Singapore: October 2017
United's inaugural flight for a new (for United) route, Los Angeles to Singapore. Currently the longest flight for any US carrier at 8,770 miles, and currently the third longest currently flown by any airline.
A bunch of speeches and a big ceremony at LAX, including one by the Singapore ambassador, that I unfortunately missed! Amateur me had heard about the special menu items in the lounge and suspected they had something at the gate, but by the time I hauled my butt there through traffic I was distracted by hunger... so much fail!
Clearly lots of festivities going on even after the speeches, and a huge crowd at the gate. Lounge food was crab, roti, and some special stuff but not all that good, although clearly different than normal.
Business class was full of VIP's and media, apparently only two seats were for sale. The back was almost completely full; the head flight attendant was practically greeting a 1K flier in almost every row! Ended up seated next to a travel enthusiast even crazier than myself-- he was leaving SIN as soon as the flight landed to go to Seoul, to catch the final international 747 flight by United just a few hours after we landed in Singapore... that is nuts, and he wasn't the only one doing the same thing!
Just for good measure, snapped a few photos with former editor in chief of The Points Guy, Zach Honig, on the flight. As proof I was not only in the company of people crazy than I am, but paid professionals as well!