by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – Bayeux to Paris

Another early morning wake up (why do i keep booking early morning trains/planes.. pls tell me!) and off to the train station we go, lugging bags for the 10 minute walk. At least by now we know exactly where we are going, and can do it probably with our eyes shut. FMY (Fabulous Miss Yena) & I both comment that we almost get run over by the most amount of cars in the street that we have seen all week in Bayeux near the hotel… wierd.

As we walk into the Station, right smack in front of us are the Texas couple Rick & Laverne heading back to Paris on the same train. Small world. We only had a short wait and with tickets in hand already to go, all we needed to do was validate. As time approached and we headed from the small waiting room to the platform, Laverne mentioned that they had assigned seats, where as we did not. I paniced and ran inside with very little time to go. I had to do the rudest thing ever and push my way in to quickly ask if we needed seat assignments, was told no, and ran outside as the train pulled into the station.

Thursday 11th August 2011 – Bayeux to Paris
SNCF – Intercities
Bayeux to Paris St Lazare
1st Class

FMY helped Rick and Laverne out getting their large suitcases onto the train while I took our bags and jumped in the first door possible rather than trying to walk the platform and find the first class carriages, we would do it inside the train instead, easier that way. We headed our way to the front of the train, found an empty spot in the 1st carriage we hit, I then went into the very first carriage and found it almost entirely empty so we moved into that one where we could have more space.

At this point, pretty much the train trip went as follows. Read my tablet, eat my breakfast of Baguette, Water & Banana and write a postcard. Pretty much a standard train journey really. Didn’t really look out the window as we had already covered the same sights on the way down, was tired and just wanted to relax. It was good. Took a few photos here and there, pretty soon we were approaching St Lazare as we came into the Paris Suburbs.

Upon arrival into St Lazare we headed for the Taxi queue where FMY dropped her bag in the taxi with me, and I headed off to the hotel with all the bags while she headed off to run some errands and we would meet up after. Pretty soon I was back at the Champs Elysees and into the hotel I strolled, ;like a pack horse.

by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – New York to Zurich to Paris to Bayeux

5th/6th August 2011

After getting my stuff together back at the hotel after an awesome day, I was going to do something I had not done before in New York when leaving. Get the Train to the airport after being told it was extremely easy and cheap. $12 was meant to be the cost (worked out at $11.25) and should have been easy. But things did not go to plan from the Start. I figured rather than walk the 5 blocks dragging a heavy suitcase I would jump in a cab. Unfortunately the porter at the hotel would not get me a cab. So I walked up to Port Authority Bus Terminal and their cab rank about a block and a bit up, and jumped in what was a long line. But the thing is there was about 30 taxi’s waiting and yet the ladies at the front were just not moving, I mean WTF! Hell once the line started moving it stopped again while an old lady just stood there, I told her to take the next taxi its waiting there or I am going to.

She didn’t move, so I did and jumped the queue by about 5 people. I was kind of in a bit of a hurry as I was running a bit behind schedule. With that I was now in a cab heading to Penn Station, but at the end of the block, we stopped, for 5 mins. And this was to be the longest/Shortest taxi ride I have had in new york. I should of just walked. I was mega frustrated and then to add insult to injury the taxi driver tried to rip me off. I handed him a $20, told him to make it $11 change and we will make it even (fare was $7). Sounded good to me at the time, cept he decided to keep some of the money and gave me $9. WTF! I told him off, made him give me the extra money, told him to fuck off and jumped out.

Into the station I went (after being dropped off at the wrong side of the station) and went in search of a vending machine to get my metrocard topped off. None of the machines would let me do anything or even sell me a ticket, so I jumped in the growing ticket queue. Which had people moving slower than a snail. The time for my train was fast approaching, and then the lady behind the window told me she couldn’t top up my card, so I said fine, sell me a new ticket (there was like $1 on the metro card so couldn’t be bothered). No she told me. WHAT THE FUCK. Why is everything getting so stupid all of a sudden. My blood was boiling by this stage and I was pissed off. So I told her to just shove it and went in search of another ticket machine, one that would sell me a ticket. Some idiot at the vending machine jumped in line ahead of me and mouthed off at me. Whatever. I got my ticket then tried to find the next train to Jamaica Station, unfortunately this is almost impossible at Penn Station it seems as no where has any information. So I asked a cop who was nice enough to tell me any train really and that the next train was Platform 20. So down I carried my case.

When I got down there, there was not a person in sight, not even a soul. This didn’t seem right. Then I saw a sign “Do not Board”. Why is it so hard!!! I dragged my case back up the steps to the waiting area as a crowd of people started flocking another platform and an announcement was made that the next train to depart would be from Platform 16. So off I went. When I got onboard it was already packed. I found an out of the way place to put my case which was convientiently right infront of a free seat (albeit with a ladies bag on the seat). After a 4-5 minute wait and the lady not moving her bag I asked her if she could move her bag so I could sit. She grumpily said “Fine” and moved it. I mean WTF! I was so over it all at this stage, just wanted to get to the airport, get to the lounge and chill.

The train ride was pretty uneventful, a lovely gentleman helped me get off at the right station, making sure that I was all good as I must of looked frustrated or stupid (probably the latter) and I was soon on the AirTrain from Jamaica to the terminal. I got an SMS from a flyertalker, due to transit through JFK and this brightened my mood. I could tick that challenge off my list and relax and chat at the same time.

With that I checked in, found somewhere to sit and relax and waited for CMK10 to arrive which he shortly thereafter did. We attempted to try and get into the lounge which turned out to be before security but they wouldn’t let both of us in, just me. So we sat at a bar and had a quick drink and a good chat. Then they started calling people to the gate through security. This was almost 2 hours prior to departure… WHAT! So I ran up to the lounge to make sure this was ok, but they said not to worry and to relax and they will let me know when. But I had other plans anyway. Grabbed a quick drink, cleared out the facebook messages backing up for my birthday and a few quick spotting photos before heading down to security to get through and get some Euro currency.

With the last of my USD changed to EUR I was strolling towards the gate and about to ask how long till boarding so I could do some spotting as the pier was right infront of the active runway, it was then that I saw “Now Boarding all rows” It was an hour prior to departure, whatever!

Swiss International Airlines
LX17
New York John F Kennedy to Zurich
1750-0755+1
Airbus – A330-300 (HB-JHI)
Business Class – Seat 11K

Boarding: 1650 (Gate B27)
Push Back 1739
Take Off Roll: 1800 (Runway 22R)
Top of Descent: 0640
Touch Down: 0711 (Runway 34)
Shut Down: 0715 (Gate: E23 )

I headed to board and was totally unprepared when I walked onboard. I was the first person into the main business cabin (there was one or two in the mini cabin forward of Door 2L. So had ample opportunity to take lots of photos, and with so long before departure I just really got myself comfortable, taking some photos, sending texts and emails, calling home to say im alive as I had not called home in the month I had been travelling.

About 1730 I heard the “Boarding Completed” announcement which shocked me as we still had 20 mins to go, then around 1735 I heard “Refueling Completed” and then a few moments later “Cross Check Doors” and with that we were pushing back early. I had expected a long delay when taxiing to the runway but we were like 4th in the queue and was distracted by all the good planes out the window including El Al, Kuwait Airways, Royal Jordanian, Aer Lingus, Jet Blue, American One World, BA One World & a Qantas One World as well. It was photo snapping central.

Pretty soon we were lined up and ready for our turn (thankfully I had remembered to put my seatbelt on with all the distraction. It was now that I started exploring the pockets in the seat and came across the previous flights menu as well… Score!

Once airborne service started fairly slowly about 20 to 30 mins after take off with the full dinner service wrapping up almost 2 hours after take off. I took my time enjoying each course. Pre dinner drinks with nuts and chips, then salad, then the main. Of course it wouldn’t be a swiss airline without a cheese course and of course, dessert & chocolates. All consumed with lots of water, diet coke, coffee and a Pretzel Roll. O how I was hoping they would have these. I had seen them on so many other trip reports, I was dieing to try one. And it was GOOD!

After dinner I settled down to do a bit of work on the laptop (finances for the trip, writing a blog post for my time in new york and working on the trip report really) and half watching a movie. During the service I had commented to one of the cabin crew that it was my birthday. A short while after finishing watching the movie and working on the trip report, she was back to offer me some champagne, but since I was not in a drinking mood (was going to keep that for paris) I declined. Shortly there after she returned with a Happy Birthday and a box of chocolates as a gift. YAY!!! I think I might try this on my next flight (cause it would technically still be my birthday when I get on that flight as I was to amped to sleep).

Lets discuss the Swiss long haul set up. The A330-300 has a double cabin business class set up. You have a 2 row mini cabin forward of Door 2L and the main cabin to the right of 2L. I was in Seat 11K in the Main Cabin. The seats are unique in that they have like a column to the side of the seat which you can use an extra table and its essentially where the person in the row behinds feet go. So in some seats like the A seats you have two columns (often reffered to as the “Throne Seats” In the other seats it Alternates between on the left and on the right. In most cases the seats are set 1-2-1 some are set 2-2-1 others have random set ups. 11K has the column on the aisle, giving you just a little more privacy with your aisle access.

The seat goes fully flat and has a half decent AVOD selection (although not touch screen unfortunately) but the one thing that confused me so much was the Tray table. It has a very unique design which drove me INSANE! But hey what can you do!

As the flight progressed, I still could not sleep so just relaxed and chilled out watching Thor and also chatting to the flight attendant, about my trip and my birthday etc. It was a good, easy flight. Business was 100% full so there was people crammed everywhere. About 90 minutes prior to arrival, the lights came on (no mood lighting unfortunately)) and it was time for a light breakfast to be served. These were done the night before really when you filled out your breakfast card and handed it back to the flight attendant. However they forgot my coffee. Service as a whole although good was spotty at times but it wasn’t anything horrible really. Breakfast was a light European style, so Fruit, yoghurts, Pastries/Bread really. I wasn’t really hungry and since I still had another breakfast flight, just stuck with a serve of fruit.

Soon enough we were given a pre descent brief by the Captain and we started to come down into the low cloud around Zurich. It was a weird approach though, we could of come in on a nice straight direct approach but maybe for Noise purposes they fly a spiral descent. It was extremely weird. Soon enough we were on the ground and taxiing towards the dreaded E gates at Zuirch, which meant the Heidi train. I wasn’t to worried, as we landed a good 45 minutes early so I had heap of time to connect it just made it a lot easier for me as I would e able to get into the Lounge for a bit more time and a shower, rather than have to skip it altogether.

The disembarkation process seemed all to quick and I barely even had my stuff on my shoulder before I was being forced towards the front of the plane by the pushy people at the back. I made my way off the plane and headed quickly for immigration with one thing on my mind. A shower. Onto the next Heidi train and off we went towards the A Gates. I headed into European immigration where I was asked one question “Are you on Holidays” to which I answered Yes and was admitted. No forms, no nothing, no worries! All to easy.

The Swiss lounges in Zurich are in one main complex which makes things all to easy really. It made my life all the better. I queried seat allocations when I arrived at the gate to see if I could get something better than the 6F I was assigned and was given 1F. Anything in Row 1 is better than Row 6 imo. With that I was handed a shower key, explained how the weird system worked and off I went. The lounge was very empty which was fine, with very basic breakfast offerings (nothing hot) but again wasn’t worried. They did have Movenpick iceceam and free wifi vouchers available with 30 min sessions at a time. Jumped on the wifi to get my phone ready and working and then it was grab a quick drink, banana, steal all the swiss chocolate in site for my friend and then off to do some more plane spotting and clear security. Unfortunately gate A85 where my flight to Paris was departing was the very last gate on the A pier. A good 10 minute walk after security. They were not wrong. Add on time to take photos and security itself and you have a good 20-25 mins from start to finish. By the time I got to the gate, boarding was just about to begin. They preboarded special cases (ie very old people) and soon enough boarding was called.

