On Asian Airlines.
I have flown across the Pacific a lot. Here's a list of some of the cities and carriers.
Landing in: {Tokyo (HND, and NRT}, Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney}; connecting to: {KL, Manila, Bali, Fiji, Manado) on (Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Malaysia Airlines.) Fair warning, until this year it was always first or biz (miles!)
Not one of those was a work trip. All fun, all the time.
Asian airlines, especially flag carriers are usually wonderful. Japan Airlines is a constant disappointment. They actually suck.
Bad food. I don't know how but it's always bad.
Bad schedules - maybe because I'm booking on American. Still: daylight TransPac flights and massive airport changes (NRT <-> HND is easy but non-trivial in terms of time and effort.)
Lousy on time performance. I don't think any of my JAL flights have left within 20 minutes of schedule or landed within 30. This time were 4 minutes late leaving the gate. But stood short of the runway for another 30+ minutes while at least a dozen aircraft landed. The airport is very much runway limited like LGA or BOS. (I'll choose it over NRT EVERY time though.)
Language problems. The Korean staff for Asiana speaks English very well (American soldiers in your country for 70 years can do that.) Singapore, Cathay and Malaysia are all former British colonies...OK But this is unacceptable.
The airline and the airports do not wish to speak English (their choice). Japan's reputation for xenophobia is massively overstated according to some kind who spent time here. They said it was not problematic. Maybe it was youth on their part?
Gate agents again were a stunning mess.
The health section of all the airport stores is labeled 100% in Japanese and the staff are unwilling to help. I wanted some Gas-x or Smethicone before the flight. I could not check the ingredient list. Yeah, it's a good thing I have an empty seat next to me. (I usually carry it with me. Put it in my checked bag foolishly. Planes always make me fart and burp. Physics).*
Flight crew is not close to fluent - an international requirement. English is the official language of the seas and air. All crew-to crew, vessel to land comms are required to be done in English but International law. Cabin crew have to give the safety warnings in English. English is the world's second language. the Japanese are not living up to the necessary standards.
Oh, you cannot use your own headphones with their IFE system. Stupid and annoying.
Malaysia Airlines (NOT MalaysiaN, Malayisa; "MH") has free high speed wi-fi on EVERY flight now.
JAL charged me $18.80 for absurdly slow service. One that blocks YouTube; will not load the pictures on the NYT home page (Oh, but the ads show up.) Unconscionable.
Well, at least like all Asian airlines, the female staff are always pretty. (I may be biased but the crews on MH and CX are the most truly gorgeous women in the air!) It's eye candy. But overtly sexist and misogynistic.
To their credit, MH hires Muslim women and they wear their tudongs. They also hire men - something I have not seen on JAL, and don't recall on the others.
The CX and MH outfits are stunningly beautiful as dresses - mostly modern, sleeek, and modest (except for the necklines) and show Malay designs. The Straights of Malacca Airlines look better and sell the sexiness a lot more subtly (and thus more successfully to my eye.) Their commonication skills are flawless.
JAL is vastly overated and I will avoid flying them whenever possible. Without.
Alas, MH no longer flies the Transpac routes anymore. I hope they return.
Singapore (SQ) is in the wrong alliance. Unless Star Alliance will match my lifetime level on OneWorld.
Looks like I'll be flying Cathay Pacific via HKG going forward.
I wish OneWorld flew to Korea.
Panasonic and Japan Airlines
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The Ideal Gas Law:
PV = nrT
P = Presssre
V = Volume
T = Temperature
n is a constant: 6.02 X 10^23 = the number of atoms in a Mole (a standard measure) of gas under standard conditions.
r is another constant hat is gas specific.
If the pressure exerted on the gas in your body goes down. It does, the plane is pressurized to ~8,000 AMSL. That means the temperature of said gas must fall. Or, The volume must grow. This is not rocket science. Physics 101...literally in 1982 for me.
The gas in your body expands as you go higher. You fart. You burp. You get bloated.
Every SCUBA diver learns this law but for different reasons. Reasons that make me pee.
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