Needless to say, the plane facilities and the service of SIA is always top-notch. It wasn't really that bad as i had thought it would be (due to the long hours).
The flying time was 12.50 hours, but it didn't feel like such long hours at all. I had a nap and watched two movies. One was a HK movie, the second series of "赤壁之战" (The War of the Red Cliff), and another one was an English movie titled "Closer", which talks about betrayal in relationships.
Ironically, one of the scenes in that moive was that when the lead actress found out that about her boyfriend's betrayal, she cried and said to him, "No one will love you as much as I do. Why isn't love enough?" And another scene when she was ending the relationship with him, "Yes, I would have loved you... forever. Now, please go." These lines sound so familiar.
Anyway, i had actually been to Zurich before, about 8 years ago when YY and i were sent to Munich for training, we travelled there by train over weekend with another ex-colleague. YY and i weren't couple yet, and our feelings for each other blossomed during the trip.
As the flight was landing in Zurich, i looked out of the window and saw a breath-taking scenery, which was something that we missed out many years back because we did not enter Zurich from the air.
The mountainous terrain
The picturesque landscape
The Zurich airport wasn't really that impressive though. Probably i can't comment much since i didn't really go around except just moved to the transit gate. Yet, the gate area seemed to be too small when there were many passengers, and the whole process flow of printing our boarding passes and asking us some security questions was rather chaotic. It was a mess when the gate was open for boarding.
The connecting flight was two hours later from Zurich to Philadelphia on US Airways. If i were to describe this leg of the journey, i'd just use two words, "it sucks".
Sorry to say but US Airways was bad. It felt as if i was travelling on a long-haul budget airlines. Actually the more i travel to other airports and on other airlines, the more i can understand why Changi Airport and SIA can always occupied the top seat. Really, there's simply no comparison.
The plane of US Airways wasn't well-maintained and you could tell that it was really old.
Broken magazine holder
Torn carpet
Emergency door with broken side
Not only that, the food sucked and the flight attendants were also very cold, or almost rude! The service was bad. For instance, for a long 9 hours flight, the flight attendants only appeared before taking off, landing and when they were serving food. Other time, they didn't even walk down the aisle to see if any passengers need anything, unlike what SIA flight attendants would do. And i'm not even gonna mention their attitude!
Throughout the journey, there weren't anything much to read, nothing to watch (as there was only one big screen on the wall), and i couldn't sleep either because there was this beeping sound from the broadcast speaker every 5 to 15 minutes. I do not know what it was, but it just kept beeping (as if the pilot was about to make announcement) for the entire flight. I just couldn't sleep at all with that kind of noise.
Really, if it isn't for the air miles (US Airways was one of the Star Alliance member) and also no other flight coming into Philadelphia, i'd never take this airlines again.
We arrived at Philadelphia earlier than scheduled (even though the flight was actually delayed by 30 min at Zurich!). We passed through the custom clearance with some questions asked. The company had already arranged for a driver to pick us up from the airport. It was about an hour drive from Philadelphia to Reading. It was already 4pm+ when we reached the hotel.
I'd leave the rest of the day to tomorrow, as i'm really exhausted now. It's 9.30pm already (but i'll leave the post time as SG time zone), and just nice for me to go to bed. Hopefully this will help to adjust my biological clock to overcome the jet lag.
Labels: travel
