After posting my trip report way back in 2000, I've decided to revisit the trip report and post some pics from the trip. So here we go.......


Well, right now I am sitting in a coffee shop on Victoria Peak writing this, so with such a good view, my topic may tend to wander, but here goes.

May 20th-
OKC-DEN-LAX

I went to OKC's Will Rogers World airport to board my flight on United Airlines for Denver. Upon check in, I had a ticket counter agent that was queen of all ice queens. When I brought out my passport she demanded to know where I was going, I said Hong Kong, (like she couldn't tell from my tickets). She kind of glared at me for a moment and went back to the office behind the ticket counter. She came back with a smirk and said, "The flight from Denver to LA has been cancelled so you can't make your Hong Kong connection." She then proceeded to stare at me for a while. With a few moments of her staring at me, I said, "well what can we do about it? Can you put me on another airline to LA so I can make my connection to Hong Kong?" She told me "no" very sternly. I asked her if she was serious because I know that American flies out of OKC every 30 minutes to DFW, and I could get an early connection to LA from there. She was not willing to work with me at ALL. She just said that there was nothing she could do.

I said, "So you mean to tell me that I pay for an expensive international ticket to Hong Kong and you can't do anything about it?" Even if she couldn't, she could have been a little apologetic. She then told me to wait a minute and she went back to the office and came out again and asked me if I wanted to take an Air Canada flight out of Vancouver later that evening and Arrive in Hong Kong at 6:25AM on the 21st.

I asked if I would be able to get a window seat on that flight because I get sick from the motion if I can't see out, plus, being an avid aviation fan, I wanted to be able to see out the window. She replied with her attitude in full force, "If you want to get to Hong Kong today SIR, then we can't worry about YOUR technicalities." I looked at her for a while in ashtonishment of the treatment that I was getting, I mean, I don't ask for much, but she was really mean about it. I asked her if we could change my plans so I could leave the next day, stay on United and leave a day later from HKG. She said fine, and booked me on another flight leaving t he next day.

I had overheard something at the airport about the United pilots not wanting to do any overtime and it was causing a lot of delays and cancellations, thus I thought that it might be wise to see if I can't get to LA that evening so that all I had to do was check in the next morning for my Hong Kong flight. This way, I would not have to worry about getting to LA and one of my flights being cancelled. I went to the counter again and fortunately the psycho ticket agent was gone.

I explained the situation to another gate agent and she got me on a 3:30 flight to LA connecting in Denver.
When I got to the aiport around 2:45, guess who was back at the ticket counter and guess who I had to check in with out of the 4 other people there, yup, the psycho ticket agent. She glared at me as I came back up to the ticket counter.

In a very agitated voice she asked "Can I help you?" I told her that I was going ahead to LA this evening. She went back in the back again and came out with another lady and explained to the that I was "that passenger who we TRIED to put on Air Canada this morning. Well, He's changed his mind AGAIN."

She then pulled up my account and said that I had already been issued a boarding pass, I said I know that, and she said, "well, you have no reason to be standing before me then." (As if she was god.) I said, and getting an aggitated tone, "I need to check my bags MA'AM."

After she started checking my bag, she started telling me everything that I was doing wrong in packing. "This needs to be zipped, this tied together, etc." All I know is that at American, if any of those things I had forgotten, they did it for me without any rudeness.


Finally, I got to the gate, but only to find that the flight was delayed for an hour and a half, thus I would miss my LA connection. GREAT! Could anything else go wrong?



Well, I was booked on another flight out of Denver to LAX, so I got on the OKC-Denver flight and made my way to Colorado. Overall, the flight was pretty nice, a little bumpy through the thunderstorms, but not bad. It was on a UA 727-200. I like flying on those a great deal. A little noisy though. Because UA sort of messed up my trip plans, I got booked all the way to HKG on Economy Plus. UA's economy plus is pretty nice as as far as the legroom is concerned.