Swiss International Airlines
LX634
Zurich to Paris – Charles de Gualle
0905-1020
Airbus – A320 (HB-IJS)
Business Class – Seat 1F

Boarding: 0840 (Gate A85)
Push Back 0903
Take Off Roll: 0910 (Runway 28)
Top of Descent: 0936
Touch Down: 1000 (Runway 27R)
Shut Down:1005 (Gate: 66)

As boarding was being called I was already half way down the Air Bridge as had been boarded just seconds after the last special needs person. This meant I had a nice empty cabin to deal with. But being that the seats are the same as economy, I wasn’t to worried. What did shock me as tehe lack of entertainment, including a radio,. Not a thing was fitted at all, so it was a bit of a shock really. The trusty ipod would come in handy on this flight.

Not a full flight in either cabin this time and business was empty apart from me in `1F and another gentleman in 2A. What tehe hell. Why assign me Row 6 in business if only 2 people. Whatever. At least with plenty of space I could spread out either way. I took heaps of photos of the taxing aircraft around us as everything came in right next to me really. Lots of stuff I had never seen beofore in my life. Awesome!!

Pretty soon we were taxiing back after the flight attendant gave perfect translation to 3 different languages. With a quick taxi to a different runway and a very hasy pull up and ascent, pretty soon we were airborne and winging out way to France. Not much to talk about on this trip, a quick 50 minute flight, up, down, wham bam thank you maam.

I did end up getting a warm pastry breakfast, including several offers for extras (declined) and some of the famous swiss chocolates just prior to arrival into Paris. On the ground in CDG it was more of the same forme. Photos Photos photos. I am loving all these aircraft I have never seen before. Love it! Getting a lot of Star Alliance painted aircraft including Swiss, Austrian and United.

With the arrival into CDG, I went into a kind of scared over protective mode. I had heard of the sheer craziness of the airport itself and how confusing it is, along with the whole “people will rob you” advice of Paris. So I wasn’t sure what I was doing or where I was going. I just followed the signs and tried to make sense of the French words around. I found the baggage belt and was hoping that my bag made it here. In a good strike of smarts the people who run CDG tell you how long your expected to wait for your bags, so gave me plenty of time to sort things out. When the bags started to hit the belt, mine was first off, priority tags really do work!

Then it was working out how to find my way to the RER with the very confusing directions and after a bit of help and guidance from the information booths, I was on my way to T3 and onto the RER. I was smart enough to have some Euro Coins on me to get the RER ticket and I was onboard and heading to Gard du Nord, and my hotel… some luxury for one night. The Paris Marriott Hotel Champs-Elysees.

Sunday 7th August 2011 – Paris to Bayeux
SNCF – Intercities
Paris St Lazare to Bayeux
2nd Class

Up nice and early after a very very long 37 hours or more of no sleep and a massive day in Paris of exploring, wandering, indulging and an amazing birthday Celebration at Les Ombres, I hit the gym for a bit of a wake up and then repacked some stuff into a smaller bag for the trip down to Bayeux and the Normandy region for some Battlefield explring.

After having done a bit of half assed research the afternoon before, Yena (who has joined me for france) and I made our way after a quick caffeine hit in the lobby down a very, very empty Champs-Elysees to the Franklin D Roosevelt Metro stop for a 3 stop metro ride to Gare St Lazare. With that completed we sussed out where we needed to go and with plenty of time to spare, we hit up a local café for another caffeine hit (can you tell we both enjoy our coffee). We had pretty much planned that this would be a quiet morning with a 2 hour train ride to catch up on things all the way down.

Coffee consumed we headed back over the street to the station to suss out some take along breakfast pastries and to figure out what platform we were departing from. There was a massive crowd at one end of the station and what we didn’t realize was that was for our train. All the crowd was waiting for the platform number to be released and when it came up we got bumrushed by the crowd and it was like O M G I am about to be run over by a billion people. Then we realized it was our train, and knowing that the train is unreserved seats we split up. Yena to get pastries (she was hungry, I didn’t care really) me to get our seats (was more worried we wouldn’t get a seat). We need not have worried at all as I found a 4 seat with table all the way at the far end of the platform and soon enough was joined by Yena carrying our breakfast. With an apple and drink pilfered from the Hotel Gym, it was a tasty if not all that healthy breakfast (it was my first “French” breakfast so it counts as ok really and its really hard to find a French breakfast without some form of Chocolate, you will know what I mean if you check out a cereal aisle over here). With that we settled in and dead on time, the train rolled into the station.

Pretty much as the train sped on, Express to Caen the French countryside rolled past the window and I worked on my trip report and blogging while Yena worked on her journal and we both got out the ereaders for a light spot of reading. Pretty soon Caen approached and the train was stopped for about 10 minutes or so, then it pulled out again nice and speedily. We had roughly 15 minutes or so till our scheduled arrival into Bayeux.

Soon enough an annoucement was made in french about 30 seconds from arrival and we jumped up and grabbed our bags, making it out of the train shortly after arrival into Bayeux. The platform was pretty bare but we followed the mass crowd towards the exit and then it was off on foot to our hotel for the next 4 nights. The Hotel Chateau de Bellefontaine.

by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – San Francisco to Chicago to New York – 3rd August

An early morning wake up and no running this morning as to dark and the “fitness centre” at the hotel opens to late. Not to worry, will enjoy a day of rest and relaxation as I fly across the country. A light breakfast and a final check of emails before I jump onto my free shuttle to the airport.

Upon arrival at Terminal 3 at SFO I noticed that this was not a good thing to be here at this time. It looked like a madhouse at the Economy check in and security. Fortunately I had access to Premium Check In and also Premium Security. Thank the lord. No real wait, was directed to a self check in machine and figuring it wouldn’t work for me, I waited for someone to come up and offer assistance. After 2 or 3 minutes no one came. So I gave up and put in my confirmation number still expecting it to fail on me. It didn’t. Now this is where I should of figured things were not as expected. My boarding pass spat out both flights as United First. Hrm thats wierd. I figured I would deal with it at the gate and get through security while I could.

I was directed to premium security after asking where it was, and soon enough I was in the queue. I grabbed a few zip lock bags as I didn’t have the right size and some spares will come in handy later in the trip. Security was a non issue, not even a grope from the TSA 🙁

Once through I went in search of the gate so I could get my bearings before running a few errands. I found the gate next to a customer service point so queried my boarding pass. I was told all was fine and it was just a system issue. I double checked my seat on seat guru and I was still allocated a backwards facing seat. Awesome. I convinced the agent to reprint me passes on real stock rather than the flimsy crap the self service kiosk spits out.

With that done I went in search of a banana, some coffee & some water. No access to Red Carpet Club meant I couldn’t get this free. I explored the terminal for a while getting heaps of photos and searching for a retro jet. No dice 🙁 I browsed the shops for a bit (if u walk into the Ghiradelli shop they give you samples) and soon enough I could see a crowd gathering at the gate. Figuring the gate lice were starting early realised there was only 15 mins to boarding and a plane was at the gate. Unfortunately my worst fear had come true, an aircraft swap. We were changed to a domestic configuration 757-200 🙁 No more backwards facing seat.

I was a little dissapointed but thems the break. What was good for me though was that I was not in economy as a lot of people were about to get bumped. Volunteers were bound to be asked for. I ended up joining the back of the scrum rather than sit down as it wasn’t worth it by this stage with only a few minutes till boarding time.

United Airlines
UA972
San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare
1011-1625
Boeing – 757-200 (N581UA)
First Class – Seat 6A

Boarding: 0941 (Gate 82)
Push Back 1020
Take Off Roll: 1032 (Runway 1R)
Top of Descent: 1530
Touch Down: 1604 (Runway 10)
Shut Down: 1610 (Gate C26)

With boarding called on time, I gave it a few minutes to let the scrum die down a little before getting in the boarding queue and then having to fight through the pushing and shoving of the DYKWIA crowds. I got through soon enough and was shortly on my way down the jet bridge.

At the door there was quite a wait for people to get into the aircraft as their million & one carry on bgs were stored. I was welcomed on board, directed to my seat. Jackets were hung, no pillows on offer but blankets at the seat. No sign of headphones or menus (neither ever offered). But I settled in and was soon offered a pre departure beverage of choice. As we waited during the boarding process the Captain gave a very thorough flight introduction including telling us where we were going to fly over (Sacremento and Sioux Falls were the two I distinctly remember. Channel 9 was active (yay) and soon enough we were pushing back. Numerous times the crew were advising people to fix, up there bags before takeoff.

We pushed back a little late and listening to Channel 9 was awesome for this as i could tell exactly what was going on. We taxiied pretty quick to Runway 01R and after a little hold we were airborne. Right turn towards Oakland and Sacremnto and a nice long climb to altitude. Orders were taken and was originally told the only option was a Turkey Sandwhich, however after being told that a salad was also available and I had the option due to status I took it.

A beverage was offered next and I took a diet coke with lime and some warm nuts as my tribute to lucky from “One mile at a time, a blogger I enjoy reading. With those cleared away lunch was soon brought around and my Southwest Chicken Salad with soup and Breadsticks was offered and I settled in to enjoyed this lunch while watching the movie, Water for Elephants.

Lunch was cleared away, coffee and an oatmeal cookie fresh from the oven were offered and I savoured this with one of my samples of San Fran chocolate, while writing part of this trip report as well. After a while I gave up watching the movie and settled into reading my book on my tablet while listening to channel 9. Now lets discuss this lovely function that is only available on United. Channel 9 is an audio channel which feeds the air traffic control feed from the cockpit direct to the audio system. Whatever the pilots hear, you hear. It is an avgeeks dream. I loved it. While I sat there enjoying it, the world passed away below.

Eventually we started to descend and with Ch9 running I could hear it coming. It was a very slow, gradual descent but as we got closer to Chicago you could hear the ATC get crazier. The O’Hare airport is one of the busiest so you can expect it to get crazy. The landing was silky smooth and I was to distracted shooting photos to really notice. We had a fairly quick taxi to the gate and we were released to the masses about 20 mins early.

Once on the ground the emails flooded in and the tweets were flowing as I was trying to get some tickets to the daily show. Some where released and as I ambled through the terminal trying to get the tickets i had no idea where I was going and ended up walking the whole length of the C concourse. Unfortunately no tickets 🙁

One good thing about going from Concourse C to Concourse B is the use of the trippy tunnel. O yeah. I had camera ready to snap away. Took a number of photos in the tunnel all while I am sure annoying lots of people as I was gawking.

Once out into the B concourse I went scouring the terminal for any signs of a retro jet, but sadly no luck. I wanted it so bad I swear I walked that terminal about 3 times and those terminals are not small either. By the time I had realised what the time was I was meant to be boarding so rushed to the gate. But it was still full of people. Just then the gate agent made an announcement that he had no computer access to either of his terminals so he could not board till further notice.

We waited and waited, with no updates. Pretty soon departure time came and went but then the announcement came. He said and I quote. “Ladies and Gentlemen. This will not be pretty at all. I am going to board two classes and two classes only, no status, no zones. This will be a slow manual process. We will board First then Economy. If you are standby on this flight, you will not be clearing this flight. Unfortunately I can’t do anything about this, I do apoligise. We will now board First Class.” With that the masses pushed the gate but those of us in First made our way to the front.

United Airlines
UA692
Chicago O’Hare to New York La Guardia
1730-2046
Airbus – A319 (N840UA)
First Class – Seat 1A

Boarding: 1735 (Gate B6)
Push Back 1752
Take Off Roll: 1812 (Runway 9R)
Top of Descent: 2011
Touch Down: 2107 (Runway 22)
Shut Down: 2112 (Gate C7)

Once through I manged to get down the gangway fairly quickly after my beloved boarding pass was cut in half. Can’t have everything I guess. I made my way down to the aircraft where most people were in a jovial mood. Even the crew were in good spirits. Joking around. I found my seat, stahed my gear easily and made myself comfortable as somehow, a passenger made it onboard the wrong flight. This was not going to be pretty.

As boarding progressed it was obvious this flight was not going to be full but that didn’t matter to me much. Channel 9 didn’t sound like it was active, so I asked one of the crew if they could ask the captain to turn it on. I was informed it was and after a bit of playing we got it to come on. What more could an avgeek want. A comfy seat in the pointy end, live ATC on the audio and the chance to spot at a busy airport on the taxi out.

