Hi All,

Here is my second trip report on one of my shopping trips… As a business owner I don’t have the time to take weeks (or even days) off so I love to pop up and down to my favourite cities every now and then. This time I was off to Hong Kong for the third time this month

We were originally booked on a flight out of AMS, through LHR and back on a direct flight to AMS. This because CX is operating the AMS route with an old airbus without the lovely Betsy first class seats. CX would operate an extra flight into AMS on Sunday WITH the new seats. Unfortunately we got a call from our agent 2 days before departure with info from a fax received from CX that they would after all still use the old seats on the extra flight so we rebooked over LHR after all…

We arrived at AMS well on time and to my surprise we got checked in all the way to
HKG, this was new as they never were able to do that, to the surprise of the check in agent she could even check in the flight back to LHR! We went on to do some shopping and grab some email (free wireless access!) and departed on the BA439, we got seats 7A/C pre-assigned. Lunch on board consisted of a seafood platter with warm bread and an apple cheesecake. As I have flown this flight several hundred times you can imagine it is pretty boring… The first officer said we would arrive on time but I already noticed we were going into holding over London, after all we arrived about 10 minutes late.

Transfer from T4 to T3 was terrible, there was a diesel spill and all the access roads were closed… Just when we were going to leave the bus stop and grab the train the bus arrived (20 minutes wait).

At T3 we were dropped of at the wrong door and proceed into the terminal without any security check! T3 was very busy and the shops are not very nice so we proceeded into the AA flagship lounge that offers CX’s first pax a place to wait. We were hoping to find out our gate in the lounge but it was still unknown (45 mins before departure). As CX has been having some trouble at LHR lately we suspected another delay. After 30 minutes a CX rep came over and explained that they were having a computer failure and that they would have to do a manual check in. She asked us to wait and that she would pick us up asap.

45 minutes later she came back and had a cart waiting outside for us, as the walk to the gate (gate 22) is very long the ride was great, needless to say we had a lot of looks from other pax!

When we were on board there were already 3 other pax in first. We were sitting in 3 d/g. We were offered a drink and took the orange juice, we skipped the pre-flight snack (a salmon dish).

We left LHR almost 30 minutes late but the captain promised he would make up the lost time. The next 10 hours passed by quickly as I fell asleep!
When I woke I was offered breakfast and had cornflakes, fresh toast, a platter of cheese rosti, sausages, bacon and fresh orange juice. As always the food was great!

Disembarking and customs were very quick today and we were in the arrivals hall within 20 minutes. We dumped our bags in the luggage store and hopped on the airport express.

The next 6 hours were spent shopping on Hong Kong where we visited downtown Kowloon for an “upgrade” of my gold bracelet. We then took a minibus to Mong Kok to enter the Mecca of cell phones… After picking up the newest models we took the MTR to Sham Shui Po for even more electronics

We then took the MTR to Tsing Yi and had a snack in the shopping mall (thank goodness for airco!).

After a quick ride we were back at the airport for the difficult job of repacking and getting all out stuff in the bags again…. We went upstairs to the first class check in to see if we could get our boarding cards for the LHR-AMS flight. They seemed to have some trouble printing them and asked us to go to the wing where they would deliver them.

The Wing was very quiet (it’s usually very busy) and we confiscated a lovely corner and crashed in the lovely leather sofa’s. After picking up even more email (again, free wireless), a lovely shower and a great dinner we went shopping. I got my luggage in trouble by buying even more stuff .

Boarding was great, there was a huge queue for eco and NO queue for bus/first, everyone in the eco queue was staring at us, needless to say although I felt sorry for them I kind of felt nice….

When on board we had a lovely chat with the first crew (Lala, Debbie and Miho). The offered the regular drinks and snack. We were the only paying pax in first as there were also 2 CX pilots on their way to LHR. The pilots were complaining about CX behind us and after about 5 minutes I politely asked them to take their complaints elsewhere as I had paid quite a lot for the ticket without having to hear garbage about CX. The menu in first doesn’t change much and there wasn’t really anything on it I liked so we asked to see the menu from business. It was MUCH nicer! I chose the Cantonese Beef with freshly steamed rice from the first galley. During the meal there was some dreadful turbulence, the FA’s asked if I wanted them to take my meal away but as I am pretty weird I love turbulence so kept eating… The meal was finished with some lovely ice cream.

After being on the road for a day it was yet again time for sleep, I got my duvet and some extra pillows and Miho tucked me in for my nights sleep, needless to say I was out in a couple of minutes. If only I could get this kind of sleep at home, go to bed, sleep for 10 hours and wake up just 5 hours later, long live time differences!

I kept breakfast simple this time and just had some breads and tea.

We got off the plane first and made our way to the transfer center for T4. T3 is without a doubt one of the worst terminals in Europe because once again we were left waiting over half an hour for the bus, the driver just stood there chatting to a lady behind her security desk…

The last leg home was almost perfect, we left on time but were sent back to the stand because there was bag on board that didn’t belong there, this caused over an hours delay.

On Sunday mornings the Dutch customs department is still sleeping so I got all my goodies into the country without hassle!

Once again it was a great trip, the service was lovely, can’t wait for the next trip (Sydney for a day!).

I know exactly what you mean ScottC, I'm in the same situation: I like the roller coaster, even if it means spilling my coke.

Great report, can't wait for the Sydney one (assuming that there will be one)!

Pre-flight snack? Salmon? Wow, is that normal or was there a delay?


I love that line and the image it invokes: agents frowning down at your luggage and scolding it for being so full.

Thanks for the great trip report.

CX always offers a small pre-flight snack in first, when I said dish I should have said snack on a dish, it's pretty small but still a nice way to start the flight!

Re. my bag's, I really mistreat them, I never carry my Tumi down steps, I just roll it down them, when I am fully packed I have three bags, my Tumi shoulder bag, my Tumi trolly and a Mulberry clipper flight bag that folds up. I hook the flight bag on the trolly and clip the shoulder bag on the handle, the total weight is around 45 kilo's, it all looks pretty small so getting on board is usually easy!

"Sydney in a day", that's MAD, I love it, please post a trip report.