Month: October 2017

There’s an apparent requirement for companies in China to have a big off-site meeting at least once a year. Employees expect this to happen and the event is usually pretty jam-packed. Microsoft China is no exception to this cultural event and so begins my first big company meeting, in Wuhan! 

Wuhan (武汉市) is the capital of Hubei Province in Central China. The city is known as the Chicago of China as it is a major transportation hub for not only roads but also rails. And by rail is how I got here.

Taking the high-speed rail in China is pretty easy and economical. Sites like ctrip.com cater to the English speaking crowd but charge a lovely  premium for their services. As a foreigner, if you purchase a train ticket online, you still need to go to the train station to pick up your train ticket allowing someone to validate your passport/ID.  It’s kind of annoying but there’s no way around it. Fortunately for this trip work provided the ticket so I was able to skip that part.

About three hours into the five hour, 1000km journey it was lunch time. A lady came around taking orders, but I have no idea what I was getting as one of my coworkers ordered for me. Part of me wishes I knew what the options were as this is what was served:

Needless to say I’ll never complain about airline food again! And lesson learned: Plan ahead for long train rides and bring some food with you.

I’m now enjoying a bit of  relaxing Sunday as it’s beer o’clock. Next up: dinner, poker game, and bed as tomorrow is a long day of meetings.

For over three weeks now I’ve been MIA , and for good reason); I was hiding in the good ole USA! After spending that amount of time back home, I noticed a few things:

1. Unrestricted internet is definitely missed
2. Friends and family definitely define where your heart is
3. I miss eating  Chinese food daily
4. A little bit of me was anxious to get back to my apartment in Suzhou
5. Flying economy across the Pacific is painful

Part of my role at work will require me to fly back to the USA a number of times a year so it’ll be interesting to see how this list changes over time. 

By now I should be fast asleep in a drunken stupor about a flight bound for SFO. Should being the operative word. United Airlines flight 858, the penultimate 747-400 for that airline leaving Shanghai Pudong Airport suffered a mechanical problem which caused it to be cancelled and that’s the focus of this blog post.

No, I’m not going to write how terrible the airline is or how annoyed I am about the cancelled flight, mainly because I am neither annoyed nor thinking United is terrible. They take care of me and for that I’m grateful!

Currently I have Premier Platinum status on United, which means I flew 75K miles and spent $9K dollars on the airline last year. It’s not the highest of status, but it comes with some good perks. One of my favorite, and least used perks, is the ability to call the airline and speak with a representative rather quickly when needed. Today was just one of those times.

After flight #858 was cancelled we were told to deboard (is that a word?), go back through immigration, collect our checked bags, then visit the ticket counter to figure out what’s next. The line to be processed by immigration was long and slow going so … I booted up my USA phone (cellphone carrier is Google Fi) and called United to see if I could get on one of the later flights. After about 10 minutes not only was I rebooked to Seattle I was even confirmed in a business class seat even though my original ticket was in economy!

(OK, a little explanation on my ticket: it was an economy ticket that could be upgraded to business if space was available and I had an upgrade certificate. There was no space left for people upgrading but there were business class seats available. (?!?!) Seeing as I previously did have an upgraded ticket and a biz class seat, the agent changed my ticket to a biz class fare and assigned me seat 1D. Trust me, I’m not complaining!)

Next up was getting my bags off the carousel at the Shanghai-Pudong airport. United places special tags on the bags of their frequent flyer and those bags should be the first ones off the plane. Today that worked in my favor as mine was the fifth bag to come off the conveyor belt. Score!

Seeing as I now have my bag that needs to be rechecked, I went up to departures to see the ticketing agents. There was a line for business class and a terribly long one for economy. Uggh. Both lines got MUCH larger after I queued up as all those other passengers whose bags did not come off the belt first were now joining it and there was another flight where passengers needed to get checked-in. Score!

It took about 30 minutes to get through the line and see an agent to check my bag and get my new boarding passes (mobile boarding passes don’t seem to exist in China for airlines or trains). With that out of the way it was time to head back to the Air China lounge for another round of bland food and less than delicious drinks after getting a second exit stamp in my passport from the same country in the same day. (How often does that happen?!)

To put into bullet points everything that happened today:

• Delayed and then cancelled flight
• Rebooked on a flight 8 hours later
• Confirmed business class seat on rebooked flight
• Checked luggage was the fifth one off the plane
• Short-ish line (but still time consuming) to get my boarding pass and recheck my bag
• Second helping of amazing Chinese cuisine at the Air China lounge, free of charge

Right now, however, the flight to LAX is delayed by a couple hours but fortunately not due to mechanical issues; the inbound aircraft is delayed. At some point LATE tonight (what day is it?!) I’ll make it to Seattle via LAX & SFO. Yes, it’s time for a tour of the west coast. Sadly I won’t be able to see the volcanoes on the way north past SF as it’ll be too dark outside.