We eventually pushed back from the gate and as we got clearance to taxi it was obvious on Ch9 we were not going anywhere anytime soon as we had missed our slot, we were heading to the penalty box. Where we sat for about 5 or more minutes. A string of United and American Eagle CRJs were cleared infront of us. We were told to clear our holding spot and move and do a 180 turn to get out of the way. The pilots did not like this at all and protested to which they were promptly told to do as told by Chicago ground control. As we were doing this we got our paperwork and were given clearance to the active.

Again we held, longer and longer, but no word from ATC as to why. But to the front I saw 2 CH46 Bullfrogs take off. Thats a bit wierd what are they doing here, wait Obama is in town. Yep sure enough 2 minutes later, Marine One takes off (at least one of the VH3’s was Marine One). Twice now I have seen Air Force One… score.

A few minutes later we were cleared for takeoff and on our way. We roared past the VC25A (Air Force One) hiding off to the side and went airborne heading over Lake Michigan. Since they were going to play the same movies I got stuck into the trip report waiting for the “snack” service (which is really a light dinner). Options were again a Turkey Sandwich or Chicken this time over Pasta Salad. Chicken it is, but no offer of nuts 🙁

As the flight cruised on I worked on the trip report some more while listening to channel 9 and tried emptying the aircraft of diet coke with lime. As we approached the mid flight point I could hear lots of deviations for weather and as we were cleared to descend we were told it was gonna get bumpy. It wasn’t that bad really and to be honest i’ve been through worse. It was a long long slow descent almost an hour as we were held over New York. Eventually those lovely words “United 692 cleared to land” were said.

We landed and a quick taxi to the gate and everyone was in a mad rush to get off the flight it seemed. I wasn’t in a world of a rush so lolligagged a bit before heading to the baggage claim area and by the time I had my jacket on my suitcase was out. I quickly dialed the limo company followed instructions and waited for the car. After a while, eventually found the driver (what do you expect when every car company uses black Lincoln Town Cars) and I was headed to my hotel, the Element Time Square West.

by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – Vancouver to Seattle – 23rd July

Up at OMG o clock today for the first Journey South on this trip. So far I have headed east, north and now headed south (no West Travel yet). But this was not to be a tough one, this was to be a relaxing journey today. This was also the start of my journey with Brad really. We had been on contiki together but from this point on, it was just Me & Him.

With morning formalities out of the way and a quick trip to reception to get some credit card statement issues out of the way, we were in a cab heading for the station. Thats right, I said station. Heading south over the border today by Train. Rather than fly the 20 minute segment and spend hours in security at the airport, we had planned on the Cascades south to Seattle. The train was an easy choice, with AAA discount, a nice big comfy business class seat for $12 extra and free wifi, i mean seriously, why not!!

We had picked up tickets nice and early for cheap ($45 one way in business) so the costs were pretty good. With pre clearance of immigration at the station in Vancouver it meant that the turn around would be quicker rather than sitting at the border for a train load of people. Easy as!! We arrived at the station in the pre dawn twilight to see half the terminal either shut or under construction…. damn. Looks like a final breakfast of Tim Hortons. O well.

Walked into Pacific Station and saw that nothing was open other than MacDonalds so while Brad waited, I ducked over to Tim Hortons to grab a coffee and some breakfast/snack supplies for the train. When returned, still nothing so time to fill out the Customs forms and wait.

Amtrak Cascades – Train 513
Vancouver to Seattle
0640-1105
Business Class – Car 2 – Seat 5A

Boarding: 0530
Departed: 0655
Arrived Border: 0800
Departed Border: 0830
Arrival: 1115

Around 0525 a line formed around the customs area for documentation check. This looked about right so we kinda snuck over into the line a head of a few people (suckers) and headed to the check in area. Boarding began shortly after with Business Class line given preference into the documentation check and we were amongst the first group through immigration.

Was grilled at immigration about absolute random topics but meh, didn’t care and the security screening was non existant. No taking out of laptops, no shoes off, no belts off, fully intact dignity at all times! That wont last for sure. Once through “security check and baggage screening” you are funneled down a chainlinked area (since you are technically in the United States now and out of Canada towards the train.

Checked luggage was collected directly at the train itself (didn’t realise this earlier) and we headed for our seats, all the way at the other end of the train, meh what can you do! A little bit of walking never hurt anyone. As we approached our seats we dropped our gear, and i went for a little walk around to suss out the train, take a few snaps for the report and then came back and fired up the laptop thanks to the power port at the row and then logged into the wifi ready to do some work.

Managed to get a number of things done on this train journey, managed to organise some tours/attractions for the coming week or two, managed to work out other things and also enjoy the ride south in peace, quiet and gentle rocking motion. We ended up departing late but had been working for so long on the wifi, never really noticed apart from the few lurches as we crossed switcing points.

Pretty soon we were smashing our way south on the train at speed. The cascades went a fairly decent clip so that was great. Once ticket check was done we were free to “move about the cabin” so I jumped up and grabbed a coffee as we were warned that once we got to the border it was “sit in your seat and DONT MOVE” time and they would give a 30 minute warning. I was in the line to get coffee when the 30 minute warning was given, and the 20 and 10 minute warning… dear lord could this line move any slower. Thankfully i was just getting liquids and not trying to eat my breakfast at the border!!

Business class gives you a $3 discount on all drinks and food and they accept Canadian Note Currency at a 1:1 ratio of CAD:USD so that was a good way to get rid of some of the smaller notes. A coffee, water & juice with $3 discount came to $3.25. When asked to wait for change I said keep it and scurried back to my seat. With the border fast approaching it was time to hit the bathroom as well before it closed at the border crossing.

We arrived at the border with pretty stern warnings of not touching technology equipment (laptops, phones etc) or moving or really even breathing until customs had inspected the train fully. First customs officer into our carriage was carrying a massive backpack with arm scanner (probably looking for some form of explosives or something), 2nd one on was carrying a geiger counter by the looks of it and the 3rd was grilling people and collecting Customs forms. With our carriage done, laptops went back on, so I joined them and got back to reading stuff.

Within 30 minutes the train was done, a blast of the trains horns and we were rolling out of the border. Hello USA! Pretty soon we were at speed againt hurtling down the Washington coastline headed for seattle. The Cascades can get up to a fair clip and it makes it just nice and comfortable, with a coffee or drink and free wifi, I am in heaven. Even had a stash of Tim Hortons Tim Bits for a sneaky snack onboard.

Pretty soon we were approaching Everett (no sign of any 787s etc) and that meant we were getting close to seattle, so with the stop before seattle made we had picked up a bit of time since we were running about 20 mins late at that point but with some good signals and plenty of schedule padding, they were announcing a departure from Seattle on time.

We arrived around 1115 or so, and they were already starting to turn the train around for the further south journey and restocking once we barely even pulled up to the station. It was off and into another Station that looked like a construction site. Crazy. Bags took quite a while and then we were out, through the taxi touts, having to tell Brad to keep on walking through them, dont stop, out to the metered taxis. Soon enough we were hurtling along the elevated Waterfront I5 north to our hotel near the Seattle Centre.

by ·Comments Off on V-Town

God I love Vancouver. It is one of those cities i could easily live in. I mean seriously, why wouldn’t you. The city is amazing. Unlike the first few days pre tour, i had a decent amount of time to explore the city this time and do heaps of stuff, and I was going to enjoy doing it 😀 I had a few things planned but other than that it was all good to just explore and do random things.

Of the things I wanted to do, the main thing was the Grouse Mountain Grind. Why catch up a Gondola up a mountain when I can challenge myself to a grueling trip to the top on foot. Commonly reffered to as the “Vancouver Stairmaster” this was going to be fun for me. One of the girls on the Tour Christina was up for doing it as well, my day looked up as I would have some company rather than doing it alone.

The Grind was great, even in the cold temperatures (8c) and the wet with cloud everywhere. I still managed to have fun doing it. It was not easy, step after step up we went. It was done fairly well though the steps were fantastically set up with lots of stone steps along with wooden as well with only a small percentage of dodgy looking steps.

The time on the Grind was 1h20m47s. A great achievement for me and christina. It was a great feeling at the top to have concurred the mountain. But with so much cloud and fog at the top, it was not worth sticking around as you could not see anything, so I came down the mountain and ended up working my way back to Vancouver on the Seabus (like a ferry pretty much).

The other days in seattle were spent just enjoying the outdoors and either catching up with friends or exploring the city and doing a little bit of shopping. With plenty of canadian dollars leftover, it was good to know that I could just buy whatever I wanted without an issue. I even sent home 2 boxes of souveneirs so far at a cost of $177 CAD. Ouch :/ Might have to curtail the souveneir collecting a little…. NAH!

During my time in Vancouver we did some special things. One of them included a nice dinner at Tojo’s Sushi. A tour buddy, Cory, was organising a dinner at this special sushi restaurant that everyone raved about so I just had to go. It was an amazing night, now it was not cheap at all ($85 each including drinks for 7 people) but to be honest, I did not care. The food was amazing, the company great and I had a fantastic time spoiling myself the night before the Grind. We also trekked out to La Casa Gelato out in the inner suburbs around Vancouver. This Gelateria has over 218 flavours out daily out of a range of 518 flavours they offer. CRAZY! it was great. Some of the sampled options (you can try as many as you want) included Curry Peanut Butter, Chilli Chocolate and Vegemite, yeah thats right, vegemite!

Yesterday on my final day in Vancouver, well I had a great day planned. The Aviation Geek in me demanded some time out in the open, it wanted to be released. Thanks to twitter there is a giant collective of #avgeeks around the world. One of them who I have mentioned in the past Leighton (@pacificairphoto) offered to take me out to YVR (Vancouver Airport) and let me do some spotting and was going to make the day special. What I didn’t realise was that the day we were going spotting was also the day of the Vancouver Airport 80th Birthday celebrations! AWESOME!!!

Special events were being held around the airport and i ended up taking around 1700 photos while out there. I shouted Leighton lunch at the Flying Beaver bar which is part of the Seaplane Terminal down on the River. It was a great lunch spot, with good food, good company and lots of Seaplanes coming and going around us.

I also caught up with my friend Trista who took me up to the top of the Harbour Centre (for free thanks trista!) and we had a good catch up for a couple of hours over coffee and random shopping. All in all a great time. I was pleasantly suprised at how great Vancouver was, it is a city i could get used to and if my friend Chantelle has anything to do with it, it may be possible. She put the idea in my head to apply for my Canadian work visa. I dunno if I will but we shall see.

Managed to tick off more things on my list including a Bike Ride, Plane Spotting and the first of the Train trips. More on the train trip in the trip report (later tonight probably while I do my washing). Farewell Canada… i will be back, not sure how long for but stay tuned!

Current Location: Onboard Amtrak Cascades Train 809 – Bellingham, Washington
Countries: 3
Canadian Proviences: 2
US States: 2

by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – Los Angeles to Vancouver – 7th July

Once we were released from our aircraft into the Terminal, it was a mad dash towards immigration. Anyone who has ever been to LAX before will know what I am talking about. LAX is a NIGHTMARE for transit. The facilities are crap, the staff are as slow as hell. But so many people do it, and I was doing it for some crazy ass reason. I was going to chatise myself at least a dozen times during this stopover for transiting at LAX.

As we got to the escalators down into immigration, we were spread out amongst people coming in off Virgin Atlantic from London. A full 747 load of passengers. Now unfortunately (and I don’t know why) but they don’t offer any sort of express service for priority passengers. This is ludicrous because the scene that was in front of me was like pure and utter bedlam. Crazy++ There was just hundreds of people in line ahead of me. The line was barely moving. I knew this was not going to be pretty.

I was meant to meet some people here in LAX for a bit of Aviation Geekage but I laughed when they said I would be out around 4pm (since I was due to land at 1445. They were not wrong. I was in line for a good hour and then once I got my bag, I still had another 15 minutes to get through customs. Yeah worst hour and 15 of the trip so far. But it was done, and I was clear.

