Kiwi Flyer

With apparently such heavy traffic, I had expected major queues but was surprised the queues filled only half the immigration hall. They were processing very efficiently as I was through in under 5 minutes and at my pre-arranged ride to Trident Hilton Gurgaon where I'd be staying care of several free night certificates earned during promos this and last year.

The ride from airport to hotel was short but slow and chaotic. It seemed most of the many trucks on the road either didnt have mirrors, or rather the drivers don't use them, as every single vehicle would toot on the horn when coming alongside each truck. Given how many trucks there were, it as a cacophony of sound, even with the car windows up.

I must have been more tired than I thought as check in was a blur and pretty much collapsed to sleep. When I wake up much refreshed the next morning I check out the room. It is the same as the Diamond Desk had ordered for me - a modest waterview room (ie low-midrange). The hotel is laid out in a big square donut shape with 2 large infinity pools in the middle and a sunken swimming pool in between (and a separate bit housing reception and the restaurants, business centre, etc. The room is nice enough with large firm bed, more pillows than you could throw a stick at and an invitation to request more or different kinds if desired, a couch, desk, large tv, and the most important of all - airconditioning.

There is complimentary bottled water and some apples, which get replaced daily. The hotel is certainly a stark contrast to the heat, noise, dust and smells that are Delhi.

While here we visit both old and new Delhi seeing the usual sights. Make a day trip to Agra & Taj Mahal, but decide on a tour rather than relying on the express train (a long day but much better than the slow train/bus). We had a couple of days of severe dust storm with temperatures above 100F (39C), which made things unpleasant. After an hour walking in that around Gurgaon it was time to head back to the hotel through the murk (visibility down to 200m) before I choke on the dust. Back at the hotel the generator had frequent (several times and hour) brief interruptions - so if you are working on laptop you may want a surge protector. One hot day the air conditioning also failed

Kiwi Flyer

GROUNDHOG NIGHT - NORTHEAST

Its yet another night time flight. Some trips seem to have lots of day flights, or a good mixture, while others like this one have lots of overnight flights. Anyway, its time to check out and head back to Indira Gandhi International airport at Delhi for the flight out. Check out takes 5 minutes or so, and the ride to the airport is much quicker than the ride out - traffic being much lighter and I think the one-way part of the route is slightly shorter this way. So I arrive earlier than I expected but check-in is well underway with large queues everywhere.

Thanks to my status I can use the deserted first class check in and so get processed quickly. They are unable to enter my FFP number correctly - grrrr. After several minutes half-hearted trying by the check-in agent, and a queue forming behind me I give up which is probably just what the agent wanted When the SQ double dip (earn PPS status with them while miles with other program) works well it is great, but times like this happen all too often and are a constant source of frustration. One more thing to add to my growing list of FFP-related matters to chase up when I finish the trip.

Immigration and customs had no queue so I was airside in seconds, and now wondering what I was going to do to fill in the couple hours until departure (yup I'd arrived really early thanks to all the dire warnings about how chaotic the airport is and how much time you need). Ahhh that's right I have a lounge invitation card. It lists 3 lounges, which I wasn't prepared for. Hmmm one is landside so I guess that is out now. Another is upstairs (no lift that I can see). Let's check out the third the Oberoi Clipper lounge. Through the windows it looks much better than the terminal at large and only half full - so that will do. I have no idea if its the best, worst or middle choice of the three, but it was more than I'd expected and perfectly adequate. Had a small range of hot (spicy vegetarian thing I can't remember the name of and lamb meatballs) and cold food (sandwiches, ice cream, fruit), bar, tea, coffee, juice, water, etc. A couple of newspapers and magazines and a tv.

We are called from the lounge very early and once I turn the corner toward the gate I see why. There is a long queue for security, which quickly gets much longer disappearing around the corner behind me. I remember reading about the need to get the carry-on tag stamped and remind the officer who stamped one and forgot my second. Just as well as when we later board I see pax turned away for not having the stamp. Everyone gets a rather vigorous pat down reminiscent of those at Frankfurt. Strangely enough the woman agent seemed to get mainly male passengers, and the man agent a disproportionate number of female passengers!

The gate lounge is crowded, standing room only, with several flights leaving from the 2 gates 10 & 11 in the next couple of hours. I notice on the monitors that even flights in several hours time have "security" next to them. I'm not sure if it's the same overcrowded gate lounge for gates 1-9 but I'd be hesitant to get to the gate too early - noisy, no amenities, and unless you want to sit on the floor only standing around waiting.

