4/25 Homebound
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper -copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip
The car met us at the hotel at 5:45am, which meant we got up around 4am. Nothing like starting a long day short of sleep. The car was waiting for us when we went down to the lobby. I was quickly met by a doorman for my bags, which I promptly handed over so he could load them in the car, and I was met at the front desk with “Mr. Quinn, how was your stay?” before I said anything to her or handed over my keys. I am not sure how she pulled that off, I can think of a number of ways to do it, but it is a very nice touch. Checkout was painless and we hopped into the car for a long drive to the airport. It was early enough that there was no traffic, so we arrived at the airport quite early.
We head to Cathay’s First/Business Class check in line, and there are 4 guys in yellow vests and a Cathay rep. The rep asked if we were flying business and we said yes, but the yellow vest guys didn’t hear, or didn’t understand, so we were blocked. They quickly looked over to her and she nodded to let us in and we were the only people using the First/Business check in area. The rep had some trouble printing our boarding pass for the LAX-DFW flight and had to go to another computer to get it to print, but we walked away with 3 boarding passes and a lounge invite to Cathy’s First class lounge each. I was very excited to see Cathay’s first class lounge.
Security was yet again a breeze at Hong Kong, but it took like 25 minutes to walk from checkin, ride the train, and finally find The Pier First Class entrance. We had breakfast (buffet) in The Heaven, which was great for me, but the eggs were in a hollowed out roll, so Brook could only eat fruit. The coffee was AMAZING. After a quick breakfast, we hung out in the lounge and watched some swimming on TV. I actually got to watch Senior Circuit coverage from the Austin meet in Hong Kong when I don’t think that coverage is broadcast in the US. The bathrooms were individual rooms with their own toilet and sink in side the restroom. Didn’t ask to see one of the shower rooms. Overall, the First class lounge is very nice.
Hong Kong to Tokyo is a regional flight, so there are only two classes of service. The seat is very much like American’s domestic first class seat, but the seat is cloth instead of leather. I prefer Cathay’s seat over American’s, but Brook prefers American’s. No idea why either of us have much of a preference, so more research must be required.
The service on this flight was much smoother than the Hong Kong Singapore flight and the food was better. Even though the flight left at 9:45 it was a lunch service. I went with the Chinese option, and while I don’t remember what exactly it was, I do remember that I enjoyed it and ate most of it. All 3 of my previous meals on Cathay, the main was barely touched it was so bad. Based on my experience from the flight over, I knew I would feel better if I passed on the wine for the most part and focused on staying hydrated. I drank lots of water as well as a couple cans of coke on this flight.
Our connection in Tokyo was tight and I let my wife know that I really wanted to go through immigration before going to the bathroom. We would be among the first off the flight, and if we headed straight to immigration we would have a short wait, but if she insisted that we stop at the restroom first, we would be behind everyone in coach. She agreed and were through immigration in about 30 seconds with no line. Security was similar and we were in Tokyo airport proper!
Boy, what a let down. Hong Kong has big beautiful open spaces. Narita is crammed into as little space as possible, both vertically and horizontally. We head to the gate to make sure we know how to get there and how long it will take, before looking for the lounge. Brook was looking for some Japanese makeup and stopped in a couple duty free stores not finding what she was looking for before we headed back to the lounge. Now heading to the lounge required getting back on the tram, and Brook made sure I was aware that she was not happy we were getting back on the tram and I was an idiot. (Brook edit: this is because the tram is a slow, rinky dink affair that was so not the high tech tram I had expected out of Tokyo – I was feeling quite let down) So we are looking for the lounge after our glorious tram ride, and there is another duty free shop. She stops in and they have some of the stuff she was looking for. She is very excited to have this cool new makeup that can’t be bought in the US, but I am still and idiot. At least she isn’t grimacing anymore. I find the lounge and the first thing she says is, “If you would have told me we were looking for the Japan lounge, I would have told you there was one on the other side.” So I ask her if she means a Sakura lounge or a First lounge?
Brook didn’t note the difference between the first class lounge and the business class lounge but she is in full on IamInAnAirportCranky mode (Brook edit: he is a bit oversensitive to this IMO). We are not leaving Narita before I play with the automated beer pouring machine in the JAL First lounge!
Back to the story. I don’t want to argue, I start looking for the lounge entrance again. Found it. We walk up to the Sakura desk and are quickly told that we have access to the First lounge and she will escort us to the First check in, which is almost 10 steps away. The First reps quickly admit us and let us know that there are no announcements. There is only about 25 minutes until boarding starts, so I drink a coke, drink some water and since no one else has used the automated beer pouring machine for my entertainment, I have a beer. The automated beer pouring machine was worth riding the tram 3 times.
It is time to head back, and luck would have it, the tram is waiting for us as we come down the escalator. The reason this tram sucks so bad is that you can see it out the window and it is SLOW to move, slow to open the doors and slow to close the doors. If you couldn’t see how slow it was, it wouldn’t be bad at all, because the max wait for a tram is about 5 minutes. A couple of moving walkways would replace the tram, but I think something in the Japanese psyche requires autonomous over practical.
We get to the gate and of course they aren’t boarding! Plane is there, crew is there, passengers are there and American has cranial rectal inversion as usual. American frustrates me because they can’t seem to do anything on time and their staff is apathetic.
