Quick note

Pre-flight champagne + pre-dinner cocktail involving manuka honey flavored vodka + glass of pinot noir during dinner + Bailey’s during dessert + dessert wine with the cheese plate = vomitting into a plastic basin in the galley because both toilets were occupied, and this despite the fact that I actually had dinner before the flight.

I generally don’t get all crazy with the alcohol during work travel but being on holiday, and paying for the tickets myself, made me feel like I should take advantage of what I paid for — though I’m not sure if drinking on flights is really taking advantage of anything as it really only serves to dehydrate you.

Recently …

Well, the return of my interest in politics was decidedly short, and probably for the better for most people. After all, who’d want a sane person actually running the country. Ron Paul may not have been the most charismatic talker or most uplifting, but the man is a damn genius, of sound mind, and … well, just too good for the American public. My good friend Mr. Pengo provides a far better discourse on this topic over various entries at his blog. Check it out if you’re interested.

That aside, I finally got Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii last week. Not sure about elsewhere, but here in Australia Activision recently released a “limited edition” double-guitar set for the Wii and with a 15% pre-Easter sale I got the whole thing for AUD 170 (it was 169.something). Not a bad purchase especially as it already had a chance to liven-up a party.

Also of recent interest was my work trip to Tokyo. Not much to say as I was pretty much working every day but I did get a free day on my day of arrival (Sunday) and an old friend from Wesleyan, Janice, was kind enough to take me around Ginza, which happened to be just next door to where I was staying, Marunouchi. My last night there, a Friday night, was mostly a blur with much drinking and laughing capped by a 4.30am trip to Tsukiji Fish Market for some fresh sushi breakfast. Unfortunately for me I was rather ill after staying up the whole night and just managed to wolf down my food. But yes, it was fresh.

On this trip I discovered that Banana Republic now has a store at Paragon in Singapore and also at multiple locations in Tokyo (one of which was practically across the street from my hotel)! Now if only their American website will ship internationally.

I attended the Easter Mass this past Sunday but was mostly bored and falling asleep as I stayed-up rather late the night before watching The Prestige and it was standing room only at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Thankfully I had a pillar to lean on. I have to admit I still have mixed feelings about attending a Novus Ordo mass, even if this was a “Solemn” Mass (is there any other kind?) which apparently meant that much of it was sung (in English). I can only imagine a Latin High Mass being celebrated inside St. Mary’s–it’s actually quite a decent cathedral.

The SonyEricsson W910i phone is a pretty damn sexy phone, especially the red colored one. I got one for my girlfriend as her old Nokia guaranteed a one-sided conversation for anyone whom she called (or called her on) from it and now I can’t help but drool over it every time I see it. Between the crappy 5MP camera on my new K850i (the old K800i produced far better images than this) and the stupid firmware issues SE has with this phone I wish I could exchange it. The biggest reason though is the little “H” icon at the top of her display that I see all the time. I switched to Telstra as I was getting fed-up with Optus (for a variety of reasons) and also because I wanted to get on their NextG network (their branding for HSDPA). Telstra, however used the 850 frequency–unlike all the other local provider or most of the world for that matter–so I had to make sure my phone would be able to use the 850 frequency. However, ever since I brought this phone back from Singapore all I see is “3G” and “H” only very rarely. Her phone (which is only capable of using UMTS 2100), on the other hand, is always showing “H” on Optus’ network. -sigh-

The SQ Lemonade

Every now and then Singapore Airlines disappoints. But even the best fails at times so I suppose this is only normal. One such example was my recent SIN-DEL flight whose cabin crew’s performance was definitely sub-par (though I’d still take this crew over most other airlines’ crew–sub-par for SQ is still better than many other airlines’ inflight service). Whenever I encounter one of these sub-par crews I always think back to my FRA-JFK flight aboard SQ26 at the end of 2005. SQ likes to advertise themselves as having “the inflight service that even other airlines talk about”. To me, the crew that worked the upper-deck on that flight could proudly advertise themselves as “the SQ cabin crew that even other SQ flight attendants talk about”. They were just that good. But about two weeks ago, a few days after the disappointing SIN-DEL flight, I encountered a cabin crew that definitely deserved the same accolade.

