August 2010: First class to Asia and Japan with U2, TG, OZ, UA, LX, LH, JL and AK

[pogonation]

Background:

First of all, a big hello to all SQtalkers !

In the past 2 years I have flown around 18 sectors in *A F and many sectors in C around Europe, Asia and between the two (mainly thanks to my friend BMI ). I always go away with the intention of writing a fabulous TR, but for some reason my camera and note pad never seem to leave my bag as I sit back and relax with a glass of champagne, forgetting about the world below. However this year I am determined to carry out my intentions and write a super, amazing report

My girlfriend is an international student from Malaysia so I knew that if I wanted to keep my balls where they are I would have to travel to Asia this summer. I’ve seen enough of KL now to last me a life time so I started thinking of other places I could visit when I’m out there. I’ve already visited Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and Hong Kong so I was thinking of visiting somewhere different for a change. A few months of lurking on this forum revealed kelvgoh and other SQtalkers’ fantastic TR’s on Japan. It looked so beautiful and exciting that I fell in love and set it in my sights for this years summer trip.

So it was sorted, I will be travelling to Japan this year with a short stop in KL, and as far as I’m concerned there is no better way to get to Asia than in *A F .
I had to figure out a way to pay for both of us to get there. I had around 90k in my BD account but I figured I would have to purchase an extra 35k miles and pay a lot in taxes and on the cash amount and I would still have to fly from Zone 2 (Which I’m sure is well known by a few guilty SQTalkers here ). I also had just over 100k BA miles but these wouldn’t send us very far. I wanted to find a cheaper way of getting there while still retaining my precious BD miles, and then low and behold, a week later the Tesco mobile deal came along... 1000 points when you buy any P&G phone and also a current double miles offer when you convert Tesco points to BA. Around 40 phones later (which I sold back on ebay for the same price I bought them for) my BA balance was up to 260k, but it was still not enough to get us both to Asia. At the same time USairways had the 100% bonus on purchased miles and since they only charge 100k for a return from Europe to N.Asia in F it was a very attractive deal to me. I managed to exchange 160k BA (I gave the other 100k to my uncle for a DUB-USA in C) for 130k US in the Coupon connection foum on FT. I then purchased an extra 70k miles to give me a total of 200k for £650ish.

So now I have enough miles, I just have to plan a route. In my opinion, the more convoluted the routing the better, the more hours my butt spends in an F seat the better and the more champagne I guzzle the better, so I set out to create the most exciting routing I could.
I set myself a list of “to-do’s” for the itinerary and worked from there:

1) Fly the TG 77W suites leased by 9W (could have flown TK but I had done that before and the service was so poor I vowed never to test it again)

2) Visit 2010 Expo in Shanghai.

3) Visit Seoul, a place I have always wanted to visit! (stargold, if you are in the neighbourhood when I’m there I would love to meet up for a drink or two )

4) Experience the delights of Japan and travel on the Shinkansen.

5) Lose my FCT virginity in FRA

6) Take my girlfriend to a Thai island.

7) Fly OZ F, a product I have heard so much about and always wanted to try.

So I set about trying to create an itinerary which incorporated all of the above and eventually came up with the following:

CDG-BKK(TG F) -PVG(TG F)-ICN(OZ F)-NRT(UA F)-BKK(TG F)-ZRH(LX F)
Including a stopover in BKK, a 20 hour transit in PVG and a 22 hour transit in ICN.

I used some of my BMI miles for some flights and purchased some others until my final itinerary is:

LPL-CDG: U2 Y
CDG-BKK: TG F (77W suites)
BKK-KUL: AK Y
1 night in KL
SZB-USM: FY Y
4 nights on Koh Phangan
USM-URT: Ferry
URT-BKK: FD Y
1 night in Bangkok
BKK-PVG: TG F
1 night in Shanghai
PVG-ICN: OZ F
1 night in Seoul
ICN-NRT: UA F
4 nights in Tokyo
NRT-ITM: JL C
4 nights in Osaka, Kyoto, Nara etc
ITM-NRT: JL C
NRT-BKK: TG F (77W suites)
BKK-ZRH: LX F
ZRH-FRA: LX C
FRA-MAN: LH C


taken from gcmap.com

So now I can tick everything off my “to do” list this summer . I will be booking my hotels through priceline where I can to save on cash and I will make sure to include them in my trip report as well. Hopefully there will be plenty of exciting adventures and funny tales along the way which I can share with all of you.

You might be wondering why I am writing this so early? Well the main reason is excitement and the other reason is because I know that if I don’t start it now when I’m excited, it will never be written. Now I know I have to write it or I will have a hoard of SQtalker’s hunting me down for my blood .

Another 4 months till the day of departure but I will keep you updated with hotels I will be reviewing etc .

[erfaano]

Looks like a reaaalllyy interesting TR's coming up!! Looking forward to it

[Kyo]

I think you missed out one item on your checklist (unless you just made HON Circle). The FRA FCT doesn't seem to be available to you - but looking forward to the rest of your TR!

[SQtraveller]

post deleted

[pogonation]

I think you missed out one item on your checklist (unless you just made HON Circle). The FRA FCT doesn't seem to be available to you - but looking forward to the rest of your TR!

