Trapped in a Flying Metal Tube

So I haven’t done a whole lot of travel towards the end of December. For Christmas I’ll be headed down to Delaware to spend a couple days with my family. Just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone (and best wishes for a Happy New Year!)

Cheers!

Well I wasn’t really whisked away (I drove both ways), but I couldn’t come up with a better word real quick that started with a W. (I’m sure Estelle will provide me with a clever word to replace it with!)

We arrived at the Hotel Monaco around 1pm on Saturday. The valet crew was very efficient, and even in the midst of multiple arrivals and departures we waited less than a minute before being attended to. Arriving at a hotel to a huge line and a long wait for valet has always been a pet peeve of mine. So we were off to a great start. Next up, check-in.

Given that we arrived a couple hours before scheduled check-in time, we were pleasantly surprised that our room was ready. That said, I was generally displeased with the check-in experience. The check-in desk is located just to the right of the main entrance. One gentleman was checking in and two desk agents were present. One seemed to totally disregard the fact that we were standing around – obviously checking in with our bags in tow. It took a good five minutes for the staff member behind the ‘concierge’ sign to finish with the guest she was working with then it was our turn. She was generally friendly, but not outgoing which I expected at a hotel of this calibre. The hotel was completely full, so they weren’t able to honor our eUpgrade to a Mediterranean Suite (DOH!) so we settled with our King Deluxe room.

The hotel consists of four floors, with the main entry level being the second. Conveniently for us, our room was also located on the second floor making it a short walk from the check-in desk. The room itself was a very decent size considering that we paid for one of the least expensive rooms in the building. Then again, I typically wouldn’t pay so much to stay in this hotel, but got in on the 1-day 50% off sale direct through the website (thanks FlyerTalk!). The bed was ultra-comfortable. Lightyears ahead of the Sweet Dreams beds in the Hilton chain. This has to be the single most important aspect of any hotel room. The decor was ultra-modern, but not industrial. The whole modern industrial concept is cold and unwelcoming. I have no idea why that became so popular.

Comfy Bed @ Hotel Monaco

Interior Corridor @ Hotel Monaco

We were invited to a complementary continental breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, Poste. Unfortunately we slept in too late and didn’t make it. According to the in-room menu, it was a >$15 value so I’m kinda pissed we missed it. Sleep was way more valuable though.

We started our adventure early Saturday afternoon by visiting Jaleo – a spanish tapas restaurant located one block over from the hotel. We randomly chose this establishment as we were strolling around the immediate area and the menu caught our attention. It was positively superb. We selected 5 dishes from the laundry-list menu and were pleasantly surprised by each one. The only one I’d suggest skipping is the chicken with onions (there was something else to it but it wasn’t very tasty).

Following Jaleo, we visited the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. It had been a while since I had visited, and I was hoping to see a lot of new exhibits. Alas, they don’t seem to update it very often and I was hardpressed (with 2 exceptions) to find new and interesting things to keep me occupied.

Nose Section: Northwest Boeing 747-100

Jet Engine Fan

Following our trip to the museum, it was time to head back to the hotel to have some pre-dinner cocktails. Luckily we found a liquor store right around the corner from the hotel thanks to a couple native DCers who could tell we had no idea where we were going (it was obvious by the phone navigation system that we didn’t have a clue)!

After our pre-dinner drinks it was off to Front Page for some grub. I was meeting up with Danielle, a long time friend who went to both high school and college with me. She was the smart one who stayed and got her M.S. at the same time though. Anyways, I had the chicken teriyaki and it was superb. I’m not a big mushroom person so put most of them to the side. Along with a couple sapphire and tonics, I was all set. Following dinner we went around the corner and downstairs to Buffalo Billiards. I had never been to one before (they have them in a lot of major cities), so was excited to check it out. They have 29 Brunswick pool tables, dartboards, a shuffleboard table, and two nice big bars. We spent a decent amount of time watching the De La Hoya fight (I cheered or oooo’ed whenever everyone else did). To conclude our evening, we hopped on the Metro red line and went a few short stops back to the Chinatown station. Sweet dreams!

