Congratulations, Richard! I will e-mail you soon! Wow was it hard to get readers to both comment AND to tweet as well. If you are not using @DeltaAssist yet, you are missing out and need to get on Twitter if ONLY for that. Please! – René
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IntroductionAloft S . fransisco AirportCathay Pacific Lounge San FranciscoCathay Pacific Excellent San Francisco to Hong KongCathay Pacific 1st class Hong Kong to SingaporeSt. Regis SingaporeSingapore Airlines Gold Kris Lounge SingaporeSilkAir Internet business Class Singapore to Koh SamuiConrad Koh SamuiBangkok Air passages Economy Class Koh Samui so that you can BangkokLe Meridien BangkokThai Airways Royal Silk Business Class Lounge BangkokRoyal Jordanian Online business Class Bangkok to Hong KongCathay Pacific "The Wing" Excellent Lounge Hong KongCathay Pacific Top notch Hong Kong to Bay area
As I sit here and make an effort to write this installment, I recently can't get any words and phrases out. It's not which don't know what to mention, it's that I have a great deal to say and I don't know how to begin. Truthfully this has been quite possibly the most difficult trip report I've ever written, simply because with every last installment I've had flashbacks about this flight in my brain, and I feel being a total idiot about it. So let me give it an effort, at least…
Royal Jordanian 182Bangkok (BKK) – Hong Kong (HKG) Weekend, March 30 Depart: 3: 25PM Get there: 7: 00PM Duration: 2hr35min Airplane: Airbus A330 Seat: 3H (Business Class)
I was type of excited to try Royal Jordanian about this route. Bangkok to Hong Kong is some unique routes that's operated by a bunch of carriers on a "fifth freedom" basis. Heck, Emirates, Ethiopian, Kenya Air tract, and Royal Jordanian all of operate this flight as a "tag. " So instead of flying Cathay Pacific on the route in their local business class we decided to fly Royal Jordanian. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to help sample them without going them longhaul. It's my goal to examine as many airlines as possible, so I couldn't not apply it. Besides, I'd flown your three Middle Eastern the big boys — Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar — and was curious to work out how Royal Jordanian when compared to.
Upon boarding through entry 1L we were identified by three flight attendants. They were all Jordanian adult males and wearing pinstriped key downs, which actually seemed pretty sharp.
We rapidly found our seats with row three. Royal Jordanian has angled flat seats in business class on their A330s so each pair of they're probably not the most comfortable globally for longhaul flights, for any flight between Bangkok and Hong Kong they're tricky to beat. The design and colors with the seats were sufficiently neutral to make sure that I neither loved neither hated them. The cabin was comprised of 24 seats across some rows, each of which has been in a 2-2-2 arrangement.
The flight wasn't very comprehensive, and from the looks than it we were actually the sole business class passengers while it began with Bangkok. The six some other business class passengers were connecting from Amman, so hadn't even deplaned within Bangkok.
There have also been a grand total of five flight attendants doing work business class — three Jordanian men in the galley, one Jordanian women working the aisle together with galley, and one Thai female working the aisle. More accurately there appeared to be one and a about half flight attendants working company class, as the some male flight attendants didn't at one time leave the galley. Even I never actually saw them in the galley, but rather only chatting on their jumpseats the whole period.
The Thai flight worker offered us some pre-departure refreshments. She was friendly though seemed a tad intimidated and/or reserved. My partner and i a glass of the apple company juice, while my good friend had water. If nothing else people deserve bonus points with regard to glassware.
The feminine Jordanian flight attendant made her first exposure to us by asking for our boarding passes, which I'd already placed in my passport holder inside the overhead bin. We presented them to her, at which point she walked away. She returned several minutes later with an Aigner amenity kit per each of us.
As far as business class kits go it was well stocked, with cream, socks, eye shades, some comb, toothpaste, and a toothbrush.
There was never an announcement with the cockpit, though the flight clerk made an announcement informing us of our flight time of 2hr15min. Even as pushed back the safety video began to play. It was entertainingly animated, and while I can't realize it's online, here's the corresponding A340 safety video:
We taxied out to runway 19R for the departure and passed a lot of pretty cool traffic, like Orient Thai and Transaero 747s.
Once for the runway we were straight away cleared for takeoff in addition to had a smooth climb using Bangkok. It was a transparent day, which made for quite a few nice views.
Once we climbed through maybe 10, 000 feet the seatbelt sign was put off and I started playing around with the entertainment strategy. I asked for some headphones, which I has been promptly given. They were the cheap kind, which hurt your ears for those who have them on for greater than 30 minutes or which means that.
As we leveled off at some of our cruising altitude the professional and polite Thai flight attendant provided us hot towels.
