USA trip 27 April - 4 May 2014 Pt 2: The long haul flights

MH370 was in our minds, three of us but we don't think it too much. Besides, we were on Lufthansa and United Airlines. Not that both are clean of any incidents. You just need to google it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa#Accidents_and_incidents) for example. And who can forget 9/11? It was on United Airlines.

So the flights from KLIA to our transit, Frankfurt, Germany by Lufthansa was a little bit delayed. No worries as we have about 5 hours gap at the airport. It was a 12 hours flight. Then, an 8 hours flight from Frankfurt to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), New Jersey. I noticed that for the these western airlines, the steward and stewardess are older compare to the Asian airlines. I am not sure why but I don't see any difference in their service.

We arrived at EWR at about 2:00pm local time. We had booked an SUV earlier at Hertz so took a shuttle train. Unfortunately, Hertz cannot verify our license. They have their own international manual. It seems that on that manual, Malaysian license was inappropriately show the IC. Further it says that the driving license is permanent. Of course it did not tally with what we have. We have the pictured license and another one for renewal. No problem, we did business next door, at National. We got a KIA SUV.

Our assumption is that the bigger car rental is more fussy. The smaller one is less. Last year, we rented a sedan from Alamo. I think we are right on this assumption.

We checked in Crowne Plaza Princeton, after about a 45 minutes drive from EWR. A nice and comfortable hotel. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, the HR did not booked it with breakfast. So it make sense that we had to go out and buy ourselves supplies for tomorrow. But actually, we wanted to do some shopping for our families so buying supplies became secondary. Hari Raya is coming soon and nothing is better than buying the new pants and shirts in the USA ;).

Back in the room tired and red. Tomorrow will be more interesting. Meetings with people at the prestigious Princeton University. We have three meetings. We are hoping for the best.

Oh I forgot to mentioned that this time you don't need to be a full Professor at UTP to get a business seat. Due to a positive change on the entitlement late last year, any flights more than 8 hours will be upgraded to a business class seat. Great. First time on business class.

With my official mentor, Prof Ir Dr Fadhil Nuruddin. This is our 2nd trip overseas together. This selfie was asked by him OK, not me.

In business class, you'll get a recliner that can be 360 degree flat as if you are lying on your bed. Cool hahaha...

Also you get to hang out in the airport lounges where food and drink are free-flow.

At Frankfurt, we were taken in a bus to our flight. I guess this is not as modern as the newer airports.

It was about 5 or 6 Celcius.

Crowne Plaza Princeton reception.

The room.

The snacks/breakfast. I hid the party-size chips ;)