Gary Wong Gary Wong

Pacific Northwest, January 16-20, 2025

Hey, a trip report! It’s been a hot minute, I know.

This trip came about for an absolutely absurd reason - I had Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUC) from Delta that were use it or lose it by January 31 and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna lose them after spending an equally absurd money with Delta in 2023. But to actually use them had proven harder than I had anticipated, with several waitlist attempts in 2024 going by the boards. Finally, I settled on finding Delta One or First Class experiences I wanted to try in January, reasoning that the Main Cabin MQDs would get me going on the next status quest for 2025.

#PNWDoubleDip

Hey, a trip report! It’s been a hot minute, I know.

This trip came about for an absolutely absurd reason - I had Regional Upgrade Certificates (RUC) from Delta that were use it or lose it by January 31 and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna lose them after spending an equally absurd money with Delta in 2023. But to actually use them had proven harder than I had anticipated, with several waitlist attempts in 2024 going by the boards. Finally, I settled on finding Delta One or First Class experiences I wanted to try in January, reasoning that the Main Cabin MQDs would get me going on the next status quest for 2025.

In the end, I settled on a round-trip to Seattle so I could fly on an A321neo in First Class on their newest hard product with, if you believe the decidedly mixed reviews, an emphasis on hard.

The reviews were not wrong. These seats are haaaaard. On a two-three hour flight, they’re perfectly fine though woe be unto you if you are in the window seat in a non-bulkhead row and one or both seats in the row in front of you have reclined - you’re gonna have one hell of a time trying to get into the aisle. The problem is that this is the seat they’re putting on planes intended for narrowbody transcontinental flights and these seats just do not have enough padding on them for a transcontinental flight. You will absolutely feel it on your butt and tailbone on a longer flight. My advice? Sit on the provided pillow if you don’t need it for sleeping.

It wasn’t all bad for the hard product - the large IFE and the Bluetooth connectivity for headphones were absolute highlights. Leg room too but, again, if the seat in front of you reclines, they’re kinda on top of you. As for the soft product, the preorder-only Beef And Lamb Kofta was a welcome change of pace from the usual beef short rib dish. As with most times, the service in First Class was pleasant and attentive.

After landing in Seattle a little before 11 pm, it was off to a hotel by the airport. Why? So I could catch an early flight to my actual destination for this trip - Vancouver. Excepting a three-hour detour in Windsor while in Detroit back in 2023, this would be my first extended stay in Canada since the pandemic.

Man, did I miss this country. Man, did I enjoy my time in British Columbia. Sure, if I were into snow stuff like skiing or snowboarding, coming here in winter would make more sense. Even still, it turned out to be a great deal warmer in Vancouver than it was in New York City while I was out there so this was practically a winter escape 😂.

Vancouver is a lovely city though it is most certainly not a big city - you can pretty much walk and see all of its downtown in a day, maybe two. Its beauty, really, is in its immediate surroundings with majestic mountains and bodies of water. I’m certain I lucked out with respect to weather in January as it was incredible bright sunshine all three days I was there.

On most trips, I try to hit a museum or some other cultural institution but since the temperatures while I was there were positively balmy, I took full advantage of it, spending the majority of my time outdoors. There were the nine miles (14ish kilometers since this is Canada) of walking on Friday in Downtown and East Vancouver as I pinged between restaurants and breweries, the four hours spent on Saturday wandering around Granville Island, and then a late Sunday afternoon into early evening at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. Oh, and a couple of 7ish mile runs, to boot.

The Food and Drinks

Obviously, all that time spent outdoors in the winter, even if it was somewhat mild, worked up an appetite for some food. Vancouver certainly didn’t disappoint in that respect and with the exchange rate being what it was, it was practically free. Alright, not quite, but not having to calculate sales tax on top of the bill meant less of a sticker shock at the end though the increasingly ubiquitous service charge made its appearance at more than a few stops.

The standout meal in Vancouver would have to be the one at PiDGiN, an Asian-European restaurant in Gastown. I enjoyed every bite I had there but the foie gras rice bowl was just outstanding and deserving of being singled out. The szechuan pepper beignet was a lot of volume at end of the meal but the tingling numbness from the peppercorns made for a really nice savory-sweet finish.

Of course, no trip is complete without hitting a few local breweries and bars; I managed to get to seven breweries in Vancouver, six of them alone on the first afternoon in town, all of which were no more than a 10-minute walk apart from the other. If craft beer is your thing, East Vancouver is the neighbourhood to hit while in town.

But Wait, There’s More

I actually booked JFK-SEA and SEA-YVR as two separate round trips - again, had to use those RUCs - which meant booking my return flights from Vancouver to Seattle and Seattle to New York with as much of a time gap between them in case of any delays coming back to the States. This meant I ended up getting into Seattle a little before 11 am with a flight leaving Seattle around 11 pm. Oh no, what would I do with a twelve-hour layover…

Yep, you guessed it - I ate and drank my way through the Emerald City and even caught up with a friend (hi, James!) I hadn’t seen in nearly a decade since he moved out there. A great and relaxing way to end a long weekend out of town.

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