And the drinks list read the following (interestingly they're not a dry airline outside of the Middle East as much as I know, though they will don't publish a your wine list):
Service on this flight was efficient, and within around 30 minutes of takeoff my family table was set and I actually was served the salad and appetizer. The appetizer contains beef, salmon, and asparagus, in addition to was quite good. Whilst the salad was small, I was happy it consisted of greater than just lettuce. We were also offered wheat rolls within the bread basket.
For the principal course I ordered your rigatoni, which was okay. My friend ordered a roasted duck, which this individual enjoyed.
At that issue the flight attendant brightened my tray. I suspected dessert was still getting, though after not getting served any for 10 minutes I made a decision to follow up, and she said "oh, you didn't say you wanted it. " Figured that it was something they'd proactively give, but…
After the meal we had under an hour to go to Hong Kong, so I figured I'd work with writing my trip file on my laptop. I was actually writing about how disgusting I found the full service experience on Royal Jordanian. The poor Thai flight attendant was working your ex rear off, while the three men's flight attendants sat with the galley laughing and talking the complete time. It really made me sick to enjoy. And it also type explained why she did actually lack confidence — As i can't even imagine what this lady has to deal with on a daily basis.
Up until this issue the most puzzling perhaps the flight had to be that your call button went off literally every 10 seconds for the entire flight. I don't fully understand if someone's was stuck and kept ringing and also what, but it went off a couple of hundred times during the flight, and was without layovers.
About 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival time among the list of flight attendants came to the PA to inform us nonchalantly that individuals would be delayed around 30 minutes and circling due to be able to heavy traffic in Hong Kong. That caught me off guard rather. I hadn't checked the weather forecast for Hong Kong, and stupidly assumed it becomes nice. The weather outside in every direction looked beautiful to boot. So I figured there was just some congestion with the airport, which isn't too unusual inside afternoons.
It seemed to catch the lady on the other side of the aircraft even more off guard, because she started screaming "why around 30 minutes, that's too much? Abdominal muscles five minutes instead? "
I figured I could truthfully keep working on my laptop since we were still at 30, 000 feet, though the crew created an announcement saying to show off all electronic appliances, so I powered lower my laptop.
As we began our descent we hit some pretty serious chop. If you're not really scared of flying, you know how sometimes when you hit some serious process you weren't expecting you chuckle a tad? Well yeah, it was that type of chop. Or maybe it's merely me…
Well the chop gained progressively worse and changed into turbulence, and we quickly found ourselves in the thing that was no doubt examples of the worst weather I've possibly experienced. It wasn't daunting in and of again, though it was the species of turbulence that causes you to tighten your seatbelt a lttle bit and make sure all of belongings are secure to make sure they don't fly around a cabin. We were in some thick clouds, to the point that we couldn't even start to see the wing.
The weird thing is that it didn't seem like people were circling, but quite we were descending immediately. We proceeded to descend through examples of the worst turbulence I've ever experienced relating to 15 minutes. And it wasn't just turbulence, nonetheless lightning too. It was clear we were right during the storm based how frequently we heard this lightning and how loud it was subsequently.
Then we leveled out of, which was kind in the turning point of the flight in my situation. Up until this level I wasn't scared, despite the fact that that quickly changed. The pilot side of my brain started up. Hmmm, we had steeply descended around 15 minutes, so should have descended at least 20, 000 feet possibly even. At this point My partner and i figured we were from around 10, 000 ft ., maybe a bit excessive, though more than likely a lttle bit lower.
The next a quarter-hour were probably the worst type of of my adult life. The turbulence and turbo got progressively worse, together with we were struck by lightning. Not the first time it's happened in my own 2. 5 million distance of flying, so My partner and i wasn't too worried. What worried me was that the pilots were flying the plane, or at least generate profits perceived it. We have leveled off though experienced an abnormally high pitch attitude (meaning our nose was up). The weather was a worst I've ever experience to the plane. But the baffling part was that this pilots were flying this plane. The engines would idle right and you could honestly hear a pin drop on the plane. Actually all we're able to hear was the water with bursts of hail hitting the side of the fuselage and also the lightning getting progressively even louder. In the cabin was simply silence mixed with moping and crying. Then we got struck by lightning… again. There seemed to be a loud thump.
And then as the nose throw got higher and higher the engines would spool as many as close to 100% all over again, only to be cut back to idle. For everything of me I couldn't discover what was going on or why we were looking at doing that. What was undergoing my head? For one, the possibility of your stall. We were at your sufficiently low altitude that him and i probably wouldn't have been able to get rid of it if one occured. But more than anything more I was wondering the way in which distracted the pilots ended up being.
