Journey Amongst the Stars

[anat0l]

also known as "*A, *A Flights... Across two oceans and the USA... (including Star Mega Do 2)" on FlyerTalk​

After attending the inaugural Star Mega Do in 2009, I didn’t hesitate long to sign up for Star Mega Do 2 to be held primarily in the USA (cf. Europe for the inaugural). Hence the idea for a trip was born (after all, it is a little hard to go about halfway around the world for only a mere week...sort of )

So, with the little annual leave I had left, I concocted a trip that would give me a week of “free time” in the USA before SMD2. Then, I found a conference in Japan that would save me a week of leave. Unfortunately, it did mean I would have to fly directly from SMD2 straight to Japan, which does whack out the economics and routing a wee bit. And it wouldn’t be proper just to go to the Japan conference and not visit a former colleague, and by that time then consume another week of travel around Japan. The stage was set for a month away from home...

This trip report tells about my journey in the USA and SMD2.

This is the first time in a long while that my entire trip does not involve a single oneworld flight, i.e. the alliance of my usual FFP (QF). In fact, this trip was just the opposite: with the exception of one non-alliance airline, every flight was flown with Star Alliance. This was deliberate – I had to requalify for BD*G by 23 November, and I needed about 20k status miles. Needless to say, it was achieved rather handily, but the booking process was something else.

Most of the flights in this trip are in Y – if that completely scares some of you, please brace yourself or cease reading now! You have been warned! Unlike my oneworld Emerald status, *A doesn’t have a cross-alliance tier that allows access to F lounges, and *G only gives access to common J lounges (or specifically designated *G lounges). A humbling experience, you would think, but I’ll leave the assessments for the rest of the report.

The routing (SMD2 routing highlighted; flights not covered in this report are [-]crossed out[/-])

• BNE-SIN-NRT-SFO-LAS-BOS-BUF-JFK-FRA-IAH-PHX-PAE,SEA-NRT[-]-SIN-BNE[/-]

Airlines flown

• B6, CO (SMD2 Charter), LH, SQ, UA, US

Places visited (i.e. stopovers):

• Canada
  • Niagara Falls
• Germany
  • Frankfurt am Main
• Japan
  • Narita
• United States of America
  • Houston
  • Las Vegas
  • New York
  • Phoenix
  • Seattle

For those of you who would like to view all my photos for this trip, please follow this link to my FT Galleries. You can also find photos from my other trips.

Note that all user handles in this report are all FlyerTalk handles. You'll find a couple of familiar names in the report - thankfully, their handles on both AFF and FT are the same.

And now...ladies and gentlemen...without further ado, on with the report...

 

[anat0l]

Shameless Plug

My previous trip reports hosted by AFF:

• Anzac Weekend 2010: A Whole Lot of 'F'
• anat0l's Audacious Australian and Asian Adventure Aboard Abundant Aircraft
• Another Domestic SC Run (starring Freddie Jr)
• http://www.australianfrequentflyer....photos/aff-gather-2-radelaide-trip-15559.html
• My First Time as WP and an F Lounge Run
• SYD / MEL Hilton Getaway
• BNE-PER in 9 hours ... on NY07 day!)

 

[anat0l]

Prologue

Prologue

So how did this trip get planned and booked? If you want to get an inside view of how I planned this trip, read ahead. Otherwise, feel free to skip.

My dates are...”flexible”...

SMD2 dates weren’t completely pinned down until mere months before the event, which ensued much praying and hoping for sales as well as fears that cheap bucket fares would be demolished. Once they were pinned down, the stage was set to get the flights booked.

When I travel so far away, I’d normally like to spend a sizeable amount of time; one week for the whole trip seemed too odd (or at least for those people who I needed to remain accountable to). So I decided to build in some time in the USA before this. Now the problem was – just how much time? I had potentially work commitments that would pin me back home and so I couldn’t just take a few weeks off. Money was a bit tight too, and I wasn’t doing this trip with a friend so couldn’t share the tab. And I couldn’t take weeks after SMD2 because that was the Japan conference.

I don't like booking last minute as much as the next cash-conscious flyer, but unfortunately work always kept me in limbo about the work trip, and the parents weren't helping by chiming in their "ideas" for my trip, suggestions which seemed to change every day.

As it turns out, the work trip I might have had to take in October never eventuated. But then, parents announce out of the blue that they needed to go to Asia, constraining me to remain at home until 24 October. So, that was the end of the argument. I depart 25 October and that gave me just under a week in the USA to do my own thing before SMD2.

Now, how much time to spend in Japan? The conference finished on 12 November. Japan can be an expensive country in some respects (but Australia is getting pretty expensive for fairly cr*p quality products and services). Originally, I had a school reunion scheduled on 19 November, but it was rescheduled. I also had (after taking off the time in the US) only one week of annual leave left. Do I stay longer in Japan and ask for some leave without pay? Eventually, I came to the conclusion: No. After all, I still had another conference at home to go to in early December. I probably should attend it since I missed the inaugural one last year (incidentally because I was overseas on my massive Euro trip).

Dates set – what about where to go in the USA? With only one week, only a handful of places was possible. I had to end up in NYC, so that was set, and probably needed about a couple of days. I always wanted to see Niagara Falls, and with nowhere else in central USA that I could think of going to, I added it to the itinerary. With only about a day left in hand, I decided on Las Vegas. Not that I hadn’t been there before, or I had any intention of gambling, designer label shopping, visiting brothels or stripclubs, seeing shows or the like. My main goal was to visit my godmother who had retired there. Having not seen her for at least 5 years, I was more than likely long overdue to visit, especially since I now had the opportunity.

I got some advice from my old colleague about where to go in Japan. From there, I decided on Hiroshima and Miyajima, then track back to Tokyo and a trip to Hakone somewhere in there. Of course, there was also the obligatory stop at Kyoto to visit my friend.

Dates set, destinations set – time to look for flights...

I swear it wasn’t a mileage run!

One question I got a lot (from FTers and non-FTers alike) was how I ended up with such a crazy routing (including a really long way to get to the USA).

The problem: Get to the USA, then Japan, then go home. I wanted to do this on *A, because short of a status run in the USA (which would add a lot of cost on my trip), I needed to requalify for BD*G. As it turned out, the BIS mileage alone was enough to get me well over the line (even with a poor 0.5x multiplier that sometimes results).

At first, I thought this is pretty simple: just get a Circle Pacific fare. Then I saw the price, hummed and hawed a bit, and didn’t go ahead. Glad I didn’t.

So if not the Circle Pacific fare, what else? I could do a RTW, crossing madly through Europe after finishing in the USA to get to Japan. Fares were pretty much the same as Circle Pacific, although I would get more miles (but lose a day trying to run across Europe).

Next options: just buy two return tickets. One of them goes between home and Japan/US, the other goes between Japan/US and the other. That gives two options of this type:

• Option 1
  • Ticket A: Australia – Japan r/t
  • Ticket B: Japan – USA r/t
  • Routing: Fly Australia to Japan to USA without stopover, then fly return sector of Ticket B back to Japan, then return sector of Ticket A to Australia
• Option 2
  • Ticket A: Australia – USA r/t
  • Ticket B: USA – Japan r/t
  • Routing: Fly Australia to USA, then use Ticket B to get to Japan. Fly return sectors of Ticket B then Ticket A to get home.

In either option, there would be a long journey of at least 25 hours (and that’s only BIS flight time). For Option 1, the long journey is at the beginning. For Option 2, it’s at the end.

Economics won in the end and option 1 yielded the best price, even though I didn’t end up booking the cheapest return fares. What the?

