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Wednesday 6th March 2024

As I took the elevator down to the lobby I was kind of excited for the upcoming flights.  As I walked up to check out, about 3 staff offered to take my bags which originally I was going to decline, but they told me that the car was already here and they were ready to load everything into the car.  This was not anticipated and quite surprising. Check out took a while and in the end they couldn’t even get it to charge properly so said they would do it later… I hope they forget ;).  Into the car which for me was a first being a BMW Station Wagon (Estate…. sorry) and off to the airport.  About a half hour later, I was dropped off at the Etihad premium check in, why I don’t know.  The driver swore this is where everyone was dropped off for Business Class, even other airlines, but that was not the case as it was clearly Etihad only.

I walked around to the check in area and waited a little bit behind some other people not in Business (sorry…. First Class) holding stuff up.  Once I was helped I saw my bag weight and it was now at 24KG which meant I was screwed for my flight in a couple of days to Brisbane, but I can figure that out later.  Once checked in with boarding passes in hand, I headed for immigration, which was just an electronic border gate, then security, where my camera bag was stripped apart for no apparent reason, but once they let me repack it they seemed to not care.  I stepped out into the Abu Dhabi terminal and my jaw just dropped.  While I had seen a small glimpse on arrival, this place was just impressive.  The scale, the look, how empty it was (apparently 3 in the afternoon is a peaceful time at the airport).  

I headed towards the lounge, and while it was not the Etihad lounge all other airlines in the airport use the “Pearl Lounge”.  It was still a decent lounge.  When I checked in they walked me into an exclusive “First and Business Class section” which was a smaller sectioned off area, and I was the only person in there.  They even offered to bring food in if needed, although I could also go out to the main lounge if I wanted (I didn’t).  I didn’t intend on eating much and they had some nice small light food.  

After sitting in the lounge, reading my book for a while, I headed out from the lounge towards the gate area.  I wanted to see what the airport had to offer.  It was impressive, such an amazing airport and it was still really empty, I was impressed.  I took my time heading to the gate, just enjoying the walk (though my feet probably wouldn’t) and the terminal.  I sat down to wait by the gate for a little bit. 

Qatar Airways – QR1051
Abu Dhabi to Doha Hamad International (AUH-DOH)
1745-1755
Boeing 737 Max 8 (A7-BSE)
First Class – Seat 2A

Boarding: 1658 (Gate B23B)
Push Back: 1748
Take Off Roll: 1804 (Runway 31R)
Top of Descent: 1728
Touch Down: 1744 (Runway 34R)
Shut Down: 1750 (Gate V8)

Boarding was called right on time and as I was ready I headed over towards the gate and got swiped in.  They did tear off part of the boarding pass and thankfully it was not the part with my bag tags, which I was glad for.  I walked down the jetbridge, not being able to get a decent photo (a common theme at these airports for sure) and stepped onboard my first ever 737-8 Max.  It didn’t look much different but the 2 row business.. .sorry First.. Class section was small.  It didn’t matter, this flight was short, stupid short.  The cabin was almost full and by the time the doors closed, just one seat was empty.  

As the door closed up and we began to push back, we took our time getting to the runway but after a powerful take off roll, we were up in the sky and headed for the short flight to Qatar.  After we had barely cleared 4000ft the flight attendants were up and getting our meal options ready.  Not everyone was eating, but everyone had drink orders etc.  It was a sight for sure, to be served a meal (albeit more a snack) on a flight time of 50 minutes (shorter in our case).  While not a big meal, it was still impressive and really tasty. I had the vegie option and it was quite delicious.  It was delicious and hit the spot nicely as it would be a while until my next full meal.  I probably wouldn’t eat in the lounge, while I could, I didn’t really have much time there.

We started our descent over the water directly into Doha’s runways coming in on the side with the royal terminal.  We touched down and taxiied away from the main terminal area.  This meant a bus gate.  Which while to some it might be bad, I was hoping, for one simple reason.  The buses take you directly to immigration or transfers.  No long long walks, just up the escalators and straight in.  Simple as pie!  

Thankfully this time there was no stripping of my camera bag but I knew that was coming thanks to Australian laws for entry from the middle east, why I needed to go to the gate early.  I made my way towards the lounge after stopping for a photo of the creepiest teddy bear known to man.  Before heading up into the lounge, I asked if I was better off heading to the one in the “Garden” area and they said that this one was closer, so I just stayed with the Al Marjoun lounge, the original one.

Now I had been to Hamad International back in 2012 when the place was still being built and it was amazing to see it in full blown now, even more than when it was set up back then.  The lounge was impressive and the main things I wanted to do was get some water for medication purposes and to just relax before my flight.  I didn’t have much time though, as I knew I would need to be at the gate early and they claimed they started an hour early, but with additional security, I am sure it would be probably more.  

After chiling out for a short while, I collected my things and headed for the gate, I took some time to walk past some of the shops, take a few photos.  As I approached, before I could even gather my stuff ready for the security check, they started scanning people in.  An hour and a half before departure…. I expected that! Does this count as boarding started, or is it preboarding.  I got out my stuff and they decided it was time to confiscate half my water bottle, which meant I had to down in right there and then, sadly.  Now it was time to have my bag scanned.  O well, knew it was coming.  It got swabbed multiple times, along with me. It was negative, as expected.

I handed over my boarding pass to the gate agent who asked if i was flying to Kathmandu.  I wasn’t sure if this was a test on me, or he was just joking.  He was obviously making a mistake, but it was a funny moment and I did ask him if it was a test and he laughed.  He scanned me in and told me to go sit in the priority area.  It was then I noticed that the gate area was split up into zone seating, which was surprising, but made perfect sense.  Time for more waiting and sadly no access to a bathroom after downing half a bottle of water.

Qatar Airways – QR914
Doha Hamad International to Adelaide
2040-1700+1
Boeing 777-300ER (A7-BET)
Business Class – Seat 5A

Boarding: 1958 (Gate C5)
Push Back: 2047
Take Off Roll: 2102 (Runway 34R)
Top of Descent: 1625
Touch Down: 1702 (Runway 23)
Shut Down: 1713 (Gate 18R)

Right at 40 minutes prior to departure, boarding was called and the bum rush of priority passengers happened.  It was time to head towards the mother country, while not my city, it didn’t matter.  I was heading home.  I walked down the jet bridge and boarded into the 777 and saw the Qsuite product.  It was impressive.  I took as many pictures as I could and then got situated in the seat, it was exciting.  I had seen so many things written abou this product over the years and I finally would get to experience it.  The seat was incredible, way more comfortable than the Turkish Airlines product, and much more spacious.  The only strange thing for this flight for me would be facing backwards the whole time.  That was going to take some getting used to.

Service was great getting everything set up and it took a while to not be impressed by everything, so much so I almost forgot to put in my ear plugs before departure (the door was just shutting when I remembered… woops!).  There was so many amenities with the amenity kit, pyjamas, two pillows, the offer of a mattress pad later on, menus, drinks, hand towells.  The only thing that was not offered was Arabic Coffee and dates, which was suprising.

We pushed back and followed an A380 towards the runway, taking off on the same runway we landed not so long ago on.  The A380 was probably heading to Australia as all the Aussie flights were going around the same time.  As we lined up, listening to that GE90 power up was like the sound of the gods.  Those two powerful GE90s just sucked in the world and spat it out the other end.  We were not taking off, we were pushing the world away from our plane.  Can you tell I enjoy a good GE90 take off and it has been a loooong time (2016) since I got my last hit.