As a passenger with a bit of pilot experience and much passenger experience, this is the point at which you start to proceed crazy. We're at the lowest altitude, we're in a worst weather I've possibly experienced, we've gotten struck by lightning twice, you'll find a ridiculous high face up pitch attitude, and using the engine throttle isn't just adjusting for wind gusts (as is the norm), but is literally going from near idle to near full potential, and back, every couple of minutes. Beyond that, the captain hadn't made an announcement the complete flight. Sure he could get anticipated the weather was going to get bad and may have made an announcement before we experienced the storm, but he or she hadn't.
The amount of thing running through my head at this point in the flight was just ridiculous. At this point I had more or less written off my lifestyle. I put my passport around my pocket (for obvious reasons), and tried to show on my phone to help text my mom. What I felt worst about was that your parents didn't know I was on this subject flight, as we weren't originally booked about this itinerary. For that matter my oldest brother passed away 20 years ago, and I wondered why the hell I even got using a plane, and that We couldn't let my parents lose another son. At this stage I literally figured My partner and i was done, and at a minimum hoped it would most end easy.
I also briefly chuckled (oddly) at the fact that before the flight We tweeted "About to take flight Royal Jordanian… wish myself luck! " I figured at a minimum that earned me my place in the "Air Crash Investigation" episode about the flight.
The other side associated with my brain (I'm undecided if that's the lucid or irrational side) had some other plan. I was at the stage where I wanted to diamond ring my call button and now have the crew call that cockpit to climb right out of the bad weather and fly us the gym. I'm sorry, but being a commercial pilot you don't hold inside of a "red cell" for 30+ min's. You just don't. I decided against it in the long run and of course the blueprint was ridiculous, but I was so close to devising some plan to find the plane to divert elsewhere or just get out of the general mess, even if it meant I'd result in jail somewhere.
Anyway, we continued our descent with the horrible weather, and after nearly thirty minutes of not even having the capacity to see the wing tip we finally broke out of your, well, I don't even know how to describe what it is, and saw land along with lights. I didn't figure out what land it was and additionally figured we were directing somewhere. About a minute in the future we saw some runway lights off inside the distance. It didn't resemble Hong Kong Airport for me, but again, I didn't maintenance where we were you, I just knew I was going to get off the plane, kiss the ground, and please take a boat back to north america ..
At that point the landing gear ended up. I don't remember one more time I cried ahead of this, but I literally previously had tears running down my face as being the landing gear came out there. I wasn't totally calm yet since there was always the prospect of a go all over and I began to wonder the quantity of a fuel reserve there was left.
But sure enough we touched down using what felt like the special landing ever, and I quickly realized it's Hong Kong Airport. The sensation I experienced when we touched the bottom really can't be stuffed into words. I was so weak that you could've probably cut through me using a spoon. I felt extremely grateful and content to be alive. I also felt angry for the whole situation. And bewildered.
We taxied to the gate as well as the male Jordanian flight worker made an announcement that nothing had happened in addition to welcomed us to Hong Kong.
As we got to the gate and seatbelt sign turned off I tried to get up, but initially couldn't. I was so drenched in sweat and weak that i could hardly move.
Once we walked up to the entranceway by door 1L, the three macho men flight attendants that showed no emotion the whole flight admitted that had been the worst flight on the list of ever had. And they didn't have even to say it, considering that sweat on their button downs around their armpits is revealing enough.
The Thai airline flight attendant had tears jogging down her face. As well as the female Jordanian flight attendant emerged through the cockpit with her make up all messed up, undoubtedly from crying. She explained that the "pilots needed [her] help in the descent, " so she is at the cockpit. She said "they both said they're retiring so next flight. " Doubt this girl was actually being major, though I think the sentiment about is.
Anyway, y'all are certainly unengaged to take what I say with a grain of salt and additionally think I'm crazy. I'm also not about to beat a dead horse any more. I'm incredibly grateful to get alive, though also have quite a few questions, which I shared on this page.
I wish the flight didn't have this impact on me, simply because flying is my love. It's what I've loved since an exceedingly young age, and my enthusiasm for it hasn't worn off with the 15+ years I've already been obsessed. Sadly I'm even now extremely uncomfortable when going, even a few excursions later. I'm hoping it's your "phase. "
To come to be clear, it's not that I'm literally scared of flying — I am aware of how it works and how safe it truly is. It's that I'm scared of being in this particular hopeless situation again, one I can't get free from, and the flash backs I've got. I've even seen some doctors since the flight due to problems I've developed (and I'm not what kind to usually go to doctors, I don't think I've ever seen a health care professional outside of getting a come by prior to this).
