From Singapore airline's VIP lounge in Taiwan CKS airport...
02-15-2008, 06:05 PM
#6
Enjoy ;-)...and have a safe trip.
Had 12+ hours of (Monsoon) waiting time in Singapore coming from Ho-Chi-Minh City with VIP treatment; bath + massage + Martinis and other goodies right at the airport = heaven on earth :-) Love that City, and their Airlines.
Best of it - Nike dress clothes you wont find anywhere else, really awesome stuff.
Best of it - Nike dress clothes you wont find anywhere else, really awesome stuff.
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02-17-2008, 06:40 AM
#10
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Yawn... my clock's all screw'd up now...
So I was awake pretty much straight for 30+ hrs (was up @Fri6:30PM local time here). Couldn't sleep on the flights, only napped 1 hr on the last leg. Couldn't fall asleep until 2:30AM this morning, and woke @ 8:30AM (6 hrs). Wonder how I'll fare the rest of today... :-\
The flight...
At least I got a +1 class upgrade on all the legs this time: United Economy+ w/ a few extra " of leg room from Taiwan to Japan & Japan to Chicago, and First class in the CRJ (it only had 2 classes) from Chicago to Norfolk.
Service observation...
Meng! What a noticeable HUGE difference in degradation of service & attitude once I return! The United Int'l flight from Chicago to Japan had crews that were based out of Japan, while the return flight had crew based out of Boston... one can notice some differences. But the biggest kicker is once I landed at O'Hara!
In Taiwan (and similarly in Japan), when you enter Customs, there are multiple Customs windows/stations with clear signs, and just a guard standing on the peripheral over looking the whole area. They rely on people to queue up and freely form lines in front of the station that they choose. No child-hand-holding style of enforcement was needed. It was... serene & efficient.
But @ O'Hara...
We also have multiple Customs windows/stations, but that's where the similarity ends. Instead now they have roped off queuing areas for citizens+residents, visitors, and flight crew & military. All the citizen+residents are funneled into a single queue, and 2 TSA workers sit at the end of that queue. Their job? To dictate & command you to a window. Mind you, there at times were both windows (down stream of these TWO TSA workers) that were empty AND windows with its own line! Oh! and you better NOT try to make any conscious decisions on your own (for fear of Terrorism?)... as an eldly Asian woman found out. While at the TSA agent<b>s</b>' gate she saw a Customs window opened up and starts to walk towards it. She was quickly barked/snapped at and put in her place by the 2 TSA agents... the agents then made her waited for another 30 secs (just to show her, for good measure! <i>"how dare you bypass & dis-respect our authorit-ae!"</i> </Eric Kartman>
before commanding her to a different window that had a line!
Why is my tax $$ paying for these TWO TSA agents? Why does it require TWO of them, to sit in their chairs, to direct & dictate 'order' when it's not needed? Why do these frivolous jobs even exist in the first place? I'm guessing some politician was able to claim they created some JOBS... frivolous jobs FT-overall-USA-L!
Oh BTW, the 2 TSA agents were speaking either Spanish or an Eastern European language (I couldn't tell), which somehow triggered <i>"I'm IN! Where is the slice of The American Pie that I DESERVE?!"</i> flash into my mind.... sigh! :-\
ON top, after clearing customs and try to re-check in my checked luggages @ O'Hara for my domestic leg... the re-check-in area was a cluster! The whole area was piled up high with luggages and despite I (and another passenger on my same flt) telling the United worker that my connection leaves in less than 1 hr... yup! You guessed it! My luggages didn't show up at Norfolk (the other passenger too). What a surprise... sigh!
Luckily, at least they just delivered my luggages to my house and now I have my tooth brush back. Alright... jumping into the shower I go, and hope I can adjust to the travel/time-zone shift...
The flight...
At least I got a +1 class upgrade on all the legs this time: United Economy+ w/ a few extra " of leg room from Taiwan to Japan & Japan to Chicago, and First class in the CRJ (it only had 2 classes) from Chicago to Norfolk.
Service observation...
Meng! What a noticeable HUGE difference in degradation of service & attitude once I return! The United Int'l flight from Chicago to Japan had crews that were based out of Japan, while the return flight had crew based out of Boston... one can notice some differences. But the biggest kicker is once I landed at O'Hara!
In Taiwan (and similarly in Japan), when you enter Customs, there are multiple Customs windows/stations with clear signs, and just a guard standing on the peripheral over looking the whole area. They rely on people to queue up and freely form lines in front of the station that they choose. No child-hand-holding style of enforcement was needed. It was... serene & efficient.
But @ O'Hara...
We also have multiple Customs windows/stations, but that's where the similarity ends. Instead now they have roped off queuing areas for citizens+residents, visitors, and flight crew & military. All the citizen+residents are funneled into a single queue, and 2 TSA workers sit at the end of that queue. Their job? To dictate & command you to a window. Mind you, there at times were both windows (down stream of these TWO TSA workers) that were empty AND windows with its own line! Oh! and you better NOT try to make any conscious decisions on your own (for fear of Terrorism?)... as an eldly Asian woman found out. While at the TSA agent<b>s</b>' gate she saw a Customs window opened up and starts to walk towards it. She was quickly barked/snapped at and put in her place by the 2 TSA agents... the agents then made her waited for another 30 secs (just to show her, for good measure! <i>"how dare you bypass & dis-respect our authorit-ae!"</i> </Eric Kartman>
before commanding her to a different window that had a line!Why is my tax $$ paying for these TWO TSA agents? Why does it require TWO of them, to sit in their chairs, to direct & dictate 'order' when it's not needed? Why do these frivolous jobs even exist in the first place? I'm guessing some politician was able to claim they created some JOBS... frivolous jobs FT-overall-USA-L!
Oh BTW, the 2 TSA agents were speaking either Spanish or an Eastern European language (I couldn't tell), which somehow triggered <i>"I'm IN! Where is the slice of The American Pie that I DESERVE?!"</i> flash into my mind.... sigh! :-\
ON top, after clearing customs and try to re-check in my checked luggages @ O'Hara for my domestic leg... the re-check-in area was a cluster! The whole area was piled up high with luggages and despite I (and another passenger on my same flt) telling the United worker that my connection leaves in less than 1 hr... yup! You guessed it! My luggages didn't show up at Norfolk (the other passenger too). What a surprise... sigh!
Luckily, at least they just delivered my luggages to my house and now I have my tooth brush back. Alright... jumping into the shower I go, and hope I can adjust to the travel/time-zone shift...