If I were normal, I would have selected the cheapest fares available on sale, but one has to remember that not all fares book into FFP credit classes. Such is the case with, for example, SQ. SQ had some cheap N fares going to Japan for about AUD 1,200 return, which is pretty good compared to the H fares going at AUD 1,550. The catch? N fares credit nothing – no status, no redeemable credit, and that was for any FFP (including KrisFlyer). Similar fares were showing for OZ (which has a brutally poor booking website) and CA (which I’d been warned to stay away from). I tried all sorts of combinations with *A, including SQ to SIN and UA tag to NRT or through to SFO/LAX (oh that was horrible). Then I thought, maybe I should pocket the savings and forgo the miles. Then I saw how many miles BNE-SIN-NRT r/t was, and instantly snapped out of it – what was I thinking?!

UA had some good upgradable (W) fares to the USA from Japan. Noelene – bless her – offered to sponsor me for upgrades on my UA booking. At first, I wanted to get SEA-SFO-NRT or SEA-LAX-NRT for the return to Japan sector, but when I looked online there was no flag that upgrades were available on these flights on the day I wanted to fly. So I picked SEA-NRT direct. Turns out this was a mistake anyway (I did book these flights quite late – that is a mistake in itself – but in hindsight had I gone a day later, which I could have afforded as it turned out, I would have had a much, much better chance of clearing). Unfortunately (and somewhat unwittingly), all the flights I picked were on 772s, i.e. old equipment, although most of the 744 options were showing no upgrades available. The NRT-SFO-LAS upgrades all cleared less than a week before departure.

Getting from LAS to Niagara Falls proved to be a bit of a challenge. Do I stay an extra night in LAS or take the late flight out? I opted for the latter; although I would be staying at my godmother’s place, I didn’t want to impose on her any more than necessary. Plus, had I left for BUF from LAS in the morning, I probably wouldn’t arrive at BUF and then Niagara Falls until afternoon, wasting valuable sightseeing time. Now how to route to BUF – go via CLT (less miles, two jets) or BOS (slightly more miles, BOS-BUF on CRJ)? BOS won, also helped that the flight was 1 hour longer than LAS-CLT, i.e. slightly more time to sleep.

For getting from BUF to JFK, all the alliance carriers looked quite pricy except for the flights at the extremities of the day. On the advice of a friend, I decided to give B6 a go (he did make a plug for the blue chips, but he probably didn’t know about what I was going to experience).

The TATL portion of SMD2 was optional for those starting in the USA, and the TATL flights – although at cheaper group rates – would need to be paid for in addition to the Do costs. I ended up booking the LH flights for the TATL. Too bad the booking classes only offered BD members 0.5x BIS miles (although a *G loading of 35% cf. 25%); oh well. You have to really love it when the YQ surcharges makes up close to 50% of the total fare.

Travel around Japan would be mainly via Shinkansen using the JR Rail Pass. No real need for lots of air travel, and it would just eat up a lot of time, too.

So....finally, after all of the above thinking and everything else, the itinerary was set and the journey was on:

[b][u]Date   Sector   Flight  Dep   Arr     Dur'n  A/C  Cls  Connect  Remarks                       [/u][/b]
25OCT  BNE-SIN  SQ 236  1445  2050     8:05  333    Y     2:55
25OCT  SIN-NRT  SQ 638  2345  0750+1   7:05  388    Y     9:50
26OCT  NRT-SFO  UA 852  1740  1055     9:15  772    J     2:06  W SWU upg
26OCT  SFO-LAS  UA 461  1301  1445     1:44  752    F  1:07:30  W SWU upg
27OCT  LAS-BOS  US  66  2215  0616+1   5:01  322    Y     1:14
28OCT  BOS-BUF  US3569  0730  0858     1:28  CR2    Y  1:03:57  op Air Wisconsin
29OCT  BUF-JFK  B6  67  1255  1417     1:18  E90    Y  3:08:23
01NOV  JFK-FRA  LH 405  2240  1120+1   7:40  744    Y    22:55  SMD2 Group Flight
03NOV  FRA-IAH  LH 440  1015  1510    10:55  744    Y  1:15:50  SMD2 Group Flight
05NOV  IAH-PHX  CO1905  0700  0750     2:50  753    Y     3:40  SMD2 Charter Flight
05NOV  PHX-PAE  CO1905  1130  1430     3:00  753    Y    23:58  SMD2 Charter Flight
06NOV  SEA-NRT  UA 875  1428  1700+1  10:32  772    Y 12:18:30
20NOV  NRT-SIN  SQ 637  1130  1800     7:30  388    Y     6:10
21NOV  SIN-BNE  SQ 255  0010  1000     7:50  333    Y      END

Sometimes a huge part of the mental drain and agility is in the planning, not the execution. Certainly, shifting circumstances kept me on my toes and sometimes pining over the sales that drifted by. But, the trip was booked. It was time for the experience.

 

[anat0l]

Mon 25 Oct (BNE-SIN)

Monday 25 October

It’s been a while since I started a journey with a flight that doesn’t leave in the morning.

Packed up the night before, the Balanzza weighing in the checked bag at 18kg. Not a great start considering the additional weight to come, but oh well. Oddly enough, even though I was travelling to US and Japan in their winter, I had forgotten to pack :

• Japanese-English dictionary. That would have been handy (especially the one I have at home is a pocket sized one), since I hadn’t brushed up on my Japanese before this trip.
• Scarf. I had some neckties, but they ain’t a scarf by any means.
• Gloves (to keep one’s hands warm, not to avoid germs).

This is also only the second time in goodness knows how long that I’ll be using BNE I terminal. Normally I’d be going to BNE D and connecting through SYD or MEL. Not this time – a direct flight to SIN.

Arrived at BNE I nice and early, not long after the T-3hr mark elapsed over. Not too many pax, even in the Y line, but I strode straight to the J line. SQ enlist the services of Toll Dnata on the ground in SIN. I think some of them could use a bit of a brush-up. I handed over my BD*G card and the check-in agent gave me one of those stares that was kind of saying, “What kind of idiot do you take me for handing over this phony-baloney *G card?” I had to explain (he wasn’t the first) that if you turn the card over, you’ll see that the card is issued by bmi (and further to that, explain that bmi stands for British Midland International and yes it is a real airline in existence)...and further then say that the airline code for bmi was BD. Now we’re rolling! BD*G number was added to the BNE-SIN sector but not the SIN-NRT sector. Bag was tagged all the way to NRT with a fluro-orange priority tag adorned on it.

Here’s another oddity that I can’t believe happened – I forgot to put a luggage tag on my checked bag. Normally I fill one out at the airport and strap it on there, but I completely forgot this time. Luckily my bag didn’t get misplaced otherwise reuniting it with me would have been an almost insurmountable challenge.

Check-in was completed, with father accompanying me still not quite understanding how I could use the J counter but was traveling in Y (he really thought I was traveling in J). Said goodbye to parents (who were surprised at how quickly I checked in) and proceeded downstairs to airside, managing to avoid having my cabin baggage weighed. I was given an outbound Express pass, but I didn’t use it – the lines were short enough. Once airside, it was time to seek out a lounge for some relaxation.

BNE I airside

There are three lounges I could access in BNE I with my status:

• SQ SilverKris Lounge – using my BD*G (or NZ*G for that matter) status
• NZ Koru Lounge – ditto first point
• QF J Lounge – anytime access with QF WP (at least for 2 more months anyway)

Turns out that the NZ Koru Lounge was closed for refurbishment, but my first stop anyway was the SQ SilverKris lounge.

The SilverKris Lounge Entrance

The SilverKris lounge is sufficient if small, with not a lot of seats and about three computers or so. Pleasant furnishings made the small lounge quite comforting. The windows look out to the coach departures area and towards the South. Some basic hot food was offered, which is a step up from most lounges anyway. The lounge was starting to get moderately full between the time I entered and before I left. I grabbed some food and then found myself a corner with a power point so I could do a bit of work.

Inside the SilverKris Lounge at BNE

A little bit later I thought a shower would be nice. I asked for towels from the lounge attendant and he told me how to get to the shower. Turns out that the shower is a disabled toilet (i.e. disabled-friendly toilet, shower area with curtain, etc.), with dispensable soap and shampoo. The nail-in-coffin irony was a sign that read that using the shower should be avoided. I thought this was ridiculous, so I headed straight out and went to the QF J Lounge for a shower instead.