One shmuck waving his red (first class) boarding pass around decided the roped off area by the door out of the gate lounge wasnt meant for him and stood right by the door so he could be first out. He had to sheepishly retreat some 10 minutes later when he was told off. Boarding was slightly late but amazingly efficient given the chaos of the airport. The layout is a bit odd, between the gate lounge and the airbridge you cross the corridor that arriving passengers use from the other gate (11). I guess they have to time boarding to fit in with arriving flights at gate 11. We had a minor further delay for a couple of passengers who got stuck in the security queue.

While seated on board I see that a couple of passengers got lucky with a very rare op-up, one from economy to business, and one from business to first. It seems they weren't given their new boarding passes at the gate for some reason.

Tonight's 777-300 flight back to Singapore has only Wisemen 2000, but given the lateness of the departing hour and such a short flight, most pax including me will be sleeping most of the way. We arrive back to an unusual sight I haven't seen before in Singapore - low level mist! It isnt thick enough to delay landing, but we have almost the longest taxi possible - the full length of terminals 1 and 3, around the southern cross and back up to terminal 2. I have had longer taxis however, as our gate is F59 which is the second gate approached in this direction. But this means a long walk to the lounge to pick up my next boarding passes before heading straight back to the gate for my next flight - yup back at F50-60 pier.

Kiwi Flyer

Menu DEL-SIN

SUPPER

A Savoury Note

Amritsari maachi - fish Amritsari style with tamarind and plum chutney

The Main Event

Lai maans - lamb cooked in aromatic spices and red chilli paste, spinach and mushroom, saffron pilaf

Pan fried fish with mushroom and red pepper sauce, seasonal vegetables and potato

Panfried prawns in garlic herb tomato sauce with vegetables and potatoes

Paneer hara dhania - cottage cheese with onion and yoghurt, okra with raw banana, cauliflower and pinenut pillaw

The Cheese Board

Gourmet cheese with garnishes.

A Sweet Note

Jasmine tea creme brulee with lychee

A Connoisseur's Choice

Gourmet coffee

Selection of tea


BEVERAGES

Special Cocktail

Citrus Royale

Cocktails

Singapore Sling
Silver Kris Sling
Gin Fizz
Cloud Nine
Screwdriver
Bloody Mary
Daiquiri
Red or White Wine Cooler

Aperitifs

Campari
Dry Vermouth

Non-alcoholic Cocktails

Tropical Sparkle
Orange Cooler
Golden Spice
Fruit Spritzer
Sunrise Surprise

Spirits

Cognac XO Otard
Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky
Johnnie Walker Black Label
Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey
Gordon's Dry Gin
Smirnoff Red Label Vodka
Bacardi Carta Blanca

Liqueurs

Cointreau
Tia Maria
Baileys Original Irish Cream

Beer

International selection

Stout

Guinness Stout

Champagne

Piper Heidsieck 1999

White Wines

Kloster Eberbach Riesling Kabinett 2003 Rheingau
Montagny 1er Cru 2002

Red Wines

Chateau Cissac 1998 Cru Bourgeois Haut Medoc
Serrata Belguardo 2003 igt Maremma Toscanna
Pommard 1999 Bouchard Pere Et Fils

Port

Taylor 2000 Late Bottled Vintage Port

Tea Selection

Pure Ceylon Tea
Earl Grey
Darjeeling
Camomile
Decaffeinated Tea
Japanese Green Tea

Chinese Tea Selection

Oolong

Gourmet Coffees

Brazil Santos Bourbon
Colombian Supremo
Kenyan AA Kilimanjaro

Specialty Coffees

Brewed Coffee
Cafe Royal
Espresso
Cappuccino
Decaffeinated Coffee
Mocha

Other Beverages

Chocolate
Milo

Mineral Water

Carbonated Mineral Water
Non-carbonated Mineral Water

Fruit Juices

Apple
Orange
Pineapple
Tomato

Soft Drinks

A range of regular or low-calorie drinks is available

Iced Drinks

Iced Tea
Iced Coffee
Iced Mocha
Iced Chocolate
Iced Milo

Seat 2A

I'm sitting here in the Alaska Airlines LAX Boardroom while out the window an Air New Zealand 747-400 has just taxied by. After reading your report, I'm almost ready to run over to Terminal 2 and buy a Business Class seat down to Auckland. Once again, a superb report covering a spectacular journey. My little First Class jaunts to Australia are boring by comparison! As always, I'll be looking forward to your future adventures.

As for Denali, had you visited (I'm assunimg you were in Alaska in the past month) you would have found only the Murie Science and Learning Center to be open. Insofar as finding a place to stay or something to eat, that would be 12 miles up the road in Healy. Most of the Denali Park community won't return to life until mid May.