Back in the air today, flying PVG-SFO-SEA. As I woke up late due to being jet lagged, I did not have time to grab a bite to eat before leaving for the airport. Sadly this meant I barely had the strength to use my large suitcase as a cattle prod when crossing the Shanghai Metro Line 2 Platform of Death. (Read post from Day 119 if you’re confused…)

Getting to the airport was pretty easy and there were not too many people in lines. I had to wait maybe 20 minutes to go through immigration control and there was no waiting at the final baggage check & metal detector for those lucky enough to use the mysterious line 27 (business, first class, and “VIP”). (“VIP” will be the premise for another post some day…)

Having an hour to spare, I made my way to the Air China lounge near gate 71. This lounge is pretty terrible, to be honest, in terms of quality but it does try really hard. There’s a number of shower stall for those in need, lots of seating, and a hot & cold food buffet. Sounds pretty good, right? Well … 

When you walk into the lounge the overwhelming smell of stale smoke reminiscent of a Reno casino wafts so hard it’s as if someone slapped you across the face. And it only gets better.

In the traditional Chinese way, the bartender is extremely slow and will only pour half a glass of wine at a time. But don’t worry, I found where there’s a self serve location upstairs in the lounge; more on that later. Don’t even try to order a mixed drink as you’ll be highly upset with the wait time and the quality of what is mixed. The spirits are the brand names you’re used to, but … just don’t taste right.

The downstairs portion of the lounge has lots of seating, which is great. There’s even cold refrigerators with water, soft drinks (Pepsi & Schweppes if it matters), and beer. Grab one of those items, you’ll be happier in the longrun. It’ll also help dampen your sense of smell so you don’t notice the stale smoke scent when trying to relax.

Upstairs is where the food, more seating, and the showers are located. It’s also the location that gets busier quicker, likely because the stale smoke scent doesn’t permeate this region. 

Find a spot, drop off your bags, and head over to the buffet for some uninspiring quisine. While I do like most food and don’t expect much from what airlines offer … What Air China puts on their buffet is just… Tasteless. Except for one item, that is. I’ve tried most the food items on offer and have to say the ‘old duck soup’ is rather tasty, but remember not to eat the meat unless you enjoy crunching on small bones.
Typically the food buffet comprises a number of options:

• Hot options: rice, yangzhou fried rice, Singapore noodles, two soup, two mixed veggies offerings, and one or two meat-based dishes.
• Cold options: sushi rolls, cold cuts
• Salad options: cut fruit, salad with toppings, mixed salads like fruit or potato
• Desserts

While plentiful, none of the food is tasty and makes me wonder what the offerings aboard an Air China flight would be like. Also, check out those short shorts; honey was working it!

One thing I will say about the wine that’s offered, and you know I’m a bit of a wine snob, could barely pass as consumable. Yes, it’s that bad. Prior to today’s flight I ordered from the bartender on the first floor and learned to ask for 两杯红酒, or two glasses of red wine as they never pour a full glass. It was always just “ok” but not really good and I never saw the labels. Well, today I discovered the self pour section upstairs in the lounge and realized why. Friends and co-workers have spoken about Chinese wines and how they’re just terrible, in general. As it turns out, the swill they serve in the lounge is branded as Air China and The Great Wall, with the latter brand being some seriously cheap wine that might hospitalize a person if they are not careful. It’s just that bad.

Currently my flight is suffering from a mechanical delay, something about the parking break and it not being able to function (aka, release) has us sitting at the gate for over an hour.  We may depart at some point today if a spare part can be found, fingers crossed, but in the mean time I’m enjoying a lovely Australian Malbec that the flight attendants keep refilling. Mmmm so much better than what was served in the Air China lounge!

On a whirlwind tour of the Pacific Ocean, I found myself in the Shanghai Pudong Airport once again. This time I’m spending the night in Shanghai before flying away tomorrow morning and decided to take the subway (Metro Line 2) from the airport to try it out instead of hiring a driver. 

In T2, the International Terminal, there’s plenty of signage pointing jet lagged and weary passengers in the right direction. Before entering the subway I had to find a ticket machine to buy a one-way pass as I don’t have a Shanghai metro card yet. To my relief I had a small bank note, otherwise I’d be out of luck as the machines take coins and bank notes no larger than 10元 (~$1.35). 

With my ticket in hand I proceeded to pass the metro security guards — and I’m still unsure what their purpose is as I walked though the non-functioning metal detector with lots of metal on me and not even a blink from the guards — and down to the subway platform. So far so good! The train arrived, I boarded, and even managed to get a seat which is a rarity in Shanghai as the metro is always jammed packed.

And that’s when things changed. I got on the right train headed in the right direction. For some unknown and purely Chinese reason, the line stops 1/4 the way towards the end and you need to get out, cross a platform, and board the exact same metro line to continue. If the announcement was said in my car, I completely missed it and was taken a bit back when the train started moving in the wrong direction! Perhaps all the passengers exiting with their suitcases should’ve been a clue?

Backtracking one stop and getting on the next train in the other direction added about 20 mins to my trip. Not too bad, but definitely not happy times. When the end of the line was reached I exited with the rest of the pack in something that can only be described as a herd of wildebeests crossing a crocodile laden river during their biannual migration. Yes, it was that crazy, full of people pushing and shoving, tossing baggage everywhere to hop in the train car that was 5 meters (15 feet) away! The subway station must record this event and put it up on the Chinese equivalent of YouTube as it’s that amazing. 

Tomorrow when I head back to the airport I’ll take the subway once again, this time fully knowing about the transfer and hopefully able to do it correctly!