sutrakhk From Hong Kong, joined Apr 2008, 115 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 8 months 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 17079 times:
This is Part V of this trip report, the most excited part I must say.
PEK - NRT by Iran Air in Business Class
There was no way to purchase the ticket online, what I do was to contact Iran Air office in Beijing, and transfer the money to their bank a/c, they will send the e-ticket to you after receive the payment
Everything started in the early morning, the hotel arrange a shuttle bus for me to Beijing Capital Airport terminal 2
Check-in counters were after customs
Iran Air Counter
I haven't visit the lounge as the 74L is more important for me in this trip
When I arrived the gate, EP-IAC was just arrived
Glad that she arrived on time so that the departure will be on time.
PS: The on time performance of IR 800 was quite bad AFAIK
2 September 2010
Beijing (PEK) – Tokyo/Narita (NRT)
Airline: Iran Air
Flight: IR 800
Aircraft: 747SP
Registration: EP-IAC
Seat: 5A (Business)
Gate: 17
Gate area, new set of crew was waiting to board, they are doing PEK-NRT-PEK today
Boarding Pass
EP-IAC, hope I have a better angle to take pics
Safety Instructions Card
Seat control
Seating Pitch
View from my seat, I cannot imagine that she was born in 1977, she is so well-maintained!
The only malfunction was the reading lights, no one can control them on or off
It was around 7:10 only, what I need is water
Seat belt extension, not a ordinary one I used to have
The door still opened at 7:30, let's have more pics
After a while, a PA from flight deck told us that due to a typhoon near Korea, the crew have to wait for the new weather data, we would have some delay
So let's get more pics!
Rear
Rear galley
Rear right
Middle cabin
Left side and the pray area
Washrooms in Economy
The staircase I like most
Business seat, old type, I think wider would be better
Washroom for Business Class and the Long Galley
Breakfast was served on ground, it made me worry we would delay for a long time. Asked the leading FA, she said the expected departure time would be at 14:00!!
After the meal, time to visit the washroom
Can I go upstairs?
The FA said no since the aircraft was still on ground, she said maybe OK after take-off
Name badges at Door L1
After a while, the seat belt sign was on, and the door closed!
Pushed back at 10:23 and in the air at 10:32 finally!
Front side galley
After asking, I was allowed to go upstairs
Upper deck rear galley
Beautiful upper deck!
Washroom
From the front
Thanks one of the crew helped me to take this pic!
Sorry for a bit blur
Love it!!!!!
After 3 hours flying, we arrived Tokyo
Thanks little beauty!!
Heading for immigration
Went to the observation deck to see her, a really lovely and special queen!
ronerone From Jordan, joined Aug 2004, 1541 posts, RR: 54 Reply 2, posted (2 years 8 months 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 16730 times:
Hi sutrahk,
I was anxiously waiting for this part, thanks for posting it so soon
It seems that you had no problems taking any pictures on board? Unlike my experience on Syrianair's 74L where it seemed that my every move was monitored (and questioned) by the air marshall, this one seemed to be more easy-going!
Glad that you were served the meal on the ground, it seems that IR's crew are quite decent!
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Cheers,
Roni
A Stop Away From One-Stop, Is Non-Stop : Airbus A340-500
sutrakhk From Hong Kong, joined Apr 2008, 115 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (2 years 8 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 16578 times:
Quoting ronerone (Reply 2): It seems that you had no problems taking any pictures on board? Unlike my experience on Syrianair's 74L where it seemed that my every move was monitored (and questioned) by the air marshall, this one seemed to be more easy-going!
Glad that you were served the meal on the ground, it seems that IR's crew are quite decent!
There was no problem to take pictures in the aircraft, they even helped me to take pictures here and there, the crew was really nice, unlike BG's crew.
Forgot to mention in the report, in this flight 2 FAs were Japanese, one of them shared a lot of her working life in Iran Air, summarize as follow:
1. Japanese crew is the only foreign crew in Iran Air
2. They only work on IR 800 and IR 801, which is IKA - PEK - NRT - PEK - IKA
3. As this flight operate only once per week, so they will stay in IKA and Tokyo every other week
4. Iran crew members will change at PEK, but Japanese crew will do all the way from IKA to NRT
I think it is still a good job as they only need to work at every Wednesday/Thursday, others are all holiday and the pay was not bad!
The777Man From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 6083 posts, RR: 56 Reply 7, posted (2 years 8 months 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 15755 times:
Very nce trip report with nice pictures, another great installement in your series.
Meal loos great and portion is huge!
Nice that they let you move around the cabins to takeso many pictures.
Interesting to hear about the Japanese F/As.
Great to see another trip report on the 747SP!
