GUAM: Visiting somewhere obscure for no apparent reason (NGO-GUM-KIX on UA J)
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SeatBackForward
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Great TR, certainly learnt something about Guam 
drron
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Thanks for this very timely TR.
We will be spending a day in Guam between cruises later this year so appreciate this TR.It helps excluding a few places we thought we might visit.Unfortunately that means mrsdrron will insist on more shopping time!
We will be spending a day in Guam between cruises later this year so appreciate this TR.It helps excluding a few places we thought we might visit.Unfortunately that means mrsdrron will insist on more shopping time!
amaroo
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great report, thanks for all the info
i booked a trip to Saipan (hopefully not as dangerous as your friend the barmaid says
We enjoyed Saipan more than Guam.....however, that trip was 25 years ago and I was very much focused on wooing the GF....now wife!
Thanks for all your kind words - I'll try and do the final part (the UA flight out of Guam) and some final 'good and bad' observations tonight.
Happy to answer any questions you might have - I probably spent longer there (5 nights) than most AFFers will this year.
Happy to answer any questions you might have - I probably spent longer there (5 nights) than most AFFers will this year.
carwashhair
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The more I read about Guam, the more convinced I am that it may in fact be the Isle of San Lorenzo out of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle...
UA177 GUM-KIX
We boarded another 737 which looked very similar to the inbound plane except that there was a cloak-cupboard where Row 1 shoiuld be (we were in 2A and 2C). For some reason Row 2AC had new seats while the rest of the cabin had the same older seats as our outbound flight. The seats were almost identical similar to VA's 737 J seat (stretched black leather). Leg-room was good.
The cloak-cupboard seemed like a waste of space when they could have had an extra 2 J seats. Cabin Crew did not offer to put anyones coats or bags in the cupboard anyway. J was 100% full while there was hardly anyone in Y (about 30%?).
Much nicer weather than when we landed!
This flight was very similar to the first UA flight - plastic tumbler of Pommery offered prior to take-off, dinner orders also taken (I went for the 'crab cakes with fried rice' as I had never had crab caked but hoped they were not like Thai fish cakes which are usually like hockey pucks. My dinner was just okay, not as good as the previous leg. The crab cakes were nice and soft (and had plenty of crab) and there was lots of sauce but there wasn't much flavour. The white wine was also pretty average. The cabin crew literally read the label off the bottle when they bring it around and have absolutely no idea about matching or what is better. I imagine if they received a bottle of each new wine to sample at home before they were loaded on they would take far more interest in the quality.
My mates beef which he said was 'just ok'
We had no spaced-out cabin crew on this flight - the mature female crew was friendly but not engaging. She wasn't rude or forgetful she just wasn't memorable. I was impressed that she spoke fluent Japanese though - I assume its a requirement for UA cabin crew as most of the destinations from the GUM hub are to Japan. There were a LOT of announcements and updates from both the crew and flight deck about our
arrival time. I'm not sure why you need to be advised of the arrival time - there's nothing you can do about it until you land! We landed at KIX slightly early anyway and then had a pretty long 4.5 hour layover
before our TG flights KIX-BKK-MEL in J.
We boarded another 737 which looked very similar to the inbound plane except that there was a cloak-cupboard where Row 1 shoiuld be (we were in 2A and 2C). For some reason Row 2AC had new seats while the rest of the cabin had the same older seats as our outbound flight. The seats were almost identical similar to VA's 737 J seat (stretched black leather). Leg-room was good.
The cloak-cupboard seemed like a waste of space when they could have had an extra 2 J seats. Cabin Crew did not offer to put anyones coats or bags in the cupboard anyway. J was 100% full while there was hardly anyone in Y (about 30%?).
Much nicer weather than when we landed!
This flight was very similar to the first UA flight - plastic tumbler of Pommery offered prior to take-off, dinner orders also taken (I went for the 'crab cakes with fried rice' as I had never had crab caked but hoped they were not like Thai fish cakes which are usually like hockey pucks. My dinner was just okay, not as good as the previous leg. The crab cakes were nice and soft (and had plenty of crab) and there was lots of sauce but there wasn't much flavour. The white wine was also pretty average. The cabin crew literally read the label off the bottle when they bring it around and have absolutely no idea about matching or what is better. I imagine if they received a bottle of each new wine to sample at home before they were loaded on they would take far more interest in the quality.
