The Andaz Wall Street was a bit cheaper for both nights, though my brother asked that I do what I can to get a two bedroom suite at the Andaz 5th Avenue, both so we could have drinks there beforehand and also in case anyone wanted to crash there afterwards.

So I ended up using one of my Diamond suite upgrades for the night at the Andaz 5th Avenue, and then emailed the hotel to see what could be done in terms of a better room. They offered to upgrade me to a two bedroom suite (similar to the one I had the first time I stayed here due to a mishap) for $250, which I gladly paid. Not something I’d usually do, but given the circumstances I figured it was worthwhile.

I’ve stayed at both hotels plenty of times, so I’ll keep the reviews pretty stay and room-centric. You can find my previous reviews of the Andaz Wall Street here and here, while you can find my previous reviews of the Andaz 5th Avenue here and here.

I arrived at the Andaz Wall Street at around 3PM where I was promptly helped at check-in. The “host” was pretty cold and didn’t exchange a word with me, which was certainly a change of pace from the usually overly talkative hosts.

The good news is that I had been upgraded to an Andaz XL King (basically a junior suite) on the top floor. As usual the room was beautiful. I especially love the decor of the Andaz Wall Street rooms.

There was a seating area near the entrance which faces a big closet (also where the TV is), on the other side of which is the bed.

Living room area

Facing bedroom area

Desk

Bed

As usual at Andaz hotels, the minibar soft drinks and snacks were complimentary, as well as the wifi.

Minibar

Snacks/booze

I especially love the bathrooms at the Andaz Wall Street, as they feature an enclosed shower/tub, which is among the nicest out there. I’m not usually a “tub” person, but once in a while I can be tempted, and the Andaz Wall Street is one of those instances.

Bathroom

Shower/tub

Toilet

There was a little birthday cake waiting on the table when I entered, which surprised me given that I made a reservation the night before. While I want to give Hyatt credit for this, apparently a friend called the hotel the morning of my arrival to let them know it was my birthday. So I guess Hyatt gets half credit in this instance for executing…

Birthday cake

On Saturday morning my brother joined me for breakfast at Wall & Water, which has a nice brunch on weekends. The non-hotel crowd is usually pretty odd (who has brunch on Wall Street on a Saturday, other than losers like me?), though the food is always good. I do wish the hotel would clarify their breakfast policy for Diamond members. The general consensus is a $50 credit per day, though that doesn’t really cover their standard offering, so seems a bit low. Anyway, we only had a few dollars of overage, so I wasn’t about to argue.

Wall & Water

Buffet

Buffet

After visiting some family and going to Central Park for a bit my brother and I headed over to the Andaz 5th Avenue for check-in. Our room was ready at around 3PM, and was one of the hotel’s two bedroom suites (they only have a total of two). The last one I stayed in was bigger though didn’t feature a balcony, so it was nice to be able to compare both rooms.

This one featured a nice sized living room with a couch facing a flat screen TV, as well as a desk with a kitchenette. The fridge was well stocked, and as is always the case, the soft drinks and snacks were complimentary.

Entryway

Living room

TV in living room

View from balcony

Kitchenette

Fridge

There was also a welcome amenity consisting of a chocolate tart and bottle of wine.

Welcome amenity

The suite also featured two nearly identical bedrooms and bathrooms. Unlike the Andaz Wall Street, the 5th Avenue hotel doesn’t have tubs in the bathrooms, though the showers themselves are awesome.

First bedroom

First bedroom

First bathroom

First shower

Second morning

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, The Shop, where there was about a 30 minute wait.

The Shop

The Shop

I ordered the hotel’s famous lemon poppy seed pancakes, while my brother ordered an omelet, both of which were delicious. This was my first time not ordering room service breakfast at the hotel (since they let Diamonds do that).

Lemon poppy seed pancakes

Omelet

Anyway, as usual both Andaz stays were great. While I prefer the location of the 5th Avenue location, there is something remarkably relaxing about Wall Street on weekends, and at the end of the day New York transportation is pretty inexpensive and efficient, so I don’t really care where I stay.

These two hotels are my “go to” hotels in New York, though I’m still not sure which I prefer. I’m leaning towards the 5th Avenue hotel since I think they’ve really improved a lot since opening (especially in terms of Diamond recognition), though I’ll continue to choose based on their rates and where in the city I need to be.

Reminder: In connection with my trip to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival I’m giving away 25,000 SPG points through Twitter. See this post for full details on how to win. Also, in the interest of full disclosure my lodging and transportation were paid for by the Starwood American Express for this trip.

I ran into my idol, Johnny Jet, at JFK, and we shared a cab to the Sheraton Tribeca.

Everyone has their favorite area of New York, and Tribeca is certainly becoming one of the more trendy areas. I can’t say it’s my favorite part of the city just yet, but it certainly has a completely different “feel” than midtown or the Financial District (where I usually stay), and was very convenient for the theater at which the Tribeca Film Festival screening would take place that night.

Sheraton exterior

Sheraton entrance

The hotel only opened a couple of years ago so still has a pretty “fresh” feel to it. The agent at check-in was efficient and polite, and I presented my SPG Platinum card, a credit card, and ID. It occurred to me that I hadn’t previously added my SPG number to the reservation, so while I was already pre-assigned a room he also programmed my keys for access to the club lounge.

Lobby

Link@Sheraton in the lobby

I was assigned a room on the 17th floor so headed for the elevators, which require keys for access.

Hallway

The room was definitely on the small side though had a “fresh” feel to it and was nicely furnished. It featured one of Sheraton’s signature “Sweet Sleeper” beds, which I’m starting to like as much as the Westin Heavenly Bed.

Room

Room

Desk and TV

One of the things I do love about Tribeca are the great views of the city if you’re on a high enough floor, since most buildings in the immediate area aren’t high rises.

View from my room

The bathroom was a good size and featured a walk-in shower, toilet, and sink, with Sheraton branded toiletries.

Bathroom

Bathroom

As a Platinum member I had access to the club lounge, which is located on the 16th floor. It was a nice area with high-top seating, tables, and couches for lounging. While I never made it to the lounge for breakfast, the evening spread consisted of fruit, cheese, crackers, and two hot options (like spring rolls, chicken wings, etc.). Service was very attentive, and the attendant seemed to be pretty familiar with most of the guests, so it seemed like they were regulars.

Club lounge

Part of the evening spread

The highlight of the club lounge had to be the stunning terrace overlooking the city. It’s funny because I feel like people overlook the simplest things some time. The weather was beautiful, the temperature perfect, and the terrace had one of the nicest views of the city I’ve seen from anywhere. So I spent quite a bit of time out there.

