Dragonair is the budget airline affiliate of Cathay Pacific, one of the best Asian carriers out there. Unlike the excellent CX, however, Dragonair's Airbus planes are smaller and less equipped. There are no fancy entertainment systems and freely available iPads on board. In my flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong, they didn't even one of those 80s front panels where you'd have to stretch your neck to see the leggy leading ladies in the latest Hollywood flick. No touch screen monitors or foldable screens. No in-flight wireless. My assessment of my flight? Just about perfect.
The Luxuries
I don't know why people yak on about wireless on a flight - it's one of the few moments during a vacation you can just disconnect and be free from the Internet's incessant notifications and iOS prompts to update apps. Yeah, I worked on a blog article, an XML and a Docbook document at the airport and on the flight, but that's me.
I got to read a paper (PAPER!) version of Fortune magazine and just felt happy thumbing through the publication with my fingers. The article about Lenovo jumped out of the page in a way it wouldn't have if I was reading from Safari. Flipboard is awesome but having the opportunity to crumple, fold, and smell paper/ink is priceless. Fortune magazine has significantly trimmed their page count and it was even thinner than the in-flight magazine (which I tucked into my carry-on as always).
Power sockets and Batteries
I will admit my expectations when flying are generally low. It was a few days after Dragon Boat Festival and I was lucky to get a largely empty flight. However, it wasn't the extra legroom or empty seats next to me that made me grateful - it was the two available power sockets on my row.
I had been plugging away at a Docbook article at Pudong International for a few hours and was running low on battery when I boarded flight KA865 so I was extremely pleased to see the 110 V, 60Hz power plug on my seat - and with no complaining neighbor to prevent access to boot. Now, with my iPod Touch and iPad at 100% battery life and with several dozen ebooks, 1980s Spider-Man comic books, BBC podcasts, and an unfinished Linux Action Show episode on my devices, I had plenty of entertainment available. However, I just felt like working on XSLT and an EPUB DTD at the time (Yeah, some vacation). And frankly, having a power source for the Toshiba NB520 netbook during the short 2 hour and 10 minute flight was just convenient.
Front-seat tray sizes haven't changed much from the 80s (though in some flights they have noticeably grown smaller) but a netbook fits perfectly on it with no danger of it falling off or jiggling during turbulence. Six rows behind me, a gentleman was doing his best to fit his 14" Dell Inspiron and mouse on the tray while a smug Macbook user was struggling to get a full view of his Retina screen (the lady in front of him decided to decline her seat). I grinned, however, at the businessman who was toting his Kindle.
New Rules
Silk Road, Dragonair's in-flight magazine, lists a lot of restrictions about electronic devices in the Safety Section. Moreover, the new rules against storing extra batteries in the check-in luggage are published at length along with informative illustrations at the back of the publication. Considering how hard-headed passengers are, I'm glad they repeat the precautions in the magazine though I'm not sure how useful the battery warning is when you're already onboard.
Candy, the lovely Dragonair flight attendant on our flight, offered fish with pasta or pork with rice during lunch. After the excellent meal, I was surprised that she went another round with a basket of 75ml strawberry cups of Haagen Dazz. ICE CREAM. HAAGEN DAZS. Some people may think there's absolutely no relation between ice cream and tech. I like to put forward that there's nothing like ice cream, a power socket, paper magazines, a bit of XML, and a stable tray for a great flight. Two thumbs up Dragonair!
Note: This is not a paid endorsement. I was actually going to write a tutorial about the EPUB XSL Stylesheet but got distracted by the ice cream.
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