Ewens-Downing Adventures in Asia

(By Ron) It turned out to be quite a walk from the lounge to the gate and by the time we got there, it was obvious that boarding had been in progress for a while. Not to worry–there was a separate boarding area for first class and business with a dedicated jetway. So we boarded our Boeing 747 and climbed the stairs to the second level where our seats in business class were.All we could say was “wow!”. It was a new aircraft and everything was immaculate, right down to the carpet. I lost count as to how many stewardesses there were. We sat down in roomy leather seats that reclined to beds and were immediately offered a “welcome” flute of champagne. That set the standard for the rest of the flight. Someone was always available to tend to our every need, and the stewardesses asked us often if we needed anything. The service was unlike anything else I’d experienced on any other airline.

But that was just the beginning. A short while into the flight, we were offered both a dinner menu and a drink menu which offered both wines and cocktails. We both opted for the fresh mixed “Singapore Sling”, again something I’ve not seen on other airlines. The wine list was quite impressive, too. I opted for a German Riesling with dinner, which was one of the best tasting that I can remember. Dinner was very good–we both had an oven roasted chicken breast with potato and fennel. This was a signature menu item from the San Francisco restaurant “Boulevard” and was prepared for our flight. Very tasty, and still moist and juicy, unlike most airline chicken dishes, and all served with impeccable flair. Dessert was amazing–a white custard that was like nothing we’d ever had.

I decided to try to get some ZZZ’s and Louis wanted to explore the high tech entertainment system. Bose noise canceling headphones were provided that were really great.

Off to sleep and woke up early since we were still on Pacific Time, but still about 3 hours to HKG. Breakfast was good, coffee was good, and the flight was about an hour early arriving. We were both kind of asleep as was the rest of the airport. We went through customs and only had to wait about five minutes at the carousel for our luggage, another perk for travelling business class.

Now where was the driver for the limousine to the hotel??

(By Ron) The time finally arrived to board our flight to Hong Kong. Because the traffic getting to the airport was so light, we had several hours at the airport before our departure time of 1:20 am. I was surprised that many of the people at the check in counters were headed to India. I guess when you’re going halfway around the world, it doesn’t matter whether you go via London and Frankfurt or via Hong Kong and Singapore. It turns out that our flight (Singapore #001) was a code share with Air India. But all of the people going to India were in economy class and they headed off to the gate area. I had to ask if there was a Singapore Airlines departure lounge for business class. Yes, there was and it was called “Silver Kris” for the airline’s frequent flier program.

The Silver Kris departure lounge was OK, with snacks and beverages; it wouldn’t have been a bad place to hang out for an hour or so. But we were there for about 2 and 1/2 hours. Better to be early and have time to kill rather than be late and get overly stressed, right? Our boarding passes told us that boarding began at 12:50 am, so I hurried Louis to shut down his laptop at 12:40 am.

After all the build-up about the Bay Bridge being closed (”Expect delays!”, “Traffic traffic traffic!”) we left for the airport shuttle way early. But once we got to the Airporter station we knew something was up. There wasn’t anyone else there. We had a whole bus to ourselves.

When the bus got on 101 bound for SFO we were totally underwhelmed by the traffic we saw. Where were all those people that we were so fearful of running into? That million dollar advertising campaign must have worked. We both commented to the bus driver that we had never seen the traffic so light. So of course we got to the airport way ahead of schedule. We thanked our driver and lugged our luggage into the terminal.

When we got into the international terminal my jaw dropped. I had forgotten about how spectacular the inside of it is. That ceiling just goes on and on! At some angles it looks like a DNS strand stretched above us.

As we approached the Singapore Airlines ticket counter, I got a little queasy. There was a line of people waiting to get checked-in. But then I noticed it was the coach check-in. We walked past them to the posh business class and first class check-in area. I felt positively snobby… for just a moment. Then I enjoyed taking more photos as Ron checked us in.