Ron
Ron loves to travel. Mostly for fun, but lately, it’s been a lot for business too. Having crisscrossed North America and been almost everywhere in the U.S. and Canada from Fairbanks to Fort Lauderdale, Mobile to Minot, Halifax to Honolulu, and Washington DC to Winnipeg, it was time for some international travel.
Our last international trip was to New Zealand almost 3 years ago and that was a long flight. I was lucky to find incredibly priced business class fares from San Francisco to Auckland since Air New Zealand was introducing new service between those cities. For such a long flight, business class really made a difference, waking up when the plane landed thousands of miles from home without feeling miserably cramped like our middle seat coach class accommodations on a trip to London a few years earlier. And Air New Zealand is part of the Star Alliance network, so we also got points in our United Airlines frequent flier accounts, also a plus. New Zealand was fantastic! Although driving on the left side of the road on narrow highways was a times a bit harrowing, it is a country that in many ways hearkened back to the U.S. in the days before interstate highways and sprawling big box stores. The natural beauty was amazing–we had a great time and would highly recommend New Zealand to anyone who is thinking of going.
Flying business class to New Zealand pretty much sealed the deal for me—for our trip to Asia, I would find a way to snag business class seats. My first thought was to try United Airlines, which is the dominant carrier at SFO and the carrier I was usually the most likely to travel on because I have premier gold status in their frequent flier program. My first look into United’s fares was unsettling. All that was for sale was “full fare” business class. Usually if you dig a bit, you can find “Z”-class discounted business class fares. But United wasn’t offering any this summer and fall. I thought about purchasing coach tickets and trying to upgrade, but there was no guarantee on getting two upgrades both ways for Louis & I. Friends and acquaintances who had traveled United to the Far East didn’t exactly have glowing reports about their recent experiences on United.
What happened this summer on United on two different domestic flights three weeks apart really influenced my decision for us not to fly UAL on the trip to Asia. I was stranded overnight in Chicago on two separate occasions during June and July. I understand that circumstances are sometimes out of the airline’s control and things do happen. What I could not fathom is how poor the UAL customer service was at Chicago when flights got canceled. I had to stand in line for several hours just to get re-booked and to get accommodations. The second overnight stay was the worst I have ever experienced, getting to stay in a seedy Motel 6 about 25 minutes from the airport in a nasty smoking room (because that’s all they had left). I also noticed on these two trips via Chicago that United’s planes are getting old and dingy and haven’t been cleaned very well. And these were the “pride of the fleet” Boeing 777s.
In checking into other options, I found that Singapore Airlines was less expensive for business class fares to Hong Kong from SFO than some of United’s “upgradeable” coach fares. All Nippon Airways would get us from Hong Kong to Tokyo and with a stopover in Tokyo for over 2 weeks then back to SFO in business class for less than United’s fares. So, what’s not to love? Both Singapore and ANA are renowned for customer service, have new aircraft, attentive staff and are members of Star Alliance, so we’ll still get United points. (maybe to redeem someday when UAL buys some new planes?)
Having never been to the Far East, I’m now really looking forward to our trip now that all the details are in place. Public Transit is one of my main interests and this is the first trip that we will have done entirely on public transit. From the old double-decker tram cars in Hong Kong to the Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan, there should be an amazing variety of transport modes on our trip. And of course, the fabled Star Ferries in Hong Kong. (yes, I’ll be checking out Hong Kong’s octopus card, the electronic fare card that is a cousin to the Bay Area’s Translink fare cards. The octopus card is good on their modern subway, the old trams and the ferries, plus at scores of convenience stores, too).
Should be a fascinating trip!
Get the RSS Feed