For the sake of completeness, I did take a few photos on my (comparatively) short hop to Manila. Coach just doesn’t merit quite as many words (or photos) as first class.
ANA 949
Tokyo (NRT) – Manila (MNL)
Friday, May 25th
Depart: 6:17PM
Arrive: 9:34PM
Duration: 4 hours, 17 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 767-381ER (JA603A)
Seat: 26B (Economy Class)
Since I was an arriving passenger from a Global First flight, I had access to the first class lounge in Tokyo for my three hour layover. If nothing else, it made for a change of scenery from March.
Upon entering, I presented my boarding pass to the check-in podium. I’m not sure why it’s necessary, but I was escorted to the elevator bank up to the first class level. Would armed guards have tackled me if I tried to press the elevator call button on my own?
As noted before, the lounge has unique artwork.
The lounge had a slightly different food selection than the main lounge.
The views and decor are the essentially the same (the first class lounge sits one level above the main lounge).
I never found out the reason, but while I was waiting for my flight to Manila, an EVA Air A330 was met by emergency personnel on the ground to be towed away while followed by a slow moving procession of firetrucks:
After about two hours in the United lounge, I left for the ANA lounge closer to my departure gate to get my seat changed (from the second to last row middle seat on a 763 to an aisle) and to flee the deteriorating wifi quality. While I did get my seat changed, the ANA lounge was packed and the wifi was somehow even worse than the one I had left.
As I was checking up on flight loads the day before my trip, I noticed that the day’s UA915 (HNL-SFO) flight had been canceled and my flight to Honolulu showing no seats for sale in either cabin. Since SHARES’ (apparent) inadequacies prevent adding one’s name to the volunteer list anywhere but at the airport for the segment in question (unlike United’s Apollo system, which let me volunteer at La Guardia for my connection in Chicago to Portland in February), I waited at my gate at Newark hoping for an on-time departure (and a subsequent on-time arrival) so I could volunteer before they found enough people willing (or not) to take another flight.
We arrived on-time from Newark and quite fortunately, my next gate was only a hundred feet away. The gate lice had already swarmed the boarding area, but I was able to make it up to the podium.
“Do you need volunteers?”
“Yes, we’re oversold by 11. We’re offering $400 in travel credit, a hotel, meal vouchers, and a first class seat on tomorrow’s flight.”
“I’m not actually going to Honolulu. I’m going to Manila today. Do you think you can make that work?”
While it’s not a 777-worth of people, being oversold by 11 passengers at T-45 minutes certainly left the gate agents pressed to take any volunteer they could find. With a US passport and no checked bags, they were able to reroute me, even on a moderately complex international itinerary. When I was standing at the podium with my netbook, I did a few searches with ITA for United inventory, coming up with the flight to Tokyo, reaching Manila via Guam about 24 hours later than I had planned.
They came up with something better (allowing me to avoid ditching a night at my hotel in Manila): United GlobalFirst to Tokyo followed by the ANA nonstop to Manila. Why ITA failed to show this itinerary to me baffles me.
As I was leaving the podium, I asked–having not looked at my boarding passes yet–whether they were able to find a way of sticking me in business or first class. “Oh, we managed to keep you where you were.”
Having only 50 minutes prior to departure, I took off for the international terminal (which thankfully is connected airside). With Gate 100 in sight, I found myself next to the United Global First Lounge and with a few moments. I looked at my boarding pass for my seat number: 4A. A thought crossed my mind: “Huh, I think that’s first class.”
I took a moment to pop into the lounge, but only had a few minutes to check my email before the announced that boarding was starting.
Our Tulip-bearing 747:
United’s Business product comes with a single pillow; Global First (as well as p.s. First Class) gives you two.
United 837
San Francisco (SFO) – Tokyo (NRT)
Thursday, May 24th
Depart: 11:48PM
Arrive: 2:11PM
Duration: 10 hours, 23 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 747-222
Seat: 4A (First Class)
(For reasons that are not fully clear to me, the first class “suites” on United have shoulder harnesses but the business class seats do not.)
The amenity kit was consistent with the new (Tulip-less) branding of Continental d/b/a United Airlines. (The plastic-wrapped slippers, however, still had Tulips.)
When I flew to Sydney, I was on the right side of the aircraft, giving a terrific view shortly after take off of the Golden Gate Bridge (at night). Between being on the left side of the aircraft and a bit of cloud cover, the views after take off weren’t as good.
With 5061 miles to go, I was fully prepared to relish every moment of it.
The menu read as follows:
As a legacy United flier, I’m supposed to cheer that Continental’s management kept the warm nuts served in a ramekin, so here-here! (Economy Plus seems to be the other vestige of United Airlines.)
First came the bread (I skipped the tuna appetizer):
Rather than the on-menu tomato-basil soup, they were serving a wild mushroom soup that turned out to be quite good (and I’m not much of a mushroom fan).
Prior to takeoff, I was able to secure the pasta for myself on account of being a “vegetarian who got put on this flight less than 30 minutes ago.” While United no longer prioritizes meals by status (except for Global Services members), a combination of my sob story, being in full-fare F, and having 1K status worked (or perhaps no one else wanted the pasta).
I took the ice cream. One of these days, I’ll be adventurous and try the cheese selection on an international United flight.
Our five course meal got me most of the way through my movie, so I finished it up and then tried to get a bit of sleep. Rather fortunately, I had lucked out by having a minimal amount of sleep the night before, so I was able to actually fall asleep.
