CA 181 (PEK – HND)

Well that was a nice lounge visit but it’s time to get over to Tokyo. Look, there’s the plane taking us to Haneda this morning. Since this is yet another A330, the seating layout and seat itself should be exactly the same as our SYD – PEK flight. However, you can see that it’s not the same physical plane, unlike our previous plane this one is in the normal Air China livery and not in the Star Alliance livery:



Anyway, it looks like boarding has already started and the line is quite long. Oh, that’s just the economy class line, looks like no one is in the business class line. Here you are Ms. Gate Agent, two business class tickets!

Okay, so for this flight I’m in the aisle seat of the middle section, 12D, (hopefully no need to move this time), and you’re next to me in 12H.

I’m not sure if you noticed but it seems like this plane is newer than the one we flew on from SYD – PEK. The seats seem a little cleaner, the IFE screens seem a bit crisper, and they have USB inputs in the seat consoles (something that was absent on our last flight):







I know it’s only 8:45am local time but what the heck why don’t go with champagne for our pre-departure drink?



Since we didn’t really eat in the business class lounge and we don’t land until 12:50pm local time I think eating is a top priority. Why don’t we take a look at the breakfast options since they appear to be slightly different than what was offered on the SYD – PEK flight:

Chinese Breakfast
Pickles
Marinated Asparagus Lettuce
Selected Chinese Pickles
Salted Duck Egg

Hot Entrée
Plain Rice Congee
Doumiao and Shrimp Dumpling
Shrimp, Chicken, and Preserved Vegetable Bun
Pan-fried Chicken Bun

Fresh Fruit

Western Breakfast
Hot Entrée
Plain Omelette served with Hash Browns
Beef Sausage and Vegetable

Breakfast Rolls with Butter

Jam
Honey
Corn Flakes
Milk

Fresh Fruit



I know I had an omelette on the last flight but I’m a big omelette fan so I’m going with that again. We’re having Sushi Yoshitake tonight at 6pm local time so this should be enough to tide me over until then:



Since I didn’t really check out the IFE on our first flight why don’t we take a look now. Hmm, from reading FT, I was under the impression this would be among the worst IFEs that exists. In reality it actually isn’t that bad in terms of selection. There appears to be a number of fairly popular movies (nothing quite as new as on our other flights but some big name recognizable ones) and there are also a few episodes of a random smattering of US shows (among them Man vs. Wild, Friends, Modern Family, etc.).

I will say that the actual IFE interface is pretty atrocious – unless you’ve found a shortcut, there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to get to a movie / TV show without scrolling through all the “pages” of the IFE “catalogue” that proceed it – an issue that is only made worse by the fact that the movies and TV shows aren’t in alphabetical order.

I’m not really in the mood for a movie / TV show as is so I’m going to get to work on some more of the Trip Report for FlyerTalk.

1.5 Hours Later

That was quick and the service was pretty good – at least on par with a good FC domestic crew on American. Well, let’s go get our bags from baggage claim and head to the Sheraton Miyako Tokyo!