India. Japan. Taiwan. Hong Kong. Everything in four days.
Apr 8, 2016, 1:54 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: in your favourite lounge, clearing the whole buffet
Programs: LH Maximizer of the year, BA Blue Label killer
Posts: 1,001
India. Japan. Taiwan. Hong Kong. Everything in four days.
Hello Ladies!
You know this feeling. You sit on your throne in the morning, thinking about which country you should invade next... Oh wait, this was two generations ago. Sorry.
So today, you think about which country you should visit next! And you start connecting lines, moving your army of miles and finally, at 5 in the morning, you fire your booking into the system.
My first goal: How do I get my Avianca Brasil FFN into my Air India booking? And why? Yes: AI's system is so modern that it does not know O6!
(It took two supervisors and approximately 10 minutes)
You may ask, why? Well, I thought I need some strong cocktails before boarding Air India...
And LH's FRA lounge delivered, as usual.
Cocktail of the month: Long Island Ice Tea.
After a few others I tried to manage to stumble into the plane. Since my expanded lounge session at the VS Clubhouse SFO (which unfortunately lies before any security check) I perfected the way of trying to be sober while doing a 2nd security check.
So I went to stow my rollaway, when I saw something falling down out of the overhad bin...
Well, I suppose it's a welcome gift or so.
Moving on to the seat. Nothing special. I would say, it's the Heineken of seats. It's nothing special, doesn't harm anyone, just does its job and soon after you forget it.
After boarding was completed, the cabin crew distributed Amenity Kits. Or somethink which may look like one. Actually they just gave everybody a paper envelope, filled with socks and a sleeping mask. Prego, the Air India Amenity Kit is here!
Remember: Earplugs are missing.
Remember²: The crew does not have them as well in the galley
Remember³: The alternative? Cotton buds. Seriously. I'm not joking.
After this "experience" I desperately needed something bubbly.
At least the stuff on the menu card looks promising.
Five different mains is quite impressing, even for ME3 standards.
But, coming to the presentation of those meals. Well...
For the main I chose the Paneer sind I know that meat flaps will get me banned again on Flyertalk.
Dear Air India executives, I got a protip for you: Dim the lights for dinner, so nobody will recognize the look of your dishes. The taste itself was quite decent nonetheless.
After some more booze I eventually decided to nap a few hours, before the crew switched on the lights again for breakfast.
No choices unfortunately, but the good thing was it was more or less served during descent.
Arrival in Delhi was decent and the airport itself is not what you probably expect from India.
Clean. European Standard. Airy.
But then I went to the Domestic lounge.
Yes, indeed they offer showers.
No, towels are not offered.
Yes, they offer coffee.
No, you cannot make a decent one out of hot syrup!
Yes, there are bananas for snacks.
No, it is wrong to serve them while they are still green.
I admit, the three hour connecting time was very long...
So I made my way to the gate for my connecting flight to Mumbai and I must say, now I'm impressed!
The crew was friendly, good-looking and the drinks were filled up proactively! But, the best thing was the food.
Seriously, it may look like it was already eaten by somebody, but it was really one of the best meals I've ever had in the air.
The Indian expat sitting beside me complained about the spicyness but it really kicked your tastebuds.
Two hours later I eventually landed in Mumbai. Last time I connected here, it was one of the worst airports I've been to (not as bad as Kathmandu though). But now it's completely new and made a really nice experience.
Mumbai itself is a city of contrasts: Few days before my trip to said city I read on 4chan that one of the posters there managed to convince his taxi driver to take him to his favourite outdoor toilet in the slums. And yes, the slums are present.
Even the view out of my hotel room shows the difference between rich and poor.
At night I saw somebody sleeping on the roof of the adjacent house.
But once you're enter the CBD it's a charming city with nice houses out of the colonial era.
The main sight is the Gate of India at the harbour.
On the next day I went back to the airport. Protip: Take the Uber. 40% cheaper than the normal taxi!
The domestic traffic itself is boring. 737 and 320s.
For the return flight to Delhi I chose Jet Airways.
