Round The World and other travels

I had originally been assigned an aisle seat at KIX, but this was changed on request at the gate in HKG. Once I'd actually boarded, I was surprised that this had been possible, as the aircraft was packed! I wondered whether they'd bumped anyone out of 16K for a oneworld Emerald   Having experienced identical styles of business class seating in the 777 and A330, I was a bit surprised to see a quite different seat on this aircraft : a bit less substantial and not as comfortable! Somewhat controversially, I thought, there was no stowage space under the seat in front, which meant that, in theory at least, all items had to go into the overhead bins. I'd thought at first that there were no individual video screens, however it later transpired that there were. It's just that it took ages for anybody to work out how to use one. Interestingly, the flight was bound for Mumbai and Dubai (after Bangkok, obviously!) Blankets were offered and there was a hot towels service prior to departure.

We pushed back five minutes down at 1425 and I was intrigued to hear a BA-style "Doors to automatic and cross-check" announcement. (On previous flights, it had been "Cabin crew, kindly prepare the doors for departure and cross-check".) Take-off was at 1440, the front-wheel camera again relaying the action for those of us who like to watch these things.

With this being a shorter sector than HKG-KIX, it was interesting to note how the service was modified accordingly. There were no pre-dining drinks; it was straight into distribution of the trays. The service was notably more rushed and the menu was appropriately cut back as well :-