Kiwi Flyer

Yes it was just a couple of weeks ago. So I know when to plan a return visit, when is the park open?

Seat 2A

The park road is now open to Mile 31, but shuttle bus service won't start until May 20th. Read all about it HERE.

Most hotels and restaurants open around May 20th as well. Everything is pretty much closed up for the winter by September 20th.

Here's some pictures to tide everyone over until then: CLICK

Kiwi Flyer

Thanks. I really do need to schedule a summer trip to US incl Alaska. Most of my trips to/through US seem to be autumn and spring.

Ventimiglia

@ infinityplusone: It’s hard to believe the trip described here is a way the majority of members of this BB goes when it comes to travel.

With another side trip to SIN-DEL-SIN the routing eats up almost 48K miles. This is about 9K miles (approximately the amount miles spending for AKL-TBU-AKL-PER-AKL) above the maximum mileage of 39K permitted for a CRWSTAR3. Such a ticket involves a cash-out of USD 6.000!

Going from AKL to ANC via SFO and SEA involves more than 8.5K miles and this is what happened in ANC:
From ANC to the next stopover at JNB (via SEA, IAD, JFK and FRA) involves more than 13K miles. This is what happened in JNB:
But as I said above: Not everyone likes beef, but I it’s a popular dish!

Kiwi Flyer

I'm sure I don't travel the way the majority of travellers do, even the majority of FTers. However, like most FTers, I do try to get the most out of my limited time and $, according to whatever constraints I have.

By the way I have still got a couple more days of travel (and several more flights) to write up, so its far from over yet.

Perhaps some more explanation is in order. I don't get anywhere near enough time to do all the leisure travel I'd like - in part because NZ is so far away from anywhere it takes a full one to two days to get to/from many places. So I pack a lot in when I can. It is not uncommon for me to spend from dawn to dusk and beyond pounding the pavements, seeing the sights. Or day trips that take 12-16 hours. It is also not uncommon for me to fit in a weekend what others would spend 1-2 weeks on, flying out Friday after work and returning just in time for work on Monday. I don't put every last detail of what I do on the ground in my reports, preferring to focus more on the flights.

In the meantime, if you want to see other crazy itineraries, here are some links to previous trip reports of mine.

AKL-YYZ with NZ/AC in F & C - okay not so crazy this one

Europe to Iceland & return on Icelandair (FI) - or this one

Some FTers DO the Inaugural Worlds Longest Flight SIN-EWR vv 28 June 2004 - definitely nuts

7 Crazy Days

Champagne and Figure Eights on Ice

a Lit.tle sPRinG.Ly JoUrney (BUDding KiwiS Can zig-ZAG around Europe)

Big DO DOs - or A Kiwi Flyer's Month of Madness

Another Manic Month for Kiwi

Mini Tour of NZ

Across the Globe in 5 Continents - this report included for completeness

Fliar

Exactly everyone's point here.

Kiwi Flyer

GROUNDHOG DAY - NORTHEAST

Another day another SIN-CGK-SIN turnaround. This time I'm on the 777-300. The flight is so short I don't bother with the IFE so can't say if it was avod or non-avod.

The flight over was uneventful, with just a few bumps, apart from take off (yup to the north again) and on final approach Jakarta had a change of runway so we veered right and headed across the Sundra Strait to the tip of Sumatra before coming back to land from the inland direction. This means a late arrival and a longer than usual taxi. Unlike the A345 turnaround which has long enough on the ground to make up any lost time, the 777 turnaround is just over the bare minimum and so we also depart slightly late. Still, being not the first or last flights of the day they are lightly loaded and boarding is quick. In fact by the time the boarding call was made in the lounge they had already started boarding and completed not long after we made it onboard.

No surprise to me, but once again SIN runway has changed and land from the north followed by long taxi the long way around to gate E28. Sheesh! Why has SQ annoyed SIN ATC so much?

Kiwi Flyer

NORTHEAST continued

I have a couple of hours before the next flight so I freshen up with a good shower, imbibe some dom and catch up on email and a bit more of this trip report. The time passes quickly.

I am flying up to Tokyo (NRT) and back on SQ via Bangkok (BKK) - on separate flights SIN-BKK and BKK-NRT vv of course to maximise mile and PPS earning and simultaneously minimise fare (win-win). The downside is no skysuites except on the sole daily 747 flight between SIN-BKK. However even the "old" F seats are mighty comfy and the SQ service on the 777-200 is just as good as on the 747-400.

For the first time this trip we leave SIN from a close gate and take off in the direction we're headed. The flight to Bangkok is short and sweet at about 2 hours, but unlike Jakarta is just long enough to watch a movie and the meal is also a fuller meal service. The cabin is quite empty so we have plenty of room to stretch out.