Shower in the BNE SilverKris Lounge, with the ridiculous warning. And for the advice of my esteemed readers, there was no "other" shower.

Once I got to the QF J Lounge, I had a bit of a chat with the front desk staff about the upcoming removal of anytime access for QF WPs. They were very glad it was coming – apparently they have been copping a lot of abuse from QF WPs who were complaining bitterly about other QF WPs that used the anytime access, especially during peak loads (e.g. early in the morning). Interesting assessment of the situation, although I’m not awfully phased, but I asked for a shower pack and was gently reminded that boarding calls would not be made for my flight.

The shower heads in the BNE I J Lounge showers were pitiful – it was meant to be one of the water saving shower heads, but it sprays something resembling a garden hose with a loose stopper at the outlet, and was quite ineffective. If that were not enough, as I was just about to get into the shower, I checked my watch and noticed that my flight had started boarding. Argh – bugger! Quick soak (or whatever kind of soak I could achieve) and out again, then straight for the gate. I may not have gone so early, except I was in Y, not in a preferential seat and didn’t particularly want to chance missing out on overhead space.

 

[anat0l]

Mon 25 Oct (BNE-SIN)

Flight: Singapore Airlines SQ236 Brisbane (BNE I) – Singapore Changi (SIN T2)
Depart: 1445h Sched; 1437h Actual
Aircraft: 9V-STQ Airbus A330-300
Distance: 3,816 mi (6,141 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 37D


Normally for new routes I ask for a window because I want to see the view outside, but given this was a rather pedestrian route I opted not to and decided to chance that I might get some extra space. So I asked at check-in (because I couldn’t do so any earlier – no seats left to select online!) for the most forward aisle possible, hence my seat. Turns out my gamble was good – no one in 37E and only another pax in 37G.

Leg room in SQ Y is quite good – I believe it must be at least 32”, although part of the extra space could come from the slim Recaro seating (which is similar to what QF have now on their A380s). The seats look pretty ugly on the back but are very “functional”, e.g. cup holder, seatback AVOD with multiple connectors and double folding tray table with a mirror.

SQ Y seats on the A330 (regional); ugly but functional

Legroom in my SQ Y seat. For the reference of esteemed readers, I am 175 cm tall and rather portly (as you can see).

Loading was fairly light today, with many empty seats abound in the cabin, albeit the peppering of blanks were concentrated in between the aisles.

Hot towels were handed out, although these hot towels tended to cool extremely quickly. I don’t know why, but even on QF the hot towels do not cool as quickly even though they are not heated up as hot as the SQ towels. We were also handed a menu, which is certainly a rarity in the Y cabin these days.

Pushback time came, and we were shown the rather laid-back looking SQ safety video. A short taxi to the runway ensued and we roared off towards SIN.

Once the seat belt signs switched off, the crew wasted no time springing up preparing for food service. First off, we were offered pre-meal drinks and a pack of nuts.

Pre-meal drink and peanuts

I decided to sample the signature Singapore Sling, which was elegantly prepared and nicely sweet, although the traditional recipe calls for shaken over ice, not stirred.

The SQ Sling

One thing about Y meals on SQ is that provided you do not mind the food selection, you will almost certainly never go hungry. There is quite a decent amount of food served to every pax, and for Y food it is quite delicious. The meal trays are also coated with a slip-free coating, so dishes stick in place. A choice of Western style prepared chicken or Asian style prepared beef was available for lunch. I settled with the chicken.

SQ Y Lunch on BNE-SIN

Once the trays were cleared, I thought it might be an idea to freshen up. SQ supply basic amenities in the Y bathrooms that other airlines don’t, such as mouthwash, aftershave, cologne, moisturising lotion, combs and toothbrushes.

Amenities in the SQ Y bathrooms

The SQ Y AVOD is a good system and easy to navigate, although it’s a bit coughbersome and unresponsive (you wait 0.5 – 1 second for a response every time you press a key, although you can “queue up” key presses). As some faithful readers may know, I’m not one who is big on TV, so I ended up using the power socket to do some work on the laptop. After a while, however, work was getting to me so I ended up putting away my laptop and getting some shuteye.

Once I woke up, it was almost time for the second meal service. Before that, I found an interesting feature on the AVOD, which was a series of audio “lectures” describing certain aspects of air travel and how it works, e.g. baggage, turbulence, etc. Not too bad for the beginner or enthusiast-wannabe alike, and considering this flight encountered a sizable amount of it...

Learn about flying with SQ - this lecture talks about flying in turbulence

The second meal service before landing in SIN is much smaller, being only a refreshment. The choices were penne pasta or Asian noodles. The noodles seemed more interesting, and it also had some chilli - nice touch, although I guess the process of reheating and rehydration took some of the bite out of the chilli.

Refreshment before landing in SIN

Touching down in SIN, we were timetabled to park at T3, but instead we pulled up to T2. From there, it was a walk to the Skytrain to transfer to T3 for my onward flight.

 

[anat0l]

Menu: SQ236 BNE-SIN Economy - Mon 25 Oct 2010 (Lunch, Refreshment)

Singapore Airlines Economy Class Brisbane - Singapore Changi
25 October 2010


Lunch

Appetiser

Russian salad with shrimp and lemon mayonnaise

Main Course

Panfried chicken with herb gravy, sauteed vegetables medley and potatoes

or

Stir fried beef with ginger and spring onion, selected vegetables and steamed rice

Cheese

Cheese and crackers

Dessert

Lemon layered cake

From the Bakery

Roll and butter

Hot Beverages

Tea and Coffee


Refreshment

Light Bites

Penne pasta with tomato basil sauce and cheese

or

Fried noodles with vegetables and pork

Hot Beverages

Tea and Coffee


Beverages

Aperitifs

Campari

Dry Vermouth

Spirits

Cognac Otard VSOP

Johnnie Walker Red Label

Jim Beam Black Label Whiskey

Gordon's Dry Gin

Smirnoff Red Label Vodka

Bacardi Superior

Liqueurs

Cointreau

Baileys Original Irish Cream

Wines

Red Wine - Cabernet Sauvignon

White Wine - Chardonnay

White Wine - Riesling

Beer

International Selection

Stout

coughtail

Singapore Sling
This classic was created in 1915 at the Long Bar of Singapore's Raffles Hotel and is now famous the world over. Enjoy the Singapore Sling - a concoction of dry gin, Dom Benedictine, Cointreau and cherry brandy, shaken up with lime and pineapple juices and a dash of Angostura bitters and Grenadine.

Alspritizer

Screwdriver

Bloody Mary

Non-Alcoholic coughtail

Fruit Spritzer

Orange Cooler

Fruit Juices

Orange

Pineapple

Apple

Tomato

Soft Drinks

A range of regular and low calorie drinks is available.

 

[anat0l]

Mon 25 Oct (SIN-NRT)

Inside SIN T2 - there are gardens like this throughout the terminal

A rather empty looking SIN T3 passageway

For the uninitiated, the lounge situation in T3 is a little confusing. There are SilverKris lounges in T3 which are for SQ J and F pax (additionally, F pax get access to The Private Room). However, neither of these lounges allow access for other *G members (unless you are flying SQ premium class, of course). There is a dedicated, separate KrisFlyer Gold lounge specifically for *G members.

Entrance to the KrisFlyer Gold Lounge at SIN T3

Upon arrival at the KrisFlyer Gold lounge, I was asked for my BP and my *G card in order to enable entry. I also asked the lounge attendant if she could add my BD*G number to my BP, only to be told she could not do that. What? You're kidding me, right? Bizarre, but no matter, I headed down to the transfer desk (which also served as SQ’s de facto service point), where not only did I manage to add my BD*G number to the flight, but I also managed to change my seat to the upper deck exit row – w00t! :mrgreen:

The more "open" area of the small KrisFlyer Gold Lounge; this one sports an open roof, which felt more pleasant than being inside the main area proper

Back up to the KrisFlyer Gold lounge... it is a small lounge indeed, but I did manage to find a seat in the “open” area, luckily. Food selection is adequate, with a compact selection of hot items, a soup and the stock standard catch-all sandwiches. Having been to a couple of SIN lounges before, there wasn’t anything here that was overly different to a couple of the other lounges in terms of buffet. One thing is that the lounge does not have showers. Perhaps I’m too used to in Australia where every main QF lounge (not regional ones, and perhaps not HBA, but certainly all international J lounges) has showers, but not having showers available especially in the home hub seems like a fail (although I guess they have them but only for SQ elites and premium pax).

