Checking In


Pre-checkin area at the Yangon Airport

After the rail adventure, it was time to head back to San Francisco! We took the free airport shuttle at 3:30 (arrived at the airport by 4:30) for our 7:45pm flight. We wanted to arrive early just in case something went wrong with the ticket, so we could grab an Air Asia walkup, or something The check-in desk opened 3h prior to departure, and soon enough we had boarding passes in hand and were off to the Lounge! They could only check us through as far as NRT, and told us to visit the transfer desk. Since we wanted to change our flights from UA to NH for the portion anyways, no harm done!

We proceeded up the stairs to the Immigration desks. There were many people in line, but the wait couldn't have been more than 10-15 minutes. They took our passports and our exit cards, a few stamp-stamps later we were off to the lounge!

The lounge wasn't spectacular but it was certainly better than a United Club The lounge is third-party operated, shared by Thai, Silk Air and a couple of other carriers. Since we were flying Thai business, we were more than welcome. There were some warm food options, some fruits, noodle cups, beer and snacks. Nothing to complain about at all! Not long after

Thai Business to Bangkok (TG306)


Regional Business Class on TG306

We settled in to what would be a short, but very pleasant 1h flight. The seats weren't anything to write home about. They were the standard recliner style seats that you would expect to find on a flight of just 60 minutes in the air. The flight attendants were extremely friendly, and service was efficient. They provided a full hot meal just minutes after the fasten seatbelt sign went off. But not before a warm moist towelette run!


Short-Haul Business Class Meal

The provided meal consisted of:

1. Combination Salad with Grilled Pork
2. Pommery and Herbs Dressing
3. Stir-fried Chicken wth Garlic, Chili and Basil
4. Steamed Thai Hom Mali Rice
5. Pumpkin Jelly with Coconut (Delicious!)
6. Tea, Coffee

Being quite hungry, I polished it off in about 20 minutes, just as they started to pick everything up in time for final approach! The rice was a bit dry, but all in all for a 1h flight the food was better than I expected. The desert really was fantastic.

All Nippon Airways Business to Tokyo/Narita (NH916)

After hanging out in the Thai lounge in Bangkok for a few hours (and grabbing a quick shower) it was time to head onwards to Tokyo!

The extremely friendly flight attendants offered food at any time, including the option for a light dinner service. At this point I hadn't slept much in the last few days so I settled into the Cradle seats and headed straight to bed. I opted for the breakfast, though, and asked to be awoken. About 60 minutes prior to arrival, I was provided with the following:


Delicious Japanese Breakfast Meal Service

Japanese Meal Set:

1. Grilled silago with egg yolk
2. Fishcake with bamboo shoot and simmered prawn in ginger soy sauce
3. Grilled scallop dressed with green pea paste
4. Salt-grilled salmon [246kcal]
5. Steamed rice with miso soup
6. Fresh seasonal fruit

Tokyo Airport Adventures

Due to the way the ticket was booked, we had about 10 hours to spend in Tokyo, which I really enjoyed! We took the train to downtown for lunch (at an outrageous cost of almost $40 per person, per direction for the Narita Express train). On our return, we headed down to spend some time at the ANA arrivals lounge at the domestic terminal near the rail entrance.


ANA Arrivals Lounge

After taking the opportunity to shower and grab some snacks (the salmon rice balls were really good), we thought that rather than spending the next 9 hours on a United plane, it would be a good idea to try and re-book onto All Nippon. We were originally scheduled to fly UA838 (as an NH codeshare) at 4:00pm, but NH8 was scheduled for 5:25pm.

We headed down to the ANA ticketing counter as the first few segments has been flown and our desired flight was on the same day as the one we were booked on. I just walked up to the agent, and requested that we change from our ticketed flight to the ANA one, and within a few minutes, it was done. No questions were asked, no fees were charged and it was really quite painless. We headed to the checkin desk, and within minutes, boarding passes were issued and seats were assigned together.


The ANA Suites Lounge near the Gates

There's not too much to say, the lounge was nice. The food options were really quite slim especially when compared to the Thai lounges at Bangkok. The had some fried rice, and rice wrapped in fried bean curd. There were some snacks, some mini-sandwiches and pour-it-yourself liquor. I would describe the food options as borderline-adequate. The decor however was really very pretty. About an hour later, it was time to board NH8 bound for San Francisco, a 77W with the new Business Staggered layout!


Home for the Next 9 Hours

I can't say a single bad thing about the crew. They were extraordinarily friendly, generally very attentive, addressed us by name and honored my request to be woken up -- and then my request to be allowed to sleep instead of eating breakfast

The food options were really very extensive. I selected the Japanese meal, which began with an amuse bouche, continued with an extensive appetizer plate, a main of fish with rice and an incredibly awesome parfait for desert. Unfortunately I stopped taking pictures after the appetizers as the sake was really poured quite generously Instead my friend and I played multi-player tetris for an hour or so, and I hit Bed Mode and slept soundly for the next 5 hours!




Generous Pours of Sake, Amuse Bouche and Appetizer Tray

Japanese-style Menu

1. Zensai (Assortment of spring appetizers)
2. Otsukuri (Marinated sea bream with kombu kelp)
3. Kobachi (Sake-steamed scallop and firefly squid with vinegar sauce)
4. Shusai (Simmered Spanish mackerel with spring vegetables)
5. Rice (Freshly steamed kinmerai Nagano Azumino Koshihikari rice, miso soup and assorted Japanese pickles)
6. Original Parfait (Black tea parfait this month)