I don’t do pure mileage runs, and actually haven’t taken too many trips overseas recently, but when an opportunity presented itself for me to transfer overseas, I jumped on it. I’m always up for new adventures. ;-) I’ll be based in PEK for the next few months (anyone there or passing thru, feel free to ping me) and then will relocate to SYD. On the way, I traveled through Europe for some work responsibilities. No vacation time between jobs for me. ;-)

I’m not a true FlyerTalker, so all the segments are in Y. My UA SWU’s just didn’t come in handy, because a Star Alliance routing was too expensive at the last minute. And, no, my company does not provide for paid C-class travel.

I left Seattle on Wednesday June 22, after navigating crazy Mariners-day traffic to meet some friends downtown for a quick sushi dinner, and rushed to the airport to catch the AA redeye to JFK. Of course, the redeye was delayed for an hour due to a late inbound. I should have known better – AA’s redeyes out of Seattle have terrible reliability due to quick turns of the 757 for the JFK trip, and quick turns of the crew for the DFW and ORD trips. This worked out well for me, because it cut down my post redeye layover (where I’m in a zombie state).

We left to JFK about 1:15 late, around 11:30pm, and the 757 was packed to the gills and even taking volunteers. (I’m not a true FlyerTalker, since I didn’t volunteer my seat.) Fortunately, I’d snagged an exit aisle. I saw an ExecPlat throw a temper tantrum when the F/A refused to allow him to stow his carry on in the closet – overall people were quite pissed about the flight being late. Service was a bag of Tostitos and beverages, and after a fitful sleep, we landed in JFK around 7:30am and had a long taxi to the gate, arriving around 7:45am. I simply walked down the concourse onto my connecting 777 to LHR, which was scheduled for an 8:30am departure.

I’m a big fan of evening arrivals in Europe – walking around all day like a zombie when landing at 6am is no fun, and sleeping on arrival day is sure to worsen jetlag. Further, when you’ve flown a redeye from the west coast the previous night, you’ve lost sleep and therefore can easily go to bed at a reasonable hour after arriving in Europe.

The 777 was completely full, and had a bit of pre-departure commotion. A bunch of pax were swapping seats and weren’t sitting down. The purser had a simple solution, by coming back and telling the pax: “take your assigned seat, or I will have you removed.” Just goes to show that NYC style friendliness gets results.

After takeoff, it’s time for breakfast, which is a choice of am omlette or cheese blintzes with scrambled eggs. There is also a nice side dish of fruit, a warm croissant, and a snack pack to save for later. Overall a very nice meal, much better than the breakfast box UA serves on its early IAD-LHR flight. I was seated in 30G, a bulkhead aisle with lots of leg space and business-class-like TVs.

The pre-arrival snack was the atrocious domestic snack box – I just ate the crackers – the contents just weren’t edible for me. But I have to say I prefer AA’s meal sequencing (hot breakfast, snack box) to UA’s sequencing (breakfast box, hot dinner) – because last time I flew UA 925, I was starving all flight long.

After walking what seemed like miles, I boarded the Heathrow Express and was in London quickly. I stayed at the Thistle Lancaster Gate, right near Hyde Park. It’s a good location – close to the park for running, but a bit removed from shops and dining. The rooms are typical lousy London rooms. I mainly stayed there for the high speed internet (which I later found out was an outrageous 23 pounds per day), but since their high speed connections were incompatible with my Dell laptop (which works everywhere else I’ve ever needed high speed), I finally gave up after we tried 3 rooms.

After some time in London, it was off to Milan. I flew out of London City Airport (which for some reason I thought was close to Central London) to get a better airfare. My last minute ticket on Swiss ($289) was about half the price of Easyjet (and Ryanair’s airport in Milan looked too inconvenient). I left a bunch of luggage at the hotel (more about this later) and traveled with just a laptop bag and rollaboard to MXP. Anyway, getting to London City was quite an ordeal and took 1:15 – took a tube to Liverpool Street and then a 25 minute bus ride through the Docklands and Canary Wharf to LCY.

The airport was small and easy to navigate, and certainly bustling. Like LGW, they have a large central lounge, and the gate is just a holding room for boarding. Our inbound plane arrived late, and loading the plane with its full load took forever (including standing in the holding room with all the other pax), so we left about 30 minutes late. This leg was operated by a BAe146, and service included a choice of chicken or cheese sandwich.

