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
6:00am came all too early, but thanks to the hotel taking great care of our friend Sue, we were all able to pile into a van for the quick drive to the airport, and by 6:15am we were greeting fellow inaugural flight chasers by the United ticket counter at Hong Kong International Airport. Not too long after, we were greeted by Marcel Fuchs, vice president Atlantic and Pacific Sales, United Airlines, and the rest of his team, shortly before we all crossed through security and immigration to head for the newly reopened United Club.
Closed for several years, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our hopes of it being renovated in the meantime were dashed as soon as we stepped foot inside-- and clearly the menu had not changed much either, outside of a celebratory whole roast pig to celebrate the re-opening. Still, it almost didn't matter, as tons more friends awaited us inside, many having just arrived on the late flights from LAX and SFO. Jay and Bob, Warren and his parents, Amanda and her father, purser Amy (flying on her own dime!) from SFO, Astin, Katy and Robert, Sue, Alice, Darci, Mark, Phil, and many others. There was much caffeine consumed, more introductions with the United team, ceremonial cutting of the pig, and then we all headed to the gate for additional ceremonies.
Scott and several other frequent fliers/inaugural flight chasers met us at the gate, including some new friends-- Doug and some others? And can't forget, @laxtoluxury and United's social media team plus film crew did their thing, including interviewing John, a United frequent flier flying his 3,000,000th mile on the HKG-BKK inaugural. Captain Warner and his mostly LAX-based crew shared the headlines with Marcel Fuchs, Ken Kiriyama, Nancy Lyu, and other senior people from his team, several dignataries from both Thailand and Hong Kong, and of course, the obligatory ribbon cutting before boarding started.
Once on-board it was a buzz of activity, not to the same level as the Greenland inaugural, but still tons of excitement. Amy's colleague from SFO, Jane, was also on-board and flying for fun, and between her and Amy I think they knew almost the entire crew-- plus Amy's own swag along with the official United Airlines inaugural flight swag (to go with Amanda, Warren, and Jay's swag most of us got in the club!). With a flight barely over two hours long, it was a quick service and just enough time to socialize before arrival. Kra pow, sticky rice, and yeow teow was the veggie meal (not bad, actually some spice!), the chicken was the other, and everyone in Polaris got both a chocolate croissant (meh) and a steamed bun to go with it.
Water cannon salute on arrival at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, and then a relatively restrained celebration on landing due to the passing of the Queen Mother. Still a ton of excitement, and the day was just getting started. Those of us doing the inaugural flight double-header unfortunately could not linger for celebrations, and had to say farewell to the sane ones only doing HKG-BKK, as we ran off to catch our return flight to Hong Kong.