My AP US Government teacher would have politely described my situation onboard the SIN-SYD flight SQ219 as stagflation: everything coming out from both ends. I knew I was ill when I could barely make it to the gate and security (in Singapore security check is done at the gate) actually took me up to the front of the line, cutting in front of an old lady in the process. It was this same knowledge that led me to ask my seatmate, upon her arrival, for a switch as I was in the window seat and she had the coveted aisle seat. (I think she was happy with her decision.) And it was just sometimes after take-off that I grabbed the barf bag in the seat pocket in front of me, ripped it open, and threw-up into it.

(My apologies to the flight attendant that handled this–I couldn’t see the “tab” that I was instructed to rip and opened it at an angle that when she tilted it she spilled a little of the content onto myself, my armrest, and a tad on herself. That couldn’t have been pleasant. :( )

I’ll skip on the details of what happened in the toilet, but I was eventually back in my seat and I managed to muster enough energy to rip open the blanket’s plastic wrapping and threw it over myself. Never had that SpaceBed seat ever unfolded itself so comfortably for me–everything just right for my aching and freezing body. Under the single layer of blanket I curled-up tightly, my body shaking violently from the chill.

The flight from hell? More like the flight through hell. For the first time ever I dreaded the 7-8 hours I’d have to spend aboard an SQ flight. But, leave it to SQ to turn what is my worst possible flight ever into a much more positive experience, making the best lemonade out of the sourest lemon thrown at me.

There was a palpable “all hands on deck” measure being implemented just to care for lil’sick me. I knew that even if it was the Chief Stewardess (second in command so to speak–if you ever fly SQ, she’d be the lady in red or the gentleman in a matching dark blue suit) who personally cared for me, the others did help me out once or twice during my flight and were all aware of my condition and could be relied on for assistance. At the end of the flight even the Inflight Supervisor came-up to my seat to check on me.

With all this attention, you bet I was impressed!

As for the Chief Stewardess, being cared by her was not at all different from being taken care of by a nurse, albeit one who had gone through the SQ training on customer service and had moved-up the ranks to Chief Stewardess. She out of all of them really gave me a peace of mind and comfort.

Additionally, I never at any point signaled for assistance (I simply didn’t have the energy) yet someone always came-up to my seat when I needed something (e.g., more blankets, medication, etc.). At the same time they also did not interrupt my sleep more than necessary. It was as if they were able to read my mind as to what I needed and when. Amazing.

Another thing that stuck in my mind is the observation made by the Chief Stewardess when she was advising me to drink water to replace the fluid my body lost. She didn’t simply give me the standard lecture on how my body is losing water but instead she pointed out how dry my lips had looked and that I really had to drink-up or else I would also be suffering from dehydration. Talk about detail! I would’ve loved to check on this crew’s table setting had I been able to enjoy the meals on-board! (One quick’n dirty method of testing their attention to detail is to see whether all the Raffles class logo that appear during the mealtime are lined-up facing you: glasses, tablecloth, plates, bowls, etc.)

(Compare this to the QF crew that forgot to hand my jacket prior to landing at LAX and the subsequent crew who refused to do anything while we were still on the ground at LAX and finally announced to me near the end of the flight as we were approaching JFK that the jacket must have been taken off the plane at LAX.)

Eventually I managed to sleep in a cocoon of three blankets and one duvet (which the very nice lady in red produced from the first class cabin when she realized I was still shivering under three blankets) for a good six or seven hours and woke-up feeling more or less well-rested and also that the flight had been rather comfortable. I was also able to enjoy a conversation with my seatmate–all thanks to the amazing crew on-board.

Anyhow, here’s a very special thanks to Chief Stewardess Dorothy for making my flight a much more comfortable affair than I thought it could ever be given my condition.

South African Airways – uh oh

It occurred to me earlier today at work that a few weeks ago I borrowed the January copy of Airline Business from work, stashed it into my laptop bag, and never read it. (ooops.)

So tonight I took it out of my bag and read through it. Midway through the interview with the new CEO of South African Airways I came across the following passage:

In IT, SAA is behind other Star [Alliance] carriers. While SAA has completed a painful transition to the Apollo reservations system, it still takes SAA staff several minutes longer than most of their Star counterparts to check in the average passenger. It does not have the technology to read frequent flyer cards or ascertain if a passenger has loyalty status on Star, which gives customers free lounge access and a larger baggage allowance.