Eat a bit, drink a bit, work a bit...aaah, such is the life of a traveler with lounge privileges. After a bit I decided that with nothing better to do I would go down to the gate, clear gate security and wait for boarding. After all, it was an A380 that was operating this flight, plus it left at the same pier with all the other A380 departures. This means that the one security checkpoint would be processing A380 loads worth of passengers. A little boredom in the gate lounge would be worth not having to queue for magnanimous amounts of time.

More SIN terminal greenery

Gate Lounge waiting area for gates A1 - A5; all of these gates area A380-capable

Waiting in the common lounge area with everyone else who didn't have lounge privileges seemed weird, but "refreshing". I was remembering how it felt now to be a nothing pleb. Certainly, I didn't mind just sitting there and resting. I didn't need the lounge seat, or power port, or same images of people knocking back another glass of red, or Scotch on rocks, or phoning up their carrier's top elite priority hotline to complain that they've only been able to get upgrades on 99 out of their 100 flights and that they're considering never flying them again.

I guess one day soon I might need to get used to this, since I may not be able to keep up on my flying habits to retain my coveted elite statuses forever...

Anyway...the wait didn't seem long as I saw more and more people amble into the large waiting area, ready to clamour onto the waiting A380s. Our flight was called at 30 minutes before boarding, and elites were invited to board in a special line, which included *G pax. Soon enough, I was through the boarding line, and took the aerobridge heading up to the upper deck.

The few rows which make up the rear of the upper deck section of the SQ A380 Economy cabin

 

[anat0l]

Mon 25 Oct / Tue 26 Oct (SIN-NRT)

Flight: Singapore Airlines SQ638 Singapore Changi (SIN T3) - Tokyo Narita (NRT T1)
Depart: 2345h Sched; 2342h Actual
Aircraft: 9V-SKF Airbus A380-800
Distance: 3,324 mi (5,364 km)
Class: Economy
Seat: 81K

My seat - 81K: Economy, Upper Deck, Exit Row

The best thing about the upper deck exit row is that you get a tiny shelf to put stuff on top of if you assume the window seat. (The aft rows also get a shelf, but they ain't no exit row ). The upper deck exit door doesn't store its slide in a compartment situated at the floor, unlike the main deck exit doors, so you have full unrestricted leg room. <The Simpsons Mr Burns> Exx_xx_cellent!

Before the cabin got too full, I quickly went to the toilet to change out of my clothes and into my pyjamas (or sleeper suits - whatever), my preferred set on this trip coming from QF F and Akira Isogawa, which I scored on a previous trip. By the time I finished and returned to my seat, the cabin was starting to fill slowly.

My tall friends - feast thine eyes on the marvel that is generous leg room...

The cabin never did fill up, although there turned out to be just enough room in the overhead bins for everyone. I'd say the load was indicative of the timing of this flight. The only drama during boarding was a (what I would gather from what I heard) SQ elite complaining bitterly that he had been given a non-exit row seat by mistake. He sat down in an exit row and refused to move and told the FAs to sort something out because he was entitled to an exit row as an elite and that was that. Eventually, the FAs managed to move him to a bulkhead seat, which seemed to pacify him.

Once again, to the skies we ascended, with the quiet grace (or quieter, anyway) that is characteristic of the A380s. Since our flight departs so late, SQ in their wisdom offer a mere snack for those who wished to partake before much needed sleep. In this case, it was a simple boxed cheesy melt.

Cheesy melt from SQ

Amenity kits were offered since this was a night flight. The kits say "Singapore Airlines inspired by Givenchy", but all there was inside was a pair of flimsy-ish socks and a toothbrush set. I'm sure Givenchy didn't design those, but it does mark another solid example in the decline of amenity kits worldwide, especially in Y. Soon after the snack was served and rubbish cleared, I reclined my seat and nodded off.



Tuesday 26 October

Unfortunately, I couldn't manage a solid rest all the way through, but I managed to only break my sleep once ("Only once???!" exclaimed the doctor), and slept until the sounds of the galley signalled that breakfast was going to be served and we were about to start descent into NRT.

SQ offered two options for breakfast, both of which were hot: either a standard Western style breakfast of the usual kind, or a Japanese breakfast. The former ones come a dime a dozen, so I naturally decided on the latter. The main was quite a palatable choice, but the bread roll was rather leathery on the outside and fell to bits on the inside. Muffin was a little dry, too.

SQ Y Breakfast on SIN-NRT

I finished breakfast as soon as I could, as I wanted to beat the post-meal rush to the toilets so I could get changed out of my pyjamas and into street clothes again.

Tokyo greeted us with rather gloomy weather as the SQ A380 glided into NRT. Our taxi to the terminal was considerably long.

Passing some aircraft whilst taxiing in NRT

Once we were docked at the gate at NRT, disembarkation was relatively quick, although we had to wait for a while as SQ strictly enforced the class order of disembarkation. As I passed through the empty J cabin, I saw some little light blue drawstring bags scattered about the cabin. I guess these were the J amenity kits. They didn't look rather impressive either.

As I was walking through the aerobridge to the terminal, suddenly out of the glass panels of the aerobridge this magnificent sight came into vision.

Another arrival in the early hours of the morning at NRT - LH A380 D-AIMA "Frankfurt am Main"

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (Narita)

A handy tip...
Most people can't pronounce the Japanese "r" sound correctly, at least the first time and without some help.

The Japanese "r" sound is pronounced by positioning the tongue at the roof of the mouth as if one were about to pronounce a word beginning with "L". Try to position the tongue so the tip is behind your top set of teeth, rather than resting on the surface of it. From this position, without changing the shape of the mouth, you attempt to say the "r" sound. Essentially what happens is that the tongue quickly retracts to the back of the throat (which is the natural position when pronouncing an English "r").

For example, take the sound "ri" as in "Narita". Position your tongue as above and just say "li" (as in "lee", but keep the "ee" sound short and sharp). Practise this a few times. Now, keep the same initial position of tongue and keep the mouth the same shape, and say "ri" (as in, rhymes with what you said but a "r" sound at the beginning). The first time you try, it'll sound a bit like "di", but after a bit of practice you'll "hear" the "r" sound but it sounds quite sharp and doesn't have the "rrrrr" (as in "grrrrrr...." ) sound like in English.

Now you know how to say Narita correctly!

I had decided before I left that instead of spending the entire 10 hour transit at the airport, I'd go out to Narita town to do some exploring and get some fresh air. I also wanted to break the routing of my bag here, since giving it a rather inordinately long routing only increases the likelihood that it may be lost in transit.

Incoming procedures to Japan involve submitting your fingerprints and facial photograph, as well as health check if you fail the temperature test or are looking suspiciously ill. As I lined up for the foreign passports counters, I spotted a couple of high school friends also waiting in line. In one of life's funny coincidences, it turns out they were on the same flight I was from SIN, except they were on the main deck. They were staying a couple of weeks in Japan; first holiday in goodness knows how long (such is the life of people studying and working in health sciences).

NRT and Star Alliance have got this whole baggage claim thing for elites mastered. :mrgreen: All elite baggage (i.e. Suites, Business and Star Alliance Golds) was kept in a separate open area as a staff member announced this fact to all eligible pax. Not that NRT ground services wasted any time getting the first bags onto the belt so soon after touch down. Makes Australian baggage handling services look like a less than grade school effort really.

