rkkwan

<b>CO52 IAH-EWR 10/28/06</b>

Really nothing to report, which is a good thing. Got to IAH 6:35a for 7:55a departure. 3-4 people max at bag drops or security. Door closed right on time, arrived EWR half an hour early. Flight time 2:48, and we got up to the maximum flight level of 41,000 ft.

Inside aisle seat 17F on a 762 (N69154, delivered 1/01) in the mini front cabin is great. Breakfast is standard banana/cereal.

<b>CO99 EWR-HKG 10/28/06</b>

3pm flight started boarding at 2:20. With only about 70% full, process was very smooth, unlike my last CO99 experience. I had 44L, and nobody beside me, so I could move around, sleep sideways, etc... Very very comfortable.

They had some problem filling the water tank, so we were delayed 45 minutes at the gate. Took off 4:05p, and arrived 7:06p+1, for flight time of 15:01, which is atypically fast, and we were only 15 minutes late into HKG. Flight path is as usual - straight north through Hudson Bay, Baffin Island, North Pole, then Polar 2 (B480) straight down through Russia, Mongolia, just west of Beijing, etc.

Towel service, food service, etc, are all typical. Water service every hour or so, with big bottle left near the rear galley. The midflight snack was changed. Now it's a personal-sized pizza (not bad), and Haagen-Dazs ice-cream (very good).

One problem with IFE. The channel with the Chinese movie was missing, not that I cared.

And for those interested to know how long it takes to get out of HKG, here's the timetable:

7:06 touch down on Runway 7L.
7:11 door open at Gate 2_.
7:16 I exited (from last row)
7:24 through immigration and made free phone call
7:30 my bags out

Other than the short delay, this is as perfect as a ultra-longhaul in coach can be.

rkkwan

BTW, my trip report to Hong Kong, Macau and China (in progress) is posted here: fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=27&amp;tid=34899301

For those with questions about the process of going to Shenzhen (SZX) from Hong Kong, please here or there.

<b>CZ3459 SZX-KMG 11/1/06</b>

It's first time I fly in China in over 10 years, and first time since the breakup of CAAC.

Our first of 4 flights is China Southern from Shenzhen to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. It's cheaper than flying from HKG, and it's not that hard to cross the border by land and get to SZX. SZX has two modern-looking terminals, but is very busy.

First, a few things about check-in and security procedure of domestic Chinese flights.

- Check-in opens at 2:00 before flight time, closes at :30 with bags to checked, or :15 without. But you'll be cutting it too close arriving :15, as there are often long lines, and planes may be parked on the tarmac requiring a bus ride. [Very long rides at SZX!]

- Security for domestic Chinese flights are <b>tighter than in the US!</b> Yes, that's possible! First, you line up to a counter, similar to a passport control. They need to look at a government-issued ID, boarding pass <b>and the plane ticket voucher</b>, even if you're on &quot;e-ticket&quot;. Yes, there's an actual ticket even though you're on e-ticket. Go figure.

Only after that, you'll be allowed to approach the x-ray machine and metal detector. And even if you're nude, the metal detector will beep, and you'll be hand-wanded. Good thing it's always done by a young female officer.

Anyways, just give you an idea of the time. Our flight was scheduled to depart 8:50a. The last bus left the gate at 8:35a, and all boarded via front stairs by 8:50a. We started moving at 8:59s and took off 9:05a.

Our flight is on an A320 (B-2391, delivered 2/99). It has working A/V system with dropped down screens and many channels of audio.

<b>The free breakfast was worse than US airlines</b> and include a dinner roll, a weird roll with a piece of bacon stuck on the top (cold bacon - yuck!), a almond cookie, some preserved crunchy salty chinese vegetable (jar choi in Cantonese), and a cup of hard jello. Disgusting.

What's NOT disgusting are the looks of the FA. Very pretty, nice makeup, and brand new fashionable uniform. And, half of their inflight magazine is about the beauty pageant China Southern is hosting around China to recruit fresh FAs.

Unfortunately, service was horrible, as the FAs are rude and impatient.

Announcements are in Putongha and fairly good English.

Flight time to Kunming is 1:52, and we need to ride the shuttle bus again to the terminal. Checked bags come out about the same time we got to terminal.

rkkwan

BTW, I saw some amazing Polar Lights on CO99 EWR-HKG. I'm starting to post the pictures on my photo site. With over 2,000 pics taken, this will take a while to complete, but the Polar Lights shots are there, as is a screenshot of Airshow showing us directly over the North Pole.

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p476976649/

wally34949

Continental had a towel service in coach? Did they ever turn off the fasten seat belt sign? I don't think I could go 15 hours without stretching. Also, did the flight attendants make a lot of announcements when you were trying to sleep like . . . the captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign, or duty free items for sale, or it is illegal to drink alcohol not given to you by a flight attendant.

