And sometimes it is. But a 12 hour haul is a long flight no matter how you look at it. This was my first time in United’s upgraded (for two years now) 747-400 Business First Class. And I must say, it is a huge improvement over their previous business class.
Unfortunately it has a 2-4-2 layout. The four folks in the center still have a bit of that sardine thing going on. With that in mind, I wanted to get Janine and I seats on the outside [or up stairs where the layout is 2-2]. But with the late upgrade, the pickis’ were thin. So I took 8k (for Janine) and 10A for me.
After we settled in, my seatmate, Leo, was chatting me up about our trip. End result: He insisted that Janine and he switch so we could sit together. What? Really?
Things were really looking up. It was almost like home.. only smaller, and with a divider splitting our bed. The latter was good practice for Thailand though, as PDAs of any kind are frowned upon.
10A/B from behind
For those that are interested, I saw Red Tails (big thumbs up), The Iron Lady (excellent portrayal, but somewhat depressing angle to the story). Of course, they were both interrupted by food and snoozing.
We stopped in Incheon, set up the transfer to Korean Air, added frequent flyer information (love that travel agent.. not), and had some bi me bop (Korean food). We really wanted Johp Che.. but it was no where to be found.
A couple hours later we hopped onto KE667 to Chiang Mai (CNX). I remember the ride out the the plane (we climbed an airstair to get on), and I remember settling in. And then I remember waking up when we hit some light chop on departure. Only slightly disturbing to have the whole “why am I in the air, and turning” run through your mind as you wake up. Clearly I got over it, as I don’t remember much more of that flight.
Oh.. but I do remember the approach. Really shallow, and not such a great landing. Oh and I remember the food too.. not good. The food on United was pretty good BTW.. but I guess I expected that from business class. So after the strap-hanger landing, it was time to do the customs shuffle.
Normally that is a non-affair, but we never really got a clear picture on the visa requirements for Thailand. So we headed to the shortest line, and waited our turn in the queue.
Meanwhile we noticed another line for “immediate visa”. I walked over and checked it out. Forms we did not have were needed.. and photos.. and well.. I decided to get back to the line with Janine, because I was not ready to go through the litany of requirements over there.
So we stood in line.. for an agonizingly long time.. we picked the very slowest inspector. Lucky us. But the news was good. One at a time Janine and I made it through the line with nary a question from our masked inspector (most of the inspectors wore masks.. presumably for their safety).
OK.. just pick up our bags and go.. right? Well not really. More small hurdles.. for example, they X-rayed our bags.. on the way out of the airport?!?! I guess they figure if you got this far with your drugs or weapons, it will just take one more scan to ferret out the bad folks. Or something like that.
Next was the airport transfer.. something to note: It costs about $6US for the ride from the airport to the hotel (or any hotel.. it is a little less for places inside the city). The hotel will give you the same ride for about six times the price.. but the car will have the hotel name on the side.. and there is no wait. We waited perhaps 5-10 minutes.
The ride was uneventful. It was very interesting to get our first views of Thailand at night. Parts of the city were really alive, despite the late hour (about 11:30pm).
Hrm.. so this reads as a really boring post. But.. perhaps that answers the original point.. Getting there is not always half the fun. Sometimes it is just the ticket to admission.