Introduction
Seattle to Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Brisbane
Brisbane to Sydney to Canberra
Canberra
Canberra to Melbourne
Melbourne
Qantas First Lounge Melbourne
Melbourne to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

Friday 5th April, 2013

By the time I had reached Brisbane I had no idea what day of the week it was, nor where I was and I think my body by this point was running on pure adrenaline but it was good to get home, pick up some stuff and spend a few hours with my folks and also catch up really quickly with some of my old work colleagues and drop off a gift or two.

Pretty soon though my flight time was approaching and I was returning to the airport mere hours after I had landed. This is what it felt like to be an american! Always on the go! I was dropped off back at the Domestic Terminal this time and man was it like being back home as this terminal had been like a second home. I even contemplated heading around to the loop road even if for a few minutes. But I needed to get my phone fixed and clear out some emails, which I managed to do.

Considering todays flights were a semi mileage run as I needed to make 4 Virgin Australia segments to requalify so had staged my flights to Canberra with a 2 hour layover to force the ability for seperate bookings. However about 2 or 3 months after booking this, Virgin Australia changed their rules and alowed points on all segments regardless of how it was booked. Damn!! I could of gotten this with only a 30 minute layover 🙁

After being told my flight was super delayed at check in they would try and move it to the earlier flight but this did not seem to work either and eventually I think he just gave up and told me that he couldn’t move me but my connection in Sydney was sufficent enough anyway. I had told the person checking me in that I did not want to move to a direct flight as I needed the extra segment to requalify and he was wondering why till I explained it to him. Then it was like a switch went off in his head.

I was mentally preparing myself for TSA style security though and ditching all my gear into my backpack and was ready to start removing my shoes and my belt but then was told by the security officers nicely that I need not worry, all that much as they were not nearly as strict. In fact they were so nice it felt wrong. I did have to end up removing my belt and my watch as it seems nothing has changed with the Brisbane metal detectors as they are still super sensative but it was nice to keep my shoes on and not be nude o scoped or yelled at.

Once through security my old stomping ground laid ahead of me and I was quickly through the airport to the lounge for more coffee. I also double checked the status of my flight and was told it was now running on time…. wierd. Things certainly were wierd because even though my flight showed on time departure I was getting tripit alerts telling me my arrival was delayed 2 hours! What the hell! A three hour flight to Sydney did not seem right but I kept being told it was all on time.

An espresso in the Lounge at Brisbane was welcome as the good coffee and the straight caffeine hit felt so good! I did chow down on these tiny little cookie bites to keep my body fueled as I was now starting to hit a slump where the sunburn from LA was kicking in, but the weather in Brisbane helped perk me up. Humidity!!! To be honest the thing I was looking forwards to the most was a bed, but that was still 2 flights away.

I got myself plugged in and the phone charged while I tried to set things up but that didn’t get all that far, hopefully I would have it all fixed up by the time I got to Canberra (dunno) but I did get to clear out all my emails and also get in a quick blog post to let everyone know I was alive, safe and well in Australia.

Just as I headed out of the lounge I heard the announcement pre warning of boarding in 10-15 minutes and that the flight was NOT delayed. When I got to the gate though I double checked that everything was 100% ok and explained what I was being emailed and they assured me it was fine and that I should relax. So I did (albeit freaking out another pax in the mean time).

Virgin Australia – VA950
Brisbane to Sydney
1300-1535
Embraer E190 (VH-ZPF)
Economy Class – Seat 6A

Boarding: 1240 (Gate 45)
Push Back: 1300
Take Off Roll: 1309 (Runway 19)
Top of Descent: 1501
Touch Down: 1519 (Runway 16L)
Shut Down: 1534 (Gate 42)

The flight was eventually called and I tried to get onboard as quickly as possible. I had thought this was a 737 flight but somewhere along the way either I wasn’t paying attention or it got equipment swapped as there was an E190 sitting at my gate. I didn’t have the amazingly good row 3 but 6 is good enough, especially on an E190 anyway. What it meant though was one last blast of Brisbane good weather before being on the flight as you got to tarmac walk (but I made sure to take a photo before touching the tarmac to avoid the yelling at that usually happened).

Once onboard I was pleasantly suprised to see that this E190 had been reconfigured to the same set up as the 737s have with the new Business Seats (not that it mattered to me all that much). I quickly stashed my gear and took my seat at Row 6 but then I remembered the one thing I didn’t like about these E190s. Offset windows! It’s nice to have windows at real height and all but why offset them, honestly.