We took off and it was dark out and not much to see, once we passed 5000ft the crew came around closing the windows, including mine, even though I didn’t really want this, I guess I don’t get a choice.  We climbed out with a fair amount of bumps and the crew got the meal service started quickly, much quicker than I expected and I was happy with this.  I just wanted to get some rest for a little bit.  The meal was great and delicious and hit the spot.  It was a little fancy for me, but not at all too bad.  The dessert was amazing looking.  Food on Qatar gets a tick over Turkish… for sure!

After the meal it took a while for the seat belt sign to come off as it had been pretty bumpy.  Once that was lifted and a bathroom stop was done, I let them know to prep the bed for me if they could and I would try and get some rest.  I finished watching the movie that I was watching and then turned off the screen to try and get some sleep.  While it wasn’t full on sleep it was good enough.  It got pretty bumpy and so rather than try to sleep on my side or stomach, I lifted the back of the seat a touch and just slept on my back, or at least tried.

I got some rest for a number of hours and woke up with about 7 or 8 hours to go, not entirely sure.  I started watching another video and waited for the bumping to stop.  A coffee (iced would help get my body back on a normal time line).  It was very very bumpy for a good period of the flight, it wasn’t awful turbulence, but it was tolerable, apart from the seatbelt sign.  Once lifted I got up and hit the restroom and grabbed the laptop to work on the trip report.  It was just time to watch a movie and chill as we flew toawrds Australia.  Most of the flight was going to be over water, I hadn’t seen any land since we left Doha and the Arabian Peninsula, 

As we flew along I got a snack of some cookies and a sprite and started another movie I kept waiting for the flight to head towards Australian airspace, I was excited yet also confused at the same time.  It had been so long since I had been home to aus, i wasn’t sure just how life was going to be for everything there.  Would the changes be something I was ok with, or would I be too used to life in the states that it would just be too much.  I know that part of me was also missing my wife who was now half a world away (although by the time I land, she would be asleep again probably… lols).

As we got closer and closer to Adelaide, and the Australian coast, they started to serve “Breakfast”.  I get that back in the middle east it was breakfast time, but over here in Australia it would be getting towards afternoon tea.  I selected from the breakfast menu, but to be honest I probably should have selected the “Afternoon Tea” from the snack menu, but o well.  

Breakfast was a multi course affair and I still kept it light having some cereal and a coconut chia pudding, and both were delicious along with a croissant (or at least what passes for one on an airline) and it tasted pretty good.  After cleaning up by we were just passing WA and crossing the Great Australian Bight heading for South Australia.  It was time to start getting ready for arrival into Adelaide.  Time to fill out my arrival card etc.  It was finally getting real.  They came around wanting to pack up all the bedding as well and I let them do that while I got myself sorted for an arrival.

We started to descend and this is when things started to feel strange, as I was sitting backwards and it was going down with me facing back up to the sky, it was a strange feeling for sure.  We descended and I really couldn’t see much without fully craning my neck around but we came in over Adelaide city and touched down on the runway shortly after.  I was back in Australia after almost 8 years.  We took almost the whole runway to stop (not surprising) and the taxi back took forever, and then it was pulling into the gate.  We were the biggest plane on the gate and it looked funny seeing this giant 777 surrounded by 737s or A320s or the occasional Dash 8.  We certainly stood out!

Once the doors opened we were let loose into the terminal and while I was third off the aircraft, someone stepped aside to let me pass and I was behind someone who had been moved off the Brisbane flight and was trying to connect.  They were on an extremely tight connection and part of the reason I didn’t do it!  I had a bit of a conversation with someone at Border Force because I forgot to sign my arrival card (idiot me!) and then waited for my bag.  I declared the date chocolates I had bought in Abu Dhabi and they didn’t really care all that much and sent me down the Green Lane.  Within 15-20 minutes of pulling into the airport,  I was walking into Australia!

I headed across the arrivals area towards the airport hotel for the night.  I wanted to get my stuff stashed before heading downtown to pick up a sim card and crash out for the night!

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Monday 4th March 2024

After walking out of the customs area directly in front was a line of drivers and one of them even had my name on it! While I am the kind of person who would generally use public transit to get to a hotel and if that isn’t really an option, then I would use the cheapest possible way. Well arriving at 2am after 2 long flights, you kind of change that priority. I arranged a limo through the agent who booked my hotel (she got the hotel to arrange it) and prices were pretty much the same as what I could find online for the same thing and it was a god send. The person holding the sign, took my suitcase and camera bag (as they were held together) and I just followed him. He took me towards the parking garage and a few moments later a nice looking Audi sedan rolled up and he opened the door and told me to hop in. Into the trunk went my bags and they even suggested I put my backpack in the trunk too, but I always keep that next to me and I had stuff to rearrange anyway.

This car ride was perfect, I didn’t need to really think, they just took me straight to the hotel and they knew exactly where to take me. At 230 in the morning the ride flew by and it’s not a close drive to the airport, it’s a good 30 minutes out of the downtown Abu Dhabi. But when you are so tired and you just want to rest, it works. We made it to the hotel and I checked in as quickly as possible. I was staying at the Sofitel Abu Dhabi. Why this hotel? Well the agent we use for some stuff who has benefits got us a great deal on the hotel. $100 food and beverage credit (apparently not available for room service sadly) and breakfast daily. Upgrade and Late Check out subject to availability, but the kicker for this hotel was Stay 3 Pay 2. Meaning the fact I have to prebook a hotel so I can check in at 3am and not have to pay for it…. SCORE!

I was helped with my bags to the room and while I didn’t pay too much attention, the job that moment was get out of my clothes into some PJs and get some sleep. I had a pick up scheduled for a few hours away for a day tour up to Dubai. Why that same day, well they don’t offer it all days apparently, why, I don’t know. I got about 3 hours of sleep before realizing my alarm did not go off (or I slept through it) and it was about an hour away from when I was meant to be picked up. So I rushed to have a shower and get respectable and get down to breakfast.

I had a small light breakfast as I was in a rush and didn’t really take full effect of the buffet (but then it wasn’t really in the plans after only a few hours of sleep) but the main thing that was added was an Americano to help get me going. With a few minutes to spare, I head up to the room to use the bathroom, grab my backpack and get back downstairs. The room looked like a bomb hit it, but that was ok.

I was picked up shortly after (and the driver was a little late) by Grayline UAE who were going to take me up to Dubai for the day. The trip was meant to be all day and it certainly was! We had to make some pick ups around at different hotels before swapping people with other drivers and then it was off to Dubai. The freeway was brilliant and the mini bus had pre recorded commentary so it was nice to learn a lot of stuff. While it was that kind of commentary that makes it feel very touristy, it helped because our driver didn’t seem to speak much English.

We got to stop at a lot of different places for a bit here and there to go and take photos or shop. The main draw for me that day was the Burj Khalifa and we stopped at Dubai Mall for several hours. They gave us four hours to go up and down Burj Khalifa and it took a solid 2! It was worth it even with the poor visibility and the crowds. By this time I was almost a walking zombie and having not eaten since breakfast, I was now past the point where I wanted food and just wanted to sleep. Thankfully the people who were on the tour with me were really nice and that helped pass the time. After finishing the observation deck I just wandered aimlessly for a little while to just chill out and then wait for the pick up back to the city.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was after 730pm and I had been sooo tired. Since I couldn’t use the credit on room service my credit options for dinner were with the lobby cafe or the restaurant. I decided on the restaurant as it had lots of choice and I was just not in the mood to think too much. So buffet dinner it is! Once finished dinner I went up the room and tried to clean up my mess a bit before heading to bed, tomorrow would be another full day of tours.