Remember, I wrote about the superb meal on Air India. Well, it was Business Class. What about Economy Class?
I present: Chicken Tikka with Dal. Best Economy Class meal ever!
Kindly note: This is a flight with a duration of two hours!
After arriving back in Delhi, I walked towards the JAL counter. Or I tried it.
In this modern world, nobody has a printed booking confirmation. Apparently in India it's required.
But their workaround is to print out any PNL and you could search your name on them!
Now, at the check-in counter, the following conversation happened...
"Would you like to upgrade with your JAL miles to Business today?"
"I don't have any"
"Well, then I have to sit you in Premium Economy for free"
"Please do the needful"
JAL Economy Class is one of the few 787 Economy Classes which you really can choose without fearing narrow seats but if they offer me an upgrade for free, why not?
But speaking about beer in the DEL lounge, we need to talk...
The food itself was okay, but everything was catered for western tastebuds.
Did I already mention it was my 1st flight on the 787-9?
Coming to the Economy Plus, it's not bad at all. They are fixed-shell seats (which I usually disgust), but those are really decent. Only downside is, you can expand the table only in the upright seating position.
Contrary to the 787-8, they even got Japanese-style loos in Economy. A pleasant experience.
But in terms of food, I'm quite disappointed from JAL. Nothing Indian, nothing Japanese. And the minced chicken meat tasted like nothing.
At least the beer choice was decent. Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin and Yebisu. What else?
Coming to Narita, I had approximately four hours to spare. Time to go into Narita town!
Time for a flashback into the 90s. Scoot does not offer any On-Line-Check-In out of NRT. So you have to wait in queues (Sorry, I don't have any British genes). But the plane was quite full and I scored an upgrade again. To "Scootinsilence" with more space and no children. Yay.
Now for my 2nd favourite pasttime, raiding lounges!
For the start I headed into the Cathay lounge, as on the previous reports it looked promising in terms of preparing your "picknick" on the next LCC flight.
At least they had iced tea in bottles and cereal bars.
I didn't went to AA and visited QF already last year when I was in NRT, so I went to JL for a quick shower and a 2nd/3rd/whatever breakfast.
I cannot recommend the cod roe at all!
Now it's time for some scootliciuous action! The cabin itself is one of the ugliest looking ones and even for the plug socket you'll have to pay something.
There are signs everywhere that you must not eat anything which you brought by yourself onto the plane, but being a first world anarchist, why should it bother me?
The most shocking thing though was the fact that the Scoot cabin was still more comfortable than the Qatar 787.
Four hours later I finally landed in Taipei. I always wanted to visit this city since I stranded there on the airport while flying an ex-RGN-ticket years ago and I must say, it's not as wonderful as Tokyo or Osaka, but worlds better than Seoul.
One could say, it's like China, but without ugly Chinese, but with a hint of Japanese youth culture. I like.
Time to eat some food again!
Everybody knows the Taipei 101. Protip: The supermarket in the basement has a bunch of stuff for free tasting. It's a bit like Costco!
The highlight of Taipei are the night markets, where you can get anything. I was there, of course, just for the snacks. Taiwanese sausage dipped in Garlic. Delicious.
The fried Tofu was decent was well.
You may ask, what about the local beer culture? The honey lager tasted better than I expected.
On the next morning I roamed around the city. Very relaxing without tourists and anybody who might sell you some stuff.
For breakfast? Schnitzel on French Toast.
On the way back to the airport I chose the cheapskate way: Local train to Taoyuan plus local bus. It's TWD27 (= USD0.83) cheaper than the direct fast bus!
The train looks like it came straightaway from the 80s.
The local bus even had free wifi and USB plugs. Something I miss in other countries.
At the airport I was handed an official invitation...
..and of course I visited the palace! But before, I went to the Hello Kitty gate.
The CX lounge at TPE is one of the best OW Sapphire lounges I've been to. The soups and the made-to-order Dim Sum are out of this world. The cocktails are also perfect.
If I would celebrate my stag night again, I would definetely head to Taipei instead of Brussels (where we nearly got kicked out of the lounge while doing this, but this is another story...).
