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ANA and Thai First Class

ANA and Thai First Class
JFK-NRT-BKK and back to RGN
June 2013

At T-50 I headed out for the 7 minute walk to D7. A major upgrade from my last BKK-RGN flights which departed from a remote bus gate.

BKK-RGN
Thai Airways 305
A333-300
5:50P-6:40P
July 1, 2013
Seat 14J

Very comfortable regional long-haul J seat with plenty of leg room

PDB of juice or water, and newspapers

Just after take-off a great view on Bangkok thru the haze and under the clouds.

And full dinner service for 40+ J pax on a 60 minute flight. Wow.

I had "Booked the Cook" and special ordered the Chicken Massaman Curry.

The Deep-fried Salmon Salad Thai style starter was really good.

My chicken was excellent.

Baked egg custard was really good.

Beautiful clouds formations on the way towards cloudy and rain-soaked Yangon.

The weather turned about the time we crossed the Thailand/Burma border.
No drought here as much of the ground in the rural areas was flooded.

We taxied in past our parked NH BusinessJet waiting to be towed to the gate in a couple of hours.

Even though I was in transit, I had decided to pay a little more and get the full Visa on Arrival just to be safe.
Sure enough, my VOA application was waiting on the counter in the lower arrivals level.

When the VOA agent verified that I was indeed "in transit", he told me to wait for the "transit agent" who escorted five of us up the elevator to the departures area. She took all of our passports and eticket confirmations, and instructed us to wait in the MAI lounge while she confirmed everything. She returned 20 minutes later with BPs and passports.
 

The Myanmar Airlines International Lounge was much better than my November visit. New carpeting and much better food offerings.

There were at least 10 FTers in the lounge tonight, including our group of 5 including Short hair Francis and jfkeze. Our impressive line up of boarding passes. Mine was the one without the Immigration stamp, as I was never really in Myanmar.

ShF and I decided to be gate lice tonight to get cabin pics, even though we were only 28/38 load tonight.

Said headless ShF.

 

NH914
RGN-NRT
737-700 BusinessJet
9:30P-7:05A +1
July 1, 2013
3H

Short hair Francis and I were the only gate lice tonight and were the first to board for some empty cabin pix. Our three lovely FAs were pretty amused but hey, they should be used to out-of-control picture taking.

The all Business Class 737 had only 38 seats and 10 rows with generous pitch.

With only 28 pax tonight, boarding was pretty easy and we were ready for an early push. Shortly after take-off, our FAs jumped into action prepping the cabin for drinks and meal service. Hot towels, napkins and snacks.

Tonight's menu including Lobster Thermidor!


Most everyone went for the Lobster Thermidor.

Since I had one early today on TG, I opted for the Pork with Pineapple Chili sauce, which was really good.

Duck starter

And salad with the dressing that didn't want to.

Really?

Finally, with a little help, success!

The pork was great!

Dessert

Just before lights out, more cabin shots

And some of FAs who did a great job and were happy for play along for photos.

The group. Haven't got clearance to "un-blur" from everyone.

The IFE was cumbersome, do it yourself and pretty useless unless you were really desperate. I huge arm like thingy with digiplayer at each seat. Required an AC adapter which for some in the left seat flops onto your tray or lap. This sucker went back into the arm rest really fast.

Pretty nice lav for 737. OK, double windows is pretty cool, but I wasn't as excited about it as jfkeze. Dude needs to get out more.

Most of the cabin slept, or at least tried to, for a few hours.
Snacks and amenities were available all night at strategic locations throughout the cabin.

Although not lie flat, the seats were pretty comfortable in full recline and I managed about three hours of in-and-out sleep. The nice part about the space on this plane is that even in full recline, the pax in front was still far enough away for the window pax to exit without a problem.

At about T-75, our FAs opened a few window shades and slowly lightened the cabin. And offered juice and water.

Not sure if everyone got them, but we received a sweet welcome to japan note.

And a pass of the snack basket. When our FA saw that we were taking pix of the snack basket, she excused herself and reloaded the basket so it was full for the photo op. 