I would love to use the bathroom over the North Pole. Sounds like a great conversation piece.

So you had three or two seats for yourself? My flight from London to Sydney is showing coach totally sold for December 16th. I don't think I will be spreading out on three seats unless I really get to know my neighbors.

rkkwan

wally - Yes, two towel services on Hong Kong and Japan routes that I've flown. One after takeoff, one before breakfast. They also have printed menus. Quite different from the European service, which has nothing.

Like I said elsewhere, the Fastern Seat Belt signs don't bother me, and I will not count the minutes the sign was on just for your pleasure. People stood around near the galley all the time and no one get screamed at.

I had 44KL for myself going out. Those are the two-by-two seats at the rear of the 777. Look at the photos. Coming back I had 44A only as the flight was packed full.

Only time I had three seats for myself was on EWR-BRS (Bristol, England) when they just started the route.

rkkwan

<b>MU5963 KMG-LNJ 11/1/06</b>

After lunch outside the airport (at a restaurants attached to a Wal-Mart) we went back to KMG for our short flight to Lincang in Southwest Yunnan province on China Eastern.

KMG was the hub for Yunnan Airlines after the breakup of CAAC, but during the consolidation a few years back, it was merged into China Eastern. But the fleet is still separate, and the inflight magazines is Yunnan-only.

We had a gate this time at KMG, and we were pushed back at 2:42, 8 minutes ahead of schedule. Took off at 2:47, and arrived LNJ 3:22p for a flight time of 0:35 for the 200-mile trip. [In contrast, if I'm flying Houston to San Antonio or Houston to Dallas, I would still be on the ground in Houston at 3:22p for the 2:50p flight!]

LNJ is about 22km (14mi) from Lincang, but is perched on the side of a mountain. Airport altitude is about 1,900m (6,200ft), similar to KMG; even though the town itself is about 400m lower. It was opened only in 2001, with one runway, no parallel taxiway, and basically one parking spot on the apron. The passenger building is bright and beautiful.

It makes sense to build an airport this far up the from the valley, as 1) it can get a clear approach on both directions; and 2) clear from the fog that's often present in the valley below.

What's most incredible is how much difference in travel time the airport saves. Because of the extreme hilly terrain in this part of the country, there's no rail service; and traveling by overnight coach between the two city takes 10+ hours. Now we made in a half an hour.

Our flight was operated on B-2983, a 737-300 delivered new to Yunnan Airlines in 1997. One of the newer -300s, but the interior looks a lot more tired than say Continental's 733 that are 10 years older.

No food service, but a yucky mango drink (water + sugar + mysterious flavor) was provided. Announcement was in Putonghua and decent English.

Our plane landed on Runway 16, which is over 7,000ft long. [That's longer than the one in Bristol, England (BRS) that Continental operates trans-Atlantic 752 from.] As there's no parallel taxiway, we made a U-turn at the end of the runway, then backtracked half the length to turn out to the apron. Front and rear stairs were used, so deplaning was extremely quick.

The FAs on this flight weren't as pretty as those on the previous CZ flight, but they seem a little less rude or impatient.

I had some photos for the approach (as Chinese FAs don't seem to realize my SLR is a digital one and shouldn't be used). Will have them up shortly.

DonTopaz

Thanks for the great information, <b>rkkwan</b>!

I'll be flying from Kunming to Lijiang and then Lijiang to Shenzhen, and the info you provided will be invaluable.

rkkwan

rizzuto - Let me add that checking in at KMG is a little confusing. As a hub for China Eastern (MU), if you're flying them, you need to look at the display board carefully about where to check-in. You must go to a specific zone for each flight. That board is difficult to read as it switches between Chinese and English, as well as later departures, too quickly.

If you're flying non-MU, then it's no problem. Basically just one bank of desks for all non-MUs.

---

Two things almost caused me a lot of trouble. Won't affect most of you, but I'll mention it just in case. My US passport of course only show English name, but the people who book the Chinese flights somehow decide to book my name in my Chinese name.

Good thing I brought my Hong Kong ID with me on this trip, which does have my Chinese name and it is accepted by the airlines and Chinese security officials.

But the bad thing is that they booked my ticket with the wrong radical in one character of my name. It may not be apparent to many, but I noticed it right away. Well, my Hong Kong ID was checked against the ticket/boarding pass by 8 persons during the trip (4 airline check-in agents, 4 security officials), and finally the 8th person noticed it. That was the security official at KMG for my flight back to SZX.