On board the Cathay flight they served a hot wrap. Quite okay for such a short flight.
Now I had 9 hours to kill, so I took the bus up to the Peak.
After that I rode on the tram and took a view of the sky line out of Kowloon.
It was time to head back to the airport and to the lounges of course.
I already knew the Pier and the Wing from my OWE times, so this time I went to the Qantas lounge.
The wine choices were superb, but the food itself was underwhelming. Apparently this should have been lamb.
So I went to Cathay again for some Dim Sum again. And Cocktails obviously.
Speaking of cocktails, that's what I'd chosen on board as well of course.
This was my first time on Cathay C class and the food was quite disapppointing. Only two choices, served on one tray. The seat was okay though.
The meat balls were okay, but nothing special.
I skipped breakfast in hope to get some sandwiches at the CX lounge at FRA but unfortunately they are rolling out them at 8 o'clock now! So I had to go to the bakery
Coming to the end, I hope my trip report was SFW this time. I really did my best!
You know this feeling. You sit on your throne in the morning, thinking about which country you should invade next... Oh wait, this was two generations ago. Sorry.
So today, you think about which country you should visit next! And you start connecting lines, moving your army of miles and finally, at 5 in the morning, you fire your booking into the system.
My first goal: How do I get my Avianca Brasil FFN into my Air India booking? And why? Yes: AI's system is so modern that it does not know O6!
(It took two supervisors and approximately 10 minutes)
You may ask, why? Well, I thought I need some strong cocktails before boarding Air India...
And LH's FRA lounge delivered, as usual.
Cocktail of the month: Long Island Ice Tea.
After a few others I tried to manage to stumble into the plane. Since my expanded lounge session at the VS Clubhouse SFO (which unfortunately lies before any security check) I perfected the way of trying to be sober while doing a 2nd security check.
So I went to stow my rollaway, when I saw something falling down out of the overhad bin...
Well, I suppose it's a welcome gift or so.
Moving on to the seat. Nothing special. I would say, it's the Heineken of seats. It's nothing special, doesn't harm anyone, just does its job and soon after you forget it.
After boarding was completed, the cabin crew distributed Amenity Kits. Or somethink which may look like one. Actually they just gave everybody a paper envelope, filled with socks and a sleeping mask. Prego, the Air India Amenity Kit is here!
Remember: Earplugs are missing.
Remember²: The crew does not have them as well in the galley
Remember³: The alternative? Cotton buds. Seriously. I'm not joking.
After this "experience" I desperately needed something bubbly.
At least the stuff on the menu card looks promising.
Five different mains is quite impressing, even for ME3 standards.
But, coming to the presentation of those meals. Well...
For the main I chose the Paneer sind I know that meat flaps will get me banned again on Flyertalk.
Dear Air India executives, I got a protip for you: Dim the lights for dinner, so nobody will recognize the look of your dishes. The taste itself was quite decent nonetheless.
After some more booze I eventually decided to nap a few hours, before the crew switched on the lights again for breakfast.
No choices unfortunately, but the good thing was it was more or less served during descent.
Arrival in Delhi was decent and the airport itself is not what you probably expect from India.
Clean. European Standard. Airy.
But then I went to the Domestic lounge.
Yes, indeed they offer showers.
No, towels are not offered.
Yes, they offer coffee.
No, you cannot make a decent one out of hot syrup!
Yes, there are bananas for snacks.
No, it is wrong to serve them while they are still green.
I admit, the three hour connecting time was very long...
So I made my way to the gate for my connecting flight to Mumbai and I must say, now I'm impressed!
The crew was friendly, good-looking and the drinks were filled up proactively! But, the best thing was the food.
Seriously, it may look like it was already eaten by somebody, but it was really one of the best meals I've ever had in the air.
The Indian expat sitting beside me complained about the spicyness but it really kicked your tastebuds.
Two hours later I eventually landed in Mumbai. Last time I connected here, it was one of the worst airports I've been to (not as bad as Kathmandu though). But now it's completely new and made a really nice experience.