Continuing his quest to eat out entire cabin, just after 6AM, ShF went for the noodles and a beer. Doesn't everyone have beer for breakfast?

With window shades fully opened, more pics

With Mt. Fuji far off in the haze.

After a fun flight with a great crew, on time arrival at NRT and a fond farewell to our wonderful FAs. And a final pic of the ANA BusinessJet.

There is one final pics from that flight, as the FAs got the captain and FO to pose with the group in the terminal. Will post after I get the pic from ShF.

With nearly 7 hours to kill before our DL departure, time for a shower and a tour of the lounges at NRT. With a transit arrival near the Gate 45 ANA lounges, I thought I would stop at the ANA Business Class Lounge. Apparently a J class arrival does not get you arrivals access.

OK, since the ANA First Class Lounge wasn't that great, probably not a big miss. Another 10 minutes of walking and I found one of the two DL SkyClubs, this one near Gate 14. I arrived just before the 9AM opening time and headed for a well needed shower.

Wow, this is one huge lounge with lots of comfortable seating areas...

...and great work stations along the windows. Multiple power outlets and a great view of the action below.

Pretty nice food area and a good variety of offerings.

With our NRT-SEA now posting a Gate 26 departure, I headed over to the other SkyClub.
Another large lounge with numerous comfortable seating and work areas. Most of these pics are compliments of Short hair Francis.

At about T-50, we headed out to visit at the Korean Air Lounge, hands down winner of the Girls of NRT Lounges contest.

Modern but not very comfy looking seating.

Comical First Class area of the lounge.

Pretty basic and limited food options.

NRT-SEA
DL 146
747-400
3:30P-8:15A
July 2, 2013
Seat 75K
Dinner and Breakfast

It's been 20+ years since I've flown a US airline TPAC/TATL and at least five years since I've flown anything but F. So with a mix of curiosity and trepidation, I'm at Gate 26 waiting to board. Then I consider the price and figure, OK I'll deal with it. How bad can it be?

Speaking of price, this mistake fare was even worse (for NH and DL) than I had thought. ShF and jfkeze retold the story of their conversation with NRT DL check-in agent as they tried to change flights for one of our group. After considerable discussion, the agent apparently finally said "you paid $13 for the ticket. I'm not going to make any changes". LOL. I had forgotten about the taxes so the base fare and net revenue to both NH and DL was indeed only $13.

So I'm at the gate waiting to board my $7 Business Class flight to SEA. OK, I can live with J for 9 hours.

This is nicest concourse and gate area that I've seen in my treks around NRT.

The cast and crew from Amazing Race are also on our flight today.

And the now regular "evil eye" pic, this one from one of the Amazing Race cameramen. How does it feel dude?

Short hair Francis again forces me to be gate lice, although he was hanging back. If we are going to be gate lice, we may as well step right up.

After a few handicap/families with small kids boardings, pleasant and efficient gate agents began boarding with Business Elite. ShF ran ahead to board and take pics without worrying about other pax. The pointy end...

And now the upper deck. Only 14 pax and it is a pretty calm and quiet oasis from the main level. Not as good as this.

But not too bad, for $7.

Thanks to Short hair Francis for some of these pics.

Overall impressions is that the seat and space are a little tight, but then again my frame of reference is First. One of our group, an LH SEN, says it is way better than LH Business Class seat. Still very difficult to work and retrieve items from a back-pack. Then again, you have an entire overhead compartment for both roller and backpack.

Delta has a lot of wonderful employes and does a lot of things right, but today's NRT-SEA is a perfect example of why as long as LH, SQ, NH, CX etc. are in business, I will never feel compelled to rush to fly Delta or any US carrier. Why play roulette with your FAs when I have a 50/50 chance of getting a crappy "senior" crew that would rather be elsewhere? And I just when these clueless FAs sit in the jump seats yapping away the entire time. Ugh.