We filled up pretty quick and as we did so I saw a non reving flight attendant walk onboard. She looked so familiar and then I saw the name tag. IT was her! My last mileage run in Australia had culminated in what I had described as being staffed by the best crew I had ever come across. Well that FA was standing right there. There was no way she would remember me, but I sure did remember her, and if I got the chance at some stage I figured I would say that I still thought she was the best crew I had ever dealt with to this day.

We shut up shop and pushed back dead on time and I snapped a good number of photos as we taxiied back out to 19 past the loop road (no one in attendance today) and without stopping or slowing down the pilot put the throttles forward, gave the tiny little engines some gas and pointed us towards the sky.

Thus begins a boring Virgin Australia flight as usual on the Brisbane to Sydney run. Up into the sky, seat belt sign off, laptop out, start working, Free tea, coffee or water (and thanks to my seat mate an offer of a free meal which I declined as I was going to rest up a bit in Sydney with some lunch) and a speedy journey south. I moved my clock forward again, totally confusing my body as to what the time actually was and I don’t think it ever caught up at all and soon enough we started descent into Sydney. tipping over and pointing earthward at that crazy angle you get in the “Jungle jets”.

I packed up my laptop (and stopped working on the trip report obviously) as we quickly began decsending into Sydney from the North. I was sitting on the A side for one simple reason. I was hoping for an approach over the City as that would give me the chance for those iconic shots of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge…. I was not dissapointed.

As we came in for final approach onto 16L aka the runway that is closer to New Zealand than it is the terminal in Sydney we flew straight past the Sydney city skyline and I got a good series of photos. As we plonked down on the runway it meant we were going to taxi quite a while from this point. But meh what can you do. I switched my new phone on in the hopes that things were working, which they were so that was good. I could finish getting it set up in the lounge.

As we had to hold for arriving traffic on one of the taxiways there was a good amount of heavies in at the International including Tulip United 744, new colours Thai, Etihad, Virgin Atlantic, 2 whales (1 Singapore, 1 Qantas) and a smattering of smaller stuff. It was good to be back in variety land! Brisbane is pretty boring traffic wise (then again so is Seattle really).

Finally reached the terminal and I could see the new extension to the gates at the end of the Virgin Pier and they did look nice from the outside, we pulled into gate 44 and the plane disgorged pretty quickly. I didn’t get a chance to approach Savannah so that was probably good on a creepy scale. Things were different in the pier though. Sydney Airport has definately had some work done in the last year and looks pretty swish!

There was a good amount of flash backs though as I walked towards the lounge, seeing familiar stores etc but there was a lot of new, fresh stuff as well. The old Escalators to the lounge were closed so it was up in the lift to the lounge I went then once checked in up the steps to the new upstairs extension (just to say I did). I was hunting two things. Power and Wifi. With those to things I could get my phone situation fixed up and then all would be setlted in the world. Both were fixed as I found a row of bench style couch on the far wall, plugged in, got my phone fixed then it was the other basic necessity…. lunch!

A quick toasted sandwhich, some nuts (though not the nut mix I used to like) and a small bowl of popcorn for something different and I was out of the lounge because it was getting super crowded. With my phone fixed and me not needing to worry much anymore I headed down towards the gate a little bit early. Being a walk out gate I wanted to get through early to make sure I could get a photo.

When I got to the gate though things didn’t look right, it was about 10 minutes to boarding, their was no aircraft and it was showing a time of departure 15 minutes late but no notice of the flight being delayed. Has my brain been totally off? I approached the staff and they did confirm the delay and apoligised and said they would make an announcement, which they did. I sat down and just got twitter working on my phone. Can’t hurt right?

Virgin Australia – VA662 (Operated by Skywest)
Sydney to Canberra
1735-1830
ATR-72-500 (VH-FVI)
Economy Class – Seat 15A

Boarding: 1730 (Gate 31)
Power Out: 1748
Take Off Roll: 1759 (Runway 16R)
Top of Descent: 1829
Touch Down: 1840 (Runway 35)
Shut Down: 1842 (Gate 9)

The plane eventually arrived, disgorged it’s pax and then boarding was called for us. I was first through as it was a really light load by the looks of it and about half way down the corridor one of the Cabin Crew who had walked off from the previous flight said out of no where “hey I’ve shot guns there” Not realising what the fuck he was talking about I just said “umm thanks” and kept walking. Then realised i was wearing my Machine Guns Vegas shirt… Awesome work dumb ass!