ZRH was quite deserted (I guess Swiss has seen better days), but I looked at the duty free to pass the time, before reclearing security. Security in Europe is so easy – no shoes or laptop to remove! The flight to Milan was empty – probably only about 30 of us on the A319 – and because this was a quick 30 minute flight, the service of water and chocolate was offered pre-departure in Y. I took the train from MXP to the city, which was a long 40 minute trip, and then tried to get some Euros from the ATM for my taxi ride to the hotel.

Unfortunately, the ATM would not give me any money, so I resorted to having the hotel change some of my USDs when I arrived. I stayed at the Hotel Brunelleschi, a 4 star near the duomo, which I found a good rate at. Unfortunately, the high speed internet did not exist in my room, despite it being prominently featured on the website I booked the room on. The hotel said “tough”, and then I asked them to find me another hotel to stay in. They then admitted their executive rooms have high speed, and I offered to pay for an upgrade (to dispute later), but they then said the executive room high speed didn’t work. Finally they called a manager and I was upgraded for free (the upgraded rooms are really nicely done, although my shower flooded the bathroom floor) and finally had high speed!

I spent Sunday exploring and window shopping in Milan – since I’ve been to Florence, Rome, and Venice, I was not especially impressed, but I’m not complaining either. I called my bank who told me they had shut off my ATM card, because they had sent me a new one that I needed to activate (never mind my current one is good for one more year).

Monday was interesting – the hotel had no iron to loan me, but was glad to quickly press my shirt (and charge me 4 euros for it). And getting a taxi was not as simple as I thought, so my day ran behind. But fortunately I got to the airport on time for my 6:20pm flight back to ZRH and LHR. MXP-ZRH was another empty A319, but this time chocolate and water were served in flight, instead of on the ground.

ZRH-LHR was an A321 with a moderate load, and the same sandwich/drink service as LCY-ZRH. I witnessed another air rage incident where a pax reclined her seat, and the lady behind her said that she could not cross her legs, and that reclining the seat in front of her was unacceptable. I resolved this by offering to swap (she never did swap), and I returned to the Thistle Lancaster Gate for another few days in London.

Next stop: Paris – and this time with all my luggage (a laptop bag, a rollaboard, a garment bag, and a suitcase). The Heathrow Express had a delay so I arrived at the airport only 1:10 prior to my flight, and due to the maze to reach the ticket counter, only arrived an hour before. The counter was a mess – all LHR-CDG trips were sold out, and lots of people were trying to stand by on earlier flights.

When I reached the Air France counter, 30 minutes prior to departure, I got bad news – I was 20 kg over my 20 kg limit, just with the garmet bag and the suitcase, and the cost would be 83 GBP. Realizing I was about to miss my flight, I just agreed to pay, but I needed to pay at the ticketing desk, so off I went. Meanwhile, some other traveler had an urgent need at the ticketing desk and tried to cut in front of me, because his flight was at 5:20pm. I told him that my flight was at 5pm, but I made it through in time and was one of the last to board.

The flight was jam packed and the overhead bins were almost full, but luckily I stowed my rollaboard without encountering any more wrath from Air France. Service was a simple pretzel/cracker packet and beverages, including an open bar. Upon arrival, I took the Air France shuttle bus to the Le Meridien Etoile, which took about an hour due to traffic. I paid a good rate, so I was pleased with the hotel, but be warned that broadband and the restaurant are pricey. Irons were simply in high demand and unavailable at this hotel. I guess I’m spoiled with the availability of irons in the USA.

My leisure time in Paris was limited to one evening (my first visit to the city actually), but enjoyed my short free time there, despite getting caught in a downpour. That said, I had trouble with getting around – my first morning I could not get a taxi from the hotel, and the hotel staff were not helpful getting additional taxis dispatched. Unfortunately Paris cabbies like to pick their fares and aren’t interested in taking short trips, so I got really lost trying to navigate the zig zags of the city.

On Friday evening (yep, 8 days after I left Seattle!), it was time to head off to China. I’d repacked my bags – moving lots of paperwork into my rollaboard, throwing out some magazines, etc. – but I was still above my 20 kg limit. (These are the only possessions I’ll have til November.) Anyway, the Air France bus to CDG was not running due to a labor action, so I forfeited my return portion of that ticket and shared a cab with 2 other stranded travelers – it only ended up being 15 EUR each, despite heavy traffic, so it worked out fine.

