Today is check-out day, so after breakfast, I took about an hour to walk back towards the dumpling restaurant I went to on Friday so that I could take some pictures; I had forgotten my camera the day before. Once that was done, it was time to check out, but my flight wasn’t until 5:45, so I just went down to the lobby to hang out. A friend came back from some shopping with a fake Android-powered iPad as well as an iPhoney (Chinese knock-off iPhone 4G with 2 SIM card slots) that also runs Android, so we played around with those for a little while, and then it was time to grab a cab to the Airport. Traffic was heavy considering it was Saturday afternoon, but cleared up once we got onto the airport express road. Interestingly, the airport express road has different speed limits (max and min) for each lane. So one lane was marked 120/90, the next 100/80, and the farthest right was 100/60, followed by a dedicated emergency vehicle lane. As with many traffic signs in Beijing, those all appeared to be mere suggestions. Other interesting sights on the way to the airport: a TRD (that’s Toyota Race Development) sticker on a Porsche Cayenne, and multiple cars with Transformers Autobot or Decepticon logos on them.
We found our gate and checked in, and they tried to put me on a Continental flight to Newark instead of my flight via Chicago because apparently my flight was oversold. I tried to talk my way into them just processing my pending systemwide upgrade on one of the two flights, but they wouldn’t do it, so I told them to just leave me where I was. That turned out to be a good plan, because the Newark flight ended up being delayed, and given the option, I’d much rather be stuck in Chicago for the night if I miss my connection. Security was uneventful, and like most non-US security, we were not required to remove our shoes, but most everything else was the same. No backscatter, just standard metal detectors.
Since one of the folks that was on the same flight as me is a 1K status elite frequent flyer on Star Alliance, he was able to bring me into the Air China lounge as a guest. We had some snacks and waited for our flight. I didn’t get my upgrade (thanks anyway, Elena!) but this was the same drill as on the way out, our jet wasn’t refurbished yet, and so business was just better seats and therefore I wasn’t necessarily missing a lot. I had an exit row, so I had plenty of legroom. I even was able to sleep a little. Food was basically the same as on the way out. Let me just say that it’s a good thing that they started charging for food on domestic flights, because it forced them to make it suck less so that they could actually charge for it. When you’re a captive audience and the food is complimentary, it’s every bit as bad as every comedian ever makes it out to be.
By the time we got off the plane, went through immigration (big line), got our bags (mine was waiting for me when I got to the carousel), went through customs, rechecked our bags, and went through security, it was 15 minutes until boarding started. I was supposed to go through the backscatter machine, but the person in front of me didn’t take off his belt, and therefore had to go through a pat-down, which for some reason caused them to close the backscatter line and wave me through the regular metal detector instead. I’m still not convinced that this backscatter thing is an improvement. The only time I’ve been through one it horribly delayed me, and while I couldn’t care less about the pseudo-nudity, I am a little concerned about the radiation exposure should one malfunction.
United had upgraded me on the Chicago flight, but since I was on someone else’s systemwide upgrade and it didn’t happen on the Beijing leg, I wasn’t about to let them waste it on a domestic flight, so I told them to pull that off of my ticket, which put me back in coach…for about 10 minutes, when my normal status-based upgrade came through. This plane, while also a 757, was not upgraded, so it was just nice seats and free drinks this time around, which was sort of disappointing, because I wanted to try out the lay-flat seats to see if I could get a little sleep. Either way, I got my bags, headed for the taxi stand only to find a 20 minute line for a cab. I think that my cabbie was having some trouble seeing in the dark, because he was doing a lot of weaving, especially when there were oncoming headlights. When we got to the house, he ran my credit card and gave me a slip without a tip line, and when I asked about adding a tip on the card, he said “can’t do it.” I responded, “I don’t have any US cash, I’ve been in China for 10 days”, and he said not to worry about it. I feel bad making him drive all that way with no tip, but I guess ultimately it was his call. By this time, it was well after 10pm, so I went inside, grabbed a quick snack, and then enjoyed being unconscious in my own bed for about 9 hours.
I should note that travel to Asia is always interesting because of the International Date Line. On the way out, you fly for 13 hours, but you leave Thursday evening and arrive Friday night. On the way back, because of the time change away from Daylight Savings Time, I actually traveled through time! I left Beijing at 5:45pm, traveled for 13 hours, and arrived back at Chicago at 4:40pm the same day, making it the longest Saturday ever.
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