Announcement

**ycp81** · 7 November 2011, 02:09 AM

Crew conducting buy-on-board service.

Wonderful seat pitch again

What to do in an emergency.

Look how empty the flight was!

Cabin view from the rear.

Starting descent into BKK

We were put in a holding pattern south of BKK for 15min due to congestion in BKK.

Flew up beside the airport and turned back south. No floods seen around the airport perimeter.

On finals to Rwy01R with flooded fields in sight. Is this normal?

Landing on Rwy 01R 15min late due to air-traffic congestion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeseRptIhk8

Welcome to TG land.

Eithad B77W, Orient Thai and S7.

Transaero B744. Ex-SQ plane I guess.

Overall, the empty plane and emex seat row made this short hop quite a pleasant ride. Next up will be KLM to Taipei.

**ycp81** · 7 November 2011, 11:56 PM

The 2nd sector will be on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from Bangkok to Taipei. KLM operates the AMS-BKK-TPE sector daily and as a fifth freedom carrier, it offers great fares on the BKK-TPE sector. My one-way BKK-TPE fare was only 6,170baht, which is almost half the price of TG, BR and CI. A return fare was even cheaper at 9,000baht in economy and less than 13,000baht in Business, which is cheaper than the other airlines' economy class fares!

Due to the flooding mentioned earlier, I changed our KLM flights to depart on the day we reached BKK. Surprisingly, no change fees were required even though I had booked the lowest tier fare.

Our transit stop was initially scheduled to be 2hr45min but due to the delay in arrival on the Tiger flight, the transit stop was shortened to slightly more than 2hrs. Our scheduled departure time was 1340hrs. Check in was done for the KLM flight swiftly as there were hardly any passengers at the counters. According to the check-in agent, the flight was relatively empty, which I heard is the norm on the BKK-TPE sector.

30 October 2011
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
KL 877
Bangkok (BKK) - Taipei (TPE)
B747-400
PH-BFH 'City of Hong Kong'
Economy Class

Boarding pass for the flight.

After grabbing a quick lunch, we went through immigration and proceeded to the gate for boarding. Also did some plane spotting. However BKK is not too photo-friendly as many of the glass windows were filthy. Some of the more decent photos I took:

Republic of Singapore Air Force C130 sending humanitarian aid to BKK. 2 of these planes arrived!

Garuda B737-800NG

PH-BFH which will ferry us to TPE. It has been a long time since I last flew a B747! The plane is still in its KLM Asia livery.

However just before the scheduled departure time, a dreaded announcement was made. The flight would be delayed due to a technical problem with the aircraft. We were told that we would be updated on the situation in 30min. Business class passengers were invited to proceed back to the lounge. 30min later, the ground staff made another announcement that all of us would be given a 250baht meal voucher for any food outlets in the airport and we would to return to the gate at 1500hrs for further updates. In fairness, KLM ground staff has handled the situation pretty well and I used the voucher to relax at coffee joint with coffee and ice-cream. At 1500hrs, we proceeded back to the gate where the ground staff updated us again that the flight would be departing at 1600hrs.

Rescheduled departure timing.

Drinks and cake were offered at the boarding gate. Finally we boarded the B747-400 just before 1600hrs. Was welcomed at the door by the crew and directed to the seat. My seat was at 62K, just before the 2-seaters at the rear.

At the gate

Seat pitch is pretty tight at 31" but at least my legs can extend under the seat in front. PTVs at every seat as this plane was refurbished recently.

Another view of the seat pitch. If you notice, all seats had the airsick bags placed in a position with the KLM logo facing outwards.

Items in the seat pocket. Holland Herald inflight magazine, safety card and airsick bag.

Shortly before boarding is completed, the crew came down the aisles with a stack of cups and a bottle of mineral water, offering pre-takeoff water to us lowly economy passengers. Nice gesture by the crew, but not sure if this is the norm on KLM.

The plastic cups used by KLM have a lovely design on them.

A CX B773 pushing back.

**ycp81** · 8 November 2011, 12:37 AM

The IFE system contains a comprehensive list of the food and beverages offered onboard even though no menus were given out. As you can see, KLM only serves "branded" drinking water onboard. No airplane tap water was served throughout the flight!

