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Air China (CA) New 773 F, Swiss (LX) A343 F, Zurich and Beijing

Air China (CA) New 773 F, Swiss (LX) A343 F, Zurich and Beijing

Old May 5, 2012, 12:12 pm
  #16  
 
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PEK-LAX

Once again, great report. I'm excited to see how your return experience is with CA from PEK-LAX, especially the ground service at PEK. Are you going to be on 987 or 983? I'm assuming 983 for the new product.
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Old May 5, 2012, 5:06 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by gpeso8
Once again, great report. I'm excited to see how your return experience is with CA from PEK-LAX, especially the ground service at PEK. Are you going to be on 987 or 983? I'm assuming 983 for the new product.
983. The ground service was nothing special. Standard check in, train to international section of t3, customs/security (didn't see any first class security line although it was only about a 5 min wait). I had a few hours in the lounge as I had to check out of the hotel. It was a huge lounge, plenty of space to spread out. The FC section was not connected to the J section, the food in the lounge was decent. Wifi, obviously. No showers that I could see. Also no bar that I could see but I didn't look everywhere. They did have a mini movie theater type area but it looked to be chinese only and some sleeping areas that I should have tried.

I threw my back out so I'm going to be resting in bed, but I'll try to get the rest of the TR together tonight or tomorrow if I'm feeling better.
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Old May 5, 2012, 7:58 pm
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Originally Posted by AZbba
983. The ground service was nothing special. Standard check in, train to international section of t3, customs/security (didn't see any first class security line although it was only about a 5 min wait). I had a few hours in the lounge as I had to check out of the hotel. It was a huge lounge, plenty of space to spread out. The FC section was not connected to the J section, the food in the lounge was decent. Wifi, obviously. No showers that I could see. Also no bar that I could see but I didn't look everywhere. They did have a mini movie theater type area but it looked to be chinese only and some sleeping areas that I should have tried.

I threw my back out so I'm going to be resting in bed, but I'll try to get the rest of the TR together tonight or tomorrow if I'm feeling better.
Great! Thanks for the input. I guess I won't be running to PEK early.
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Old May 6, 2012, 12:39 pm
  #19  
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zrh-pek swiss a343 F

I took the train back to the airport and checked in at the business section in the train station, then walked through to security and to the F lounge. This was my first time in the ZRH F lounge and it was quite nice. Good selection of foods, drinks, and candies on every table. It does tend to fill up a bit as it seems that swiss groups their long haul departures to all leave around the same time. A couple sat down next to me with a very young kid but surprisingly they actually watched him, kept him quiet, and didn't let him run all over the lounge. Anyway, since the lounge is not in the same building as the international flights depart from, they have shuttles every 5 minutes to that terminal. A swiss employee guides you from the lounge, down the elevator, through exit customs, and to a bus that takes you to the other terminal. There was a slight holdup at exit customs as they did not stamp my passport when I entered. I didn't think anything of it since US immigration never stamps it. Anyway, the customs lady just asked to see my itenerary which I luckily had printed out and I was good to go.

Boarding was fine, although I noticed that they boarded all pax at the same time, just through different lines (perhaps this was because the flight was a bit late).

Today's load was 3/8. And the other 2 pax were on the opposite side, so it was quite private. Everything was great, as expected, although I would have to say the service was actually a tiny bit better on the pek-zrh flight.

The alps


More balik (not as good as on the previous flight for some reason)


Asparigus soup


Salad


Lamb with cheese


The lamb with cheese was absolutely amazing. I think it wins best tasting airplane food I've ever had. One of the pieces was significantly more undercooked than the other, so they put it back in the oven, but it was still amazing.

I skipped the breakfast before arriving in PEK as I was still stuffed from dinner/lounge food.

I believe this was the first if not, one of the first flights to land at the international section of T3 for the day as it was completely deserted.