As I dropped off my bag at International connections, and off into the main area I went. Met up with Derek from Cranky Concierge who was picking me up and we were quickly into his car, and off to In n Out. O yes, that’s right, I am already 2 down on the list and its barely even 24 hours into the journey. Now the In n Out near LAX is pretty famous amongst Aviation Geeks as it is directly under the flight path for Arrivals into Runway 24R. This is often the heavy aircraft runway. And I was not going to be disappointed this time.

I had been looking forward to these burgers for months now. I already had my order ready in my head (though I ended up getting fries as well when I got there). Both Derek and I met up with Brett from Cranky Concierge and also www.crankyflyer.com and we all had a great time, chatting about planes, travel and me with Camera in hand taking in heaps of photos. Awesome afternoon. Got some fantastic spotting photos. Some highlights include:
* Hawaiian A330
* Lufthansa 747
* Air China 747
* Singapore Airlines A340-500
* A rare Southwest Aircraft (737-300 with Winglets)
* Horizon Dash 8 – 25th Anniversary
I will throw up photos online at some stage but this was an awesome afternoon. Derek got me back to Terminal 2 and ended up dropping me right infront of Premium Security (o yeah) and I was through into the terminal within 10 mins. Now we had timed this so that I should have just enough time for a shower, quick drink and to the gate. Good timing to. I high tailed it from Security to the NZ Koru Club for a shower, no problems getting in at all. I had what was probably the quickest shower in their lounge history and felt relatively human again.

From the NZ lounge (no photos was to focused on going to the Maple Leaf Lounge) I ran next door to the Maple Leaf Lounge operated by Air Canada to try and keep up my Goal of going Lounge Hopping but mainly to see if they will reissue my boarding pass onto Air Canada stock. Nope, do it at the gate the Lounge Dragon told me. Fine. Walked in, dropped my bag, took a heap of photos, grabbed a can of club soda and then out to the gate I went. Once I got to the gate the flight had just arrived and people were spilling out everywhere. The gate agent wasn’t originally going to reprint my pass, then I asked if there were any other seats available. She said 1D. Aisle Seat, first row. Think Mal, Think. Yep take it.

Gave me a few minutes to sit down, fix some stuff up in my bag, take a photo of the Best Buy vending machine that dispenses gadgets and every other tech nerds dreams and then the flight was called.

Air Canada
AC557
Los Angeles to Vancouver
1915-2257
Embraer – E190 (C-FMZU)
Executive First – Seat 1D

Boarding: 1855 (Gate 24)
Push Back 1915
Take Off Roll: 1922 (Runway 24R)
Top of Descent: 2120
Touch Down: 2143 (Runway 26R)
Shut Down: 2150 (Gate 53)

With Priority Boarding called I was in the first wave onboard behind the families unfortunately. I was greeted onboard with a slight French Canadian Accent and then remembered something I had forgotten about the Embraer. Small overhead lockers… ahhhh crap. Thankfully my bag did fit. So that is always a good feeling. No sign of any headphones anywhere, figured they would hand them out later so grabbed my book and settled in.

Pre departure beverages were offered and I took a water. Back to being good after my indulgent lunch that’s for sure! We were soon all boarded pretty quickly (small aircraft means quicker turn arounds) and we pushed back dead on time. Nice work Air Canada can’t complain there. Now one thing I will mention about Air Canada is that their Transborder (US/Canada flights) out of LAX are all on E190s. This means that the seats are just plain old Cradle Seats, which for a 2 and a bit hour flight is perfectly fine. Anything longer and it would be a bit meh.

The seat was comfortable, adequate space and because I was in Row 1, the Monitor was fitted to the bulkhead so I could use it straight away (had they given out headsets). We were pushed back from the gate and then had a quick 7 minute taxi direct out to the runway to take off from where I had been sitting about an hour before.

The takeoff was quick, and we powered out over the water and turned north, and north we went. Apparently we flew up along the coast line and for some reason the Seat Belt sign stayed on for quite some time. A good 10-15 mins before the chimes sounded to release people from their seats. With that the flight attendants started handing out plain old earbuds. PASS! If I had of known this was going to be the fact to start with, I would of grabbed mine from the start of the flight.

Once that was done, arrival documentation handed out and then drink orders taken. Again I went with a club soda for reasons I am not quite sure in my head and this was served with nuts on the side. It’s a North American thing but all the airlines serve nuts of some sort. These were skin on roasted peanuts and cashews, not warm though but they were good, tasty and a touch salty.

Menus were handed out shortly there after while I started watching about the only movie that looked half decent (Unknown). Dinner choices didn’t look to bad and after having Beef for dinner last night, went for Salmon this time around. It was served with a side salad, Vegies and some sort of Rice thingy. It was good, a touch overcooked but meh can’t complain. The whole dinner was served with a small slice of Strawberry Cheesecake which was the best cheesecake I have eaten in a long long time (even beats the cheesecake shop).

Served with another few cups of coffee and I was a happy content avgeek. I settled in to keep watching Unknown and soon enough we were given a top of descent warning by our Female Co Pilot. We ended up coming into land with still light outside which was kinda trippy for almost 10pm at night. Guess things are not going to be getting dark until late around here. But that is just something I will need to get used to.

We landed with a very nose high attitude on the aircraft and it felt very wierd. But we cleared the runway and then we were off onto a taxiway and there we sat. At this point I had thought we were pulling up to a bus gate. But I was wrong. It was just a hold point on the taxi way. Thank god for that. We pulled into our gate right next to a new colours Continental 737 (sporting united badging). Into the terminal we were released and there is where the endless walk from one of the far international gates to immigration.

Now I got to immigration quickly and there was no one in front of me at this point so I was looking good. However the Staff member just decided to grill the crap out of me. Question after Question after Question. Hell the guys at the US didn’t even ask me much more than “how long are you here for”. It seems he wanted to know every minute detail of my trip, not sure why though. Once through that it was over to get bags then out through customs (not even a stop, he just took the form and said “off you go” before I had even stopped walking) and out into the Terminal. I met up with one of my twitter friends for my evenings entertainment!

by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – Auckland to Los Angeles – 7th July

So I left you while pretty much trapped onboard our aircraft after landing in Auckland. We all waited and waited and for a good 25 mins we were trapped onboard. It was good to chat to some fellow travellers. We all had a good chat and everyone mentioned just how quick the flight went. Eventually we were released with the Air Bridge finally attached, it was like releasing a flock of birds into the wild. People just fled out of the aircraft either towards either the Transfer area or towards duty free and immigration.

The first thing that puzzled me was that the International Transfer section was downstairs. Part of me had to take a double take. Wasn’t sure exactly what to do as I could swear last time I went through that transfer section it was towards immigration more and it was on the same floor. But you do what you gotta do, so I followed the signs down to International Transfers. I was able to get through to security pretty quickly but unfortunately there was only one scanning machine (not just open, one only!) and I was unfortunately behind a queue of at least 7 or 8 people.

It was here that I had a brain fart. I pulled my laptop, tablet and liquids out, but never took anything out of my pockets. Rookie move Mal, Rookie Move. I had remembered that you didn’t have to remove your belt, they just did a secondary wand over you so with belt still on, I went through the WTMD (Walk Through Metal Detector) got the beep I was expecting, and out came the body wand. Except this is where I got told off, because I had forgotten everything in my pockets. So it was back through, drop everything out and to the back of the line. Dammit!

Through the metal detector for the second time, another body wand and this time, the all clear. I quickly grab my stuff and flee so as not to get explosive tested as well, just to make me feel like I have totally bad luck. I went through the doors to an empty room. What the hell. I just kept on walking, till I found some steps and headed up figuring that was the best way to go, then finally a sign. Now things are looking good. Up I went, up into the Terminal. YAY!

Now that I was in familiar surroundings I hightailed it for the lounge quick smart. I had read online on Jaunted that the Koru Club in Auckland offers a free 15 min massage to all Business passengers on the long haul flights. But as the spaces are on first come first served and with 2 LAX flights and a Hong Kong/London Flight all in the lounge around the time I was there, I figured I needed to get their quickly. Turns out I got their first. There was not a single person at the “Bliss” treatment area. So rather than have to book in and come back, I was given my 15 min massage straight away.

I chose the “Shoulder” massage over feet figuring it would get rid of the slight pain in my back from the flight over (probably from lugging around a 10kg camera bag on one shoulder). Into the small treatment room and it was a good massage. Although more body than shoulders, even though I was in quite a bit of pain during the massage (haven’t actually had a proper massage in about 14 months and back then I had lots more body fat) it felt good at the end of it. I was totally relaxed.
With massage over, I found a power port, plugged in, grabbed a drink and settled in.

I was able to log on to the wireless quickly and download my emails and get some updates on the world (while also writing the first stage of the trip report). It was here that I started getting messages from my friend Brad who was flying from Melbourne to LA with V Australia. It seemed his flight was delayed. When I got his first message I was just leaving Brisbane and he was delayed about 4 hours. Next message comes through, delayed till 8pm. That’s ok I guess, we will race to LA to see who gets their first.

Eventually some bad news. Brad is not going to be leaving Melbourne tonight as his flight is cancelled. This news came in just before I switched off my laptop and was headed towards the gate as the screen was showing “Go to Gate” but yet nothing had been said in the lounge, figuring I missed it I packed up and moved on out.

Now lets discuss the lounge at this point. Just WOW. The Koru Club at Auckland Airport was phenomenal. This lounge had lots of different areas, plenty of comfy looking seats, great work areas. Lots of hot food (especially considering the long haul flights head out fairly late from Auckland so they obviously encourage people to eat before hand) and the kicker for me. Fresh Barista Coffee. Hello Coffee heaven!
The only disappointing thing I found was that other than water and diet coke, there was no mineral water or bottled water at all. Just something I would of preffered, but I guess its not across the NZ lounge network at all. Definitely could get used to this and at least I now have a good ball park figure for what a Good lounge and an Average lounge are like. Something to compare for the rest of the trip.
Back to reality. I made my way through all the shops and restaurants (check out my april trip for more pics on Auckland Airport) and headed towards the pier that NZ use for their long hauls. I had forgotten they do a passport check before the gates, so quickly stopped and pulled out my passport and boarding pass before being cleared through the gate.

Son of a bitch. Lying monitors! The gate area was PACKED! But then all of a sudden as I got there, my name was paged. O god what now! Already at Hiccup #4 please don’t make it 5. I approached the counter and gave my name, and a plead of “Please don’t take my lovely seat from me”, to which I got the response “O I wouldn’t do that to you, however here is your boarding pass from LA to Vancouver”. PHEW!
I found a seat and settled in for a bit of a wait, it wasn’t that long, maybe 10 minutes. More of my book read and soon they started to board Children with families, but no elite boarding yet. What! I mean seriously DYKWIA! The boarding area turned into a scrum, seriously it was like a rugby game. I know the kiwis like their rugby and all but this was a joke. Managed to get my way towards the front of the line and soon they called the words I wanted to hear. “We invite all our Business Premier Guests to board”

Air New Zealand
NZ2
Auckland to Los Angeles
2130-1445
Boeing 777-300ER (ZK-OKO)
Business Premier – Seat 1K

Boarding: 2100 (Gate 6)
Push Back 2145
Take Off Roll: 2200 (Runway 23L)
Top of Descent: 1353
Touch Down: 1425 (24R)
Shut Down: 1434/1439 (Gate 21)

With the scrum fully underway it was a mad house to make it onboard. Again boarding was one bridge to Door 2L however this made for again those words you just love to hear. “To your left Mr Muir”. But what blew me away first off was just how great this new 77W looked. She was bright, she was shiny and she looked sexy!
I quickly moved forward to my seat, dropped my stuff then figured it was time to explore while the lights were on. I got plenty of photos of the different cabins, all the mood lights, even the lovely new seats. When I returned to my seat I was offered a beverage and again I decided to just stick with water (for the moment). Nicely laid out on the ottoman was the menu, wine guide and amenity kit. Menu and Wine guide into the seat pocket, amenity kit straight into bag you go. The pilfering begins! I quickly perused the menu and it looked good, I then found out that the same menu is actually stored in the IFE system. Sweet.

