Journey – HKG-PVG
Flight no. – CX367
Class – Business
Seat – 17A 16D

The F check in at HKG is a joy as ever. I ask them to change the dates of my flights next week and they advise that they will get the lounge to let me know if it has been arranged. In addition I am advised to use the Pier lounge as that is closer to the gate. A nice touch and a step up from the QF F check in approach (admittedly they couldn’t give me a choice but I walk away from this check in feeling special rather than disappointed).

At exit immigration I use the HKIA FV card again for a speedy exit. One strange thing is that they have to record my details manually but interestingly the immigration staff make the other pax wait until my details have been taken so that I am not slowed down at all

It is still quite early – well very early – so it is onto the serftymobile and into the lounge. I am informed at entry to the lounge that they are happy to make the change to my flights but as they are not the ticket issuer they will have to charge me HK$300 for the benefit… I decide it might be better to call the EXP desk and get them to make the change

After a mere 10 seconds seated in the lounge the shopkeeper arrives and offers me my choice of drinks. Now I hope you are both seated and not holding anything fragile such as expensive crockery, a small child or perhaps the still beating heart of your latest victim (just watched an episode of [url=http://www.tvrage.com/dexter]Dexter[/url)) but, phew this is actually hard to type, I actually ordered an English Breakfast Tea… no champagne, no G&T, not even a crisp cold refreshing draft Asahi (mmmm Asahi. Admittedly it IS 7AM and I am planning to work on the flight (more on that later) but still – I am as shocked as you are at this despicable behaviour – I can sense a need to compensate with either a hair shirt or a large G&T when I get to PVG.

But with my EBT in hand I hook up Skype and call mrssimongr who is sadly not well but is at least taking a couple of days off. After that call it is onto the EXP desk to change flights and ticket my AAward for next year.

[aside]

This has been a mammoth task trying to get two RTW tickets in J on the following routing syd-jfk-lhr-lca-syd – not easy by any stretch of the imagination but I have at least managed to get syd-jfk-lhr-lca-hkg in J on exactly the dates I wanted. I think that is best I can hope for. Now just to bleat on another pet topic – the wonderful world of the AAdvantage program. This AAward cost me 300K AAdvantage miles and US$440 in taxes. A similar award if I had booked through QFF would have been over 500K points and probably in excess of $1500 in taxes. As much as I bemoan that few months without F lounge access and not being second from the top of the queue for points upgrades – you just can not argue with those economics, but I know there are those that will

[/aside]

The CS staff makes the change but then has to “check with tariff” to see if any fee applies – I sigh and wait for the confirmation of no fee that takes 5 mins. The CS staff is good though – he apologises for not knowing specifically the rules and being able to answer that immediately and thanks me for all the miles I am putting to the AA program. Again a small but subtle level of quality in the service. Good work.

Just before boarding is called I duck into the Tumi store to grab a Tumi passport holder (I think it is the underwear next ).

Boarding is painless and the aircraft is the regional config which is ok but not great. Certainly better than Club Europe but this aint no Skybed (hmm think I might need a review of the various J class configurations that I have been flying in recently. Although we board on time we are left waiting for the resolution of a “small mechanical problem”. I am reminded of my last HKG-China flight when we flew around HKG for a couple of hours before landing back at HKG for an aircraft change…

I decide to skip the breakfast having eaten in the lounge and I just grab some tea and get on with some work. I am then (almost literally) struck by the worst recliner on record. Now this only a 2 hour flight and is flying at a reasonable time out of HKG and this person obviously has not just gotten off a connecting flight so I just can not see the need for sleep. It actually turns out that the seat is a little faulty and it allows him to recline even further than standard – so far in fact that I can’t even open my laptop fully – and this is only a small 12.1” laptop.

I do however manage to get an hour or so of work done and am amazed that the recliner doesn’t move for the entire flight. I am pretty fed up as we start the commencement of the descent into PVG and the first indications of landing are announced. I then get pretty bloody annoyed when the recliner gets up and leaves his seat fully reclined whilst he goes off to the bathroom – knowing that they have announced the descent. I ask the cabin crew to raise the seat and even they are amazed at how far it has reclined. Then he comes back and slams the seat back into a full recline!!!!! It is only 30 seconds later that the Captain requests for all seats to be put upright and it takes a couple of prods from the cabin crew to get sleeping beauty to actually sit up. Altogether this was a pretty uncomfortable flight

I normally quite enjoy my CX and to be getting off thoroughly depressed is a real shame. At least on my way back I wont be going into the office and can actually enjoy the flight – even if it is regional configuration.