Farewell flight BA TPE-HKG
Mar 3, 2002, 1:44 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,347
Farewell flight BA TPE-HKG
Dear all,
Here is another trip report, concerning the intra-Asian routes. It includes a flight from Bangkok to Taipei on KLM Asia (pretty disappointing) and a very nice farewell flight on BA from Taipei to Hong Kong. I was on the second last flight from Taipei, therefore, I decide to write a report.
March 1, 2002
KL 877 BKK-TPE Lv1325 Arr1750
Boeing 747-400Combi PH-BFV “City of Vancouver”
In order to connect to my BA flight, I will have to fly neither China Airlines, EVA, nor KLM. With my new Continental One Pass Platinum status and the new partnership between CO and KL, I decide to fly KLM Asia, despite of pretty bad experience about a year ago on the same route. I decide to give it a try and sad to say that the services continue to be lacking and the F/As disappeared during the last two hours of the flight. The meal continues to be a “snack” with a one-tray service. Here we go.
The trip began with the empty transit desk again. Although there is a phone number provided, there is no intercom phone around anymore. Smart movie, KLM. Therefore I had to wait at the gate until fifty minutes prior to departure. Then they questioned my passport and my trip repeatedly. They spoke in Thai mostly, which bothered me a bit. Then they saw my social security card and were pretty sure that I am a legal citizen. They then thanked me for flying KLM Asia. But no apology for any staff at the KLM transit desk and I have no lounge access because KL uses a third party lounge at BKK. I don’t think it is expensive to run a lounge at BKK and there are certainly rooms around. Since KL has two daily flights to TPE and AMS, it makes sense to have its own lounge, which it can share with NW as well.
I wanted to talk about this new pier, Pier Five. It is pretty nice with a taller ceiling and more open windows, but it is pretty warm inside. No more ugly dark windows and there are some nice orchid gardens around. They are now renovating Pier 4 and I guess the renovation will continue for a while. Boarding gate this afternoon was 53 and the flight arrived about an hour and fifteen minutes prior to the flight to Taipei. The aircraft is a normal KLM painted a/c – City of Vancouver. It looks pretty ancient on the outside, but thankfully, the interior is pretty clean. Boarding was delayed till 1:13pm with no explanation. The load was light in J… only 6 pax in the main deck. A male flight attendant welcomed me at the gate, whom I only saw twice during the rest of the flight – one preparing for landing and one at the door while deplaning) and passed around a tray of orange and red colored cocktail (not tomato juice because of the color). Then another female flight attendant passed out the menus and surprisingly a very nice amenity kit. It is a tin box filled with SOMO’s products. I like it and then I helped myself with the newspaper. The two F/As did not bother to pass out the papers, and then door was closed at 1:35pm. But we waited till 1:54pm for pushing back. No explanation was given. Fortunately, Bangkok runway was not as busy as the morning crowds. They took off from R/W21R at 2:09pm. Seat belt sign was turned off at 2:16pm and the cabin service began while we climbed to 29,000ft. The service began with a beverage service with a huge pack of cocktail snacks (basically almonds and peanuts). Then the personal TV system was facing some problems, so it took a while for the purser to reset it. Also, the purser came to pass out Taiwan’s immigration forms – I saw the purser twice (one during the forms session and one during deplaning).
Then the hot snack service began with a single tray service – everything including appetizer, entrée, bread plate, and fruit. The entrée had a hot plastic lid to keep it warm. That’s all. Here is the transcript –
Appetizer
Chicken papaya salad
Grilled chicken breast with green papaya, green chilli and cherry tomatoes
There are four pieces of grilled chicken with a side salad of shredded cucumber and shrimp. I don’t see much of papaya, and the bread selections include soft roll, wheat rolls, and hard rolls). The best part of the meal!
