After arriving from Auckland on Air New Zealand flight #2, I reported directly to
In-N-Out Burger at the base of runway 24R.
A.) Because I wanted one of the best burgers money can buy
B.) I wanted to snap some photos of various aircraft
It was my first visit to this spot and it is most enjoyable; if you love jet noise of course. Here is what I saw in the late afternoon. Special nod to Konstantin who was also there (from Germany), enjoying the sights.

This is the first part of a flight from Auckland to Los Angeles. This 777-300ER (ZK-DKN) featured Air New Zealand’s innovative Space Bed and Sky Couch Seats. I have heard people say that this Delta cabin resembles a spaceship, and maybe it does, however, compared to Air New Zealand’s interior, Delta’s looks very normal.

The Premium Economy Spaceseats look quite futuristic and combined with the mood lighting and overabundance of white/cream hues, they were unlike anything I had ever seen. When I first took my seat (24D), I thought: “where the hell are my legs going to go for 12 hours?”
Then I realized there is space under the seat in front of you to stretch your legs. No, not as much space a Business Class seat, but that is not what this is. Air New Zealand also provided a fluffy beanbag to rest your feet on.

The black divider between the two seats is actually two separate pieces that lift up several inches to become an armrest. The top also flips open and there is a storage area inside. If the seat next to you is vacant, as mine was, one can easily lay down flat on your side for a snooze. If the seat next to you is occupied, not to fear. The whole seat is in a large shell and you will be able to rest your head to the side (see photos)
Air New Zealand will be removing a row of Premium Economy Seats, giving passengers in this cabin an additional 6″ of pitch.

The seat has 2 levers, one to recline the seat and one to tilt the entire seat backward. I included a few pictures of the Sky Couch and Business Class seats below. In the next post I will share the actual flight experience where it will become evident that Air New Zealand has re-invented the Premium Economy Class concept.
**Disclaimer: This flight was provided to me by Air New Zealand

23 a&b

23 d&e

24 d&e

32 d&e

premium economy cabin

looking down into seat area

across the aisle 23 a&b

meal tray

seat guide

economy cabin

sky couch-all 3 seats feature extension

seats 34 a&b

business class

It’s pretty well known and/or accepted, that Singapore Airlines has one of the best business class products in the industry. Some would argue the best. But what about Singapore’s Economy Class product? Is there anything to be said for it? Or is it just run of the mill?
I decided to find out on SQ 285 from SIN-AKL. Of course I would have rather sat up front for this flight. I’d rather sit up front on any flight, but I was eager to see what it was like in Singapore Coach.

Boarding was quite chaotic considering I was boarding and deplaning outside the US. Boarding planes in the US is always more chaotic than abroad. Boarding on this flight, SQ285, was frantic, crowded and fast-paced, yet somehow under control. The gate agent called for boarding by the normal pecking order, but no one was verifying boarding passes. In theory, you could have boarded whenever you wanted. This may have had something to do with furor.

Ten minutes into the flight, I was already impressed. Hot towels were passed out, followed by headphones, dinner menus and a small amenity kit. And get this; the economy class menu included a drink menu! Shortly after reaching cruise altitude, packaged nuts and cocktails were offered.

It’s worth noting that in exit row 31, the door does not protrude into your leg room, even if you are seated in the window seat. Also, there are no bathrooms in front of row 31, jut a curtain that leads to Business Class, so passengers do not congregate in front of you seat. Despite row 31 being the very first row of economy, the flight attendant do alternated where they start meal service.

I chose the curry chicken for dinner and while it was tasty, it wasn’t exactly boneless, skinless chicken. Well, it may have been but there was plenty of fatty inedible pieces. An appetizer of duck came with dinner. I took one bite, but I am simply not much of a fan of duck. Liquor was not kept on the catering carts on this flight. This is consistent with all flights I have taken on international airlines. They are happy to fix you a drink, but it takes quite some time as they wait until they finish serving the cabin. This is 1 thing that US Carriers are much better at than international carriers- they always keep booze on the cart.

An hour after dinner service, flight attendants offered water and juice. An hour after that they offered apples despite 90% of the cabin being asleep. Two hours before landing, a second hot towel service was offered, just before breakfast was served. Breakfast was pretty standard airline fare including soggy hashbrowns.

Despite some food shortcomings, this was one of my favorite flights in economy class. The other being Etihad Economy Class I didn’t want this flight to end, at least for the first 6 or 7 hours. I would not hesitate to fly Singapore Economy Class regardless of flight length.

I have some pictures of the First Class Cabin on this aircraft which I will post next.

