29/10/2006
Flight: Air New Zealand NZ39
Aircraft: B747-400
Distance: 5981 miles
Scheduled departure: 08:15
Scheduled arrival: 13:35
My cab should have taken 10 mins for the short journey from the Regal Hong Kong Hotel in Causeway Bay to Hong Kong Station in Central but because I totally screwed up my Cantonese the driver took me across to Kowloon before crossing back to Hong Kong Island. Doh! Why I am such a Muppet! Someone help me please! [B)]
Anyway, I arrived a bit flustered and just missed the 06:00 Airport Express so decided to check-in for my flight at the In-Town Check-In counter. This took only a few minutes and I decided to converse in English with the check-in agent rather than take my chances in Cantonese. My bag was priority-checked to LHR and I was given my boarding pass and informed boarding would begin at 07:35. A very smooth and efficient process.
Once check-in was completed I took the 06:12 service to HKIA. For HK$100 one-way the Airport Express sure beats the HEX for value, comfort and convenience (trains depart every 12 mins). Journey time is only 24 mins. I took off my shoes, relaxed and cursed the taxi driver (and myself). [xx(]
Security and passport control was a breeze at this time of the morning and by 06:45 I was sitting comfortably in the Thai Airways Star Alliance Gold lounge, one of my favourite lounges at HKIA.
Breakfast offerings included bread and pastries as well as a salad bar and dim sum. I only had a croissant and several cups of coffee as well as my favourite Hong Kong drink Vitasoy Malted Soya Bean Milk. You can buy this drink (also the non-Malted version) in all good Chinese supermarkets in the UK.
At 07:30 the flight departure monitor was displaying Final Call for NZ39. How ridiculous I thought. It's not even boarding yet. I went off to get another cup of coffee and checked my email.
At 07:55 I left the lounge and made my way to Gate 36 where I found a long queue for Economy passengers. Fortunately the Business/PE/ Star Gold line was shorter. This being the inaugural HKG-LHR flight there were many airline dignitaries and officials lined up at the gate and I was duly presented with a gift a sodoku hand-held games console which came in a box pictured with photos of NZ's in-flight service and a message: Welcome aboard our first ever Hong Kong to London flight, October 29 2006! Sweet!
Indeed I was welcomed aboard. Actually, several times too. I had seat 22A which is the emergency exit window seat on the upper deck. Seats are configured 3-2 in Premium Economy upstairs and 2-2 downstairs. Because there are five rows on the ABC side I had to strain my neck to look out of the window in the full upright position. Once reclined it was easier to look out. PE was nearly full and luckily no one sat next to me.
Due to the closure of one of the runways we had to wait until 08:42 to push back from the gate. We took off at 09:03 with an estimated flight time of 12hrs 31mins.
Once the fasten-seatbelt sign came off I checked out my seat. I liked the suede feel of the seat covers in their chocolate brown. The recline is rather generous but the leg rest isn't extendable, which means if you use the foot bar as well you'd better have really short legs. Good if you're under 4ft tall I'd say. I found the leg rest better to use without the foot bar. The seat is slightly wider than normal economy but only by a few inches. You probably wouldn't notice it. At-seat power is available in some of the seats.
Breakfast was served an hour and a quarter after take-off because the crew had to serve the Business Premier cabin first. Food was nothing fancy, just your normal economy stuff. I had a fruit salad, strawberry yogurt and a cheese and potato fritatta with sausage and tomato, orange juice and coffee. One good thing is the quality of the plastic cutlery and napkins. [y]
During the flight I chatted several times with the friendly purser who was serving us. He explained that the 14 cabin crew on this flight are all UK based and that he and his colleagues flew to HKG with BA to position themselves for this flight. I asked if he flew down the back or up front and he said because the BA flight was pretty full only a few of his colleagues flew in Club. Naturally I wanted to know why he and his colleagues didn't fly with Virgin but he said he didn't know other than because BA have the 3 daily flights.
Throughout the flight there was a self-service snack area offering an assortment of cookies, yogurt, crisps, fresh fruit and instant noodles as well as individual bottles of water. Our friendly purser also made several water runs throughout the flight.
Cabin announcements were made in English only. The purser didn't know why this was as there was a Cantonese/Manadarin speaking flight attendant on board. Also UK landing cards weren't loaded on board but a message was sent through to have them available at the gate on arrival. Just a few hiccups for the inaugural service I guess.
Afternoon tea mid-flight consisted of a warm (tasteless) Chinese-style chicken and mushroom stuffed roll, Haagen Daz ice-cream and tea or coffee.
The All Blacks were on my flight and occupied most of the Business Premier seats, well 26 of them at least. For our (and their) viewing pleasure the AVOD was showing a re-run of the All Blacks v Wallabies game from September last year. There was a good selection of movies, comedy and other features.
When I enquired about the champagne in PE I was told it was actually a sparkling wine from New Zealand. Our nice purser instead allowed me to try a glass of the Veuve Clicquot from Business Premier. Perhaps the All Blacks weren't drinking? More of this champagne flowed throughout the flight, at least for me. [y]
A few hours before landing refreshing hot towels were offered before the lunch service commenced. I had the chicken in mushroom sauce with mashed potato and green beans, which was better than I had anticipated. A side salad accompanied it followed by apple crumble and cr_me anglais. And more champers.
We touched down at 13:24 after coming in over central London. Ground crew made a special welcome on the PA system once we arrived at our stand. PE was amongst the first to disembark and I was quickly off and through the airport. Guess whose bags came out first? The All Blacks and their entourage had so much luggage that I didn't make it out of the airport until a whole hour after landing. And some of the All Blacks were still waiting after I left! [:w]