Hot snacks
Sweet and sour pork
Diced pork in sweet and sour sauce with stir-fried vegetables and steamed rice
Or
Cheese cappeletti
Pasta parcels with Parmesan cheese, tomato concassee and cream sauce topped with grated Gouda cheese
Also a fruit salad for dessert, which includes some fresh and sweet pineapple slices, melon, ½ strawberry, bitter grapefruit, and sweet mango slice… The meal was okay and since I don’t expect much, I am fine with it. After a final beverage service, I have never seen any F/A taking any drink orders. No one passed out juice or water… on my last KL flight, there was hourly juice and water runs. Then I proceeded to watch the comedy shows and slept a bit. Fortunately, the seats are very comfortable and had a good recline. I love it. Then when the pilot announced the descent, the F/As finally showed up and passed out the Dutch houses (and even gave each pax two of them), and then we landed on 6:04pm at R/W05. It was very cloudy at Taipei and quiet as well. The evening rush was not yet to begin and the late afternoon USA flights were pretty much all gone. Then I walked to terminal two. Basically no one was around to tell you how to transit to Terminal two. So I just walked and surprisingly no one stopped me and asked me where I was heading. After a 30 minutes walk, I found terminal C and quickly checked in by a BA staff at the EVA air counter. I was given a boarding pass and a lounge pass.
March 1, 2002
BA 26 TPE-HKG Lv2010 Arr2200
Boeing 747-400 G-BNLI “Highland of Scotland” BA Asia’s livery
I went to the Evergreen lounge and I was invited to the first class section. The lounge was pretty spacious but the interior is very Chinese. It is well kept but the décor is pretty ugly with yellow armchairs around. Not much newspapers and magazines… But the food selection was decent with various steamed buns, bread rolls, clam chowder, Chinese sweet soup, Japanese desserts, freshly baked cookies in a jar, tons of nuts, almonds, cheese and crackers, and some sliced fruits. Because of the light meal at KLM, I helped myself to some clam chowder and Chinese pineapple cake. The lounge snack selection is actually nicer than China Airlines, but there is no bar – limited alcohol selections!
Boarding announcement was made at 7:20pm, which was earlier than other airlines, because you passed the security checks at the individual gate. The load looked light this evening, maybe due to closure of the flight and people flying other airlines. Just like my first HKG-TPE flight in first, I was the only one – an interesting way to say farewell to this route. I was served an orange juice, offered newspapers, and the purser served me personally. He managed to find the HKG-TPE-HKG menus from first and business for me. (Yes, World traveler no longer gets a menu. The policy starts at January 2002.) Anyway, door was closed early at 8pm. But due to ATC restriction, we did not push back till eight minutes past eight. Once again, activities at Taipei were limited and we took off from R/W06 at 8:21pm.
The flight route was pretty normal with a SE track to Makung and turn right into HKG. We climbed to 26,000ft and the flight time was an hour and eighteen minutes. Personal TV was turned on and we were showed six short features, including my favorite show, “Absolutely Fabulous.” The purser took my choice of dinner and first served me some champagne with cashews. Here is the complete menu transcript:
Appetizers
Gravlax with dill mustard dressing – pretty nice
Grilled artichoke, Goat cheese, and tomatoes with olive tapenade
Mixed seasonal salad served with herb mayonnaise or classic Vinaigrette
Selection of warm breads (garlic toasts, hard rolls, whole wheat rolls and Gold Kern rolls) – the F/A gave me a whole basket of bread – I only had a garlic toast.
Main Courses
Grilled beef tenderloin with porcini mushroom sauce
Thai prawn curry – very spicy…
Ravioli with Ricotta and Spinach in basil cream sauce, shaved Parmesan cheese
Dessert
Chocolate Cheesecake with raspberry sauce
Selection of fresh fruit
The dinner technically took the whole flight to serve. There was no time for coffee, but the nice F/A gave me a few bottles of water during our descent and final approach. It was a nice evening in Hong Kong and got to see some nice views of the Islands. We then touched down on R/W7L at 9:39pm, and parked at gate 15 – the closest gate towards the immigration area. I was on the Airport Express train before 10pm. I will definitely miss this particular BA flight but I understand that the poor F/J loads really prevent this route from being profitable. BA may get a better result if they fly n/s to LHR or use a smaller a/c like Boeing 777. Anyway, I don’t foresee any early re-launching of BA into London LHR. The purser told me that the EVA staff came on board and took many pictures during their layovers in the afternoon. About KLM, what a mess! I hope they can serve a proper meal in the future and the F/As can be more active in serving the passengers. Disappearing during more than ½ of the flight time is simply unprofessional, especially they have a layover at BKK before working the flight to Taipei.
Hope you will enjoy the trip report!
Carfield
Here is another trip report, concerning the intra-Asian routes. It includes a flight from Bangkok to Taipei on KLM Asia (pretty disappointing) and a very nice farewell flight on BA from Taipei to Hong Kong. I was on the second last flight from Taipei, therefore, I decide to write a report.