While I was playing with the IFE some more and setting up a bit of a playlist of some movies (chose Minority Report, Lost in Translation, Wall E and Social Network) the crew came around the cabin to take “supper” orders while still on the ground. Again this would probably be to allow things to progress quicker due to most people wanting to get some shut eye (or so I thought). Captain came on and gave his quick brief letting us know we would be a bit delayed while we waited on a late arriving Sydney flight to send us some passengers.

Pretty soon we were buttoned up, pushing back from the gate and the IFE was playing more Richard Simmons again (thankfully only have to see that safety video twice on this trip). We headed back to the active runway and soon I was looking forward to what I considered the real start of this journey. My first long haul in quite some time! As we turned onto the active, the Captain put some power in those nice hefty GE90s, we were off into the Air. A few little lumpy bits as we climbed out. The seat belt sign came off quickly and I was up and about again to take a few more pictures.

So lets take this opportunity to talk about the new Air New Zealand offering. It has been much talked about in the Travel Press. But the thing I looked forward to on this trip was being able to compare the old Long Haul vs the New Long Haul. Now the seats themselves are mighty similar. Pretty much the same design but subtle differences. For one the colour. Old is brown, new is white. Good start here. The IFE was touch screen on the new with a better screen and a little bigger it seems to. Life vest has been moved out of the ottoman and a few extra ports/plugs added. Other than that, she looks pretty much the same. It’s the cabins up the back that look different.

I had read some reviews that a lot of people just don’t like the new premium economy because it was pretty damn tight, but one thing you notice on this aircraft, no matter what cabin your in, the aisles feel smaller. They were right about the premium economy, the spacing just does not look right (and apparently as of September they are going to remove a few seats to add a bit more space).

The other thing you notice is that everything is shiny and new (but you expect that from a new aircraft) but the colour scheme just stands out more in my opinion compared to the old. One thing that I did remember from what I had seen online was that the Toilets all had some sort of pictures in them of some sort, the two in the business cabin both had pictures like someone was looking in a window (along with a real window) but the ones at the back of the PE cabin had the great designs. I did something I swore I would never, ever do in my life as an Avgeek. I became a Laviator. I took photos of the toilets (I swear it was for the photos).

Back to the flight. As we climbed to our cruise altitude of 31000 ft (thank you Captain for that bit of information) the crew just seemed to be running back and forth constantly but not really doing much. There was no pre dinner beverage service at all, and for the first 30 minutes of the flight, all we got was a hot towel. It was then a good hour into the flight that the service even looked like it was going to start. Eventually I got my starter before everyone else and that was a almost 1h 15 mins into the flight and before I was even offered a drink!

I had decided to be a bit complicated and try and have the soup they offered as the Express Dine option as a Starter (or at least a small bowl of it). This was brought out to me on a tray well before everyone else. I felt a little bad. But it seemed that’s how this service was going to progress. Eventually everyone else got their starters and a drink but I was skipped on the drink service for some reason. This was going to be the story of my dinner service pretty much. I felt like I had to ask for things several times over. I did however finally get my drink and it was time to tick off the first thing on my list.

Trip List Item #2 – Drink a glass of Champagne on a Long Haul Flight.

The champagne was Piper Heidsick and the small weird looking flute glass they used was perfect for what I wanted. A small glass to really start this trip off (all the rest of the food was going to be enough of an indulgence). Just as my mains was being served I was offered a refill and went back to a trusty companion, sparkling water. But unfortunately as usual, it was forgotten. I finished my main and was offered dessert before I asked for the water again. The self service on the IFE was not even working either so that was not a good sign.
The food was great, the soup was to die for, the Steak main was great. The ice cream sundae dessert. O god yes! Mal is going to have to work off this flight when he gets to Vancouver. But to be honest, who cares, Ive earned it all right. With dinner in my belly, It was time to get comfy and good time to as minority report was winding up.

I put the seat into bed mode and got comfy. The full flat seat was great and the double thick mattress pad that was so raved about in reviews certainly does help, but the blanket is thin and the cabin felt super cold so that didn’t help. Unfortunately I was just to amped to even get any sleep, so figured I may as well just watch some tv. I decided to try out one of new features of the IFE and that is the ipod connectivity. Thankfully the cables are free to all premium class guests. The in seat ordering worked for this, well, it allowed me to order. The cable however, failed to arrive. So I got off my butt and got it myself the old fashioned way.

This seemed to be the story of the service. Really haphazard. Some crew just could not do enough to please you, yet others seemed like it was to much trouble and really hard to get started on a conversation. But at this point it was to early to make a judgement as it was only 3 hours into a 12 hour flight. I settled in and watched some tv and then with an episode of tv that I had brought with me done, I moved onto writing up this trip report with a fresh cup of hot coffee in hand. The seat belt sign came on around this time due to some lumpy action and outside the window a lovely sunrise was beginning as we progressed further north. The seatbelt sign stayed on about an hour or so. I tossed and turned on the seat/bed for several hours watching movies and trying to make myself comfortable and or sleepy.

About the 5 hour mark I think I shut my eyes for a little bit and may have gotten a light sleep for about an hour… maybe. I am not quite sure. Eventually I just started to come alive around about the 3 hours to go mark, I was planning on getting some breakfast about this point to try and resync my body clock but it seemed that the crew decided it was time for everyone to start stirring. The mood lighting came on and started to go through its morning wake up routine. This meant people were getting up and it meant for me, time to make myself feel a touch human (one of those things you need to do on a flight), so I waited in line for a bathroom so I could clean my teeth.

Eventually I started to watch some more TV episodes as breakfast started. By now I was a good 10 or 12 cups of coffee down, time for some food. I figured if I resynced my body to local time I could fool it into avoiding jetlag. Hopefully. So I kept it pretty light for breakfast with just fruit and toast, o and more coffee of course, so unfortunately unable to comment on the hot breakfast. The toast was ok though. Again service was a bit haphazard. I was really starting to begin to think that it was just the crew member working my section.

Eventually we were about 40 minutes out and the captain came on with his pre top of descent talk. It was good to know that we would shortly be on the ground. If things were going to go well, it meant that we would be coming in from the west, and the captain confirmed this. He also advised of sunny conditions. This meant an In n Out run for some spotting and that meant an afternoon of fun & frivolity!

As we descended we came in over orange county and Disneyland/Knotts Berry Farm before turning onto the approach from the west. We flew right infront of the In n Out and I was snapping madly out the window as soon as we hit the taxi ways with heaps of good spotting going on out the window. We pulled alongside our gate at Terminal 2 and then we shut down… in the middle of the taxi way. Ah crap… a Tow IN gate. Even though we were early, this obviously just ended that little bit of an early arrival as we had to wait for the tractor to tow us in. O well.

Pretty soon we were attached to the gate, and then soon enough we were deplaning and heading to LAX immigration, right behind a plane load of british tourists. God damn, this did not look good.
And with that, I leave you for part 3 later!

by ·Comments Off on Trip Report – Around the World on a Star – Brisbane to Auckland – 7th July

Woke up nice and early this morning to hit the gym before the flight so that I could get a good work out in and feel better about what would be 24 hours (or more) of indulgence.
After a nice healthy breakfast and some last minute packing of tech gear, it was off to the airport. Thanks to the parents I was conveyed promptly and dropped off at the International Terminal. I bid farewell to the parents, pulled my heavy suitcase out of the car and into the terminal I went. About to begin this epic adventure for real.

I knew exactly where to go after flying this exact same flight back in April (all be it in the back not up the pointy end like today). I made my way to the Priority check in queue and was soon enough greated by a contract Qantas agent. It does seem silly that Air NZ contract out their on ground staff to Qantas considering the amount of flights they have in Brisbane.

After making sure that my bag was tagged all the way to Vancouver I noticed what would be the first hiccup of the trip. For some reason my Air NZ points reference was on my boarding pass. I queried this with the check in agent and she told me she didn’t have access to fix this (bullshit) and that I need to get my travel agent to fix it. I told her I will get it fixed in the lounge and once checked in off I went. Down through security and while I was putting my stuff back together after the dignity strip, I could see out of the corner of my eye the security staff waiting to do an explosives test. Well the thing is, this did not look good for me, there was no one else around for her to pounce on. Wouldn’t you know it as soon as I turn she looks at me and says “sir would u follow me please.” Ahhhh crap!

She took me off behind a little wall for what I figured was just a quick wipe of my stuff and off I would go. But no, apparently when u get swabbed for explosives at the international, you also get a lovely pat down. So I got my first security grope of the trip, and unlike the TSA style in the USA, I didn’t get a choice about it.. yay. After the guy patted me down without even a cuddle at the end, off into Duty Free I went. Tried to find some stuff for my mum for her birthday to pick up on return, no deal, got a few things and then ran some errands in the terminal (TRS, pick up cash etc).

After running the errands decided to head to the lounge. By this time it had been a good 30 mins or so since I checked in so that is not a bad effort considering. I was pleasantly pleased. Once I was buzzed into the lounge (feels very private I guess) I scanned my way in and explained my predicament to the gentleman manning the lounge desk. He then told me what would be my 2nd hiccup of the trip. He can’t fix it but he will try. Because I was already checked in they could possibly have to offload me and then hopefully they could get it fixed, but he would see what he could do and get back to me. Fingers crossed! In the mean time he suggested I speak with my travel agent and get it fixed up.

So first things first, log into the wireless, get the net up and running and get through to my agent. With that done, a quick blog post to start the trip and a few tweets and then it was time to relax a little. Grabbed a scone, a drink and started reading my book. After a few pages I decided to grab a coffee. As I was walking back though after a few sips I noticed something through the window. Though the lounge doesn’t have apron views (just of the car park) it does overlook a window that looks through the terminal to the other side. Through it I could see a very large Singapore Airlines aircraft. It looked like an A380. No… it couldn’t be. Could it? I dropped my coffee, left my bag in the storage at the lounge and headed out to the terminal just to see the SQ A380 turning onto the taxiway headed for the runway. Snapped a few photos and headed back to the lounge for a few more pages of the book. It was then that we were told the flight would be delayed due to the late arrival of our aircraft. I was getting a little bit antsy after a little bit so decided to go out into the terminal for a bit of exploration as we were still delayed.

Took a few photos of the aircraft and then noticed that the time was just about to tick past 12. There was an announcement saying we wouldn’t board for at least another 15-20 mins. Well the Singapore Airlines lounge should be open by now, so off I went to try and talk my way in. I managed to talk my way in (was only really just going to check it out and then head back out again after a few photos). The lounge was much much nicer than the NZ lounge in my opinion and the food miles ahead. I did grab a bottle of water though something the NZ lounge didn’t have as I knew this would come in handy at some stage.

By the time I got back to the gate they gave a preboarding announcement to advise boarding in 5 minutes. So I grabbed a seat with the plebs, remembered to turn my tablet onto flight mode and by the time I had finished doing that, they announced boarding.

Air New Zealand
NZ136
Brisbane to Auckland
1225-1725
Boeing 777-200ER (ZK-OKG)
Business Premier – Seat 4A

Boarding: 1225 (Gate 80)
Push Back 1245
Take Off Roll: 1301 (Runway 19)
Top of Descent: 1651
Touch Down: 1725 (Runway 23L)
Shut Down: 1730 (Gate 7)

Boarding was called and off I leapt, I was not going to be the first onboard but I was going to get into the cabin early to try and get a few pictures. Get down to Door 2L and was greeted with a Welcome Aboard and then, Mr Muir to your left into our Business cabin today. Gotta love those words. I was first in the cabin, dumped my stuff into the overhead and was able to then take a number of photos. Peter the FA came by and even offered to take a photo of me, which I declined, will keep that photo for the newer cabin later (champagne in hand of course). The cabin looked good, even though they are a number of years old now, definitely reminded me of the last time I flew Air NZ back in 2007. Felt good! I settled into my seat and got myself sorted playing and stowing stuff. I got the AVOD started early (NZ is gate to gate IFE) and picked the movie I had worked out I was going to watch a few days earlier. Casablanca. I had never seen this film in all my life and figured why not get it done and dusted (the other choices did not look all that fantastic).
Peter offered me a pre flight beverage of choice however I just decided on water for this flight (was going to leave the alcohol till later and even then only one glass). It was delivered with a smile and I settled in to take lots of photos. We soon pushed back and I snapped away out the window and watched the Safety Video. I was able to enjoy myself as we taxied to Runway 19 for departure. The Business Cabin was about 40% full today and it seems so small on the 777-200s compared to the Giant 747s where there is 3 business cabins.

