Mexico and Indonesia

[liebensd]

BRU-MTY-AMS

BRU-ORD

Route: Brussels-Chicago O’Hare International,
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER, N647UA
Flight: UA973
Date: 7/12
After an unexpected smooth ride to the airport, it was snowing that day, I arrived well in advanced on the airport. The check in and security checks went fast, I almost didn’t need to wait anywhere. After a coffee I went to the gate. The Brussels snow squad was removing the last snow on the apron.
Take off was delayed because of the bad weather conditions. After one hour of flight a lunch was served, I ordered chicken. The food was tasty.
The interior and in-flight entertainment of this aircraft is slightly outdated. Before landing a snack was served. Because of the delayed departure we also landed late in Chicago. It was quite a hassle to get to the next flight in 1H30 minutes. But I managed it.
ORD-IAH
Route: Chicago O’Hare International – Houston George Bush Intercontinental
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Fight: UA 729
Date: 7/12
I managed to be on time at the gate, boarding started a little bit later. There is not relay anything special to be mentioned about this flight. During the 2H45 minutes flight United does only offer a drink. I purchased a food box, but this wasn’t really worth it. The flight was smooth, it departed a little bit late but arrival was on time.


IAH-MTY
Route: Houston George Bush Intercontinental – Monterrey General Mariano Escobedo
Aircraft: Embraer E145
Flight: 4283
Date: 7/12
This was the last flight of the day, a 1H15 flight in an Embraer. It was my first Embraer 145 flight. What is this a small aircraft! United offered a drink during the flight. The flight was smooth and fast.

MTY-IAH
Route: Monterrey General Mariano Escobedo - Houston George Bush Intercontinental
Aircraft: Embraer E145, N14952
Flight: UA4254
Date: 15/12
I arrived well on time for my trip to the other side of the world. The first flight was a bumpy one to Houston. The weather conditions in Houston weren’t that good. The aircraft was parked next to the Lufthansa D-AIMB A388. I had 1H30 minutes to disembark, go to immigration, security check and board again. This was a really tough one. Luckily there are some One-Stop lines in Houston where United passengers don’t need to queue that long at immigration. But still it didn’t went fast. I arrived on time a the gate, boarding was almost completed.

IAH-AMS
Route: Houston George Bush Intercontinental – Amsterdam Schiphol
Aircraft: Boeing 767-400ER, N67052
Flight: UA58
Date: 15/12
There is a quite big difference in cabin between the B763 and B764 of United. The interior of the B764 is a lot better. The flight t Amsterdam was the best United flight I had on this trip. Smooth relaxing and on time. The food that was served was good, only the breakfast could have been bigger.

AMS-SUB-BRU

AMS-SIN
Route: Amsterdam Schiphol – Singapore Changi
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER, 9V-SVH
Flight; SQ323
Date: 16/12
My trip was booked with 2 tickets. So I needed to checkout and check in again in Amsterdam. This went quite fast, in less than 40 minutes from disembarked to the new gate.
A nice thing is that Schiphol offers one hour of free internet to its customers.
I was luckily to have to have 2 seats on this flight, I guess I was also the only one. One our after tack off a Lunch was offered, I took the “Limburgs stoof potje”. The taste was excellent. The flight entertainment of Singapore is great, lots of movies and TV shows. The screen in the B772 is small but still acceptable.

SIN-SUB
Route: Singapore Changi – Surabaya Juanda
Aircraft: Airbus A320, 9V-SLM
Flight: SQ 5222, Operated by Silkair
Date: 17/12
This was the last flight of the day, luckily! Silkair offered a breakfast during the flight.

SUB-SIN
Route: Surabaya Juanda - Singapore Changi
Aircraft: Airbus A320, 9V-SLK
Flight: SQ 5225, Operated by Silkair
Date:21/12
This was a smooth flight. A hot dinner was served during flight.

SIN-LHR
Route: Singapore Changi – London Heatrow
Aircraft: Airbus A380, 9V-SKP
Flight: SQ 322
Date: 21/12
This would be my first A380 flight. I had big expectations.
In general it was a nice flight, what would you expect otherwise form Singapore. It is quiet in the A380, there is less engine noise than in other aircrafts. The flight entertainment system was really top, a big screen with lots of movies and TV series.

LHR-BRU
Route: London Heatrow - Brussels
Aircraft: Airbus A319, OO-SSV
Flight: SQ 2824, Operated by Brussels airlines SN2094
Date: 22/12
Last flight of the trip. SN offered a drink and a sandwich on this 45m flight. The flight was fast. But it took more than 30mintes before the baggage arrived on the belt!

In general it was a good trip, long and exhausting.

Regards,

Dave

[Kapitein]

Nice tripreport Dave, I guess you where happy when arriving in SUB after such a long trip.

[sn26567]

Wow, quite a trip, Dave! I guess you've got a few more miles on your M&M account now!

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Nice report, Dave !
Lots of nice new loggings to end the year and indeed Andre, guess after so much he work he deserves some miles for leisure

Merry Xmas and guess 2013 will bring lots more of this !

Mexico / Indonesia new work domain instead of China ?

Greetz,

CX-B

[liebensd]

Nice tripreport Dave, I guess you where happy when arriving in SUB after such a long trip.

Of course I was happy, In total it was more than 38 hours.

Wow, quite a trip, Dave! I guess you've got a few more miles on your M&M account now!

I can maintain my status at least.

Mexico / Indonesia new work domain instead of China ?

Not really, I don't have a real work domain.

Regards,

Dave

[quixoticguide]

Nice trip, what about the jet-lag?
Was crossing the Pacific Ocean not shorter ?

[liebensd]

Nice trip, what about the jet-lag?

I had actually more jet-leg problems on the Brussels Mexico trip than on the Mexico-Indonesia trip, quite strange but true.

Was crossing the Pacific Ocean not shorter ?

That was an option, but I didn't went faster. The big difference was that a trip over the Pacific costed 8000€ more than fling back to Europe. In flight time it was 1 or 2 hours less but the actual arrival time was the same. Singapore operates it's Houston-Singapore flight trough Moscow, I went trough Amsterdam. There was not much difference in travel time. The optimal flight would have been MTY-IAH-DME-SIN-SUB, but for some strange reason the booking engines didn't show that one.


Regards,

Dave