We arrive on schedule to Bangkok where we see a plethora of european and asian airlines lined up at the gates - LH, BA, LX, AY, AF, SK, CX, TG (duh!), BR, NH, JL, plus a lot of local and LCCs etc etc. SQ seems to switch between piers 4 & 5, and this flight had pier 5 so a short taxi past the golf course and domestic terminal to our gate. It is a short walk to the transit escalator, up to departures level and back towards pier 5 to the nice TG F lounge.

IMHO this lounge is the best of the many on offer at BKK, and for business class the 2-story TG lounge by pier 3 is the best but perhaps also the QF Qantas Club. There are many other lounges at BKK, it still amazes me how many there are in *A alone - UA, LH, SQ, TG (many), SK.

I catch up on more email and FT and then notice it is already past boarding time. Usually the lounge attendants inform the F pax individually about boarding but not this time (or perhaps they were just a bit slow?). When I got the boarding passes, and indeed on arriving into BKK, no gate had yet been assigned for the onward flight. So I turned left out of the lounge towards the main part of the terminal to check the departure screens for piers 4 & 5. Okay it is pier 4. A short queue at security. Several of the pax in front of me appeared to be travelling on a LCC based on the various fast food being carried, including soft drink that was in danger of being spilled over themselves or worse yet the screeners as they struggled to hold the food & drink while positioning carry-ons on the machine, emptying pockets etc. Once through and at the gate, I notice boarding is well underway. A short pause while they confirm on the computer I am indeed a transit passenger, and I board to my seat. The flight is moderately full, mostly through passengers from Singapore as the flight indeed is SIN-BKK-NRT. This presumably explains the use of lesser aircraft than the non-stops which are 747-400.

Ventimiglia

@ KiwiFlyer,

thanks for providing some links!

I had a quick look at your CRWSTAR2 (+ turnaround trip ZRH-MAN-ZRH in Raffles on an extra paid ticket) you did a year ago: It looks you had pretty much the same intentions like now: You are maxing out to 24 segments, include destinations where you don’t leave the airport and are prepared to fly huge detours in order to gain perks in some of your preferred FFPs. Without going into details, skipping FRA-SIN-CGK-SIN and continuing FRA-PEK-SIN-AKL you would ended up on a CRWSTAR1 (5K miles less) and still have some extra miles left to burn.

It looks like you are prepared to pay a high price and spend some additional time on airports and planes in order to gain elite status in your preferred FFPs on a fast track. Hopefully you get back at least what you had in mind as you started.

All the best on the continuation of your journey!

Kiwi Flyer

We get given the amenities - slippers (only used by SQ on the Japan routes AFAIK) and socks, amenity kit (more on this in a minute), and pajamas. The amenity kit has changed since I last flew SQ F longhaul (or mediumhaul overnight). It is no longer a square bag but not rounded like a pencil case. The contents have also changed. The cologne is no longer Bulgari blue but a different scent, smaller and round shaped. Sorry I dont have it on me right now to give the name - I'll post it later. The cooling eye mask is also gone - I dont recall ever seeing someone use this so I'm not surprised. What I am surprised about, though, is the large comfy fabric eye mask is also gone, or perhaps they forgot to hand it out/ran out?

Being yet another shortish late overnight flight I wasnt too much interested in food or movies, but moreso on some sleep. However I did stay up more than I intended - oh well plenty more flights to catch up on sleep later.

We had an impressively strong tail wind, with a flight time just a shade under 5 hours! We approached a cloudy and wet Tokyo. On approach there was a thick blanket of cloud and there just ahead and below us was the tailfin of another aircraft slicing through the cloudtop into the clear air above. It reminded me of a dolphin fin breaking the surface of the sea, the undulations in the cloud top making the tailfin reappear and disappear and showing varying proportions of it, analogous to the dolphin's motion in the sea or perhaps a gentle seaswell.

We landed in the misty rain and had the longest possible taxi at NRT - some 30 minutes back down the far runway's taxiway, past all of terminal 2, then around the cross, past all of terminal 1 and to the end gate (gate 11) of terminal 1. Phew - lucky I had a good book to read!

With the strong tailwind we had arrived ahead of the nonstop SQ flight from SIN, when usually that flight arrives much earlier.

Kiwi Flyer

Summary to date

Map

21 flights
47,497 flown miles
5 continents - Australia, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia
11 countries - Tonga, NZ, Australia, USA, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Japan
6 aircraft types - 767, 777 (various models and configurations), 757, A319, 747, A345