Flying to Hong Kong - June 6-7, 2010

Our red-eye flight from Maui landed in San Francisco around 7am.  San Francisco was just a transfer stop, but it worked out perfect for me as I wanted to fly to Hong Kong today.  This means I had to drop the last leg of my return flight; knowing that, we planned it such that Babe checked both of our bags under his name, so that he'd be able to pick it up at baggage claim, since domestic transfer luggage gets delivered to the next plane.  Had I not done that, when they figure out I didn't board the plane, they would have pulled my bag off the flight for security reasons.

A downside to not being able to pick up a checked bag at a transfer stop was that I had to put a week's worth of clothing into a carry-on luggage and a shoulder bag.  I know friends who travel internationally with just a carry-on, so it wasn't an impossible feat.  Everything fit, but I wouldn't have room for large purchases.

During my Maui trip, whenever I had 3G service on my iPhone, I would log in to my United account to see if my business class upgrade had cleared.  Everytime, the itinerary said "Waitlisted".  I also checked the business class seat loads on SeatCounter, and I would see the "C" column ("C" means business class and it shows a seat count from 0-9, with 9 meaning "9 or more") at 2, sometimes at 0, which left me with little hope for an upgrade.  I still had a decent seat in Economy Plus (or E+, as FlyerTalkers call it) so it wasn't too terrible.

Since I was flying internationally, as a 1K member, I (and one guest) had free access to United's airline lounge, the Red Carpet Club.  I just had to show a international boarding pass that day.  Babe and I went in, got some snacks for breakfast, and relaxed until his flight departed around 10:30am.

I had another 2 hours to kill before my flight.  I had read on FlyerTalk about the Singapore Airlines' Silver Kris lounge in the International Terminal and how nice it was, but business hours were tied to their flight schedule; a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours late at night.  It was open now, so I got a chance to check it out.  Normally, the lounge is available for Singapore's first and business class passengers, but thanks to Star Alliance agreements, if you are a Star Alliance Gold member (which United Premier Executives and 1K's are), you can show any Star Alliance boarding pass and gain entry.  It doesn't even have to be international, which is why a lot of people like to use this lounge when open, as you can go in with a domestic boarding pass!

It wasn't hard to locate the lounge and I approach the matron with my 1K card and boarding pass.  She waves my card away, takes my boarding pass, writes down some information, returns it back to me and gestures me into the business class side of the lounge.  The lounge was a bit small (maybe max 40 people) but there were only 3 people in it.  I claim a table and chair and go check out the offerings:  hot breakfast in a buffet tray (scrambled eggs, sausage, country potatoes), cereal, ramen, pastries, chips, pretzels.  Booze was self-serve, with bottles of spirits, wine, and canned beer in a refrigerator.  There was a coffee machine, tea, juice, and cans of soda available.  There was a little sign proclaiming "Ice cream available upon request".  Knowing I was going to get crappy food on the flight, I ate some eggs, made ramen, and chased down an employee for some ice cream.  She frowns and says, "I don't know if we have any, let me check..."  She comes back shortly, saying, "You're in luck...there are only 2 left." and I get a choice of vanilla or chocolate.  Haagen-Dazs mini cups, yum!  Chocolate of course. (though vanilla is still excellent)

I spent half an hour at the lounge, then headed over to my gate.  I kept my ears open in case the gate agent called out names for upgrades, but I didn't hear a single name. :(  1K's were called to board so I get on and make myself comfortable in my E+ aisle seat in the center section.  Shortly thereafter, a family of 3 take the remaining seats in my row; thankfully, Mom was sitting next to me as Dad and Son were tall.  I'm pretty much settled into my seat, armed with my iPod, iPhone, snacks and water, when a flight attendant comes sweeping by calling "Kong?"  My ears perk up. "Yes?"  "Today is your lucky day," she smiled as she handed me a boarding pass stub with 13A on it.  No way.  I got the upgrade!  Upstairs on a 747, with the new lie-flat seats!  I was all giddy inside.  But how was I going to make my way to the front of the plane?  It's like salmon spawning upstream, plus I had my carry-on bags.  I was planning to wait it out until a break in the crowd, but a lady who now was assigned my old seat immediately shows up, looks at me with disdain and says, "You're in my seat!"  No duh!  I felt bad for Mom as this lady was bigger than me.  I get out of the seat and tell her, "I know, I just got moved up front!"  Haha. What happens next is like a Frogger game.  I'm towing my carry-on with me and darting from row to row, trying to make my way upstream.  At one point, I had no empty row to go to, so I had to lift my carry-on and apologize to everyone, "Sorry!  Against traffic!" as I squeeze past them.  I'm sure the entire E+ section was amused by my embarrassing journey.  Eventually I make it upstairs.  I had no idea where 13A was with the new configuration, so I asked the first flight attendant I bumped into.  "Oh, it's the very first row next to the window!" and then she asked what brand was my sweatpants, which were Lucky brand.  She goes, "I knew it!"  Turns out she's also a fan of Lucky.  Well, I was definitely lucky today!  I usually wear these sweatpants on long distance flights...I should keep doing it.

