Index
Days 1/2: Flying
Day 3a: HKG-BKK inaugural
Day 3b: BKK-HKG
Day 3c: HKG-SGN inaugural
Day 4: Vietnam
Day 5: SGN-HKG-HND
Day 6: NRT-ROR inaugural
Day 7: ROR-NRT inaugural
Southeast Asia
After the ridiculous experience that was Emirates first class, it was back to reality, and yet another airport transit area. A few in our (now-diminished) group had a bit of hassle getting their tickets to Saigon, but eventually we all gathered, either back in the United Club or at the gate. The United Club had a cake-cutting ceremony, some mediocre dim sum, and then, as was the theme of the day, time to run off to the gate for additional inaugural flight ceremonies.
Le Duc Hanh, consul general of Vietnam to Hong Kong, was the headline of the VIPs, along with the usual group from United, headlined by Nancy Lyu, director of sales Greater China and Korea, United Airlines. The obligatory ribbon cutting to an audience of a very enthusiastic (if somewhat smaller) crowd of excited passengers, with a few less-crazy inaugural flight passengers only doing the HKG-SGN re-inaugural as opposed to both. With Captain Petrovitch and First Officer Burke piloting this flight, we had a very warm welcome onboard, complete with cockpit tour before take-off.
Hong Kong to Saigon, like Hong Kong to Bangkok, is a relatively short flight at just over two hours. Unlike this morning's inaugural flight to Bangkok, the catering was kind of messed up, with 75% veggie meals loaded for the front cabin-- very odd. If you didn't like veggies and tofu, well, only twelve chicken meals were loaded for Polaris, maybe they had something in Premium Plus (premium economy) or economy? Not long after service was done, it was time to pack up all the swag we got and prepare for landing.
Tan Son Nhat International Airport had a warm welcome prepared for United's re-inaugural from Hong Kong to Saigon, complete with a host of dignitaries, including US Ambassador to Vietnam, Marc Knapper. Lots of speeches, a giant cake, a ribbon tearing (not cutting), and some very long lines for immigration (due to all the late-night arrivals to SGN-- this is a good place to have the APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC)) marked the rest of the arrival, which stretched late into the night before finally arriving at the hotel. And as late as the night was for myself, it ran even longer for Amy, Austin, Darci, and some others, who stayed at the airport to figure out their visa-on-arrival or their continued journey, either on the return inaugural (UA 153) back to Hong Kong, or on to a third destination such as Singapore.