The flight starts boarding about 20 minutes late, and I have the new Flagship first class seat to play with. The first thing that shocks me is the complete lack of privacy in a new first class seat. I don’t care much about the IFE (Infight entertainment), but it seems like the same one that Cathay uses for regional business which I think is a 4″ LCD from 1997. Oh well, the lounge was cool.
Now someone comes around pseudo introduces themselves. I have heard nothing but Mr. Quinn for the last 18 days, and now some guy comes by and says “Michael? Hi, I am going to be taking really good care of you on the flight today.” Friendly enough guy, almost seemed like he cared about his job, but I wish he would have done a better job introducing himself.
American is being judged compared to Cathay Pacific and Seabourn, but American doesn’t even know they are in a service industry, so it isn’t really fair.
Let’s compare the Cathay international business seat to American’s international first seat. Most people will disagree with me, but I like Cathay’s business seat better. If you are claustrophobic, American’s seat is going to be better for you, but if you want privacy and a nice IFE, Cathay business is the way to go. With the arms up on the American seat in bed mode I thought was tighter than the Cathay business seat. With the arms down, the bed is still not wide enough to keep your arms from falling off the bed, and at 6′2″ 170lbs I am not a wide guy. I did like that there was more space under the ottoman so my backpack didn’t have to go in the overhead and that the seat was very easy to exit at all times if you wanted to get up. I don’t hate the American seat at all, I was just disappointed that the “first class” seat wasn’t leaps and bounds ahead of a business seat.
After the milquetoast introduction the guy did really take good care of us. He told us all about how the chair worked without making us feel like idiots, managed the services well and took care of things in the background as they were needed. The food was probably the best airplane food I have had. The wine sucked, but that worked out to my benefit since I wanted to focus on staying hydrated.
I can’t say I got a good sleep on the plane, but all in all, the flight went very well and I did get some rest.
Our LA Dallas flight is a good 5 hours after our Tokyo flight, but there is an earlier 757 with space in first that we want to run and try to make. So we race off the plane from terminal 4 to the international terminal (whose idea was it to land an international flight at terminal 4?) through immigration (no line since we were first off the plane), through security (luckily a short line) and down terminal 4 looking for a DFW flight with space. Strangely, after racing around, we couldn’t find the 757 flight. We head up to the Flagship Lounge, where we are stopped by one of the Admiral’s club reps to interrogate us for a good 10 minutes about why we would buy a Zuca before finally getting into the Flagship Lounge and talking to a flippant AAngel. She was making fun of people coming in after us, but in full speaking volume. Very unprofessional for someone working in the first class lounge. She checks and says that we would have to standby at the gate, but everything is full. This baffles me, as I know that 757 had 7 open seats in First yesterday. Once a computer opens up, I check expertflyer to see what is going on, and there has been a hardware change. The 757 has been replaced with a MD80, thus 50 seats just disappeared. No wonder everything is now oversold by a lot (I saw 38 standbys for coach on one flight).
The Flagship Lounge, not impressed. The Flagship is supposed to be a step up from the Admirals Club, and the lounge itself is not nearly as nice as the Admirals Club in Terminal D at DFW. Now if I would have gone across the hall to the Admirals Club at LAX, it probably is a better space and it does have free drinks.
Other than feeling a little crowded until the Narita flight left along with most of the people waiting in the lounge when we arrived, it wasn’t a bad place to spend 5 hours in an airport. I grabbed a nice shower. The restrooms left something to be desired space wise. Two urinals and one stall in the men’s room is pretty small given that the lounge is a first class lounge and as crowded as the lounge was when I first got there. The lounge experience itself was not bad, just not first class.
I really don’t like how American manages delays. I am in the lounge and I keep checking the gate that we are leaving from. On time, gate 42A. From the Flagship Lounge, 42A sits right in front of the window, and I keep looking at the plane thinking it looks awfully small for a 757, but the right size for a 737 and it has been sitting there for a LONG time for a flight that hasn’t started boarding. The plane pulls away from the gate about 10 minutes before boarding is supposed to start and I freak out thinking that I have my watch set wrong. Check a lounge computer and I see my time is good, and boarding is still set for that gate. I go down to the gate at the “you must be at the gate at this time or risk being left behind” which on Cathay means the plane is half boarded, but with American… We get down to the gate, wrong gate. Find the right get, 20 minute delay. The plane arrives 20 minutes after boarding was supposed to start, so this 20 minute delay is how they say an hour. American manages an hour and 10 minute turn and we leave an hour late. I am tired and cranky at this point and have very low expectations for the quality of this flight crew.
The flight crew met my expectations. I now have no more expectations sitting up front than I do sitting in the back. No beverage offered before take off, not that I care, but it is an example of the crew shirking duties. First is full up, and the pilot is trying to make up time, so I expect service to be hectic. It wasn’t, they just cut corners. Towels, drinks from a cart coach style (one in the front working two rows, one in the back working the next two rows), meal from the cart coach style, done. And I mean done. The flight attendants chatted up front until the very last minute to the point I didn’t think the first cabin would be cleared of glassware before we landed. They cleared the cabin with about a minute to spare. Totally disappointed in this crew, they totally didn’t give a shit about the service side of their job. American should consider installing vending machines on their planes as it would set appropriate expectations for service.
The captain did a good job. We hit the gate about 35 minutes late. I can’t ask for much more than cutting a 2.5 hour flight down by 25 minutes making the trip in record time for us.
Back to reality.