CGK visit = LON SIN Do

[CGK]

My unlucky day goes on.
With the bad weather in YVR, the flight from LAX got delayed due to the late arrival from incoming flight, which is from YVR. Fortunately, I did not stick to AC557 which was delayed till 2am. I took UA 6428 on CRJ aircraft. Delayed about 75 minutes.

Arrived at YVR, everything was okay. But when getting off from the building, the taxi line was very long. It was very cold, and I had to wait one hour and 30 minutes before I got a taxi. It's amazing how the airport did not push more taxi out with this long wait. I know that driving on the snow is not something appealing for all those taxi drivers.

Oh well, I am cold now in my flat.

Once again, thank you for the great mini-Do. And I believe it was the first SQ Talk gathering.

[KeithMEL]

Sounds like another awesome Do. Glad everyone had fun.

[shortfinals]

Welcome Jenbel!

Sounds like everyone had a great time in LON!

[CGK]

Decided to go to SKL right away. Happy to be home. Yeah two attendants there were very caring. Gave me the T-mobile voucher. Offered the ice-cream. After awhile, the lovely cawhite arrived in style.
The monitor said AA137 boarding at Gate 20. I left about 11am. Once I was at the gate, it was announced that the flight delayed for 30 minutes. And agin, once aboard, due to the weather another one hour delayed. Fortunately, text messaging cawhite was possible. That was great. Warmed nuts and Pommery champagne was served. My individual tape player is not working. The FA seemed unhappy having to help me figuring out the machine. It looks like the tape plugged in by prevous pax stucked inside. This service is completely different then on one of LH F flight when the tape was stucked. In LH, the FA was really trying hard to fix the problem, and was successful. This time, on AA, he played around a bot, and it did not eject the tape, and he told me damaged. Sorry.

The coffin cabin feels like a biz class because of 2-2-2 config on 777. Well, and the patrons, as I had mentioned to some of you, definitely a different kind of people, not like UA crowd.

Okay, for lunch, there was 4 choices for the main entree. One of them was salmon which prepared by certain chef. I was asked for my choice first, and I pick the salmon. And guess what... only one salmon loaded into the plane. Very strange to have a special chef dish but only one loaded.

After lunch, I went to bed straight away. Woke up an hour prior landing. Arrived at 4:40pm, almost 2 hours late from scheduled. We had to walk very very far from AA Terminal to TBIT. Yeah, it was passed 4pm, thus the immigration and custroms facilities at AA terminal has been shut down. We had to use the regular immigration and customs at TBIT, thus explained the very long walk.

Immigration was a swift. But the bags were not in order. The carousel moved after 15 minutes, but no premium bags. My bags came out almost last. So I got off the area about 5:45pm, and my AC flight should depart at 6:10pm.

Decided to take UA RJs flight at 7:54pm instead. And guess what? It is delayed till 9pm at least. Bad weather in Vancouver. Yes, snowing. Hmm can't imagine now going home tonight. -1 Celcius, and I do not have any winter jacket with me.

Well, those are part of the travel. But the most important thing is I indeed had a great time in London with you guys. And looking forward to do more in the future.

And not to forget, looking forward to the first flight SQ334 next week.
Cheers!

[CGK]

First of all, warmest welcome to Jenbel and Sheep.
And here is my travel log for today.

Woke up very early, and left the hotel room with guttorm asleep. Decided to take Bakerloo Line and Hex to Heathrow. Smooth. Picked up my left bags, and went to the special desk for AA Premium Class. The check-in agent scolded me for not removing the luggage tags from my previous flights. Hmm SQ agent or even UA agent in this trip never complained about this old tags from previous flights. They would do it for me. And yeah, after I took them off, she even did not offer to throw them in the trash can.

Another news, my seat had been changed. But this time it's due to the equipment change. Yeah AA change it to the coffin-style. I think I do agree why people call them coffin-style.

My regret of flying AA continues. Hmm I should stick with StarAlliance. Yup, I have 3 bags to check-in, because ex- London you can only have one carry-on. And guess what? Even as an F pax, I have to pay for the third bag, and one of my bag more than 23kg. Thus AA charged me almost 60 quids for this.

Saw SQ check-in opens while walking towards the fast track. Wish I were on SQ. The line was pretty long.

[cawhite]

Thanks for a fun-filled evening last night Wx delays out of LHR and strong headwinds made for a slightly late arrival home. I'll be having a chat with someone at the hotel about your wait last evening.

PS -- Yay, Jenbel is on SQT!!!

[jjpb3]

My timing seems to always be off. Was in town Nov 12-17. Will be back Dec 9-14.

Let me know what your availability is like, Rejuv. Even if we can't make it a mini-Do, I can meet up with you over a nice dinner or a round of drinks if I'm in town. OK?

[Rejuvenated]

Even though it was a mini-DO, it seemed like everyone had fun. Glad you all had a great time. My timing seems to always be off. Was in town Nov 12-17. Will be back Dec 9-14.

Regardless, seems like a LON DO is becoming a regular routine for some of you. Hope I can join next time (if invited).

"Hmmm, BA meets SQ [she got the order wrong, bless her]: that sounds like a very dangerous thing."

Wouldn't an SQ meets CX be more potent?

[jjpb3]

Another fun LON SIN Do it seems.
Although, isn't it more an "SQTalk LON DO" now?

Hmmm... The start of a new naming convention. Me likes.

[StarG]

Another fun LON SIN Do it seems.
Although, isn't it more an "SQTalk LON DO" now?

Welcome to SQTalk, Jenbel (& Sheep).

[jjpb3]

Well, a hearty welcome to you and Sheep, Jenbel.

[AJLondon]

I'm here, I'm here... I said I'd wait and see if I survived last night before registering

Yay!

playing with his gift from his uncle CGK (or something like that )

Hope there wasn't too much playing with the "gifts" that were procured from John Lewis!

[Jenbel]

Jenbel (who, by the way, has NOT registered at SQT, so if you would like to put some gentle pressure her way by PMing her over at TOF, please do)

I'm here, I'm here... I said I'd wait and see if I survived last night before registering

As Jenbel commented (this is my recollection, so subject to recall bias), "Hmmm, BA meets SQ [she got the order wrong, bless her]: that sounds like a very dangerous thing."

Near enough And the order was perfectly correct

I and Sheep had a fantastic time last night, just a little bit tired this morning He happily sat on the train, playing with his gift from his uncle CGK (or something like that )

[Lobster]

Great to see you all last night and sorry I had to wimp out early

[jjpb3]

Post-script to add:

Thanks to CGK for the sambal sauce and the kacang disco (I think that's what it's called). OMG, the latter, which I hadn't tried before, is particularly addictive, and, unfortunately for me, damaging to my diet!