In anticipation for the inaugural Flying Honu flight from Honolulu to Tokyo Narita, we set an early morning alarm for 5 am, to make sure we buffered time for any traffic delays.
Trip Report
I arrived at the airport around 7:30pm for my 11pm red-eye flight, as I wanted to leave as much time as possible to have dinner and relax in the Cathay Pacific Lounge in Vancouver. Luckily the airport wasn’t too busy around this time.
After flying almost 11,000 miles across the world, which included a Cathay Pacific 777-300ER business class from YVR-JFK, as well as JFK-AUH on Etihad Airway’s A380, I was excited to fly the last leg of my itinerary to my final destination of the Maldives.
EVA is consistently ranked among the top airlines in the world, so as of the return journey during a recent trip, I decided to give them a try to see just how good they are.
Using 75,000 Aeroplan miles, I booked a one-way business class ticket from Bangkok (BKK), transiting through Taipei (TPE) and onward to Vancouver (YVR). The tax amounted to 29.20 CAD.
As a Canadian, I had surprisingly never tried Air Canada’s Business Class product. So when I needed to find a way home using my Aeroplan miles, I jumped on the opportunity.
Since my flight to Vancouver was leaving later in the evening, I decided to head to the Airport Express station in Kowloon for their in-town check-in service. What’s great about the Airport Express is that you can actually check-in for your flight here and drop off your luggage, all while still in the heart of Hong Kong.
After catching up on some sleep using a day-use booking at the Hilton New York JFK Airport hotel, I was fully charged and ready for my 12-hour flight to Abu Dhabi. For this segment, I had booked myself a seat on Etihad Airway’s A380 in their Business Studios cabin. Last year when I flew on Etihad’s (now retired) A340-600 from ICN to AUH and AUH to CDG, I was left a little disappointed, so I was curious to see how their newer A380 product stacks up.
From the lobby of our hotel, we took an airport shuttle to Kagoshima Airport, which was about an hour away. We drove past some really beautiful countryside scenery, which was made really dramatic by the ever-smoking Sakurajima volcano in the backdrop.
From the onset of our trip planning, we were already amazed by the architecture of the Park Hyatt Bangkok. Coincidentally, the hotel was set to be open during our time in Bangkok, so we were pretty determined on staying here.
From the airport, it was about a 40 minute taxi ride to the hotel entrance. Bangkok traffic is just insane! As soon as we stepped out of the taxi, we were greeted by no less than three hotel staff who were as friendly as could be. We were led inside while our luggage was taken care of, and we were given a luggage tag for check-in.
Several months before our Asia trip, we noticed that Thai Airways was offering some reasonable business class fares for the short flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur. We had never flown Thai Airways, so we decided to give them a try to see what they had to offer. Additionally, Thai Airways recently scheduled their Internationally-configured 777 to fly this route, which would allow us to get a quick glimpse of their long haul business class seats.
Part of the reason why Peterson and I love Tokyo so much is because of the fantastic plane spotting you can do at multiple locations around Haneda International Airport. If you intend to do a lot of plane spotting when you’re in Tokyo, it’s a good idea to find accommodations near the airport.
Before this flight, Peterson and I had only flown Business Class internationally, so we had always been on the lookout for an opportunity to try International First Class for the very first time. As you can imagine, after ticketing this flight, we were both super excited.
I was excited to be flying in JAL’s SKY SUITE III again, since I loved the seat layout on our Tokyo Haneda to Bangkok flight, which was operated by a 777 with SKY SUITE III seats. I was curious to see how the same seat on the Dreamliner compares.
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