We were both tired on Sunday morning so slept in pretty late. We woke up and met another college friend, Andrea, at another restaurant close to the hotel (on the other side of the Verizon Center) – Clyde’s. It was fantastic. It was a Sunday so they served both a traditional lunch menu, and a brunch menu. I had the filet mignon from the brunch menu and it was great. Andrea had a pulled chicken sandwich which she said was good, and John had the #1 chicken sandwich. After a semi-short lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel. We checked out just before leaving for lunch, so gathered our bags from the concierge and asked for our car. Within a few minutes our car was stationed out front and we had our bags.

So it was a very short visit to D.C., but we made good use of the short amount of time that we had. Traffic both ways was great, which surprised me very much. That’s all for now…

Just a short post today. This weekend I’ll be taking a quick trip to Washington, D.C. to catch up with some old college friends. Hopefully I can wrap up my Christmas shopping too! I’ll be staying at the Hotel Monaco which is a boutique hotel. I’m excited to stay there and will report on the experience once I return home.

Have a great weekend!
-Chris

Well it certainly took me long enough, but I’ve finally gotten around to posting about my trip to New Orleans.

I’m used to waking up at obnoxious times to go to the airport, and this trip was no different. Woke up at 4am, did my last minute packing, got myself ready, and headed to the Albany International Airport (ALB). Before I get into the trip, I have to comment about my home airport. It’s one of my favorite airports in the entire country. Very short walk from the parking garage to the terminal, a single 3-wing terminal building with a single security checkpoint, typically friendly United agents, and (believe it or not) TSA agents with brains. Not to knock the TSA, but I seem to have more security-related delays and issues with my travels these days than anything else. It’s time that we as a country start taking more of a stand on this issue…but I digress.

We made it through security without any issue today. As a Clear cardholder (part of the Registered Traveller Program), I typically get to bypass the security line and head right to the front of the line. This is helpful from Albany when departing in the early morning, especially on Monday mornings. This being a Saturday, the Clear lane wasn’t open…so it was regular security for me. Now the TSA has implemented different lines depending on how often one travels. There is an expert lane, a family lane, and I believe one other (but I’m not recalling that one right now). We picked the expert lane and cleared security in about 10 minutes. No biggie. One interesting thing to point out is that my new Clear card serves as the only I.D. that I’m required to show to get through the security lanes. This is supposed to be the case at every airport, regardless of whether the Registered Traveller Program is active or not. The first agent I presented my card to told me that I’d have to use the Clear lane with that card. Hello! It’s closed on Saturdays. Luckily another agent who was standing close-by recognized that the new picture ID Clear card is valid. So she informed the ID checker who was working with me and he let me through. No big deal. Then it was off to the gate with coffee in hand waiting to board our Canadair Regional Jet 700 Series.

United Airlines has a special program called ExPlus on some of their regional jets. It includes a small first class cabin and economy plus seating. Being that this was our only flight with first class, I applied for upgrades which were cleared at the 72 hour mark as I have Premier Executive (1P) status with United. Albany has 2 flights departing within 10 minutes every morning. One RJ goes to Chicago (ORD) and the other to Washington Dulles (IAD). It sometimes causes confusion, but there was none to speak of this day.

Onboard we met the flight attendant serving first class. She was young, which is usually a good sign, but seemed very “stand-off-ish”. Luckily the flight attendant for the coach cabin (who helped me out later in the flight…but more on that shortly) was very friendly and efficient.