After all passengers had boarded, we still had a bit of wait due to ATC controls. According to the pilot, our delay was due to a faulty wheel brake which required replacement. He also apologized for the delay. Flight time was estimated to be 3hrs. I must say it would be even very tiring for the crew as they would be operating BKK-TPE-BKK sectors and with the delay, it would be almost a 12hrs shift for them!

Finally we pushed back with the safety video playing. To be frank, the safety video is rather boring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4vV57LX3H0

Starting our taxi to Rwy01R.

We had quite a long taxi to the runway as we were number 5 for takeoff abd only 1 runway was in use at that time for both takeoffs and landings. By the time we reached the end of the runway, it was already nearing 1700hrs.

Take off from Rwy01R. You can see the floodings towards the north of the airport shortly after takeoff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRtMfEy1fbA

Flooded plains.

More flooded fields.

Partially submerged houses.

Flight info shortly after takeoff.

Post-takeoff announcement by the crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88dZq0nIwWw

Headphones were distributed shortly after seatbelt signs were switched off. They were the clip-on-ear type and were for yours to keep. The 2-pinned prone sets can be adjusted to 1-pinned! IFE control was at the side of the armrest, similar to SQ's older fleet.

After distributing headsets, crew came down the aisle with hot towels! I thought hot towel service only existed on Asian/Middle Eastern carriers! The towels may not be the thick cotton type used by SQ but they were still relatively thick disposable very hot towels. And the towels were lavender scented too!

Unfortunately, shortly after takeoff, the interactive portion of the IFE crashed and we were all unable to access the AVOD system. Only channel that could be seen on the PTVs were the flight info/map. Video channels hanged and audio channels were not working too. The crew tried to reset the system but to no avail.

Cabin view. PTVs were either stuck on the Interactive mode welcome page or video mode. Quite an empty cabin too. The whole plane seemed around 50% full at most.

Cruising at a high 41,000ft.

Sunset

**ycp81** · 8 November 2011, 01:11 AM

About an hour after takeoff, the friendly KLM crew started the meal service. On this flight, the crew were all with smiles while conducting their service. The left aisle was served first by 2 crew (one to hand out meal trays while the other to serve drinks) followed be the right aisle. Another crew would be heating/preparing the meals in the galley and assisting in the service later on. Only 3 crew were serving each section of the cabin.

There were 2 choices of meals: Chicken with noodles or a vegetarian stir-fry with rice. I chose the chicken. The meal tray was very colourful! On the tray was a salad, main, fruits, warm roll, butter and plastic cutlery. Interestingly, the warm roll, which was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, was already sliced into half for easy spread of butter. The plastic cutlery were also the best quality of disposable cutlery I have ever come across.

Appetizer: Thai salad

Main Course: Chicken with noodles and vegetables. It was delicious! BKK catering certainly did not disappoint.

Fresh fruits. With papaya, melon, pineapple and grapes.

For drinks, the whole bar selection is available. I had a chilean white wine and an apple juice, all served with a pleasant smile. The wines were served in bottles.

After the meal service, crew came out with a cart offering coffee/tea and after-meal liquors. I had a "Delicious hot" tea and Amarula Cream (a South African version of Baileys).

After the meal service, there was nothing much else to do as the IFE system was down. I visited the lavatory, but nothing interesting with in there with the bare minimum amenities. At least I had the flight map/info to past the time.

Cabin view towards the rear.

I had also ordered a KLM B744 model for 9.90euros to be delivered during the flight. It was promptly delivered by the crew after the meal service.

Soon we were nearing Taipei and started our descent. Crew also came round with a round of juice/water just before our descend.

Our arrival was slightly delayed as were were put in a holding pattern due to heavy traffic (again!). We circled twice before commencing our final approach.

Approaching TPE.