March 1, 2002
KL 877 BKK-TPE Lv1325 Arr1750
Boeing 747-400Combi PH-BFV “City of Vancouver”
In order to connect to my BA flight, I will have to fly neither China Airlines, EVA, nor KLM. With my new Continental One Pass Platinum status and the new partnership between CO and KL, I decide to fly KLM Asia, despite of pretty bad experience about a year ago on the same route. I decide to give it a try and sad to say that the services continue to be lacking and the F/As disappeared during the last two hours of the flight. The meal continues to be a “snack” with a one-tray service. Here we go.
The trip began with the empty transit desk again. Although there is a phone number provided, there is no intercom phone around anymore. Smart movie, KLM. Therefore I had to wait at the gate until fifty minutes prior to departure. Then they questioned my passport and my trip repeatedly. They spoke in Thai mostly, which bothered me a bit. Then they saw my social security card and were pretty sure that I am a legal citizen. They then thanked me for flying KLM Asia. But no apology for any staff at the KLM transit desk and I have no lounge access because KL uses a third party lounge at BKK. I don’t think it is expensive to run a lounge at BKK and there are certainly rooms around. Since KL has two daily flights to TPE and AMS, it makes sense to have its own lounge, which it can share with NW as well.
I wanted to talk about this new pier, Pier Five. It is pretty nice with a taller ceiling and more open windows, but it is pretty warm inside. No more ugly dark windows and there are some nice orchid gardens around. They are now renovating Pier 4 and I guess the renovation will continue for a while. Boarding gate this afternoon was 53 and the flight arrived about an hour and fifteen minutes prior to the flight to Taipei. The aircraft is a normal KLM painted a/c – City of Vancouver. It looks pretty ancient on the outside, but thankfully, the interior is pretty clean. Boarding was delayed till 1:13pm with no explanation. The load was light in J… only 6 pax in the main deck. A male flight attendant welcomed me at the gate, whom I only saw twice during the rest of the flight – one preparing for landing and one at the door while deplaning) and passed around a tray of orange and red colored cocktail (not tomato juice because of the color). Then another female flight attendant passed out the menus and surprisingly a very nice amenity kit. It is a tin box filled with SOMO’s products. I like it and then I helped myself with the newspaper. The two F/As did not bother to pass out the papers, and then door was closed at 1:35pm. But we waited till 1:54pm for pushing back. No explanation was given. Fortunately, Bangkok runway was not as busy as the morning crowds. They took off from R/W21R at 2:09pm. Seat belt sign was turned off at 2:16pm and the cabin service began while we climbed to 29,000ft. The service began with a beverage service with a huge pack of cocktail snacks (basically almonds and peanuts). Then the personal TV system was facing some problems, so it took a while for the purser to reset it. Also, the purser came to pass out Taiwan’s immigration forms – I saw the purser twice (one during the forms session and one during deplaning).
Then the hot snack service began with a single tray service – everything including appetizer, entrée, bread plate, and fruit. The entrée had a hot plastic lid to keep it warm. That’s all. Here is the transcript –
Appetizer
Chicken papaya salad
Grilled chicken breast with green papaya, green chilli and cherry tomatoes
There are four pieces of grilled chicken with a side salad of shredded cucumber and shrimp. I don’t see much of papaya, and the bread selections include soft roll, wheat rolls, and hard rolls). The best part of the meal!
Hot snacks
Sweet and sour pork
Diced pork in sweet and sour sauce with stir-fried vegetables and steamed rice
Or
Cheese cappeletti
Pasta parcels with Parmesan cheese, tomato concassee and cream sauce topped with grated Gouda cheese
Also a fruit salad for dessert, which includes some fresh and sweet pineapple slices, melon, ½ strawberry, bitter grapefruit, and sweet mango slice… The meal was okay and since I don’t expect much, I am fine with it. After a final beverage service, I have never seen any F/A taking any drink orders. No one passed out juice or water… on my last KL flight, there was hourly juice and water runs. Then I proceeded to watch the comedy shows and slept a bit. Fortunately, the seats are very comfortable and had a good recline. I love it. Then when the pilot announced the descent, the F/As finally showed up and passed out the Dutch houses (and even gave each pax two of them), and then we landed on 6:04pm at R/W05. It was very cloudy at Taipei and quiet as well. The evening rush was not yet to begin and the late afternoon USA flights were pretty much all gone. Then I walked to terminal two. Basically no one was around to tell you how to transit to Terminal two. So I just walked and surprisingly no one stopped me and asked me where I was heading. After a 30 minutes walk, I found terminal C and quickly checked in by a BA staff at the EVA air counter. I was given a boarding pass and a lounge pass.