I settle into my seat.  I love sitting upstairs on a 747.  The cabin is more intimate and if you sit next to the window, you get these handy cubbyholes to store your belongings so you don't have to get up all the time to access the overhead compartments.  I haven't flown in the new business class seats, so I had to figure out all the buttons and features without actually looking like it was my first time, haha.  You get your own video-on-demand system.  The seat reclines all the way to 180 degrees flat and is designed such that you have a little bit of privacy from your seatmate.  There's an option for some sort of back lumbar massage, but I hardly felt the movements.  It took me a while to figure it out, but there is a personal AC outlet!  This came in handy for charging up the iPhone.  The tray table pulls up and out of the center console.  It's a bit awkward, but I saw my seatmate do it first, so I was able to pull it out without looking like a newbie.

I had already eaten at the Singapore lounge, thinking I wasn't going to get much food in E+, but now I *had* to eat again!  Normally, I go over my calorie allowance on travel days, and today wasn't going to be an exception, by a long shot.  Oh well.  The same flight attendant came by to take my and my seatmate's lunch order.  "Mr...Price," as she reads it off the manifest, "what are your first and second choices for lunch?"  He responds, then she looks at me and goes, "Ms...(something that sounded like "Prepakajitawat"), what would you like?"  I figured that was the previous passenger's name and I didn't care to correct it since it was just a flight.  Though an hour later, the flight attendant comes by and apologizes profusely for saying the wrong name as she had a stale manifest.  I reassured her that it was not a problem.  Oh, and thank you Ms. Prepakajitawat, for not making your flight!

Lunch consisted of an appetizer of cold cuts and veggies, salad, roll and a chocolate...the chocolate seems out of place here.  The flight attendant was doling out salad dressing and I declined.  I always get weird looks when I say I don't want salad dressing.  Is it that terrible to eat raw greens without sauce?  I got my first choice of entree, which was some kind of stir-fried chicken with chow mein and bok choy, which was meh.  I should have stuck with the beef, which was my second choice.  Dessert was a nice tiramisu.  I was so full.  I should be taking advantage of the lie-flat seat for 15 hours and go to sleep, but how could I when there were so many on-demand movies to choose from?  I watched Leap Year (contrived, but cute), Sherlock Holmes (who knew he could kick butt?), Young Victoria (good), and The Box (weird).  That didn't leave me with many hours for sleep.  It helped to have a lie-flat seat, but I couldn't truly get as comfortable as if it were a bed since I could still feel the seams and curvature of the cushions, and the fact that my seatmate was mere inches away from me across a privacy barrier.

Everyone was woken up for evening snack service and I got a fruit plate.  The plane landed in Hong Kong at 6pm (the next day, June 7, having crossed the International Date Line) and the immigration line was somewhat long.  The airport personnel steered us like cattle to another immigration line that was slightly shorter.  I get through it, and I look for my parents who were meeting me, but no sign, which was unusual.  They are usually early.  I decided to stay where I was; 5 minutes later, I see my dad walking towards me.  They had been waiting at the outlet of the previous immigration line, which is where the airport monitors reported the United flight would come out of.  (There were two immigration stations, A and B.)  Fortunately the two outlets weren't far away from each other.  Since I didn't have any checked luggage, we were able to leave the airport immediately.  We made our way to the AirBus stop and boarded a bus headed to where we were going to have dinner with my grandmother, aunts, uncle, and family friends.  I was jet-lagged and fatigued from lack of sleep, so I wasn't very much entertainment during the meal.  Afterwards, I went home with my uncle and aunt as they have a guest room in their flat.  Originally, I was going to stay with my parents in my god-grandmother's flat, but because it was only 200 square feet or so, they felt it would be more comfortable if I went with Uncle.  He had WiFi too, so I could update my Facebook. :)  I couldn't wait to hit the sack...though I had to wake up early the next day to do what I had come to Hong Kong for...get my Hong Kong Identity Card.