Tuesday 5th March 2024

So this morning was a little bit more relaxed with plenty of time in the morning to rest. While I was still being picked up, it was much later than yesterday and meant I could really just relax. This was fairly easy as I was still pretty tired, even after a solid 8 or more hours of sleep. I could have gone for a walk but it was actually raining outside! This meant a bit more of a sit in bed and catch up on the world. After getting a nice long relaxing breakfast and then getting myself packed for a big day ahead, I went out to the driveway to wait to be picked up.

This mornings tour was just a general Abu Dhabi city tour with the big draw card for me being the Date Market and the Grand Mosque. The Mosque was our first stop after picking up people from hotels and it did not disappoint. The mosque was massive and even had its own shopping mall for visitors to it (it gets 20 to 30 thousands visitors A DAY. It was extremely impressive and had staggering facts like the main male prayer room carpet weighs 35 TONNES!.

After the mosque we drove around a few areas of Abu Dhabi and then stopped at the Date Market. It was not exactly what I was expecting BUT was more like a wholesale market kind of place. We were of course taken to one specific store first (who probably gave kickbacks to the company) but what I bought was a good deal in my mind and I couldn’t really tell any different. It was in the same area as the whole fruit and veg/meat/seafood markets, so a place I would have wanted to visit anyway.

I was getting a little panicky by this point as it was nearing the time we were meant to finish and we were far from it, and I was meant to be picked up shortly thereafter by a tour in the afternoon. Thankfully the same tour company so that was easy to rectify and the tour guide got it all sorted and made sure I was back with enough time to get changed and grab a few things.

The afternoon tour was a desert safari and I was looking forward to this. I had done this in Qatar back in 2012 when Qatar Airways was hosting us. It was a lot of fun then and I was hoping it would be the same now. It did not disappoint. There was 6 of us crammed into the land cruiser and we headed out into the desert. We met up with others from the same company (12 vehicles total) and off we went into the dunes. It was a great roller coaster of a ride, full of a lot of “o shit” moments. After riding through the dunes they took us to their “camp” for dinner and we had some time to explore around while they tried to get us to buy more stuff. That is how they get you by having a cheap tour (about $80) and then enticing you in with extras!

Dinner and a show was included then it was back into the city. If the weather had been better I think the night would have been even more amazing than it was but it was very good and I had a blast! Getting back close to 930pm meant another long day!

Wednesday 6th March 2024

This morning was my last time in Abu Dhabi with my flight scheduled for early evening off to Qatar and then connecting onwards to Australia. I was looking forward to a lazy morning, and then I don’t really know what else. I just wanted to chill out and relax. That is what I got I slept in went for a walk on the corniche for some morning exercise (and seeing all the poor stray cats) and had a leisurely breakfast writing post cards.

After tidying up all my stuff, reconfirming pick up times and arranging the late check out, it was time to go off on a morning walk and adventure. I had to go to the post office for stamps to mail the post cards, but the next part was just off to go look at stuff. I had seen most of what I wanted to see but I was really interested in seeing one of the big grocery stores and just seeing what the prices of stuff might be. So I walked up to LuLu Hypermarket in one of the malls and just walked around for a while. It was pretty impressive! What shocked me was the cost of some things were great, others not so much. Some made no sense. They sell white goods and small kitchen appliances and they were selling Kenwood stand mixers for the price of some of the gas stoves!

After Lulu I was already past my step goal for the day and just wanted to relax after being on the go so much, so walked the corniche back to the hotel! Easy time. Then it was just a matter of chilling out and relaxing before getting picked up for the airport.

Current Location: Sofitel Abu Dhabi The Corniche

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Saturday 2nd March 2024

After spending most of the day hanging around the house and doing chores, by the time the mid afternoon rolled around Heidi was home to take me to the airport.  It was only a few minutes from the house to the airport and then it was goodbye to the lovely wife and into the terminal I go.  This was the first time I was travelling without Heidi for a long time.  The last time I travelled without her domestically was 2016 where I spent 4 or so days ticking off new states.  The last time I had travelled internationally without her was 2015 for the adventures to Frankfurt and Lufthansa first class.  This felt so strange to be heading off on a big trip without her.  But it was not forever, we would see each other in a few weeks in Sydney.

I made my way all the way to the very last check in area almost at the current checkpoint 1, where Turkish was checking in (forgot to grab a photo….. sigh).  There was no one lined up for Business Class and I walked straight to the front.  They checked me in and weighed my bags (it was just under my target weight, so I can’t add too many souveneirs in the UAE I guess) and then it was off to the checkpoint.  Since I still had a free trial of clear, I figured I would use them to save me the walk all the way down and back figuring it would be quicker….. Nope.  They wanted my ID again.  Well that was a waste of time.  It’s fine.  It will end at the end of the month and Clear does me no good outside of the USA.  I swear any time I use clear it never saves us any time.

I got myself ready for the Precheck scan and they asked me to wait for a moment and I had no problem as it allowed me time to stash my stuff.  When I went through the WTMD I realized I had my sunglasses on my head….woops but it didn’t go off.  They did however want to do a manual inspection of my lenses because the guy on the scanner thought it looked suspicious.  I have been through it before and had plenty of time.  I had noooo problem.  They let me repack it though as they said they didn’t want me to have anything damaged.

After security it was time to find Lowrider to tick off their airport store from the places I have bought cookies.  After walking around eating a Birthday Cake cookie and seeing what differences had happened to the airport, I headed over to the S gates to find the gate.  I then came across something I had noticed back in September when we landed after our Hawaiian flight but paid no attention to until now.  The train to the S gates has reversed its direction.  WTF.  O well a bit longer on the train than expected.

After a lap or two of the S gates and running into an old coworker who was waiting for her flight to London, I made my way up to the lounge.  Turkish uses the Club at SEA which is technically the lounge we used when we flew to Tokyo back in 2018.  However this is the “new” Club at SEA.  They moved into the space vacated by Delta when they moved out of the S gates.  O boy was it familiar.  The last time I was in that lounge was probably back in 2013 before one of my delta mileage runs and it has not changed at all.  The place looked exactly like it did back then.  

All the window seats were taken, which was a bummer but not the end of the world.  I was really in the lounge for a quiet place to read my book.  No need to worry, I wasn’t all that impressed by the food offerings, but did have some Sheet cake squares (carrot) that reminded me of the Sara Lee cake from my child hood.  I didn’t even feel like going to the bar for a soda and just stuck to water.  I read my book and chilled in the lounge, taking photos while I could and just trying to relax as much as possible.  I had spent the day with what felt like a heap of anxiety, but I coped as best I could and I probably wouldn’t be over that anxiety until I got to Abu Dhabi.

After about an hour and a half in the lounge and well before my flight was meant to depart, I started to pack up my stuff and head towards the exit.  I wanted to fill my water bottle before the flight and figured I would try and get a few laps of the concourse before boarding.  Well one of those two things happened as after I filled my bottle I started walking towards the gate area and noticed they were already boarding!! It was just under an hour to departure.  DANG!  Well I was not even remotely prepared, and rolled up to the gate with my mobile boarding pass, which they wouldn’t accept and they wanted my passport.  So I spent a bit of time screwing with stuff at the gate.