March 1, 2002
BA 26 TPE-HKG Lv2010 Arr2200
Boeing 747-400 G-BNLI “Highland of Scotland” BA Asia’s livery
I went to the Evergreen lounge and I was invited to the first class section. The lounge was pretty spacious but the interior is very Chinese. It is well kept but the décor is pretty ugly with yellow armchairs around. Not much newspapers and magazines… But the food selection was decent with various steamed buns, bread rolls, clam chowder, Chinese sweet soup, Japanese desserts, freshly baked cookies in a jar, tons of nuts, almonds, cheese and crackers, and some sliced fruits. Because of the light meal at KLM, I helped myself to some clam chowder and Chinese pineapple cake. The lounge snack selection is actually nicer than China Airlines, but there is no bar – limited alcohol selections!
Boarding announcement was made at 7:20pm, which was earlier than other airlines, because you passed the security checks at the individual gate. The load looked light this evening, maybe due to closure of the flight and people flying other airlines. Just like my first HKG-TPE flight in first, I was the only one – an interesting way to say farewell to this route. I was served an orange juice, offered newspapers, and the purser served me personally. He managed to find the HKG-TPE-HKG menus from first and business for me. (Yes, World traveler no longer gets a menu. The policy starts at January 2002.) Anyway, door was closed early at 8pm. But due to ATC restriction, we did not push back till eight minutes past eight. Once again, activities at Taipei were limited and we took off from R/W06 at 8:21pm.
The flight route was pretty normal with a SE track to Makung and turn right into HKG. We climbed to 26,000ft and the flight time was an hour and eighteen minutes. Personal TV was turned on and we were showed six short features, including my favorite show, “Absolutely Fabulous.” The purser took my choice of dinner and first served me some champagne with cashews. Here is the complete menu transcript:
Appetizers
Gravlax with dill mustard dressing – pretty nice
Grilled artichoke, Goat cheese, and tomatoes with olive tapenade
Mixed seasonal salad served with herb mayonnaise or classic Vinaigrette
Selection of warm breads (garlic toasts, hard rolls, whole wheat rolls and Gold Kern rolls) – the F/A gave me a whole basket of bread – I only had a garlic toast.
Main Courses
Grilled beef tenderloin with porcini mushroom sauce
Thai prawn curry – very spicy…
Ravioli with Ricotta and Spinach in basil cream sauce, shaved Parmesan cheese
Dessert
Chocolate Cheesecake with raspberry sauce
Selection of fresh fruit
The dinner technically took the whole flight to serve. There was no time for coffee, but the nice F/A gave me a few bottles of water during our descent and final approach. It was a nice evening in Hong Kong and got to see some nice views of the Islands. We then touched down on R/W7L at 9:39pm, and parked at gate 15 – the closest gate towards the immigration area. I was on the Airport Express train before 10pm. I will definitely miss this particular BA flight but I understand that the poor F/J loads really prevent this route from being profitable. BA may get a better result if they fly n/s to LHR or use a smaller a/c like Boeing 777. Anyway, I don’t foresee any early re-launching of BA into London LHR. The purser told me that the EVA staff came on board and took many pictures during their layovers in the afternoon. About KLM, what a mess! I hope they can serve a proper meal in the future and the F/As can be more active in serving the passengers. Disappearing during more than ½ of the flight time is simply unprofessional, especially they have a layover at BKK before working the flight to Taipei.
Hope you will enjoy the trip report!
Carfield
Mar 3, 2002, 6:30 pm
#4
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Join Date: Apr 2001
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Thanks for a fine trip report and of course those menu transcripts!
I was gonna whip up some simple pasta mess for dinner tonight but after reading that BA menu, I'm on my way out the door to the supermarket for an artichoke to start things off!
I was gonna whip up some simple pasta mess for dinner tonight but after reading that BA menu, I'm on my way out the door to the supermarket for an artichoke to start things off!