Terrace

On the whole I quite liked the property. Let me be clear, there are higher end and more premium SPG hotels in the City, including the St. Regis and the Chatwal, but they come at a price. From a value perspective it’s tough to beat the Sheraton Tribeca given that it’s a category five property, making it as few as 12,000 SPG points per night (with the fifth night free). There aren’t many cities with higher hotel rates than New York, so I would recommend this hotel to anyone that wants to be in the Tribeca area.

I really struggled in regards to where to stay. I try to stick to Hyatt, Starwood, and Priority Club as much as possible, though in this case no option was ideal. Hyatt doesn’t have a hotel in San Juan, so they weren’t an option. The InterContinental San Juan gets awful reviews in terms of their Royal Ambassador treatment, so I did what I could to avoid it.

That narrowed it down to the two Sheratons, one of which is at the convention center, and the other of which is in Old Town. I was tempted to go with the convention center location since it’s a new hotel and gets generally good reviews. The Old Town Sheraton also gets good reviews, though is a much older hotel.

So in the end as a result of indecisiveness I decided to book the Ritz Carlton, which seemed to offer the best of both worlds (though at a cost). It’s close to the airport, at the beach, and gets all around great reviews.

The rate for one night was $339. That’s by no means cheap, though by booking through a Virtuoso agent we received a $100 resort credit, full daily breakfast, and a room upgrade at no additional cost. Like I said it isn’t cheap, though when you’re splitting the costs two ways and get all those extra perks, it really is a pretty good value, in my opinion.

Anyway, I arrived in San Juan at around 1PM and we took a taxi to the Ritz Carlton. San Juan seems to have a bit of a taxi mafia as all the prices are fixed. In the case of the Ritz Carlton, a taxi cost $10 plus $1 per bag (there was a bit of a discrepancy as to whether a backpack or laptop bag counts as a bag for these purposes, since we were charged $12 on the way out and $14 on the way back). The ride took less than 10 minutes.

Ritz Carlton placard

As soon as we arrived at the hotel we were helped with our bags by the bellman and escorted to check-in which was located just inside of the lobby on the right.

Hotel exterior

Hotel entrance

There was a wait of about five minutes, though I was happy to see they had bottled water and juice set up on the side of the lobby, since it was hot as heck outside.

Lobby bar

Lobby

Water and juice

Our check-in agent was courteous and explained to us all the benefits we would be entitled to. He checked on the best room upgrade for a room with either a king bed or two double beds, and the best he could do was a king bed with a pool view on a low floor (which is a one category upgrade). The hotel was packed due to a wedding party taking up half of the hotel, so we were perfectly happy with that.

The elevators are key activated, and we took it up to the third floor, where our room was located pretty close to the elevators.

Hallway

Room entrance

The room itself wasn’t huge though was nicely decorated and arranged. It featured a very comfortable king bed, large seat, and desk with comfortable chair. There was also a well stocked minibar, though the only place I ever use minibars is at hotels where they’re free or at InterContinental hotels, where I get free beverages as a Royal Ambassador member.

Room

TV and desk

View from room

Minibar

Room

The bathroom featured a shower, double sinks, and a separate room with the toilet. All the toiletries were Ritz Carlton branded.

Bathroom

Toiletries

Shower

While it has been a few years since the hotel was renovated, I feel they did a spectacular job maintaining the rooms, since there were virtually no scratches/stains.

The only negative was that the room had no bottled water (with the exception of in the minibar), which I found strange given that they even had free bottled water at check-in.

The resort itself was really beautiful. It featured both a huge pool with plenty of seating, as well as a beach. Admittedly there are nicer beaches in the Caribbean than in San Juan, though this one seemed very nice by San Juan standards.

Pool

Pool

Resort exterior

Beach entrance

As you approach the beach there are employees there that help with setting up the lounge chairs based on where you want to sit, and that can help with any other requests. As an aviation geek I thought it was pretty awesome that there were great airplane views from the beach, as the runway is only about a mile away.

Beach

One of the reasons the hotel was so packed was because of a huge Indian wedding at the hotel, and they got married on the beach, which I thought was pretty cool.

Wedding

And these people really did know how to party morning, day, and night. The morning we left they seemed to have some impromptu rock concert on the driveway of the hotel.

Some concert

At around 4PM we were pretty hungry so decided to have a late lunch at obg, the beachfront restaurant. It was much more casual and we were wearing shorts and t-shirts, not to mention I really wanted to enjoy the beach views.

Menu

Pina colada

The prices were what you’d expect for a Ritz Carlton restaurant with a beach view. I had a pina colada, which was $14, and then had fish tacos, which were $19. Fortunately the $100 resort credit more than took care of lunch.

Fish tacos

All the employees I interacted with were friendly and eager to help. They were a bit more laid back than at the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong, for example, but I kind of expect that for a beach hotel in Puerto Rico.

The hotel also has a huge gym that’s actually located inside the spa. The downside of being located inside the spa is that it’s only open from 6AM till 9AM, so if you have weird hours like that be sure to keep that in mind. That being said, the quality and variety of the equipment was excellent.

Gym

Gym

In the evening we went to Old San Juan. Once again the taxi prices are fixed, and it was $20 for the roughly 15-minute ride to the Old Town. Old San Juan was stunning, and I can’t wait to return.

It was a Friday night so the atmosphere was great, with live music on the street, all kinds of street vendors, and plenty of people watching.

Street market

Concert

We had dinner at a restaurant we found along the way, which was delicious. I had sausage to start, and shrimp with yellow rice as the main course. For dessert was tres leches cake, which was among the best I’ve had.

Appetizer

Shrimp with yellow rice

Amazing tres leches cake

I was a bit surprised to return to the hotel and find that they hadn’t done turndown service on our room. I’m not sure if it was an oversight or they only do it upon request, but we at no point had the “do not disturb” sign out, so I’m not sure why.

Like I said breakfast was included since we booked through Virtuoso, so we had breakfast at around 8AM at Mares Restaurant. We had the full buffet, which would have cost $28 per person.

Mares Restaurant

The spread was top notch in terms of quality and variety. They had all kinds of pastries and breads, yogurt, hot dishes (scrambled eggs, quesadillas, etc.), fruit, cereal, etc. The service was really attentive as well.

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

The biggest props, though, have to go to the chef at the omelet station. I was looking at the various options, and he said “I see you eying my food. Let me know if you need the lowdown on anything, I ga’cha covered.”

At around 11AM the following morning it was back to the airport after an all too quick trip.

I can’t believe I haven’t visited San Juan before because it really is beautiful, and from what I’ve heard there are plenty of other things to explore on the island of Puerto Rico as well. Also, Puerto Rico feels nothing like the rest of the US, so it really is a nice change of pace.

The Ritz Carlton is a fantastic choice, especially when booking through Virtuoso or American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, and I wouldn’t for a second hesitate to return if the value is right. That being said, I’d also consider staying at hotels on other parts of the island, which I’ve heard great things about as well.

I flew this exact route on Japan Airlines back in 2009 (you can find the trip report here), though back then it was operated by their 747 featuring their old first class product. That’s the main reason I took this flight, since their new first class product is a huge upgrade over the old one, and I wanted to see how it compared firsthand.

Anyway, at gate 61 boarding was announced for first and business class at around 10:50AM, and moments later I was aboard.

Departure gate

Plane to NY

Boarding queue

Japan Airlines 6
Tokyo Narita (NRT) – New York (JFK)
Tuesday, May 1
Depart: 11:20AM
Arrive: 11:25AM
Duration: 13hr5min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 1K (First Class)

At the door I was greeted by the friendly flight attendants that directed me to my seat in row one. One frustrating aspect of flying Japanese airlines is that Japanese aviation regulations prevent Japanese airlines from serving pre-departure beverages on the ground, and you’re also not allowed to use electronic devices while on the ground. This makes it advantageous to actually board as late as possible, since you’ll sit there in utter boredom. And I always find it rather silly that Japanese airlines are bound by these rules while foreign airlines flying to Japan aren’t, essentially giving foreign carriers a competitive advantage.

The first class product on the 777-300ER is the JAL Suite, which is a fairly private and spacious suite with a decent amount of storage space and well padded seat.

JAL Suite

The bedding is provided by Tempur-Pedic, including the pillow pictured below, which provides for great support.

JAL Suite

JAL Suite

JAL Suite

As you can see below, each seat really does have a huge amount of privacy, so being in 1K I really couldn’t see anyone else.

View of cabin from my seat

To the right of the seat were the entertainment and seat controls, as well as a vanity mirror.

Entertainment and seat controls

As soon as I settled in the flight attendant offered me Bose Quiet Comfort headphones. That was quickly followed by slippers and pajamas.

Bose headphones

Slippers

Pajamas

I didn’t immediately change into the pajamas, though the guy seated across from me changed right away. I was rather alarmed when I noticed he placed his underwear on the tray table, and obviously wasn’t wearing any.

After that I also changed into my pajamas, and as I emerged from the lavatory the purser hung my clothes for me.

As departure time rolled around all eight first class seats were taken (I was the only westerner), and the captain advised us of our flight time of 12hr30min.

As we pushed back the safety video started playing, and at the beginning the flight attendants positioned themselves in the aisle to bow. I found it rather funny that they positioned three flight attendants in first class to bow, for only eight passengers.

We had a fairly quick taxi to the runway, which was made rather enjoyable by the nose camera that was displayed on the cabin monitors.

Nose camera

After a long takeoff roll we were airborne, and within 10 minutes the seatbelt sign was turned off.

Climb out

As we leveled off the purser came through the cabin to distribute menus and introduce herself. The menus are displayed in very nice leather folders containing both the menus and the wine list.

Menu cover

Menu folder

The menu read as follows:

And the wine list read as follows:

Service started with a hot towel, which was quickly followed by a small smarter. I’m still not exactly sure what it was. The crew’s English wasn’t especially good, so I wasn’t about to find out.

Hot towel

Starter

That was followed by a basket with a variety of Japanese snacks, from which I selected some crackers and almonds.

Diet Coke with crackers and almonds

Next was the amuse bouche, for which I’ll simply suggest you reference the menu above, because I still have no clue what it really was, though it was fairly good.

Amuse bouche

The next course was caviar. Even though it had some sort of a zesty “bar,” it lacked the traditional garnishes you get on other airlines.

Caviar

For the main course I went with wagyu beef. I’ll never understand peoples’ excitement over wagyu beef, but that’s not to say it wasn’t fairly good.

Wagyu beef

The dessert consisted of both a strawberry tart and some cheesecake ice cream. The tart was delicious, but the ice cream really wasn’t (and it’s rare for me to come across ice cream I don’t like).

Dessert

On the whole the meal service was nice, though not nearly as memorable as those I’ve had on ANA, Cathay Pacific, and Singapore, just to name a few. The flight attendants were all very friendly, though there was definitely a communication barrier, and also at times I think that led to them also being a bit less proactive. I do find that ANA crews generally have a better grasp of English.

After lunch I was dead tired so decided to get some sleep, given that I had taken a redeye the night before. I requested turndown service, and the flight attendant set up my bed with a Tempur-Pedic mattress pad. I’m not going to lie, the pad was *really* comfortable. I tried to fall asleep while the cabin lights were still on, figuring they’d be turned off momentarily after everyone finished their meals, as is the case on virtually every longhaul flight.

After about an hour I asked the flight attendant if the lights could be dimmed. After apologizing profusely she went to the galley and dimmed the lights a little bit. The purser returned and explained some passengers were trying to read, which is why they weren’t dimming the lights all the way. Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t that what the reading lights are for?

Bed

After a while I decided there was no way I could fall asleep, so I played around with JAL’s entertainment system. While the system itself is fairly thorough with movies, TV shows, audio, etc., the actual quality of the selection was just horrible, at least when it comes to US selections.

Entertainment system

So eventually I just decided to get started on my trip report, which I did for a few hours, until we were already approaching Vancouver with about five hours to go to New York.

Airshow

Airshow

Airshow

Funny enough at this point the purser comes up to me and asks if it would be alright if she dims the cabin lights because some passengers are trying to sleep. You don’t say?

Of course I took that as an opportunity to catch a few hours of shut eye as well, so slept until about 90 minutes out of New York.

JAL has a rather interesting menu in that other than the main meal, they just have an a la carte meal from which you can dine at your leisure. The options are all over the place, as follows:

The purser came by to take my meal order, and initially I wasn’t sure if I was in a breakfast or dinner mood. I decided on the “Everyone’s Favorite” pasta, and as the words started coming out of my mouth a look of pure horror filled the purser’s face. “I’m so so sorry. So sorry. We are out.” The look on her face made it seem as if both of the pilots had the fish for dinner and were unconscious, and I needed to land the plane. Fortunately that wasn’t the case.

I then decided on the “Western Tray,” which was a breakfast option.

In the meantime I had already ordered a Diet Coke, which was served with a hot towel. I guess I’ll be enjoying breakfast with soda today!

Diet Coke and hot towel

The breakfast portion was tiny, basically consisting of a small waffle cut in half and a spoon full of scrambled eggs. It was also served with a very small container of plain yogurt.

Western tray

Again, I was completely puzzled by what time of day it was in terms of food, so had some ice cream for dessert, hoping it was better than the cheesecake ice cream served earlier in the flight.

Ice cream

Oddly the amenity kits were distributed about 30 minutes before landing. I’m not sure if it was an oversight on the part of the crew or what, but I found it rather strange. JAL does have one of the nicest amenity kits, though, including Shiseido branded products and (oddly) a large towel/rag, the purpose of which I’ve yet to figure out.

Amenity kit

20 minutes before landing the seatbelt sign was turned on and the captain advised us of our slightly late arrival due to us having to slow down on approach to NY.

Once we landed at JFK we had a fairly long taxi to our arrival gate.

Taxiing in

Fortunately thanks to Global Entry I was outside within five minutes, ready to conk out.

So how do I feel about JAL? Well, I’m happy to have flown their new product and tried them again, but now it’s on my “been there, done that” list. Overall I’d rank JAL’s first class product as a second tier first class product, ahead of US airlines but behind the best in the world. While the flight attendants are friendly their English skills are lacking. The issue with that isn’t the language barrier, but it makes it tough for them to feel more confident in their service. But I’d certainly recommend JAL ahead of US airlines and many foreign carriers. If only first class award space wasn’t so hard to come by on them…

After landing in terminal 1 I needed to make my way over to terminal 2, which is where JAL flies out of. First I had to clear transit security, for which there’s not usually a long queue, though this morning it was close to 30 minutes. The good news is that I got a signal for the airport’s free wifi, so was at least able to start to get caught up on my iPhone.

The only odd part was that the guy behind me in line asked if he could use my iPhone to check his email. I’m sorry, I try to be helpful when I can, but that’s just taking it one step too far, in my opinion.

Once through security I took the tunnel to the far end of the terminal, where I hopped on a bus to terminal 2. The bus only runs every 30 minutes so I lucked out in terms of the timing since I only had to wait about 10 minutes.

Bus transfer point

Once in terminal 2 I headed over to the JAL transit desk to get my boarding passes.

Usually printing boarding passes takes a minute, though in this instance the agent had a confused look on her face, communicated with the other agent in Japanese, and then made a phone call. In my experience the Japanese service culture is typically such that they won’t tell you there might be a problem unless they are positive there is, so I took the first step and asked if there was a problem with my ticket. In a very unconvincing way she responded with “nooo.”

I stood there for another 10 minutes or so, at which point she finally managed to print my boarding passes. Whew.

I headed over to the Japan Airlines first class lounge, which I also visited several years ago, so you can read my previous review here. That review is much more detailed, as I had a lot more time to enjoy the lounge then.

Neither ANA nor JAL have any spectacular lounges, in my opinion, though this one is about as good as they get. The thing to keep in mind is that OneWorld Emerald members get access to the lounge even if they’re not traveling in first class, so they tend to get pretty crowded. Still, I was most interested in catching up on email for an hour while waiting for my connecting flight, so a stable internet connection was all I could ask for.

JAL lounge entrance

JAL lounge entrance

787 model by entrance

JAL first class lounge

JAL first class lounge

The lounge does have a decent buffet, a bit better than what ANA offers, though I can’t say I paid much attention to it aside from snapping a few pictures.

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

At 10:45AM I left for the gate, which was only a few minutes away, for a 10:50AM boarding time.

Gate B4 was maybe a 10-minute walk from the lounge. This gate actually has a joint security checkpoint with a few other gates, and in tonight’s case the Airbus 380 to Paris was also leaving from the same area, so queues were rather long. After a roughly 15 minute wait I was through security and in the gate area for my flight to Tokyo Narita.

Terminal

Departure gate

Boarding lanes

The flight was running a bit late, and at 11:45PM boarding was called, starting with first and business class.

The 777-300ER uses two jet bridges, with the first one being exclusively for first class passengers, while the second one is for business class and coach passengers.

Singapore 638
Singapore (SIN) – Tokyo Narita (NRT)
Monday, April 30
Depart: 11:55PM
Arrive: 8:00AM (+1 day)
Duration: 7hr5min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 2A (First Class)

Before I even stepped foot on the aircraft (or for that matter before the crew saw my boarding pass) both the in-flight service manager and leading stewardess welcomed me aboard by name – “Mr. Lucky, welcome aboard, it’s such a pleasure to have you flying with us tonight. Please, allow me to escort you to your seat.”

As Wong Chin, the leading stewardess, escorted me to my seat she said “Mr. Lucky, you are our only first class passenger tonight. It will be my pleasure to pamper you all the way to Tokyo.”

Look, my last flight on Singapore Airlines from New York to Frankfurt wasn’t very good, though after being on the plane for less than a minute I remembered why Singapore Airlines is the best in the world.

My seat, 2A

Storage compartment

Entertainment and seat controls

Reading light

It’s interesting to note that the cabin doesn’t have any overhead bins to make for a more spacious feel. That’s nice in theory, though in practice it can be tough to stow both a carry-on and a personal item underneath the seat in front of you. Fortunately in this instance the cabin was empty, so I placed my carry-on underneath the seat across from me.

Ottoman

First class cabin

As I settled in Wong Chin came by and said “Mr. Lucky, the captain has asked me to extend a welcome to you aboard and wanted to let you know our flight time to Tokyo Narita will be 6hr25min. What beverage may I offer you to get your flight off to a good start?”

I ordered a glass of champagne, and with a smirk and smug sense of pride, Wong Chin responded with “Mr. Lucky, I have two options for you tonight, we have Dom or Krug. Which may I have the pleasure of serving you?”

I ordered a glass of Krug, which was served minutes later by the leading steward.

Krug

Meanwhile Wong Chin offered me newspapers, magazines, headphones, a hot towel, an amenity kit, socks and eyeshades, Givenchy pajamas, and the menu for tonight’s flight (which I’m embarrassed to admit I completely forgot to snap a picture of).

Givenchy pajamas and amenity kit

Givenchy pajamas

Amenity kit contents

Socks and eyeshades

Headphones

Wong Chin explained that the meal service on the flight is breakfast, and asked whether I wanted it served after takeoff or before landing. Now, I fully knew this coming in, though I do find it somewhat disappointing that Singapore Airlines doesn’t offer a “midnight snack” type option. First of all, 6hr25min is a borderline longhaul flight, and longer than many east coast to Europe flights, where they serve two meals.

It’s not that I wanted two meals, but rather if I was actually hungry after takeoff, would I want scrambled eggs at midnight? Thai Airways, for example, offers both a midnight snack and breakfast on their flights from Bangkok to Tokyo, which are over an hour shorter than this flight.

So while it was no big deal and I fully knew it coming in, I do still find that a bit underwhelming for an airline like Singapore Airlines. In fairness they do have a “Book the Cook” menu from which I could have ordered in advance, though if I had ordered a dinner-type entree it would have been strange to have it served with an appetizer of fruit and cereal.

Back to the flight, though. I explained to Wong Chin I’d like to eat prior to landing in Tokyo Narita, and already made my selection immediately as to maximize sleep time.

Lastly Wong Chin asked whether I wanted to have my bed made in another seat, so that I could then return to 2A to have breakfast. I asked to have the bed made in 1A, which was done promptly after takeoff.

Meanwhile my glass of Krug stayed full, and the leading steward commented “you’re our only passenger, we’re counting on you to finish the bottle.”

While I was dead tired, I just had the biggest grin on my face as the door closed. I had the cabin all to myself and had three flight attendants to myself (the leading stewardess and leading steward full time, and the in-flight service manager for most of the flight). The level of service was almost comical at times, as I’ll explain in a bit.

Before pushback I changed into pajamas. One of the things I love about Singapore is that as you leave the lavatory they always insist on hanging your clothes. Most airlines won’t touch your clothes, let alone hang them neatly, but Wong Chin was standing outside the lavatory waiting for me with two hangers as I emerged, not to mention opened and closed the door for me.

At around 12:15AM the safety video played and we started our taxi to runway 20C. It was quite a long taxi to the runway, and we followed a Qantas Airbus 380 all the way to the runway, where we were eventually cleared for takeoff.

About 20 minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off and all three of the flight attendants worked on making my bed. I conked out in almost no time, and slept for three hours solid.

Turndown service

Now, a few quick words on the seat. Singapore’s first class cabin on the 777 consists of eight seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. While the product is great, I think Singapore almost screwed themselves over with their new business class product, since it’s also in a 1-2-1 configuration and almost equally comfortable. So the seats are actually really similar. I reviewed the business class seat on my Los Angeles to Singapore flight last year, and you can see that review here. So while first class is more spacious, it really isn’t a huge difference. The real benefit to flying Singapore first class is the food and service.

There are both pluses and minuses to Singapore’s first class bedding. I don’t find the seat to be especially well padded compared to the likes of Qantas, Cathay Pacific, JAL, etc., though on the plus side they give you three large pillows, which really help.

As I woke up I noticed one of the many small touches that sets Singapore Airlines apart. When I went to sleep I kind of just threw the slippers I was wearing since the beginning of the flight on the floor. However, when I woke up they were perfectly positioned so that if I needed to get up I could easily slip into them. This happened each and every time I got up. So impressive.

Within a minute or two of waking up Wong Chin appeared and said “good morning Mr. Lucky, I trust you had a restful snooze. May I offer you something to drink, maybe a cup of delicious hot cocoa?” I might not be a five year old, though I can appreciate a good cup of hot cocoa, so gladly accepted.

Hot cocoa

The flight was just too good to sleep any more, so with about three hours to go till Tokyo Narita I decided to watch a couple of sitcoms, including “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Big Bang Theory.” The KrisWorld entertainment system remains among the best in the sky in terms of the selection of movies, sitcoms, CDs, etc. My only complaint is that the system is turned off for takeoff and landing, unlike other airlines which let you start watching movies on the ground.

KrisWorld entertainment system

KrisWorld entertainment system (notice my excellent taste in music)

Every five minutes or so Wong Chin came by to check on me to make sure there wasn’t anything else I needed.

I decided to take a quick walk to business class to see how full it was back there, and as I did so Wong Chin walked back with me to open all the curtains for me. She was truly the best thing ever. As I walked back, she said “Mr. Lucky, have you had a chance to see what I set up for you in 2A?”

I hadn’t, so I walked back there with her, and was truly astounded. She had drawn me the following card:

Awesome!

As part of the following display:

Awesomer!

Not only did she do the writing, but the border was hand drawn as well. Furthermore, she made me a paper flower, and set up the landing forms and playing cards in such an intentional manner.

I was truly astounded, and as she saw my reaction she just stood there and smiled. “Mr. Lucky, taking care of nice passengers like you is my passion. When I set this up the in-flight service manager asked me what I was doing, and I said ‘making my passengers smile.’”

Truly un-friggin-believable. There’s no other way to describe it. I explained to her that I was having a pretty rough week but she completely turned my mood around. I further explained that I was going to place it on my desk in my office as a reminder to smile every morning. She said “oh Mr. Lucky, I thought you were just going to throw it away. In that case, may I decorate it with some more stickers?”

I mean seriously, where do you find a human being this nice? Her passion for making people smile is entirely contagious.

About 90 minutes before landing I requested to have breakfast, which started with some freshly squeezed orange juice as well as a fruit plate.

Fruit plate

Approaching Tokyo

The next course was cornflakes, the delivery of which was hilarious, given that they basically set up an assembly line in order to serve me. Wong Chin brought the actual bowl with the corn flakes, while the leading steward stood right behind her to pour the milk, while the in-flight service manager stood right behind him to ask if I wanted any sugar on top of my corn flakes. I wish I could have taken a picture of three people at the same time trying to serve me corn flakes.

Following the corn flakes the breadbasket was brought by, which consisted of croissants, danishes, etc.

Corn flakes

Then the main course was scrambled eggs with toast, chicken sausage, and mushrooms.

Scrambled eggs

I had the chance to talk to Wong Chin for a bit, and I asked her what her favorite destinations were. Her response? “I don’t really have a favorite, I just like flying with my good colleagues and nice passengers like you.”

About 30 minutes before landing the seatbelt sign was turned on and the flight attendants were asked to take their seats by the captain due to turbulence. And there was indeed turbulence which had us thrown around pretty good. Fortunately I managed to change back into my clothes, with the help of Wong Chin, before the turbulence hit.

Our approach into Tokyo was smooth, and we touched down about 15 minutes behind schedule. We had a lengthy taxi and ended up parking right next to the Lufthansa Airbus 380 which I flew to Tokyo just a few months ago.

On approach

Taxiing in

Approaching Star Alliance terminal

Lufthansa A380

Well hey there!

As soon the seatbelt sign was turned off the curtains were closed to the first class cabin, which is pretty funny when there’s only one passenger. Wong Chin and six other “Singapore Girls” lined up to bid me farewell, and so ended one of my best flights ever.

First class cabin upon deplaning

First class cabin upon deplaning

Singapore Airlines isn’t always the best in the world. At times the service can be robotic. But when they’re good, there’s not an airline in the world that can compete with them. Not one.

That’s why I plan on redeeming a lot more of my Membership Rewards points for travel on Singapore Airlines over the coming months/years.

After a rather colorful cab ride (the cab driver was telling me about all the things the “bloody Chinese” and “bloody Malaysians” are doing to screw up Singapore) I made it to terminal 3 at Changi Airport at around 4:30PM. My flight was only at around midnight, though I had a lot of work to catch up on so figured I’d get to the airport a bit early to get some work done.

Terminal exterior

Terminal 3 has to be the most beautiful terminals anywhere, both in terms of design and spaciousness. I realize it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, though I marvel in amazement every time I’m in it.

Terminal 3

Terminal 3

I proceeded to the first class check-in counter where there was no queue, and without exchanging any words the agent printed out my boarding pass to Tokyo Narita. Usually Singapore Airlines is pretty strict about cabin baggage sizes, so I was a bit surprised when the agent didn’t even asked if I wanted to check a bag, let alone request that my carry-ons be weighed. I high tailed it out of there before he had the chance to change his mind.

At Changi Airport security is at each individual gate which is a system I really do like for a couple of reasons. First, it means you can still take liquids (like bottled water) to the lounge. Second, and more importantly, it means you end up wasting less time. When you head to your gate it’s not like the plane is going to leave without you if you’re in the security queue for that flight.

There is however an immigration check, which took about 10 minutes to clear this time around.

Once in the terminal the SilverKris lounges are located to the right and up a level.

Terminal 3

SilverKris Lounge entrance

There’s a joint entrance for the business class lounge, first class lounge, and The Private Room. Upon presenting my boarding pass the agent said “allow me to escort you to the first class lounge.” Once in the first class lounge, the first class agent said “allow me to escort you to The Private Room.” Definitely not the most efficient system ever, though you basically go through three lounge “checks” before you end up in The Private Room. Now that’s what I call security.

Singapore opened The Private Room several years back, originally allowing in only full fare first class passenger. In 2009 they relaxed the entry requirements, and they started allowing in all Singapore Airlines first class passengers.

So who uses the first class lounge? Star Alliance first class passengers and Singapore’s top tier elite members, who get first class lounge access. So Singapore has basically done the same thing that British Airways did in London, where the Concorde Room is for British Airways first class passengers, while the first class lounge is for top tier elites and partner first class passengers.

First Class lounge

First Class lounge

Anyway, The Private Room is a very elegant space, with plenty of partitioned off seating. There’s also a very nice restaurant, as well as two “private rooms.” I settled into one of them for a bit of extra privacy, and managed to get some work done.

The Private Room

The Private Room

PCs

Private room in The Private Room

The service in The Private Room really was the highlight, as the waiters were not only attentive but also polished in their delivery. Even just sitting in a private room it’s amazing the degree to which they made sure my Diet Coke was never empty.

At around 6PM one of the first class agents knocked on my door and said “Mr. Lucky, I’m so sorry to inform you that…” At this point I’m thinking “oh crap, is my flight canceled?” I only had a three hour layover and my Japan Airlines flight was on a different ticket, so that wouldn’t have been good. But the rest of the sentence was instead “your flight is delayed by 20 minutes. I’m very sorry.”

You’ve gotta love the fact that six hours before the flight they already update you about a 20 minute delay with great regret. It’s funny, because while I usually love Singapore Airlines in the air, I find their ground staff to be somewhat lackluster, and that certainly wasn’t the case in The Private Room.

Another surprising aspect of the experience was how empty The Private Room was. For the roughly seven hours I was there, I was the only passenger in the lounge for at least half of it, and the rest of the time there were a few people at most. With literally dozens of flights departing during that time period with first class products, you have to wonder whether their load factor up front is really that bad, or if people just don’t leave time to visit the lounge.

At around 6:30PM I decided to have dinner, knowing full well that my flight from Singapore to Tokyo would only feature a breakfast service. I headed over to the dining room, where a waiter quickly offered me a glass of champagne.

Dining room

Dining room

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

In addition to the buffet, the dinner menu read as follows:

I ordered a mixed garden salad, burger, and per the suggestion of the waiter, a slice of homemade cheesecake.

The salad was simple though fresh tasting, and the dressing was especially good.

Mixed garden salad

I ordered the foie gras burger without the foie gras, which was decent. Nothing exceptional, though certainly better than the burger I had in the Swiss lounge in Zurich a month ago.

Burger with fried quail egg

The cheesecake was great, and I ordered some tea along with it.

Cheesecake

The service was attentive and the food quality was good. I’d say the dining experience is a notch below Lufthansa’s first class lounge dining experience, though other than that among the better ones out there.

I continued to work for the rest of the evening, and at around 11:15PM headed towards gate B4, my departure gate to Tokyo Narita.

My stay in Singapore happened to be over a weekend, so the logical option on the hotel front was to book the InterContinental using an expiring buy one get one free weekend night certificate.

I ended up booking a shophouse club room for 385SGD (~$310USD), expecting that would get me a two category upgrade to an executive suite. With the second night free and all the Royal Ambassador benefits I’d get (late check-out, free internet, free minibar, etc.), it seemed like a steal at $150USD per night.

I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel upon arrival from Frankfurt, which took about 20 minutes.

Hotel exterior

Upon arrival I proceeded to the Ambassador check-in desk, where the agent promptly processed my check-in and offered me a money clip as a welcome gift.

She informed me I had been upgraded to a shophouse suite. While that’s only a one category upgrade, I wasn’t about to argue given that I was traveling alone so wasn’t all that concerned about how big of a suite I had, let alone the fact that I was using a buy one get one free weekend night certificate.

I do love the design of the lobby, which I think is one of the most beautiful yet classic designs out there.

Lobby

Lobby lounge

The doorman walked me to my room, 254, in the shophouse wing of the hotel. While the hotel has over 400 rooms, they have a small shophouse wing which basically overlooks an indoor shopping mall. Some people love it, some people hate it, and I’m kind of indifferent towards it.