Turkish Airlines – TK204
Seattle-Tacoma to Istanbul (SEA-IST)
1850-1750+1
Boeing 787-9 (TC-LLK)
Business Class – Seat 4A

Boarding: 1745 (Gate S11)
Push Back: 1828
Take Off Roll: 1845 (Runway 16L)
Top of Descent: 1655
Touch Down: 1723 (Runway 34L)
Shut Down: 1748 (Gate D10)

After they took part of my boarding pass (I knew I should have faked losing it) it was time to head down the jetbridge heading towards my next adventure.  I showed up at the door and was asked for a boarding pass, something that has not happened in a long time since US Airlines don’t do that.  And they pointed me to the holy land, turn left please!  I made my way up to 4A and stashed my camera bag in the overhead.  I could probably put my back pack in their as well, but wanted to keep it handy for as much as possible.  

I snapped a lot of pictures of the seat and tried to get myself as comfortable as possible while exploring.  The seat was exactly like the pictures I had seen, but what you don’t see is how tight it feels around the shoulders and getting into the seat.  While the footwell is deep, the space between the seat behinds footwell and the seat in front is not much.  The true window seats have a blocked window thanks to the privacy shield being on the wrong side and the same privacy shield is what ate away at a lot of my shoulder space on the left.  On my right it was fine!

Waiting at the seat was a pillow and a basic blanket along with a pair of slippers and a shoe bag.  The blanket I was soooo tempted to stash in my bag but I didn’t need it, and I didn’t really have the space!  They started to bring around all the fun things.  Menus, pre departure beverages, amenity kits etc.  The “Chef” in her funny hat came around to hand out the menu herself and it looked like an OK menu to be honest.  For the pre departure beverage I had the “home made” Mint Lemonade and it was pretty delicious.  

Once I heard the warning to arm doors, then I knew it was really time to go and get myself buckled in.  The doors were closed and the jetbridge pulled away and they started to play the safety video.  Items were collected then it was time to start to settle in.  I left the screen playing the map, as I wasn’t really all that interested in movies yet.  We headed for the active runway and with a bit of effort, off we went.  Since I couldn’t see much outside thanks to the darkness, once we were up and going, I kind of just ignored the window and got the in flight entertainment going.  There was plenty on offer to watch and that was good as I had a long flight ahead (plus another one after that).

I sat back and got a movie started and the crew were fast to get meal and drink orders going and get a lot of people sorted as quickly as possible.  Meals started coming out about an hour after departure and the set up was pretty great (especially the salt and pepper shakers).  I tried to choose as light as possible, even skipping some options, something I probably would not have done in a previous life, but I felt it best to do so. I wanted to try and get some rest at the start of the flight, maybe wake up with about 5 or so hours to go and then that should be enough to have me kind of on a similar clock to where I was going.  The portions of the food were small, but to be honest, it was plenty and it tasted pretty good.I have had worse!

After dinner was cleared away I finished off my movie and then asked the crew to set up the bedding,  There was a mattress pad which was, ok and they put a pillow case on the pillow (didn’t change much).  I tried to get myself situated but found it lumpy, turns out that was the comforter….. Woops!  I had started using the blanket that was left at the seat and thought to myself, well that was shit.  I was wrong!  While I am not one to get much sleep on planes I did try and it wasn’t that successful to be honest.  There was some turbulence over north eastern canada and into greenland that just kept me up, so that did not help.  Instead I just decided to get up and write the trip report.  An hour or so of “Closed eye rest” should be enough right?

I spent the rest of my time on that flight watching movies.  I just kind of chilled out drinking a bottle of water.  I didn’t try to get any snacks etc.  As we got closer to Istanbul, the cabin started to slowly “wake up” thanks to all the LED lightning and the chromatic windows.  They were able to make it look like we were waking up for the day (even though it was like 4 or 5pm outside).  The meal they were serving was breakfast as well and I still wasn’t hungry after the first meal (though that was 8 hours ago at this point) so I just had some fruit and bread and skipped the main course (I was going to try pancakes anyway).  So the second meal was just simple for me.  I had a cup of coffee to try and keep me awake through the next few hours.

The descent into Istanbul started a while out, which I didnt expect and it made it look like we would land way early.  When we did land, I can see what they do when that happens.  They send the aircraft on a nice little journey, all around the airport.  We spent sooo long taxxing that I thought we were going to end up at a bus gate.  That wasn’t the case, it was just a gate on the other side of the airport  *sigh*.  But we were on the ground and that was a good thing.  

Once we finally made it to a gate, I got my stuff together and headed out into the terminal.  It was fairly warm inside (being cold outside I expected otherwise, but I was pleasantly surprised).  As we headed off the jetbridge into the split for immigration, they pointed anyone headed for baggage claim in one direction and for international transfer another.  This seemed odd to me as I remember looking at a map seeing they were next to each other. The other strange thing, the direction they pointed us was directly into the terminal proper.  This was shocking to me, it was as though it was a domestic flight back home.  

Once in the terminal, it was a matter of orientating myself and trying to find the lounges.  Thankfully there was signs for that, but it did not even put into the picture the scale of that terminal and airport.  I started following the signs and it just kept going, and going, and going.  It took a serious 15 minutes of walking just to get to the lounge.  Up multiple escalators past many many gates.  And the lounge was PACKED.  I was full from my “breakfast”, dying for a bathroom and just wanted to do that first before I even attempted any kind of finding a seat or exploring.  I did stash my bag in one of the lockers (after setting off alarms on 2 others….woops) so that kept the weight off my shoulder for once.

By the time I had made it through to exploring the lounge and finding a seat, it was only an hour or so before I would have to head out again and find my gate (since no gate was posted just a “check back” time.  I did explore the lounge a little and there was copious amounts of food, drinks, there was a golf simulator, a kids playground, sooooo much more.  But I was starting to feel the lack of sleep and just trying to keep going.  So all I consumed was a couple of bottles of water and made sure to take one with me for the walk to the gate.

When the gate was posted I saw it was an eta of a 15 minute walk to get there, sounds about right.  So i packed up my stuff, gathered my camera bag from the locker and headed out at a slowish pace.  I was not in that much of a hurry as I had left myself plenty of time and I wanted to see what fun things were on offer on the way.  The stores were certainly different to the ones around us and most any other country I had come across, and that was certainly unique.  What really showed in this airport was the scale.  It really felt bright, open and airy.  There was massively tall ceilings (mainly because anyone heading for immigration was seperated above the main concourse) and that really helped to show how impressive this airport was.  

The gate area, even with an A/B gate with split jetbridges was massive, with Lots of seating.  A little while before boarding, the gate agents, came around person to person, checking passports and visas, before even having them approach.  Such a SMART idea!  No lines of people waiting to board and someone holding up the line, and no constant annoucements to have people come forward and crowd the podium.  Eventually boarding began, but not even with an annoucement but a “ok you can come on now” yelled into the crowd

Turkish Airlines – TK868
Istanbul to Abu Dhabi (IST-AUH)
2020-0200+1
Airbus A321Neo (TC-LSS)
Business Class – Seat 5F

Boarding: 2003 (Gate F5B)
Push Back: 2037
Take Off Roll: 2048 (Runway 36)
Top of Descent: 0109
Touch Down: 0135 (Runway 13L)
Shut Down: 0145 (Gate A4)

As I headed down onto the aircraft behind a string of business class guests, I was interested to see how it differed on a 321Neo compared to the 787-9.  Obviously they are not going to put a light flat long haul product, on a single aisle plane used for short to mid regional hops.  On paper the seat looked very similar to the Delta 321Neo first class that Heidi and I flew out to Honolulu on last year. But in reality the seat was very different and the space between seats was MUCH better.  God it was way more comfortable on that plane than on Delta (surprise surprise).  They boarded a full 321Neo pretty quickly and I was hoping and praying that the seat next to me would stay open (it did!) and just getting myself situated.  