Well, as you might have figured, we got to Denver late and I had to run to make the connecting flight to LA. It left a little late too, so that helped since we arrived at the gate in Denver about the same time as the flight to LA was supposed to leave.

DEN-LAX

The flight to LA was on a UA 767-300. It looked pretty new inside. There was a very cool head purser on the flight with a nice Aussie accent. Overall, this was one of the better flights that I had been on. It was very quiet and one of the smoothest. I was in seat 17J, Economy Plus. The flight took us over the LAX area and we got great views of the sunset shining against the mountains that line the LA area.

We landed in LA at sunset, overall, and extremely smooth landing. I saw many airlines that I had only seen on Airliners.net. Eva Air cargo, Qantas, Air New Zealand, QANTAS, et al.

Because UA messed up my flight plans, they gave me a free hotel voucher so I stayed at the Airport Hilton at LAX for the night.


Well, more things go wrong. UA loses my luggage. No one at the baggage claim area from UA wanted to help me much either. What is interesting about me losing my luggage in this instance is that I grabbed a bag that looked exactly like mine. It was a green duffle bag, however, when I opened it, the first thing I found were women's panties. I'm like, uh, this ain't mine! What happened was that the person who owned this bag grabbed mine and went home with it, before checking it out. Finally, after asking 3 people, a young lady went WAY out of her way to help me. It was nearing 11PM, and still no luggage, my flight landed in LA at 7:45PM. She said she would do all she could and try to get it to my hotel so I could check it to Hong Kong in the morning. It never showed up. Well, I was off to Hong Kong without any clothes, or toiletries.


The next morning, I went to the Airport a few hours early so that I could do some spotting. UA's terminals are not that great for spotting however. Basically, all I could see was the nose of the 747-400 that I was going to be taking to Hong Kong. Still no luggage by the way.



It was N121UA.

I was particularly excited that day because it was going to be my first flight on a 747. As I boarded the aircraft, I was in amazement of how clean and BIG it really was. Before that, the only thing of similar size I had been on were DC-10's, L-1011's, and 767's. I made my way down the aisle with a huge smile as the flight attendants greeted me on board. So this is what it is like on a 747! Wow! We boarded through 2L and I smelled the coffee brewing and that great airliner smell started to sink in. I was in widebody heaven!

Seems like it took about an hour to an hour and 15 min to load the aircraft with travellers. However, the captain then came on the PA and said we would be delayed for about an hour due to our entry into Russian Airspace. Apparently there was a certain time we had to be there, not sure, but it had something to do with Russian Airspace as I said.

Finally, we were pushed back from the gate and I could hear each of the 4 engines start to spool up to start. Love LOVE LOVE! that sound!

When we started our taxi, I was seated in 43A (I think that was the row) and I looked to my right across the aircraft and through the right side windows. For some reason, as you taxi, you get a sense of how big this aircraft is when it manuvers on the ground. It was immense! Also, taxiing in such a big aircraft, it makes you have a sense of pride, knowing that other passengers on their 737's and A320's taxiing by you are in awe of how big the aircraft you are on is! I remember being in 737's and wishing so badly I was on a 747, and now I was! When you see those beasts, there is this obligatory grandiosity of such an aircraft that people just gaze at it with amazement, and I was on it!

Now to the take off:

Boy, that thing really rock and rolls down the runway. The take off roll was approximately 54 seconds. Is that good for a 747-400? There weren't too many passengers on the plane either. No row was completely full. I had my own row to myself, well, the three seats on the left side to myself, which was nice. We took off in the afternoon sky and followed the California coastline and mountains for quite some time before crossing into Canadian Airspace, then into Alaska.