Landing in Taipei Taoyuan Rwy05R. Taoyuan is the main International airport of Taipei 3hrs late.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSC0jeE0pGQ

Parked at Terminal 2 beside a JAL B737-800

Overall, other than the unfortunate technical delay and the IFE system crash, it was quite a nice flight on KLM. Crew were friendly and delivered the service with smiles, meals were good, drinks were plenty. However their service recovery (both for the delay and the IFE crash) could be better. Even though KLM may not be there yet with the 5-star asian/ME carriers, they are still a rather decent airline to fly on.

On to my fabulous week in Taiwan! Next sector will be a short hop on TransAsia Airways ATR72!

**ycp81** · 8 November 2011, 10:56 PM

Scenes of Taipei, Jiufen and Keelung

**ycp81** · 9 November 2011, 11:46 PM

Since we were to be in Taipei for 6 nights, we decided to get out of Taipei to Taroko Gorge for a day-trip. In order to save time traveling, we joined a day tour from Taipei to Taroko Gorge, flying to the city of Hualien on TransAsia Airways early in the morning and returning back to Taipei by train in the evening. The city of Hualien is only 120km from Taipei and the flight from Taipei to Hualien is the shortest flight I have ever flown on a plane. Probably one of the shortest scheduled flights in the world too? And the route is also probably one of the exotic routes to fly on. It would be interesting to experience such a short domestic flight in Taiwan.

The flight was scheduled to depart from Taipei Songshan, which is the domestic airport (currently also used for limited international services to Japan and Mainland China) right smack in the city center, at 0700hrs. We were picked up from the hotel at 0600hrs and reached the airport just after a 15min drive.

Songshan T2, which is the domestic terminal. The original domestic terminal, T1, has been refurbished and now used for international flights.

At the TransAsia ticketing counter to pick up our air tickets. There were 11 of us in the tour group.

Ticketing counters of other Taiwanese domestic airlines.

Check-in counters for TransAsia flights. Check-in closes 30mins before departure for domestic flights.

Our tour leader in Taipei checked in for us and handed us our boarding passes. It was basically a slip of paper.

02 November 2011
TransAsia Airways
GE 007
Taipei Songshan (TSA) - Hualien (HUN)
ATR 72
B-22811
Economy Class

After issued with boarding passes, the whole group went through security into the boarding lounge. Security was fast and we were soon in the sterile looking departure lounge. Nothing fanciful, just rows of seats, a cafe and boarding gates.

We will be flying TransAsia today!

Our flight will be boarding after the Makung flight.

Lets do some plane spotting! Uni Air MD90.

Mandarin Airlines ERJ190

Finally we are boarding! Will be bussed to the aircraft parked at the remote stand.

On the bus towards our aircraft. Eva Air A332 and JAL B763 parked at the International Terminal ready to operate flights to Haneda.

**ycp81** · 10 November 2011, 12:17 AM

FAT MD80 stored on the tarmac.

Early morning at Songshan. China Airlines A333 parked on the remote stand.

Reached our ATR72 prop B-22811. It is the 2nd newest ATR72 in TransAsia's fleet and is delivered in 2007.

Another view of our plane.

Boarding. I was one of the last to board so that I can enjoy my photo taking on the tarmac. No ground staff stopped us from snapping shots on the tarmac.

Passengers settles down very quickly and the crew immediately prepared the plane for departure. There were 3 cabin crew onboard today, including a trainee crew. Most of the other passengers on the flight this morning were businessmen flying to Hualien for a day of work, judging by the suits and briefcases. Newspapers were also offered at the door. Crew also did a newspaper run down the aisle. Flight time was scheduled to be 35min but the actual flying time was a mere 20mins at most.

Seat pitch was actually rather good.

Contents in seat pocket. Inflight magazine, duty-free mag, safety card and 1 more magazine which I forgot what it was. Quite a lot of stuff for a domestic flight I must say. Even onboard shopping is offered on this short flight!

Cabin view towards the front.

Doors were closed, engines started and cabin crew performed a manual safety demo. No time wasted here! We then had a fast taxi to Rwy10.

There was no wait and we immediately took off after turning onto the runway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGTvzYgZbk

We initially passed through thick clouds but the clouds cleared shortly after. Beautiful scenery of outer Taipei after takeoff.