As the Captain gave his pre departure hello, he told us our flight time today would be 2 hours 25 mins. SAY WHAT! Apparently massive tail winds were going to help us over the pacific today, which is also why our flight was late we were later informed, but still knocking a solid 30 mins off this flight would be fantastic to get us in on time.

We held at the runway while a Qantas Dash 8 landed ahead of us and soon we were turning onto the Active, the two big giant Engines spooled up and we were soon hurtling down the runway. Once in the air, I reclined a bit further (NZ allows you to pick whatever position you wish with their business seats but I kept it fairly upright for take off) and soon enough Peter was around to start drink orders. I was going to be good and stick with Sparkling Water for the first part of the flight and this was shown with a bag of Cassava Chips).

Menus were then passed out and I made a quick pit stop to check out the facilities. The same products that were in use back in 2007 are still used onboard so nothing new to report their but when I returned to my seat, The service was about to begin. Tables were laid out and then the appetizer arrived. First course was some lovely fresh seafood with a weird tasting potato salad but it was good. They had an amazingly good brown bread and I was going to look forward to it.

With this finished, it was promptly cleared and then the main courses were offered. No cart used for service, as Peter came around with the options on a tray. Of todays choices I availed myself of a lovely Hot Smoked Salmon Salad. I figured if I stayed light now, I could indulge more at dinner. Sounds good to me! The salad was beautiful and the mango dressing was just amazing! I could of drank it! More of the brown bread and I was pleasantly satisified. Dessert was soon offered. Plum & Crème Fraiche along with Cookies & Cream ice creams. O yes!

As coffee service began I was going to look forward to a few cups of the Air NZ coffee I enjoyed back in April but was told that we would soon be on descent in 8 mins. Time had flown by! With coffee finished, things cleared away, we were soon on descent into Auckland. Not many bumps during the flight just a few light ones here and there but it was such a pleasant quick flight.

A long circuit around Auckland and landing on 23L. Unfortunately not a quick one into Auckland like my last flights in April but it would mean a shorter taxi, always a good thing when it means more time in the lounge. But things were not to be. Once we pulled into the gate, seat belt sign went off and Hiccup #3 began. The Air bridge could not connect. Not a good thing! We were stuck onboard for a good 25 mins before they could get it connected and we were seat free into the terminal. I made a bee line for International Transfers and got into Security about 10 people down.

Current Location: Auckland International Airport – Air New Zealand Koru Club

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So tommorrow is the big day. I get to jet off on my first ever Round the World Journey, and surely not the last either. But how did i get to this spot? Well it all starts way back when. The original idea for this trip stemmed from a friend who I met on my last contiki. His suggestion to join him in the Rockies for Calgary Stampede meant doing another contiki tour. This one “Canada and the Rockies with Calgary Stampede”

Well that was settled, but then part of me thought, this trip would be around the same time that my long service comes up. Well hell you could hear the cogs grinding in my head as the thoughts rushed through it. I was going to do something I had never really thought I would actually do (which is actually a bit of a theme with my life around that time). I was going to go around the world. But where to visit was the big question.

Well of course I wanted to hit up Seattle and see the West Coast a bit more, so many places flooded into my head. Of those many many places I managed to narrow it down to a few. London to visit friends and experience the city. I was going to keep Continental Europe to two main destinations, Normandy & Berlin. Both for their War History (of which I am a major fan of course). In Asia it was going to be the big 3, Japan, Hong Kong & Singapore. North America would mean the Time in Canada and a road trip down the west coast and a few days in New York.

Now that this was underway, once the bookings opened up for Contiki we were able to get our seats in straight away, pretty much I knew we had to jump on that early as this tour sells out every year with only 2 departures (turns out it sold out a good 6 months in advance so jumping on early was smart). With that done, now it was just time to wait for the flights to open up fully so I could sit down and work out the final details of the routing. When that did roll around 2 websites helped immensly, Oneworld & Star Alliance. Both websites have round the world (to be here for reffered to as RTW) planning tools. This process with a rough outline of dates now in mind, I could go into negotiations with work on just how much time i can take off (stupid business needs clause in the agreement… curse you). With my dates set out, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty. The fun part.

All in all the process took 3 weeks setting out the rough outlines for the flights then picking the actual routes, airlines and products. When I had an option for both One World & Star Alliance the pricing was pretty much the same, so that didn’t help. But then looking at the itineraries I had chosen, One World was lacking in the Aviation Geek fun department. It was predominantly Cathay for the first few sectors and the last few, with an A380 segment thrown in. The only highlight I could put against the itinerary was British Airways Club World London City route (JFK to London City on an A318). Star Alliance on the other hand had Air New Zealand’s new 777-300ER, a Backwards facing seat with United, Swiss new business, Singapore’s new business cabin on a 777-300ER and ANA’s new business. Although this itinerary didn’t have many new aircraft it had a lot of new airports, new products and a good variety of airlines. So Star Alliance was the go. In the end after lots of to and fro with the system. Managed to get it all chosen. The final itinerary looks like this:

07Jul – Brisbane to Auckland – Air New Zealand – NZ136 – Boeing 777-200ER
07Jul – Auckland to Los Angeles – Air New Zealand – NZ2 – Beoing 777-300ER
07Jul – Los Angeles to Vancouver – Air Canada – AC557 – Embraer E190
03Aug – San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare – United – UA972 – Boeing 767-300 (International Configuration)
03Aug – Chicago O’Hare to New York City La Guardia – United – UA692 – Airbus A319
05Aug – New York City JFK to Zurich – Swiss – LX17 – Airbus A330-300
06Aug – Zurich to Paris Charles De Gualle – Swiss – LX634 – Airbus A320
13Aug – Paris Charles De Gualle to Berlin Tegel – Lufthansa – LH3241 – Boeing 737-500
16Aug – Berlin Tegel to London Heathrow – BMI – BD842 – Airbus A319
20Aug – London Heathrow to Tokyo Narita – All Nippon Airways (ANA) – NH202 – Boeing 777-300ER
01Sep – Tokyo Narita to Seoul Incheon – Asiana – OZ103 – Boeing 767-300
01Sep – Seoul Incheon to Hong Kong – Asiana – OZ723 – Boeing 747-400
06Sep – Hong Kong to Sinapore – Singapore Airlines – SQ861 – Airbus A380
10Sep – Singapore to Brisbane – Singapore Airlines – SQ245 – Airbus A330-300

It looks something like this in map form:
map.gif

Now be mindful these are not the exact flights I started off with, there was some schedule changes in the 8 months since I originally booked them in (as you would expect, but that was mainly a few minutes here or there, or in the case of the Asiana flights, losing their new business in favour of a 3 class 747-400 on a 2 class route). This was to be the final itinerary. The bits in between have pretty much chopped changed and gone to and fro for months at a time.

In the end the final itineray has become this. I wont go through all of the decisions on this but in the end there will be Trains, Planes, Automobiles a number of Buses (no boats though thankfully). This will be one of the most memorable trips of my life, but there was still one more decision to make. Since Australia is the land of the One World monopoly, what was I going to do with all the points earned on this trip. Well I was going to just credit it to Air New Zealand, I would just barely qualify for Star Gold status and that would be the end of the story.

Then, after getting more and more involved in Flyertalk and Milepoint, I just had to find the best place to put those points, that would give me the most amount of benefits quickly and guarantee me a good use of points. Well in the end an amazing deal would just drop in my lap. Aegean Airlines. I mean how could I not turn down an offer from an airline new to Star Alliance that will give Star Gold status at 20000 miles. With the Class of Cabin bonuses on this trip, I should qualify for Star Gold somewhere between New York and Paris. AWESOME! So with that done it was now time to just wait.. and wait… and wait…

And this leads us to today. Bags are packed, camera’s charged, ipod synced, phone ready to go, laptop set up, tablet pre loaded with ebooks. I will set off on an adventure to reward myself for the achievements over the last 2 years. I dropped a lot of weight, managed to trek in some harsh climates and do something I had always wanted to achieve, made #1 sales consultant at work. It was time for 2 months off work, fun, frivolity and LOTS of aviation geekage.

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Planning.

Each year I make a pilgrimage to Sydney for Anzac day to spend time with my family and also to enjoy lunch with my grandfather’s old army unit from World War 2 the 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion. This year was obviously going to be different with Easter falling the same weekend. So I was not sure if I was going to fly down just one or two days or make a full weekend out of it. But then I had the usual predicament of work. Part of me knew that I would be roistered to work for Easter (sure enough got rostered for the 7th year in a row) but then part of me was sick of working every Easter.

I saw some expiring NZ points as well, I thought to myself… “hrmm why don’t I have a bit of fun with this. A bit of flying about to go with my trip to Sydney. What better way to get to Sydney for a Plane Geek than to fly the “long way” So I looked around at using all of my points to fly to Auckland for a day or two. But then I remembered that Emirates flies the A380 to Sydney from Auckland. Hrmmm that would be a good idea. So I looked at those prices from Auckland to Sydney and it was damn cheap in comparison. So that was the first segment planned. Then I looked at the segments over to New Zealand with Air NZ. Well a flight in a refurbished A320 or a Long Haul configured 777-200ER. I wonder. Long Haul it is. But this left me with about half of my points unused.

I started playing with domestic flights looking at perhaps visiting another city, for a day or two other than just Auckland. But then I thought, I love to fly, lets have a flying tour of New Zealand. I had been told flying into Queenstown was amazing. So that was to be the turnaround point. So I spent several days toying with combinations of flights, looking at what I could get for the points or very little extra money.

In the end I settled on the final Itinerary.

22 April – Brisbane to Auckland
23 April – Auckland to Christchurch to Queenstown to Christchurch to Auckland
24 April – Auckland to Sydney

So now I had up to Sydney. I figured I had better come back on Anzac Day itself in the evening rather than risk there not being a public holiday on the 26th when I was planning this as no details had been decided on yet, so a cheap and quick Virgin Blue flight back to Brisbane was used as it was considerably cheaper than Qantas (my usual airline).

The last thing to do was organize hotels. I usually book through work for any domestic stuff as I can get it at cost but since we now sell New Zealand this made it even more fun. I was looking around for hotels in Auckland when I came across the Pullman (at that point it was still the Hyatt). 2 nights including breakfast came in at about $250 AUD, instantly booked that without even looking at the location.

Now for Sydney. Needs to have a gym, be in a good location close to the train and close to the harbour area as the location for the March form up is down near that area. I looked at all the options and the one that appealed most to me was the Four Seasons. I had not stayed there at all yet. I’ve stayed at the Amora, the Intercontinental, the Hilton and all were fantastic. So why not add one of the predominant hotels in Sydney to the list, and at cost it was not too bad really. So it was decided, my one night in Sydney was going to be a bit of indulgence.

When the Hyatt swapped over to the Pullman and became part of the Accor Group I fired them an email to get my Gold Status added to the booking. I knew I wouldn’t get any points out of it, but hell if they recognize my status I would not mind at all.

As the time approached this was going to be a good trip. I had one last thing to work out. Do I cabin baggage the whole trip and prove to myself I can do it. Then I remembered I had to carry my suit. I didn’t want to lug my old Suit Bag around as it was heavy as hell. So I looked around at other options. Do I go for a rolling Suit Bag or a more slim line suit bag just for the suit itself and carry it on with an extra bag.

I ended up with the slim line carry bag, my Crumpler roll aboard suitcase (checked luggage) and then decided to use my old Crumpler “Hoax” messenger bag as my personal item. I was all good to go!

Friday 22 April

After an early morning run, final preparations and a quick cleanup of the house, it was time to hit the road. Taxi was ordered for 915 and was told an sms would be sent a few minutes before arriving. It was 905, no message but a taxi was sitting in my driveway. I usually order a silver cab, costs a little more but they are a touch more reliable. Thing is each time I seem to order them, I get the old cabs, this time was no different.