And to think on my upcoming trip to Africa I’ve got CPT-xJNB-xNBO-JRO on three different itineraries. Yup. THREE different flights I’ve put together. CPT-JNB is the return portion of a JNB-CPT round-trip ticket while JNB-NBO is the continuation of my original award flight from Sydney to Africa. At least they’re both on SA. The final segment is on a completely different airline, Precision Air (PW), going from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro.

And then there’s another question that’s been bugging me since I booked all my flights … Does SA have an interline agreement with PW?

Thank you Ralph Fiennes …

First of all, on behalf of all of us men who have to fly for work (either twice a year or twice a week), thank you Ralph Fiennes for boning your flight attendant on flight QF123 Darwin (DRW) to Mumbai (BOM). After all that’s been written-up in the papers in the past few days I can only imagine that the incident has been noted by all the major airlines’ HR departments and then forwarded to all their cabin staff and also attached would be each airline’s relevant guidelines on the matter.

This is bad because it’s just gotten THAT much harder to pick-up a flight attendant.

I can only imagine now:

Me: *smiles* Thank you very much.
Hot Flight Attendant: Mr. Tanone, that is inappropriate behavior. I will have to ask you to stop smiling at me.
Me: …

Yeeesh.

You’re a freakin’ movie start for crying out loud. Did you have to pick a flight attendant and create an incident like this?! Do you realize just how much harder you’ve made life for all of us regular guys? -sigh- Furthermore, what were you thinking of? A QF flight attendant? I’d have more respect if it had been Virgin Blue. Or any of the other airlines known for their flight attendants.

Ah, whatever. In the end, you’ve made life hard for us. Thank you.

(BTW- I noted that in the articles the “mile-high club” has now become the “five mile high club”. Granted the latter is more accurate, but I’ve always thought it’s the “mile-high club” and not the “five mile high club”.)

Sweet Home Sydney

9 total flights
SYD-xLAX-xJFK [QF107]-BOS [AA4616]
BOS-xPHL [US 779]-SCE [US 4488]
SCE-xPHL [US 4466]-BOS [US 1612]
BOS-LAX [AA25]-SYD [QF150]

Okay, so I’m cheating. QF107 is technically one flight as it has one flight number from Sydney all the way to New York, but we did have to disembark in LA for immigration and then re-board.

8 hours of the best sleep I’ve ever had in an airplane
I passed out cold for a solid 8 hours on the way back from LA to Sydney. Just when my body had finally adjusted to US East Coast timezone, I got shifted to LA which meant that 23:55 departure was now a 02:55 departure. I recall debating whether or not I should ask for the pre-flight champagne (having only taken a glass of water instead) but it soon became a moot point as I was suddenly passing in and out of sleep even while sitting in the upright position.

I wanted the plane to take-off as soon as possible and turn my seat into a bed after we reach cruising altitude (or whenever it is that the captain turns off the seatbelt sign) but then the plane moved away from the gate, and just sat on the runway. Later on I found out we were delayed about 40 minutes. I finally woke-up again around 1am and noting the seatbelt sign had been turned off I put the seat into bed mode, covered myself up and slept through the supper service.

Finally woke-up around 9am Saturday morning LA time/2am Sunday morning Sydney time. Picked-up little munchies from the “bar”, listened to my music, and just relaxed for the next 5 hours.

Now having tried Qantas’ SkyBed, I have to say I much prefer it over Singapore Airlines’ SpaceBed which was long my favorite. As a whole, it seemed to have been very well thought-out. Though like any other seat, that personal “reading light” wasn’t all that great, the light falling off just short from my book. But that aside, I really liked the meal-tray storage on the side of the seat, where the side panel opens inward at an angle from which the meal tray can be pulled out from up top.

The presets on the seat were also very well done. Regular upright mode, work/meal mode (the back slightly leans forward to provide more support), “Z”/relaxation mode, and of course the bed mode. Very simple. As for the actual seat itself, it was also quite comfortable, the same if not more so than the SpaceBed. (And yes, Cathay’s current business class offering is still at the bottom of this list. Their re-launched product, however, is an entirely new ballgame.)

6 days in the US of A
Meetings in Cape Cod followed by a quick trip to State College, PA and then a day in Boston followed by a day in LA (extended layover, really) before finally taking off for Sydney.

