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Which Phone will you order?

  • iPhone 8

    Votes: 19 1.2%
  • iPhone 8 plus

    Votes: 60 3.8%
  • iPhone X

    Votes: 1,527 96.6%

  • Total voters
    1,581
Thanks for your posts. Very interesting and insightful. My only question now is, has anyone seen a departure scan from Zhengzhou yet? I have a departure from Zhengzhou at 1:20 am and an arrival at the same spot at 1:35 am. I’m guessing this means it was sorted and is waiting to be put on a plane.
You’re quite welcome-I’m an aviation nerd as well as an Apple nerd.
My paragraphs here will reference the article I posted at the end. Hope that helps.

No departure from Zhengzhou for me yet. HOWEVER, the phones COULD very well be on a truck to Shenzhen or Hong Kong (next door to each other) and then we’ll potentially see arrival/departure scans from HKG or SZX. But as I said before, there are TONS of small freighter flights 737’s vs 747’s leaving CGO/ZZ to SZX and other spots. I’m guessing UPS77/5X77 out of Shenzhen in ~9 hours will likely have some phones on it.

As for the 15-20 minutes on scans, the phones go from Factory next door/on-site to the Bonded Customs Zone then next door to the Airport. Takes 20 minutes or so to leave the factory, go next door to customs and then next door to the airport. Hell of an operation, as a union man (and brother/friend of many UPS folks-can you say 6am launch day pickup?? :p) I wish we could get these kinds of logistics and good paying jobs here-save the whole waking up 30K people in the middle of the night for a design change thing whooboy.

This article will shed a bit of light on the process from factory to flight in ZZ. There is a companion article I’ll post as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/technology/iphone-china-apple-stores.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/technology/apple-iphone-china-foxconn.html
 
Hey guys, lmk what you think about this. What is the item listed as "not_available"? I'm getting worried the order isn't progressing like others that have a Nov.3rd delivery date. I have checked UPS and FedEx via reference tracking to no avail. It has been sitting at "Preparing for Shipping" since Saturday on AT&T's order tracking. Ordered via AT&T online, Next Program, IPX Gray 256gb, my card has a pending charge as of 10/27.

Just a system glitch. It's fine.
 
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Hey guys, lmk what you think about this. What is the item listed as "not_available"? I'm getting worried the order isn't progressing like others that have a Nov.3rd delivery date. I have checked UPS and FedEx via reference tracking to no avail. It has been sitting at "Preparing for Shipping" since Saturday on AT&T's order tracking. Ordered via AT&T online, Next Program, IPX Gray 256gb, my card has a pending charge as of 10/27.
I have had zero order movement from ATT in a previous year all the way until launch morning. Don’t fret!
 
There are flights out of Shanghai to Anchorage. That’s close to Zhengzhou
If you take a look at the articles I posted, it’s actually longer to go from ZZ to Shanghai (for phones going to be sold in China) than it is to go from ZZ to San Francisco! But yes there’s a bunch of CGO-PVG 737F flights indicating a freighter flight!
[doublepost=1509419516][/doublepost]
I haven’t seen UPS flights from there. Guessing they truck to Shanghai, but I really don’t know.
They DO truck to Shanghai-but mostly domestic phones so the NYT article said. However, Shanghai/PVG is a 1:20 or so flight from CGO. So either truck or flight to Shanghai (or flight to Shenzhen) then onwards to us for Friday.
 
25% OFF? Knowing BestBuy's practices this week, I'm sure they're more than likely adding 25% ONTO the price. Because, you know, it allows people to buy the case how they would like to buy it. Lol

If you've been around long enough to remember Egghead Software, that was their M.O. e.g. A game has MSRP of $39.95. If you joined their "club", you'd get a whopping 5% off everything. Whoop de doo. But then you look at the sticker and it says "$41.95". IOW, your club card knocked the price down to MSRP.
 
