Part 5: SIN-HKG
UA896 (scheduled departure 06.40 SGT, actual 06.39 – arrival 10.30 HKT, actual 10.36) (Stats: flightstats.com)
We received a friendly welcome aboard. The cabin looked a bit old, but the seats were quite comfortable. Seats 1A and K are indeed not too private if traveling alone, but for us as a couple very much acceptable. We received juice as a welcome drink which of course is perfectly acceptable in these early hours.
UA 1st class cabin
The screen is impressive, IFE is actually very good, I also found the noise-canceling ear-phones very good – much like the new ones in TG 1st. I didn't play much with the IFE, soon after breakfast I fell asleep, but my wife said, it was very cool.
IFE screen
Push-back was on time, but then we had a 15 minute wait for our departure slot, time to catch an SQ388 on the taxi-way. They're getting more and more common, but still get my attention.
SQ 388
During take-off from runway 02L, we witnessed a marvelous sunrise. Sitting in the nose of a 744 made picture taking pretty stunning.
Runway 02L
SIN sunrise
Service was very attentive, American style so-to-speak; kinda cool and less formal than on TG or SQ. Not that I didn't like it, it was just so very different from our previous experiences. Soon after take-off, the menu was handed out. Compared to TG and SQ it was rather small with less options than on the Asian carriers.
UA breakfast menu
Fruits
Yogurt – my favorite, and Swiss, too!
The omelette
The omelette wasn't good at all, the egg was dry, the chorizo sausage very fat… We definitely should have taken much more time at the lounge for breakfast. The coffee though was very much my taste, I like the Starbucks Americano, so that fit my taste very well; for my wife, though, it was just too bitter.
As I mentioned before, I napped for most of the time, so at least I wasn't a total Zombie when we arrived at HKG. We touched down and parked next to another UA 744. For most other passengers, this was the start of a 10 hour unexpected layover (the continuation of the flight to ORD was delayed) but for us it was good-bye.
@ HKG
We bid farewell to the crew and entered HKIA. At the end of the jet-bridge, a *A handling agent was waiting for us. She inquired if we were in transit to LX which we acknowledged. We also told her, that we were about to head into the city and that we just needed a boarding-pass for LX. So we made our way to the transfer desk. Man, that lady was a runner! My wife and I aren't the slowest, but this lady had a pace we almost couldn't follow, it almost seemed, that our flight was about to leave in the next 10 minutes! At the transfer desk, our boarding-passes were already waiting for us (during the walk, the handling agent obviously informed the transfer desk about us). We also received the lounge invitation for the CX Wing lounge. We were amazed by this perfect service and thanked our escort for her help. Then we went through immigration and headed to town.
Whenever I'm in Hong Kong, I prefer to take the bus. It's just more of a sightseeing tour than the rush on the Airport Express – and cheaper, too. Bus A21 is my usual choice because it's running right into the center of Mongkok. The same day return fare for Octopus card holders is HK-$ 16.50 only.
The views from the upper deck of the Cityflier is pretty cool.
Bus stop on Nathan Road, Mongkok
On the upper deck
We spent about 5 hours in Mongkok, we would have more time, but were a bit tired. And the weather wasn't so good, too, for doing something else than mall-browsing. We returned to the airport at about 6 p.m. and went straight to the lounge.
The Wing lounge is located just left after south-immigration. It is quite different from other first-class airport lounges, it's not a room, it's rather hovering above the terminal. This gives the lounge an airy feeling but you also can hear all the noise from the terminal. Especially that noise with all the boarding calls and private messages can be irritating. I guess, that's why there's a library, which is very quiet…
When we sat down, a waiter took our drink orders, pretty much like in a restaurant. For dinner, there was a full-scale dinner buffet in the restaurant, with lots of choices. For noodle lovers, there's the noodle-bar in the business-class section.
Dinner at The Wing
Only the knives are plastic!
Yea, it's a shame, that in such a nice lounge, the knives have to be plastic. I don't understand why. That was disappointing. Everything else is just fine. The nice showers, the long bar, the entertainment room, but plastic knives, strange.
The long bar
View from the long bar
Both my wife and I took a shower before we went to the gate for boarding our last flight. We thought that we'll have an escort again, but that wasn't the case. So we were quite late (again) at the gate and missed the whole boarding process – when we arrived, it was already the last call.