UA CR7 - First Class Cabin

There is no oven on UA’s CR7 fleet, so there is never hot food served. Longer flights get a snack box full of pre-packaged food high in sodium and fat. I typically don’t indulge unless I’m starving. On the short hop from Albany to Chicago there was no snack box service. So I seem to have developed a routine on these early morning flights. During the first beverage service at some point >10,000 feet, I always get a cranberry and vodka. It’s a great morning drink and allows me to fall asleep fast. There’s nothing better to do! Boy was that a major mistake on this flight. The rather rotund fellow sitting in seat 1C (right in front of me) needed to use the lavatory about 30-45 minutes outside Chicago. I still don’t know how, but he knocked over my full drink (2nd or 3rd at this point) and it spilled all over my lap. Needless to say I wasn’t happy.

Vodka and Cranberry On My Pants

Going back to my discussion about the FAs on this particular flight. The FA serving First had no interest in helping me with my issue. Don’t laugh! I don’t mean her cleaning it up…I merely wanted a stack of paper towels to dry off as best as I could. Luckily the FA serving coach saw what happened and quickly rushed to grab me paper towels. She kept bringing me more as I really didn’t want to have to walk through O’Hare looking like I wet myself. Fortunately for me, I had enough time to dry off before we landed in O’Hare…so I didn’t have to go through that. Thanks to that FA! It was a shame that I didn’t have any customer service certificates to give to her or she would have received one. I did send a quick note to United with as many details as I had which will hopefully land in the employee record of that particular FA. And for those of you wondering, she did quickly supply me with another cranberry and vodka which was needed and much appreciated.

We landed at O’Hare relatively on-time, and had about an hour to kill before we boarded our Ted (RAR!) flight to New Orleans (MSY). Being a Red Carpet Club member, we found our way to the new “world-class” RCC. I don’t know what is so fantastic about the place, but it is new, much cleaner then the other clubs, and a bit larger. The self-service soda machines are pretty neat too as one can now avoid tipping the bartender for a Sprite! That was always obnoxious. I snapped a couple pictures of the new RCC:

New Red Carpet Club at Chicago O'Hare

Another View of the New Red Carpet Club at O'Hare

Red Carpet Clubs are a pleasant alternative to sitting in an overcrowded terminal listening to “Ma and Pa Kettle” whine about flights being delayed 15 minutes. This is especially true on Saturdays when frequent business travellers don’t seem to travel very often. After a short stay in the Red Carpet Club, it was a short walk to our gate, and boarding had already started for our flight to New Orleans. For United frequent flyers, it is always a let down when the only option to a particular destination (that works time-wise) is a Ted flight. Ted is a part of United, and was marketed separately from United flights primarily for flights to leasure destinations. It is a mainline plane in an all-coach configuration. Lucky for us, United has decided that Ted isn’t working out and by 2010 will hopefully have the planes repainted and reconfigured to a standard configuration with First. Sounds great, right? Well the problem until then is that United won’t be telling us what type of Airbus 320 aircraft they’ll be using on a particular flight, so there’s always going to be a chance to get stuck on one of these birds. Oh well, gotta give some to get some I guess.

The flight to New Orleans was uneventful. As a 1P, I was able to pre-reserve exit row seats which provides just about as much legroom as a seat in First. Seated in the aisle was a deadheading FA who kept to herself and didn’t disturb us in any way. Sometimes deadheading crew members tend to be annoying, but lucky for us – she wasn’t. We arrived into NOLA on-time, and proceeded to catch the National shuttle to pick up our car. For this trip we selected a Toyota Highlander. I had never driven one, and was pleasantly surprised. The ride was a nice mix of sporty and luxury. A lot softer than my Acura RDX. Not quite as much fun though. Next stop…the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel.

We pulled up curbside on the narrow street and were met by Marty, the doorman. He was genuinely helpful and friendly, collecting our bags and taking care of our car, directing us to the check-in desk. Check-in was fast and efficient. I had previously called to have my Omni Select Guest number added to the reservation, but for some reason it wasn’t added correctly. After a few types on the keypad it was entered and we were presented with our room keys. The room was fairly small, but well appointed. The entire room was very clean, had a small bedroom and small bathroom. The bathroom amenities provided were ample, and nightly turndown service insured we never ran out of towels. My only complaint about the Omni was the all-too-frequent knocks on the door – everything from glass service, housekeeping, etc. Why they can’t consolidate these things into 2 visits a day is beyond me.

