everyone got up and picked up their belongings and we thank the crew and the pilots for the flight.
Now we were heading for the Cathay Pacific transfer counters.
On our way (sorry for the quality, was taken during a walk :S)
First look at Hong Kong terminal was amazing; the terminal is very spacious and roomy and easy to navigate.
We arrived at the transfer counters and in no time we were handed our boarding passes to our flight to Taipei.
We arrived at the security checks and we passed the very strict check. Security officers weren’t very friendly and I didn’t spot any smile from any of them.
After we passed security we headed back up to the departure level.
Unfortunately, and I regret this up until this day, I didn’t walked around the terminal and took pictures of planes as I was really tired because the lack of sleep aboard the plane.
We were all tired and we headed directly to the gate, E4 (which was the last one! We didn’t knew about the internal train and we walked for about 25 minutes.)
On the way to the gate area I took on shot of this A330.
On the way we stopped to eat Burger King (we still weren’t ready for Chinese food)
Airline: Cathay Pacific
Flight No.: CX400
Scheduled Routing: Hong Kong-Taipei
Date:20\03\2008
Scheduled Departure Time: 16:30 PM
Actual Departure Time: 16:29 PM
Scheduled Arrival Time: 18:15 PM
Actual Arrival Time: 17:41 PM
Equipment: Airbus A330-343
Registration:H-HLM
20 minutes before the scheduled time boarding began.
Unlike EL AL method, they were calling by the lines and not just queue everybody.
I did an online check-in back at Israel and choose row 56.
At the front door we were greeted by a female flight attendance and instruct us to pass the aisle and to the right.
The Cathay layout of this plane is 2-4-2 so I took the window seat and my brother was next to me.
We were the only non-Chinese people onboard and a very nice person at the row behind us started to talk with us and ask different question of our origin and what language we are talking, he was on his way to a business meeting in Taipei.
Wing view.
The plane’s PTV.
Leg room, more comfortable from EL AL.
After everyone took their seat the crew closed all the overhead compartments and the British captain came on the PA to announce our flight time and weather, which was the same as Hong Kong.
After pushback, during engines start-up.
During taxi, we passed the plane who brought me here and a very special livery by Cathay Pacific.
Flight control checks.
The long taxi to 07R was very nice as we passed a lot of interesting planes on the way.
Safety movie had begun and the crew demonstrates where the emergency exits locate.
A few shots from the taxi phase.
Lining up runway 07R.
Airborne to our 1 hour long flight to Taipei.
As soon as the plane leveled off the crew began their service.
They immediately began serving water and Apple juice .I opted for the Apple.
15 minutes after the drinks were handed the crew began to hand out the meal for this flight.
As I ate just an hour and a half before I wasn’t hungry, but the food looked very good and the people around seemed pleased with their meals.
Once we reached our cruising altitude of 40,000 feet the captain came on the PA again and updated us about the weather at Taipei.
Top gear! Very nice
The moon.
The plates and cups were cleaned in no time! I’ve never seen that efficiency compared to the EL AL crew they were miles ahead service-wise.
Descent began and the sun began to disappear over the horizon.
The airport in Taipei is quite far from the city so we didn’t saw the city landmarks, but nevertheless the view was spectacular.
Landed on runway 06.
Taxi to the gate was short to terminal 1(sorry no gate number, didn’t notice it anywhere.)
The aircraft came to complete stop and we disembarked from the plane.
Terminal 1 in Taipei is pretty old and looked aged, long walk toward immigration which was packed! 20 minutes in the queue and we were off to baggage claim. We hoped that our bags did make it to Taipei and not stayed in Hong Kong. A couple of minutes passed and we spotted our bags.
We left airside and entered the arrival hall, where our family picked us to their home.
In the next few days I’ll post the return trip to Israel.
A few photographs from Taiwan:
