Far too much electronic

On my flight back to HK on SQ, the flight path map has been all the time mis-located in about 4-5 km difference. The below photo showed how the plane docked on the airport, not the flying position. I noticed quite several times the current GPS on various smartphones and tablets, esp. running on Android having this kind of GPS distance variance of around 3-4 km. Perhaps nowadays the electronic communication is much overloaded and jammed. As I consider this is the year of 2012, the technology shouldn't be like this.

From HK to Male with Singapore Airlines

I spent quite many times for planning a trip to Maldives and failed, due to the flight being so full for a few months or the resort being full too. Finally as I could make it, my travel agent suggested me have a more leisure transit time at Singapore Changi Airport (almost 4 hours) though the A380 flight from HK to Singapore has ample transit time of 2 hours and plenty of seats. No doubt A380 does have quite a lot of problems since its launch. So no need to bother with flying A380.

Singapore Airline offers a better firmer economy seat cushion than Cathay Pacific, and more leg room too. Service-wise, SQ is a bit better and very traditional in providing hot towels and meal menu before the flight. The meal tray and presentation is also pretty traditional. The front folding tray has a mirror (photo 2/3).

As for the inflight entertainment, it has a very wide selection of movies and music as well as games. However, the electronic system is not that smooth. Two of the four flights I took has some problems that I couldn't use it. Quite unexpected to see the RCA jacks (the conventional analog input for L/R audio and video) (photo 1), but wondered who would bring RCA cables onboard.

Thai Airway B747-400 business class, Bangkok to Phuket

All these reminds me of the business class seat of North West of 20 years ago. Check on photo 1. See that the back board behind the seat. This is a big draw back for this seat that the recline is really restricted. Photo 2: the tray and table setting (fork/knife) is in business class but the food. 3 (once) deep fried shrimp balls with some pickled veggie and some eat-hard coconut jello as a morning breakfast. Very alternately authentic. The master chef for this catering really needs to go back to school. Serving cold food isn't that bad, but cold deep fried food shouldn't be on board. I'd rather prefer some cold cut or sandwiches.

2012 Spring review: Business class, Cathay Pacific Airway

This flight on CX is a 180 degree experience from my BA flight taken 2 weeks ago. On the one with BA, I paid a higher fare but got a forced downgrade (though finally I insisted and kept my premium seat). On this CX flight, I got a complimentary upgrade and the seat and meal service is really nice. Appetizer is smoked salmon rocket salad. I chose the Kung Po prawn as the main course and a choco. ice cream as dessert. Then I slept for 30 minutes to re-charge myself from a hustling busy afternoon.

*as I look back on all my trips, those to Europe and US were really not fortunate. Almost 1 out of 5, I would run into some troubles, from plane engine shutdown (KLM), emergency landing (UA), luggage loss (AF), strike (AF/BA), food poisoning (UA), to various travel disappointments....etc. However, I don't even run into such high frequent travel issues when I travel within Asia.

The new lounge, the Wing, Cathay Pacific, HK Airport

The Wing (near gate 2 of HK Airport) has gone thru' 3 months of renovation, and resumed its services as of this month. I miss their noodle bar a lot. Their wonton noodle is a nice treat before your flight taking off. What's more, there are more varieties of food, including hot and sour soup which I found some very nice dried mushroom. Their pastry and cookies are unexpectedly good. Peninsula catering really got a good merit on all these food services.

This new lounge has more seating areas and long or short bars serving drinks, cafe, ice cream, pastry to sandwiches. Noted quite many different chairs, couches, sofa...etc. You should find one which makes you feel comfortable.

Plane, trane, automobile - revelation from my European trip 2012

This European trip could be the most costly but the harsh trip I have ever had.

1. Got to pay for a premium economy class but almost got forced to downgrade to economy due to overbooking, but the economy class was full when I first tried to book the tickets 4 months prior to my travel. Ain't it ridiculous of this BA system for luring me to buy a premium economy ticket!

2. Flight engine problem that we were diverted back to the docking bay from the runway. That took us another tough afternoon to wait and wait.

3. Seeing so many people reporting their stuff being stolen or robbed and a long line at the police station.

4. Strike strike strike... shops closed, bus stopped. Almost couldn't get back home in time. Seeing people getting so awkward for a taxi to leave.

I feel like watching the movie "Plane, train, automobile" (starring Steve Martin).

Premium economy class, British Airway

The first time I flew on a premium economy class was with Eva Air (a Taiwanese airline) in 1994 when I used to fly pretty often to Vancouver and Los Angeles. The seat was 40% more spacious than the economy class with 1.5 inches wider and 6 inches longer with 2 more inches recline and the price is about 10-20% more expensive back then (HK$6,600 for premium vs. 4,800 for economy). On my recent trip to Europe, I chose this class with British Airway (HK$9,990 for premium vs. 7-8,00 for economy. Noted that it's the peak Chinese New Year holiday season). On my first outbound flight, I got a phone call from BA that the flight was overbooked and asked if I was willing to downgrade to economy without remarking on how the price difference was when I queried on that, but just got diverted the answer for the airport counter to answer. Besides, they claimed they didn't have business class seats to cater for me - an immediate back-end closing the door. This is a real bad contingency plan that an airline shouldn't have and this is BA which holds such a big fleet of aircrafts. So unprofessional.). Then when I was at the HK airport, the counter repeated the same stupid saying. I immediately denied and that unprofessional agent subtly murmured for herself that it's not that spacious for the premium. So in order not to ruin my onward flights, I had to bear with it and simply requested for what I paid for. Then I wrote a serious complaint to BA but their reply is that it's their policy for doing so, but advised me to get the price difference if that's the case. Another unprofessional reply that they didn't get my point clearly. So this airline is another one like Air France in addition to Canadian Airline and United Airline that I could totally forget their existence.

Then on board with their 747 aircraft, my first impression, the seat is pretty spacious but quite torn out and the seat cushion was so flat down without a proper comfort. The cabin cleanliness is my concern too. It's very dusty with some stain. The personal TV is even smaller than many other airline economy class and the entertainment program is more for the British without any Asian programs if you care about some Asian content.

As for the meal, the portion is bigger than those of economy class, but in general it's quite quite salty for all the meals I took. Their coffee is very bland at about 1/3rd thickness of the American coffee. It's pretty disappointing. The only happy thing is their crew is generally very friendly and helpful after all.

So that's it and I will go back to Cathay Pacific and especially they are launching a new premium economy class as from this coming March.

Business class review: Royal Jordanian Airway HKG-BKK Feb 2011

On my way back from BKK-HKG, the business was very full and even more full than economy class. There was a big group of "high end" religious HK people occupying over half of the whole business cabin traveling back from Amman (Jordan). When I checked in at BKK airport, my friend and I got separated on the already booked seats. So we decided to ask for changing the seats with other passengers. There it came some angry passengers refusing to change, but the funny thing is that the person sitting to my friend and the one sitting next to me know each other. What's more, the person sitting next to me told me "it's not that I don't wanna change the seat for you. I need to show it to the crew - they did something wrong.". On and off that lady kept talking on how they spent their 2 week trip in Jordan and even asked me what the weather was like in HK. I immediately replied "How about checking with the crew. I also left HK for a long time.". When the meal was served, she condemned the meal with "shit" and then took a big bag of potato chips on her own and got so noisy with the bag. As a result of this lovely group, the 2 Thai crew was stirred up to be bitchy by throwing the hot meals to "all" passengers. No greeting word. No word for coffee or tea... At first, I was a bit annoyed with these alternate passengers but with those cool crew, I found it like watching a zoo show.

The sector for HKG-BKK was very pleasant in comparison. Jordan Air has replaced their old business class seats. I like the way they had a clipping basket for shoes. Keeping the cabin more tidy. Food wise, not bad but only cold food was served for HKG-BKK. Service is nice on the Jordanian crew. They joked with passengers for a happy mood and explained in details on their wine selection. Well, sometimes we need to be interactive with others and try not to be too demanding and picky. Otherwise, it's like a virus spreading to affect the others. When you yell at someone, that person yells at the other and the other yells back at you.

The Cabin, new lounge of Cathay Pacific, HK Airport

Cathay Pacific has launched its new lounge near gate 23 of HK Airport, called the Cabin, after the Wing (at gate 65) and the Pier (at gate 3). The Cabin offers a wide range of cold dishes and some fruit juices like the below Morning breeze (carrot, apple and celery). It offers some nice pastry and hot sandwiches under the Peninsula catering. The individual zone chair (the bottom photo) resembles a bit of its business class seat configuration.