If you've been around long enough to remember Egghead Software, that was their M.O. e.g. A game has MSRP of $39.95. If you joined their "club", you'd get a whopping 5% off everything. Whoop de doo. But then you look at the sticker and it says "$41.95". IOW, your club card knocked the price down to MSRP.

Ha. Yup! That Best Buy deal is if you buy 3 phone cases they give you 25% off. Not much of a deal there since I can buy one good case at full price for less than the cost of 3 at a discount.
 
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Also guys and gals the UPS system could be EXTREMELY delayed. This happened last year especially when it came to UPS/Customs getting the scans in so the phones could make the deadline. My 2-3 week 7+ people remember that. All the scans seem to stall then all come in at once like the system was playing catch up.

Just speaking on past experience
 
Also guys and gals the UPS system could be EXTREMELY delayed. This happened last year especially when it came to UPS/Customs getting the scans in so the phones could make the deadline. My 2-3 week 7+ people remember that. All the scans seem to stall then all come in at once like the system was playing catch up.

Just speaking on past experience
A former apple employee told me to expect the plane to arrive in the states Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest
 
Just received my iPhone X case that I will be putting on my brand new SG 64 GB phone! So excited!

G7jmj56.jpg
 
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A 747 does not need to stop in Anchorage to get to Kentucky from China.
It does when it’s a fully loaded freighter model 747. See link for ranges. Max fully loaded is ~4900nm depending on engine type and options.

http://www.boeing.com/resources/boeingdotcom/company/about_bca/startup/pdf/freighters/747-400f.pdf

Here’s a pic of what 4900NM from Kentucky will get you:
[doublepost=1509420352][/doublepost]
Mandatory stop is made at Anchorage for Customs Inspection..
It is a shorter distance due the curvature of the earth as well. Plus refueling. UPS doesn’t have any new gen 747-8F planes yet. Cathay does and those can still only go 4390nm.
 

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What was your statement again? Was it a plane you think the phones would be on?

I was joking about the boat earlier.

But yes they are definitely arriving to the US by plane. Which airport out of China...your guess is as good as mine...but they will go to Alaska then to Louisville. That’s the Apple way when it comes to iPhones being shipped. In past experiences though, the scans going through Customs have been delayed to the point it seems that there was no movement on the phones. Not to this extreme but could likely could be the case.
 
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You’re quite welcome-I’m an aviation nerd as well as an Apple nerd.
My paragraphs here will reference the article I posted at the end. Hope that helps.

No departure from Zhengzhou for me yet. HOWEVER, the phones COULD very well be on a truck to Shenzhen or Hong Kong (next door to each other) and then we’ll potentially see arrival/departure scans from HKG or SZX. But as I said before, there are TONS of small freighter flights 737’s vs 747’s leaving CGO/ZZ to SZX and other spots. I’m guessing UPS77/5X77 out of Shenzhen in ~9 hours will likely have some phones on it.

As for the 15-20 minutes on scans, the phones go from Factory next door/on-site to the Bonded Customs Zone then next door to the Airport. Takes 20 minutes or so to leave the factory, go next door to customs and then next door to the airport. Hell of an operation, as a union man (and brother/friend of many UPS folks-can you say 6am launch day pickup?? :p) I wish we could get these kinds of logistics and good paying jobs here-save the whole waking up 30K people in the middle of the night for a design change thing whooboy.

This article will shed a bit of light on the process from factory to flight in ZZ. There is a companion article I’ll post as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/technology/iphone-china-apple-stores.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/technology/apple-iphone-china-foxconn.html

I'm pretty huge av nerd as well. I love watching the Air Crash Investigation Series on Nat Geo. Good to see a fellow AV nerd in the MR forums! Cool!
[doublepost=1509420436][/doublepost]
I was joking about the boat earlier.

But yes they are definitely arriving to the US by plane. Which airport out of China...your guess is as good as mine...but they will go to Alaska then to Louisville. That’s the Apple way when it comes to iPhones being shipped. In past experiences though, the scans going through Customs have been delayed to the point it seems that there was no movement on the phones. Not to this extreme but could likely could be the cast.

Interesting...
 
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