Shophouse wing

My room

The entryway of the suite led to both the bathroom and the living room, and was also where the minibar was.

Entryway

Minibar

In the living room was a couch facing a flat screen TV as well as a desk.

Living room

Living room

There was also a further welcome amenity consisting of fruit, water, and chocolate.

Welcome amenity

Beyond that was the shophouse balcony. I do wish the balcony was a bit bigger, but then again since it faces a pretty hot indoor mall, I’m not sure I’d spend that much time out there anyway.

Balcony

View from balcony

The living room led to the bedroom, which featured a king sized bed and a couple of chairs with ottomans.

Bedroom

Seats

That led to the bathroom, which featured a tub, shower, double sinks, and toilet.

Bathroom

Tub

Toilet

Shower

The toiletries were from “The White Company.”

Toiletries

On the whole I think the room is classic without being worn, so I’m a fan.

There is a bit of noise from the shophouse even with the doors closed, which is why some prefer a room in the main building.

The club lounge, which I had access to, was located just down the hall from my room. I visited the first evening after landing just to check out the offerings (they serve appetizers from 5:30PM to 7:30PM), and frankly was shocked by how crowded it was.

Club InterContinental

Club InterContinental

Club InterContinental

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

Evening spread

The lounge is massive, but despite that every last seat was taken. People had their feet on the furniture barefoot, and it was about as loud as a live sporting event.

For me club lounges aren’t just about eating as much as humanly possible in a short period of time, but rather a nice place to get some work done on my laptop in a different environment than the room.

The lounge was so full, though, that I left right away. I really have to wonder what the deal is, since access isn’t cheap at 90SGD per night.

Fortunately as a club guest you can have breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, Olive Tree. The spread was extensive, though not quite as impressive as those at the St. Regis Bangkok or Le Meridien Bangkok.

Olive Tree entrance

Restaurant seating

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

The club lounge also serves afternoon tea, which I found to be the most “relaxing” service of the day, since the lounge wasn’t as crowded during that time. They had finger sandwiches, cake, scones with jam and clotted cream, etc.

Afternoon tea spread

Given what I paid and that I used a buy one get one free weekend night certificate, I’d say I got a great value. That being said, Singapore has quite a few good hotels, so I’d probably try a different one next time just for variety.

At around 9PM the personal assistant escorted me to immigration and to the transfer area, where I was directed to a Mercedes van along with four other passengers on the flight to Singapore (two of which were HON members, and two of which were first class passengers).

The ride to the plane took about 10 minutes, and on the way one of the other guys was on the phone with his wife saying goodnight, and I found the conversation pretty hilarious. He was telling her he was driving to the plane, and I could hear her panicking because she thought he was going to miss the flight, assuming he was driving to the airport. He quickly reassured her and said “no, I’m actually being driven to the plane,” and proceeded to explain to her the service Lufthansa provides their first class passengers.

We pulled up right next to our Airbus 380, and parked next to us was another Airbus 380 headed for Johannesburg. Nothing is quite as impressive as two A380s next to one another.

Our van and plane in the background

Wingtips of two Airbus 380s

The driver escorted us to the second floor jet bridge, where the flight attendants took over and directed us to our seats.

Lufthansa 778
Frankfurt (FRA) – Singapore (SIN)
Friday, April 27
Depart: 9:35PM
Arrive: 3:50PM (+1 day)
Duration: 12hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus 380
Seat: 1K (First Class)

I’ll focus a bit less on the actual hard product with this post, since I reviewed it extensively in the review of my Airbus 380 flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita a few months ago, which can be found here.

My seat, 1K

Seat console

Cabin

As I settled in I was immediately offered a beverage, so went with champagne which was served with macadamia nuts. This was quickly followed by PJs and the amenity kit.

Pre-departure drink

I then placed all my belongings in my personal locker, which is located right in front of my seat (it’s one of my favorite features of the Lufthansa Airbus 380). As I closed my locker the lady seated across from me in 1G (an American) said “wait don’t close it, I want to put my stuff in there too.” I explained to her that she had her own locker with a lock on it, at which point she commented “Yooooouuuuuurrr Engggggggliiiiish isssss verrrrryyyyyy goooooood.” It always cracks me up when I communicate with the crew in German, and as a result American passengers assume I don’t speak English (and speak really slowly to me, thinking it’s the only way I’ll comprehend what they’re saying), so I always like to have a bit of fun with it.

So I responded to her with “thanks, I learned English in school.” Naturally she asked “ohhhh wherrrreeeee diddd youuuuu goooo tooooo schooool?” I responded with “New York,” at which point she had a mildly embarrassed look on her face.

Anyway, she was nice enough, so we ended up talking for a bit. She was a “foreign corruption lawyer” and traveling to Singapore for work after spending a week in Germany, so she asked me a lot of questions about why I was traveling and also about the Airbus 380. She told me about how she had booked business class but at check-in the agent said she had an expiring Senator upgrade voucher that she didn’t even know about, and suggested she use it before it expires, so she upgraded.

She had never flown the Airbus 380 before and couldn’t figure out where the bathrooms were, so I showed her. In the end I got stuck in the bathroom with her for about a minute, though that’s a different story. It’s certainly the last time in my life I hope that happens with a woman three times my age, though such is life.

At departure time the captain came on the PA and advised us of our flight time of 11hr30min, anticipating an on-time arrival in Singapore.

As we pushed back the safety video began to play and we had a 15 minute taxi to our departure runway before we were airborne.

Safety video

About 20 minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off and service commenced, starting with the purser distributing menus. The menu on this flight was identical to the menu on my Frankfurt to Seattle flight in March.

The dinner menu read as follows:

Menu

I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the options and wasn’t especially hungry, so ended up deciding to skip the main course.

Service started with hot towels followed by drinks and the amuse bouche, which consisted of feta cheese, fig, and sorbet.

Drinks and amuse bouche

About an hour into the flight the appetizer cart was rolled through, and I chose both caviar and the tuna appetizer.

Appetizer

Then I had the salad with macadamia nut dressing.

Salad

As I said I skipped the main course and went straight for the dessert, starting with a delicious cheese plate per the flight attendant’s suggestion.

Dessert

I then had the coffee dessert, the same as on my last flight.

Dessert

Service finished with a tin of chocolates.

Chocolates

Service throughout the meal was phenomenal. The flight attendant working the aisle was young and motivated, and despite the late night departure was constantly smiling and very attentive. Then again that just about always matches my experiences on Lufthansa, though many seem to disagree.