5 airplane meals eaten
Yeah, I’m getting desperate here. Notice I skipped 7. On the positive, the fresh fruits on QF were actually decent, and I also liked the muscat they offered during dessert. I made a note of it but have since forgotten it. On the other hand, I must note that my BOS-LAX flight with American Airlines was a two-class flight and my business class booking netted me a first class seat. WHOO-HOO. Not.

True, the seat was bigger and more comfortable than economy, but with the lack of sleep, that flight could’ve been in economy and in all honesty I wouldn’t have noticed.

But this section is about the meals, so let’s talk about the breakfast service, which was decent. Though that had to be the first time flying in a premium class that I heard of a meal selection not available. Depending on the cereals offered I was thinking of going for cereal + milk + fruit instead of their fluffly egg omelette. Turned out the cereal wasn’t available by the time they got to me so I had the egg .. it was quite decent and not bad at all, even if in other airlines this would’ve been an economy class offering and not a premium class meal, much less a first class offering. (I mean, hell, SQ hands out hot-towels in economy for crying out-loud. AA’s first class netted heated wet wipes! Setting aside that I truly hate wet wipes, heated wet wipes, which I encountered here for the first time, are disgusting.)

I honestly can’t imagine why anyone would want to pay the premium to fly business/first within the US. I wouldn’t mind paying for United’s p.s. flights, I’ve heard that the business and first class offerings for these flights are within par of other airlines’ international business and first class offering. But in general? Maybe if I wanted heated wet wipes. Yikes.

4 hours hanging out with a friend in LA
Went to dinner at JiRaffe (review upcoming) in Santa Monica followed by a short walking tour of the area around it. Not bad at all–felt like a mini Sydney–and I wish I could’ve spent a whole day touring LA and the area around it but such is life.

(3.5 hours at a Westin Junior Suite.)
I checked-in at the hotel on Tuesday night to find out I had been upgraded to a Junior Suite because they were sold out–nevermind that I had made the booking far in advance. I dumped my stuff in the room and proceeded to go out for a drink with a friend of mine. Came back at midnight and slept at around half past midnight only to wake-up at 3am to catch my 5:30am flight to State College. Left the room around 3:30 or so.

-sigh-

3 lost luggage bags in one week
My two bags didn’t make it with me to Boston–and I’m not sure if it was in LA that it missed the continuing QF107 flight or if it was in JFK connecting from QF107 to AA4616. Fortunately it was delivered to me by about 10am Sunday morning (the next day) but unfortunately I noticed a particularly nice belt I owned was now no longer in my possession. On top of this Qantas had misplaced my jacket as they never returned it to me prior to landing in LA and I forgot to ask for it.

These didn’t make for a good start, but I thought I had left it all behind when my one bag (I had left the other in Boston) didn’t make it back with me to Boston from State College.

Again, thankfully, this was delivered later in the afternoon though I didn’t find out until about 6pm. With an 8am flight the next day I was nearly going mad!

2 new airports visited
Philadelphia (PHL) and State College (SCE). I wish all my friends lived in major airline hubs. SCE-PHL is served by a Dash 8 TurboProp plane. Fun! It really made me that much more appreciative when I finally stepped into a 744 in LA.

1 crazy loon on the plane
With about an hour or so left into the LAX-SYD flight one of the flight crews approached the man sitting in the aisle seat on the left side of the plane before turning to me. He had a lady with a mental stress disorder or something other and he wanted to get her off the plane as soon as possible when we arrived in Sydney, and since I sat in the first row right by the door, he was wondering if I would mind moving up into the upper deck. I really didn’t mind at all considering: 1) It wasn’t a downgrade and 2) I was hoping to sit upstairs anyway but check-in had told me that business class was oversold.

Turned out the seat I was re-settled into was free the whole night.

As for the poor woman, I wasn’t sure what happened to her. I hope she’s allright. Stories had it that it was her first time flying long-haul. Poor woman.

Other things of note:

1. Wait-list system for using the showers at the LAX Admiral’s Club. I guess this is better than having to stake out your shower, though for a minute I was quite worried I wouldn’t get a chance to take a shower before my LAX-SYD flight. Thankfully I got the summons just minutes after settling into my seat.

2. The AA pilot on BOS-LAX was the most chatty I’ve heard in awhile and I really wished he’d just shut-up. Of particular note was the instruction not to use the toilet for too long, or to congregate around the toilet area. Really makes me embarassed as an American.