It was a quick journey to the airport and not much traffic at all (given it was Good Friday and all). Arrived at the international terminal with ease. It had been a good 6 months since I was last here to fly with Air New Zealand over 4 years ago. Walked past the Business Premier line thinking “see you in 2 months” and joined the long long economy queue.

It wasn’t to long in queue (10-15mins maybe) before it was my turn. I was quickly checked in and on my way. My scheme with the bags worked so I was in the clear. Got some currency took a few photos and then headed down to immigration. No queue at security but I wasn’t thinking and forgot my belt so took a little longer than it should. Not long at immigration and i was out into the airside portion of the terminal.

Walked around for a while, claimed some TRS money, and browsed some shops for a while. Parked myself on some couches by the gate after a while and read through my book. Pretty soon the plane touched down from Auckland and made its way to the gate to disgorge another plane load of kiwis.

Air New Zealand
NZ136
Brisbane to Auckland
1225-1725
Boeing 777-200ER (ZK-OKF)
Economy Class – Seat 41A

Boarding: 1155 (Gate 81)
Push Back 1225
Take Off Roll: 1236 (Runway 01)
Top of Descent: 1640
Touch Down: 1705 (Runway 05R)
Shut Down: 1710 (Gate 8)

Flight was eventually called, and boy was it a scrum, they tried calling by rows, this didn’t work so I joined the masses and got in the queue. Pretty soon I was walking on down the air bridge to begin another journey. Only one bridge used to board through door 2L today and it was turn right this time, next time would be left. Found my seat and settled in.

The seats on board the 772 are getting a bit tired and the legroom was pretty damn comfy. Last time I sat in these seats I was heading to the USA and weighed a lot more than I do now so it was definitely not as comfy. Now even though things haven’t changed onboard in 4 years it feels so different (but that’s another story).

Gate to gate IFE is a god send so i got it switched on and found a decent movie to watch. Tron Legacy it is and got about 5 minutes in before all the announcements started. Captain first, then the cabin crew, safety demo next (Rico version) and then we pushed back dead on time. Quick taxi to the active, third in line and a bit of a wait for inbound aircraft and soon it was out turn. Sitting over the wing didn’t make for good photos but you get that, I was too engrossed in a good movie anyway.

The flight seemed to just cruise on by effortlessly. First a run through with water, then meals for those who had ordered them. Today’s choice was Roast beef salad or a ham and cheese toasted sandwich. I went salad which was served with a warm mini hot cross bun and a small tub of ice cream (chocolate). Next came the drink service (diet coke) and then coffee (black). I was content.

After a while it was cleaned up, the movie finished so took a peak at the airshow and it was 45 minutes to landing we were going to be 20 minutes early. Descent started and pretty soon we were heading through the cloud layer on approach to the airport. Coming in over Manakau harbour onto 05R and we touched down smoothly and effortlessly. Pulled into the old pier next to an EK 773 and 2 gates down from the NZ star alliance scheme.

Took a while to get let off the plane but then it was a long long trek to immigration after passing through the giant duty free store (as you always seem to do), immigration was a breeze, no questions just a grunt and then when asked for a stamp in a totally empty passport he stamps the middle (bastard). Bags took ages with 2 apologies for delays. Through ‘biosecurity’ with no hassles and I was out into the open in the cold and into a shuttle within 5 minutes.

The Pulman was shortly reached and I was helped with my bags. Definitely a good start. Check in was a bit long but it wasn’t rushed or rude or anything. They eventually got me set up, my AClub gold was recognized and they said they would let me know about breakfast as my pick up the next morning was set for 605 yet breakfast started at 630.

5 minutes later true to their word they called me in my room to let me know it was handled. Can’t fault that. The gold amenity was already set up in my room, it was some form of tart and mineral water. Room was spacious, bathroom was clean and modern, what more could you want.

Went out for a while to find some internet (to fix an issue with my phone), some supplies and some food. Staggered the CBD for a while, found an awesome Chinese restaurant down a back street full of people (good sign).

Crashed out earlyish

Saturday 23rd April

Up at omg o’clock, lots of time for fun today. Breakfast was ordered for 530, pick up at 605. Breakfast was 20 minutes late, pick up was 10 minutes early so I was mega rushed but I managed to down a cup of coffee and some fruit while eating toast on the run.

Another quick shuttle ride back to the airport and I was the only one let off at domestic. With no bags to check just my Hoax with me, i must of seemed crazy to the driver let alone the other people in the shuttle and when quizzed by the driver about the VIP tags on my booking, I explained and got a quick salute before he headed off… weird.

First duty today was the collection of boarding passes (not cause I was going to use them but to add to my collection). Epass worked a treat and that process was over quickly. Strolled around the terminal for a bit, lost track of time trying to choose a book before seeing “Go to Gate” on a monitor. Whoops!

I cleared security and forgot my belt again but instead of a rescan, they just wanded me and had a quick chat. Kiwi hospitality! The gate area was pretty small and empty, a Koru Lounge was off to the side, and o how I wish I could have been in there. Managed to see the new domestic config NZ 320 all blacks as it headed to wellington I think. Pretty soon boarding was called and I was first to board.

Air New Zealand
NZ513
Auckland to Christchurch
0750-0910
Boeing 737-300 (ZK-NGD)
Economy Class – Seat: 19A

Boarding: 0725 (Gate 29)
Push Back 0751
Take Off Roll: 0802 (Runway 05R)
Top of Descent: 0850
Touch Down: 0910 (Runway 02)
Shut Down: 0913 (Gate 19)

Domestic NZ uses mainly 737-300’s and I had not been on one in many years. They are pretty Spartan onboard. About what you would expect with most airlines in the region really.

Plane filled slowly till not a seat was free, doors were shut announcements made and we pushed back dead on time. Safety demo played and this time it was the ‘Fit to Fly” version which had giggles and weird expressions going around for everyone. Pretty soon we joined the line taxiing out behind a new Jetconnect (Qantas) 738 bound for somewhere in Aus.

When it was our turn we were held for a little while before finally heading out and up we went heading for the skies. In a first for me the seat belt sign was off within 90 seconds and out came the iPod since there didn’t seem to be any other entertainment.

A light refreshment was offered onboard. Tea, coffee, water and a choice of snack being Cookie, Lollies or BBQ Cassava chips. Took the cookie and stashed it since it was still early but definitely had some coffee and was happy to see it wasn’t instant but plunger coffee.

Had plenty of time onboard to read, along with take photos out the window, it was a pleasant flight. Before you knew it we were on descent into Christchurch heading in over the Canterbury plains. As we were coming into land, I was now starting to worry, At time of touch down I had very little time to change flights but since i was up the back it was not going to be easy.

When we finally pulled up to the gate, everyone else onboard seemed to take forever to get off, so I walked as fast as I could to get to the main terminal. Didn’t need to worry as the gate was right next to mine.

Air New Zealand
NZ627
Christchurch to Queenstown
0930-1020
Boeing 737-300 (ZK-NGG)
Economy Class – Seat: 17A

Boarded: 0920 (Gate 18)
Push Back 0927
Take Off Roll: 0932 (Runway 02)
Top of Descent: 0952
Touch Down: 1010 (Runway 05)
Shut Down: 1014 (Gate 3)

The Fids at the gate was showing final call so I know I was definitely one of the last onboard but not the last. Found my seat and got settled as quickly as possible. This was going to be a very quick hop down to Queenstown and was meant to be an amazing flight in threading through the mountains.

Again same as before, it was a basic simple flight. Up for not long before seatbelts are off, and the crew were serving the same snacks as the last flight but no coffee or tea just water.

Stashed a second cookie as I was too interested in the scenery on descent into Queenstown. It was breathtaking. Such a magnificent part of the country as the approach threaded its way down through the valleys before coming in over the lake and city.

Such a brilliant view as you touch down of a small airport surrounded by mountains. Disembarked through the rear door and out onto the tarmac, it was clear and ‘crisp’ as I took a few more photos and made my leisurely way inside. I wasn’t in a rush as I had plenty of time to kill. Wandered around this well-appointed airport and then settled in by the big picture windows where I caught up on the trip report and read as well.

Before I knew it my next plane touched down and taxied in and it was time to get myself in order.

Air New Zealand (Operated by Mount Cook Airlines)
NZ5384
Queenstown to Christchurch
1200-1300
Aerospatiale ATR-72-500 (ZK-MCY)
Economy Class – Seat: 5A

Boarding: 1140 (Gate 1)
Power Out: 1153
Take Off Roll: 1157 (Runway 23)
Top of Descent: 1231
Touch Down: 1246 (Runway 02)
Shut Down: 1248 (Gate 47)

I was first to the gate but not the first onboard as I was overtaken by several people while I stopped to take photos of the other NZ aircraft on the ground (incl another domestic A320).

This was my first time onboard an ATR and only my second time onboard a regional turboprop (the other being a Dash 8 Q400 in New Guinea). What struck me first was the lack of head room. Holy cow was it tight, my head was skimming the roof and I am only 6 ft tall.

Got myself situated, saw not only is there no entertainment but also no recline either…o dear. The seats were ok, not slim line but leather old school chunky. For the first time today I had the seat next to me free (2×2 seating) which was great. This time we took off in the opposite direction to what we had landed and this made for an amazing departure. Bad news was that i was sitting next to the propeller which meant heaps of engine noise, my noise cancelling headphones helped though.

Thinking this would be another water only flight I was wrong. Tea, coffee, water and a cookie. Ah NZ, three flights, three different service levels. At least there was one constant, no instant coffee. So i sat, read and marveled at the scenery for the flight as we cruised along at 19000ft.

Soon we were on descent into Christchurch and the crew (only 2) were scurrying to get things done (even had time for a lolly run but someone nicked the last of the lollipops before I could get one for Kelly.

As we touched down we were quickly off and headed down past the aerobridges to what would in any other country be a bus gate. But here, you get to walk, what felt like forever! But the good part was it disgorged you at stage 1 of the new terminal and it looked good.

Went for a walk to explore a little but quickly realized, Christchurch airport is a dump! It makes the old Canberra airport look amazing, but I am sure by the time of the world cup at the end of the year it will look amazing (like the regional ramp did).

Found myself some lunch (although not as good as I would of liked it was healthy enough, although slightly more than I should of had however by now it was almost 2pm and my last real meal was at about 530am.

Managed to get a spot overlooking the runway and the domestic ramp and settled in to plane spot and work on the trip report. After a while of sitting in the sun decided to walk off lunch a bit and explore the terminal some more.

While i was out walking around a couple of young spotters came running past and they were in a rush so i knew something good was coming. Turned out to be the daily emirates flight. A lovely large 777-300ER, and it was pulling up right in front of me… Score! Got a number of photos there before heading to get a photo of the US Air Force hangers, commonly referred to as the deep freeze ramp. Unfortunately nothing was out 🙁

Continued my walking around past a few outdoor garden sitting areas, something that i think is a fantastic idea just aimlessly walking, taking photos of the rebuild in progress. The new tower at Christchurch looked good.

I ended up in the NZ regional terminal relaxing their and using some free Wi-Fi for 15 minutes or so to tweet and Facebook some updates but nothing substantial. Before long I was returning to the domestic terminal to my spot where I had lunch to chill and read my book. Lost track of all time again and soon it was time to clear security and head up to the gate for my last flight of the day.

Air New Zealand
NZ532
Christchurch to Auckland
1630-1750
Boeing 737-300 (ZK-NGF)
Economy Class – Seat: 17A

Boarding: 1610 (Gate 18)
Push Back 1627
Take Off Roll: 1633 (Runway 02)
Top of Descent: 1718
Touch Down: 1741 (Runway 05R)
Shut Down: 1744 (Gate 30)

Boarding was called in what must be the NZ style but is very different to anything I’ve seen before. It makes total sense though. First is star gold and koru club. You expect that. Then it’s anyone with an A or F seat then everyone else. It works a treat because I like sitting in window seats.

This was pretty much the stock standard domestic flight, another set of announcements more laughs at Richard Simmons (swear i saw Phil from amazing race). A quick take off and seat belt sign again really early (why can’t Aussies do this to). As we flew north, the view out my window was the sun slowly setting. It was great. A sunset, some hot, half decent coffee, an interesting book (Kingpin) and something to munch on (piece of fruit would be nicer though). These are the kind of reasons I love flying, relaxing in the sky. What more can you want?