Are you sure. I thought I was allowed because I have a same day LX F arrival and flying out of FRA in LH C?

[Kyo]

You are flying LX F into ZRH, sure. But aren't you just coming into FRA on LX C? That's my concern... believe your may have to be prepared for worst outcome? Or maybe I'm overtly cautious..

[pogonation]

You are flying LX F into ZRH, sure. But aren't you just coming into FRA on LX C? That's my concern... believe your may have to be prepared for worst outcome? Or maybe I'm overtly cautious..

I rang up LH to ask about the entrance requirements and they say even if I come from ZRH, if I have a same-day arrival LX F boarding pass stub then I will be allowed to enter

......... Anyway it's been some time since I first started this TR and I have made a few changes. The missus decided she would rather go to a Thai island instead of Hong Kong so we decided to visit Koh Phangan. At first it looked as though I would have to fly via BKK or even catch a train but a little search showed that both Firefly and Berjaya air fly there around 2 days a week. The flying geek inside me jumped at the thought of flying one of the small, twin-prop ATR's so I went and booked us on firefly (double the baggage allowance of Berjaya) direct to Koh Samui.

I also started looking at hotels since I wrote this and luckily Hyatt started a promotion where you received a free night at any Hyatt for every 2 stays at a Hyatt hotel. A pretty unmissable promotion! So I had 110k US miles left over from a previous promo which I swapped (during the 100% bonus on shared miles promo) through FT's CC for $1700 Hyatt coupons. Then with the help of this kind FT'er I managed to book and credit 26 'stays' at cheap US Hyatt's to my Hyatt account. This resulted in 13 free nights, 27.5k AA miles (from the AA/Hyatt promo), 21k LAN miles and 20k Hyatt points as well as achieving Diamond status .

The 13 free nights earned were enough to cover all my nights on Holiday. So I will now be staying at the following properties and adding them to this TR:

Park Hyatt Vendome Paris

Grand Hyatt Erewan Bangkok

Park Hyatt Shanghai

Park Hyatt Seoul

Park Hyatt Tokyo

Hyatt Regency Kyoto

I also added another 3k miles to my LAN account from SPG and used the LAN miles to book 2 return Tokyo-Osaka flights. I'm hoping to upgrade these with cash to C at the airport.

So that is the only update for now. But I will keep updating if there is anything new.

Sorry to anyone who opens this thread looking forwards to a juicy TR, only to be disappointed by the fact it is still 5 weeks away! If I hadn't written the first post when I was excited then I think I would have been too lazy to ever start it

[pogonation]

You are flying LX F into ZRH, sure. But aren't you just coming into FRA on LX C? That's my concern... believe your may have to be prepared for worst outcome? Or maybe I'm overtly cautious..

Thanks for the advice Kyo. I don't have to worry anymore as I have avoided FRA altogether. Changed to a ZRH-MAN direct. I figure after a long-haul I will be tired and just want to get home, plus I've already been to the FCL so I doubt it will be that much of a new experience.

Unfortunately a fortnight ago OZ swapped my 747 to a 2-class 777 so I will now be missing out on OZ F. I did fly FRA-ICN shortly after starting this thread however so I've tried it (and loved it) already.

I will be starting my trip tomorrow afternoon so this party is about to get started You can expect a report on LPL-CDG and the Park Hyatt Paris tomorrow evening

[pogonation]

Flight 1:
12th August
Liverpool (LPL) - Paris (CDG)
Easyjet (U27045)
Economy class
Departs: 18:55 (19:37 actual)
Arrives: 21:25 (21:55 actual)


First of all, please forgive the poor quality of the photos. I am using a very old Fuji FP A825. This will change to a Sony SLR when I meet my girlfriend in Malaysia.

I drove down to Liverpool this afternoon and had a late lunch with my brother (he lives in LPL) before going onto Liverpool John Lennon Airport. This airport was formally know as Liverpool Speke Airport but was later renamed after the legendary beatles star John Lennon.

The only terminal:


The yellow submarine (you know the song) infront of the terminal:


Was glad I checked-in online with hand luggage when I saw these queues:


The whole of the pre-security area and the security area itself is currently undergoing some kind of refurbishment/demolision so it took some time before I found the make shift stairs up to the new security area.



Once I was in this new/make-shift security area I started taking a few snaps of the new security equipment (rapiscan x-ray machines?) although a few minutes after starting I was approached security personnel who told me that pictures are not allowed in this area. They made me delete all the pictures from my camera and told me that if I took anymore then they would take me into an interrogation room as I would be considered a suspect spy

I finally got through security at 18:30 (5 mins after the gate apparently closed) and ran to the gate only to find out that it had been delayed by 30 mins. This was a bit of luck considering it could have left without me.

I took a seat at the gate and read a book while watching passengers start queuing up 50minutes before the ETD And by 40 mins before the ETD no less than 90% of the pax were standing up in this long queue waiting to board! This was taking the term 'gate-lice' to a new level. Anyway I just sat there reading my book until eventually all of them had boarded. Once the last person went through the gate I got up and just strolled through, got on the plane, secured a seat which had a free seat between me and the other passenger and stowed my hand luggage under this seat. I never understand why these people are so eager to board first!