I prepared for the worst, though Kunming really wasn't the worst place in the world to get stuck in. But I tried to use my extremely poor Putonghua to plead innocence, saying I didn't notice the difference, and that my Hong Kong ID uses Traditional Chinese while the ticket is in Simplified Chinese, yadda yadda yadda. After a while he let me pass, and just told me to change it next time.

So, for those visitors with a Chinese name, please be cautious what names you're booked into.

DonTopaz

rkkwan, thanks for the additional info. I will be flying into KMG on Thai, then connecting to a flight to Lijiang. I haven't purchased that KMG-LJG ticket yet, but I expect to buy an e-ticket through eLong.com. Is it correct that I would first go to the e-ticket desk when I get to KMG (after customs/immigration, of course)?

rkkwan

rizzuto - Since I wasn't the one handling the Chinese tickets, I am not 100% sure about the process. But from what I understand, you need to go to a counter to get your ticket printed, and then check-in. &quot;E-ticket&quot; in China simply means you don't have to have a travel agent issue you a ticket beforehand. Doesn't mean it will make the process faster or simpler.

rkkwan

<b>MU5962 LNJ-KMG 11/5/06</b>

We arrived the Lincang airport at 8:30a for our 9:30a flight back to Kunming. That's really way early. The valley was fog-covered, but the airport was high enough to be above them all.

It was another Boeing 737-300, B-2594, delivered new to Yunnan Airlines in 8/1992. I noted that it has no first class, and I couldn't remember if it was the same on our previous flight KMG-LNJ.

Took off from Runway 16 at 9:31 and arrived KMG Runway 21 10:04, 33 minutes later. Only service was a bottled water. Well, it's a lot more drinkable than the mysterious juice drink on the previous flight.

Two other things worth mentioning. One is the beautiful mountain ranges I saw from the window - yes, I took pictures. Second is the English announcement of the FA. It's totally incomprehensible even though I already knew what she was trying to say.

<b>ZH9986 KMG-SZX 11/6/06</b>

Shenzhen Airlines was the 3rd Chinese airline I flew on this trip. Many Hong Kong people like them, but I have some reservations. This flight was operated on a brand-spanking new A319, B-6159, delivered just 2 weeks prior.

Three problems I have with this flight. The first, which I can understand, is its AV system. No headphones were provided or offered, and all audio channels were static, except for Ch 1, which has the audio to the commercials shown in the drop-down LCD screens. I brought my own headphones, but other passengers were just looking at the screen with no audio.

[BTW, one of the commercials was for the ferry service between the Skypier at HKG and the Fuyong port at SZX. However, while we were flying Shenzhen Airlines based in SZX, that commercial was made by the Hong Kong authority targeted for passengers arriving at HKG! The procedure and stuff makes absolutely no sense for passengers arriving at SZX trying to get to HKG.]

Second problem I have is the meal service. They pushed the carts out from the rear galley to deliver lunch from the front, as usual. Passengers got a paperbox which includes salad, jello, etc, and then a choice of two hot dishes (beef and fish, I think). Well, it seems organized until they've got to Row 15 and they ran out. [I sat in Row 16.] They pushed the cart back, and only after 5 minutes or so did they come back to Row 16 onwards. <b>Then the strangest thing happened!</b> Instead of the box, we got a tray, but with Chinese preserved vegetables instead of salad, and a little cookie instead of jello. One of the two hot choices were gone too. So, in effect, the front of the economy class got one meal service while the rear got a different one! Talk about 3rd class citizens! [Personally, I wouldn't care; it's horrible food either way.]

3rd problem is most serious. On CZ and MU, the inflight safety procedure were pretty much the same as in US and Europe. [i.e. Once we climb through 10,000 ft, they tell us we can use electronics equipment and they start inflight service; and on the descend, they announce initial descend, and then after we got under 10,000 ft they tell us to put away electronic, return seatback, etc...] But on ZH, it's total chaos. Announcements were made at the wrong altitude, I was told to put away my headphones just after inital descent, etc... Makes me wonder about the safety training of their crew.

Anyways, we had a gate at KMG. Push back at 11:40a, 5 minutes early; took off 11:58a (long wait on the taxi as I think they were scheduling a bunch of arrivals around the same time using the single runway); touched down 1:25p, for flight time of 1:27 (compared to 1:52 for our SZX-KMG flight!)

We didn't have a gate at SZX, so it's bus again to the terminal. Luggage were again ready about the same time we got to the terminal.

rkkwan

<b>CO98 HKG-EWR 11/12/06</b>

I arrived 9:35am at HKG for my 11:25 flight. CO seperate its check-in lines into three groups: BusinessFirst, elites, and coach. But those in coach who have checked-in online can also use the elite lines to drop off bags. I did that, and the wait was much much shorter.

