I am an ex US Air Force crew chief, working on F-15 fighter jets. Currently, I am a stay at home da...
I am an ex US Air Force crew chief, working on F-15 fighter jets. Currently, I am a stay at home dad, and my wife is in the military. I have a degree in Aircraft Maintenance Technology and in Advertising. I like to trip little kids in the park.
Member since:19.01.2005
Reviews:12
Members who trust:1
As many of you very well know, I have been pretty much all over the world, the country, and have had the opportunity to fly on so many different airlines and so many different flights, it's just insane. One flight, that I happen to remember quite well, while still in the Air Force was my flight to Okinawa Japan, Kadena Air Force Base. We were all getting ready for a major deployment, so we flew from Anchorage to LA on Alaska Airlines, and then from LA to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, where we flew the rest of the way by some smaller company.
The flight from LA to Hong Kong, was going to be pretty exciting, as I had never really been to Hong Kong before and we were going to have a two day layover, so we'd actually have an opportunity to look around a little bit.
On the flight with me was myself and about fifteen other crew chiefs that I worked with. So, I knew this flight was going to be pretty interesting. I just picture harassed stewardesses, ticketing agents, and anything that was attractive that moved, talked, breathed, whatever. I knew that my coworkers would find a way to kick some game and hit on all of them in Air Force fashion.
Customer Service Upon arrive at LAX, we were first of all, pretty amazed with how cool the airport
was. However, we were pretty annoyed with the fact, that we had to do the transfer of our luggage ourselves. That was far too large of an airport to have to worry about finding your luggage, finding the ticketing counter, and then finding your way back onto the airline. But, we didn't really have much of a problem fortunately enough.
At the ticket counter, we found the ticket agents to be quite helpful. I couldn't really understand the lady at the counter, but she was quite nice. She had a very heaven Asian accent, and a lot of difficulty saying anything with an "R" or "L" in it amongst other things. However, she had to be one of the nicest little old ladies in the whole airport. She smiled at us as soon as we walked up, and it sounds pretty strange, but she actually gave us a quick bow and thanked us as we left. That was pretty cool to see. While we couldn't really understand her, she was good about showing us how to get to where we wanted to go, by bringing out a map, and drawing on it. I'm sure she knew that we had a hard time understanding her, so she made the extra effort to ensure we knew what she was talking about. Definitely appreciated that, especially after all that walking around we had to do just to find that counter.
Upon arrival at our gate, we checked in at the counter and found the lady and man there, extremely nice as well. The man was somewhat older and told us about how great Hong Kong is and how he lived there the majority of his life. He told us some great places to visit, that most tourists wouldn't know about. He made some jokes too, but we all just kind of looked at him while he laughed. Not sure if he understood what he was saying, but I guess he saw it on some movie about the military and thought it was appropriate in this situation.
Cleanliness Once getting onto our flight, we had some pretty horrible looking arrangements, but they were quite clean. We noticed that everything was well taken care of, and coach class never looked so pretty.
Comfort Luckily for us, we were all for the most part sitting right next to each other, because we were all quite thin. The reason why this is pertinent, is because these seats seemed as if they were overlapping each other, there was so little room on the flight. However, it was still quite a bit better than our flight on Alaska Airlines. At least we weren't sitting on each other's laps again. Especially with the military's policies on males sitting on each other's laps.
As we were all wearing our blues, which is customary when traveling to wear your uniform, we were all quite uncomfortable already. We looked like a bunch of payless shoe salesmen, but that was alright, we got a lot of attention.
Food The food during the flight, for us seemed to be alcohol, however, we also got some pretzels. I thought that airlines had stopped giving out pretzels altogether, in favor of things that were, just a little bit more filling. I guess I was wrong. We were able to get two bags of pretzels during the flight, so at least that was better than the single bag we had assumed we would get.
Entertainment Well, in the form of entertainment, I guess that our yelling through the cabin, hitting on stewardesses, and making fun of each other was the best entertainment we could find. They really didn't offer much else, besides a movie, that you really couldn't hear anyway over the Air Force personnel on board. There were headphones that you could purchase to hear the movie, but the headphones were pretty cheap and didn't really work all that well. At least there was something for us to watch. Unfortunately, I didn't even recognize the movie, and it seemed to be somewhat older.
In-Flight The flight seemed to take off perfectly and we got out of LAX right on time. Everything was perfect until we got to our very first beverage of the flight. Of course, since we're military, we had to have the traditional alcoholic beverage or five. So, we all start pounding down these drinks, which we're so stupid to do, since they are like $5 each and really aren't affecting us all that much.
The flight attendants didn't seem to really care, that we were constantly yelling at each other stupid comments or even that everyone was continually trying to get their contact information once we arrived in Hong Kong. They just kept serving us drinks in hopes that maybe they would eventually knock us out or something.
Well, none of the drinks hit us until we arrived in Honk Kong. the quick change in pressure, must have done something to us, because when we landed it was rough. We were all stumbling around trying to get our bags, our speech all slurred, and just looking wonderful representing the Air Force. So, we all got off of the aircraft, and tried to stay cool and collected until we at least had a chance to change out of our uniforms. Then we could look as stupid as we wanted to. Unfortunately, two of us in the group tripped while getting onto the people mover, and it was just downhill from there. We kept dropping our bags, standing around laughing at each other, and making fun of stupid things likes the stripes on straws. We were pretty near gone!
Final Thoughts The airline itself is extremely well mannered and the customer service is probably the best in the industry. However, with virtually no room in the seats, if you are sitting next to anyone that isn't tiny, then you are going to feel extremely cramped.
I found that the food was adequate or the flight, however, I think that a meal would have been a lot better than a bag of pretzels. Even if it was just a sandwich or something simple, it would have been a lot more calming, than that little bag of junk.
Overall, the flight was very tolerable, and was better than the majority of the dealings that I have with airlines. I would definitely fly them again, as my alternatives aren't very good.
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Wierd you never got fed dont you think !
Great and funny review though hun !
Heidi xx
j3ssica 23.01.2005 21:27
I've flown with Cathay Pacific before and every time, I've had three proper meals, there were loads of different TV channels to choose from and all the seats were spaced out and really roomy! xx
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Advantages: Great service, excellent on-board entertainment, and very efficient in all ways!. Disadvantages: Maybe slightly overpriced but competes well against British Airways long haul flights!.
Advantages: The are possibly the best airline avaliable and everything is excellent Disadvantages: I must admit they do cost a little more than most airlines
Jan 23rd, 2005
very helpful by (100%):