When we boarded, we were greeted by two smiling, youngish FAs on the lower level. Lots of personality. The kind of FAs you love to fly with. Unfortunately, they were not working the upper deck. Seniority ruled the upper deck and our FAs were senior, dour, seemingly unhappy to be here today, and very slow to warm. Add in the fact that we were a group having a good time and it was not a good combination.

PDB was offered.

As I explored my seat area and controls.

Amenity kit. Nice Tumi case, but what's the point as there was little worthwhile inside.

On the other hand, the Westin Heavenly pillow and duvet/blanket are really nice.

We were barely in our seats for 5 minutes, still doing PDBs, chatting and taking pics, when FAs came around asking for our dinner selection. Whoa Nellie, what's the rush?

Group hug.

On time push, and we were on our way home.

I've enjoyed Michael Chiarello's meals on DL's JFK-SFO/LAX transcons, arguably the best domestic food offerings. From those in the DL forum, apparently his promotion to international is new.

Today's menu...

A hot towel is usually a nice touch, but not today. How about a scalding hot dripping wet towel.

Again, thanks to Short hair Francis for some of these pics.

Lights out and sleep time. The bed was pretty comfy especially with the wonderful Westin Heavenly pillow and duvet. I slept for nearly 4 hours, while SHF explored, ate and drank. 

The best meal of this flight was breakfast. Substantial and great tasting. 

Lots of pretty pics on the approach to Seattle.

All in all, a reasonably pleasant flight. But the inconsistency of FA roulette and lack of First Class would prevent me from flying much DL internationally.

After some great views of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, we landing on time at SEA. After we pulled up to the gate, upper deck were the first off as the FA's held back not only Y pax but also the lower deck J pax. Maybe they thought this was LH.

As a result, our gang was the first to hit customs and both GE kiosks and manned stations were wide open. We took the train to the main terminal and said our good-byes after a fun 24 hours. I had OLCI'd for my DEN flight and used a kiosk to print my BP. Huge line of kettles waiting for security but nary a soul at PreCheck and I was thru in 30 seconds.

OK, now where's the BR?
Glad I'm not on UA today. Yikes, a 7 hour delay??

The SEA Board Room is Alaska's flagship lounge. Nothing special but still a comfortable place to wait with ample work stations and power outlets. My Priority Club card from Amex Platinum was my entry ticket today.

Up the 2nd floor

Lots of fire and police presence surrounding one plane this morning. A nice gesture as Alaska apparently honors all fallen soldiers like this on the final trip home.

SEA-DEN
AS 682
737-900
11:15A-2:45P
July 2, 2013
Seat 2A
Lunch

My MVP Gold upgrade cleared at the window. Although I had selected an aisle seat, I move up to 2A to accommodate a family, one of many families on board today for what more closely resembled a kiddie express flight. The summer travel season can't end soon enough.

As with most AS flights, friendly FAs including the bubbly Estee working up front today.

Haven't had an AS meal in ages, so I took one for the team and the photo op. Choice of pasta salad or not.

Apparently vying with UA for crown of worst domestic food airline, this looked good, but alas was pretty much inedible, unless one likes the taste of cardboard.

And the best part of the meal.

Today's IFE compliments of the family of four in row 4 with the kids running up and down the F cabin aisle, and the DYKWIA in 2D who left his wife and kids in Y but encouraged them to visit just after wheels up. Doesn't look like 2F was too amused. Back to the Bose.

We arrived 30 minutes early at DEN and I was home 45 minutes later.
AS will never win many awards for inflight food, but it is a solid and reliable airline with a great frequent flyer program and reasonable fares.
They are also small enough to go out of the way when it comes to customer service. An hour after I got home, an Alaska rep at DEN called and asked if I had left my headsets on the plane, as they found a pair in the seat back of 4C, which was my original seat before I moved to accommodate a family. Now that's impressive!

Thanks to everyone who followed this crazy saga and especially those taking time to post comments. They are really appreciated. If you are interested, Mrs. SFO and I are back on Lufthansa tomorrow and our first visit to Poland, spending a few days visiting friends and touring Wroclaw and Krakow.