Boeing — Blog — Healy Chen

And another one

As much as I enjoy going to Asia for vacation, one thing that always suck is the absurdly long airplane rides. Supposedly, the way to do it for us plebs is to swap credit card points for business class seats. However I do not spend the way my friends do - what points are you talking about? At least the Asian airlines (non Chinese division) have reasonably decent seating room in economy. Never book a Boeing 777/787 (or Airbus 350) that has a 3-4-3 seating arrangement in coach (looking at you, United). 3-3-3 is where it is at.

Actually, maybe avoid Boeing planes in general until they can figure out exactly what is going on.

So while I am excited to head to Thailand at the beginning of June for a friend’s wedding, what I am definitely not looking forward to is the 20 hours of plane ride to take me from San Francisco to Bangkok (with a stop in Incheon, South Korea in between). After having only returned from Guangzhou (China, a 15 hour flight) last month, I’m not exactly enthusiastic about yet another long flight in a few months’ time.

I have zero doubts Bangkok will be a fantastic time. It just sucks that I lose practically two whole days in the sky just to get there and back. Airlines really need to bring back the Concorde - airplanes faster than the speed of sound. Granted, what makes me think that I can afford to pay for such speed - because you know airlines would charge a lot more for it - when I can’t even afford business class (credit card points or straight cash).

I shall be happy once I am there. But not a moment before!

Mad MAX: loose bolts

What is going on, Boeing? I can’t believe I am reading about issues with the 737 MAX again. This time, it’s the MAX 9 model: an entire side panel of the plane just blowing out in mid-air. That is some scary stuff. Thank heavens no one died this time.

Because the 737 MAX 8 debacle back in 2019 was supremely deadly. Two such planes stalled in the sky, and plunged everyone onboard to their deaths. You’d think Boeing would have thoroughly learned from those tragedies. Apparently not, I guess! The same generation of 737 is now back in the news, and the entire world fleet of MAX 9 planes are currently grounded.

Perhaps the MAX 10 will finally be the sweet spot!

Or more likely, Boeing will have to rebrand the 737 entirely. The MAX designation is forever tainted with horror and engineering incompetence. (Fool me twice, shame on me.) Heck, maybe even the 737 numbers might require changing. Next time you get on a domestic flight and see the 737 MAX designation on the safety pamphlet: wouldn’t you get slightly nervous? I certainly would. I want to be sure the airplane has got the sufficient amount of phalanges before takeoff.

Good news for me: the planes I am taking to China next month is made by AirBus.

As a person with immense fear of heights, a plane plunging into the ground (mechanical fault or otherwise) is one of my mortal nightmares. I understand that flying is statically super safe, and that I would be in way more danger driving a car on the road. But the emotional brain still sends those nervous signals nevertheless, every time I get on an airplane. I’m the guy who claps when it lands safely.