While we were over Alaska, I went to the back of the aircraft to stretch my legs a bit. We had already been in flight for about 4-5 hours and it was time for a bathroom break as well. Standing by 5L, I started chatting with some people who were going on a China tour, and their point of entry was Hong Kong. We talked about their travel plans, and mine, and had a really nice chat. Then, I had a conversation with a NWA flight attendant who happened to be on the flight going to visit some relatives in HKG. Back then, NW seemed notorious for bad service and antiquated aircraft. We talked a little about this and he said that he thought UA was a better airline than the one he worked for. Though we did discuss the lack of IFE PVT's on both airline's longhaul aircraft. It didn't ruin my flight experience, as mostly I just looked out the window.

We passed through Alaska and into Russian Airspace. Channel 9 was turned on and I listened to what "Little" there was of ATC chatter. I heard our flight number called every once in a while, but very little. We are flight No. 1 btw, part of UA's around the world flight, westbound. I remember finding it odd that you could reach Russian airspace by going NW of the US. We started southbound over Siberia and into Mongolian/Chinese airspace. The chatter on Channel 9 picked up a bit, but nothing I could really make out other than the occasional report from our own flight.

We flew through Chinese airspace all the way south to HKG. The sun had started to set and as we approached HKG, the skies grew cloudy, but broken so you could see the lights of the city on the other side of the mountains. I was just amazed that I had come so far around the world and we had this beautiful view of the mountains, highlighted by the city lights reflecting off the clouds above.

Overall, this was an incredible flight for me. Very comfortable and not what people were making the 747 out to be, (a cattle car). Boy do those wings flex during flight and bounce during turbulance. Also, this flight was remarkably smooth. I went on an AA777 from DFW-NRT last year and it was quite rough over the Pacific. Well, on the flight we watched 4 movies and were fed 3 times. Pretty excellent serivice. When I got to Hong Kong I was soooo impressed with the Airport. Very modern and new, and HUGE.

It seemed as though we landed during high crosswinds. The reason I say this is because we landed wing low on the right side. In fact, it was so low that I thought we would scrape an engine. Have you noticed there is only about 2 feet of clearance for engines 2 and 3?? WOW.

When we landed, we were instantly greeted in the dark by Cathay Pacific aircraft everywhere. I was also fortunate to see some Dragonair Aircraft, Asiana, Singapore, and Korean Air. We parked next to 2 other United Boeing 747-400's, can't remember the regs, at the end of the big terminal, where it branches out in two directions. Our flight had a continuation to Singapore, however, there was a gate and aircraft change involved with that. I think it departed about 2.5 hours after our arrival at the gate. I was SO Impressed with CLK HKG airport. Even though I sort of wished we could have done the Kai Tak Approach, HKG is something to set your eyes on! It's beautiful. It seemed that we arrived at a very quiet hour for the airport as there were not that many people lingering about waiting for flights, then again, the airport is HUGE so maybe there were people there, it's just so big I didn't notice them!

Hong Kong is a beautiful city I must say. It's like having New York in a Hawaii Setting. So many bright lights and scenery to look at, especially at night. I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, on Hong Kong Island. A wonderful hotel. I stay at a lot of Ritz-Carlton and they consistently provide a very high level of service, but I've found that in Asia, hotels are particularly great in terms of service and friendly employees. I was located on a higher up floor and had sweeping views of the harbour.

Here is my hotel Room:



And The Hotel Website Where you can View the Property: http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/HongKong/Default.htm

More Pics of the Hotel:






They had a great rooftop pool and spa!

And here are some pictures of Hong Kong I snapped:







My luggage showed up 1 day before I returned to the states, so in the meantime, UA issued me gift certificates in some form or fashion so that I could go and buy clothing while I was in HKG. I told them that I had $500 worth of clothes in that bag, and I got a $400 voucher for shopping. Can't remember how I redeemed it, but I think I did at the Ritz-Carlton and they gave me the Hong Kong dollars for it.


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Well, my stay in Hong Kong was wonderful! Talk about service! The hotel was great and the food was even better. Just one question, do people from Hong Kong just love Thai food or something? Everywhere I went, there was a Thai section on the menu. I loved it though.

Well, a car picked me up from the Ritz-Carlton and took me back to Chek Lap Kok for my afternoon flight on UA 02 back to LAX. It was a really pleasant drive to the airport. When we arrived, I could see several planes that you just don't see in the states. I saw a Singapore 777-300, very long plane, and I saw a Cathay A330 landing. You know, I never really liked any Airbuses, but the A330 is just gorgeous. The wings bend way up and it has a sleek look to it. Well, when I got to the aiport, I was taken to the Ritz-Carlton hospitality desk, (I guess that's what it was). A very nice guy from the desk came over and took me to the check-in counter and had me checked in all the way to OKC, he took care of my bags, and escorted me to the area where they were looking at passports before we went into the departure lounges.

After passing through the checkpoint, I noticed a group of people all having yellow bags with Air France tags on them. When I looked out the HUGE windows, I saw the Concord sitting out on the tarmac. This must have been one of the round-the-world charters. My Grandparents did that last year and went to Hong Kong, so I figured that was what it was doing there.




You can see the wing of the Singapore 773 in the forefront.

I made my way down the departure lounge to the area where it "Y's" and took a right towards the United Gates. Two UAL 747-400's were sitting at the gates next to each other. The first was bound for SFO at 11:45 while the next one was my flight for LAX departing at 13:25. Right next to my plane was the Spirit of Hong Kong 747-400 of Cathay, bound for Vancouver I think.

I was pretty early to the airport so I went to eat, and watch planes take off. I was in Widebody Heaven! Cathay 773's, A KLM 744 headed to AMS, Korean Air 744's presumably headed to ICN, Asiana 767 headed to ICN, a QANTAS 767 headed to SYD on the tarmac, and as I said before, the Singapore 773 headed to SIN.



Finally, it was time to board my flight. The flight to SFO had already taken off and made a smooth left turn heading for the states when they called my row number. I made my way to the 747, gave it a pat on the side of the fuselage, something that I always do for good luck. Not sure why I do it, but I always make it a habit to give the girls a good pat on the fuselage before boarding. Sometimes I freak out if I don't do it. Weird huh?

I entered the 747 with the same pride as I did in LAX. I took my seat and thought for a while that I was going to get 33 A,B, and C for myself, but at the last minute, a business traveler came on and sat in C. Damn it. Actually, he was a pretty interesting guy to talk to and very understanding whenever I needed to get up. Flying time was supposed to be around 12H30M.

We taxied for quite sometime, again, slowly and majestically our 747 graced the taxiways. We were heavy and full of passengers. As we rolled across bumps in the pavement, our wings bounced and wiggled and those 9-foot winglets rose up and sank with every move.

We took off after a 54 second roll-out. Those 744's seem to rotate in slow motion, but once they do, they get on up there. Humid air was condensing on the wings to the point that you couldn't see them at all, only the winglets. It was pretty cool.


Through the course of the flight, we flew directly over Taipei, and past the east coast of Japan. I guess we were taking a more southern route through the Pacific due to favorable winds into LAX.

On the way to Hong Kong, we didn't fly over the Ocean that much, just up through Alaska and down through Russia and Northern China. In fact, I would guestimate that we were only over water 2 hrs! Talk about a NON-transpacific flight!

Right off the east coast of Japan, we hit some pretty severe Turbulance. The FA's were yelling for everyone to sit down and the plane felt like it fell for 10 seconds, then it would shoot up again. It did that 3 times, then smoothed out some. Kinda made me nervous to see those wings flopping around so much, and believe me, oe a 744, they flap like a bird during turbulence. What was wierd was the noise that the engines made during the turbulence. It was like they would rev up then come back down again. You could almost hear the wind sort of crossing in front of them. Made a weird "woooshing" sound.

Here's a pic of us right after the heavy turbulence off the east coast of Japan.