As we approached Auckland it was sad to see the day of flying coming to an end, but I still had two days to go. The airport was busy at the international. All the long hauls getting ready for the America flights. Short hauls heading to Aus. and of course the EK whale dominating the ramp. As we pulled into the gate, the All Blacks A320 was parked as well but unfortunately no chance of a photo. No clean shot 🙁

Headed out of the terminal and jumped on the airbus express this time as I was going to grab some dinner in the CBD before heading back to the hotel. I had scoped out a Spanish place the night before but it was a letdown. Headed back to the hotel after a long day to crash out.

Sunday 24th April

After an awesome morning with an old Contiki friend exploring Auckland she dropped me off at the international terminal with heaps of time to check in for my emirates flight to Sydney. I had heard heaps of stories of Emirates offering cheap upgrades on trans-tasman flights so tried my luck at the ticket desk first, but was told the flight was sold out so even paid upgrades were out.

Waited in the check in queue about 10 minutes but even that was flowing fast and had no problems checking in. Had forgotten all about the departure card so grabbed one on my way to the departures floor. I had been told that there was a great viewing deck at Auckland airport so figured I would check it out. Auckland has had some major work done to the airport in readiness for the world cup this year and it looks amazing. The viewing deck though has not and in reality is pretty crap. But something is better than nothing. I figured I would get through and then relax somewhere quiet, work on the report and read.

Immigration was slow as I had assumed wrongly that they stamp passports on the way out. Wrong. Should have used the smart gate because it would have been quicker. I went for a walk through some of the shops but eventually started the long long trek out to the gate.

Auckland has 2 A380 gates (15 & 16) and they are the newest gates but they also happen to be on what feels like the other side of Auckland. Took me a solid 10 minutes to walk over there and I walk pretty fast. Not much over there though, one shop which is one stop shop for all food, drink and reading material. Grabbed a coffee and plonked myself in front of the windows to enjoy the scenery.

Outside this window though was “the whale”. My first A380 flight was approaching and I was pretty excited. After a while the flight attendants walked past me and then slowly but surely more passengers came to take photos. I figured at that point it might be good to move out of the way as I was in a spot that would get crowded soon, and frankly with a flight of 4-500 people the flight alone will be crowded enough.

Slowly but surely crowds came as boarding approached, they came in waves, but really they had not started really arriving yet. The passengers that were coming seemed to be a very different mix to what I saw on the flight over. Air NZ seemed to be mainly kiwis and Aussies but this looked like a very different mix especially a lot of Indians.

Emirates
EK413
Auckland to Sydney
1800-1925
Airbus A380-800 (A6-EDC)
Economy Class – Seat: 44A

Boarding: 1718 (Gate 16)
Push Back 1806
Take Off Roll: 1825 (Runway 05R)
Top of Descent: 1850
Touch Down: 1925 (Runway 16R)
Shut Down: 1935 (Gate 57)

Eventually boarding was called, however this time I knew I wasn’t getting on anytime soon. Hell boarding was called almost an hour before departure time. I was Zone F and things were going slowly. So I people watched a bit while I waited. More and more people flowed into the gate area but boarding went pretty
quick with about 6 lanes for economy open. Eventually Zone F was called and I moved into the queues and waited my turn.

I got to the front and as I presented my boarding pass it wouldn’t scan. I was thinking here’s my chance for an op up, but it was not to be, they just manually entered my details and invited me onboard. As I walked onboard it was not as I expected it. It feels so spacious inside.

As I settled into my seat I couldn’t believe the leg room it was pretty generous, whether this was just the seat I was in (2nd row of the first economy cabin) or if this was the emirates standard. As more and more people seemingly flowed on, I got ICE started. Emirates inflight AVOD is amazing. So much choice that it has its own guide. Crazy! I picked out a movie (Avatar) and settled in.

Doors soon shut and the announcements began, first in Arabic then in English. Same with the safety video. The main cabin screen had been showing an ad real for emirates but as we pushed back was changed over to the tail camera. It was weird watching the aircraft move as we moved on the screen. But I did realize on night short haul flights, window seats are a little pointless.

As we moved into our turn for takeoff and began our roll, there was no sense of any massive thrust. The whale just glided effortlessly and quietly down the runway. Hell I barely noticed we were in the air! Shortly thereafter service started to commence. First up, cold towels out of a packet so essentially a moist towelette. Then came the menus. A menu on an economy flight of 3 hours… what the hell (the menu was promptly placed directly in my bag).

After a little bit longer the meals were handed out for the special menu people, and then the cart service began. Choices according to the menu were either “Honey Roasted Ginger Chicken” or “Lamb Medallions”. Went with the Ginger Chicken. Both were served with an Appetizer of Smoked Salmon and Mustard Potato Salad, along with a roll, Cheese, Biscuits and also a Dessert of Sticky Date Pudding and a little chocolate to finish.

The Bar cart came around not to long after the meal so I was slowly eating things rather than just inhaling it like the lady in the aisle did. I wanted to enjoy the meal slowly while still watching Avatar. When the bar cart came around it was time for a diet coke. But then I was a bit stunned at the size of the can (tiny!) and also the design. The Cans must have been loaded in Dubai because Diet Coke was written on it in Arabic.

After what felt like forever, (probably a good 15 minutes) Tea was offered first, when I asked about coffee was told it would come through next. So I waited, and waited, and waited. Another 10 minutes later I finally got a cup of coffee and this is when I had the dessert (wanted to have some coffee with my dessert).

When the trays were finally cleared I excused myself to the rest room and used the ones that were up the set of steps just so I can say “yeah I went upstairs on an A380” (although in a matter of months I’ll be flying the upper deck of an A380 anyway). When I came back to my seat I had a look around at some of the panels in the area mainly just to stretch my legs but the spaciousness of the cabin is still a little mind boggling.

Settled back into my seat and just relaxed. Asked for another Diet Coke after a little while it finally arrived but the cup and can were never collected back, ever. So I landed with a cup and can dangling from the Cup Holder.

As we came in for final approach into Sydney again it felt like we weren’t moving at all and it was a quiet quiet approach over the city and into the Airport. A slow taxi to the terminal and we slowed to a stop at one of the A380 gates (not quite sure what pier it was).

Being in the first cabin meant I was toward the front of the queues when we hit immigration but it was PACKED! A couple of flights from China, Malaysia, and Pacific Islands also arrived around the same time so Immigration and Customs were bedlam.

Got through after 10 minutes or so (wanted a stamp) and my bag took a little while to come out this time. Thankfully since I had nothing to declare or anything Quarantine was easy, straight to the exit and out we go to the train. Within 45 minutes of landing I was on a train heading to the city and my hotel for the night, the Four Seasons.

Monday 25th April

I had planned on getting up today for the dawn service, but it was bucketing rain, so didn’t. Wanted to go for a run around the harbour as well but it was bucketing rain, so didn’t. This would set the tone for most of the day. Things just did not seem to go right at all. I had been having phone problems most of the night with data issues and after issues getting some breakfast from one of the local cafes I had to rush to get changed and get ready for the march.

After power walking across the CBD to the new meeting location, it was back to some relaxed state of mind for a while. Was a bit disappointed to not see Dick Smith on the march this year but there’s always next year. After the march I had to rush back to the Four Seasons to check out before heading off to the Anzac Day luncheon.

After lunch and an afternoon with a friend, I headed to the Airport really early as I knew it would be busy and figured that check in might be a bit slow and getting some food in the terminal might be a bit busy. Arrived at the terminal just as I finished my 2nd book of this trip, and made my way up from the station to Terminal 2 check in.

I was going to use one of the Virgin Self Check in Terminals then figured, nah, I want a real boarding pass. So jumped into the Queue for normal check in (Virgin still offers this service thankfully). After a minute or two I was in line and when called over I let them know I was on the 830pm flight to Brisbane (it was around 6pm at this stage). The check in agent asked me if I would like to go on an earlier flight if the seats were free. Hell Yeah!

As I checked in I had to run my photo ID gambit with pre warning before handing it over (hurry up new driver’s license) and had a bit of a chat with her. She asked me if I would like window or aisle and I said “Exit Row would be nice, but I know since it’s a new flight and all I’ll take what I can get.” She replied with “I don’t have any exit row windows, but how about an Exit Row Aisle” I thought for approximately 1 second before answering “yes please.”

Seconds later I was on the flight to Brisbane boarding in 30 minutes. Plenty of time to grab a drink, pick out a new magazine and make my way to the gate. Called home to let them know the new flight info and checked out the food options as well. Food options were pretty busy and didn’t appeal at that point so called home again and pre warned I would be hungry.

Grabbed an Australian Aviation from the newsagent (kind of a flight tradition when I don’t have a book to read almost), and headed to the gate. Within 10 minutes of our scheduled boarding time, there was still no inbound aircraft and then the delay advice was given. 20 min boarding delay.

Waited some more, read away, was not really worried as either way I was still getting home earlier than planned. After about 25 minutes the inbound aircraft arrived and the people kind of flowed off. But this is when it happened. The boarding scrum had begun. People just lined up because they could. When they announced priority boarding for Premium Econ and also for Elites everyone rushed the gate and I could hear the gate agent having to calm people down.

General Boarding was called and the line snaked quite a bit so I jumped in early to make sure that I could get on eventually. I was heading for the gate, for my final of 7 flights.

Virgin Blue
DJ981
Sydney to Brisbane
1900-2030
Boeing 737-800 (VH-VUT)
Economy Class – Seat: 15C (Exit Row)

Boarding: 1900 (Gate 31)
Push Back 1918
Take Off Roll: 1934 (Runway 16L)
Top of Descent: 2025 (Guessed)
Touch Down: 2046 (Runway 19)
Shut Down: 2050 (Gate 41)

Headed down the Aerobridge to the final flight of the trip and boarded onto VH-VUT. This seems to be one of the rogue aircraft that doesn’t have proper premium economy seats or any inflight entertainment (thankfully I have an iPod and a magazine). Settled into my seat and as we pushed back shortly after I was advised by the inflight crew that I need to take off my headphones (even though they were plugged into their radio system) because they were noise cancelling. I explained that the noise cancelling is not active and I can hear perfectly fine at the moment. She let that slide.

It was a long slow push back and taxi out to the active runway. All the way out to runway the furthest from the terminal. Felt like we taxied forever, but that seems to happen in Sydney. This flight was pretty uneventful like most Virgin Flights I take. Up & Down. Don’t buy anything, just read what’s in my hand and conk out really.

We got a nice little announcement from the pilot about 15 minutes into the flight telling us that it was going to be a total flight time of 1 hour 5 minutes so should be touching down in about an hour, he then told us to track along by watching the Airshow on Channel 13 on our seat back screens. Hold on a second, what drugs is this guy on! Firstly we had been in the air almost 15 minutes by this stage, and we still had an hour to go (that’s weird). He also doesn’t know what aircraft he is on because we don’t have screens. Puzzling! Turns out that we were slowed down by Air Traffic control so I didn’t even realize we had started our proper descent into Brisbane till we punched out of some clouds on final into Brisbane.

After a very rough landing into Brisbane and then taxing to the gate, got to chat with the same flight attendant who told me I couldn’t use the headphones and she explained they were borderline not going to make their next flight as they were due to head back to Sydney again and things were not looking good for the curfew. So gave her some comforting words of “$10 says you don’t make it” as I deplaned.

I was home free now! Off the flight, through the mess that is the upgrades to the new Lounge at Brisbane and down to get my bag which arrived after not to long of a wait. Soon I was in my parent’s car heading home.

Aftermath

This was an amazingly good trip. I had the best time, caught up with some friends and family and enjoyed myself immensely. I worked this out that all up for flights and accom this trip set me back roughly $700 however I flew a total of 4598 butt in seat miles and managed to still pull some points out of this trip (with both Emirates and Virgin).

All in all, I deem this a success, I was relaxed for most of it, in my element with a nice big grin across my face. What more can you want from a short break, ready to get back to the grind tomorrow.

Anzac Day & Easter Weekend 2011