Dear all,

Here is my trip for my recent turnaround in Dhaka on BG’s DC-10-30 and KA’s A330-300, hope you enjoy and comments are always welcome.

Background:
I do this trip because the trip report from Loran in last December , which a classic aircraft still running in and out of my home town – Hong Kong, a question came to my mind, “Why don’t I try it before it gone, especially I don’t need to travel to other city to take this flight!”

I used a long time to plan this trip because I don’t want to stay at Dhaka due to visa problem, so I searched around to find what is best combination of flights when transiting in Dhaka, I was aimed to take BG78 from DAC to HKG because whatever the flight is delayed, it is still my last leg. But after all the matching, still no good combination was found (I cannot stand for so long time in Dhaka Airport like Loran in his report), so I opted to take the risk – Take the BG 79 HKG-DAC and get back by KA 111 DAC-HKG five hours later. My plan was if the BG’s flight delayed more than 3.5 hours out of Hong Kong, I will change the flights to another Monday (No KA 111 on Friday), so I bought flexible and changeable tickets.


On the day of flying, I was really worried as the inbound flight is delayed again, the scheduled arrival time was 18:05, but at 16:45, there was still no arrival information for the flight in HKIA’s web, it means that the flight was not departed yet. But I still jumped on my car and head to airport. During driving, I checked again the airport’s site, it showed the expected arrival time would be 20:06, I was released.

After park my car at Car Park 4, I walked to the aisle F where BG’s check-in counters are.


Once arrived the counters, long lines of baggage. I think the excess baggage charges help the revenues a lot for this flight. When queuing for check-in, I saw a guy paid HK$18,000 for excess baggage in my next line, and the next one paid for $23,000, incredible amount!

The expected departure time have changed from 19:20 to 21:00 already during check-in.

For the ground agents, they call this kind of baggage as Lotus Leaf Wraps – a kind of Chinese Dim Sum


Just to introduce what is Lotus Leaf Wrap ^^
As its name, it is wrap by Lotus Leaf


When open, there is sticky rice


Inside the sticky rice, there are chicken and pork with mushrooms in sauce, it’s quite tasty in my opinion as breakfast!


Back to the trip
After queuing 1 hour for check-in, finally airside. This is the Gate 15 which would be the first A380 gate with 3 aerobridges in HKIA, expected to finish in September.


Continue to walk to my Gate 50, which is at the dead end of the terminal
Both flights heading to Dhaka today are there


The one which depart first still didn’t arrived, but the later one was already there.
I will take this KA’s A330-300 B-HWJ back to Hong Kong some hours later.


At 20:10, she finally arrived


Gate area



28 Jun 2010

Hong Kong (HKG) – Dhaka(DAC)
Airline: Biman Bangladesh Airlines
Flight: BG 79
Aircraft: DC-10-30
Registration: S2-ACQ
Seat: 9J (Economy)
Gate: 50

My boarding pass


Loading the cargo


Boarding started at 20:40
When the door was closing, I found the door was electrically slide-down inside the aircraft, my first time!


Seat 9J, Emergency exit Seat


Galley


Crew seat opposite Seat 9J, the front cabin is for VIP and friends of station manager,
The seats and pitch are seat but without middle overhead baggage compartment.


In-seat controls, but none of them work


Love this kind of signal


Safety information card


As there were less than 100 passengers on board, I moved to Row 15
Outside the dirty window, found the Lotus Leaf Wraps were still loading, but it was already 21:15


DC-10 windows shade, I love the MD-90’s one more


Seating pitch quite good, but once the one in front of you reclined, totally different!


Overhead reading lights, not working


Pushed back at 21:25, at runway at 21:30. During take-off, you can smell the jet fuel inside the cabin. Although the aircraft pulling-up at steep degree, I found it climbed slowly.

The oxygen masks were inside the seat, the cover released during take-off



Meal time
No choice of meal, only Coke and Sprite were offered for drink


It’s Curry Chicken Rice, tasty and strong! But the starter and cream cake was not very good


After the meal time, toilet visit
Old but clean toilet, found their toilet were very clean even used by many passengers



Second cabin


Rear cabin


Rear Galley, Singapore Airlines logo still there


After 3 hours and 20 minutes, with many turbulent after the meal service, finally arrived Dhaka Airport.


Approached to the transfer desk, the agent took my passport and asked me to wait. He then went landside to obtain KA’s boarding pass for me.
During waiting, the transfer desk formed a mess with shouting.


SQ display its new regional product at the airport, to promote their A330-300 service to Dhaka


Since I am Macro Polo Silver, I can go to the lounge


Walking towards the lounge


My lounge invitation card


KA use Sheraton Balaka VIP Lounge in Dhaka


Passed the main entrance, then go to a room


Inside the lounge, there was one computer station and Wi-Fi is offered.


View from the sofa. The lounge was used by many airlines, like Malaysia Airline at the time.


Grab some finger food, the food was quite good!


Time flies with food and World Cup Match, it’s the time for boarding


29 Jun 2010

Dhaka (DAC) – Hong Kong (HKG)
Airline: Dragonair
Flight: KA 111
Aircraft: A330-300
Registration: B-HWJ
Seat: 49K (Business)
Gate: 6

Boarding pass


The flight was departing at Gate 6


After security check, found my seat at 49K
The seating pitch is OK


The IFE box under the seat which take some of your legroom


Nothing can see outside the window


View from my seat


1498 miles to go


Flying Path


Safety Information Card


The load was low, about 80 passengers on board only, so most passengers got their own row of seats.
We pushed back on time, after the powerful take-off, airborne in a short while.

The meal serve shortly after the seat-belt sign off, no choice also


Curry Beef Rice today, not as tasty as BG’s curry


After the meal, toilet time again.



After the toilet, the lights were totally off to let everyone sleep in this red-eye flight

About 1 hour before arrival, the sun was going to rise


After 3 hours and 40 minutes, we arrived Hong Kong, 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Here is my seat 49K


After the trip, I was totally exhausted as I did not sleep during flights. Passed the immigration in no time and drove back home.

For this trip, I feel it is great to try the flight which is older than me, and in my wishlist, there are still some more aircrafts I want to try, hope can do it in the near future!

Here is the end of this report, thank your for reading!!

My past TR:
Three 5-Star Airlines In 8 Days (102pics) (June 2008)
First Touch Of China Southern MD82 (31 Pics) (August 2008)
China Airlines HKG - TPE (47 Pics) (August 2008)
HKG-BKK With China Airlines In C (61 Pics) (November 2010)
HKG-BKK F On Emirates' 777-300ER (67 Pics) (May 2009)
HKG-TPE Turnaround On TG's A340-600 (33 Pics) (June 2009)
HKG,MFM,TPE,SIN,BKK In CX C And BR Y (201 Pics) (August 2009)
SQ Y HKG-SIN In 2009 w/MH And 1st A380(128 Pics) (Year 2009)
Ooop! I did it again Part 1 EVA Air MD-90 (50 Pics)
Ooop! I did it again Part 2 CX HKG-SIN run (116 Pics)