Fuzzy picture of our A320 through a dirty window:


SQFG trademark legshot:


The flight itself was very uneventful. Snacks were offered at very reasonable prices and they almost forced duty free items on you.

Towards the end of the flight I noticed my neighbour writing something on a sick bag and then looking nervously around her before wedging it in the in-flight magazine. This aroused curiosity in me and I know this is really wrong but I waited till she got off to have a look It was a letter to her boyfriend incase he caught the same plane to paris the next day! awwww!

After a terrbile landing (not as bad as my recent EI ORK-MAN flight where the pilot managed to do the famous 'bouncy-ball' landing) I disembarked and passed through immigration. Now I haven't seen much of the airport but if the rest of the airport is like the bit I saw then it is an awful, old looking airport!

[G_G]

I can't wait !! Especially for the CDG-BKK TG F's experience !!

[pogonation]

Park Hyatt Vendome Paris:

I caught the Roissey-bus from CDG to Opera and then it was only a 5 minute walk to get to the hotel.

First impression of this hotel = WOW!.. very very nice hotel. Upon entering I was kindly greeted. When I checked in the staff were extremely polite and attentive. They told me that unfortunately there were no deluxe rooms available tonight so I couldn't get my upgrade (I am a diamond). He then escorted me to my room and showed me how to use everything. I requested a wake up call for 9am (I need a lot of sleep) and then he headed back to the lobby.

The room is fairly small although very luxurios and elegant. The bathroom is almost the same size as the bedroom and is seperated by a huge sliding door.





Walk in shower/wet-room and tub:


Blause Mautin shower amenities:


Room with sink, mirror and baggae storage area:


Diamond amenity: Bottle of Chateau La Verrerie: Espirit Bastide 2007, Box of 4 chocolates and a note from the manager:


Chocolates:


TV:


View from the room:


I am actually quite disappointed with the room they have given me in a way. I do love this room but I do think I should be entitled to better. First of all I looked online and there are atleast 2 deluxe rooms available so it appears the check-in staff lied to me and didn't want to give me my diamond upgrade. I'm not too bothered about the deluxe room but I thought they could atleast give me a room with a view of Rue de la Paix. Oh well I really can't be bothered complaining considering this is one of the nicest hotels I have been to in my life.

Right now I am chilling out with a glass of red while typing this up getting ready for what I'm sure will be a fantastic sleep on this beautiful bed.

I will update this post tomorrow when I sample out the spa and the breakfast. Also I will add TG F CDG-BKK the following day along with Sheraton Imperial KL suite.

Hope you enjoyed reading up until now. Good night

The perfect setting to ensure a good sleep:

[FlyingDan]

Wow that PH Venedome looks amazing! Shame you didn't get your Diamond upgrade - I've had it many times and you're not the first one they have lied to about being "fully booked".

[pogonation]

Creepy men in the rooms. They almost look like holocaust victims or people being crucified:






I was aware that I could get my breakfast delivered to my room but I prefer to go to the restaurant where there is a bit of atmosphere. Once I got down there I realised I forgot my camera so unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures. The breakfast was delicious. There are loads of choices to choose from and everything is prepared just how you want it in the kitchen. I ate eggs benedict and had extra bacon and a few croissants. The coffe was exceptionally good and I was quite happy that they offered my favourite; mango juice, which many hotels never seem to offer. Overall the experience was a good one and luckily my 100EUR + bill was removed upon checking out. The spa is also a nice place to go. Diamonds get free access and can use the steam room, sauna etc.

[pogonation]

I am now sitting at CDG airport waiting for my flight to BKK

I arrived at around 11:50 and walked to the TG check-in area. The premium desks are cordoned off and there is a 'receptionist' with a list of premium pax who will check your name against it before allowing you in.

The first class desk was taken up by a family of business pax who seemed to be carrying their entire house over to BKK. The 'receptionist' apologised and had a word with the woman at the adjacent business desk and she then waited infront of the next pax in the business queue stopping him from moving forwards. When the business check-in agent was finished with checking in her client I was beckoned over to her desk and she checked me in nice and quickly. The entire check-in procedure took 14minutes which is a bit more than I'm used to when flying F I really think there is no point having an F desk if they are going to be checking C pax in there too.



F and C check-in counters:


This is a strange escalator made of rubber. It is really bouncy like a slanted moving trampoline. Good fun to play on!:


On entering the lounge I was greeted by the lounge attendant who is extremely friendly and polite I went through to the F section, grabbed a flute of Mumm's and relaxed. The lounge itself is pretty boring and the offerings are fairly mediocre. Just a few sandwiches and snacks as well as a fairly average offering of alcoholic beverages:

Lounge overview:


Food:




Spirits and wines:


Corridor to toilets:


Toilets:

[pogonation]

The classic BP, Passport and Champagne photo:


The views from the lounge are pretty rubbish. Basically just a view of the roof of the terminal. I did however manage to just catch the tail of an SQ 380 taxiing past: