Happy happy joy joy

Journey – HKG-PVG
Flight no. – KA794
Class – Business AND First
Seat – 12G or even 1D

So today we are flying KA – not that there is anything wrong with that. It is straight from check in to the Ralph Lauren store to pick up a thin jumper so that I can tell the concerned staff in HKG I wont freeze in SHA.

Its off to the Wing and I am a little disappointed compared to other experiences – there is a happy medium between being harassed for more booze and being ignored and this time they were a tad on the edge of ignoring me – and I mean a tad – enough for me to see a difference between that and the normal exemplary service.

I do fall into a weird time there though between “lunch” and “dinner” service between 5PM and 5:30PM when there is no food at the restaurant – something I need to keep an eye on for the future. When the restaurant “eventually” opens I snarf down some food and cheese (for the record cheese in my consideration Cheese is beyond food and should be food group in and of itself) although the cheese selection is not quite as good as in the recent past. Bizarrely after the earlier lack of wine refills I am now harassed by the wine police for not drinking quickly enough!

Eventually though I have to board the flight so its off to KA…thankfully that is at gate 4 which is “just there”. Annoyingly my BP is rejected at the gate – annoying only if you don’t like sitting in first class!!!

MY FIRST OP-UP – WOO TO THE HOO

Ok it’s only a couple of hours on KA but this is a first for me and I am filled with joyous joyiety. This I assume is linked to my having changed to include my AA EXP status at check in rather than my QF status as it was originally.

On board the service ok – it just seems to be a mad swarm of activity. It almost is unnerving in that people almost seem to be rushing for the sake of it. The crew all seem to be about 19 years old – which linked to the recruitment template of slim attractive asian women is not necessarily a detriment to the onboard ambience.

I opt for the western meal on this flight which in retrospect may have been a mistake. An unremarkable starter is followed by a dubious main course of beef. I note that F is completely full to the gills and given it was J4/F4 at 3PM I reckon a good number of these seats are Op-Ups.

The IFE seems not to be working or not switched on but given I have a few things to watch on the laptop so it is no loss to me.

[aside]

Now here’s the rub. On QF I rant and rave if the IFE is not working almost on take off and if it has to be rebooted more than once and bitca and moan if the movie selection is not all the new releases that I want to see at the cinemas. However, here I am sat on a flight with no IFE and I shrug it off. Some people may accuse me of double standards…

[/aside]

OK I see from my notes that “the flight is short, the lights are bright and they use the second door for disembarking”. I really have to wonder how I can sometimes stretch check in to 2 pages and a whole to three clauses. I guess if there is a need to be verbose then I could expand the commentary on the seats themselves to indicate that they were red. I am really reaching here and feel a little pressure to come up with something.
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Nup I am dry as the Gobi, bereft of muse and musing and probably a little short on the amusing at this point. But hark what light through yonder window breaks (I went to see some Shakespeare last week – deal with it) is that a Bus I see before me? It is – sadly it is off through the second door (so J disembarks before F) down the stairs and onto the waiting bus

Although a little less smooth than the dual aerobridges of HKG (probably more akin to the wooden bridges of Maddison Country) we are after a short break into the terminal with the sprint for immigration. Everyone knows that Chinese immigration is a massive pain so the fact that I am through in about 30 seconds after having had my inbound immigration card corrected for me (I guessed the KA flight number as I was on a CX codeshare) with a pleasant smile by the Immigration officer (imagine if I had done that with some of the jobsworths when you arrive into LAX) and it is off to find the Hotel car. SYD, LHR and LAX (and every other US port I have flown into) could take some notes from the Chinese!

The hotel staff are waiting for me and I am swept into the Lexus for the llong drive to the city. After a few minutes using the in-seat power (QF take note that I can get in-seat power in a car but not on a 763 flying to Japan…) and a 5:30AM wake up I am fast asleep in the car as I get the Hilton Shanghai and my first experience of the new Hilton Shanghai Exec lounge.