I snapped a quick picture from just inside the steps before heading out on the walk to the tarmac getting the last of the Sydney sunshine on my sunburn. Then with that it was up the tiny tiny steps into the aircraft. I was greeted again by a familiar face as the last time I had flown a Virgin Australia/Skywest ATR (only once from BNE to ROK) I had one of the same crew working the flight. How do i know this? How can I forget that beautiful face? She was stunning this crew member 😉

I tried to stash either of my bags in the overhead and failed miserably so gave up and just jammed them both under the seat in front in the hopes and desires that there would be no oe sitting next to me, cause I would of felt REALLY bad had that happened. In the end no one sat down. The flight was about half full and within less than 5 minutes we were buttoned up, safety briefing complete and powering out of the bay onto the taxiway.

As the smallest aircraft in the VA fleet passed the largest in the domestic fleet (VH-XFD pulled in about 2 gates up) we headed out quicky towards 16R (the main runway in Sydney) and joined the queue up of other domestic aircraft including a Qantas Dash 8, 737-800 and a Virgin 737-800 for departure.

When it was our turn, the piots gave the aircraft what little power these tiny turboprops have (sure aint no GE90) and the take off roll was suprisingly quick and we turned right back over the Southern Surburbs towards Canberra, climbing out with this wierd rainbow ring affect which was pretty cool.

As we climbed up the seatbelt sign went off soon enough and the crew completed their free service quickly. Beer, Wine, Juice or Water and a free “Sweet Box” today on the Capital Connect service. The “sweet box” was actually a dark chocolate brownie bite and tiny shortbread cookie. With the bottle of water it went down well. I read, I snapped a few photos and when we reached cruise we were only up there about 5 minutes before we started to descend again as total flight time today… 40 minutes!

Descent into Canberra was quick as the sun was setting and by the time we hit the ground I was glad to finally be at the end of my flying “Day”. I did manage to see one of the RAAF A330-MRTT at the RAAF installation along with a Dutch Air Force 757 from the tail markings (I don’t think it was a Kiwi one).

We pulled into the Gate on the older side of the Canberra Airport and as we disembarked it was into what looked like the old Gate area, however you had to follow the older terminal area through into the new one. Strange.

I got myself a bit lost in the terminal, ended up coming out at the Qantas baggage claim which was kind of convienient as it was next to the Rental car desks and I ended up grabbing the keys to my car (which was a crappy car compared to my LAX rental) and then grabbing my bag before heading off onto the Canberra streets.

Introduction
Seattle to Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Brisbane
Brisbane to Sydney to Canberra
Canberra
Canberra to Melbourne
Melbourne
Qantas First Lounge Melbourne
Melbourne to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

After Dinner I bid farewell to Kevin and reluctantly handed the 300C back to National Rental Cars. I didn’t want to give up what felt like my new love but I had to as there was a long fight ahead of me and some faces I wanted to see on the other end.

I was on the shuttle back to the airport and check in once it was full (which took about 10 minutes at that hour of the night). Once we arrived at T3 I grabbed the Suitcase of doom (which thankfully wouldn’t exist for much longer) and I was heading towards check in. I have previously blogged about T3 at LAX (since it seems to be my common terminal to fly out of there) but tonight was different. I was checking in and dropping a bag off for a Virgin Australia flight, not Virgin America.

There was no wait at the priority check in as I handed over my passport and I was asked how many pieces of luggage I was checking. As i put the suitcase of doom on the scales I tried to distract her from the weight of the suitcase by asking about the loads of the flight, but it didn’t work. This bag was way over weight and would of set me back $100 in excess luggage weight, but I had a little trick up my sleeve. Since the suitcase was sacrificial on the other end I pulled a rabbit out of my hat and did what I didn’t really want to do till I got to Aus. I split the suitcase in half.

I pulled out the suitcase I was using for my flights out of the suitcase of doom and left all the giveaways and gifts and candy in the suitcase of doom. Zipped it up and now miraculously I had 2 pieces of checked luggage, well within my allotment of 3 x 23kg. HAHA! I win! This stunned the check in agent as she looked at me and said “You seriously had 2 suitcases in one?” I explained that the bigger suitcase was “returning to its owner” which although a little bit of a lie was more of a stretch of the truth as I was still the owner, it was just returning to its country of purchase and never going anywhere again since it had fulfilled its duty honoribly.

With bags checked, lounge invite in hand, boarding pass printed I consolidated my crap ready for security (and the destruction of my boarding pass by TSA with their random scribbles). Security wasn’t nearly the zoo it could of been as I had timed it well to avoid the Sydney flight which probably would of been full as it had been lately. This flight tonight though according to the agent was “About 90% full” pfft!

I had managed to snag myself an exit row, a consolidation prize since again, no upgrade with Virgin (suprise suprise) but this time not my usual seat as I was in the 2nd economy exit rows more towards the back of the aircraft. I headed up from security to the Virgin America lounge where nothing much had changed from my last visit in January though they did tell me they would call the flight at boarding time so that was good.

