Pilot?

A few hours after the application.

Congratulations. You have been shortlisted for the AirAsia Cadet Pilot program. We will be inviting all shortlisted candidates to the first stage exam in batches, throughout year 2012. The exam is based on SPM syllabus consisting of Maths, Physics, English and I.Q Test. Please wait for the invite.

New York with AF A380

This is my first TR so before I start, I would like to apologise for the lack of details in this report. I hope you enjoy my experience.

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AF006 CDG-JFK

Date: 16 Jan 2011

ETD: 13h30 ATD: 14h00

ETA: 15h35 ATA: 15h37

Seat: 93K,L

The decision to go to NY was so random. I wanted to actually travel domestically within France (I almost bought a ticket from Bordeaux to Strasbourg) but was so tempted with the offer to NY. The standard promotional fare for CDG-JFK-CDG was about 430€ which my friend paid but I managed to get a ticket at 399€, just by starting my trip from BOD.

After a long and tiring week of exams, the day had finally arrived. I left home in Pau a day earlier to crash at a friend's apartment in Bordeaux. My flight was at 10am and I wouldn’t make it if I were to depart from Pau on the same day. My friend who was with me to NY was sleeping over at his friend's house in Paris.

I arrived at CDG at around noon. After getting off the plane, I went straight to terminal 2E where my friend was waiting for me. The security was hassle-free and I got there in about 20 minutes.

Our flight departed from the gate E57. When my friend and I arrived at the gate, there were already two long lines although the boarding has not even started. Frankly, I don't see the point of queuing up since the seat has already been assigned. We decided then to explore the terminal and ended up taking a few pictures.

The boarding was almost complete by the time we got back to the gate. We joined the line and were suddenly greeted by an agent who checked our passport. It was good to know that he was actually a Malaysian and we had a short conversation before entering the aircraft.

We boarded through the first door on the main deck and were directed to the upper deck economy section which is situated at the rear of the aircraft. Our seats were 94 K and L. When we got there, there was a crew who I thought a police at first because of the "agent de sécurité" badge on his shirt. We exchanged "bonjour" with the steward and finally settled down in our seats.

We departed slightly behind schedule and after a few minutes airborne, the same steward came and distributed the amenity kit consisting of an eyeshade, earplugs, earphones and cold towel and also menu for lunch. He asked us where we came from and when we said Malaysia, he replied "Selamat Petang"(Good Evening) and "Apa Khabar" (How Are You) to us. It turned out that he had been to Malaysia before. He talked about the places he has been to and also an ironic joke about the orang utans in Malaysia.

After about two hours into the flight, the meal was served. Special meals were handed out first (ours were special meals) and followed by the normal meal (choice between lamb or salmon for the main course). I don't know whether it is just me or the meal was really smaller compared to what we can find on other carriers. Despite that, it was delicious.

The inflight entertainment was just like other carriers. There are films, music, games and flying maps. The movies offered were relatively new but somehow, I was interested in none of them. I ended up listening to music and playing games instead. After a while, I changed it to the maps and left it like that until we landed. We also took a look at the lower deck in order to kill time.

About one hour before landing, the snack was served. It was a cheese sandwich accompanied by biscuits, a small bottle of yogurt drink and a small cup of orange juice. Coffee or tea was also offered.

Our flight landed on time at JFK. Before leaving the aircraft, the Malay-speaking steward wished us "Selamat Petang" and the stewardess who was in charge of the cabin jokingly said "vous pouvez rester ici et retourner en France ce soir " (you can stay here and return to France this evening) after seeing us taking time to leave the aircraft. We just smiled and wished them good bye. At the immigration counter, everything went smooth at first but just like last year, we were asked to undergo extra administrative processing. It took us about 4 hours before we finally managed to pick up our bags and headed to the city centre.

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A few photos of NY

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AF007 JFK-CDG

Date: 22 Jan 2011

ETD: 19h05 ATD: 19h05

ETA: 08h30 ATA: 08h28

Seat: 93K,L

Captain: Patricia Haffner

We arrived at the airport at around 15h and directly checked our bags in. The agents were really friendly; they made jokes and seemed in a good mood. Having about 4 hours to kill, we visited all other terminals and after a short nap on a comfortable chair at terminal 7, we headed back to terminal 1.

There was no problem at the immigration and we were airside in less than 10 minutes. We spent time wandering at duty free shops and watching a football match while waiting for boarding.

There wasn't much difference in the inbound flight compared to the outbound except for the notable bigger main course and an awkward conversation with a clueless stewardess;

"C'est pas celui-ci(appareil) qui a fait un demi-tour après avoir décolé pour montréal?"

"Isn't this the one who made a detour after taking off for montreal?"

"ah bon, pourquoi?"

"***, why?"

"errr, à cause d'un boîtier d'écran...?"

"errr because of an IFE box....?"

"je savais pas . Peut être"

"I didn't know. maybe"

At this point, the awkwardness was really high. I decided then to go back to my seat while she continued to read her magazine. She was actually the same stewardess who told me that the duty free sale would began shortly but didn't call me when it has started. When I went to see her again after a few hours, she said that it has already closed. She told me to go downstairs and checked with her colleague. The stewardess downstairs was reluctant to reopen the sale at first but after explaining the misunderstanding, she finally sold me the item I wanted. I hope this didn't cost her the job.

The arrival at CDG was greeted by a cold officer who just shook his head as a sign for me to find another counter though the sign at his booth clearly showed "OPEN - ALL PASSPORTS".

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Overall the service and the hard product were decent. The new A380 was spacious and the fact that the steward talked to us in Malay made us feel a little bit special although we were just flying economy class.

The food was fine even though the portion can be a little bit small for certain people.

The most negative point was the inflight entertainment. They could have loaded more interesting movies so that passengers could have more things to occupy themselves. (personal opinion).

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Credit to my friend for all the photos

Comments are welcomed