I had booked the bmw airport transfer from the park hyatt for 680 CNY ($108 US), mainly because the flight arrived so early (5am) and this would likely help ensure a very early checkin. An agent from the airport met me at the gate with the hyatt sign and walked my through immgration and bag claim (which did take ~20 minutes). She waited while I got some money from the ATM and a sim card and then led me down a hallway and elevator to a private area where a bmw was waiting.

next up:
beijing/ park hyatt
pek-lax
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Old May 6, 2012, 8:29 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by FAA1996
Nice report; those seats remind me a bit of the F seats on JetAirways (now used by Thai or Turkish)
FYI, TK did away with their first class product when they returned all the wet-leased Jet Airways aircraft last October.
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Old May 8, 2012, 1:52 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by gpeso8
Once again, great report. I'm excited to see how your return experience is with CA from PEK-LAX, especially the ground service at PEK. Are you going to be on 987 or 983? I'm assuming 983 for the new product.
Aren't both flights on the 77W now?
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Old May 8, 2012, 10:32 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by moondog
Aren't both flights on the 77W now?
not yet, although they should be soon. The other flight is a 747.
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Old May 8, 2012, 4:41 pm
  #23  
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Park Hyatt Beijing

The ride to the hotel at that time of the morning was traffic free and quite fast.

The lobby is on the 63rd floor. I was able to check in right away.

Here's some pics of the room, shower was AMAZING.






Air was pretty bad that day



For the first day I just slept and walked over to Tiananmen Square.



The hotel sits on a high-end mall that has some restaurants downstairs. Keep in mind everything at the hotel has a 15% surcharge. I had a 1/2 order of Peking Duck at the restaurant downstairs for dinner.
Yum


View from the lobby at night:


The next day was set aside for the great wall. After a bit of research I decided on Juyongguan for a first visit (plan to return with the GF later this year). I did not want to take a taxi all the way there, and prefered someone who spoke english. Doing more research I found that most of the english tours are rather crappy, stopping at trinket shops ect. I found a guide named Victor that was recommended by many on tripadvisor. He would pick me up from the hotel and take me to the wall for 3 hours and then back in a new model car for an extremely reasonable price.



For some reason the other side was WAY more crowded. I think it was because the tour busses dropped people off there.


Stopped on the way back for more peking duck at about 1/3 the cost of the hotel restaurant.



The tour was great, he was very experienced and will definitly use him again next time we visit.

His website is
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5648227d0100uq5r.html

He also does inner mongolia/gobi desert tours during other times of the year. I would love to do one of those.

That night I went downstairs to the XIU club (http://xiubeijing.com/) and it was actually quite fun.

Next day I woke up late and tried to push the checkout as late as possible. I was planning on doing the forbidden city but wouldn't have had enough time so I'll save that for the next trip. I just walked around the city a bit instead.

Checked out and left for the airport early at about 3:30pm.
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Old May 8, 2012, 9:11 pm
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Originally Posted by moondog
Aren't both flights on the 77W now?
Starting in June.
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Old May 8, 2012, 10:29 pm
  #25  
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Just a note, the swiss emmi yogurt is available in the US now, the black cherry is my favorite, but I really enjoy the grapefruit flavor)less sweet, more pure yogurtness) that is gone now, and next the apricot
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Old May 8, 2012, 10:30 pm
  #26  
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Originally Posted by AZbba
He also does inner mongolia/gobi desert tours during other times of the year. I would love to do one of those.
I don't know about this organized tour as I've done it all with locals, but IM and Gobi are amazing, some unique experiences, and wonderful people!
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Old May 8, 2012, 10:55 pm
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Thank you OP.
You now have me seriously considering dropping Qatar in J, and switching to CA in F - long haul new 773 product.
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Old May 9, 2012, 9:24 pm
  #28  
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Last leg
PEK-LAX CA F 777-300ER

So I took a cab to the airport, way early for the flight. I could have had the hotel hold the bag and explored the city more but I was a bit tired.

