Round The World in First

SQ 25 JFK-FRA

The JFK Ground Experience, aka... How can a such a great in flight airline be so horse crap on the ground?
SQ needs to do some serious reflection on the entire JFK ground experience, which dismayed me and brought Mrs. SFO to question my sanity and why the hell we aren't flying LH? I believe her words were "we left a day early and stopped in NY for this crap, when we could have flown LH nonstop?"

Our Dial 7 driver dropped us off at T-4 at approximately 6:15p after a 75 minute rush hour trek. The need for all pax to schlep bags from check-in to baggage screening caused a line that one needed to "cut" to get to the First Class counter. After tagging, a porter took our checked bags and hauled them away presumably to security, although I did ask the check-in agent whether he was supposed to take them.

Then it was off to the VS Clubhouse, where I hoped to relive my great experience of a couple years ago. The Clubhouse dragon has a list of SQ First pax and we were welcomed to the lounge. Unfortunately, there were so many people in the lounge, that we couldn't find any open seating pairs other than in the closet alcove at the back of the lounge, where the AC was working overtime and CNN was a loud annoyance.

After a quick scouting trip, we moved to the relative tranquility of the LX Lounge... much more relaxing but minus the service of the Clubhouse with clearly lesser business class offerings.

Can LX find any cheaper booze??

I checked back twice at the VS Clubhouse but nothing had changed... overcrowded with no acceptable pair seats available.

SQ25
JFK-FRA
9:25pm-11:05am +1
September 14, 2010
747-400
First Class
Seats 3CD

At around T-70 minutes, we decided to head for security and A6. The A2-7 security and gate situation was the same third world experience if not worse than last time. Although there was priority security, the economy security line moved faster than F/J especially with numerous flight crews cutting the line.

Gate A6 was utter chaos. A sea of gate lice everywhere with no announcements from the SQ (presumably contract) employees. The GA finally announced boarding for First and Business pax. Naturally 50-60 people tried get around, over or through dozens of economy pax blocking the way. What an absolute disgrace. With only 7 pax in First, is it too much to announce and board First pax first??

On board and up in the pointy end, it was calm and serene but Mrs. SFO was in a bad mood, not at enamored by the cramped seat and closed-in feeling compared to her favorite SFO-MUC LH 346. "We left a day early for this?'" From SFO-Europe, clearly LH and now LX are the only refined options. Not many people would put up with the crap on the ground at JFK. Indeed I doubt I would do another one from JFK until it figures out how to leave the third world, but rather start from IAH or just go west from civilized SFO.

Mr. and Mrs. SFO, would you like some Dom? OK, I'm starting to feel a little better.

Tonight's menu presented at the gate and while we were enjoying our Dom...

Pages of tonight's menu. For all the options, the one thing that struck me was, other than exceptional champagnes, the wines were pretty pedestrian and disappointing. The 2006 Buena Vista Chardonnay and the 2007 Robert Mondavi Cab. You cannot be serious? These selections are something I would expect on American or United, but Singapore? Wow. Hopefully the six wine Burgundy 1er cru tasting flight I read about in the Wall Street Journal last week will be featured on our LHR-SIN and HKG-SFO flights. And I thought our FA took glasses a little early, at the end of push back, compared to LH where they will remove just prior to take-off roll or not at all.

Dinner
Desserts and Cheeses
Champagnes and White Wines
Red Wines and Ports
Cocktails
All-Time Favorites
Spirits
Coffees
Coffees
Teas

Taking dinner orders...

Chilled malossol caviar, with crackers instead of the palate killing Melba Toast...

Chilled Belvedere vodka, much better than the Smirnoff swill served on LH...

Gotham chilled melon mint salad with lime vinaigrette, radish, duck proscuitto and smoked paprika (from Alan Portale of Gotham Bar and Grill)...

Roasted tomato soup with herb and parmesan croutons and sour cream...

In between my many glasses of Dom (I heard at least three corks popped tonight and I had clearly lapped the field in the cabin consumption stakes), I opted for the pleasant Louis Jadot Clos Vougeot Grand Cru..

Salad of assorted heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, rucola and basil served with Balsamic and virgin olive oil dressing...

Our excellent BTC Lobster thermidor...

Warm apple-rhubarb pie served with vanilla ice cream and raspberry coulis...

California vella dry jack and comte cheeses served with fruit paste, grapes, walnuts and Taylor's 20 Year Tawnny Port.

Le Meurice
Deluxe Junior Suite with Eiffel Tower View
Virtuoso amenities including full American Breakfast, late check-out but no upgrade offered.

Paris (Gare du Nord) to London (St. Pancras) via Eurostar
The next part of our trip was quick 2:15 trip from Gare du Nord to St. Pancras, on the way to LHR. A far cry from newer St. Pancras, Gare du Nord is pretty old and run down, with a 20 minute queue passport control, UK immigration, and security. Boarding with a few hundred new friends was a little crowded and chaotic as the GA opened the doors and the masses crowded the door from multiple directions. I think the secret here is to simply board later.

The seats are still the same reasonably comfortable ones that I recall from two years ago. And fortunately, our car was the least full of the cars I saw. But what's the deal with no wifi?
Thalys has had wifi for at least a couple of years now.

As others have noted, a noticeable decline in premium service. Although friendly and hard working, cabin staff was hard pressed to serve 5 or 6 cars in the allotted time. In car 10, service began about 90 minutes after departure, or as we entered the tunnel. Prior to that, I found the bar car and bought some snacks.

Gone is a full meal, replaced by a "light snack". Stuffed conchiglie pasta with parmesan cream, marinated green and black olives with olive oil oil and herbs, Lyon salami with rushed walnuts... all reasonably tasty.

In contrast to Gare du Nord, St. Pancras is bright, clean and nice way to arrive in London.

Seems like Eurostar's strategy is to cut back on service in Standard Premier (the old Leisure Select), making more of a distinction between Business and Standard with the goal of up-selling the Business cabin.