Hi everyone. This is the continuation of a brief RTW trip in April of 2015. The trip started out with a desire to sample Turkish Airlines and visit the city of Istanbul. It grew from there. The final product came in the form of: SNA-DEN-FRA-LHR-IST-PVG-SEA-LAX. For this journey I utilized Southwest Airlines, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Alaska Airlines.
I will break the journey down as follows:
Planning and LH DEN-FRA http://flight-report.com/en/report-10178.html
FCT and LH FRA-LHR http://flight-report.com/en/report-10216.html
LHR Lounges and TK LHR-IST http://flight-report.com/en/report-10275.html
TK Lounge, Istanbul, and TK IST - PVG http://flight-report.com/en/report-10328.html
DL PVG - SEA (This Report)
AS SEA - LAX (coming soon)
Let me preface this report by saying I didn't do a very thorough job of documenting this flight. At least not up to the standards of some of the other FRs on this site. I wasn't thinking about trip reports at the time so I wasn't as focused on capturing the details.
After a one night stay at a Sheraton it was time to head back to the airport. I was very ken to try the Maglev train from Pudong to PVG. I took a taxi from the Sheraton Shanghai Hongkou Hotel to the Maglev station, bought a ticket, and was off for the short ride to the airport.
Sorry for the blur…we were moving at quite a clip of 431km/h!
Maglev Station on the PVG side.
I am a departure board nerd.
PVG terminal 1. The last day of Delta ops to this terminal. Effective April 13th they co-located with MU in terminal 2.
Some spotting from the landside portion of the terminal. Interesting liveries that we don't see in the USA. Save for the Delta 767-300ER preparing to depart for NRT.
Terminal entertainment!
My original plan was to fly home PVG-NRT-LAX but the PVG-NRT flight was woefully oversold so there was no much hope of getting on. Same for just about everything ex. NRT so Seattle it would be!
I made a quick stop at one of the Priority Pass lounges on the way to the gate. I can't remember which one…68, 69, 22 something like that.
Good view from the lounge.
Daytime departure made for nice shots of our bird for today. I do like the long wing of the A330-200 in relation to the fuselage length. Reminiscent of the 777-200LR.
Boarding was well underway by the time I made it to the gate. The Sky Priority lane provided direct access to the gate but the secondary security was clogging up the boarding. It's such a perfunctory search I wonder how effective it is.
This A330-200 had the newer seat covers rolled out with the Delta One service.
New Delta One menu jacket and some bubbly wine too.
Slippers and welcome snack. The salty sweet almonds pair well with the bubbly. I wish they offered them again in flight.
This business class configuration was a stark contrast to the TK seats. While it is odd to say it, Delta is way ahead here. Great privacy and space in these seats.
Our neighbor.
A kind sendoff.
The queue for takeoff. The 747-8 followed by the 744 was cool to me.
Climbing out of PVG.
The service started very quickly. The purser took meal orders on the ground. The service was very rushed on the whole. It was as if the crew had somewhere else to be. Sleeping in the crew rest is probably the engagement they were in a hurry to make.
The senior female flight attendant on my aisle was friendly and willing to accommodate any request. She had a fun disposition which I appreciate.
The starter.
Soup of hot and sour and a salad with pears. Nice contrast.
Beef main. I picked at it. It was actually medium rare.
Some fruit, cheese, and ice cream. I like the ice cream plain. Odd, I know.
I slept hard after the cheese/dessert. I don't think I moved until breakfast was being served. This is a good sleeping seat which is just what I needed.
Breakfast.
Almost across the vast pacific.
Beautiful approach to Sea Tac.
View of the S gates from the A gates.
Thank you for sharing this FR with that has sunny photos of Shanghai AND Seattle, I'm speechless!
At least not up to the standards of some of the other FRs on this site.
- FRs, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. As long as their are pictures of planes and food, we are happy :)
The last day of Delta ops to this terminal. Effective April 13th they co-located with MU in terminal 2.
- Can definitely confirm this, T2 looked to be only SkyTeam and JL (big buddies with MU in Japan) when I was there. It's amazing how different T1 and T2 look, trust me, you didn't want to go into T2, lol. The lounges are probably universally bad at PVG.
It's such a perfunctory search I wonder how effective it is.
- Probably a liquids search.
Ohh! The new DeltaOne seats, first time on the site, unfortunately, nothing really changed under than the color of the pleather. Not the best of Cirrus products, but still a good seat.
Sleeping in the crew rest is probably the engagement they were in a hurry to make.
- Ohhh, a crew slumber party! That sounds like great fun.
Catering doesn't look the best, and that's surprising for DL, who should have very good catering. The presentation of the beef main can't even be compared to what you had with TK. I also thought the breakfast offering for this TPAC is pretty light, should be a much fuller tray, IMO. How many options were there for breakfast?
Thank you NGO85. I know there was a cereal choice for breakfast and perhaps another hot/savory. I need to do the menu photos/scans like you pro reporters do!
Ohh! The new DeltaOne seats
-Yes, indeed. Cosmetic only but I think they are quite nice looking.
Thanks for sharing this first report with the new Delta One rebranding. The seats look a little better/warmer with the new Delta One seat covers, but the cabins still looks too plastic-y and hospital-y. I was a Delta FF Elite for years and still believe DL is the bext of the US3 carriers. The catering is way ahead of what you would get on any other US carrier. Surprised that the service was rushed, anytime I've flown DL in J I found it almost slow, as they always do a proper service and don't shorten it too much on night flights. AA by contrast reserves soup for International First class only. No Soup for the poor people in Business! LOL. I always found DL's soups to be delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you KevinDC. I agree on the cabin aesthetic and the soup!
Did you ask: where's the fire?, when experiencing the hurry up, don't chew your morsels and fall asleep or I'll make you sleep emergency drill. DL does have a quiet cabin protocol on red-eyes.
The main was plated wrong. A steak is never drowned in sauce from the top. It makes it look like a stew. The broccoli florets should face up.
It is the second FR in this site, where the pax gives a low score for service, but has long uninterrupted slumber during most of the flight. Maybe, it was the right service for your needs and didn't even know it.
Thank you Caribel.
Maybe, it was the right service for your needs and didn't even know it.
-Ha! Very good point. After all that traveling and back-of-the-clock living sleep was the best service I could receive. I feel for the other passengers, some of which may have paid a nice sum to be up front, and I want them to have a proper service.
Hi! Thank you very much for this flight report!
As a Shanghai resident, I'd like to correct the information you wrote regarding a picture of Terminal 2. Delta used to be in Terminal 2 (the terminal you were at for your flight) and now they moved to Terminal 1 to be closer to their local partners China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines. Terminal 2 is predominantly catered by Oneworld and Star Alliance carriers while Terminal 1 sees SkyTeam carriers.
It is funny or just some strange coincidence that when I took this very same flight (albeit in the Delta+ cabin) in February this year, the aircraft was also parked in between an Aeromexico's 772 and SAS' A340!
Regarding the crew, I had a mixed bag of FAs. Some were funny and friendly, some were downright rude as in yelling to passengers and very abrasive. Luckily the FAs handling my section were the funny and friendly ones ;)
Anyway, once again thanks for this FR as it brought back some good memories. I look forward to see your next FR