The day of this flight is the 6th of June 2018, and we just arrived in Seattle on this flight (if you like boring stuff): viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1397987
What's sort of interesting is that Delta is discontinuing the route on October 4th, 2018 as per https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com ... hong-kong/ and https://thepointsguy.com/news/delta-end ... s-to-asia/, which of course is upsetting given that they were pretty crazy on this route the past few years and more recently swapped the A332 for a B77E for the route instead, and I also noted quite a few empty seats on this flight as well.
DL39 SEA-HKG
Seat: 49G (swapped to 49J)
Boeing 777-200ER
Depart: 13:59 (14:45)
Arrive: 18:25 +1 (18:19 +1)
Duration: 13:26 (12:34)
Registration: N860DA
Age: 19.3 years
After arrival we headed to the nearest Restrooms and looked to find our next flight, this one here, but we were very early and still couldn't see our flight on the board. We headed to the Planespotter's Heaven of SEA only to be stopped by renovation, bummer
.Of course I did not want to spend an eternity on my mobile so I decided to take a quick field trip to the S gates, where our flight inevitably would depart from. Besides, I haven't been there in well over 7 years!
The train to the S Gates
HU B789 to PVG
DL B77E (N867DA) inbound from HKG (and delayed due to the weather) and going to CDG
[img][img]https://i.imgur.com/7mX6dZq.jpg[/img][/img]
HA A332 to OGG
Another Look at that HU Dreamliner
Then I walked back, and now, the Dreamliner row, with the UA B73E to IAD in the forefront, and the DL B763 to NRT as DL167
And back again
MF B788 to SZX (very close to HKG)/XMN (I flew them last year, amazing product all along!)
MF B-2762 (Flew its sister last year, B-2763)
EK B77W to DXB
DU B788 to LGW at a remote stand
LH Queen (I would inevitably fly one of these too, in a bit!)
KE B77W to ICN
NH B788 to NRT
VS B789 to LHR
Interesting Mandarin Signage on this cart
DL A333 to AMS
HU B788 to PEK
Inter-Korean competition: OZ B77E to ICN
Our inbound plane (N860DA) was late about 2 hours from CDG, and HKG is having thunderstorms and rain all week, so a tiny delay is inevitable
Eventually we gathered around at gate S4 to see a line that was still.
At around departure time they began with Boarding and estimated an on-time gate arrival in HKG
Finally we see N860DA (sorry if blurry)
I made a deal with my mother to swap for the window seat
The seat itself: IFE and USB Charger (if you need an AC port snag a Y+ seat or preferred seat)
9 abreast economy, and 31-32 inch pitch!
View outside the wing
The wonderful and chatty FA distributed headsets, menus, and eye shade sets
Our British purser came on the PA system, which was a weird surprise, and informed us of our service today, and flight time of 12 hours and 37 minutes (which was actually shorter than that), and followed by Cantonese and Mandarin announcements (the latter two done by the same announcer)
Pushback was at 14:30 with quite a few empty seats
B717
DL A gate action
Concourse B
Rare sight: B6 Mint A321 at the B gates
AF B77E now at the S concourse (going to you-know-where)
C Gate Action (AS)
D Gates and N Gates (expansion in progress) (NK A320 and AS action)
OZ Cargo B74F
Amazon Primeair B76F
Omni Air Internation (OY) B763 and later I noticed that UA plane to the side is actually UA's first B737 MAX 9!
Weird plane and the interesting FI B752 on the ground
Turning onto the runway
Airborne
Tiny vessel down below
After takeoff arrival cards were handed out to non-citizens
Hot towel
View of the rather old cabin, note the empty seat ahead of us, and there were many of them. My father had one next to him too!
Old IFE with new UI, not too responsive to the touch
Drink service with snacks
Entertainment choices (don't judge me, I don't watch anything good on IFEs)
Lunch was of course a choice between Kung Pao Beef Rice, Seared Chicken Breast, and a Vegetarian Pasta, I of course chose beef
The food was really good and huge step up to what I was served 3 years prior, although the portion was a bit small.
Sort of cutlery
Water bottle
View of the front section
The back section where I am sitting (sorry for the poor quality)
Off the coast of Alaska
Over Russia
I fell asleep and was woken up by a family member since we had some snacks
The snack was a Bruchetta served with some wonderful Chocolaty Ice Cream, a huge step from the last time I flew with them, if you read my older reports you can see DL has had huge leaps.
What's also interesting is that they actually serve the exact same thing in Premium Select, their new Premium Economy section, which the author of this report enjoyed: https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/delta- ... 77-refurb/
Entering (or in) Chinese airspace
Going into Chinese Airspace for the final 4-5-ish hours, there was a lot of significant turbulence, which lead the seat belt sign being turned on for the rest of the flight.
1.5 hours shy of landing came a dinner service, which consisted of a choice between Farfelle Pasta with Chicken or Pork Lo Mein. I chose the latter which was amazing, and again the portion was small.
Interesting cloud formations along the islands
Remember, this is the Fragrant Harbor, there's definitely gonna be ships!
Landing was gentle at 18:19, plus one day
Touchdown in a foreign land, and note the many foreign carriers, and the BA A380 in the near distance
EK A380
3 A380's? Well LH is probably going to FRA, the latter two EK either to BKK or DXB
QF row
UA869, formerly served by the Queen, inbound from SFO
CA B738, would be flying them soon, and note that registration number, haha
Triple Seven row, save for that QF A333
Parked next to a SQ and LX B77W exactly on time.
Very shortly we deplaned the wonderful crew and experience, and my first time in Hong Kong. Immigration was short and soon we were on the Airport Express heading to Wan Chai, in downtown Hong Kong Island.
This experience was over the top and a reason why I'm pretty loyal to this airline. Hong Kong was a nice city, and unfortunately the weather didn't really cooperate with us during this visit. The next report is strictly non-flights and will post pretty much everything that we saw in the Fragrant Harbor.
Of course, I enclosed some more reading material prior to this trip, and to everyone, see you next time!
June 2015- BOI-SEA-PVG-NNG: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1366129&p=19615947#p19615947
July 2015- NNG-PVG-LAX-BOI: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1372557&p=19785787#p19785787
July 2017- BOI-SEA-SZX-NNG: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1377991
August 2017- NNG-XIY Part 1: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1379515&p=19980033#p19980033
Part 2: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1381965&p=20045355#p20045355
XIY-NNG - viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1383769
SZX-SEA: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1384405&p=20111067#p20111067
SEA-BOI: viewtopic.php?t=1391885
June 2018- BOI-SEA: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1397987
SEA-HKG: here
NNG-PEK, PEK-SFO, SFO-BOI: coming soon!
--bg