Another glass of the lemon mint drink and another amenity kit (this one a differnet look than the others) and once everyone was loaded, they closed the door and the ground crew had to use an air cart to gate start the engines.  Once we were powered up, we pushed back and then taxiied off to the runway on the same side of the airport.  That helped keep it pretty quick (in relative terms).  

The take off roll was spirited and with a flight time scheduled to 4 hours, it was only time before I was going to be safe and sound in a bed.  We got the menus once the flight attendants were released and again, still wasn’t hungry and my body had no idea what time or anything it was, so I just asked for the dessert and some sparkling water and that was my meal. 

The crew on this flight were far superior to the previous flight with numerous times checking on me and the decision I made.  They wanted to make sure that I was ok and if I didn’t want to eat or drink anything else.  I was pretty content (and the dessert was good).  I just sat back and watched a couple of movies on the seat back (same selection as the previous flight) and watched as we flew into the middle east.

We tracked down over Iraq getting great views of all the different cities spotted all over the area.  It was surprising to me as I expected it to be just great big swaths of nothing, and it wasn’t.  At one point we were flying over the oil fields around Basra and the clouds below were all highlighted orange from the oil wells/refineries lighting up.  It was quite the beatiful scene.  Thanks to a kick ass tailwind, we were heading down the Arabian sea towards Abu Dhabi fairly quickly and it meant an early arrival.  Early is good because the sooner I get to Abu Dhabi, the sooner I get to sleep.

We came in the long way looping around the entire city before heading towards the airport. We passed over Yas Island and it wasn’t until I saw this that I realized just how far out the airport is.  O well!  We touched down and again, taxiied alllllll the way around the airport to the other side.  At one point again I thought we were going to a bus gate as there was everything waiting for an aicraft to pull in, but we didn’t, thanfully!

We pulled into an actual gate at the terminal and again this was another grand scale terminal that looked just as magnificent from the outside as many of the world players and I guess this is what Abu Dhabi wanted.  Well they got it all right!  Same situation as before, those heading to transfers go one direction, those heading to baggage claim go another.  That was me!  Off to immigration I went.  Immgration was a VERY long walk away, at least 15 minutes.  I was not too worried as I had someone waiting and I obviously had to still wait for my bag (foreshadowing).  

Immigration was easy he just asked how long I was in town for, where I was headed to after that and take photo and finger print wave (thats right, wave… you don’t touch the scanner).  Then it was off to get my hand baggage x’rayed.  No customs forms anything like that.  The border guard did not like the fact I had a dSLR on me or that I may have a drone hidden somewhere.  I let him know I did not and that I would not be using the dSLR while in Abu Dhabi (I had read up before hand to not even attempt to try and take any plane pictures).  Once that was handled then it was off to get my bag.  My bag didn’t drop when it said “all delivered” so off I went to the baggage inquries counter and they said “no it made the plane and it shows on the belt”.  Well low and behold it was on the belt and had dropped AFTER all bags had apparently dropped.  

Once I had my bag it was time to walk through the green channel for nothing to declare and off into the terminal we go!

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So tomorrow is the departure day of this big journey back towards Australia. I am still slightly nervous and anxious as it has been quite some time since I have travelled on my own like this. The last time I spent so much time away from “home” was back in 2011 when I went around the world. The last time I travelled internationally like this was 2018 when I went to Japan and the last time I went on my own internationally was the trip to Frankfurt back in 2015. It has been a long time since any of that happened and a lot has changed.

So today I need to get started packing my suitcase and then tomorrow around 330pm it is off to the airport for the first part of the adventure. Tomorrow will be a long day with a 12 hour flight to Istanbul and then a 4 hour flight to Abu Dhabi after a 3 hour layover. Then a few hours of sleep and straight into sightseeing on a bus up to Dubai for the day. It will be a long day but hopefully well worth it!

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Friday 15th September 2023

Woke up early this morning, which has been the norm since being in Hawaii.  The final sunrise looked pretty good and we went for a walk along the beach up towards the main Waikiki beach.  We took that one last stroll along the beach and came back along the streets.  No need for a stop at the ABC store this morning (we went last night) but we had plenty of time to get all cleaned up and fully packed and have a leisurely breakfast.  We had a 1030 pick up scheduled for our airport transfer (not something we would normally do, but it was part of our Costco Travel package).  

We checked out and headed down to the pick up point.  We made sure to get there a bit early because the bus showed up about 10 minutes early.  It was a bit of a strange encounter but we were soon off to the airport.  It didn’t take too long for the journey, especially once we got out of the city itself (though why he didn’t take Nimitz is beside me).  We got dropped off at Terminal 1 where Hawaiian is fully taken over.  We had to walk back a bit to the Mainland check in lobby and I was a bit worried as we didn’t have to do a USDA check which was something you apparently HAD to do.

We checked one suitcase and then headed towards the security checkpoint closest to the mainland lobby.  We got turned away though due to having TSA pre check and told to go to the other side of the terminal.  I guess this was the older part of Terminal 1. But we got into the long looking pre-check line and it moved pretty quickly through the ID check.  The scan only took a few moments and then it was back out the other side of the dignity check and into the terminal.  Heidi had some Priority Passes to use up so we decided to try and get into the lounge as we had a little while.  Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long to get it and the check in process sure felt like being back in the lounge in the old days with assigned seating.

The Plumeria lounge was fairly small but not awful either.  It was simple and packed full of Priority Pass members (like us) but we got some snacks and some drinks and just chilled out for a little bit.  Lunch was on offer and it was pretty simple stuff with some soup, some Shoyu Chicken, Rice and Yakisoba.  Not bad to be honest and filling enough before a 6 hour flight.  We enjoyed the relative peace and quiet and even had a celebrity sighting of a Hawaiian Grammy winner before his flight somewhere.  We left the lounge a little early as our flight was about a 5-10 minute walk from the lounge and I wanted to do a little browsing of the shops before getting to our gate.  

Our gate was in the new part of the terminal and it was so different to the old section.  High ceilings, lots of seating, power everywhere, there was even a Hula dancer and Band to entertain the crowd.  The area was mainly set up for heavies headed to the West Coast at that point with multiple flights all headed out.  

Hawaiian Airlines – HA22

Honolulu to Seattle Tacoma

1335-2220

Airbus A330-200 (N389HA)

Economy Class – Seat 43A

Boarding: 1244 (Gate A10)

Push Back: 1332

Take Off Roll: 1352 (Runway 8R)

Top of Descent: 2136

Touch Down: 2205 (Runway 34R)

Shut Down: 2210 (Gate S12)

After a little while boarding was called and they let us know that we had to have our bags ready for USDA inspection.  By the time it was our turn it was pretty simple, you just put whatever you were carrying onto the conveyor belt.  It ran through an Xray that they didn’t look like they were bothering to look at. Simple!  Less hassle than TSA to be honest.  They were just looking for certain Agricultural products so considering most people got the notices to say avoid taking that stuff, it was easy.

