Taiwan - Flight

I've only been on "First Class" flights only 3 times in my life, until recently. The first one was for our honeymoon. The second time was for the doomed trip to Hawaii when Wifey was pregnant. We used upgrade miles to go from coach to first. It was odd, I would call the airlines from the hospital and say, "Ummm, something has come up...can you push our flight back one day?" And they would cheerfully answer, "Sure!". No re-ticketing charge, nothing. And then the third time was when we burned through a pile of frequent flier miles - that trip was not as fun because we flew on a very old plane which limited the amenities.

And this time, my cousin upgraded me to First class (US flights) and Business class (international), which are equal in service.

Ahhh, Business class. I forgot what First/Business was like. They have a printed menu for you to choose your various starter meals and main course.

Started with salad with cold chicken.


Main course of shrimp and noodles.

Snack
I'm not sure if this was lunch or dinner since we were flying into the sun the entire time.

all that above was just Dallas to Narita (13 hours). During this flight, for each meal me and my seatmate (a Japanese guy younger than me and who I didn't speak to except to ask him to let me get past him to go to the bathroom) whipped out our cameras and took pictures of each of our meals.


Once I got to Japan, I was really curious about the flight from Tokyo to Kaohsiung. I was going to fly Japan Airlines, famed for still providing good customer service on flights.

And sure enough, on the 4 hour flight, they served a sushi box and offered free beer and wine (which I typically don't partake).

This is the flight from Tokyo. 8 tiny little dinner surprises, a packet (lower right) of hot, steaming rice, and a Hagen-Dazs ice cream at the bottom.

And this is the flight back from Kaohsiung to Tokyo.

Very impressed with JAL. This was literally a cattle car coach flight (coulda sworn the seats were smaller than US planes, but maybe because I spent 13 hours in business my sense of reality was warped).

JAL had:

• The name of the captain, first officer and head flight attendant listed at the bulkhead as you entered the plane. This was their ship and their responsibility.
• A flight attendant, on the jet bridge, bowing you welcome when were stepping onto the plane.
• Young, thin, pretty women as flight attendants - wouldn't be able to get away with that on a US-based carrier.
• Giving you FOOD and drinks on a flight! In the US we'd be lucky if they'd consider tossing us a bag of pretzels for a flight that lasted 4 hours.

Unfortunately, on the trip from Narita to LA, I was on my second meal in business class when I remembered I was supposed to take pictures of my meals - so I didn't on the return trip.