Unfortunately, as I expected, the penalties for traveling heavy from CDG-PEK are much greater than the penalties traveling LHR-CDG. Where LHR-CDG was GBP 4.10 per excess kilo, CDG-PEK was EUR 36 per excess kilo. There was no way I was going to spend EUR 720. So I got creative and decided I was going to take my garmet bag on board the plane (along with my rollaboard and laptop bag), which got my excess baggage charge down to EUR 108. I didn’t try to push my luck by moving more stuff out of my suitcase. As I learned – baggage allowances on international flights to/from the US are very generous – and you have to travel light from Europe to Asia (had I known, I would have pre-shipped some stuff to China, but it seemed easier just to carry it).

Fortunately, security did not question my heavy carry-on load, nor did the boarding agent or the F/As. I got super lucky. Anyway, the flight CDG-PEK was on a 777-300 (first time on a -300), and due to the start of the summer holiday in France, the flight was 100% full, but in spite of my last minute ticket purchase, I managed to snag an aisle seat. For unknown reasons, we boarded late, and pushed back late, and took off an hour after scheduled push back. Shortly after takeoff, the cabin was sprayed with insecticide.

The seat was fairly comfortable, with a headrest and legrest, as well as seatback video. My audio volume was poor, and I didn’t like that I couldn’t listen to music and view the airshow simulataneously, but otherwise I was a happy camper with the seat. An amenity pack of eye shades, ear plugs, and headphones was distributed, along with a menu.

Two cute French blonde girls were serving the forward Y cabin, with another F/A shuffling between the aisles to help, they even looked like twins. After departure, there was a drink service with a pretzel/cracker packet, followed by dinner and another beverage. I don’t have the menu to transcribe (sorry), but the choices were between a beef stew with vegetables, or a Chinese pork dish. The stew was way overcooked, but I managed to eat it because I was hungry. Accompaniments included an orzo salad, fresh bread roll, camembert cheese, a pear tart, and fruit yogurt.

During the flight, stations were set up mid-cabin and in the rear, with self service bottled water, juice, and even the champagne bottles left over from the main meal service. Fairly interesting that in United Business, there is no self service bottled water (I feel really guilty to ask the F/As mid-flight to keep refilling my glass), but in AF Y, it’s all you can drink.

On board the flight was a Mandarin interpreter in a grey uniform, unlike the traditional AF blue. It seems like instead of giving language speakers priority for international trips, AF provides an interpreter for flights to China. The interpreter is responsible only for translating and didn’t serve any food or drink. She also seemed responsible for Customs forms, because she was the person handing them out. I was sleeping when she got to my seat, so when I awoke I started working on the Customs form and the Immigration form, but noticed my seatmates had a quarantine declaration form. So I asked the translator for the quarantine form, and she acts confused and befuddled. I then say that everyone else on the plane has 3 forms, and I only have two, and she still seems confused. She then proceeds to tell me she will check and get back with me. An hour later, I check with her, and she tells me that she’s just a translator and I should talk with a F/A. I check with two F/As, each who insist there is no such thing as a quarantine form and that the immigration and customs forms are sufficient. I finally find a quarantine form on the floor and proceed to fill it out.

Breakfast is served about two hours prior to arrival, which was plain yogurt, bread roll, deli meats/cheeses, a pre-packaged cup of diced peaches, and a marzipan tart. Fresh fruit or eggs would have been nice, but beggars can’t be choosers. We land in PEK about an hour late, but customs and immigration are quick, and before I know it, I’m off on my way into the city.

Perhaps before I leave Beijing, I’ll put together a report on things to do in the city. I’ve been here less than a day and have already explored the Dongguan Night Market and Oriental Plaza – hope I’ll have enough free time to get out and explore some more ;-).

So this is not your standard report on International Business Class, with perfectly transcribed menus and photos (I like to do those too), just a stream of consciousness on some international Y experiences.

Thanks for this report. As for LCY airport, it is much quicker to get there if you take the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf and then connect to the shuttle bus. The bus ride only takes about 7min (in light traffic).