First time flying business class-help!
 

Hi there
We're flying in Oct/11 and the following is the itinerary:
YVR-PEK - Air Canada
PEK-BKK - Thai
BKK-NRT - ANA
NRT-YVR - Air Canada

Having never flown business class before, I have several questions:
1. With the business class tickets, are we automatically eligible to use the bus. class lounges at each airport? If so, which would be a good lounge to use in each airport?
2. Are we eligible to use any Star Alliance lounge at each airport?
3. How do we find out where each of these lounges located at each airport?
4. Do we leave the lounge and get to the departure gate on our own or is there a different gate for business class passengers?
Sorry for all these questions. Some of them might seem quite ignorant but we just wanted to have to all information avail. ahead of time.
Thank you for all help and inputs.

Welcome to business class!

1, 2, 3. Not always, but usually. Some reward tickets and some lounges may not be available. Check www.staralliance.com to see what your options will be.

4. Yes, you are almost always responsible to get to the gate on your own, and it will be the same gate as for others. You may have early boarding due to being in business class, so listen to the announcements carefully.

Hope this helps - enjoy your trip!

I can help on lounges as I have been all, but 1, of your airports:

PEK: Sorry, haven't done this one, yet!

BKK: There are at least 5 Thai lounges that I am aware of. The large lounge in the central part of the terminal is by far the nicest. Concourse D, between gates D1-D8.

NRT: ANA lounges: amazing. Highlights: Showers, sushi, udon noodle bar, sake bar, chocolates are amazing. 2 to choose from, one is nicer than the other (larger and has windows)(Satelite 5 by gate 55, the other (SAT 4, gate 46) is in the basement but still has all of the "stuff" the other one has. It really depends on how much time you have, where you plane arrives (what gate) and what gate your departing plane is leaving from.

YVR: MLL, pretty standard stuff. You'll be using the International one which is pretty poor: no shower, small and as we all know limited food choices; however, it is still acceptable.

Enjoy your trip!

1+2. If you're not Star Alliance Gold, then you're limited to the lounge that the particular carrier uses. If you don't know, make sure you ask when checking in.

3. I usually bring up the online maps of airports. More often than not, they have all the lounges (with exact locations) listed. In NRT, the UA lounge is also available and you'll probably pass by it first before hitting the NH lounges. But, I agree the NH lounges are the ones to go to.

4. The gate is the same but there is usually a different boarding line for Business. YVR is often horrendous at enforcing this but BKK and NRT are far better. It's been too long since I've been to PEK so I don't know how it currently is.

Please let us know if you bought this on Aeroplan points so that we may offer more accurate suggestions.

With a routing like that I'm assuming this is a reward ticket and not revenue. (I could be wrong of course!)

1) The safest thing to do when you check in is simply ask. "Where's the lounge?" will get you everything you need to know.

2) Typically the answer here is no, but #1 will get you the definitive answer.

3) See #1.

4) Direct-boarding gates are nice but I've only experienced that once in FRA. To the best of my knowledge, they don't exist for *A at the places you're going to. But times change so you never know ...


Another note - last time I was in PEK we used the Air China lounge. It was upstairs to the left as we cleared security. The lounge had seemingly slim pickings for food but I discovered that if you just keep walking to the end of the lounge you'll find the restaurant / bar area where all the good stuff is.

Enjoy your flights!

Enjoy J, this is how I do it after I get on a long flight:

1. Get a chaimpaign right away
2. Red wine before the meal
3. Another red wine with the meal
4. Port with desert
5. Whisky to finish it off. Flatten the seat and go to sleep
6. Wake up in 4 hours, and repeat 1-5.
7. Where the heck did I put my custom form? Ask the FA to get me another one.
8. Fill out the form with Vodka in hand
9. Arriving at PEK. Just in time for the bed at hotel. Taxi drivers don't even expect tips.

Enjoy :-)

10. Liver transplant.

LMFAO!!!!

add cookies and ice cream to the list and you're golden!

With Baileys as a sauce on top of the ice cream. :p

Thank you for all your prompt advice. I will print off a map of each airport for easy directions. "g46r"-you're hilarious. Thanks again.

Oh one more thing, please don't wear a track suit in the J cabin.:D :D :D

Yes indeed!

I understand it's acceptable to wear something comfortable during a longhaul trip (track suit, leisure suit or alternate '70s attire if you must) as long as you are dressed in what my granny would call appropriate clothing at the beginning and end of the flight.

However...if you choose to board wearing a retro loose-fitting Adidas track suit with too many gold chains and a flat-brimmed ball cap turned askew, you may be presumed some sort of celebrity and thus given all the deference (or disdain) to which they are accustomed. You'll probably be 'outed' for flying in J rather than F, but if you follow g46r's advice, most people will believe you are indeed a star of some unfortunate reality show after all.