I woke up at the western tip of the Aleutians.
I chose the fruit and yogurt for breakfast.
For some reason, I like the shrubbery of Narita.
For all of the moaning that occurs on the Internet about how “US-based airlines suck,” I was impressed by the United Global First product. As far as hard-products go, the seat was quite comfortable (aided, of course, by the two pillows provided) and offered substantial storage space in the compartments next to the seat. While the legacy United Business class product doesn’t provide aisle access to every seat (and even has, gasp, middle seats, as I complained last week), the suites are well arranged. As far as the soft-product goes, the crew was excellent (I had a vegetarian meal to eat!) and the food decent (I wasn’t on Swiss).
That said, if not for award tickets or VDB reroutes, the next time I need to fly from San Francisco to Tokyo, am I going to pull out my American Express Premier Rewards Gold card (3 points per dollar on airfare, of course) to buy a $8538 walk-up, one-way fare? I’ll be realistic: Of course not.
I left the United lounge shortly before the revised, scheduled boarding time. The flight status TVs throughout the lounge had out of order signs next to them (despite being on) that didn’t exactly inspire my confidence. Our departure was a bit further delayed, giving me a moment to snap a few pictures of the plane and take a quick walk to the end of the pier before boarding commenced.
Poor business class award availability for this flight notwithstanding, the cabin was quite empty: 15 of the 28 seats were occupied.
Turkish 51
Tokyo (NRT) to Istanbul (IST)
Friday, March 30th
Depart: 12:28PM
Arrive: 6:51PM
Duration: 12 hours, 23 minutes
Aircraft: 777-3F2ER (TC-JJL)
Seat: 2B (Business Class)
Like Air New Zealand’s safety video featuring the All Blacks (when your flight’s IFE is working properly), Turkish Airlines has a slightly off-beat one of its own with Manchester United.
The obligatory, pre-departure flight show:
The menu read as follows:
Since I had requested a vegetarian meal, my appetizer came preplated rather than served off of the cart.
After the meal, the flight attendants closed the window shades and turned on the mood lighting for our long flight across Asia.
About two hours out from Istanbul, we had a second meal service.
Overall, I was impressed by the Turkish Airlines business class product’s superb soft product, but I felt the seat left a bit to be desired.
New planes with new interiors goes a long way at providing a compelling hard product. When I took this trip in late March, the 777-300ER I was on was about 13 months old; in comparison, the Thai 747-400 I took to Tokyo was about 21 years old. That said, as a hard product person, the question I had for myself was “who would put up with a middle seat in paid business class in this day and age?” It’s a question I ask myself every time I see the legacy United’s “new” 8 abreast business class product on its 747’s and 777’s. (I shudder to contemplate United’s old business class product for long-haul travel, even if I enjoy their p.s. service domestically.) In comparison, Air New Zealand fits 26-28 lie-flat business class seats, each with direct aisle access, on its 777’s in the same space that Turkish Airlines uses to fit 28 angled lie-flat business class seats, consisting of 8 window seats and 4 middle seats without direct aisle access.
Because of my short redeye into Tokyo, I actually wound up going to bed early and somehow managed to wake up after sleeping about 8 hours. This left me with a few hours to kill in my hotel room, eating breakfast at my hotel, and then finally a few more hours to kill at the airport.
Star Alliance carriers share much of the check-in space at the south wing of Terminal 1. I arrived at the terminal a bit before the three hours prior to departure mark and saw that Turkish was assigned to the same check-in area as Air China. After a highly choreographed changeover, check-in opened and I was advised to relax in the United Club until my flight began boarding.
For once, I found a United Club offering a fare different than cheese, crackers, and trail mix.
The lounge was nearly empty while I was there.
The Tulip lives.
For my stay in Tokyo, I chose to stay at the airport. While the first part of my plan (checking in early to freshen up) did not go quite as expected, it was convenient for the second half of my plan: Being able to get to the airport at a leisurely pace for my late morning departure.
As a Hilton HHonors gold member, I was given a voucher for a complimentary breakfast at their restaurant. The buffet was a vast collection of Japanese and Western dishes, but I chose to not take photos as it was rather busy and I didn’t feel like explaining what I was up to.
For my hop to Tokyo, I selected the Thai-operated redeye.
Having relaxed in the Thai business class lounge until 45 minutes before departure, I decided to head to my gate. Boarding didn’t start until around 25 minutes before departure, leaving me standing around the gate wondering how they could manage to board an entire 744 in 25 minutes when United can’t seem to board an A320 in 35 minutes. Nonetheless, we managed to depart miraculously on-time.
Thai 640
Bangkok (BKK) to Tokyo (NRT)
Thursday, March 28th
Depart: 10:10PM
Arrive: 6:20AM
Duration: 6 hours, 10 minutes
Aircraft: 747-4D7 (HS-TGK)
Seat: 12A (Business Class)
This flight is a surprisingly short flight, until one studies a map:
Bangkok to Tokyo is a 2889 mile direct flight. For comparison, San Francisco to New York is 2586 miles and Los Angeles to New York is 2475 miles. While American and United serve a midnight snack (normally a chicken sandwich or a fruit and cheese plate) on their Flagship and p.s. routes respectively, Thai offers two meals on this flight.
The menu read as follows:
Due to the short flight time, I chose to skip the dinner and focus on sleep instead. Breakfast service started about two hours before landing.
