Showing posts with label airline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airline. Show all posts

Flight Review: Continental Airlines
January 2009
Newark to Beijing, Japan to Newark
Economy Class

Seating: Continental Airlines is typical of most American carriers. The seats are "normal" sized so for us Asians who are 5'5" and 5'9", we feel it has just about enough room where your knees are constantly hitting the seat in front of you. When I book seating for long-haul flights, I usually try to put us in a Window/Aisle configuration, banking on the fact that most people do not like to sit in a middle seat and therefore, we'd have 3 seats to ourselves. On both flights, we were successful in this regard.

Food & Drink: I can't even remember what they fed us, so it must not have been that memorable or good. But this was the first time I've ever been given a cheeseburger and icecream for a snack, which was definitely a welcome little meal. The cheeseburgers were pretty hefty and who doesn't love Haagen Daaz, right? The biggest grievance for Babe, however, was the fact that alcohol cost money. Not only that, but you had to purchase some ridiculous card BEFORE you boarded so they could swipe it on-board. What is this nonsense about 1, charging your long distance flight customers for ANYTHING and 2, a pre-paid card?! Ridiculous. Never heard of such penny pinching.

Attendants: Were friendly, in that American-I-Have-To-Be sort of way. This was also the first flight I've been on where there were 3 rows sectioned off in the back for the attendants to rest. We've flown overseas many times, on Cathay, EVA, China Air, Northwest, United... and I've never seen this before. Apparently Continental attendants are lazy.

Check-in: We had no major issues.

Flight Time: Was on time for the most part. But it didn't matter much to us since we were going direct.

Amenities: Free ear phones.

Side Note: The only reason we chose to fly Continental, and out of Newark (since it's such a hassle for us from Queens) is that they were the only ones that flew direct to Beijing and back from Japan. There was no way I was spending a big part of my trip in the airports transferring, especially on the way home. Our flight home, however, was the most uncomfortable flights to date. There was turbulence during 12 of the 13 hours we flew. It got me so sick I couldn't eat or sleep. I'm not sure if turbulence is something the pilot can control, but I'm pretty sure it's something he can try to avoid or at least fly over/under? This was a really bad experience for both of us and we probably will stay away from Continental for long-haul flights in the future.

Friday, February 20, 2009 | Category: , , , , , | 0 comments

Flight Review: Northwest Airlines
November 2007
New York to Detroit to Shanghai, China
Business Class

Seating: On this flight, the Business Class seating were divided between the first part of the lower cabin, and an upper cabin. I chose to sit on the upper cabin. This had it's advantages and disadvantages. It was very quiet in the upper cabin and there were very few other passengers there; the seat next to mine was empty. The main disadvantage was that when disembarking, you didn't get to leave first as with the lower cabin; by the time you came down to the lower cabin, most of the economy class people were pushing and shoving already.

Food & Drink: Being in Business Class, meals were a luxury. The flight attendants would supply a tablecloth (yes, a TABLECLOTH for your folding table) and serve food on real plates with real silverware. The meals included things like steak and seafood and each was pretty good. There was also top shelf liquor offered after each meal. Snacks included sandwiches and cup o' noodles and even ice cream.

Attendants: Were friendly and very helpful.

Check-in: Was a breeze but of course, this was Business Class. I was given a pass into the lounge, which had pastries and drinks, along with ports for your laptop and TV's to watch.

Flight Time: We flew relatively on-time, considering that we had one layover in Detroit (Northwest's hub)

Amenities: We were given slippers, and a small amenities bag which included chapstick, a pen, eye-mask and ear plugs all in a small Northwest pouch.
Saturday, January 03, 2009 | Category: , , , | 0 comments

Flight Review: Japan Airlines (JAL)
September 2007
New York to Narita, Japan to Taoyuan, Taiwan
Economy Class

Seating: Tight, tight, TIGHT. K and I are not large people, and even with our size, we were super cramped in our seats. I had major cabin fever after only a few short hours because of these uncomfortable seats. The "cushions" were a mere single layer of cotton (or at least it felt that way). After maybe 3 hours, I felt like I was sitting on a wooden board.

Food & Drink: I was a bit disappointed with the selections on Japan Airlines. Aside from the main entree, everything else was cold (ie: side of cold soba noodles). There are only two meals served on the 14+ hour flight, and "snacks" offered were cookies and rolls. There is no cup o' noodle available, which is a huge dealbreaker for us. BIG PLUS: Green tea and plum wine are available (as are other Japanese beers) and all are complimentary.

Attendants: They did not speak English and the ones that did only did minimally. We had to point and charade our way to getting things. This was not an easy flight for us whatsoever. We would say something in English, they would reply back in Japanese. Yes, they were extremely polite and nice, but for all we knew they could've been cursing us out in a super nice manner with a super polite smile.

Check-in: No issues checking in on our way to Asia. Coming back was a different story. We encountered two big issues. One was the fact that I had a huge 30+" framed blown up wedding photo that I did not trust checked-in. I had to fight them to let me take it on the plane and have a flight attendant store it for me in one of the closets. Second, and biggest, issue was the fact that out of our 4 luggages, one of them was slated for Narita, and not for New York. Meaning that while we, and 3 of our luggages, went on to New York after the layover in Narita, one of our luggages was to be dropped off. Don't ask me how this happened since all of our bags were checked in together.

When we got to Narita, a JAL representative was holding my name on a placard. I went over to their customer service desk, which is where they explained what had happened. The lady asked me to identify which luggage it was, which flabbergasted me. How was I suppose to know WHICH luggage the airline mislabeled? And each of our luggages were slightly different. She gave me a plastic picture card of different styles of luggages and asked me to point one out.

Throughout the 14 hour flight back to New York, all I could think about was my lost luggage. Would it arrive in New York? Would it arrive in one piece? Which luggage was it, what were we in the process of losing? We had gone on this trip for wedding-related errands and who knows what we'd need to replace. This was the most nervewrecking flight of my life and I don't think any passenger should have to bear through it.

Flight Time: The Japanese are known for their promptness and their planes are no exception. We left on time and arrived on time and there were no delays whatsoever.

Amenities: In the bathrooms were very nice Shiseido items.
Saturday, January 03, 2009 | Category: , , , , | 0 comments