31 A,B,C

view into business class

amenity kit: socks and toothbrush

cheese, crackers, bread, chcolate, duck, curry chicken

personal tv’s in ext rows

amenities in coach bathrooms

breakfast (item on right is cereal)

9V-SWS

After the pageantry and speeches, it was finally time to fly. Each coach seat had a pillow, blanket, headphones, slippers and a toothbrush. I immediately began fussing with the brand new touch screen televisions. The purser came by and welcomed me on board by name.

The JFK-ICN inaugural flight was scheduled for 12hrs and 44min of flight time. We taxied and had virtually no wait for take-off, a miracle in itself at JFK. At 3:46pm (1hr and 46min past schedule) we were airborne. After I got over my disappointment of not having access to the upstairs bar, I began to enjoy the flight.

As soon as the pilot let the flight attendants know they could do so, the FA’s passed out pajamas to the children on board, set up a few bassinets and drew a curtain between the cabin and galley, in order to prepare for service. After 50 minutes, beer, wine, juice, soda, peanuts and a sanitary towel were offered.

Korean Air’s A380 boasts the fewest number of seats (301) in the coach cabin (and overall) vs. other A380 operators. I found this very evident in the amount of legroom I had in 36C. Also, the seat never got uncomfortably hard, like my experience with ANA’s new economy seats and was sitting on 2 pillows by the end of the flight. Much more on the best seats in the next post.
The coach cabin was bright, but not in a negative way. It was refreshing and clean looking, very un-complicated.

Dinner consisted of Korean Bimibap and seaweed soup. This is what I was offered and not sure if there were more choices. It’s delicious stuff and oddly, bimibap was exactly what I was served when I flew Korean Air Business Class.

After dinner, the show, aka duty free sales, started. It was quite chaotic. There were 4-6 fa’s in each aisle, shuffling to & fro, passing goods back and forth and speaking loudly to each other. When that concluded, the lights dimmed and I slept. I woke to an fa offering me water and banana or bread. When I woke up again, the cabin lights were on, there were 4 hours to go and the 2nd meal service was commencing.

Airline food used to, and probably still does, get a pretty bad rap. I think it’s improved considerably over the last decade. However, when people talk about “airline food” and the images that are conjured up, they were referring to the piece of chicken served on this flight. Not exactly edible. The other option was creamy pasta with vegetables. Water and OJ were offered before our 5pm arrival at foggy ICN.

The service on Korean Air has never disappointed me and this flight was no exception.
I will post some pictures of the rest of aircraft shortly.

big windows huh?

push back

note the CX tail

22R

smiling; novel concept

great stuff; where can i buy it?

“it’s ice”

2nd meal service

mid cabin

rear cabin

korean’s other a380; the 1st delivered: HL7611

New routes and new aircrafts are always a treat to be a part of. The launch of the Korean Air A380 from JFK to Seoul (ICN) was one of the latter as Korean Air has been flying the aircraft within Asia for a few weeks. Of course, each airline’s “personality” is bound to show in the context of the celebration and/or ceremony before and after the flight. For instance, when I flew the Air France A380 inaugural from JFK to CDG, there was champagne in the terminal, a band on board, special menu and small orchestra upon arrival; among other things.

This A380 launch was NOT that. But that was OK, that’s not what I expected and I don’t suspect that reflects the Korean Air culture. This was very much about business, recognizing integral, internal (and external personnel) and promoting Korean Air as the first Asian carrier to fly the A380 across the Pacific from New York.

I assigned myself seat 36C, but at check-in inquired as to whether there was any preferred seating for Sky Team Elite members. The check-in agent looked at me puzzled and said:
“Sky Team Elite… what’s that, what do you mean?”
I provided a brief explanation and then asked what was, apparently, a tougher question:
“Do coach passengers have access to the upstairs bar?”
Answer: “For this aircraft {as opposed to the other aircraft with a bar} I honestly have no idea”
At least he was honest.
What he did know was that I had access to the Prestige Lounge.

At check-in, each passenger was given a raffle ticket to deposit into a box at the gate for chance to win a free upgrade to Prestige Class. Actually, 2 names would wind up being drawn which made for 2 very excited passengers.