[Interesting sidenote - I saw a bunch of highschool kids with nice tracksuits going through passport control and security around me. Turned out they were from my highschool, and were going for a fieldtrip to Beijing. I guess it's just like US schoolkids going to DC now...]

Boarding started at around 10:35, and interestingly they have a beautiful gate agent (of many) holding a board telling which rows are being boarded, instead of using the PA system. Quite nice. Secondary screening was done on the jetway, just like my CO flight from CDG in September. There were at least 5-6 agents doing the screening, so it really added little time. Again, well done, considering the circumstances. [I heard of horry stories about long secondary screening lines for US-bound flights soon after 8/10 at HKG. It's clearly not an issue for CO98 these days.]

Door closed early at 11:20, but we weren't pushed back until 11:42 due to ATC issues. I don't know if it's a problem with Chinese/Russian airspace or Newark has already put on a hold, as rain was in forecast there. We took off at 12:04p with an expected flight time of 14:56, which is long for the eastbound CO98.

We took a very unusual route to EWR. Usually CO98 flies over NE China, then NE Siberia, across Bering Sea into Alaska. Or sometimes when tailwind is strong further south, it flies over Japan, the Aleutians, and then enter British Columbia. But on this day, we used the Polar 4 (G494) that goes into the Arctic Ocean (about 80-degree North), over Queen Elizabeth Islands and then down through Hudson Bay.

Also interesting is that I got N77012 again, the same plane I took on the outbound. But this time I sat on the other side, 44A. Flight was full or very close to full, and there was someone in 44B. [I asked the check-in agent if the flight was overbooked, but he said no.]

Service and food was as usual. Midflight snack was a little different with a hot sandwich with cheese and sundried tomatoes. Yes, almost gourmet stuff. Ice cream was Nestle brand, not Haagen-Dazs. Our section didn't get the 2nd towel service, either because they ran out, or because the FA was slow and was running out of time to serve breakfast.

Turned out EWR was backed up, and we circled Poughkeepsie for about 30 minutes for a total flight time of 15:26. Touched down at 2:30pm, 40 minutes late.

I got to the immigration line at 2:50, being the last off; and the FRA flight also arrived with us. So it took 8 minutes to go through immigration. Luggage out at 3:10, and I was sent to agriculture as I declared having food (tea leaves), which took about 5 minutes. So, by the time I got out of the secured area, my connecting flight to Houston has already departed.

I never booked any of my relatives on the 3:10p to Houston, always the 4:30p. But I can't remember why I did it to myself. Perhaps because that was the only one offered for this award ticket. Anyways, the rebooking process was super easy. Right to the right hand side of the customs exit was a CO &quot;redcoat&quot;, as they wear, you guess it, red coats. I was immediately rebooked on CO52 at 4:30p with a nice seat and luggage retagged. Couldn't be easier.

rkkwan

Sorry, I meant I was rebooked on CO51.

<b>CO51 EWR-IAH 11/12/06</b>

This was operated by 767-200 N76153, delivered 12/2000. Door closed 4:26, 4 minutes early, but we weren't pushed back until 4:51p. I was mostly unconscious once I sat down, so can't remember why. Took off 5:04p, flight time 2:56, arrived IAH 7:00p, half an hour early.

Got to gate 7:10, long walk to baggage claim at Terminal C, and my bags out at 7:27.

<b>Summary</b>

In summary, all my flights went very smoothly as usual. Minimal delay, and the one misconnection was pretty much predicted and I was taken cared of. Flying in China was a little different at times, but their flights were much more punctual than US domestics. CO's longhauls remain a decent way to get to Hong Kong, and I have no complain.

I consider myself in general a &quot;lucky&quot; flyer, and no difference for these 8 flights this time...

AnselmAdorne

rkkwan, thanks for posting this. I enjoyed the entire thread.

Anselm

rkkwan

You're all very welcomed.

I've posted pictures from all 8 flights on the gallery now, including more Yunnan scenery, more Airshow screenshots, and a couple more of Chinese FAs.

http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p476976649/

emd

rkkwan, the polar lights pics are very cool, sort of errie looking. I've never seen them.

I am reading you trip report on the Asia board and it is very good also. What a phenomenal trip.

Let me ask a question of you. If you could either have the really good looking FAs or the ones who are less good looking but friendlier and give better service, which one would you choose?

rkkwan

emd - Honestly, I like FAs who know their duty well and are efficient in performing them. If they're friendly, that's great, if they're pretty, then it's just a bonus.

I'd take CO's flight attendants over any on the Chinese airlines' any day. But the difference is that I won't waste electrons taking pictures of the CO FAs.

rkkwan

The original gallery is now just the CO flights IAH-EWR-HKG, with more photos added.

The Chinese flights are now in this gallery:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p507563364/

More photos added too.