The777Man
Need a Boeing 777 Firing Order....Further to fly....GA, T5, CI and LX 777s
abrelosojos From Venezuela, joined May 2005, 4917 posts, RR: 55 Reply 8, posted (2 years 8 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 15679 times:
Wow. It seems IR keeps on being consistently good in the air. I had a similarly fantastic experience flying the 74L on BOM-IKA. The crew were fantastic, and the meals awesome. Thanks again for another data point on them. Take a look at my experience: Iran Air IR 811: 08/DEC/09: BOM-IKA: J Cabin (by Abrelosojos Jan 30 2010 in Trip Reports)
sutrakhk From Hong Kong, joined Apr 2008, 115 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (2 years 8 months 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 15132 times:
Quoting burj (Reply 6): Wow! Thank you for share! What a cool trip report!
That is one funky seatbelt extender! I've never seen one like that before!
I am so happy that taking pictures wasn't a problem like it is here in the U.S.
So was the upper deck being kept just for crew?
That was as an interesting breakfast, lots of carbs before the main meal!
The seatbelt extender was actually the one connecting to the seat in my observation, that means my seatbelt is actually Male-Male-Female, but not Male-Extender-Female.
The upper deck was only for crew, you can see there are actually no seat upstairs in the seat map in one of my photos
For the breakfast, as there was no menu, I wondered if I get the breads only for the whole meal in the beginning as you can see the amount of bread and honey, jam, cheese for the bread!
Quoting The777Man (Reply 7): Meal loos great and portion is huge!
Nice that they let you move around the cabins to takeso many pictures.
Interesting to hear about the Japanese F/As.
So it was really a good chance to explorer.
Quoting abrelosojos (Reply 8):
Wow. It seems IR keeps on being consistently good in the air. I had a similarly fantastic experience flying the 74L on BOM-IKA. The crew were fantastic, and the meals awesome. Thanks again for another data point on them. Take a look at my experience: Iran Air IR 811: 08/DEC/09: BOM-IKA: J Cabin (by Abrelosojos Jan 30 2010 in Trip Reports)
ORDnHKG From United States of America, joined Jul 2009, 185 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 8 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 14556 times:
Weird factor # 1 : Full set of china but no glassware ?
Weird factor # 2 : I can't see there are any side bins or overhead storage in the upper deck, those are very common on other 742, 743, and 744's upper deck. I am not sure if it is unique only for IR ? I can assume pax seated in the upper deck are only allowed to have very small bags, as the only storage area are the seats underneath. Also, it seems there isn't even a door to the cockpit, rather just a curtain. (I can see in the middle of the curtain there are lights coming from the sunshine of the cockpit window ! ) Wonder what are their security measure ?
Thanks for all the details and photos ! Great job with all these reports !
sfflyer123 From United States of America, joined May 2010, 246 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (2 years 8 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 14507 times:
Very nice! It is interesting to see these these "non-traditional" airlines. I never would have thought to have taken Iran air! Thanks for sharing this with us!
triple7man From Thailand, joined May 2005, 681 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (2 years 8 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 13395 times:
Nice to see a TR on the 747SP. Only 45 of them were built and Iran Air has 4 of them. The SP was initially ordered by Pan Am to fly JFK-NRT. It was the first aircraft that could make a flight of that range. Iran Air used them initially to fly Tehran-JFK. I've seen them at NRT many times.
I flew on the 747SP when United used them after purchasing Pan Am Pacific Division. I flew SFO-SEL-SFO. I liked the SP.
How were you able to get in the cockpit?
Hope you enjoyed your time in Japan. Shinjuku is one of my favorite places in Tokyo.
reifel From Germany, joined Feb 2005, 1135 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (2 years 8 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 13382 times:
Incredible experience flying this aircraft! It looks in such a good shape. The cabin is spotless, they even equipped this plane with flat screens! Thank you very much for sharing!
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 8264 posts, RR: 56 Reply 16, posted (2 years 7 months 3 weeks 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 12616 times:
What an excellent TR!
It's amazing, this 1977 build IR 74L looks to be in better condition than many of the 1990+ BA 744's that I have flown, just amazing how well IR have maintained this bird, very impressive.
The food portions look excellent too, I'm truly impressed indeed!
If I'd not already booked my bye annual big spotting jolly, I'd change it and route via PEK to get on the IR 74L.
mjabbasi From Pakistan, joined Nov 2007, 31 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (1 year 4 months 2 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 5191 times:
I know this reply is almost a year late but I'm new to these forums. The reason there are no side storage bins on the upper decks of IR's 74L is because previously this upper deck used to be a fabulous F class lounge during the 70's when the Shah was still in power and a fabulous lounge it was, complete with Samovars, Sofas, wood paneling you name it, then after the revolution, it was closed off and only Y class flights operated and when they did reintroduce Homa class again, the lounge was long gone and replaced by these Y class seats.
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