Service announcement by the crew after takeoff. It was a very long announcement!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVPE2kX3YMk

Followed shortly by the pilot announcement. We would only be flying at 10,000ft today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHpUNUGiTJU

Flying along the beautiful east coast of Taiwan.

**ycp81** · 10 November 2011, 12:43 AM

The beautiful TransAsia stewardesses then rolled a cart down the aisle offering packet drinks and wet towelettes.

On offer were either red tea or an energy drink.

Seatbelt signs were switched on throughout the whole flight as according to the pilot, there might be some bumps. But I guess it was to reduce inconveniences to the cabin crew during their service on the very short flight.

The flight was so short that when the crew were still serving drinks halfway down the cabin, we started our descent! However the crew still managed to finish serving all passengers and immediately collected the trash and prepared the aircraft for landing.

See the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Almost there. Beautiful mountains!

Nearing Hualien. The scenery is stunning!

Flew over Hualien city and making a turn back to the airport.

Runway in sight.

Landing at Hualien Airport Rwy03. The airport is also an airforce base and so photo-taking were actually prohibited while on the ground. An announcement was also made regarding this. But then...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrNIFWmCBNs

Just a very short taxi to the deserted terminal. I wonder when was the last time the aerobridges were used.

View of seats during disembarkation.

There were airforce personnel on the tarmac to stop anyone from taking photographs. So no photos of the aircraft on the tarmac. However I managed to capture a shot from the terminal building.

These are all the arrivals to Hualien airport in a day.

The airport looked very new and clean. And it is definitely very underutilized!

It was a short and pleasant flight on TransAsia Airways and an interesting experience to try out a Taiwanese domestic flight. I was actually surprised that TransAsia was able to accomplish the services on such a short flight. I was not even expecting a drink, much less newspapers and onboard shopping on the 20min hop. Excellent service by TransAsia!

**ycp81** · 10 November 2011, 09:45 PM

Beautiful Taroko Gorge

**ycp81** · 10 November 2011, 10:11 PM

More scenes of Taipei & Xinzhu

**ycp81** · 11 November 2011, 11:00 PM

More Taiwan Foodies!

**ycp81** · 11 November 2011, 11:47 PM

A fantastic week of cheap and good food, friendly and extremely civilized people, beautiful scenery and some great shopping deals just flew past with a blink of an eye and it was time to return back to reality. However, in order to minimize the depression of going back to work, we decided to fly back to Singapore on SQ Business Class! It was also a no-brainer since SQ was offering Saver award in Business for only 21,250 miles one-way with S$90+ taxes per person while Economy was only available on Standard and Full awards at 25,500 miles one-way lowest! Only a crazy person will redeem in economy! It would also be my 2nd flight on SQ Business Class this year (and whole life) and experiencing my 1st full dinner service in Business!

And so the photo intensive finale flight....

We reached Taoyuan International Terminal 2 by taxi (decided against taking the airport coach due to the large amount of luggage) slightly more than 2hrs before the 1800hrs flight. Check-in counters were already opened and a queue was forming at the economy class counters. However Business Class counters were empty and we checked in immediately.

Something interesting though, during the booking of our seats, I had initially selected 15A/C, but when I checked my booking using the "enhanced" SQ website, my selections were gone and I had to re-select my seats, when then I chose 14A/C since 15A/C were apparently "taken". After selecting the new seats, my booking suddenly showed 2 seats (14A & 15A/14C & 15C) assigned to each of us. So we are gonna get 2 seats each? However, during online check-in, the system only offered 15A/C to us, which was our original selected seats. And upon check-in, I learnt that the booking system had screwed up and double-assigned us seats, which in the end resulted in seats 14A/C remaining empty for the flight. 2 J class revenue lost because of the screw-up. Wonder how much revenue did SQ lost due to the "new" website till now as I am quite sure I am not the only one experiencing this "problem"....

Check-in counters.

Business Class! Check-in was done by a pleasant China Airlines agent. Apparently SQ has outsourced its check-in to CI as it used to have its own ground staff a few years ago.

After check-in, we cleared immigration/security and immediately proceeded to the Silver Kris Lounge to grab a bite. Lounges were a level above the departure hall.

