‘Scripts, Skeletons & Scriptures: Writing About Writing in Yorkshire.

[VPS]

You are on track for a third trip report of the month mate

Love reading your TR.

btw - are you able to disclose now who your famous authors were or is it a secret (if not are you able to send them privately)

 

[Human]

Love reading your TR.

btw - are you able to disclose now who your famous authors were or is it a secret (if not are you able to send them privately)

Thanks for your kind words @VPS

The first author (Alexander Masters) I actually disclosed at the beginning of this TR becasue I finished reading his book A Life Discarded on the SYD-BKK flight.

The second author was Christie Watson. Her book The Language of Kindness is amazing.

 

[RB001]

No -- I like your FlightRadar graphic. Please don't delete!

My last trip to Hong Kong (not in a typhoon) also resulted in a go-around. It was my third, and I manged to call it (in my head!) before the engines roared.
In fact, all 3 of my lifetime go-arounds have been into HKG!

 

[VPS]

Thanks for your kind words @VPS

The first author (Alexander Masters) I actually disclosed at the beginning of this TR becasue I finished reading his book A Life Discarded on the SYD-BKK flight.

The second author was Christie Watson. Her book The Language of Kindness is amazing.

thanks I am not familiar with them but will put them on my ever increasing things I want to read and wait with bated breath for your book

 

[Human]

Now let me flash back to my account of the second half of CX216.

I made up my bed after that (with a little help from the cabin crew).


I unsuccessfully attempted to sleep for a couple of hours, then gave up for a bit and read through the entire blog opus of someone I’d met on the course. Her blog is on the internet so I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me giving it a plug:

Dispatches from Dublin | Marguerite / Flea | Substack

Somewhat truthful letters from a Yank living in the Pale. Click to read Dispatches from Dublin, by Marguerite / Flea, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

dispatchesfromdublin.substack.com

Subscribe! It’s honest, heartbreaking, funny, thought-provoking, and phenomenally well-written.

Then, with about 4 hours to go until HKG, I made another attempt to sleep. I really wanted to enjoy my transit in HKG rather than being too much of a sleep-deprived zombie to appreciate it. I think I did get about an hour’s sleep – maybe a little more.

Oh, I almost forgot in the excitement of today: Breakfast. I'd ordered the "Express Breakfast" so as to maximise my potential sleep time. Given the bumpiness that was about to occur, I was grateful that my breakfast had been on the smaller side!



Anyway, the leisurely transit in HKG was not to be. My first attempt to visit the Lounges here was an itinerary booked for March 2020. COVID put an end to that. Oh well. I’m alive.

Reflections on CX216

This flight left me thinking Cathay Pacific Business class really is in the upper echelon of Business class products. The hard product is very good – not the best I’ve been in, but it’s not fair comparing CX’s last-generation product with, say, Qatar’s current-generation product. In fact, I’d say that CX’s last-generation hard product is superior to Qatar’s last-generation hard-product.

As for the soft product, it’s excellent. Again, I’d put Qatar’s food and beverage offerings first due to its dine-on-demand, but Qatar’s cabin crews can be hit-and-miss. When they’re great, they’re fantastic. But they’re not always great.

There are a few little quirks that I noticed, though:

• The noise-cancelling headphones, didn’t.
• The bathrooms aren’t kept quite as pristinely clean as you’d expect on Singapore Airlines or, especially, Qatar.
• The bed gives plenty of space for my legs and feet, but there’s noticeably less space for the upper half of my body to stretch and wriggle as there was on my Finnair lounge/seat.

I would rate the Finnair A350 seat as the best of my trip so far … (but see below for a very pleasant surprise!).

 

[Flyfrequently]

At this stage my itinerary looks like this:

MEL-SYD Qantas Economy
SYD-BKK Qantas Economy (operated by Finnair)
Overnight in Bangkok
BKK-HEL-CDG Finnair Business
3 nights in Paris
CDG-MAN Air France Economy
Overnight in Manchester
5 nights at the writing workshop in West Yorkshire
Overnight in Manchester
MAN-HKG-MEL Cathay Pacific Business

View attachment 465958


That’s not a bad itinerary given I’m using points for every flight and it was only booked 4 weeks before departure! Obviously the 10 or so hours in Economy SYD-BKK won’t be amazing, but at least it’s a daytime flight and here’s hoping I’ll be able to snaffle an empty seat next to me.

Why 3 nights in Paris on the way? Firstly, because there were no later award flights available that would still get me to the workshop on time. Secondly, because my sister and her family live there, so I can crash with them for a few nights. Having free accommodation in Paris as a fallback if the dates didn’t quite work out certainly made planning this trip a lot easier — and cheaper!

Very late to the party, am impressed with your project and on board with you @Human

 

[Human]

I must be the only AFFer who’s not familiar with HKG airport. I’d been so looking forward to visiting at least one of the famed Cathay Pacific Lounges! But it was not to be. We disembarked just under an hour before my scheduled flight CX163 to MEL.

I just focussed on getting through Transit Control and finding my gate – gate 25.




I arrived at the Gate just before 11:30am and asked, somewhat pathetically, whether a few minutes in a Lounge was a possibility. But, darn it, the flight was on time! The agent smiled and shook her head ruefully. So I waited at the Gate and used the free WiFi to FaceTime my wife and daughter.


Boarding was called and I entered to be very pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised by … an Aria Suite! I wasn’t expecting it on this flight at all and according to a member of the cabin crew this is a one-off, at least for another week or two until Aria Suites become permanent on CX163.




I have to say it looks great. The seat looks and feels a little wider than the seat I had on CX216, with just as much space for my legs, if not more. The screen is huge – I think the biggest screen I’ve had in Business class. And, of course, my suite has a door.

The only slight disappointment is the storage space. There’s less in the Aria Suite than there was on my last flight. On CX216 there was space for me to store my 15-inch MacBook Pro even during takeoff and landing. Here, it has to be stored in the overhead locker.

Anyway. Boarding was efficient and concluded in plenty of time. Then the Captain, speaking with a distinctive London accent, made an announcement:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sure you know of the weather conditions we’re experiencing at the moment. As a result of these conditions there is a big backlog of traffic ahead of us … we are expecting at least an hour delay. I’ll update you in 25 or 30 minutes with news about when we’ll be able to depart”.

The delay doesn’t bother me. But why, oh why, can’t I be spending this delay in a Lounge?

As I write this, this is the view from my window … and the plane is rocking uncomfortably. I’m no pilot, but there’s no way we’re taking off in this.


At 11:55am the Captain informed us that the delay was still at 1 hour, we were still in the queue, but that the weather was expected to improve over the next couple of hours. Then just a minute ago, just before 12:45pm, he told us that we would be taking off in about 30 minutes. But it’s still bucketing down outside with horizontal rain. We’ll see!

In the meantime, the cabin crew are being amazing – serving snacks, hot and cold drinks … the Cabin Manager, Melody, even offered to hotspot her phone because she has loads of data expiring in 2 days! Great customer service.

 

[Human]

Meanwhile… my luggage is still in MAN. At least it’s made it from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 – T1 is to the east of T2, so that’s progress!

 

[BriarFlyer]

thanks I am not familiar with them but will put them on my ever increasing things I want to read and wait with bated breath for your book

I have done the same with the TBR additions and shall also await your book - no pressure to produce it. None whatsoever.