We held in the jet bridge for a few minutes and the line moved really slowly.  We had started boarding REALLY early but that is because they understand how slowly it takes people to load in an aircraft here in the USA.  Even a heavily loaded widebody fills up.  Speaking of widebody, it is rare to be on a domestic flight in a Widebody aircraft these days but it sure was nice to have 2-4-2 seating.  Heidi and I had a 2 seat section on the left side so that as we took off we got a great view of Honolulu on the climb out.

We buttoned up with very little hassle and it turns out they don’t make the IFE available until you get airborne as the system wouldn’t even let us look around in it until after we had left.  We pushed back a bit early and we headed for the active runway.  Being on the left side I didn’t get a look out over the Hickam ramps, but I did get a look down the rest of the terminals and couldn’t spot the A380s so they must have both left already.

We headed out to the reef runway and didn’t even really have to wait in line all that much as there wasn’t many others in line and by the time we got there, it was turn and off we go, didn’t even really have to hold.  We blasted out over where I had been spotting just days before at the start of our vacation and and climbed out over Honolulu, past Diamond Head and Waikiki and over the section of the island we didn’t explore all that much.  We then turned heading North East toward Seattle and climbed up with nothing to see below but ocean and clouds.

With the IFE up and running and as we climbed out the Flight Attendants began their service with the sale of items first.  No one really bought anything and I was keeping what I was going to buy for later.  Then after that was completed they rolled out the carts for service.  Hawaiian is the only airline that still offers complimentary food in Economy.  Don’t get me wrong, it is not an elaborate option.  For lunch time offering it is essentially a hot pocket and a free glass of Pineapple Passionfruit Rum Punch (which they used to offer as a second service before arrival to Hawaii, but I guess that changed too).  Other non alcoholic beverages are available and I got myself a full can of POG and sat back to watch movies.  

Flight attendants came through regularly throughout the flight offering water and if you asked them for something they would happily bring it to you.  They would also sell you items from the back of the plane as I went to use the bathroom and bought a Blanket kit.  Not because I was cold but because I need to add to my airline blanket collection.  Speaking of the bathrooms, flying a widebody used for international as well as domestic has its benefits… long haul bathrooms.  God it was nice to have that bathrooms available!  Not being cramped in a 737 or A320 super compact bathroom was amazing.  There was room to breathe!  

The flight was pretty uneventful, we flew east in what felt like a lot of daylight until we had a very short sunset about 90 minutes out from Seattle.  About 30 minutes out we started our descent just as we crossed the coastline of the Olympic Peninsula around Ocean Shores (according to the map) and came in over the Olympia area preparing for a Northbound arrival.  

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Saturday 9th September 2023

After a busy day of getting up early & getting going to spend time with lots of friends and plane spotting,we left our last spotting location, dropped a friend off where some others were hanging out and we headed to drop off the rental car.

We jumped the shuttle back to the terminal and it was quick until we hit the ring road and then it was bedlam. When we finally got to terminal 3 we did some stuff to adjust our bags and get changed. Then the zig zags of Delta’s terminals in LAX began. It started at terminal 3 where you are meant to check in, but Sky Priority was allll the way down at Terminal 2. So off we go making our way down. 

We checked in and they said “Straight up the escalators to security”. Easy! We head up, get ok’d after a boarding pass check into the Pre Check line and then walk the entire length of the terminal back to Terminal 3 where it dumped us back out to have to be checked again and then go through security. Once through we had to walk back to terminal 2.

We found a spot by our gate and chilled out for the 30 or so minutes until our flight was due to depart. We didn’t really want to do much as we were so tired after a long day in the sun. 

Delta Air Lines – DL371

Los Angeles to Honolulu (LAX-HNL)

1759-2057

Airbus A321Neo (N530DE)

First Class – Seat 2D

Boarding: 1717 (Gate 25A)

Push Back: 1813

Take Off Roll: 1826 (Runway  24L)

Top of Descent: 2041

Touch Down: 2102 (Runway 4R)

Shut Down: 2107 (Gate F1)

Before boarding was called and the gate agent laid down the law when it came to how things would work. She wasn’t going to take any drama. They offered pre boarding to those who needed more time and a few elderly people went down, they then offered military to board early and this is a flight at a major connection point to one of the biggest military bases in the Pacific, half the dang plane boarded in this group and even the gate agents were shocked. 

After all the military were finally done they called First Class and off we went. We got settled in our fancy new seats that had tonnes of storage but a lot of the good functions didn’t work, like no moving map. Wifi worked (to begin with) and so did the Bluetooth headphone connections. There was plenty to choose from on the IFE and you could make a Playlist, so I got stuck into choosing things and got ready. 

No pre-departure beverage other than a bottle of water at our seat but the boarding was so full on they wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Departure time came and went and our pilot let us know it would be a bit while we took on “bags” code for “we are adding more cargo”. When we finally pushed back we had a really quick taxi to the north active runway and was soon heading west bound towards the Pacific. 

As we took off they had warned us it would be a bit bumpy, now it wasn’t awful but it was constant and it didn’t let up for about the first hour meaning no service during that time. That wasn’t an awful thing as we had some water if needed. Once the seat belt sign finally went out, the crew got moving quickly. 

They started by giving us a couple of snacks and taking drink orders. I didn’t get the drink I asked for, but I didn’t care really, I was too tired to worry. Dinner orders were offered and all I could really stomach was the salad option of a chicken Caesar. Thankfully the dressing was on the side, so that was easy. On the side was a fruit salad and a packaged cookie (not as good as the brownie from the day before). 

Dinner was consumed and then I just chilled out and watched a number of movies. The crew mostly kept to themselves but if you wanted something they were happy to get it for you. 

We seemed to chase the sunset for a while before it just won and it was all black out the window. After a couple of passes of the snack basket (apparently gummy bears have to be vegan now?) we began a descent into Honolulu passing over some of the other islands as we lined up for an approach from the south. 

We touched down really hard onto the runway, as though we had blown a tire or something and came to what felt like a full stop. It was a fairly short taxi as we headed to our gate and it wasn’t long before we were let off. 

The one thing you notice quickly about HNL is that it is open air. Right as we came out and turned a corner you could see the planes around us. Mind you it was 9pm local by now and it was a ghost town. We headed down to the baggage claim, met up with our transfer company representative, got a Lei and grabbed our bags. We had a shuttle ride booked to take us to our hotel and I didn’t mind because I was in no shape to drive and it was essentially free with the hotel booking. We were the first stop on our run to the hotel so life was easy at this point. We were dropped at the door and pointed towards reception at the Ilikai Hotel, our home for almost a week! 

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Friday 8th September 2023

Woke up stupid early today, not because we are flying though. Had a full day of work ahead (Mando day too so that was O so fun). Spent all day with that feeling you forgot something. 

Eventually we made it through our work day and got ourselves ready to head to the airport. Our flight took an official delay about 5 hours out but it was a given looking at the schedule it was doing today. What idiot at Alaska decided a 20 minute turn was a smart idea. 

We got a ride to the airport and it was pretty smooth sailing not much of a wait anywhere we went for check in or security, it was smooth sailing pretty much. We had managed to get some cheap upgrades to first class so we had priority lines in most places. We took the upgrade because it would be cheap after taking out the checked bag fee. Some extra room and a small meal onboard for about $65 why not. 