My mates beef which he said was 'just ok'
We had no spaced-out cabin crew on this flight - the mature female crew was friendly but not engaging. She wasn't rude or forgetful she just wasn't memorable. I was impressed that she spoke fluent Japanese though - I assume its a requirement for UA cabin crew as most of the destinations from the GUM hub are to Japan. There were a LOT of announcements and updates from both the crew and flight deck about our
arrival time. I'm not sure why you need to be advised of the arrival time - there's nothing you can do about it until you land! We landed at KIX slightly early anyway and then had a pretty long 4.5 hour layover
before our TG flights KIX-BKK-MEL in J.
As with the SQ flights I won't do a full report of the TG flights home but things I noted:
- The ANA Lounge at KIX is pretty good food-wise and has staff just standing there waiting and wanting to assist you with anything. They have a pretty cool beer machine that tilts your glass to give the
perfect head (Japanese people like a LOT of head on their beer). This Lounge does close at 10pm though (the same time as the TG Lounge opens) and does not have showers. Using the *A app we looked for lounges open before 10pm with showers as we had still not showered properly since the beach despite now being in another country. The app advised us that there was a JAL Sakura lounge available to us until 10pm which was right over the other side of the airport. As we had plenty of time we tried out luck and made the long trek over. The sign outside the lounge said it was a JAL/OW lounge but that pax on SQ and MS *A flights could use the lounge (it was not marked as a *A SG Lounge though). The woman at the desk seemed most surprised to see our TG boarding passes on UA stock and after a bit of consideration told us we couldn't use that lounge as there was the ANA Lounge for us to use instead. We ended up stumping up JPY500 each for 30 minutes in the public 'relaxation zone' to use their showers which were excellent. Big cubicles, great water flow, great staff. Felt much better afterwards.
- The TG Lounge in KIX is TINY. The smallest lounge I have ever been in. The food offerings were very meagre (but once again alcohol was good). Considering the run an A380 to KIX each day (I believe) that
Lounge would be very cramped.
- Overnight flight KIX-BKK was very lightly loaded and pretty uneventful. We made our way to the boarding gate at boarding time to only see about 50 people waiting for a A330 flight. J was only 30% full so we
moved to have 2 window seats each in order to sleep. - I found the TG A330 J seat not nearly as good as the 777 J seat. The cabin felt far more cramped and the angle of the bed felt much sharper (although the seats look very similar). Found it difficult to sleep.
- In BKK we headed to one of the Concourse D lounges (right near where you go through Security and back upstairs). One of the security staff was fast asleep on a chair. F&B offering here are pretty good.
- I had heard the SQ Lounge is the best *A J lounge in BKK so out of boredom we made the long trek to concourse A to visit it. Its very small and remote but staff were friendly there were proper hot breakfast items and it had a great view over the garden that is to the left of the TG end of the check-in hall. 4 - 5 hours really is too long for a transfer even when you have lounge access. 75 minutes in SIN on the way up was too rushed so I think a 90-120 minute transfer is the optimal amount of time.
- We boarded via a remote stand and it was an absolute mess. We boarded late meaning the gate area for the heavily loaded flight was packed. Everyone was restless and when they eventually made the first boarding announcement they of course did it in Thai first and the horde of mostly Australian pax surged forwards not understanding what was being said but assuming it was their time to board. They then made the announcement in English which was that J and *A SG were now invited to board. There was of course only one door being used staffed by one person who was screaming 'BUSINESS CLASS!' over the top of the horde and we literally had to push through people in order to get to her, waving our J boarding passes. Why don't TG have a proper priority boarding system at their home port?
- It was a LONG, long ride to the remote stand and they then only used 1 of the 2 stairs set up but I was very pleased to see we pulled up to a 777-200 rather than a 777-300. I LOVE the TG 777-200 J cabin. I can't quite put my finger on it but it just feels right. Really spacious, really peaceful, really comfortable. It was a good flight - I was surprised to be offered a full breakfast followed by a full dinner as I thought most asian daytime flights are a full meal after takeoff and then a light meal/snack before landing? It was nice to avoid smoke salmon which seems to be TG's never-ending entree dish. I had the Chicken Massaman Curry which is listed as TG's signature dish as my dinner main. It was dreadful. The curry sauce was like red water. No spice, no seasoning, no flavour, no richness. Basically chicken pieces in red water.
- I've perfected the 'plane to kerb in 15 minutes' when arriving into MEL in J at night fairly well. Go to the toilet before landing, be first off in J, you have a few minutes to buy duty free if you want. Smart-gate immigration, collect trolley, collect priority baggage, nothing to declare at customs, through into arrivals. Easy.