I settled in to finish off the night with the yummiest cookies that seem to exist in LA and a number of coffees and a view of the runway as the new colours Virgin Australia pushed back right infront of me as I sat down. My lounge time was spent between inhaling coffee and cookies, twitter and catching up on emails.

The time in the lounge seemed to fly by and as I was surrounded by Aussie Accents everywhere it really did feel like I was heading “home”. Though I feel like Seattle is my new home, I will always still love Australia and feel comfortable around the accents etc but it was good still to have that little reminder of my home country, even if I won’t get to spend much time there on this trip.

Virgin Australia – VA8
Los Angeles to Brisbane
2355-0700
Boeing 777-300ER (VH-VPE)
Economy Class – Seat 39A

Boarding: 2300 (Gate 38)
Push Back: 2355
Take Off Roll: 0019 (Runway 25R)
Top of Descent: 0641
Touch Down: 0702 (Runway 19)
Shut Down: 0708 (Gate 81)

I headed down to the gate a little early in the hopes of getting onboard first so that I can grab a few photos of the empty cabin and thankfully I did as they announced boarding about 10 minutes earlier than indicated which was a good omen I guess.

Even though I was flying on an aircraft that I had previouly flown on multiple times I was greeted onboard to the new look as it had been refurbished with the new seat designs. So the flight really was off to a good start. Even better is that unlike the previous exit row seats I have had which had no window, this exit row kind of did, though it was offset. But I won’t complan!

The boarding process was long and the cabin didnt fill but my exit row did (I wonder how much these guys paid for their exit row seats?). I should of really asked at check in if I could get a row of 3 to myself as there was plenty of opportunity for this with economy only about ⅓ full. A good portion of the pax had rows of 3 seats to themselves.

We were boarding complete a good 10 minutes before scheduled departure and since the full load of fuel had not yet been taken on, we had to wait and that meant numerous announcement not to buckle your seat belts yet. The Aussie accents were flying thick and fast not only on the crew but the passengers as well. It was good to be “home”

We pushed back dead on time as I was chatting away with my seat mate about Cars & truck prices in Aus vs the USA as he was a Dodge Fan and I was just happy to talk about my Ram and the 300C I had driven that day. Good way to start the flight. The flight attendant in my area was not at all happy with me snapping a photo during the safety demo, or having a pillow in the small of my back and kept admonishing me for every little thing (apparently having a pillow in my back is an impedanment to evacuation of the aircraft?). Whatever!

We taxiied all the way to the South side tonight which was wierd as the Sydney flight had taken off from the north (right infront of the lounge) and this was a serious waste of precious fuel and we were loaded down as we slowly taxiied around. After a brief hold just off the runway and a clearance to 25L the big GE90s wound up and started to scream bringing a smile to my face. Though I couldn’t see these beasts from my seat, I could feel and hear them. That sound as they wind up on the take off roll brings a smile to any Avgeeks face. Such raw power, I still stand by the saying that GE90s are the engine that doesn’t fly push the aircraft along, it sucks the world around below it so instead of pushing the aircraft to your destinatin, the engines pulls your destination to you!

Once at cruise I was greeted by the Cabin manager as expected being a Velocity Gold, offered a newspaper and given an express pass for Brisbane (another one since I have one stashed from last time, which now that I have two I might send them to a client or something… maybe). Dinner service was conducted quicky… REALLY quickly and we had been fed and watered and coffee/tea offered barely 90 minutes into the flight. The lights were dimmed, the cabin prepped for sleep and pretty soon people were conking out left right and center.

I tried to get some sleep but couldn’t find the right position so after a little while (about half way through the flight) gave up, went and had a chat with a couple of the extremely cute crew (this may have been the reason I went to ask a favour 😉 ) and got some work done over a coffee, before my laptop battery was due to die as there was no power up the back in economy…. sadly.

I had a bit of a mid flight snack that I had brought with me as there was nothing to snack on other than chips during the flight and I really don’t like them these days so after some nuts from the Virgin Lounge and a coffee I set in for a couple of movies, and to watch as we tracked over the pacific ocean leaving open ocean behind and approaching the islands as they appeared on the map display.

The sun rose as we tracked past Nadi (Fiji) and this brought with it a little bit of a realisation that I was now closer to Australia than I was to the USA or anywhere else. I was getting closer and closer to being back to my country of birth. Not that it was worth much of a difference but it was something to think about. The flight at this point was pretty boring actually. I managed to finish watching Argo (since I think i may have fallen asleep in the middle of it) and also watched all of Django Unchained which is almost 3 hours long. Just as I was finishing that movie the seatbelt sign went on and we hit some good lumpy bits for a little bit so I started another movie, Hurt Locker.

