A heavy coat in NYC ... and a light coat in Asia

[serfty]

My invitation came via SMS thus in June: "If you would like to catch up in NYC and have a heavy coat a seat at one of the giants games in December would be available.".

This came from a guy who together with his wife have season tickets to the NFL's "New York Giants" games. She generally does not go in December as it is too cold for her.

I had a quick look at the fixtures; there were three games that would qualify, but only one to which I could realistically make it. It was to be held in the last week of the 'regular season' on the second last day of the year.

With all that communicated and confirmed it was time to look at getting there. It would require travel between Christmas and New year - a look at the cost of revenue tickets immediately discounted that option.

I looked at the award availability for flights between Australia and the USA - that did not take much time as there was nothing.

However I did find an award on VA with Velocity between Melbourne and Hong Kong and another award on AA using Qantas points between Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Both in economy, so I locked that in. My plan being to find ways to get to the east coast, either revenue or award to see the game.

 

[serfty]

I was using all the tools at my disposal; Awardnexus, Qantas.com, AA.com, Expertflyer and any other facility I could use.

I kept looking and a week or so later I found an economy award on CX between Hong Kong and Newark, so I booked that and changed my Qantas award to just LAX to HKG. This had a 9pm arrival inbto EWR - not the best but you take what you can get. It was a pleasant surprise that as an Emerald with oneworld I was able to select exit row seats on Cathay at no charge; something Qantas monetize for mere Platinum flyers.

Getting to late July I found an AAdvantage business class award to Narita in Japan by way of Chicago. Also available at that time was an award with QFF; Haneda the next day on JAL to Shangai (PVG) in premium economy and on CX to HKG in economy. I booked that and my original LAX routing became a memory. The only issue I perceived with the new routing was an 8am departure from LaGuardia to connect at Chicago on New Year's eve. Later on I found another issue - the PVG connection would require a change of terminals and while I had 175 minutes this was likely still to be very tight.

 

[serfty]

At the same time as doing this; I had allowed 5 days HKG to do an SC's run - looking at CX ex HKG there was nothing cheap available.

However, Malaysia Airlines was having one of its regular sales and BKK to HKG business class return was available for around $570 to earn 280 SC's. But I needed to get to BKK (and Back).

Searches for that regularly brought up Hong Kong Airlines (HX) at a good price. Searching on the HX website itself showed I could do this for about $240. Moreover HX are a partner airline of VA and being Velocity Platinum I would have lounge access at HKG as well as pick up 30 VA SC's, even on the cheap fare.

So, I locked all that in.

 

[serfty]

My searches for better options continued and in August, I came across a BOS-HKG flight in business on New Year's day. A quick check showed I could book JFK-xBOS-HKG on AA/CX - only problem being I would have to leave for the airport strait after the NFL game as the BOS-HKG flight departed at 1:30am.

I reviewed some more PVG transit horror stories and decided to "bite the Bullet" and I called AAdvantage and changed the LGA-NRT to JFK-HKG.

I did it this way because more AAdvantage mile were required and while I had enough for the extra, I did not have enough to book the new routing outright then cancel the old. Nor did I want to do a 5 day hold on the new routing and wait with trepidation for points from the cancelled booking to be refunded. This actually worked in my favour as such a change should have invoked a USD150 fee but somehow (I guess) my Emeraldness got in the way and this did not happen.

 

[VPS]

Following along

 

[drron]

Well I hope you see some good NFL moments.Loved the recent Eagles v oilers game.One great Eagles touchdown.60+ pass,outran the defence and this unusual touchdown-couldn't get the video to upload so serial screenshots.

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A bit of a showoff.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I was hoping this a report about a decent jacket that served both geographies.

Regardless, im following along!

 

[cjd600]

Well I hope you see some good NFL moments.Loved the recent Eagles v oilers game.

Oilers lol

 

[serfty]

Getting a bit ahead, but I flew to HKG today on VA ... in economy.

They actually served two meals - lunch and dinner (11am departure). Both more substantial than what QF serves - once.

As for NFL, I recorded and downloaded the Steelers @ Saints and the Chiefs @ Seahawks games and watched them during the flight (not knowing the results). Very interesrlting games but mainly shows how much luck can change a result.

FWIW, The Texans v. Eagles game was pretty good too.

I also have the Broncos @ Raiders to watch, I'm planning on doing that tomorrow as I head to the big apple.

 

[serfty]

As I was searching for better options, First class from NYC to HKG kept appearing for the 31st, but not my hoped for business.