I waited longer around the belt as my friends waited for their baggage, and had a nice chat with them. Customs, as with most Asian countries, was a non-event and as soon as we were out into the arrivals hall, I said goodbye to my friends.

First order of business: repack the bags a bit, then take the bag to a baggage storage facility. That second step took some discussion with Airport Information to complete, but I found baggage storage services which charged a very reasonable amount. It was then off to the train station to catch the Keisei train to Narita town.

The Keisei train that goes through Narita town is a local one, and isn't quite frequent in the morning as other trains might be. Still, at one every 20 minutes, you can't really complain much.

Welcome to Narita

Narita is probably unfairly only singly known for being the host town for the largest airport to service the Tokyo municipality and most of the major international needs of Japan, yet the small town of population ~120,000 has become somewhat a novel and relaxing place for a transit stop by tourists worldwide.

Straight out of the station gates, I looked for something to eat. Although this was my second time in Japan, my Japanese is far from good and I still had a bit of trouble reading what was on offer as well as how to properly order it. Oh, I'm ahead of myself here...

For those not in the know, many restaurants in Japan have a vending machine near the door. To order your desired meal, you insert money into the vending machine and press the button corresponding to the dish (or dishes) that you want. The vending machine gives you a ticket (and your change), and you bring this ticket to the kitchen counter where they will prepare your meal.

Oh, and don't be alarmed if you get a loud "Irrashaimase!" as you walk through the doors. Your hosts are merely saying, "Welcome". Japanese people are very hospitable.

My meal was a bowl of noodles and a bowl of rice with curry. Generous meal for less then AUD 10 all up, with bottomless free drinking water (again, the latter is a common occurrence for many a Japanese restaurant). Japanese typically slurp their noodles as they eat them. Although Japanese don't deliberately slurp loud just for the sound, they are very much noticeable when they slurp. Whilst it's fun to join the chorus, it can be very hard to do!

A generous meal of noodle soup and curry with rice

Upon finishing, it was back out into the rather damp day. I set out in search of Shinshoji, the main temple that was a decent walk from the station. Along the way were several small shops and buildings of new and old. Narrow streets twisted and turned in search of the temple.

Winding roads of Narita

 

[anat0l]

Menu: SQ638 SIN-NRT Economy - Mon 25 Oct 2010 (Refreshment, Breakfast)

Singapore Airlines Economy Class Singapore Changi - Tokyo Narita
25 October 2010


Refreshment

Light Bites

Warm turkey and cheese olive panini

or

Warm open face tuna sandwich

Hot Beverages

Coffee and Tea

Green Tea

Cold Beverage

Japanese Oolong Tea



Breakfast

Fruit

Fruit appetiser

Wholesome Beginnings

Ume shoyu yaki - Grilled salmon with preserved plum served with selected vegetables and steamed rice with green soya beans

or

Scrambled egg served with bacon, mushroom and hash brown potato

From the Bakery

Assorted breakfast rolls

Butter and Fruit preserve

Hot Beverages

Coffee and Tea

Green Tea


Beverages

Aperitifs

Campari

Dry Vermouth

Spirits

Cognac Otard VSOP

Johnnie Walker Red Label

Jim Beam Black Label Whiskey

Gordon's Dry Gin

Smirnoff Red Label Vodka

Bacardi Superior

Liqueurs

Cointreau

Baileys Original Irish Cream

Wines

Red Wine - Cabernet Sauvignon

White Wine - Chardonnay

White Wine - Riesling

Beer

International Selection

Stout

coughtail

Singapore Sling
This classic was created in 1915 at the Long Bar of Singapore's Raffles Hotel and is now famous the world over. Enjoy the Singapore Sling - a concoction of dry gin, Dom Benedictine, Cointreau and cherry brandy, shaken up with lime and pineapple juices and a dash of Angostura bitters and Grenadine.

Alspritizer

Screwdriver

Bloody Mary

Non-Alcoholic coughtail

Fruit Spritzer

Orange Cooler

Fruit Juices

Orange

Pineapple

Apple

Tomato

Soft Drinks

A range of regular and low calorie drinks is available.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (Narita)

What can I say about Japanese temples? Usually there are temples, and then there are the gardens that surround them. Both of them are profound. Some of the gardens may be small, but in other cases they can be large, elaborate and some connect to large parks. The combination of ornately growing plants, moss covering ground and rocks, tranquil flowing waters and warming colours of the flowers creates a very calming environment and wonderful eye-candy.

As a point of etiquette, if one wants to go into a temple, one must always ensure that you remove your shoes. In addition, one should always refrain from photography, especially flash photography, inside a temple, and especially if people are already in there. So I don't have many photos of all inside of temples; mostly only outside.

Going around the temple grounds and the park, there were plenty of people of both Japanese and international all leisurely walking around, taking in the natural beauty and tranquility. I could try and describe how mentally calming this kind of experience is, but you'd be bored to tears. Perhaps this is where your experience, esteemed reader, is key to understanding.

Front Gate

This looks like a temple, but in fact it's more like another gateway

A garden face as seen from a temple outside deck - amongst the hard grey rock face, sprouts of green shrubbery decorate as well as attempt to hide the statues of characters

Multi-story or multi-tiered temples are a common motif

"Narita-san Kōen": Literally, "Narita mountain park". Don't worry, you can leave your climbing supplies at home.

A small pagoda on the lake

Running water flowing over rocks. See it here instead of in your office, in nature and not a product from the garden shop...

Another fine multi-tiered temple, and a unique fountain

I walked around for what seemed like such a long time, but in fact I still had plenty of time left. However, having had my fill of temples and wonderful gardens and unable to entertain myself by taking photos of the beautiful landscapes, I decided to head back to the airport and try and get airside.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (Narita)

As I walked the road back to the station from the temple, you can't help but notice a few things...

The last two characters mean "hospital". What the?

When you're smiling...the whole world smiles with you...

Even in a small town, there's flavours of the West...

Tatti, Tatti, Tatti...but not a drop to drink...

...and try a few of the local treats...

Dorayaki - a bit like pancakes, stuffed with bean paste

Now back at the Keisei station waiting for the next train back to Narita Airport.

A little note for the uninitiated: when you purchase a fare in Japan, more often than not, you buy your ticket by first working out how much your fare is. A large map will be shown with the current station highlighted, and you find your destination and it will tell you the price. After you find out how much you need to pay, you put this amount into the fare machine, and press the button denoting how much your fare is. This is very different to many other transport systems where you buy your fare by selecting where you are traveling between.

Even the electronic departure information signs alternate between English and Japanese

You have to hand it to the Japanese - they got this whole recycling thing down...and these kinds of bins are all over the place

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (NRT-SFO)

Back at NRT, I claimed my baggage back from the left luggage service, then had one of those scares of my life...

I found a bench (which are few and far between - get used to this all over Japan) and sat down to enjoy some of the dorayaki I bought earlier. After finishing, I thought it'd be time to head up. So, pick yourself up...wallet, check! Mobile phone, check! Loyalty cards, check! Camera, check! Passport, che...passport???

<cue dramatic chord sequence>

Where was it?!! To cut a long and potentially painful story short, I looked up and down, trying to retrace my steps precisely in the airport, looking for my passport. I could feel my sweat glands going into deploy mode, my heart rate steadily rising. If I didn't find my passport and were detained in Japan, I just might've died of a heart attack and humiliation sooner. Sheesh, I never called a consulate in my life and I hope I didn't have to think about it.

T-3 hrs was closing in on my flight; check-in was opening soon, and I had no passport. Words cannot describe the steady pain and stewing pain I felt. I sat down on a bench which just so happened to be near the left luggage service. I was running through my head how I was going to get out of this - look up the Australian consulate, rebook or cancel my flights, call my travel insurance, etc. etc. All seemed like inevitability to me but it was the most painful set of actions I ever had to contemplate before. Just then, I so happened to stare up at the left luggage attendant who looked at me as well, and he was beckoning me to him.