- The ANA Lounge at KIX is pretty good food-wise and has staff just standing there waiting and wanting to assist you with anything. They have a pretty cool beer machine that tilts your glass to give the
perfect head (Japanese people like a LOT of head on their beer). This Lounge does close at 10pm though (the same time as the TG Lounge opens) and does not have showers. Using the *A app we looked for lounges open before 10pm with showers as we had still not showered properly since the beach despite now being in another country. The app advised us that there was a JAL Sakura lounge available to us until 10pm which was right over the other side of the airport. As we had plenty of time we tried out luck and made the long trek over. The sign outside the lounge said it was a JAL/OW lounge but that pax on SQ and MS *A flights could use the lounge (it was not marked as a *A SG Lounge though). The woman at the desk seemed most surprised to see our TG boarding passes on UA stock and after a bit of consideration told us we couldn't use that lounge as there was the ANA Lounge for us to use instead. We ended up stumping up JPY500 each for 30 minutes in the public 'relaxation zone' to use their showers which were excellent. Big cubicles, great water flow, great staff. Felt much better afterwards.
- The TG Lounge in KIX is TINY. The smallest lounge I have ever been in. The food offerings were very meagre (but once again alcohol was good). Considering the run an A380 to KIX each day (I believe) that
Lounge would be very cramped.
- Overnight flight KIX-BKK was very lightly loaded and pretty uneventful. We made our way to the boarding gate at boarding time to only see about 50 people waiting for a A330 flight. J was only 30% full so we
moved to have 2 window seats each in order to sleep. - I found the TG A330 J seat not nearly as good as the 777 J seat. The cabin felt far more cramped and the angle of the bed felt much sharper (although the seats look very similar). Found it difficult to sleep.
- In BKK we headed to one of the Concourse D lounges (right near where you go through Security and back upstairs). One of the security staff was fast asleep on a chair. F&B offering here are pretty good.
- I had heard the SQ Lounge is the best *A J lounge in BKK so out of boredom we made the long trek to concourse A to visit it. Its very small and remote but staff were friendly there were proper hot breakfast items and it had a great view over the garden that is to the left of the TG end of the check-in hall. 4 - 5 hours really is too long for a transfer even when you have lounge access. 75 minutes in SIN on the way up was too rushed so I think a 90-120 minute transfer is the optimal amount of time.
- We boarded via a remote stand and it was an absolute mess. We boarded late meaning the gate area for the heavily loaded flight was packed. Everyone was restless and when they eventually made the first boarding announcement they of course did it in Thai first and the horde of mostly Australian pax surged forwards not understanding what was being said but assuming it was their time to board. They then made the announcement in English which was that J and *A SG were now invited to board. There was of course only one door being used staffed by one person who was screaming 'BUSINESS CLASS!' over the top of the horde and we literally had to push through people in order to get to her, waving our J boarding passes. Why don't TG have a proper priority boarding system at their home port?
- It was a LONG, long ride to the remote stand and they then only used 1 of the 2 stairs set up but I was very pleased to see we pulled up to a 777-200 rather than a 777-300. I LOVE the TG 777-200 J cabin. I can't quite put my finger on it but it just feels right. Really spacious, really peaceful, really comfortable. It was a good flight - I was surprised to be offered a full breakfast followed by a full dinner as I thought most asian daytime flights are a full meal after takeoff and then a light meal/snack before landing? It was nice to avoid smoke salmon which seems to be TG's never-ending entree dish. I had the Chicken Massaman Curry which is listed as TG's signature dish as my dinner main. It was dreadful. The curry sauce was like red water. No spice, no seasoning, no flavour, no richness. Basically chicken pieces in red water.
- I've perfected the 'plane to kerb in 15 minutes' when arriving into MEL in J at night fairly well. Go to the toilet before landing, be first off in J, you have a few minutes to buy duty free if you want. Smart-gate immigration, collect trolley, collect priority baggage, nothing to declare at customs, through into arrivals. Easy.
So, overall, what did I think of Guam?
What I liked:
When it wasn't raining the weather was perfect - warm, tropical, sunny and summery.
Super cheap food and drinks.
Cheap clothes and DF shopping.
Our accomodation, while nothing special was extremely good value and well located.
Extremely friendly locals who were genuinely interested in Australia and really took pride in their work regardless of their job.
United wasn't as bad as expected - it is comparable to an average VA 737 J and they have loads of flight options to and from Japan and other parts of Asia.
Beaches are quite nice and pretty quiet.
Our convertible Mustang was awesome.
Interesting military plane spotting.
What I didn't like:
TERRIBLE roads and road signage.
Traffic all the time (everyone drives everywhere).
Weather changes very quickly and it was disappointing to have 48 hours of heavy rain during the dry season. If you are there during the wet season (July-Dec) and shopping and eating and drinking doesn't interest you I would not spend more than 48-72 hours there.
