20170426: JL26: Hong KonG » HaNeDa

HKG, RWY07R

Date: 2017/04/26

Flight: JL26
STD/ATD (Push Back): 1515HKT/1515HKT
ATA/ATA (Touch Down): 2025JST/2019JST

Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA702J

Class: Business (upgraded from Economy using miles)

Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III

Prologue

This is the return flight from Hong Kong

Pre-boarding

No bag to check and I had printed out the boarding pass at the hotel.  So, I went straight through the formalities.

Lounge
JAL customers were directed to the Qantas lounge.  It is spacious, and always empty this time of the day (~14:00HKT)  Ample hot foods and beverages.

At the Gate
Today's gate was 17.  At 1439, announcement said due to delayed arrival of aircraft, boarding had been delayed to 1455.  I was paged at 1445.  They confiscated my "home-print" boarding pass, and asked me to show my 在留カード (Japanese residence card which all foreign residence are required to carry while in Japan.)  They wanted to check if I were an illegal immigrant or if I were trying to be an illegal immigrate.  Their right to ask for such an ID is questionable.  However, not wanting to make any trouble, I just complied and they issued me with a new 'real' boarding pass.  This is not the first time they had confiscated my home-print boarding pass.  Sometimes they don't, sometimes they do.  It's a hassle to be paged like that though.  Moreover, it's not fair for them to single foreign residents like that.

On Board

Seats
Today's seat was 7K.  Note to myself; this seat has one less window than others.  Also, the overhead bin directly above can't be used as it was reserved for infant life jackets.  Don't use this seat again.   The aircraft was a retrofitted 777-200 with the latest "Sky Suite III"  See my previous flight for more details.

Food
I had pre-ordered an oriental vegetarian meal.  Other than the bun sealed in a plastic bag, which was stale and chewy, the rest was fresh and tasty.  The main dish was a sweet and sour "pork." The pork was deep fried tofu cubes.  Very nicely done. The token boiled green vegetable (菜芯) was a bit blend though.

Oriental Vegetarian

Starters: tomato, cucumber, dates, spinach, cold plate.

Main: faux sweet and sour "pork"

Service

The business class cabin was nearly full.  For a change, the crew did not interrupt our movies by announcing the start/end of the in-flight shopping service.  Service was attentive, and efficient.  

Epilogue

JAL's business class product to/from HKG is mediocre. Their latest and greatest offering of hardware, Sky Suite III is a mistake. Their only advantage over competitors like CX is that it's cheaper to fly JAL.

Bibliography

http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/service/business/seat/skysuite3.html

https://www.jal.co.jp/en/jalmile/jgc/

20170422: JL29: HaNeDa » HongKonG

Date: 2017/04/22

Flight: JL29

STD/ATD (Push Back): 1000JST/1008JST

STA/ATA (Touch Down): 1335HKT/1402HKT

Aircraft/Registration: 777-200/JA703J

Class: Business (upgraded from Economy using miles)

Seat: JAL SKY SUITE III

Prologue

This is one of my regular, periodic flight to Hong Kong.  Booking was done on JAL's website which is a pain to use.   Painful because its design is that of typical Japanese-design from the 90s.

Pre-boarding

Check-in

I went to the usual JAL check-in aisle.  All, I saw was JGC counters.  That was fine as I was a member.  I think business class counters have moved to another aisle.  There wasn't much a wait.

I didn't have a bag to check so getting my boarding pass was quick.  But after the check in lady had printed my boarding pass, she'd hung on to it.  She looked at her screen for may be in reality 15 seconds but what seemed liked forever.  She then said that her records show that they have my requested special meal ready and I was ready to go.

I had learned my lesson (in requesting a special meal,) and had called their toll-free number (for JGC members) a few days earlier, got put on hold for ~5 minutes, and requested "oriental vegetarian meals" for flights to and from HKG.

Maison Kayser Baked Goods

Lounge
Being a Saturday, security and immigration weren't busy.  I soon found myself in the Sakura Lounge, having the usual lounge breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, fresh salads, and some rice.  Tried the croissants for the first time and it was surprisingly good.  There was a toaster to heat things up, if so desired.  The sign said baked goods were supplied by the Japanese outpost of Maison Kayser.  If you aren't too much into the Japanese take of a western breakfast, try the baked goods for they went very well with the cappuccino from the WMF machine.  At least try the croissants.

