Saturday, January 31, 2015

Los Angeles to Singapore

January 2015 - Singapore

Singapore is a multi racial country and the general language used for communication among the various races is English. So people just say hello (yeah, in English)!


Saturday January 31 2015

We spent January 29 at the Hilton LAX, we had booked an extra night even though our flight is at 12:05 AM January 30, so we needed to be at the airport around 8 PM.

We checked out and got the shuttle at 7:30 PM after spending the day lounging around our hotel room.


We flew Cathay Pacific in their Premium Economy so we had a dedicated check in line.
Clearing security was easy, shoes off and laptops out. both of us got patted down after the full body scan.


Thought it was interesting watching this monk waiting for his Starbucks!





We have Priority cards that allow us access to most airline lounges. We went to the KAL Korean Airlines lounge. They provided finger sandwiches, fresh vegetables, fruit and noodles. Along with a selection of wine, beer and alcohol.
We sat in front of the large windows overlooking the International terminal. This terminal is really something to see, lots of shops. 

I watched in trepidation as some of the Chinese airlines boarded, lots of little babies and packed to the wings. 


Our take off time was January 30 at 00:05 so just after midnight. 



However, when we got to our gate everything was very civilized. Not crowded, and lines were set up for First, Premium and Economy by row. You didn't dare try to skip into another line.

According to Cathay Pacific:Our Premium Economy Class cabin is a spacious and cosy cabin of 26 to 34 seats. There’s more room between your seat and the seat in front of you, 8 inches of recline to make resting and sleeping more comfortable, and the headrest has 4-way movement for excellent support of your head and neck. Front-row seats have a legrest, and other seats have a 3-position footrest, which help you find a variety of positions to make your flights as enjoyable as possible.For entertainment, there are hundreds of selections on your StudioCX inflight entertainment system. Plus, you can use the multi-port connector to stream movies and music from your iPod, iPhone or iPad* to your 10.6-inch touch-screen Personal TV – and a noise-cancelling headset will enhance your enjoyment.

On our long-haul flights, we’re able to offer you even more. For your comfort, there’s an environmentally friendly amenity kit with socks, eyeshade, earplugs, and toothbrush and toothpaste. And our food and beverage service includes a welcome drink and a hot towel, a selection of enhanced entrées, complimentary bottled water and a wide variety of snacks.


They lived up to their hype, we had front row seats so lots of space. We were only three in a four row of seats. We were served our glass of sparkling wine before take off. 

We were delayed due to heavy traffic volume by about thirty minutes.



The section even had our own bathroom!

We then were given menus to select our meals. We both chose the seafood and had a glass of wine.


With a flight time of 15 hours to Hong Kong we settled in for the long haul. This flight was not fully booked and around us, in our section they were about 8 empty seats, no children! So once dinner was over everyone settled down. We read for a while, probably until around 2 AM then with our pillows, foot rests and blankets hunkered down for a sleep. John donned his eye mask and I built my little tent so that no one got to see my gaping mouth and droll marks as they passed by. 

We probably slept on and off until around 8 AM, I am still using LA times. Then we read and dozed until after 10, when they lights came up. We each selected a movie, Equalizer for John and This Is Where I Leave you for me. We selected the omelet for breakfast with mushrooms and sausages. The omelet was not very good.

More movies to while away the time. John now watched Where I Leave You and I viewed a delightful Scottish movie What We Did On Our Holiday starring Billy Connolly.



We landed at 8:10 AM in Hong Kong and our flight to Singapore was boarding at 8:20 AM and leaving at 9 AM, hence a mad scramble to find our gate and scurry over, BUT we had to do a security check, laptop out again. We got to gate 65 by 8:40 and there was still a long line of economy so we sailed through the premium line. This flight was full and lots of little ones.

More movies, while I charged my e-reader. Men Women and Children and The Hundred Foot Journey for me and John watched The Drop and November Men. 

Another breakfast, a frittata this time and the eggs were awful again. But the fried tomatoes, saugage and bacon were good.





This flight didn't leave until 9:26 and we landed in Singapore at 1:10 PM. Cleared immigration with nary a smile or word from the officer, just lots of officious stamping.

Baggage claim 20 didn't yield our luggage nor many of our companion travellers' bags. Traipse to the Cathey desk to file a claim and told our luggage was on the next flight and would be brought to our hotel.

Finally we were into the terminal around 1:45 and looking for our driver who was finally found. Driven to our hotel and settled in.


1 comment:

  1. I'll have to look up that Connolly movie.

    That is a long flight.

    ReplyDelete

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