EVA Air flight BR67 Bangkok – London Heathrow
Departure: 12.50
Arrival: 19.15
Duration: 12h 25m
Date: 24 June 2014
Aircraft type: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat & Class: 2K Royal Laurel Class / Business Class
When I arrive at the gate a large crowd has already formed. The clientele on this particular flight is very different from that on the previous flight, which may indicate that few passengers chose to fly all the way from Taipei to London Heathrow. The majority of passengers seemed to be british vacationers, with the occasional thai thrown in here and there.
I make my way to the front of the podium where an EVA Air representative holds up a sign for Priority passengers. Roughly a dozen gather behind him, and very soon we’re welcome to board the plane. I enter the aircraft through door 1L where I’m welcomed by a new set of crew, before making my way back to the confines of seat 2A. Nearly all of the Royal Laurel passengers from the previous flight got off in Bangkok as I didn’t recognize any of the other passengers.
It didn’t take long before I was approached with a tray of welcome drinks and handed a copy of the menu by the crew. After a quick browse through the wine list I am pleased to find the 2004 Dom Perignon on it. Order has been restored!
Pre-departure beverage consisted of water this time.
RIMOWA amenity kits and Fiji water was handed out once boarding was completed.
Contrary to my flight from New York the crew onboard this flight mainly consisted of younger stewardesses who unlike their more senior colleagues were not as comfortable with in interacting with non-Chinese clientele. My last name was mispronounced several times, to which I finally pointed out that it was OK to address me by my first name. The response was a rather flabbergasted look, a blush and then she didn’t address me by name at all. Interesting…
With the cabin roughly two thirds full we make an on-time departure from Bangkok before reaching our cruising altitude some 30 minutes into the flight. Lunch and drink orders were taken immediately after the seatbelt sign was switched off.
Starting off with yet another glass of Dom Perignon and some rice crackers.
I have been flying for roughly 24 hours at this point and I was starting to get a little sick of Champagne, so I decided to switch to the German Riesling wine which I stuck with for the remainder of the meal service.
Starter consisting of scallop, tomato, green asparagus, roman lettuce, red lettuce and two types of unidentifiable jello.
To be honest this was a very underwhelming starter. Scallop is in my opinion the fillet minion of the sea, which is not necessarily a good thing. It’s rather tasteless and has a weird texture, but somehow many seem to rave about how tasty they are. Nonetheless, in addition to the bland starter were an assortment of vegetables which all tasted fairly good, and I particularly liked the scooped out cherry tomato used to house the dressing. The jello things however I did not like, at all. The first one was some sort of gelatinized vegetable consommé, the other tasted like pomegranate juice. I suppose the flavors and textures didn’t fit in at all into the context.
Potato and leek soup.
The next dish was soup. Normally I would not have expected EVA Air to offer a soup dish but it was certainly a welcome addition on the menu. Potato and leek soup on the other hand is a fairly boring type of soup that is usually served to children home in Sweden. The soup itself tasted rather ordinary with its distinctive bland taste. Unlike Turkish Airlines who used a cream base in their potato soup this one appeared to only be made with water, which gave it a slightly lacking flavor and consistency. Once again a perfectly adequate soup, but it could have been better.
Green salad with a vinaigrette of strawberry and balsamico.
The salad was yet another unexpected dish not found on the menu, but it was once again appreciated. The salad tasted nice, fresh and crispy and the strawberry and balsamico vinaigrette was an interesting yet innovative choice of dressing. The semi-sweet flavor paired well with the crisp vegetables, and apart from the lack of croutons this was a very enjoyable salad. Next up was the main course!
Main course consisting of sea bass with squid ink spaghetti and ratatouille.
Similar to my New York flight this main course was assembled in the galley. This time I chose not to order from the ”book the cook” and simply stuck with the regular menu on this flight. This dish was once again a fairly ambitious composition of sea bass, squid ink spaghetti and ratatouille. The fish was generously proportioned, served with the skin still attached and containing that lovely fattiness which characterizes sea bass from other white fish. Tomato and fish is a good combination since tomatos contain acidity that help mellow the taste of the fish. The squid ink spaghetti was also a rather bold ingredient as it not only provided an odd sensation for the eye but also tasted wonderful. Perfectly cooked and with a little hint of olive oil. Overall a great main course which left me pretty full.
Once the tray had been cleared a dessert trolley was rolled out. I decline any offer on cheese and dessert by simply electing fruit.
Fruit plate consisting of grapefruit, pineapple and dragon fruit.