At the Gate
JL29 to HKG used to depart from gate 112, or 113, or 114, the gates closest to the lounge and everything else.  But since JAL's replacing its HND «» HNL with HND «» JFK from 2017/04/01, all the closest gates are now serving long haul flights.  On this day, gates 112, 113, and 114 had flights going to JFK, CDG, and LHR respectively.  My flight was departing from gate 147, in the new extension of the International terminal.

Boarding was supposed to start at 0930.  AT 0926, they announced that boarding had been delayed to 0935.  Though there is no first-class on this flight, there was a line for First Class passengers. I guess that line is for their top tier mileage club members and they did get to board first.

Why so many buttons?

On Board

Seats

See my earlier entry about the claustrophobic "Sky Suite III". Having experienced the refreshingly minimalist design of the controls on Hawaiian Airlines, everything about this "Sky Suite III" is in-you-face.

Oriental Vegetarian

Food
The oriental vegetarian meal was delicious.  The only exception, was the very chewy bun in the plastic bag.  Usually, their bread supplier (for business class anyway,) is the aforementioned Maison Kayser, but not for special meals.  The main course was sweet-and-sour-"pork" with rice.  The "pork" was actually made from soy. The texture was very close to pork. The sweat-and-sour sauce was a little too acidic otherwise it was delicious

Appetizers: Vegetarian wraps, deep fried mushrooms, minced tofu on vermicelli 

Sweat-and-sour-faux-pork

Desert: White fungus (雪耳,) mango, red dates.

Service

An announcement came on at 1000JST, the scheduled departure time, to say we couldn't leave just yet as the necessary paper work had to be completed. But that was a lie because as soon as the passenger in 1A boarded, the front door door closed and push-back commenced.  The truth was that we were all waiting for this V.I.P in seat 1A.  One has to be a V.I.P to reserve 1A in the first place. JAL has blocked off the bulkheads for their top tier loyalty program (JMB) members.

Flight attendants were way more interested in peddling in-flight shopping.  They got on the P.A. system, therefore interrupting people's movies to announce the start of the shopping service. The first time in Japanese, then English.  The second time in Cantonese.  I wish they would only use the P.A. system for essential broadcasts. Meanwhile, I had to use the "call" button to get more Perrier.  Had to do that three times for three refills.

Epilogue

The only reason I flew JAL was that they where cheaper than CX.  

Bibliography

http://www.maison-kayser.com/en/
http://www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/service/business/seat/skysuite3.html

20170411: HA855: HoNoluLu » HaNeDa

Date: 2017/04/11

Flight: HA855

STD/ATD (Push Back): 1755HST/1741HST

STA/ATA (Touch Down): 2205JST/2139JST

Aircraft/Registration: A330-200/N730HA

Class: Business (Restricted Fare)

Seat: Hawaiian New Business Class

Prologue

This is the return flight, saying a sad goodbye to Paradise.

Pre-boarding

Check-in
Although this was an international flight, check-in was at Terminal 2, the "inter-island terminal."   When I arrived at 16:20, there was no wait.  Check-in was done in about 5 minutes.

There were only a few people in line for security and the whole process took about 5 minutes.  I thought people didn't have to take off their shoes anymore but I was wrong.

After security, there was a Starbucks, some fast food outlets.  In general, this terminal had a very provincial, by charming look and feel.

Lounge

As a first timer, it took me a while to find the right lounge. I had wandered into the busy "Premier Club" and was told I had to go to the "The Plumeria", one level above.

This lounge looked a lot more peaceful than the "Premier Club." There were only a handful of people.  Food offerings were limited but that was expected, matching my expectation of business class lounges in the U.S.  However, their extensive offerings of premium tea (yes tea!) compensated for the lack of decent food.