Not much to do when its raining.
A bit of a sense of general hopelessness amongst locals.
Food isn't of the highest quality but that's expected for an island that doesn't have much local produce.
In amongst the super high-end retail stores purely for the tourists the rest of the island is pretty ghetto.
No showers at GUM airport.
Would I go back? As long as the deal continued hell yeah - I'm already booked to go back there again in early November but only staying for 26 hours (that trip is VERY much about the journey and not the destination!).
I hope you enjoyed my trip report - very happy to answer any questions about Guam as I know lots of you are heading there this year.
What I liked:
When it wasn't raining the weather was perfect - warm, tropical, sunny and summery.
Super cheap food and drinks.
Cheap clothes and DF shopping.
Our accomodation, while nothing special was extremely good value and well located.
Extremely friendly locals who were genuinely interested in Australia and really took pride in their work regardless of their job.
United wasn't as bad as expected - it is comparable to an average VA 737 J and they have loads of flight options to and from Japan and other parts of Asia.
Beaches are quite nice and pretty quiet.
Our convertible Mustang was awesome.
Interesting military plane spotting.
What I didn't like:
TERRIBLE roads and road signage.
Traffic all the time (everyone drives everywhere).
Weather changes very quickly and it was disappointing to have 48 hours of heavy rain during the dry season. If you are there during the wet season (July-Dec) and shopping and eating and drinking doesn't interest you I would not spend more than 48-72 hours there.
Not much to do when its raining.
A bit of a sense of general hopelessness amongst locals.
Food isn't of the highest quality but that's expected for an island that doesn't have much local produce.
In amongst the super high-end retail stores purely for the tourists the rest of the island is pretty ghetto.
No showers at GUM airport.
Would I go back? As long as the deal continued hell yeah - I'm already booked to go back there again in early November but only staying for 26 hours (that trip is VERY much about the journey and not the destination!).
I hope you enjoyed my trip report - very happy to answer any questions about Guam as I know lots of you are heading there this year.
markis10
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My experience suggests thats the busiest and worst lounge of the TH ones on offer in BKK, others have better self serve alcohol and are less crowded.
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I see nothing wrong with visiting obscure places for no apparent reasons. Thanks for the TR, I enjoy travelling vicariously with the TRs others have taken a lot of time and effort to write and share.
get me outta here
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Thanks for the very help TR and good pix tell many words. Based on this I contacted the Bayview and they just quoted me : USD99+11% which seems similar to yrs, although I'm going in wet season as I have just found out in yr TR.
trentusjuventus
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Thanks for the great TR about a place I have always heard about but never seen anything of! Kudos for your excellent photos as well!
TomVexille
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Thanks for putting together a great report on GUM. I enjoyed following your trip.
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Good, informative TR, thanks. I'll look at that journey, but I'm not convinced about the destination. I'm thinking I'm in an older age bracket than you
I had 2 J transits on TG through BKK last year, all resembled your experience with boarding and remote stand. Just chaos!
The TG lounges were ALL packed on my visits. I don't like BKK at all.
I had 2 J transits on TG through BKK last year, all resembled your experience with boarding and remote stand. Just chaos!
The TG lounges were ALL packed on my visits. I don't like BKK at all.
Good, informative TR, thanks. I'll look at that journey, but I'm not convinced about the destination. I'm thinking I'm in an older age bracket than you
I had 2 J transits on TG through BKK last year, all resembled your experience with boarding and remote stand. Just chaos!
The TG lounges were ALL packed on my visits. I don't like BKK at all.
If TG stopped handing out award seats like candy I wouldn't transit BKK so often either! I've got 5 more transits through there this year
It's certainly not my favourite transit point mainly because its so absurdly big that is takes such a long time to get anywhere. There are so many *A J lounges at BKK (5?) that if the lounge you are in is busy you can just find another one that is not. There was 1 other person in the SQ lounge.
boomy
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If TG stopped handing out award seats like candy I wouldn't transit BKK so often either! I've got 5 more transits through there this year
It's certainly not my favourite transit point mainly because its so absurdly big that is takes such a long time to get anywhere. There are so many *A J lounges at BKK (5?) that if the lounge you are in is busy you can just find another one that is not. There was 1 other person in the SQ lounge.
I think we should all be grateful that TG are so generous with award seats. It gives many of us the opportunity to experience F at the cost of Y.
Personally, I love BKK airport. I had many 4-6 hours transits there and always found something to do. If you get bored from lounge crawl then you can get 2 hours massage for 1000BHT, great value IMO.
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