The lovely flight attendant provided me with turndown service (both of my bed and my phone number… I’m kidding), and I was ready for a good night of sleep after one heckuva long travel day. Right as I got comfortable I heard a loud noise. Hmmm, Airbus 380 engine trouble? Unruly passengers in business class? Nope, just the lady in 1G snoring louder than Snufalufagus. Look, I can handle light and/or interrupted snoring, but that wasn’t the case here. This lady was having a snoring symphony, and there was no way I was going to stop her.

I figured it would subside or I’d get used to it, but unfortunately after trying to sleep for an hour I decided that wasn’t the case. I then figured if I put on either noise canceling headphones or in-ear headphones it would help with eliminating the noise. Despite blasting Justin Bieber’s latest album at full volume, I had no such luck. Actually, it kept getting worse (both her snoring and Justin Bieber’s album).

Bed

After trying to sleep for about two hours I called it quits and pressed the flight attendant call button to get an iced coffee so I could at least wake up and get a bit of work done. I’ve decided that the new standard as to whether or not a first class flight attendant is great at their job is whether or not they’ll serve you an iced coffee. It’s not explicitly on the menu, but it’s easy to make and requires (very minimal) thinking outside the box. Sure enough the flight attendant was more than happy to cooperate, and even served it with chocolate and an apology for the noises the lady seated across from me was making.

Iced coffee

After watching a couple of TV shows and getting some work done we were about four hours out of Singapore, and the lady seated across from me finally woke up. Seeing I was awake she said “boy you were right, these seats are comfortable. I slept really well. How did you sleep?” I simply smiled at her and said “oh, great.” Fortunately the fact that she woke up meant I could finally sleep, and I got a solid two hours of sleep before breakfast service began.

Tail camera

About 90 minutes out of Singapore immigration cards were distributed, followed by hot towels and breakfast menus.

Immigration form

Hot towel

The breakfast menu read as follows:

Once the menus were distributed fresh squeezed orange juice was served. Lufthansa serves the best of any airline, in my opinion, and it’s the highlight of their breakfast service for me.

Orange juice

I ordered another iced coffee with breakfast, and also had some fruit and cereal.

Breakfast

For the main course I had scrambled eggs with chives, which were delicious as always.

Scrambled eggs

30 minutes out of Singapore we began our descent and I changed out of the PJs.

Beginning our descent

Final approach

After a beautiful touchdown we had a long taxi to our gate at the very end of the terminal.

Singapore Airbus 380s

Fortunately there were no queues at immigration so I was at the InterContinental about 30 minutes after landing. Not too shabby!

Terminal upon arrival

And like that another amazing Lufthansa flight came to an end. While I think their management team is starting to head in the wrong direction (and I’m not talking about them restricting award tickets to Star Alliance partners, which I can understand) their flight crews consistently deliver.

Because of the fact that I switched to the earlier New York to Frankfurt flight, my very manageable nine-hour Frankfurt layover turned into a 15-hour layover.

As a Lufthansa first class passenger in transit you’re entitled to a complimentary dayroom at the Hotel Kempinski, a service I took advantage of during my last trip. However, this time around I had a lot of stuff to catch up on, so decided to try and power through the day and just hop around the lounges while getting some work done. I did something similar with a long layover in Singapore last year, and it worked out well. I figured it would work out especially well in this instance, since I could just sleep the whole way from Frankfurt to Singapore.

I would have gone into the city but the weather wasn’t especially nice and my family is from Frankfurt, so I already know the city pretty well.

Lufthansa has two FCLs (First Class Lounges) in addition to the FCT (First Class Terminal) in Frankfurt, so I ended up splitting my time pretty equally. The designs are more or less all the same with some very minor variations, which I’ll point out below.

My first stop was the B-concourse FCL.

First Class Lounge Entrance

The FCL boasts plenty of seating, though I headed straight for a cubicle where I got about five hours of work done while I was still wide awake. The great thing about the cubicles is that they actually have a sliding door, so are a lot more like enclosed offices.

FCL

While I wasn’t hungry I did snap a picture of the extensive breakfast buffet.

Breakfast buffet

Breakfast buffet

Breakfast buffet

Breakfast buffet

The highlight of the lounge, though, had to be the tarmac views as the sun rose. Maybe I’m nuts, but I don’t think there’s a more beautiful airport in the world than Frankfurt in terms of the traffic, so a stunning backdrop only adds to that perception.

Tarmac views

At around 11AM I headed to the A-concourse FCL for a change of scenery, which was about a 15-minute walk away.

Awesome apron views

The B-concourse FCL is very similar to the one in the A concourse.

FCL

I intentionally headed over to this lounge as my exhaustion started kicking in, as the nap rooms here are nicer than in the A-concourse FCL or even the FCT. Unfortunately there was a two hour wait for them, so I grabbed a cubicle and enjoyed a nearly endless supply of Fanta and pretzels while getting some work done. Mmmmm…

Best thing in the world

At around 1PM it was my turn for the nap room, and I requested to be woken up after two hours. While the bed isn’t especially comfortable, it is more of a “bed” than in the other lounges, where you basically get a couch with a blanket.

Nap room

Nap room

For comparison, FCT nap room

After a refreshing nap I decided it was time to shower. While I was intending to take a bath in the FCT (after all I’ve gotta kidnap my friend, rubber ducky), I didn’t want to show up at the FCT completely unwashed.

Shower room

The most interesting thing about the FCL visit had to be the group of 16 people (they were Japanese and all seemed to be related) that entered the lounge at the same time. I have to wonder what their deal is. There had to be at least eight HONs or eight first class passengers among them, so I suspect they chartered a whole first class cabin and then some. Impressive!

At around 5PM I headed over to the FCT, which required clearing immigration and walking along the outside roadway to the FCT’s side entrance. Once inside I took the elevator up to the reception, where I was immediately escorted through security.

FCT side entrance

I grabbed one of the comfortable lounge chairs along the windows and played around on my laptop for a bit. As much as I do love the FCT, I did notice the absence of tarmac views after spending so much time in the other lounges, which never previously phased me.

Comfortable seating

At around 7PM I decided to have dinner, which is a highlight of any FCT visit.

Menu

As usual the buffet was extensive, so I piled on a bit of just about everything.

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

Dinner

After dinner I headed over to the shower/bath rooms for a bath. I’m not usually one to take a bath, though the FCT is an exception.

Bath

Rubber ducky

At around 10PM the personal assistant fetched me and brought me down to passport control so I could be driven to my connecting flight.

Transfer area

And after a pleasant day my long layover came to an end, and I was ready to get some sleep.