On Board

Cushion-cum-pillow

Seats
Hawaiian Airlines was in the midst of introducing their new business class (aka "first class" in domestic US) seats.  At the time of booking, an aircraft with older business class seats was assigned to this flight.  Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when upon boarding, I found the new upgraded business seats, the same ones that had brought me to HNL.

A nice feature that I have yet to mention is how the cushion/pillow can be strapped onto the back of the seat with the built-in elastic band to make a very comfortable headrest. Usually, I wouldn't know what to do with those mini pillows, taking up too mush real-estate of my seat.  This is an elegant and useful solution.

Food
Though I was seated by 17:35, ahead of the 17:55 departure, I was once again the last to board.  And for that, once again, no Mai Tai was offered.

After take-off, drinks and warm nuts were offered.  Since they didn't have any sparkling mineral water, I had water.

There were choices of Japanese or Western dinner.  I had the western, which was a two-course affair.  I guess the first course was an appetizer; Prosciutto and Asparagus Salad with Grilled Shrimp.  There were 3 choices of main dish and I had (1) the Minced Beef and Sauteed Vegetables with Oyster Sauce and Chow Fun Noodles.  The other choices were (2) Salmon Filet Wrapped in Rice Paper and Sage with Edamame Spinach Risotto, and (3) Spicy Eggplant with Lilikoi Sauce and Steamed Thai Jasmine Rice.

Desert was Passion Chocolate Cake.  Again, I like how full-size mugs were used for tea/coffee. Though the minced-beef was a little too salty, everything else was tasty and satisfying.

Appetizers: Prosciutto and Asparagus Salad with Grilled Shrimp

Minced Beef and Sauteed Vegetables with Oyster Sauce and Chow Fun Noodles.

Passion Chocolate Cake

About 80 minutes before touch down, a pre-landing meal was served; Hawaiian Style BBQ Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Pineapple, with a small dish of fresh fruits.  Delicious and surprisingly satisfying.

Hawaiian Style BBQ Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Pineapple

Service

Flight attendants friendly, but sometimes too enthusiastic. When hot towels were handed out, I was busy in filling out the Japanese customs form or whatnot. I'd put the towel to the side, on the armrest. Before I had a chance to use the towel, an overly enthusiastic flight attendant used her tongs to retrieve the used towel. Before I could say something to stop her, the towel had landed in her tray of used towels. When I said I haven't used it yet, she said "oopps," shrugged her shoulders and that was that.  I thought she was going to bring me another towel but I was mistaken. And that set the tone for the rest of the in-flight service. Service was rushed. It was obvious that the crew had a schedule to go by. However, they cared more about sticking to the schedule then if, for example, I had finished using the towel, or some other passenger has had enough time to finish the meal before asking to collect the plates.

I'd noticed the in-seat a/c power outlets weren't activated. I asked the same enthusiastic flight attendant for help. But she needed to get help from her colleagues. Four hours after take-off, the in-seat a/c power outlet started to work.

I sat in the bulkhead and noticed something for the very first time; whenever the cockpit crew needs to use the toilet right outside the cockpit door, they would phone the FA. One of them would then use a food cart to block the passage from the cabin into the galley, as a security precaution. That's all good. On this particular flight, the captain was particularly chatty with the FAs. After he has done his business, he would chat with the FAs, leaving the food cart blocking the exit. And he used the toilet a few times and every time he would chat with the FAs for a few minutes. So, even though there wasn't a queue for the toilet, I found myself having to wait for the captain to finish his chat before I could use the bathroom myself. There is nothing wrong with this. It's merely a note to myself.

Unlike the flight from Haneda, I was free to use my GoPro suction-cupped onto the window.

A good blanket.

One last thing to mention; the blanket provided is not the usual flimsy, prone to static electricity ones found on other airlines, it's a comfortable duvet-like blanket.

Epilogue

Similar to the flight from Haneda, an amenity kit (but in a different color,) and a small box of Honolulu cookies were offered.  These were not only nice touches but it worked well with the overall branding of the airline, as well as Hawaii itself.   There is no better way to fly to and from Hawaii.

Bibliography

https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/our-services/products-and-programs/premium-cabin
https://www.hawaiianairlines.com/our-services/at-the-airport/the-plumeria-lounge