Entrance of Taipei Silver Kris Lounge.

Was warmly welcomed by the lounge receptionist and we entered the lounge. This lounge was also used by UA Business Class passengers. However we were the only ones in the lounge then. Other passengers only came in much later. There were computer facilities, meal buffet, drinks, toilets and shower facilities in the lounge. Not bad for an outstation lounge and definitely miles better than the one in Manila.

Lounge view towards the entrance.

View towards the buffet area.

Wifi also available in the lounge. With my blue boarding pass, hehe.

Lots of international newspapers and magazines available for your reading pleasure.

Lets take a look at the buffet spread.

More food.

Brewed soup-of-the-day.

Drinks selection, fruits and cheeses.

**ycp81** · 12 November 2011, 12:22 AM

Coffee machine, finger food, breads and pastries, hot pao and alcohol selection.

Sandwiches, salads, bottled water and tea selection.

I had a soup (soup was good) and a salad,

and a bit of everything from the buffet spread.

Rounded up with a cappuccino and pineapple pastry. Not too much food as a feat still awaits onboard.

After relaxing for a while more, we left the lounge and proceeded to the gate about 40min before departure time. Terminal 2 seemed quite busy for the evening, with lots of PRC nationals. A check on the FIDS showed that most of the flights were heading to mainland China! Since the opening up of the skies between China and Taiwan, airlines are launching flights to every possible city on the mainland.

Shops and restaurants in the terminal.

Hello Kitty themed nursing room and telephone booth!

Our flight would be departing form gate D6 this evening.

05 November 2011
Singapore Airlines
SQ 879
Taipei (TPE) - Singapore (SIN)
A330-300
9V-STH
Business Class

The plane operating our flight today would be 9V-STH, one of SQ's leased A330-300s. It is fitted with the new regional Business Class seats.

Boarding had just commenced when we reached the gate and so we could board immediately. Boarded through door 1 and was greeted by name by the Inflight Supervisor after he glanced at my boarding pass. "Welcome back, Mr xxxx". I was also to be addressed by my surname throughout the whole flight, something I am not too used to as on the previous flight in J from Manila, I was never addressed by name. In the cabin were 2 other stewardesses (one of whom is a Taiwanese stewardess) assisting with the boarding. Both were jovial and chatting with passengers as they boarded. Could sense they they were definitely experienced crew. Another leading steward was preparing welcome drinks in the galley. Economy seemed to be very full on this flight but business class was only 17/30.

Boarding

More than sufficient legroom.

**ycp81** · 12 November 2011, 01:26 AM

Checking out the seat functions. Seat controls and IFE handset.

Power socket and USB ports.

Personal reading light

Warming up with a glass of Bollinger.

Crew also came down the aisle with hot towels and selections of newspapers and magazines. Soon, boarding was completed and we started our pushback. Flight time was announced to be 4hrs15min. Safety video was played while we pushed back.

Aerobridge retracted.

China vs China Southern

Air China A320 in a special livery.

EVA land.

Remaining flight time as shown on the handset: 4hrs11min.

Took off from Rwy05R into the evening skies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOaMcrxCNOw

Shortly after lift off.

Minutes later, seatbelt signs were switched off and the legendary SQ service started. Due to the light load in Business today, one of the stewardess went down to economy to assist, leaving only the IFS, LS and Taiwanese FSS to serve us 17 passengers. However, I must say that on this flight the service was excellent, in particular the Taiwanese stewardess who was fantastic! She was easily the best crew I have ever encountered on SQ or any other airline. Her attentiveness and personal touch were amazing. Words could not describe how great her service was till you experience it yourself, but there was not a single unhappy passenger in Business today. Overall, the service was miles better than my Business flight from Manila earlier this year when I felt I was just flying economy with a bigger seat and better food,

Firstly, socks and eyeshades were distributed. Other amenities were available in the lavatory.

A pillow and Givenchy-branded blanket were already on each seat.

Announcement

Taiwan on 4 Airlines (TR,KL,GE,SQ) in 3 Classes

Taiwan on 4 Airlines (TR,KL,GE,SQ) in 3 Classes

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