We didn’t spend much time in the hotel room – basically to sleep, shower, and change. It is New Orleans afterall, and the real action was outside. One final note about the hotel…it had an awesome rooftop pool with nice views of New Orleans, the river, and the fantastic exterior facade of the hotel.

Rooftop Pool at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel

Our trip was to last for 3 days including the day of arrival and day of departure. We didn’t want to arrive home too late on Monday, so we opted for an early afternoon flight – not leaving us with a lot of time that day. Saturday was spent exploring the French Quarter’s numerous restaurants and shopping spots. We all know New Orleans is a party town, and we had to go along with the theme (what a shame)

One thing I love about New Orleans is the Creole/Cajun-style food. Maybe because it’s spicy, but there’s something about it that I can’t pass up. For lunch on Saturday we went to a local restaurant and I had Jambalaya. Delicious!

Jambalaya

The afternoon was spent on Bourbon Street. Why not, right? I think we stopped by maybe half-a-dozen or so bars, and visited a few of the shops. Bourbon Street is very tame during the day, and affords a chance to get one’s bearings before nighttime rolls around. After dark…it’s a madhouse. Saturday nights seem to be the busiest day of the week (and Friday’s too). We went to a couple bars before dinner, then headed to Irene’s to eat. I had previously eaten at Irene’s on a business trip to New Orleans and had an awesome meal. I was very much looking forward to it again.

Irene's Cuisine

Now having eaten here before, I thought I knew what I was in for. Boy was I disappointed. The service (as always) was stellar. No complaints there. I got a filet served with potatoes and broccoli raab (or robe, however you want to spell it). The potatoes were cold, and the filet was a bit overcooked and was seriously lacking in the taste department. I didn’t make a big deal out of it as it is only food, but I won’t be so quick to recommend (in fact I won’t) or visit Irene’s any time soon.

The rest of the night was spent on Bourbon Street.

A Night Out on Bourbon Street

Nothing earth-shattering there. We stumbled back to the hotel rather late (I’m not sure what time it was), but slept well in the comfortable bed the Omni had provided. We woke up to room service in the morning. Omni Select Guest members are treated to a complementary morning beverage of their choice. We both selected coffee, and ordered croissants to accompany our coffee. The croissants turned out to be the best I’ve ever had. Buttery, but not mushy and oily, and had an awesome flaky texture. Highly recommended if you ever stay there. We liked them so much we had them Monday morning, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Sunday morning and early afternoon was spent doing some shopping and doing our own walking tour of the French Quarter.

Seeing the Sights: Jackson Square

We had to get souvenirs to bring back so we didn’t disappoint our friends. Being that New Orleans doesn’t have an open container law, we happily purchased a 6-pack of cheap domestic beer and paraded around the streets doing shopping and catching a buzz. Its what you have to do to fit in!

Touring and Shopping in the French Quarter

My Favorite T-Shirt Ever!

Being that Sunday was our last night, we had to go out with a bang. We started with dinner at the W Hotel French Quarter at Bacco. Bacco is owned and operated by Ralph Brennan who (they tell me) is rather famous. I hadn’t heard of him before, but liked the menu and we both decided to give it a try. The food was absolutely fantastic. The restaurant was rather dead being that it was a Sunday night, so we had two servers focused exclusively on us and one other table. Not much got by these two. The lobster bisque is a must-try if you’re into creamy seafood soups. It happens to be my favorite and I quite enjoyed it. Not the best I’ve ever had, but pretty high up there. Next was the main course which I can’t recall exactly, but had an ample amount of fresh steamed shrimp. A nice change from the typically boiled shrimp that most places in New Orleans tend to serve. My one big issue (and it’s not with this restaurant in particular) is that they serve the shrimp with the heads on! This just isn’t done in the northeast and is a major turn-off. I didn’t even think about it when I ordered the dish, but would have reconsidered if I would have remembered (or I would have at least asked). Nonetheless, it was delicious.

