Kudos to United!

After we finally left Alaska and proceeded across the Pacific to Hong Kong, they decided that the best thing to do is herd us all together and harangue us to take $200 and a hotel room to stay standby on the next day's flights. Now it's not that they didn't realize for eleven or twelve hours that there was a 747 three days late out of Chicago looking for connections, or that they might be tired and cranky after the flight, but rather than expedite matters, they delayed, then delayed some more.

I finally got the camcorder out and started obviously taking pictures. I know the female United employee didn't like it. They suddenly realized they could expedite things by escorting groups through another security post and up to regular United desks. We got put on the waitlist, which we didn't realize. Thong went to call his sister, when another fellow traveler pointed out the waitlist. We went to the gate and there they bumped us up to business class. My first time on the top floor of a 747!

The United cabin crew has been a bit sharped tongued once in a while, but otherwise pretty great. The United ticket agents, with the exception of a few in Chicago and the final one we hit in Hong Kong, not so spectacular. Their systems don't degrade well. Traveling in Business Class was a riot, although I spent most of the time watching Bottle Shock.

Sai Gon

Two of Thong's brothers and Tin met us at the airport. We still have not found one piece of luggage, which wasn't a bad thing since the taxi was rather crowded. We took the taxi back to the house, and handed out a lot of the suitcases. Plans are to head for the ocean for a couple of days to recover from jetlag and United.