This trip was special as we were traveling to set Sibi up for his UG admission in Provo, Utah. It just happened that I have to go to the East coast as well and so I booked individual tickets around which ended up with me rounding the Earth once.
I've done this rounding multiple times and in today's world, they are nothing special. Everyone does it. To me, the purpose of the trip and the all around sub-par flight experience made sure that I write about it. I have to vent my frustration at two of the leading airlines somewhere.
So, here goes.
The first leg of the trip was to Salt Lake City and we chose to fly Cathay Pacific to the West coast. This is a route I've not done in a long time as my business trips become more common to the East coast and the days of our living the West were long past. So it was a little excitement to book this one.
I booked the tickets at least 3 months before our August 26 date and then started watching the #AntiELAB protests unfold in Hong Kong sometime in June. The everyday protest against the repressive bills introduced by the mainland government was by far the longest running and powerful demonstration of the people of Hong Kong people's will against the China regime. I started following Zeynep to get updates on a regular basis and was fascinated by the amazing resilience of the protesters and some of the iconic imaging from the protests. I have no idea how this will end and how to define 'end' here but what I know is that it is inspiring to see the people on the streets fighting against the power.
Around the end of July, the protests have moved into Hong Kong International Airport. There were sit-ins, cancellations of flights and all, so now the protests are becoming something of a personal matter. Though I'd a month to travel, I was starting to think whether I should be making alternate arrangements. Though I felt a little selfish, I also felt that may be re-booking through Singapore or elsewhere is a way to show my support, in a small way. As the protests escalated and the protesters were pushed out of the terminals, it felt a little anti-climatic. I would've loved to be landing in the middle of the protests.
So, though Cathay flights were cancelled from Chennai for a day of so in August, they kept flying and so decided to go on with the same booking.
MAA - HKG (CX 632)
I sleep through most of my flights. That's one way to avoid the fear of flying. Eat, sleep or watch a movie is always my plan to get through these long, boring flights. And I did exactly the same thing as soon as I boarded the plane.
However, I woke up when the ride got very choppy and I saw that there were some souls sleeping through it and some who got up because of the sudden shaking of the plane. I looked up the map and were over the Andaman Sea - where the weather is always choppy and there were lightnings outside the window.
The service was average and there were no announcements on the weather outside and though I asked for coffee twice, there was no response. I finally went to the galley and get the coffee. The weather cleared as we moved inland and I went back to sleep - but it was short and got up as we were over the South China sea. The only entertainment at this point was to watch this Air Asia plane fly along with us for sometime and we landed in HKIA.
HKG - LAX (CX 884)
Expecting a protest ridden airport, we were surprised to see a squeaky clean airport with no sign of any protests. We had a short connection. So just waited in the gate for our plane to arrive.
CX 884 has some interesting history. So, it was with an expectation that I was looking forward to it. And 77W is another interesting plane. However, this one though looking beautiful from outside, had a horrible seat configuration with Cathay trying to pack as many people as possible like so much as sardines in a can.
What makes that worse is the service - which was pretty much non-existent. The guy next to me was a vegetarian and he was given consistently a non-vegetarian meal every time. He kept complaining and it was astonishing that they never corrected it. In fact, they gave a vegetarian pasta as a replacement meal along with a beef salad. The guy was aghast and returned the meal and just had an apple.
I slept the entire way and got up around the time we were in California air space. We got out fast and cleared the immigration quick and went to the American terminal for our connection to Salt Lake City.
LAX - SLC (AA 3024)
The wait in the American terminal was horrendous with us trying to get away fast so that we can get a good sleep and the wait for the plane was unbelievably long.
The regional flight was a small one with a lot of students in it - most of them going for the same reason as us- and we ended up in different seats.
The lady next to me was coming from North Carolina to visit her sister and spend the winter in Salt Lake City. She just recovered from surgery and so it was more of a rest for her. She kept asking so many questions and the 1.5 hour over the beautiful mountains of the west and the arid landscape with huge canyons and rivers. That it was a evening flight with a beautiful sun set in progress was an added incentive.
As we land in Salt Lake City, it was dark and we were so tired that we wanted to get to the hotel. I am usually chatty with the Lyft drivers. However, after an initial hello, I slept through the one hour ride to the hotel.
We check-in and enter the room to find that we've missed Sibi's laptop bag - with a new Dell 2-in-1 - in the car.
I've done this rounding multiple times and in today's world, they are nothing special. Everyone does it. To me, the purpose of the trip and the all around sub-par flight experience made sure that I write about it. I have to vent my frustration at two of the leading airlines somewhere.
So, here goes.
The first leg of the trip was to Salt Lake City and we chose to fly Cathay Pacific to the West coast. This is a route I've not done in a long time as my business trips become more common to the East coast and the days of our living the West were long past. So it was a little excitement to book this one.
I booked the tickets at least 3 months before our August 26 date and then started watching the #AntiELAB protests unfold in Hong Kong sometime in June. The everyday protest against the repressive bills introduced by the mainland government was by far the longest running and powerful demonstration of the people of Hong Kong people's will against the China regime. I started following Zeynep to get updates on a regular basis and was fascinated by the amazing resilience of the protesters and some of the iconic imaging from the protests. I have no idea how this will end and how to define 'end' here but what I know is that it is inspiring to see the people on the streets fighting against the power.
 | ||||||
| Eugène Delacroix's painting from French Revolution? |
So, though Cathay flights were cancelled from Chennai for a day of so in August, they kept flying and so decided to go on with the same booking.
MAA - HKG (CX 632)
I sleep through most of my flights. That's one way to avoid the fear of flying. Eat, sleep or watch a movie is always my plan to get through these long, boring flights. And I did exactly the same thing as soon as I boarded the plane.
The service was average and there were no announcements on the weather outside and though I asked for coffee twice, there was no response. I finally went to the galley and get the coffee. The weather cleared as we moved inland and I went back to sleep - but it was short and got up as we were over the South China sea. The only entertainment at this point was to watch this Air Asia plane fly along with us for sometime and we landed in HKIA.
HKG - LAX (CX 884)
Expecting a protest ridden airport, we were surprised to see a squeaky clean airport with no sign of any protests. We had a short connection. So just waited in the gate for our plane to arrive.
 |
| CX 884 |
What makes that worse is the service - which was pretty much non-existent. The guy next to me was a vegetarian and he was given consistently a non-vegetarian meal every time. He kept complaining and it was astonishing that they never corrected it. In fact, they gave a vegetarian pasta as a replacement meal along with a beef salad. The guy was aghast and returned the meal and just had an apple.
I slept the entire way and got up around the time we were in California air space. We got out fast and cleared the immigration quick and went to the American terminal for our connection to Salt Lake City.
LAX - SLC (AA 3024)
The wait in the American terminal was horrendous with us trying to get away fast so that we can get a good sleep and the wait for the plane was unbelievably long.
The regional flight was a small one with a lot of students in it - most of them going for the same reason as us- and we ended up in different seats.
The lady next to me was coming from North Carolina to visit her sister and spend the winter in Salt Lake City. She just recovered from surgery and so it was more of a rest for her. She kept asking so many questions and the 1.5 hour over the beautiful mountains of the west and the arid landscape with huge canyons and rivers. That it was a evening flight with a beautiful sun set in progress was an added incentive.
As we land in Salt Lake City, it was dark and we were so tired that we wanted to get to the hotel. I am usually chatty with the Lyft drivers. However, after an initial hello, I slept through the one hour ride to the hotel.
We check-in and enter the room to find that we've missed Sibi's laptop bag - with a new Dell 2-in-1 - in the car.
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