Journey –
HKG-PEK
Flight no. –
KA906
Class –
whY (dear god please save me from this)
Seat –
43H Yup you read that right – 43H
Well here we are – its time to face the music, pay the piper, let the mice run free, hang out the washing on the Siegfried line and swallow done my pride – I am back in whY. Its clear from both lounges that I try it on – I aint getting no lounge access today. It’s more annoying as I don’t have any juice in the laptop, I am tired and I need a glass of champagne (ok maybe that last part sounded a little snobbish).
I manage to find the departure gate which seems to be as far from the rest of the airport as humanly possible. It comes time to board and despite having asked about 12 times now I really am not going to be sitting in J. I am not even getting priority boarding – this is just not cricket.
Way back in 43H I do however have 3 seats to myself which is nice (as I had moved from 38A) but I am wondering if I have walked off the aircraft as I cant even see the front of the plane!
Right so this is economy – I think I remember this. Seats so narrow my legs have to be at an angle to fit in. No-one has offered me any champagne (that must be coming soon) and I don’t seem to have any PTV or AVOD.
Well off we go. After a while I notice the seatbelt sign hasn’t gone out – I guess that must be turbulence. Also no-one is offering food and the FAs are in their seats still. After about 90 mins of this (the flight is about 3 ½ hours) I am really wondering what is going on – the turbulence isn’t even that bad. Finally an announcement:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ThePilot
Ladies and gentlemen we just wanted to advise that due to a mechanical problem we have been circling HKG airport for the past 90 minutes hoping that we could push on to PEK. However we are going to have to land back at HKG and transfer you to another flight.
Due to us being loaded with fuel we are going to have to lower the landing gear to enable us to burn a little more fuel (apologies for the excess CO2) so you may hear a little noise.
On landing we will be transferring you to another aircraft for your onward trip to PEK
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Hmm – this is not turning out well….
R-O-A-R
A little noise might be an understatement….
Anyway back to HKG an don’t back to the lounge it’s onto the BUS after deplaning and back to the terminal for a cookie and a bottle of water. Some people aren’t taking this well (one woman stamps her feet as they tell she needs to get a transit passenger card – don’t think she was too happy earlier that her and partner were in AB with someone in C and I had 3 seats to myself
)
This is my first serious flight delay whilst travelling on business and I am tossing up whether to proceed to PEK but I push on – imagine the stress when people realise they are going to be more delayed whilst they get my bags
I phone the hotel and explain the situation and ask that they re-arrange the car that is going to collect me – I have no idea if I managed to get the message across – my visit to PEK is looking worse by the minute.
I notice on re-boarding that although the aircraft is the same the seats are slightly different. I decide though as it is now 11PM my time it is really time to sleep. This was a tricky exercise given I am 6’ 2” and no matter which way I fold I am not going to fit. I actually skip dinner as I am so tired I even doze a little.
We arrive at 2AM (note the lack of curfew) into a very quiet airport. It was interesting going through immigration to see that I could decide rate the performance of the immigration staff – as I had no benchmark I decided against that
The baggage was pretty much ready at the carousel and the Sheraton guy was waiting for me – he took both bags and then handed me off to a very silent driver for the ride to the Sheraton on the Great Wall.