"I believe you left this behind..." He hands me a navy blue plastic slip pocket with a magenta "Do Not Load" sticker from NZ on the front. Yep, you guessed it...my passport!!! I can't remember how many times I exclaimed, "Dōmō arigatō gozaimashita!!!" and bowed profusely. Frankly, I don't think enough.

OK - all in the world is good again. Calmly put your things together, anat0l, then head up to check-in...

NRT T1 has two check-in halls, corresponding to the North and South wings of the terminal. One side is Star Alliance; the other Skyteam (essentially speaking). Star Alliance have a "*G" check-in row, but in reality it is only for *Gs who are on flights operated by carriers who have NRT as a hub, i.e. NH, CO and UA. Lucky for me, I'm flying on UA.

The sign denoting the *G row, but only for flights operated by NH, CO and UA

In any case, there are no specifically cordoned off sections for NH F or any *A F that I could see (i.e. F check-in is just another counter in a row). I could be wrong, but there we go.

I had a bit of wonder to the other side of the terminal, mainly to explore but it also gave some valuable steps to my step count.

A look into the Skyteam side of NRT T1 check-in

Most interesting pillar, and really hard to get good photos of

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (NRT-SFO)

*G check-in for NRT-hub airlines

Once I headed back to the *A side of the terminal, the *G check-in had opened, so I strolled up to the pretty much empty set of desks and was guided towards a free counter.

The computer age is supposed to make things easier for people to track, and use less paper. Cloud computing is supposed to move away from static storage to mobile storage. Oh the irony....

The kind ladies at check-in basically guided me through the kiosk prompts, i.e. I could probably do it, but the “premium service” appeared to be that they would push the right buttons for you (no puns!). Then came the question, “What is your address in the United States?”

I knew it was my Godmother’s house in North Las Vegas, as I had read the address in the email she sent me, but I never bothered to write it down or download the email to my laptop.

“Is it a hotel?” asked the kind check-in agent.

“No,” I replied, although I suppose my Godmother would be happy if it were.

No laptop signal that I could pick up at the check-in area. Anyway, so whatever black magic the agent did after that (probably entered in a “dummy” address), she advised me to specify this address at the service counter once airside. I was then handed a gold UA BP wallet and two very, very plain looking boarding passes. What was not so plain on the BPs were the four letters that tend to incite dread on the FT boards here. You guessed it: SSSS. My first time...

I passed through NRT security fairly quickly, and they don’t seem all that picky or pushy. I thought I’d be pulled aside due to my SSSS marking, but nothing happened. So then down to immigration, through that quickly enough and onto NRT airside.

NRT T1 airside has a clean appearance that is acceptable to the eye. Whilst it lacks high rooves or plenty of glass like some newer airports, it nonetheless is tidy and not overly old fashioned. As I sort of found out at the end of my trip, there are three *A lounges in NRT T1: two NH lounges and a UA RCC; all lounges having J and F sections. During my entire trip, I forgot about one of the NH lounges, so I only went to two of them. But I digress a bit... my first priority was to head to the UA RCC, where I could fire up the internet, write down my Godmother’s home address and get this information that was required. A shower would be really good, too, since I hadn’t had one since... ummm, maybe I shouldn’t say that....

UA RCC at NRT T1

The UA RCC is quite big, although it would have to be to accommodate (or attempt to accommodate) all the eligible pax on the various UA flights which depart from NRT within a matter of hours from each other. Wood paneling seems to feature a lot in the lounge, trying to recreate a Japanese feel, which was also helped by some Japanese adornments and exhibits about the lounge. The walls help divide the lounge up into multiple zones, rather than having just one huge space with no walls and rows and rows and rows of lounge chairs.

I found a spot on a long bench next to a window with a decent view of whatever tarmac view that could be had outside this lounge. There also happened to be a power port nearby, which was useful since I’d almost exhausted my laptop battery and hadn’t been able to reliably charge it for hours.

Food selection at the lounge was sufficient, with the more substantial offerings consisting of some standard flavour sushi, plastic-wrapped packaged sandwiches and some filled, rolled mini crepes-in-cones.

Selection of food from UA RCC. No, it is not ice-cream in the crepes as suggested by the wrapper.

Connecting to the wireless was a breeze and I quickly retrieved the email and address I needed. Back to the service counter, I had the detail punched in and now I was good to go. I asked the kind lady who served me what exactly does “SSSS” mean, but she said, “Nothing.” Hmmm... OK... am I automatically a terrorist now and she didn’t want to agitate me?

Now that I think about it, perhaps I should think about printing off my hotel confirmations, just in case they ask for it. OK, so how’s about a printer in the lounge? They don’t have one? Alright, what about a shower so I can feel better again? Negative on that, too. Argh! When I asked one of the lounge attendants, she said that I could find both of these at the NH lounge, and there was one near gate 46 which is the closest lounge to my gate. Sounds great – so let’s get out of here and to the NH lounge! Besides, the UA RCC was starting to get very, very crowded...

Once I arrived at the NH lounge, I must say I was very impressed. Beats the UA RCC hands down.

Entry to NH lounge at Gate 46.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (NRT-SFO)

A clean, sleek front desk presented itself to entering pax and I was greeted warmly as my details were checked. The NH lounge at Gate 46 (at least the J part) doesn’t have any windows, unlike the UA RCC, so it may feel a bit like a dungeon for some people, especially in areas where the lighting is rather more subtle. Nevertheless, this lounge had enough to make almost every passenger comfortable: showers )), a nice array of computers with a colour printer, a bar, a decent selection of self-serve food and hot noodle soup made to order (udon or soba).

Inside the NH lounge at Gate 46.

Whilst the sushi may still be "cheap", it's tastier and slightly more variety here.

This is where this lounge is at: hot noodle soup bowls made to order.

Filled myself up with some hearty treats, then went seeking for a shower. I was directed to the shower desk whereupon my boarding pass was retained so they knew I was in there. The shower rooms are a good size and definitely did the trick. Walking out of the room after a long soak and a freshly cut-up face made me feel all new again.

Bathroom at the NH lounge at gate 46. Not overly fancy schmancy, but it does the job - good shower and I feel much better after that!

Did I mention that you can get ice-cream in this lounge? Just ask, and a Fauchon mini tub of ice-cream was proffered. Niiiiice... (hey, I was just following the instructions on the fridge...) I settled down with one and another drink as I used one of the lounge computers to print off my hotel confirmation records.

More treats whilst hard at work - including ice-cream by Fauchon

It wasn’t long after this and another drink that my flight was about to be called, and it was probably worth getting to the gate on time so I don’t have to fight over overhead locker space. Yes, I’m well aware that when flying a USA-based airline, one always has to be mindful of the overhead locker space wars that may arise. Aversion of that kind of trouble is well worth leaving the lounge early.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (NRT-SFO)

One of these UA aircraft might be operating my flight...


Flight: United Airlines UA852 Tokyo Narita (NRT T1) – San Francisco (SFO International)
Depart: 1740h Sched; 1740h Actual
Aircraft: N796UA Boeing 777-200
Distance: 5,120 mi (8,246 km)
Class: Business
Seat: 12D


Upon arrival at the small-ish gate area, I saw a plethora of people crowding around, with the only breathing space appearing to be the yet to be filled lines demarcated by queue tape. Oh...wait for it...wait for it...

On your marks... Get set...

<musical tones> “United Airlines flight 852 to San Francisco is now ready for boarding...”

:arrow: Cue bugle call [VIDEO: Youtube - 26 sec]. Some guy to holler out, "FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL IN!" OK none of that happened, but it might have helped in the commotion. Then again, maybe not.

Elite and general alike, the boarding lines were quickly filled as pax scrambled to ensure their space in the overhead lockers. Elite boarding proceeded first, and as a *G I was entitled to use the lane. I fronted up and was scanned...

“Excuse me, can you please go over there...” No, the kind gate agent was not pointing towards the jetway. I had a look where she was pointing, and there appeared to be a table, a chair and an explosives detector machine there. Oh right, so this is the SSSS treatment.