Nevertheless, this will be my last post over the flight. Thanks for if you let me express myself, and hopefully some closure comes equipped with it…
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DIA itself while using the stunning architecture of your Jeppsen terminal is brilliant… your shame the TSA are close to their usual games.
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For monday trip San Francisco – Delhi, May possibly 2 choices using U . s . miles, both require ninety, 000 miles, but only one segment is in Top notch, other segment is running a business class.
Which one what is take, paying miles for To begin with cabin but getting a particular segment [that's just] in company?
1. San Francisco Tokyo in ANA's Top B777-300ERTokyo – Delhi with ANA business class (no Earliest cabin in flight) B767-300
2. San Francisco – Frankfurt with Lufthansa Business (First not really available) A380-800 angle flat seatsFrankfurt – Delhi within Lufthansa First B747-8 plane
There is also the alternative to take Lufthansa Company class on both sections for 60, 000 kilometer after kilometer. Should I save 20, 000 kilometer after kilometer? I have over 1 k [Chase Ultimate Rewards] points.
.. This is 1st amount of time in premium cabin because normally traveling with category of 4 and have to be in for Economy cabin funds.
ANA's top notch is excellent. What I want about that itinerary is of the fact that longer flight is in excellent, whereas the Lufthansa itinerary maintain a pool of longer flight segment (San Francisco – Frankfurt) in company.
What it comes as small as for me is a lengthier flight in first class versus a shorter one weighing exclusively use ANA, compared to the opportunity to access the First Elegance Terminal in Frankfurt. (He'd have to stop the terminal in Frankfurt (proceeding as a result of immigrations) and walk to the site the first class terminal to achieve this. )
So if he wants that ground experience while using car ride to the plane being rare treat for someone that usually flies economy, my advice was going with Lufthansa. But if he values the greater length of time in the air with comfort, ANA would as the choice.
If it ended up being me I'd do ANA, but I've visited the Lufthansa First Class terminal many times. If I hadn't at any time done it, I'd probably pick Lufthansa. I'd definitely pay any additional 20, 000 miles with the one-time experience plus better flight from Frankfurt to help Delhi, although others might disagree bring back valuation. I think for someone with on the million Chase Ultimate Incentives points that's easy.
In that case, having made that choice, I'd keep my eye out in a first class award seat in the San Francisco – Frankfurt flight which might be rebooked into to get no additional miles. A day before the flight it might well open if this cabin isn't mostly sold-out.
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I posted previously regarding the TSA PreCheck identifier start to appear on boarding passes if you happen to qualify for the application. And having just checked set for my United flights, I am able to report a slight alter from what the TSA publicised.
Eligible passengers will discover a TSA Pre? ™ warning on all boarding goes over, even when flying because of an airport where TSA Pre? ™ is not really available.
But on Usa, at least, the PreCheck indicator sole appears on my boarding goes over (both mobile and paper) because of departure airports where PreCheck is obtainable.
This isn't anything earth-shattering for any of us in a know, but it should help eliminate confusion for any infrequent, yet PreCheck-approved fliers.
About fourteen days ago Air France introduced an important devaluation of these Flying Blue program, at the very least for non-coach redemptions. The redemption prices for premium cottage prizes went way up, while the gasoline taxes on instructor redemptions went down. An increase that was announced by alaska partners with Air France ( and for matter just about any airline with the word aaira in their name ), and interestingly within their redemption rates for travel on Air France starting June 11, 2013. Essentially redemption rates to Europe are going up by 25,000 miles running a business school, the same amount Air France is increasing redemption rates through their program: And the cost of redemptions to Africa, the Middle East, and India, may also be increasing by 20,000 miles running a business class: As the most readily useful use of Alaska miles has never been for vacation on Air France, first of all, I donat really worry about this decline. And really Air France is kind of a pointless partner anyhow, since last year they began issuing only a sub group of their award supply to partner airlines, and that means award place is nearly impossible to find in these days for some of the year if not reserving directly through Flying Blue. But more than other things Iam kind of fascinated with the decision to alter these particular redemptions. Companion airlines have different payoff costs than the anativea airlines all the time, so why did this decline occur? Did Air France choose they donat want their partners aunder pricinga them? In that case, is a Delta devaluation next? And if this is just a random decline, of all the prices they can devalue, why this one? Oddly they leave their Cathay Pacific payoff rates to South Africa, India, and the Middle East intact (at 140,000 miles for roundtrip first class), their American rates to Japan intact (at 100,000 miles for roundtrip business class), their Korean Air rates to a lot of Asia intact (at 105,000 miles for roundtrip business class), and their Qantas rates to Australia intact (at 110,000 miles for roundtrip business class). Therefore I do you know what Iam wanting to say in a very backwards way isa thanks Alaska! (Tip of the hat to Gary)
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