But all good things must come to an end, so soon enough it was time to take that final bus to Sendai Airport and get ready to hurtle through the cosmos in a pressurized aluminum tube.
SDJ, in loungless limbo
Sendai Airport is small and accessible, but check-in was quite the little clusterf*ck -- it took a moment before I realized that the huge mob at the entry to the check-in area was a tour group getting their baggage X-rayed, and smart FTers with carry-on only could breeze (or just squeeze) past. There were two people ahead of me in OZ's J line, but one had a massive mountain of luggage and processing it took 15 minutes.
To compensate for the lack of a international biz lounge, OZ proffered a Y1000 ($10) coupon for use in any airport restaurant/cafe. This doesn't go too far in Japan, esp. in an airport, but the coupon plus Y29 were enough for a cappucino and a plate of zundamochi, a Sendai specialty consisting of glutinous rice balls with a dab of salty-sweet nuclear green edamame bean paste. This may not sound terribly appetizing, probably because it isn't, but then again, the other thing Sendai is locally famous for is grilled slices of cow tongue.
Once through immigration facilities are limited to a duty-free shop and a cafe. I opted to scarf down my last set of sushi (slurp!), and soon enough it was time to board...
OZ 151 SDJ-ICN J A321-200
Hey -- different plane! Not necessarily an improvement though, I even overheard the check-in lady refer to it as as hijou-ni semai ("horribly tight"), but J wasn't too bad as it was configured 2-2, instead of the sardinelike 3-3 in the back. I got 2F again, now with less legroom but quite acceptable width. The amenities or, rather, lack thereof was identical (no PTV etc). The plane was, AFAIK, 100% full in both J and Y, at least partly thanks to the aforementioned tour group.
The takeoff path was rather weird, to avoid slamming into the mountains the plane did a sharp curve to head over the ocean, and then a much gentler curve 180-deg curve back to aim towards Korea again. A glass of champagne this time too, but also a baggie of roasted macadamia nuts -- yay! The FA and I rewarded each other with smiles after she bravely attempted to pronounce my last name and did a passable job to boot. Soon enough it was time for what the menu called a "snack" but which was a full-blown lunch:
Smoked Salmon with Green Salad
Braised Beef
Served with Korean Style Sweet Soy Sauce, Accompanies by Steamed Rice, Snap Pea and Potato Ball
or
Poached White Fish
Rolled with Green Cabbage with Cream Sauce, Presented with Parisienne Potato, Broccoli and Carrot
Cheese Tart
Beef and FA's choice of red again: Kenwood Zinfandel from sunny Cali was nice with the macadamias but not too nice with beef. The entree was remarkably similar to the last one, but much aided by liberal application of dochujang. A glass of Benedictine D.O.M. was also a considerable improvement over 5-year-old non-vintage port.
The flight took 2:40 this time thanks to head winds, 10 minutes longer than scheduled, but this didn't cause much in the way of turbulence except right after takeoff. I'd asked for a right-hand side window seat so I could spy on the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and wave at ol' Kim Jong-Il, but unfortunately my nefarious plot was foiled by a curtain of that nefarious Korean fog (and a flight path that unsurprisingly steered pretty well clear of the DMZ -- not easy when ICN is less than 50 km away).
ICN, SQ Silver Kris Lounge
What happened next was enough to drop ICN way lower on my list of favorite airports (do such things exist?), and I would probably have missed my flight if the connection had been any tighter...
OZ couldn't check me in for the connecting SQ leg, so I blithely followed the Int'l Transfers signs to a security point.
- Boarding pass?
- I don't have...
- Cannot! Go straight, Tee Two!
Huh? No signs, but I went straight as instructed towards immigration... and a few hundred meters later spotted "T2 Transfer Desk" signs. I head to the counter...
- What airline?
- Singapore...
- OK!
(looks over ticket)
- Cannot! Go T4!
- T4? Where is that?
- Go straight!
I look straight. All the signage is reversed -- the corridor is clearly intended for people coming from that direction, not going. I try my luck anyway, and after some trudging, come to a little stand-alone computer printout sign: "T4 190m". And then I trudge some more.
After those 190 meters I find the elusive T4 desk, and it indeed promised "SQ" as one of the handled airlines, but... there is nobody in sight. A few confused little signs instruct passengers 'outside office hours' to call various numbers, but SQ is not among them, and the phone on the desk (for passenger use?) has no instructions and returns "bing-bong number not in service" for any number permutation I can think of. I scratch my head for a while, go dig up the SQ number from an airport guide, grab one of the other phones and lift the phone... and it calls somebody by itself?
Somebody answers and, amazingly, they speak English (kind of), more or less understand my predicament, and tell me to go to "security point". I'd already been rejected by the earlier security point, but with few choices I pick the one closest to T4... and they instruct me to go to, drum roll, transfer desk D3.
It's been close to one hour now and I've dragged my luggage literally across the terminal (an easy kilometer). Seeing my apoplectic countenance and sensing an approaching explosion, the female security droid notes that D3 is on the other side of security, and waves me through without subjecting me to an anal probe.
Once upstairs, finding D3 isn't too difficult, and I finally get that boarding pass -- also taking the opportunity to explain, with maximal restraint, my dissatisfaction with the signage.
And here I now sit in SQ's very tasteful Silver Kris lounge with a cold drink in my hand and a free Internet connection. It's quite similar to the OZ J lounge, down to the layout, but the range of food on offer seems better. All's well that ends well -- but the moral of the story is, don't connect OZ to SQ at ICN without a boarding pass. Thank you and good night.