Mumbai itself is a city of contrasts: Few days before my trip to said city I read on 4chan that one of the posters there managed to convince his taxi driver to take him to his favourite outdoor toilet in the slums. And yes, the slums are present.
Even the view out of my hotel room shows the difference between rich and poor.
At night I saw somebody sleeping on the roof of the adjacent house.
But once you're enter the CBD it's a charming city with nice houses out of the colonial era.
The main sight is the Gate of India at the harbour.
On the next day I went back to the airport. Protip: Take the Uber. 40% cheaper than the normal taxi!
The domestic traffic itself is boring. 737 and 320s.
For the return flight to Delhi I chose Jet Airways.
Remember, I wrote about the superb meal on Air India. Well, it was Business Class. What about Economy Class?
I present: Chicken Tikka with Dal. Best Economy Class meal ever!
Kindly note: This is a flight with a duration of two hours!
After arriving back in Delhi, I walked towards the JAL counter. Or I tried it.
In this modern world, nobody has a printed booking confirmation. Apparently in India it's required.
But their workaround is to print out any PNL and you could search your name on them!
Now, at the check-in counter, the following conversation happened...
"Would you like to upgrade with your JAL miles to Business today?"
"I don't have any"
"Well, then I have to sit you in Premium Economy for free"
"Please do the needful"
JAL Economy Class is one of the few 787 Economy Classes which you really can choose without fearing narrow seats but if they offer me an upgrade for free, why not?
But speaking about beer in the DEL lounge, we need to talk...
The food itself was okay, but everything was catered for western tastebuds.
Did I already mention it was my 1st flight on the 787-9?
Coming to the Economy Plus, it's not bad at all. They are fixed-shell seats (which I usually disgust), but those are really decent. Only downside is, you can expand the table only in the upright seating position.
Contrary to the 787-8, they even got Japanese-style loos in Economy. A pleasant experience.
But in terms of food, I'm quite disappointed from JAL. Nothing Indian, nothing Japanese. And the minced chicken meat tasted like nothing.
At least the beer choice was decent. Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin and Yebisu. What else?
Coming to Narita, I had approximately four hours to spare. Time to go into Narita town!
Time for a flashback into the 90s. Scoot does not offer any On-Line-Check-In out of NRT. So you have to wait in queues (Sorry, I don't have any British genes). But the plane was quite full and I scored an upgrade again. To "Scootinsilence" with more space and no children. Yay.
Now for my 2nd favourite pasttime, raiding lounges!
For the start I headed into the Cathay lounge, as on the previous reports it looked promising in terms of preparing your "picknick" on the next LCC flight.
At least they had iced tea in bottles and cereal bars.
I didn't went to AA and visited QF already last year when I was in NRT, so I went to JL for a quick shower and a 2nd/3rd/whatever breakfast.
I cannot recommend the cod roe at all!
Now it's time for some scootliciuous action! The cabin itself is one of the ugliest looking ones and even for the plug socket you'll have to pay something.
There are signs everywhere that you must not eat anything which you brought by yourself onto the plane, but being a first world anarchist, why should it bother me?
The most shocking thing though was the fact that the Scoot cabin was still more comfortable than the Qatar 787.
Four hours later I finally landed in Taipei. I always wanted to visit this city since I stranded there on the airport while flying an ex-RGN-ticket years ago and I must say, it's not as wonderful as Tokyo or Osaka, but worlds better than Seoul.
One could say, it's like China, but without ugly Chinese, but with a hint of Japanese youth culture. I like.
Time to eat some food again!
Everybody knows the Taipei 101. Protip: The supermarket in the basement has a bunch of stuff for free tasting. It's a bit like Costco!
The highlight of Taipei are the night markets, where you can get anything. I was there, of course, just for the snacks. Taiwanese sausage dipped in Garlic. Delicious.
The fried Tofu was decent was well.
You may ask, what about the local beer culture? The honey lager tasted better than I expected.
On the next morning I roamed around the city. Very relaxing without tourists and anybody who might sell you some stuff.
For breakfast? Schnitzel on French Toast.