After our gastronomic experience, it was time to head out to Bourbon Street once again. We did the karaoke bars, hole-in-the-walls, and lots of other places. It was our last night after all! Once again we stumbled back to the hotel late and turned in for the night. Monday morning was rather tame…no massive quantities of drinking (which I think my body really appreciated), some quick shopping, and off to the airport.

Sitting at the gate to bring us to Washington Dulles (IAD) was another Ted A320 (RAR!).

Ted (RAR!) Airbus 320 Waiting to Take Us to Washignton Dulles

After another uneventful flight in the exit row of this A320, we connected to a United Express flight from Dulles to Albany. A rather bumpy flight, but nothing out of the ordinary. We arrived back into Albany, collected our bags, and went home. Good night!

All in all a fantastic (albeit short) trip to New Orleans. We both had a great time, and I for one can’t wait to go back! Lucky for me I have another (business) trip planned in February and I’m going to try to extend it over the weekend.

Cheers for now,
Chris

Just a quick post for today. This coming weekend we’re headed to New Orleans. This is the first pleasure trip I’ve taken since May/June. I’m very excited.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with lastminute.com (the former site59), I’d highly suggest you pay them a visit. We booked a trip for two to New Orleans with flights on United (of course – it was a $55 upgrade) and a hotel stay at the Omni Orleans which is perfect for us based on reviews and also based on location. It’s in the heart of the french quarter. A block away from Bourbon Street and the mayhem which I hope to experience.

I’ve taken many trips to New Orleans on business, but only head downtown for fun (not very often), and typically stay in Kenner (at the Hilton across from the airport).

My goal (even at 6am when we board our CR7 in F to ORD) is to take lots of pictures. I’ve never photographed a domestic trip before so this will be a first for me. Included in our trip is an F leg on a CR7, followed by 2 TED (RAR!) flights, and ending with a short hop on an E145. Should be interesting. Of course, the only upgradable segment (which cleared at the 72 hour window!) is the CR7 flight so it won’t be tremendously fun. That said, my travel partner has never flown F so at least he’ll get a taste.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to post the experience on Tuesday when I get home. Cheers for now.

So since I just posted my flight experiences to Japan, I figured I would take some time to post some of the pictures I took while in Japan. I went to Japan for a 1-day business meeting, and had a full day to explore. Instead of staying in Kobe (which is a Japanese tourist destination), we decided to travel northeast to Kyoto to see some of the historical sights of Japan. Kobe was very interesting, but it didn’t seem to me to be a very traditional Japanese destination.

First: Food. I was very excited to be able to try some authentic Japanese food during my trip. Boy was I disappointed. I simply don’t like Japanese food. I’m not into fish which I think was the biggest reason that it didn’t work out for me. Granted, not everything was bad. I even enjoyed the lobster dish immensely! But I just can’t see myself living in Japan and eating the food day-in and day-out. I wouldn’t be happy.

Steak Topped with Mushrooms

Squid or Octopus (?) with Red Pepper

Lobster in Spicy Sauce

Traditional Japanese Bento Box (Lunch)