The fruit tasted nice and ripe, which is to be expected if it’s catered from Thailand. Just as the stewardess clears the plate, I am asked whether I would care for some ice cream. Ice cream, you say? Why yes! I order a cup of coffee and Bailey’s with ice to go along, which the stewardess misinterprets by bringing me an iced coffee with Bailey’s mixed into it. Not really what I ordered but it tasted surpassingly good, so don’t be surprised if you see this newly invented cocktail on the menu soon.
Strawberry Häagen Dazs and ”iced coffee with Baileys” to round off the lunch service.
The whole meal service takes a little more than two hours to complete, and I am on the verge of falling asleep by the end of it. After all my body is still running on New York time, where it was currently 5am or so. I immediately change into my pyjamas and go to sleep.
Did I tell you how comfortable these seats are for sleeping? Well I close my eyes for what feels like a short nap, but it turns out that I managed a full 7 hours of sleep. On the one hand I was glad to wake up well rested but on the other hand I was a little disappointed that I had slept away most of the flight. With only two hours remaining, I fire up the entertainment system and watch The Monuments Men. A very entertaining film, featuring one of my all time favorite actors: George Clooney.
Half ways through the film the breakfast service is started. Now if there’s something I don’t understand is why in God’s name serve breakfast as the pre-arrival meal? The flight arrives in London at 7pm local time or 2am Taipei time, which neither are the appropriate time to eat breakfast. It makes no logical sense at all, or well except for me since I just woke up from my 2nd night’s sleep onboard seeing that it’s now late morning in New York.
Just like on my previous flight, the breakfast starts off with a plate of fresh fruit, a danish, orange juice and black coffee. Yogurt and cornflakes are not offered this time.
Just like on my previous flight, the breakfast starts off with a plate of fresh fruit, a danish, orange juice and black coffee. Yogurt and cornflakes are not offered this time.
The breakfast choices on this flight were limited to a western option which was an omelette or the Chinese option which was Congee. I opt for the former since I am no big fan of Congee.
Breakfast main course consisting of spinach omelette, steamed broccoli, tomato sauce, hash brown and bacon.
I am no big fan of omelettes on planes and this one was no exception. The eggs had a fairly spongy and rubbery texture with a slightly bland taste. The tomato sauce helped enhance the taste of the bland omelette. The broccoli was nicely steamed, but the hash browns tasted slightly raw. The bacon was left untouched. Overall a rather underwhelming breakfast.
Roughly half an hour after the breakfast service was completed we begin our descent into London. I manage to finish my movie just before running into the lavatory for a change of clothes before returning to my seat. This long trip of epic proportions was finally coming to an end, and while I did fear that I would be completely knackered after spending 34 hours on planes, I actually felt like I could have stayed onboard for another 12 hours, hence why I felt a little sad about leaving the plane.
Our approach takes us straight over central London offering some spectacular views of the cityscape down below. The captain makes a smooth touchdown followed by some powerful reverse thrust from the GE90 engines before a quick taxi to the gate. This was my first and presumably last time flying a Star Alliance airline into Terminal 3 at Heathrow.
Once parked at the gate a jetway is attached to door 2L and Royal Laurel Passengers are invited to disembark first. On my way out I notice a left behind RIMOWA kit in one of the seats which I quickly grab. Hey it doesn’t to hurt get another one, and besides it probably would have gotten thrown away anyways, so please don’t flame me for it.
It is truly a joy to be back on European soil, particularly when the immigration queues are enormous. On days like this it certainly helps to have a burgundy passport as I was able to get through the empty automated passport gates in less than 5 seconds.
This is incidentally where the fun parts end as I now face a three hour bus ride to the outskirts of nowhere, where my hotel is located. Ugh…
Park Inn by Radisson Harlow… Or so I thought
London Suburbia is about as dull, boring and depressing as it can be, and having just stepped off a fabulous flight in EVA Air’s Royal Laurel Class it was quite a contrast to arrive at this run down low-end hotel. Arriving at the Hilton Park Lane or any other fancy schmancy property would have been more appropriate. But then again I’m not american (no offense, we Europeans are just jealous
) née I can’t poach my way into infinite amounts of free night certificates and hotel points through credit cards signups, so I had to settle with what the little points that I had could get me.
Tired after a ridiculously long trip all I could think of was hugging the pillow, but as I arrived at the hotel close to midnight I am told that there are no rooms left at the hotel. This was of course bad news, but on the flip side an overbooking situation does give you the leverage to negotiate a better form of accommodation, or well that’s what I thought.
The receptionist was very apologetic about the situation or well she pretended to be a I clearly have spoiled her quiet night shift. Phone calls were made to nearby hotels to check if they had any available rooms left. It turns out they didn’t. In fact not a single hotel in the Essex area had any room available to which the receptionist finally suggested to refund my reservation and leave me to find a room at my own devices.