Alright... shoes off, swab of everything for the test machine, quick feel down. Twiddle thumbs, green light, all good. Maybe they should have one of those “back to normal” like messages similar to The Simpsons when Homer manages to stop a meltdown, “Thank you for being screened. Everything is super. Please board your flight. Have a nice day!”

Now where was I... oh right I need some shoes on my feet first... done. Now back to boarding. A lot of people have a go at UA staff in that a lot of them are quite old. Maybe they don’t age as gracefully, but there is some truth in that when I boarded my flight. Nevertheless, their service for most part was very much acceptable. Maybe as a *G I don’t feel the love as much as a UA 1K, but the staff had a pleasant yet professional disposition and did their jobs quite well.

Bulkhead of the UA 772 in old J class. You can see the "carpet" like material adorning the bulkhead.

The 777 aircraft on this sector was an old type with old J product, which features 150 degree recliners rather than any kind of flat bed seat. Luckily I sleep on almost anything anyway, although QF J is usually Skybed (lie-flat at 10 degree angle, although A380s have Skybed II). Frankly I think there’s a huge brouhaha which is being beaten to death all over the world that the only way to fly in J is with fully flat beds. You have to wonder how people coped with no fully flat beds in J some close to two decades ago (some or all of them must have been able to sleep in them!) and now here we are where supposedly we all need fully flat beds in order to be able to sleep in them.......

I’m digressing again...

My seat - 12D

Legroom in 12D

J configuration is 2-3-2 on this aircraft. It turned out in the end that 12E was not occupied, so having a spare seat next to me for the entire flight was excellent. Preflight drinks were offered. I selected the champagne, or whatever was the bubbling white that was on offer. I had asked what it was, but the FA never came back to me. I’m not sure if it was the same as the champagne which I drank later which was shown on the menu. Wasn’t great stuff, but it was tolerable.

Pre-flight champagne. Notice the plastic wine glass. I'll leave you to form your own opinion.

Amenity kit. Disappointing.

Amenity kits and menus were placed on seats before boarding. Amenity kit is a rather sorry affair, with a rather flimsy-ish bag sporting a bare minimum array of items, with a couple of special items from Murad. Just confirms my theory that high quality amenity kits in J is going the way of the dodo. The menu for the flight outlined the dinner and breakfast service both in English and Japanese. There appeared to be no indication of what one could have if they were peckish in between meal services, perhaps UA don’t have such a thing.

More and more people poured onto the aircraft. Upgrades from Y to Y+ were being sold over the PA. I'm surprised with the chaos and so on that we managed to leave on time, but we did. Perhaps they get very strict about leaving on time so no waiting for dawdling passengers even if they got stuck in the terminal toilet, or those who simply couldn't be buggered running for their flight. Whatever the reason, we pushed back on time and took off towards the United States.

Soon after the seat belt signs were off, the flight's head purser Sunny came through to introduce herself and take orders for dinner. The menu looked fairly boring in terms of appearance and selection, but at least the Japanese meal looked rather fascinating. Not too surprisingly, it must be a popular selection, as I was asked for a second preference in case they run out of Zen meals.

Something of note...

The Japanese meal was billed in the menu as Washoku Zen. Washoku simply means "Japanese food" or "Japanese cuisine".

First part of the service was pre-meal drinks and some nuts to nibble on. The USA based airlines - or at least UA - seem to pride themselves on this marvel known as warm nuts. Basically your mixed nuts are served warmed up - not hot roasted out of the oven, just warmed. The ramekin that they are served in is also warm (read: don't get caught red-handed touching it - get it? :mrgreen

Pommery Champagne and warm nuts. And can we please grow up and not have any double entendres . Notice that all the small napkins have advertising all over it. Tacky...

The warmth of the nuts (stop laughing!) isn't what makes them addicting as it is the salt. I fell for it too so when Sunny came around offering more nuts to people (that's it! I give up! *door slam*), I answered in the affirmative and my ramekin was filled up again. This time the refills were not warm (at least I think they couldn't have, as Sunny was ladling out the refills from a metal bowl with a metal ladle and she was not wearing any gloves - a big metal bowl of warm nuts would have surely burnt her hands!).

The refill was probably welcome as there was a long delay between pre-meal drinks and the first course.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (NRT-SFO)

Table cloth laid out with small IFE screen deployed.

Lucky for me they had not run out of Zen meals, so here's the meal in its entirety:

Extensive appetiser selection from the Zen meal

In case you're wondering, the bowl on the bottom left is green tea, not soup.

Although I could probably handle it, I wasn't quite in the mood for having alcohol with my meal. Not that I know what kinds of Western wines fit a Japanese meal, although there was the option of sake on the menu.

The nice appetiser selection was followed up with a comparably low-key but tasty main:

Main course of the Zen meal

After clearing away the mains, a short delay was followed by an offer of dessert or cheese. I asked if I could have both and I was able to. The menu simply said that the dessert was the "specialty dessert". Turns out it was a bowl of chocolate ice-cream with wafer biscuit. Interesting specialty dessert; certainly something I haven't seen a lot in Japanese sweet cuisine. Perhaps it has something to do with it being a signature dessert of many USA based airlines (i.e. ice cream, sundaes, etc.)

"Specialty dessert" and cheese/crackers, with a side of port

IFE on this aircraft is multiple-channel loopback, and a fairly boring selection all around. I ended up viewing one of my childhood favourites Mary Poppins, but soon after dessert was cleared I was ready to go to sleep. Brush teeth, change into QF F pyjamas, put away belongings, recline seat and nod off...


I can't remember when I woke up relative to breakfast, but I do remember waking up at least once but then trying to go back to sleep. When I woke up for the final time, I could smell breakfast being prepared in the still well and truly dark cabin.

Breakfast was a fairly standard warm affair, beginning with some pastry and fruit...

First course of breakfast

...and then followed by the substantial warm item.

Main course of breakfast. It tastes better than it looks - trust me.

Now as everyone knows, once a meal service is over, usually there's a rush for the bathrooms. I knew that too, so I didn't waste time after finishing breakfast. I carried the whole tray and table cloth to the galley, then got changed back into street clothes. Just as well, as the rest of the cabin started to slowly awaken, chomp down breakfast and make their last toilet break before landing.

It still surprises me to no end how we managed to be so much ahead of schedule as we arrived into SFO. (I know that somewhere like SYD you have no chance of arriving ahead of schedule thanks to SYD ATC provisions). As we taxiied to the gate, our purser filled up our entire taxi time between "Welcome to San Francisco" and "On behalf of United Airlines, we'd like to thank you..." by rattling off about two dozen connecting flights with gate information. Handy, but coughbersome.

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (SFO-LAS)

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to San Francisco, United States of America, where the local time is...yesterday..." :mrgreen:

Alright, that wasn't what was announced, but it isn't everyday that you get to live a date again.

Anyhoo, as I keep a FlightMemory record of all my flights and aircraft, I forgot to note the registration (or "rego" as we shorten it in Australia) of the bird we were flying whilst I was in NRT (although it was getting too dark anyway), so I tried to ask it from the FAs. I learnt that FAs typically have this information as part of their schedules or other info that they have with them; at least, that's my experience with QF FAs.

Didn't work this time. The first FA I asked had no idea what I was on about, before replying that perhaps head purser Sunny might know. Sunny didn't quite know what I was talking about either, but she proffered the tail number of the aircraft. It didn't help at the time, but I wanted to note any information and hope it was easy to look up later. Thanks to the knowledge base that is FT, I managed to find out (deduce) the registration.

Back to SFO, there was a long-ish walk to immigration, and just like any other country in the world, the line for residents was easily shorter than that of visitors. Although there were quite a few desks open, the line still progressed fairly slowly. I finally got to an officer, answered my two questions, got fingerprinted and photographed and with a final messy stamp in my passport, was on my way.