Once through security we went for a bit of a walk around through the terminal and headed towards the N Gates. We got over there with plenty of time to chill out and watch the sunset by the windows. 

After a snack and some time spent by the windows, our inbound flight arrived (on time mind you) and our original boarding dissappeared obviously. But we didn’t matter too much. By the time they all got onboard of course there was a further delay while they did some mechanical sign offs. 

Alaska Airlines – AS1102

Seattle Tacoma to Los Angeles (SEA-LAX)

2035-1127

Boeing 737-9 Max (N946AK)

First Class – Seat 3A

Boarding: 2035 (Gate N13)

Push Back: 2111

Take Off Roll: 2121 (Runway 34R)

Top Of Descent: 2312

Touch Down: 2337 (Runway 25R)

Shut Down: 0010 (Gate 64B)

I stood up to stretch after 10 or so minutes of waiting out the mechanical delay and they were pre boarding, so off we headed over towards the gate and as we came up they called First Class. So onboard we went where we promptly stopped at the door for about 5 minutes, not sure why. We were boarding a 737 Max 9 and it would be my first time on this type of aircraft and to get a special livery was a rare treat. We were on the San Francisco Giants livery, not that we could see it in the dark. 

We grabbed our seats quickly and settled into the nice set up available to us, it looked great! Nice big comfy modern seats, a far improvement over the older seats we had back in April to the east coast. I got everything stashed and wanted to get the wifi entertainment going but it wasn’t working. O well. 

After the flight was fully boarded we eventually pushed back and a short safety briefing was done and we were taxiing pretty quickly down to the active. We didn’t even get a line up and wait, we were just told to do it, get er done! 

We took off heading north and a big swing around to the south in the dark as we headed towards California. Orders had been taken for drinks shortly before departure, so once we were past 10000ft service started and we soon received our meal. Thankfully pre order was available last night so we already had our options sorted. I had the Guajilio Chili Chicken Rice Bowl. It was pretty tasty, however the brownie that it was served with was delicious. 

While the onboard streaming entertainment didn’t like my tablet, I decided to just use what I had on the tablet, which was just as easy anyway. Soon enough we were cruising over the central California area around Fresno and heading south towards Bakersfield and top of descent. 

As we passed the grapevine and started to descend the amount of lights out the window really started to pick up and there was lots of stuff to see, however not much in the way of photo opportunity at night. The descent was pretty quick and as we started to clear downtown LA we turned over Dodger Stadium, heading towards the southern runway. 

After a long roll out, we came to a halt at the end of the runway on the middle taxiway. This meant one thing, penalty box. While the pilots said it would only be a minute, it was about 20. Sigh 

We eventually made the gate and after pulling in, we had plenty of people pushing their way forward. I wasn’t in too much of a rush as we had checked bags to pick up. After a brief pit stop and collecting bags it was out to the street where there was a rental shuttle stop right in front and then like some miracle, a National Shuttle appeared and it was empty! 

The driver quickly (and I mean quickly) took us to the lot for vehicle pick up, where we selected our car. 15 minutes later we were safely at our hotel and in our room, ready for bed after a really long day. 

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The annual trip down to Dorkfest is about to begin, but this time it is going to be a little different (not that last year wasn’t more different). For the first time, This will not be an out and back trip when flying down. While we fly down tomorrow night (Friday the 8th) we won’t be coming back to Seattle after Dorkfest concludes.

On Saturday we are planning on heading to Hawaii for a good relaxation vacation. I haven’t been to Hawaii in 14 years, Heidi even longer. While this is not my first visit to Oahu, it is Heidis. I have done a few of the things were are going to do, there is still new stuff to me involved.

So we are combining our usual Dorkfest trip with a jaunt over the pacific (sadly not all the way home, but I can dream right) and some usual Avgeek fun involved. At least 1 new aircraft (possibly two if Alaska doesn’t change the aircraft on us like they did last time) some new routes to me (two actually, though one is only new in the reverse direction) and a hotel in Hawaii that is pretty famous, at least for Hawaii 5-0 viewers. I have put aside some time in LA for some spotting but also some in Hawaii as well.

So stay tuned for all the fun as we go on our Avgeek Escape to Paradise!

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Had to wake up again at O’Dark Thirty (this time only 4am, so yay for sleeping in, though thats 1am PST so it was going to be a LOOONG day) and got myself all packed up ready to head towards the airport. While the drive should take about less than an hour from our friends house on the opposite side of Charlotte, who knows what traffic or accidents could lead to, especially with road works on the main interstate (I485). So I headed out early about 5am, for a flight that should board about 8am, but I had rental car stuff to deal with and a new company I have never returned to before so who knows what will happen.

The roads however were absolutely empty and the sat nav on the BMW sent me through the middle of downtown Charlotte, not even remotely close to the way I was expecting. The road was empty and I made it through to the airport in about 30 minutes. This allowed plenty of time to find a gas station to top up (I filled the tank fully the night before, so I only had to top up) and it turned out to be a 1 gallon top off, which made the guy look strange when I asked for a receipt. Then it was off to drop off the car in an unfamiliar place.

By the time I was dropping off, it was 5:55am and they didnt show up until 6am apparently so I waited a few minutes and when no one was still there, I dropped the key in the drop off box (with no envelopes mind you), kept the fuel receipt, took a photo of the mileage and also a full video of the car in case they tried to ding me for some BS reason. It was time to then navigate over to the terminal the easy way (fuck following the signs this time) and drag my bags up to the Delta check in which was empty! I dropped off my bag, they changed my seat to an exit row and then it was off to find my way to security. No clear here in Charlotte (booooo) but Precheck was in one central location, and thankfully the line was not all that long. While I was waiting, I got to the front and then rather than being called over to the line that was packed full of people, I was called over to the line handling employee entrance instead so I was through to an empty screener and it only took minutes.

Once through security, I just headed to the gate to find where it was and then I was going to go find a coffee, but the lines for Dunkin were too long, so I just stayed at the gate. It was at this point I realized I had just carried a half full bottle of water through security and TSA didnt say anything. Good job guys! I ate some of the breakfast I had carried with me and just sat at the gate listening to music and working on the trip report some. It was a pretty chill time at the gate. I was a little nervous as I had not had a connecting itinerary in a very long time (2016 was my last connecting flight, coming back from Japan with Heidi), and 2013 was my last proper domestic connecting itinerary when flying alone).

It was a bit of a wait at the gate, but our plane was there and eventually the crew showed up and went down, the Delta gate agent showed up as well and got the area set up to go.

Delta Air Lines – DL2327

Charlotte to Detroit (CLT to DTW)

0919-1115

Boeing 717-200 (N945AT)

Economy Class – Seat 21E

Boarding: 0846 (Gate A5)

Push Back: 0924

Take Off Roll: 0941 (Runway 18C)

Top of Descent: 1031

Touch Down: 1057 (Runway 21L)

Shut Down: 1104 (Gate A51)

When boarding began, I had to wait till most of the way through (Main 1) but when it was time I made my way down and stashed my camera bag in the overhead bin. Which I then promptly got in trouble for using that bin. The 717 has a smaller overhead bin on the left side of the aircraft, the larger bin on the right, I put it on the right, because thats where I was sitting, the flight attendant got upset I didnt put it on the left side. They then started announcing to use the bin on the left for full size suitcases, but it should have been the right, so they were getting upset a lot for people who were just following orders.