Leave me stranded at midnight in the middle of nowhere after a 34 hour flight? The fact that she would even suggest such an idiotic suggestion let alone to a Gold member made me quite upset. After a quick search I found plenty of available hotels in central London, and I politely suggested that she’d put me up in one of them. Negative. This woman wouldn’t budge and she insisted that I’d stay in the Essex area. I am then told to sit on the couch and wait until she finds an available room.
It takes more than one hour before she finally finds me a room, in Brentwood. The place is called The Rougemont Manor which is a small country house located in the middle of nowhere, and after a 40 minute taxi ride I arrive. The place looks like a crossing between the Addams house and Faulty Towers and it’s completely deserted when I walk in. On the reception lies a room key and a slip of paper with my name. It was 2am at this point, and I didn’t even bother getting changed before passing out on the bed.
June 25 2014
I wake up the following day at 9am, still a bit tired from the previous night’s ordeal. The room which I have no recollection of seeing the previous night is actually quite nice. The ”hotel” has a cozy country house feel to it, and the bathroom is well stocked and spacious. I head downstairs for a Full English Breakfast in the restaurant before taking the cab back to the Park Inn. As promised the receptionist has kept a room for me, and as a compensation I receive free breakfast for my two night stay which I should have gotten anyway courtesy of the Gold Elite room upgrade. Nonetheless I quickly grab my key card and head to my room on the second floor.
My standard room at the Park Inn by Radisson Harlow.
The room itself is your typical Park Inn affair. Clean, reasonably spacious and with all the amenities you need for a short stay. What did bother me however was the architecture of the hotel which immediately suggests that this hotel used to be a hospital. The long and narrow hallways, big exit doors and stairways are typical traits of hospital architecture, and the fact that people may allegedly have died in my room gave the hotel a very dull and depressing feel.
The Bathroom.
After getting my stuff unpacked I head down to the reception to ask for directions on how to reach central London. The staff seems rather puzzled by the idea of somebody wanting to go all the way to London, and after consulting the cleaning lady (who apparently was the only person using public transport) I am given instructions in how to reach London. The closest tube station was Epping situated on the very end of the central line. Reaching Epping of course required you to take a bus, and seeing that Harlow didn’t even count as the London metropolitan area I need to purchase a separate bus ticket in addition to the day travel card. The bus ride to Epping took only 10 minutes, but the driver wanted £3,50 for a one-way ticket. WHAT A RIPOFF! Needless to say the whole commute took roughly two hours and by the time I arrive in London it’s already past 4pm… Great now half my day is wasted. I meet up with for a drink before we set out to explore the city.
Apart from the annoyingly long commute [which is my fault for being cheap] I had an enjoyable two days in London. Here are some highlights from my stay:
Londons Chinatown where we enjoyed a nice Dim Sum lunch.
Trafalgar Square.
The London Eye.
The Shard.
Piccadilly Circus.
Buckingham Palace.
Klassikern Big Ben…
Taking a flight on the Emirates Air Line.
…Followed by some spotting at London City Airport. BA003 taking off for New York JFK.
The Tower of London.
Tower Bridge.
Friday 27 June 2014
After two weeks on the road it’s sadly time to head back home to Sweden. I wake up by the sound of my alarm going off at 9am, but I end up snoozing until 10.30am. With only 30 minutes left of breakfast I decide to call the room service to have breakfast delivered to my room. But as it turns out nobody bothers to pick up the phone and after several calls I call it quits and take a shower. I pack up my stuff and leave the room just before noon, and prior to checking out I point out that nobody was answering my calls for room service. The receptionist is once again apologetic and offers me any item from the lunch menu on the house. I settle for the burger which turned out to be a rather bad choice. But nonetheless it was a free lunch. I leave the hotel at 1pm and take the bus to Epping. Seeing how long the commute is I decided to head straight to Heathrow as I wouldn’t have had time to see much in London anyway. £6 and 3 hours later, I arrive at Terminal 3 where SAS resided at the time.
In the days prior to the flight I had monitored ExpertFlyer and seen that my flight is zeroed out in all booking classes. I was originally booked on the late 21.00 departure from London which arrives at half past midnight in Stockholm. Essentially it would require me to spend the night at Arlanda since there are no late busses back home, so I decide to inquire about getting moved to an earlier flight. As I approach the check-in agent and hand him my passport he immediately greets me in Swedish which is a nice touch. Didn’t know that SAS had swedish speaking staff at their outstations.
