#900426 by paulreg
08 Apr 2015, 10:28
In preparation for the long trip to HKG we left our hotel which was only 5 miles from airport about 3 ½ hours before our flight.
Dropped the car off at the newish car rental garage which serves all the main rental companies – This was quick and easy and we were pointed to level 5 to get the free shuttle bus to the airport. The journey took circa 5 mins.
Assistance was provided to get our bags off the shuttle bus. In travelling with the wife and kids for I seemed to have accumulated five check in bags vs 3 when we left. At this point I remembered that baggage carts cost and hence reluctantly inserted credit card to acquire trolley for the bags. A quite hefty USD5 albeit greatly needed.

We then proceeded to look for the Delta counter to deposit the bags as the night before I had done check-in on the Delta Android App. All well I thought until I tried to show the boarding pass to the baggage clerk to find that there was no Wi-Fi and that the boarding passes were not stored on my phone. Back out from baggage drop area to the machines to get boarding passes. After 5 minutes as system wanted to know our departure date from our destination which we didn’t have as I had not booked yet (allowed 6 months as a visitor) it finally provided the 4 passes.
Back to the lady at baggage drop to weight and tag the bags. All looking good till bag 4 of 5 which was weighed as 51ib and only allowed 50ib per bag. Quick bit of arithmetic and realized that this was less than 0.5kg and actually with our baggage allowance I could have had another 3 bags totaling 150ibs if we wished. Anyway the lady was adamant I would have to repack the bag and so dutifully removed some clothes and put them in one of our hand carry bags which I then decided to check in.
Few more minutes went by as lady had to update computer to print 6 baggage receipts rather than 5. She then realized she had printed 7 instead of 6 but not to worry she would sort and wished us bye for now as she would see us later at the gate as our flight was one she was covering .

Kids fancied food and most restaurants are air side so decided to go through security. Bit of a queue but all through in 10 mins. Seattle airport does have a good choice of food and bars so finding a place was easy. Kids played pads and parents discussed strategy for the 14 hour plus flight.
About an hour to boarding we decided to head to the gate which was at the very end of the "A' terminal. On way tried to buy stamp for final postcards back to UK but discovered stamps can only be purchased from ATM and then in sheets totaling USD11 so hence no stamps.

Got to the gate and lady from earlier was there to check passport and scan passes. All fine till my 6 year old daughters boarding pass which flashed red. Lady said not to worry just tell the agent at desk it’s a BGG issue. Spent five minutes as they typed loads into computer. Problem was something to do with baggage so I can only assume the 7th bag which didn’t exist had been tagged to my daughter and of course not loaded. Anyway got fixed and we boarded plane to sit in Economy comfort with bulk head seats right next to end of business class lounge.

Plane was delayed awaiting a connecting flight so took off 30 mins late. Taxi to runway was quick and we were in the air within 10 mins of push back. Two sets of crew due to long flight.
Shortly after take-off we had first drinks round, followed by a second half an hour later followed by dinner. Dinner was chicken or beef. Tried the Thai green beef but left most of as it was tasteless plus was still quite full from lunch at the airport.
After trays removed a water bottle was provided to each pax.
In flight system on the A332 was pretty good with touch screen input and wide variety of films and tv. After few films tried to sleep but the seats are quite narrow as tray table in armrest so was quite restless sleep. After about 8 hours a snack bag and drink was provided. The fruit was quite tasty but the sandwich was very dry
Watched more TV and played pad and then with about 2 hours to go it was meal time again. Choice of Omelet or noodles for which I chose the latter. Also not very tasty so ate my daughters tasty mac and cheese.

Plane landed about 45 mins late due a strong headwind. At one point our speed over land was showing on screen as only 380mph.
No jet bridge provided albeit plenty were free at HKG but guess as plane is not used again till the inward flight 15 hours later its easier all round to park off stand and bus Pax.

In summary flight itself was good with only little turbulence, cabin crew ok, a good in-flight system, albeit food was poor. Baggage

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

Itinerary Calendar