I procrastinated , but when some other options I had been considering linking up began to disappear, I looked closer.

An online review of the Boston flight convinced me, I called and upfared the existing booking to First Class a day later, same route. With AAdvantage, such a change is complimentary.

So, now my final routing was in place:

MEL-(VA)-HKG-(VA)-MEL in economy on a Velocity Award.
HKG-(CX)-JFK in Business on a QFF Award.
JFK-(AA)-xBOS-(CX)-HKG in First on an AAdvantage award.
HKG-(HX)-BKK-(HX)-HKG in economy on a Hong Kong Airlines sale fare.
BKK-(MH)-xKUL-(MH)-HKG-(MH)-xKUL-(MH)-BKK in business on a Malaysia Airlines sale fare..

 

[kermatu]

Oilers lol

Where's Warren Moon when you need him?

 

[Major]

What are the Y seats like on the VA 777 ?

 

[Bundy Bear]

Were you able to be seated in the VA economy X section,

On the meals probably similar to LA flights and load 2 meals.

 

[serfty]

What are the Y seats like on the VA 777 ?

I flew on an A332, standard economy seating - 31" pitch I believe. I had a front row bulkhead which has about 10cm more foot room than QF's equivalents.

 

[serfty]

Were you able to be seated in the VA economy X section,

On the meals probably similar to LA flights and load 2 meals.

Economy X on the 332s are comprised solely of the 8 seats in exit row 28.

LA Flights are 14 or more hours; HKG is a mere 9 hours.

 

[serfty]

Day 1: Steps 7472



So, yesterday after a light/quiet Christmas Day I packed my bags an had an early night. My packed rollaboard (which I was going to check due to having three bottles of wine) weighed 11kg.

I woke up at 5:30am and readied myself to depart. A cup of coffee, an adios to my wife and she sent on my way for the 10 minute walk to the local station. I arrived at Southern Cross station an hour later and proceeded to the Skybus bays. I had pre-purchased my ticket online to get the 100 points for the Velocity Christmas Promotion.

By the time I had arrived at the airport it was 8:15am, there was no wait at the premium counter and I headed strait there. The loadings for my flight had indicated a high economy load - while Business not so. For the past week the numbers had been basically J7 D7 I7 Y7 B0 ....

Even so, when checking in I was still surprised to be offered the opportunity to upgrade to business class for Velocity points. I declined as it was a day flight and I had a bulkhead. I did not ask how many points.

From there it was strait to emigration; I was through in 5 minutes and negotiating the angles and curves of the Duty Free shopping mall.

Off to "The House" - being the rebranded Etihad Lounge for breakfast.



They had a light breakfast menu available:



I ordered a breakfast burrito with Bacon and Mushrooms. It was small but delightful. After that I went over the the buffet and grabbed some grilled tomatoes and more of the bacon.





While finishing up I was approached by another AFF member who had recognised me, even though we had not seen each other for a couple of years. They had flown in from CBR that morning. They were in Business class on the same flight as me; travelling on one of those ~AU$1700 HKG specials that had been available earlier this year.

We discussed frequent travel things, this and that until it was time to head to the gate. For me, this was an hour before scheduled departure as I wanted to be there when boarding commenced since seat I had a bulkhead seat and needed to secure some overhead storage.

 

[RooFlyer]

Images not showing for me using Chrome or IE ... just a broken picture icon and

Edit ... where the red cross thing is, I typed square bracket IMG square bracket, which is what i see in the post ...

 

[RooFlyer]

I was small but delightful.

Always delightful !

 

[RooFlyer]

Now on my iPhone and now just see square bracket IMG square bracket

Sorry to distract, but looking forward to future pics!

 

[serfty]

My flight to HKG departed the gate five minutes late and taxiied around a bit. Flightaware was showing a 11:35am departure so I assumed a ground hold.

Anyway it eventually took of 11:27am with an expect arrival of 5:17pm - to which schedule it kept.

In flight was pretty straight forward; window seatmate wanted to check the ingredient list of the Vegan food options - they met his requirements.

Here are photos of the meals I had. Lunch was "Roast Chicken in basil cream sauce with herbed potatoes, bean and carrots." Dinner was beef stroganoff with potato with ricotta gnocchi and sauteed spinach.

The chook was ok, the Gnocchi was really nice.





One thing though about these non cloth seats - sitting in them for hours is not comfortable for anyone or anything.

Next time I'll position a blanket between my posterior and the seat.