I point out that the flight is overbooked and I inquire about the possibility of being moved to an earlier flight. Considering that I was booked on the last flight of the day, SAS would have had to provide accommodation and VDB vouchers, and bearing that in mind the agent was more than happy to move me to the earlier flight since he didn’t want to take any chances. It was a win-win for both of us, and with a new boarding pass in hand I head to the fasttrack security lane of Terminal 3. Access is granted for Star Alliance Gold members traveling in Economy Class, but as always the queue was ridiculously long due to large arab family traveling on the Emirates flight. In fact the queue wasn’t moving at all, so the security officers direct us over to a regular lane where the queue was much shorter. I made sure to hit the sad face button on my way out…
Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Heathrow Terminal 3
SilverKris Lounge Entry.
Star Alliance passengers at Heathrow Terminal 3 have two lounges to chose from. The SAS Business Lounge or the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge. I quickly pass by the SAS Lounge to see it packed to the rafters, so without even bothering to enter I proceed to the Singapore Airlines lounge located further down the hall.
The reception is manned by a very disinterested woman in her mid 40s who clearly seem annoyed by a disgustful Star Gold using the lounge on an Economy ticket. She angrily types in my card number into the computer and scans my passbook boarding pass. When I’m handed back my iPhone I notice that her fake nails had left an ugly scratch on the back of it. I was outraged, but as a swede I remain passively aggressive…
The main seating section of the lounge.
The lounge is divided into a Business Class and a First Class section, and as Star Gold I had access to the former which was located a flight of stairs up. The lounge itself is fairly spacious with space for roughly 100 or so passengers but I can imagine it being quite crowded with a fully loaded A380. Thankfully the place was practically deserted during my visit, and I quickly found myself a comfortable seat by the window, before heading over to the food section.
The food and beverage section.
The staffed bar.
Seeing that I was still quite hungry from my lack of breakfast and insufficient lunch I immediately head over to explore the food offerings. Unlike the SAS Lounge where all they have on offer is salad, the Singapore Airlines lounge offer a decent selection of hot and cold food. On offer today was a beef goulash or a Singaporean chicken curry with fried noodles.
The drinks selection was also quite extensive with non-alcoholic beverages available for self-service whereas alcoholic beverages needed to be ordered from the staffed bar. I was earlier told that they had Champagne available, but it turned out to be sparkling wine, which after my recent ”Dom galore” tasted like battery acid.
Late lunch consisting of Singaporean chickpea curry and fried noodles. Very tasty!
I spend nearly two hours in the lounge, enjoying views of the runway while sipping a few glasses of Bailey’s. After a quick glance at the departure board I notice that my flight has been delayed by one hour, meaning that I will miss my connection to the bus in Arlanda, essentially forcing me to spend the night there. Had I known about the delay I would never have inquired about the earlier flight in the first place, so I quickly make my way to the SAS Lounge. At the reception I explains my situation to the staff and kindly ask for the possibility of being rebooked to the flight leaving at 18.00. I know this was a long shot and I didn’t expect them to rebook me, but the friendly agent immediately looked into it. After some typing on the computer, a few phone calls and some discussions with the colleagues she returns with a new boarding pass saying ”gold members shouldn’t have to sleep at the airport”.
I was simply beyond words. While SAS didn’t have any obligations to rebook me in the first place they decided to do so anyway with less than 30 minutes before departure. This just goes to show how much SAS care for their customers and how high they value customer retention and loyalty. After all it’s in situations like this where airlines show their real side, and once again SAS prove to be one of the most reliable airlines out there. Try asking the same thing on Lufthansa and they’ll tell you to F€%# off [in a kind way] even if you’re a HON Circle on a paid Business Class ticket.
Boarding is already underway when I receive my boarding pass and since my gate is at the far end of the terminal I have to run very fast to make it. It’s during days like these that the hours on the treadmill pay off and I reach the gate as one of the last passengers.
Scandinavian Airlines flight SK528 London Heathrow – Stockholm Arlanda
Departure: 18.00
Arrival: 21.25
Duration: 2h 25m
Date: 27 June 2014
Aircraft type: Boeing 737-600
Seat & Class: 22A SAS GO
After my recent extravagancies in Turkish Airlines Business Class and EVA Air Royal Laurel Class, boarding a SAS plane in the second last row of Economy Class was certainly a reality check, and while part of me wanted to cry over the fact that my trip was coming to an end I was at the same time thankful to be arriving home on time.
Flying home in SAS GO, not GOPLUS as JVPhoto tends to call it.
The flight was fairly uneventful and as always on Stockholm bound flights I had a lovely swedish crew, with a younger stewardess serving my section. She was a nice change from the usual SAS grandmothers who are destined for retirement, and we had a nice chat after the plane had landed. Overall it was a very pleasant flight on SAS. On arrival I grab a hamburger from MAX before catching my bus back home, where I arrived just after 2am. Two weeks and 37000 miles later I am finally home.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you have enjoyed the report!
Best regards
/J