Round The World and other travels

I noticed from my Boarding Pass that the class of service on this flight was designated Royal Executive, rather than Royal Silk. I wondered whether this was the name for domestic business class, although the situation was complicated by the fact that the flight was continuing to two international destinations, Hong Kong and Taipei. A bit ironic that the plane was going to Hong Kong, my ultimate destination for the day!

I was allocated seat 11A, which is actually the first row. I noticed immediately that this aircraft did not have those swish sleeper seats, but rather a more basic design, in 2+2+2 configuration. The J cabin was perhaps 85% full, but the spaces were all at the front. Even better, the seat next to me was empty, leaving plenty of room for all the bits and pieces that I like to keep handy. I had a pre-departure orange juice; lemon tea was also offered. There was also a hot towels service (extremely hot, I might add!) on the ground at Phuket.

We pushed back exactly on schedule at 1305 and, with the very short taxi to the runway, we had to sit for a few minutes while the safety demonstration was completed. We accelerated hard along the runway, lifting into the sky at 1314 on my watch, then climbing to a cruising altitude of 33,000ft. There was a fixed meal of fresh fruit, followed by a delicious combination of duck breast with noodles and some indeterminate greenery. Dessert was a small piece of peach-coloured Swiss roll. The drinks service consisted of a selection of pre-poured soft drinks only!   I had water.   Eventually, tea and coffee were offered and I had a cup of coffee.

The crew seemed to be in a great hurry to clear up : there were no second drinks, either hot or cold. This seemed strange as we still had a good 50 minutes to run. It was a fairly bumpy flight, but the seat belts sign stayed off during the cruise. We landed at Bangkok at 1427 and pulled onto our remote coaching stand at 1433.