3. When we landed at LAX from Sydney and were waiting for our bags I noticed two carousels: one for first and business and the other for economy. I was surprised such a system existed in an American airport and I was pleasantly surprised. NOT.

Turned out the first/business carousel was for our flight arriving from Sydney and the other was for a flight arriving for Melbourne.

When told that for a good 20 minutes or so the Sydney carousel had no new bags appearing, a supervisor asked us to be patient as they had two planes being unloaded.

Did they not know far in advance they were going to have two full 744s arriving from Australia at about the same time?

Thank you unions. You are the backbone of America indeed.

4. Screaming airport workers. It wasn’t until my return to Sydney airport that I realized what it was that really differentiated surly American airport workers and other surly airport workers in AsiaPac. Ours don’t scream and look annoyed at us honest paying passengers.

American ones even speak with atrocious grammar over the loudspeaker while making supposedly calming announcements.

5. I checked-in one bag in State College, PA, made a 30 minute connecting flight in Philadelphia onward to Boston and my bag didn’t make it in time.

Oh, thanks again to labor unions.

I get the feeling that Australia also has labor unions, but why is it that priority tagged bags still come out first, the airport pleasant, and things just work in general? (My missing jacket aside.)

Boy am I glad to be back home.

Flying in comfort

I was just thinking the other day: why don’t airlines have more widescreen/letterboxed movies? My favorite airline when it comes to the onboard entertainment is Singapore Airlines because they have a decent selection of Asian movies subbed and in widescreen. But in this regard, they’re the same like any other airlines: the foreign movies (i.e., non-English) are mostly letterboxed and subbed while the regular movies (e.g., Mission: Impossible III) are pan’n scan.

What gives?

Then it dawned on me. Economy class PTVs, where they exist, are tiny–this was driven home on my Sydney – Jakarta flight at the beginning of the month. Understand that I started flying SQ in business and only flew economy with them only once and I don’t recall a PTV during that flight. Either way, I had always thought the PTV in business class was kinda small, but very watchable, and was standard.

WRONG.

I took a rough estimate of the PTV in SQ’s economy class and they came out to about six inches. That 10″ PTV in business now seemed like a luxury.

I’ve also wondered just when it was that they’d design an economy class cabin where a reclining seat wouldn’t bother the person sitting behind.

Well, wonder no more.

I decided to hop over to the FlyerTalk Forum earlier this evening (writer’s block) and discovered that Cathay Pacific has unveiled a refresh of not one, not two, but of all three classes! The most amazing was the economy seat recline that doesn’t disturb the person sitting behind you, but next after that was the nine inch PTV!

I checked out their new business class offering as well and it looks like they’ve done away with their angled bed seats (ala SQ’s SpaceBed and QF’s SkyBed) and have gone with true flat-bed seats ala NZ’s new (as of late last year) business class seats with the major difference being that CX’s lie-flat seats goes into recline without the customer ever having to get off the seat, the major reason I disliked NZ’s offering.

Then I saw the PTV offering: 15″ 16:9 screen!

If it weren’t for PPS Club with SQ and SQ’s service (which I do think is better than CX), CX is going to quickly become my new favorite airline.

Really makes me wonder what SQ’s new offering will be like for first and business (not sure if they’re refreshing their economy class cabin as well). While I’ve never tried first, even I’ll admit the SpaceBed is aging at the moment.

TV sucks

There I was, enjoying a hot bowl of teo-chew porridge with a friend at some eatery at Jalan Kayu in the middle of nowhere in Singapore during my layover on the way home from Jakarta this past Sunday when my attention was diverted to the TV hanging from the ceiling. It was set to a channel that was showing the second Charlie’s Angels movie.

As we continued our conversation I realized my visual attention was now diverted not just between my friend and my food but also to the TV. It was then that I noticed a family sitting one table over, all four (or maybe five) enjoying a bowl of porridge, and all but one of them were staring at the TV.

It was one of the saddest sights I had ever seen. Here was a family dining out and yet there was absolute silence from their table save for slurping noises punctuated by the sound of spoons scraping against bowls every now and then. There was no conversation, no exchange of stories, experiences, jokes (even bad ones). Nothing.

The image is now burned in my head, of a TV hanging from the ceiling, sucking out the life and soul of that one family.

And sometimes I wonder if perhaps I don’t own a TV partly because of this hatred I have of it.

Or is it fear?