The cab ride was interesting. I opted to sit in the front seat with the driver as the back seat did not have seatbelts. The price was good at about 85 CNY ~$14USD for an hour ride in traffic.

The F check in area wasn't anything special. Just some counters. After check in walked to the train to the international section and then through immigration/security. I did not see any special lines for premium pax, although I had plenty of time so I didn't mind much. There was no wait at immigration, maybe 10 minutes at security.

After that I walked around the duty free a bit but didn't see anything that appealed to me. Then I went up to the lounge which is one floor above the duty free area. If you use the path of the train to make a line through the middle of the terminal, F is on the left and I believe business is on the right, but they are not connected as there is a large open area inbetween.

The lounge was very large. It easily had seating for 100, probably 200+, so everyone could spread out. They had some nice selections for food/snacks/non alcolohlic drinks and a couple brands of beer. I didn't see a bar, but there could have been one. Also there were sleeping areas that I should have tried out but didn't. No showers that I could see.

Boarding was fine and I was the first F pax onboard. Shortly after another sat on the other side of the plane. Here I was hoping it would be 2/8 when at the last minute a group of 6 people got on. They were chatting with the FA's quite a bit, and my initial thought was that they must have been non-revs or friends of the FA getting a free upgrade to F.

Anyway just before dinner service two of them moved to the companion seats in the middle seats of row 2, which are available when the table is slid toward the main seat. This actually made a very nice area for 4 people to sit/talk/eat.

Also, a large bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label appeared on one of their tables... strange CA doesn't serve that.

My food was a bit better quality than the previous flight, but it still had a business class feel. Maybe that's what I get for ordering the western option.

Dinner




breakfast


Anyway, I noticed that the FA's were brining food to the group to my right in the plastic catering tubs. Very strange indeed. One of the guys notices my glances and motioned me over just as they were ordering a special bottle of Martell Cordon Bleu 100th anniversary from the duty free to enjoy on the plane, which they were kind enough to share.


As it turns out they were high rollers heading to the MGM in vegas, my guess would be in paid F on mgm's dime. We chatted a bit but the language barrier made it hard.

Landed on time and the immigration line in T2 was empty so I was through in about 30 seconds (take that TBIT!) but had to wait about 20 min at bag claim.

Overall, great trip. Lots of fun.

Now I have to decide if I should leave in 2 days on CX F to SIN for a few days (as booked) or put it off for a bit. Decisions decisions.
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Old May 9, 2012, 10:06 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by AZbba

After that I walked around the duty free a bit but didn't see anything that appealed to me. Then I went up to the lounge which is one floor above the duty free area. If you use the path of the train to make a line through the middle of the terminal, F is on the left and I believe business is on the right, but they are not connected as there is a large open area inbetween.

The lounge was very large. It easily had seating for 100, probably 200+, so everyone could spread out. They had some nice selections for food/snacks/non alcolohlic drinks and a couple brands of beer. I didn't see a bar, but there could have been one. Also there were sleeping areas that I should have tried out but didn't. No showers that I could see.
Just as a note, there are showers just past the sleeping rooms at the lounge. the F and J lounge 'touch' each other with a row of planters keeping them split apart near the dining areas. Seems to be an honor system there, as one could certainly go between without much effort
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Old May 10, 2012, 12:28 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by AZbba
zrh-pek swiss a343 F

Boarding was fine, although I noticed that they boarded all pax at the same time, just through different lines (perhaps this was because the flight was a bit late).
I think you were on the same flight as I was (albeit I was in C in the mini-cabin just behind F). Did you notice a huge backup of people at the escalator down to emigration and the E gates? I guess that's what you get when you have so many intercontinental flights departing at around the same time.

Also, when I arrived at the gate the boarding bridge to the F cabin had already been retracted, and boarding was being done without any regard to elite status or class of service, with no separate priority boarding lane or separate call for business/elite passengers. I had to practically wave my passport in front of the ground staffer's face and say "Business Class!" before I got anywhere.
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