So since the food didn’t get me all excited (keep your mind out of the gutter!), it’s on to Kobe. We stayed right in the Port of Kobe at the Meriken Park Oriental Hotel Kobe. It was fantastic. It sat at the end of a long pier, and as such, was surrounded on 3 sides by water. It was an easy walk to some of the tourist destinations in Kobe as well. One word of warning about Japanese hotel rooms: tiny! The bedroom had enough room for the bed, a very small desk, and chair that tucked underneath. With the small chair pulled out, the back touched the bed. The bathroom was a fairly decent size, although small compared to most US hotel rooms. A lot of thought was put into the design of the hotel however – moreso than most US hotels (I believe). For example, when entering the room you must put your room key (card) into a slot on the wall. Without a room key in the slot, all the lights remain off. Therefore when you left the room, there was no need to turn the lights off. Just pull out your card, leave the room, and within seconds the room would go dark. I have heard of some hotels (in Denver I believe) following this trend. Second, a small round part of the bathroom mirror was heated. It prevented the mirror from steaming up in that part which was great after a long hot shower. To follow are a few pictures of the port area, including our hotel (the weird white rounded building):

Meriken Park Oriental Hotel Kobe

7-11. Am I Back in Delaware? Definitely Not.

Port of Kobe - View From My Balcony

Port of Kobe Tower

Port of Kobe - From My Balcony @ Night

As I mentioned before, the city of Kobe is a tourist destination. We wanted to try to get a better sense of traditional Japanese culture, so we headed to Kyoto. One of the older cities in Japan, Kyoto has a large number of historic temples and gardens. To follow are some pictures from Kyoto:

Kyoto - Gardens

Kyoto - Temple

Kyoto - Temple

Kyoto - Temple - Longest Wood Building

Kyoto - Temple & Gardens

Kyoto - Gardens

Kyoto - Gardens

Kyoto - Gardens

Kyoto - Temple

Kyoto - Temple

Kyoto - Bamboo Lines Hotel Walkway

We Found a Western Bar in Kyoto!

All in all, my trip to Japan was fantastic. Business was a success (most importantly, obviously), and the experience was unforgettable. Japanese culture, while it certainly has its faults, maintains the highest level of respect for people and the environment I’ve ever seen. I’m looking forward to another opportunity to travel to Japan at some point in the future. Thanks for reading!

As I noted in my welcome post…the majority of my travel is domestic. In October 2008, I got my first chance to fly to Japan for work and selected United Airlines’ Business Class to fly in. Now I know the consensus on FlyerTalk (see my travel links if you aren’t sure what that is) is to fly foreign airlines as both the hard and soft products are vastly superior to our US airlines. That said, as a Premier (2P) on United at the time of the first leg of this 6-leg trip, being that I was in a paid business fare class, I wanted my 150% EQMs (elite qualifying miles) for this trip. It would ultimately bring me up to Premier Executive (1P) status. As flying domestically is rather boring, this post will concentrate on the business class legs between San Francisco, CA (SFO) and Osaka/Kansai, Japan (KIX).

The equipment that United uses between San Francisco and Osaka is a Boeing 777. United has 3 different configurations of the 777 and uses the XP configuration on the SFO-KIX run. This is the United 777 WW1 configuration shown on SeatGuru. United is in the midst of upgrading both business class and first class throughout their international fleet, but alas, the 777s will be the last of the big 3 international plane types to be reconfigured. As of this post, there is not a single reconfigured 777 flying.

United Transpacific Business Class Seat

Business Class on this plane, even with the old seats, was very comfortable for me. Probably because I haven’t been spoiled by flying foreign airlines and mostly all my travel is domestic. I have flown internationally configured United aircraft on domestic repositioning flights, but I didn’t really appreciate it fully as I wasn’t stuck in it for 8+ hours. My favorite feature of the seat was the lumbar support. There was even a button to select alternating firm/soft lumbar support that I used throughout the entire flight as my back appreciated the constantly changing support.