Directly below and to the left of us I could see an MD-11, maybe one of EVA's, not sure, but it followed us into the night as the sun continued to set behind us.


Well, it smoothed out a bit and the flight was pretty nice all the way over to California. We watched 4 movies and they had the airshow going between the movies. At one time, we were flying at 610 MPH. Is that normal? Does anyone know the Mach?

The landing in LAX was quite nice. We flew for sometime at a low altitude through cloudy and hazy skies finally descending out of it and making a "smooth as a baby's butt" touchdown, without the use of the reversers.

The 744 was very nice on the inside. Very new looking and clean. I was impressed with the spaciousness of the thing. I like the 777, but nothing beats the majesty of the 747.

Upon leaving the aircraft, I gave it one last look through the airport windows and the proceeded to customs where I had to pay a 200 dollar tariff. After not lying to customs and claiming that I had made more than $400 worth of purchases in HKG, including a custom made suit from the Ritz-Carlton Tailor shop and a custom made tux from the same business, I made my way back to the United Domestic Terminal. Customs were hellish at this time and full of Asian flights.

LAX-DEN


I took some time and snapped a side shot of my 767-300 that was to take me to DEN. On my schedule it said a 757, but for some reason, we got the 767-300 instead:



You can see a 757 passing in the background, destination unknown.

Here are some United Tails at LAX. Some A320's, a 777 and a 737:



My flight for Denver was on a 767-300. I got put at the 3rd to last row of that plane. It is amazing how after being on a 747 or a 777, everything else seems tiny. The wings on the 767 seemed so small and thin. I knew that they weren't, but when compared to the 747, they were small! The flight to Denver was quite uneventfull, but pleasant and quiet. I got some sleep after having stayed up the entire night on the HKG-LAX flight

DEN-OKC


The flight from Denver to OKC was something different. We boarded the 727-200 an hour late and I could see the building thunderstorms to the east highlighted by the sunset. I took my seat next to some real Bible Beaters and we took off for OKC, dodging thunderstorms all the way up to 28,000 feet. Suddenly, we hit some turbulence and were shaking all over the place. The pilots powered back quickly, threw up the spoilers to what seemed like a full deployment, and put us into a sharp decent. We went down about 5,000 feet to smoother air, but there were still thunderstorms around.

In approaching the OKC area, there were build ups to what I guessed to be about 40,000 feet all around and we were heading straight for them. Great, all I needed was this after being in the air for 24 hours. So we entered into the thunderstorms and that 727 was shaking a rolling all over. We then had to hold over OKC for about an hour so the big thunderstorms could pass over the airport. At one time, they told us we may have to divert to Tinker Air Force base in Eastern OKC.

Man, I could feel the wind really testing that 727. It would shudder all over. Let me tell you, I was praying. I have never been in worse weather in a plane. The flight attendants were really nervous too. Well, the pilots did one of those dive numbers again and we were on our way down. They put down the flaps and we slowed up, then they put the flaps back up and we powered up, but we weren't going around, I couldn't figure out what the deal was.

Well, they put them down again and we descended. We were over the threshold and about to land when a gust of wind blew us to the right and we went wing low on the right side. Now, if you know a 727, there isnt a lot of clearance on those wings. They sat the plane down anyway and I breathed a sigh of relief when we touched down. They hit hard on the brakes and thrust reversers. Then, what was really weird, is that we did a 180 in the middle of the runway. I have never had that happen before. We turned around right on the runway, back tracked and got on the taxiway and headed to the gate. We must have used up every bit of that runway trying to stop!

We had to wait for the storms to pass before we were able to connect to the jetway and deplane. I was chatting with the flight attendant and asked her if she had any other experiences with turbulence as bad as this, she said once, when flying into Hartford BDL, but that was it.

Well, hope you enjoyed me rehashing my old report. It is edited for more content and pictures, so any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Cheeers!

UAL

[Edited 2007-09-05 02:18:06]

[Edited 2007-09-05 02:28:36]