Hong Kong whew-y

Despite years of air travel, before today I couldn’t imagine what a long haul flight is really like. Fortunately, Singapore Airlines is so customer focused that the experience was quite bearable.

Our flight boarded on time, but both Diana and I were pretty worn out when it began. She had caught some cat naps in the chair by the boarding aea, but I wasn’t able to sleep. Our boarding process took us through Business Class, which is like the nicest first class you can imagine, with pods and seats that fold down flat for sleeping. Our seats were nicer than the First Class seats on the Alaska Air flight we took from Chicago. At first, I didn’t know how it would go with us taking up the two middle seats in the center aisle, but we lucked out and had nobody sitting to Diana’s right. So, I was able to wake up my wife instead of a stranger when I needed to use the lavatory in the middle of the night.

When I say “Middle of the night”, the entire flight was pretty much the middle of the night. We took off at 1:15am, and chased the darkness across the Pacific Ocean, flying over the Alleutian Islands, the edge of Kamchatka, and Tokyo before getting to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the blinds were all drawn so I didn’t get to take in the scenery. The best I could do was watch the animation on the in-seat screen.

We used the “Book the Cook” feature of flying in Premium Economy, and I had a 2 am dinner of chicken breasts, mixed vegetables, and mashed potato. There was a decadent piece of cake that I took a tiny taste and gave to Diana, who had beef and whole potatos. When the plates were cleared, the cabin was darkened.

I tried to sleep, really I did. I even was able to plug my CPAP in to the AC power on the plane. But, the seats aren’t soft enough nor do they recline enough for my particular sleep needs. I tried taking up two seats with the empty spot in our row, but that empty seat wouldn’t recline and I didn’t want to punish Diana for my shortcoming. The most comfortable position I found was leaning to the right with my pillow on her shoulder.

The other thing about an International flight like this is everyone is on a different sleep schedule. Even though the cabin was darkened, the flashing lights of the screens on the bulkhead one row up were right in my eyes. Some passengers were up and down in the overhead bins, making noise that even my earplugs didn’t block.

Of the four hours I wore the CPAP mask, I would estimate I slept lightly for about three of them. Not to worry, though – I woke up refreshed. I think Diana probably got about 6 or 7 hours broken up into little naps. She watched a couple of movies while we awaited breakfast.

The pilots worked that seat belt sign like they could see the turbulence from 100 yards away. The sign would go on, and moments later it would hit. There wasn’t anything super rough. I’ve always felt a car ride was bumpier than a flight with turbulence.

Amenities were nice in Premium Economy. We got a warm towel upon arrival, which felt nice. The screens were quite a bit bigger than those in Economy. We were given free earbuds when we walked in. The seats had a little leg rest on them, but my legs were too long to get any real use out of it. I had nobody in front of me, so didn’t have a seat recline into me. In fairness, the seats didn’t recline a lot, even though they reclined more than Economy.

No matter how nice the environment, it’s still a 15 hour flight, and is still exhausting. After deplaning, we had to go through security checkpoint again to get back on the next flight. No more TSA PreCheck perks for me! Another full water bottle trashed, but at least this was a free one from the airline.

I mentioned on the About page that this blog was in part named for an album by Richard Thompson. One song on that album, Dead Man’s Handle, reminds us to “keep your mind on the journey’s end.” And that’s just what we’ll do. One more leg for today, and one tomorrow before we reach our destination.