Flying in any class of service repeatedly leads to an appreciation of good flight crews. Service is very methodical on every flight. Predeparture beverage service in premium classes. Takeoff. Warm nuts and a beverage service in premium classes. Followed by the meal service. Then beverage services, and on this flight, another meal service before landing. The flight crews on both my outbound and return flights were excellent. My outbound crew was a notch above the return crew in that the service was delivered with a genuine interest in passenger comfort. The return service seemed a little more routine and didn’t seem as special as the outbound. To follow are some pictures in the order in which the service on the return trip was carried out:

Predeparture Beverage - Cheap Champagne for Me

The quality of the food and beverages that was served fell below my expectations. Although given the knowledge I’ve gleaned from FlyerTalk, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Pre-Meal Nuts & Beverage Service

One of the biggest debates in the United frequent flyer community surrounds the nuts. The are supposed to be served warm, but it seems like some crews just can’t grasp that fact – or are too lazy to heat up the tray. For my flights, I received warm nuts on the outbound, and cold nuts on the return. Maybe that’s why I preferred the outbound flight crew?

United Transpacific Business Class Menu Cover - October 2008

Menus were handed out at different times on my outbound vs. return. On the outbound flight, menus were distributed prior to the nuts and beverage service. On my return flight (the one where I took these pictures), the menu was distributed at almost the same time as the nuts and beverage service, so I decided to include the pictures in that order.

United Transpacific Business Class KIX-SFO Appetizer - Smoked Salmon Rose, Sweet Sesame Pork, Vegetable Sushi, Pickled Ginger, and Fresh Seasonal Greens w/Blue Cheese

Then comes meal service. The outbound SFO-KIX flight served lunch followed by lunch due to the departure and arrival time. The return KIX-SFO flight (as pictured above) serves a dinner followed by breakfast prior to landing. Shown in the picture is the appetizer, bread, and salad portion of the dinner service. The appetizer and greens are pre-plated. The dressing is poured over the greens by the flight attendant (FA) seatside. To accompany my meal I chose a red wine which I can’t recall the name of at the moment. It was fairly decent.

United Transpacific Business Class KIX-SFO Dinner - Pan-Seared Filet Mignon with Balsamic Onion Demi-Glace, Baked Stuffed Potato with Chives, and Asparagus

Next its time for the main course. The appetizer plate is removed from the tray and replaced with the main course. On this flight I was served a filet in a rather salty sauce. Overall, for airline beef, I think this was a grand slam for the FAs on this flight as the steak was cooked to about medium and was delicious in flavor and texture. The downside was the brown mystery sauce (they refer to it as a balsamic onion demi-glace), as it was super salty. I pretty much pushed as much of it as possible off the meat. The asparagus was ok (I love asparagus and am very particular in how it is cooked). The potato was a potato. Not bad, and served with butter, so I was all set.

United Transpacific Business Class KIX-SFO Dessert - International Cheese Selection ft. Red Cheddar and Brie

Dessert was pretty lame. My other option was an apple crêpe with caramel sauce. I’m not really into desserts with apples, so I decided to go for the cheese plate. It was simply too small. The cheddar was too hard and the brie was double creme (at best). The crackers were just your basic, but the grapes were delicious. Overall a pretty crappy ending to a decent meal service.

Following the meal service I nodded off into la la land. In fact, on the outbound flight I didn’t even make it to dessert before I nodded off. There’s no better way to pass time trapped in a flying metal tube than by sleeping. Sleeping in this seat was very easy for me. An amenity kit was placed on every seat prior to boarding, and it contained an eye mask. A few gin and tonics and an eye mask and I was all set. The seat doesn’t recline to 180 degrees, but the seat becomes an angled mostly-flat seat which worked for me.

United Transpacific Business Class KIX-SFO Breakfast - Fresh Seasonal Fruit Plate with Creamy Yogurt

I awoke to the sound of FAs working the cabin. It was time for breakfast. Aside from my selection of the fruit plate, the alternate offering was scrambled eggs with ham and cheese on a waffle. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely sounded (and was) more filling, but I never seem to like eggs on planes. That said, I chose the fruit plate which was adequate although small. Everyone who knows me will tell you I’m not a big eater, so the size was decent (I don’t think I even finished everything). The breakfast service ended about 30 minutes before landing. All-in-all…a good flight.