I stashed my backpack under the seat in front but as I had an exit row and an unlimited legroom seat (thanks to a missing seat infront) the person in that middle seat on the row in front got upset I was using “Her bag space”. Ugh no lady, thats my bag space but I eventually moved my backpack to fill the middle seat between us when no one showed up.

We began push back and got told of our quick flight up to Detroit. This was good news as it meant I wasnt going to miss my connection. First time on the 717 and it was perfectly fine, apart from the fact there is no IFE system, not even streaming, on the these aircraft. It was fine, I finished off watching my netflix downloads. The flight went by pretty easily, I looked out the window every now and then, ate a Biscoff, drank some water and just chilled out. Fairly soon we were descending into Detroit. What became obvious as we started to move down towards finals was that the Canadian border was directly across from the airport, and the airport was not far from downtown Detroit at all.

We touched down rather strong in Detroit and made our way slowly to the gate, from the air, it doesn’t look that big, but when you get to ground level, the size of the A concourse at DTW just is massive. The 1 concourse is probably the size of Seattles whole terminal from end to end. We pulled into our gate in the high 50s and when I looked at the Delta app it told me I was going to the low 20s. Guess that is going to be a walk!. But I waited my turn to get out of the plane and then it was into the terminal.

I was stunned the moment I stepped into the terminal. It was bright, open, airy, massive ceilings (to accomodate the train that runs along the ceiling) and it was wide as well. The only downside, the little dots on the windows to stop people from taking photos. Bah, one little downside aint bad. I wish Seattle’s airport could look like this. I could have found the train station and taken the train down towards my gate, but figured I now had extra time, so why not walk. It was about a 20 minute slow stroll down to my new gate, but it was worth it to look around.

The terminal was so nice and new looking (but I dont think its that new) and it was like everything you see at international airports, just not on the West Coast anywhere. I found my gate, tried to see if I would have an empty seat next to me or could move to a aisle seat and was told it was no to both, and then it was time to sit back and chill out while I worked some more on the trip report, and relaxed for a bit while I waited. I finished off the small breakfast I had brought with me (trying to readjust to PST at this point) and waited it out at a nearby gate, one that had no one really at it. Eventually the crew and pilots showed up and soon enough it was time to go.

Delta Air Lines – DL728

Detroit to Seattle Tacoma (DTW to SEA)

1246-1446

Boeing 737-900ER (N871DN)

Economy Class – Seat 31A

Boarding: 1205 (Gate A24)

Push Back: 1245

Take Off Roll: 1258 (Runway 22L)

Top of Descent: 1343

Touch Down: 1407 (Runway 16R)

Shut Down: 1415 (Gate A2)

Boarding began and it was time to wait, wait and more wait. Being in Main 2 this time meant it was a long way to wait, and this was a fully loaded 737-900ER, it was going to be a while. By the time it got to main 1, it felt like most of the plane had boarded and as Main 1 started to get towards the end, I snuck into the dregs of Main 1 before they called Main 2, which they did just as I started down the tunnel. Score! I was mainly worried about getting my camera bag in the overhead, while its small, I didn’t want them to try and make me put it under the seat, what with my backpack going there.

I got into the seat and got set up as quickly as possible and from here, I really didnt move at all for the next 5 hours :(. It was a packed flight, every seat was taken and the joint was overflowing really. We had a quick taxi and were told even with substantial headwinds, we would still be in early, with a 4 hour flight time. Gotta love schedule padding! It was mean’t to be 5 hours gate to gate and we were looking at 4.5 hours. Thankfully with Seat Back IFE, i plugged in my headphones and off we went.

We took off out of Detroit with a few bumps, but it smoothed out not long after and it stayed that way for a good portion of the flight. There was multiple services and instead of the biscoff I tried the “Granola Bar” option, which was really a protein bar, like a cliff bar. I watched a few movies, but otherwise the 4 hours just pretty much went by without any hassles. We did have the seat belt sign come on for about 10 minutes while we went through a section of “light chop” which made me think of some memes that go around regarding Delta and the term “light chop” because it was really nothing, not close to what I had going into Newark.

Clouds were out around Seattle and we didn’t even get a break through until we were on finals over the city and coming in over the southern suburbs north of the airpot. We touched down on 16R and that meant a nice long taxi to our gate, but we were early, so it didn’t really matter to much. Thankfully our gate was empty when we pulled in, and it was to the A gates as well, so it was a quick easy walk out of air side to the way down to baggage claim. But first I had to wait for what felt like the entire plane to get off first, since I was WAY down the back. It was fine, I wasn’t in all that much of a rush.

By the time I was off, it was only a few seconds to hit the bathroom (across from the gate) and then downstairs to Baggage claim but I did have to wait for my bags. I didn’t bother looking at the times for the bag to be hitting the belt as I couldn’t remember if Delta offered their bag guarantee like Alaska does. Once I had my bag, I ordered a pick up from a rideshare app and before you knew it, I was at home, to an empty house and a big mess to clean up from a messy kitty.

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After a lesuirely morning of exploring the White House Visitors Centre, breakfast at the hotel and slowly packing up in the hotel, we checked out and headed for the Metro station. 

We decided to take the metro to our airport today because the station was close to the hotel, we still had a few dollars on our metro cards and the metro goes directly to the airport from the stop near our hotel. No changes, no hassles.

The metro station was only a couple of blocks away and there was a train within minutes of getting to the station. 20 minutes later we were pulling into the DCA metro station ready for a long walk from the station to the American Airlines check in, along with security. 

AA’s check in was way at the opposite end of the terminal from where the metro drops off, but because we were at the wrong end of the metro train we had to walk about half the platform and then back the other way. We eventually found the AA check in desk so I could drop my bag off (already paid online) and after self printing a bag tag you then take it to an AA staff member who taps a few keys and tells you to take it to a different part of the airport. Lots of screwing about! 

We made it to the Clear checkpoint and headed through and then it was a short walk to the gate where we had about 45 minutes to boarding. We just hung around the gate area reading and chilling out. 

American Airlines – AA620

Washington DC National to Charlotte

1355-1535

Boeing 737-800 (N946NN)

Economy Class – Seat 32F

Boarding: 1320 (Gate D45)

Push Back: 1356

Take Off Roll: 1408 (Runway 19)

Top of Descent: 1443

Touch Down: 1502 (Runway 36R)

Shut Down: 1515 (Gate B8)

Soon enough boarding began for our flight and the gate scrum started. There was people standing everywhere and I waited a whole before trying to get in line, but it was still a bit of a fight. Once onto the jet bridge it was a slow slow process getting onto the aircraft. Eventually I did get onboard for more slow process getting to my seat and getting my bag sorted. 

Once in my seat I just chilled and waited we closed up 100% full and we waited a bit before we could push back. There was a lot of traffic headed out around the same time. We made our way to the active and after what seemed like a very short penalty box wait, we took our turn and headed into the sky. 

It was a bumpy climb out, not sure why, big it stopped after a few minutes, as we climbed out the crew were up quickly to provide a basic service. They were quick and looked like they were hurrying quite a bit. We got a pack of pretzels da drink and soon enough we were top of descent into Charlotte. Service was still being worked on even into turning finals which was a crazy thing. We came in over the city Charlotte which seemed to come out of no where. 

Once on the ground we waited a bit of our gate to open up and then we waited for what felt like every single person to get off the plane ahead of us. Once we were allowed to leave it was through the maze of bags headed to baggage claim and the rental desks. We were renting with SIXT for the first time so it was going to be an adventure.