Once I had worked out my baggage carousel, luggage was already running around it from our flight. I went down to the end of the carousel to see someone lugging off a whole bunch of luggage and putting it in a line. No idea what this was for (more *G priority handling? But no one was around to say this), but one of them belonged to me. Grabbed my bag, went to customs and headed for Domestic Connections.

If your bag is tagged to your final destination, Domestic Connections simply involves dropping your bag - nice and simple. What was not so simple after that was making sure you went through the correct security channel corresponding to which terminal (or wing) you need to go to. The signage was a little bit ropy but I eventually found the correct security screening point which was quite crowded as the queue tapes didn't really allow for a very long line to form. There was a line for First Class customers, but it too was quite long (but certainly not as long as the regular line).

The no-nonsense approach to security in the USA: pockets empty; shoes off; liquids out; laptops out; coats off. The line moved pretty slowly so I had time to prepare for all of this before getting to the machine. I didn't see any of those much dreaded Nude-o-scopes, so that was a relief. Now I can't pull off a security dance with the grace of Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air, but I did try: grab two trays, laptop in one, shoes and liquids in the other, coat on top, shove 'em through the machine (and check they go through). Walk through the WTMD. Now I don't know about you but I personally hate stuff stacking up and choking the output of the x-ray machine. So I picked up everything I could and moved away to a nearby bench. That's when I put my shoes back on, put my laptop back in and so on.

And now... we're not through yet... the UA RCC and my gates are a fair walk away from the security point I went through. Down some stairs, a left turn here, a right turn there... eventually I find the UA RCC.

Entry to the SFO UA RCC

Entry to the RCC was granted via my *G status (and not being a member of the USA based FFPs); a wifi card was offered to me upon confirmation of entry. The dark entry hall had a handful of corridors which eventually led to a brighter lounge.

A busy scene inside the UA RCC

Views of the SFO tarmac from the UA RCC

Food selection was really just snacks - everything on offer either was laden full of salt or sugar (or both). The bar appeared to be open and dispensing drinks of the alcoholic kind, but I didn't feel in the mood. I picked out a banana and a glass of water, then found a cubicle in the workstation area to plug in my laptop and catch up on email, Twitter and Facebook.

Once again, I was in a lounge with no showers.

My connection time was not all that long in SFO, and once again not wanting to tempt fate on missing out on overhead lockers space, I decided to leave early for my gate. Luckily I did so, as my gate was located at the very end of the concourse.

A busy SFO circular concourse

Once I got to my gate, I noticed already quite a few people already at the gate awaiting the boarding call. Departure gate FIDs could not be more detailed, showing the time remaining until boarding, the next flight due to depart at a gate, and in some cases the next flight going to the same destination as that of the current flight awaiting departure.

There's also the other, more important information to many people, which is the upgrade and capacity information for the flight: the number of people checked in, the number of seats remaining in the premium classes, and finally the upgrade list, showing the passengers on the waitlist in order of upgrade preference.

Upgrade list. If I were any of the 9 people on this list, I wouldn't be clinging onto hope. Doesn't stop people from trying, though.

Seriously, with all the free upgrades for elites and so many upgrade instruments and pathways, who honestly pays for domestic First in cash these days? It's an insane game in the USA. Even when the premium capacity is 0 and everyone has checked in, there are still scores of people on and off the upgrade list accosting the gate agents to see if there are upgrades available. You have to feel sorry for the gate agents at times.


Flight: United Airlines UA461 San Francisco (SFO T3) – Las Vegas McCarran (T1-D)
Depart: 1301h Sched; 1301h Actual
Aircraft: N537UA Boeing 757-300
Distance: 414 mi (666 km)
Class: First
Seat: 2A


Upgrades on USA airlines is a brutal contest. So is overhead locker space.

Boarding started on time and I was second on the red carpet to board in the first group. Our 753 was loading from door 2, which conveniently sets up a nice split between the traffic of First and Economy (or Coach as it's called in the USA) passengers. I was greeted aboard and then made a left turn . The First class seats were a lot like the QF J Millennium seats except covered in leather rather than fabric.

UA domestic First class on a 753

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (SFO-LAS)

Leg room in a First seat on UA 753, with a couple of pillows thrown around.

Pre-flight drinks were offered. Unlike some other parts of the world where someone comes around with a tray of pre-poured selections, we were asked what we wanted to have. I asked for a sparkling water with lemon. For some reason, some of my Australian friends have sometimes had trouble trying to ask for such a drink, but I had no trouble requesting for sparkling water. My seat mate, an enthusiastic businessman, ordered a G&T. If you took away my lemon piece balanced on top of my cup and did a bit of a switcheroo, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between our two drinks without tasting them! My seat mate told me about this, and also told me that this is how he manages to finagle a few more alcoholic ones secretly when travelling with SWMBO. Cunning fellow.

Sparkling water with lemon. Plastic cups again. No grace on supply here.

I plugged in the headphones and tuned into Channel 9, the much talked about radio channel that allows you to tune into the conversations from the flight deck. From the sounds of things, we were ready to go but SFO ATC wasn't letting us get pushed back in a hurry. I don't know if it's just QF or an Australian thing, but push back and taxiing in the USA seems to proceed at a fairly fast speed. Do the pilots here push the accelerator a bit more than usual? Whatever, must be me.

Once we were up in the air, we were offered another drink (again, for me a sparkling water with lemon, and my seat mate another G&T). For food, we were offered a simple snack service - a choice of as much wave chips, chocolate and cookies that we wanted to eat. I didn't really want too much, so I took some chips and chocolate (the latter for later). A real shame about the service, as I was looking forward to some sort of meal, especially since the flight was around lunch times. Anyway, was not to be.

Snack service

A little bored, I decided to read the inflight magazine...

Busted!

I believe the "graffiti" is part of a game that's played by some FTers in the UA forum.

Our flight to LAS seemed to be tracking at an excellent pace. Our first officer came onto the PA to inform us that we were starting our descent into LAS, at least 20 minutes ahead of schedule. They must be pretty liberal with the throttle here...

Some out-of-window shots along the way to LAS

Whatever the reason, regulation or ritual behind the fast flight, we landed in LAS with the proud purser announcing to everyone that we were 20 minutes early. Our taxi was not too long and before long we were parked at the gate and into the terminal.

Welcome to LAS McCarran

From the D wing, one has to take the rail shuttle to get back to the main terminal for baggage claim and so on.

USA people don't seem to waste any time with bags. In Australia, even though the terminals can be relatively smaller, it can take at least 20 minutes before the first bag hits the baggage belt. In LAS, it had already started when I arrived at the belt, and that certainly was not 20 minutes. I found my bag easily and headed outside to the car park. My godmother and uncle arrived by car not long after and after the usual kisses and greetings were exchanged, I hopped into the car.

Thus ended my saga of almost 30 hours of flying, and a hell of a lot of time in terminals. That, my friends, is the long way to get from Australia to the United States. This is also the last of the premium travel I ever did on this trip. So it's Y from here on in...

 

[anat0l]

Tue 26 Oct (Las Vegas)

Viva Las Vegas

As soon as I was picked up from the airport after not having slept in a real bed for over 36 hours, most people would probably ask to be sent home, a shower, a soft bed and get some rest, right? Well, my godmother had other ideas, because she knew I was only in LAS for just over 24 hours...

Our first stop was the famous Las Vegas Strip, which is mere minutes from the airport. There had been a decent amount of change to the Strip since I'd last been in Vegas, which was all but 16 years ago when I was still a minor. We parked at The Bellagio and set out to do some walking around. Gambling is never on any of our lists of things to do, but casinos are well set up to cater for both gamblers and non-gamblers. As it was getting near Halloween, the Americans do not take the occasion lightly, and there were several gardens and displays set up.

Large garden in The Bellagio themed up for Halloween

Going outside, we saw the famous large show fountain of The Bellagio. We also happened to be around for one of their regular dancing water shows.

Outside The Bellagio

What is this? Looks gross.....

....gotcha! It's melted chocolate flowing...for the frontage of a chocolate shop