29 March 2011
I missed a flight, sort of!
I spent about 8 hours in Hong Kong airport today.
This morning I left the city around 9, headed to the in town check in, dropped off my bag and caught the train out to the airport. I got my boarding pass in town.
I then spent some time hopping between first class lounges and walking the huge distance of Hong Kong terminal 1, because I like airports, because im a nerd.
I pause every few metres to check out the different airlines planes, I will spare you those photos.
Anyway, its time for my flight, ive been up the other end of the airport, so I walk to my gate.
No plane there.
My boarding pass definitely says that gate, I am not dumb, I have taken over 600 flights and never missed one.
So I ask the nearby help people, they say I missed my flight, I say where is it on the board? They say, it not on board, your flight cancel!
So was it cancelled or did I miss it? I am still none the wiser.
The boards show all flights that left in the last 2 hours but mines not there, somethings up.
So I head to the Cathay Pacific help desk thing, where they tell me they were waiting for me, it seems my flight was merged with another.
At the time I didnt understand why, Harry tried to explain it to me (he told me 9 times his name is Harry) but his English isnt great.
I later realised/worked out, Cathay Pacific have freedom rights out of Taipei, to operate flights to destinations other than Hong Kong. They therefore use Taipei as their hub to connect to Japan using smaller jets.
Now theres no volume going to Japan at all, so they are merging the big feeder flights together.
Now things get tricky, because my flight is technically a Qantas code share frequent flyer redemption thing, they couldnt find me by phone to tell me.
Because I had checked in before the flights were merged/cancelled, I had confused the system.
So I was told to go to Qantas, as they have to sort it out, as its their system thats buggered. So off I head to the Qantas first lounge (see below how that turned out).
Eventually a kind chinese lady at the Qantas business lounge called around everyone, sorted it out and got me on a flight, problem was, it was in 5 hours time.
Luckily as mentioned, I have full lounge access and love airports!
Hong Kong terminal 1, Apparently the 3rd largest building in the world by volume.
Just yesterday I was at a Macau casino that sits in 5th place on the same list.
The view from the Cathay Wing lounge. Nothing special, this is the long bar. Long bar is long. This lounge had a noodle service made to order.
Flights missed by now, here I am trying to figure out my dilemma. I never got mad or worried, I could see on the boards there were literally 20 more flights to Taipei that day. And its only an hour flight, so if I had to pay for one even and argue about it later, it couldnt be more than $100.
Inside the Cathay Cabin lounge. This one had a health bar, serving stuff that wasnt really healthy.
Healthy is apparently a ham and cheese toasted sandwhich made to order.
Nearby me were some old english aristocracy transiting. They were in full argument mode, tired and cranky.
The husband was explaining to his wife that to call England you dial +44 not 0044 like you would, and shes saying 'but I always dial 00 for international, like when we call Judith in Australia I dial 0061. So I am just going to do that'.
Then the husband, 'You do that, you arent in England you fool'.
This went on and on, then he complained that they only had 'Slanty eyed food and this just wouldnt do', remember I was eating a ham and cheese toasted sandwhich....
The internet area of the cabin lounge, welcome to mac hell.
Last lounge, quit complaining about lounge photos, what was I to do for 5 hours?
Anyway this is the pier lounge, probably the nicest.
To kill time I bought an internet tablet thing, Archos 70, it has a 250GB hard drive, which is the key selling point for me. It was also cheap and available.
The pier lounge had a full dim sum banquet, it was delicious. The only problem with first class lounges is they dont really have self service drinks, so instead of a can of soft drink I get a tiny girl glass that gives you one sip that someone keeps coming to fill up all the time.
Of course it you want beer, you can get a can.
Heres my plane. The funny part of this is, I think its the one that I technically should have been on earlier, like the actual plane. In that time its gone to Taipei and back again.