After some refreshments in the Prestige Lounge, I went to see the arrival of the A380. There were many photographers and members of the Korean press. Following the aircraft’s arrival, a few speeches were given by several Korean Air executives during which many people were recognized and received flowers including the pilots and flight attendants. (I wonder if they were able to bring those fresh cut flowers through Korean customs…)

Excitement was building and anticipation mounting throughout the ceremony which concluded at 2:10pm. The flight was scheduled for a 2pm departure, but nobody cared. Passengers could not get on this beautiful beast fast enough.

a few ground crew at the ready

spectators & passengers

cue water cannons

this water cannon set up a bit short

ke executives, faa personnel, jfk staff, port authority management

quick interview with pilots & then time to go

Surprised to see both military and civilian aircraft arriving and departing HNL. Some of the military aircraft were taking off from Hickam Air Force Base, but others from HNL proper. I mentioned where I was shooting from, but one of the closest, best spots has to be the airport itself. Most of it is open air. Enjoy

departing for hkg

police

United is in the process of replacing the First Class Seats on their international 777 fleet.  They have already done so on their 767′s and 747′s.  I flew from Denver to Chicago on a 777 equipped with the “old” seats.  But that’s not an international route Mangi!  No it’s not, but the flight was to Amsterdam with a stop at ORD.  That’s not why United flew this aircraft from DEN to ORD though.  More than likely they were re-positioning the aircraft for some other flight because a change of aircraft was required for those travelling onward to Amsterdam.

Anyway, I told myself this post would be United First Class Seats in photos only and I have already written 106 words.   The First Class seats were more than adequate for a 2 hour flight BUT they are worn out and being replaced with this.  Here are the seats (and lunch) in pictures. Denver to Chicago on “Spirit of United” N225UA

good chicken sandwich (everything is good with that much cheese)

warm cookie

These pictures are from this morning’s flight from FLL to JFK on an MD88 operated by Delta. Seat 4B, mine, was of the standard domestic first class variety. I’m not sure why, but I was expecting a hot breakfast. The one served was continental, but good and my cholesterol will thank Delta later. Nothing out of ordinary, minus the very cool dog in 10D.

At “Bar Brace” in JFK now, awaiting my flight to SFO.  Fingers crossed for an upgrade.  Hey, have you voted on what airline you would like to see on Planereality next? Voting to the right… Thanks

It’s that time of year.  The time to think about what happened in 2010, both the planned and the unexpected, and to ponder what might take place in the upcoming 365 days.  I don’t stand a chance of telling you about the latter, but I will share some insight into the former as it relates to Planereality.com

You may have noticed that I am not and expert at writing or photography.   Or blogging for that matter.  I don’t even know what blogging really means.   Anyway, there are 101 statistics that are supposed to help one evaluate whether their blog is doing what it is intended to do.

As a summation of 2010, I thought I would share one of Planereality’s statistics: Which posts are people reading and, of course, which posts are not read very much. Why? Because you may have missed a topic you are interested in. (And to generate more traffic!)

A friend once said to me: “I can’t wait until 2009″
I said: “Why?”
He said: “Odd numbered years are always better for me”

Whatever your strategy or thoughts are today,  I wish you a happy, healthy and properous 2011.  Thank you for coming by Planereality. Happy New Year!
Cheers.

posts that recieved the most traffic in 2010

Delta’s Lie Flat (Not Angled) Seats

The Lufthansa A380 trip to Tokyo

Delta’s Angled Lie Flat Seats

United’s “Old” 777 Business Class

United 747 Business Class Seating

posts not read as much

Asiana Airlines Business Class: Taipei to Seoul

Air France A380 Innagural Back to Paris

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class: Kingston to London

ANA Business Class: Tokyo to JFK

Etihad Economy Class to Manila

Here is another edition of Where The Good Fares Are. I try to make this post weekly, however, if no great fares jump out at me and/or I get sidetracked on other stuff, the post may appear less often. These are simply fares I come across in my research, where I feel the quality of airline, aircraft and destination combined might be attractive for those seeking international airfares. I do have marketing relationships with some, not all, of the travel suppliers I refer to.  The dates are fairly random, but I do try to avoid Friday, Saturday and Sunday dates. Use the flexible date function when you search. Fares include all taxes and fees that I am aware of. Fares are round-trip. OK, enough disclosures?

• LAX-Manila $2102.55; Business Class: 1/15/11 – 1/20/11 Hawaiian Airlines
• LAX-Papeete, Tahiti; $2829.48  Business Class: 11/11/10 – 11/19/10 Orbitz
• SFO-Taipei; $3262.38 Business Class: 11/17/10 – 11/24/10 $3262 Vayama.com
• JFK-Heathrow; $2363 Business Class: 11/25/10 – 11/29/10 Orbitz

Well, it’s not the observation deck at NRT, but Lufthansa’s Tower Lounge has some spectacular views.

the next 2 are actually take from on the plane