On the way back to the airport I chose the cheapskate way: Local train to Taoyuan plus local bus. It's TWD27 (= USD0.83) cheaper than the direct fast bus!
The train looks like it came straightaway from the 80s.
The local bus even had free wifi and USB plugs. Something I miss in other countries.
At the airport I was handed an official invitation...
..and of course I visited the palace! But before, I went to the Hello Kitty gate.
The CX lounge at TPE is one of the best OW Sapphire lounges I've been to. The soups and the made-to-order Dim Sum are out of this world. The cocktails are also perfect.
If I would celebrate my stag night again, I would definetely head to Taipei instead of Brussels (where we nearly got kicked out of the lounge while doing this, but this is another story...).
On board the Cathay flight they served a hot wrap. Quite okay for such a short flight.
Now I had 9 hours to kill, so I took the bus up to the Peak.
After that I rode on the tram and took a view of the sky line out of Kowloon.
It was time to head back to the airport and to the lounges of course.
I already knew the Pier and the Wing from my OWE times, so this time I went to the Qantas lounge.
The wine choices were superb, but the food itself was underwhelming. Apparently this should have been lamb.
So I went to Cathay again for some Dim Sum again. And Cocktails obviously.
Speaking of cocktails, that's what I'd chosen on board as well of course.
This was my first time on Cathay C class and the food was quite disapppointing. Only two choices, served on one tray. The seat was okay though.
The meat balls were okay, but nothing special.
I skipped breakfast in hope to get some sandwiches at the CX lounge at FRA but unfortunately they are rolling out them at 8 o'clock now! So I had to go to the bakery
Coming to the end, I hope my trip report was SFW this time. I really did my best!
Last edited by fqtv_kraven; Apr 8, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Apr 11, 2016, 2:53 pm
#5
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Toronto, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan Airmiles AMEX-MR Alaska Airlines
Posts: 692
Fantastic TR.
Very interested in hearing this story:
If I would celebrate my stag night again, I would definetely head to Taipei instead of Brussels (where we nearly got kicked out of the lounge while doing this, but this is another story...).
Very interested in hearing this story:
If I would celebrate my stag night again, I would definetely head to Taipei instead of Brussels (where we nearly got kicked out of the lounge while doing this, but this is another story...).
Apr 11, 2016, 3:05 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: in your favourite lounge, clearing the whole buffet
Programs: LH Maximizer of the year, BA Blue Label killer
Posts: 1,001
After a bunch of beers it got louder and the LD came to calm us down, otherwise she would've kicked us out of the lounge. So we drank our beers and headed to the Non-Schengen lounge for an even bigger party.
Apr 13, 2016, 2:09 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: in your favourite lounge, clearing the whole buffet
Programs: LH Maximizer of the year, BA Blue Label killer
Posts: 1,001
Apr 13, 2016, 6:13 pm
#11
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, *A Silver
Posts: 4,896
I can't imagine what Air India cabins smell like with all that Indian food, which, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy as long as I can leave the room as soon as I'm done enjoying it. And afterwards I usually go to another room, regret ever eating Indian food, and then leave that room, which no one should enter for approximately an hour after.
Apr 14, 2016, 7:15 am
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: YYZ
Programs: A3&O6 Gold,IC AMB & HH Diamond
Posts: 14,132
I can't imagine what Air India cabins smell like with all that Indian food, which, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy as long as I can leave the room as soon as I'm done enjoying it. And afterwards I usually go to another room, regret ever eating Indian food, and then leave that room, which no one should enter for approximately an hour after.
Apr 14, 2016, 10:50 am
#13
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, *A Silver
Posts: 4,896
Apr 15, 2016, 9:08 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: YYZ
Programs: A3&O6 Gold,IC AMB & HH Diamond
Posts: 14,132
Apr 15, 2016, 9:58 am
#15
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: LAX / TPE / NYC
Programs: UA Gold/*G, Marriott/SPG Gold Elite
Posts: 164
Omg, the food. I'm scheduled to go back to Taiwan for a visit in July and I can't wait to stuff my tummy with yummy food! I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Taipei, my hometown! 
Love your username, TaiwanIndependence. 
^
^