I was originally going to watch something else but figured I would save that for the way back (if Qantas has it as an option, if not I had it on my hard drive). After coming out of the turbulence we were about 2 hours out of Brisbane and the breakfast service had begun and I declined this really with just taking the small little bowl of fruit salad and getting some caffeine into me. I would have breakfast waiting for me at home in Brissie, so why have 2 of them (plus the two options didn’t really interest me all that much).

As we started a very very gradual descent into Brisbane the area around my seat became extremely crowded. I don’t think people on the flight quite understood that there were lavs at the very back of the aircraft and that there really wasn’t a wait for these at times. Each time I looked at the lav indicator (which pointed to the ones at the back of the aircraft) they showed as vacant yet these was generally a line of 6 or 7 people clammering to get into the one right infront of my seat. O well!

When we started our official descent into Brisbane about 25 minutes out I had just literally finished watching Hurt Locker so it was good timing. I was just in the middle of packing my stuff as it happened. As we came into Brisbane from over the bay on a direct 19 approach it was a bit of a shame as I kind of wanted to see a quick glimpse of the city. It was a bit surreal though as we approached the threshold of the airport as I had landed here so many times but yet it thrilled me every second of the way down, even if to some it was the most boring approach ever.

When we hit the ground they taxiied almost the full length of the runway before turning off which most long haul pilots dream of as within minutes of wheels on the ground we were at the gate, however it took 10 times that length for me to get off the aircraft as I was banished to the back of the plane it felt.

Once off the plane I tried to get through the process as quickly as possible to maximise my time with my family (what limited time that was) but it was almost a solid hour before I had cleared immigration, collected my bags and cleared customs. The problem was immigration and bags. As we had touched down you also had QF16 from LAX, Emirates from Dubai, Air Nuigini and also Singapore Airlines all at the same time. Heaps of widebodies disgorging passengers all at once. Not pleasant!

Baggage was slow and by the time i walked out of the doors into the terminal proper I could hear my mum shouting my name above the crowd and running after me. It was good to be home….. even if only for a couple of hours!

Introduction
Seattle to Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Brisbane
Brisbane to Sydney to Canberra
Canberra
Canberra to Melbourne
Melbourne
Qantas First Lounge Melbourne
Melbourne to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Seattle
Conclusion

                                                                                                                                                                   

When I had my bag in hand at T6 well within Alaska’s 20 minute guidelines, it was time to get the shuttle to the hotel. When I last stayed at the hotel they operated their own shuttles and you had to call in to get them to come pick you up. However this is not the case anymore as they used the shared shuttle company (though with a dedicated bus) and it operates every 20 minutes 24 hours a day.

Once you finish the last pick up at T7/T8 you are mere moments away from the Radisson as it is the closest hotel to the Terminals being right at the entry road. They do tend to treat their Club Carlson members pretty well, as last time I had been upgraded to a nice big suite overlooking the runway. This time was no different. Even though I was on an industry rate and more than likely would not get any points from this stay, my Gold Benefits were still honoured.

The way they were honoured was a bit different from last time. Usually you recieve a giant cheese, fruit and wine platter upon arrival, however as I was arriving around 11pm at night and more than likely would not eat it I had let them know in advance to not worry about putting this into my room. Instead they noted that I had made this request when I checked in and out of the blue offered me Free Breakfast instead! Score!

My upgrade this time though was not the same suite as last time, it was more of a Junior Suite with no physically seperate living area but the room was huge! There was a 4 seater sofa and a smaller 3 seater, a giant Plasma Screen and small “office space”. But the one downside to the room. A tiny tiny bathroom… tiny! Such a big room footprint but only a small bathroom. Can’t have everything right.

It was here that I dropped the 60lb suitcase on my foot taking a huge chunk out of things making that transition to sleep all that more difficult but I managed. The Cake Pop and Chocolate coated strawberry left in my room (in addition to the free breakfast) helped soothe the pain a bit.

Wednesday 3rd April – 2013

After a morning run around the LAX perimeter where I was buzzed by plenty of CRJs and regional aircraft, but also an El Al 777 and a Philippines Airlines A340. It was time to get myself sorted for a mixed day ahead.

Breakfast was served in Palmera the hotel restaurant which had this old world kind of feel to it. It could of passed for a steakhouse in New York from the 60s with lots of big booths, dark woods, big comfy seats and not a single window. The breakfast buffet was unique with the usual basics you would expect from a hotel buffet but with the addition of cake… lots of cake. Not just muffins and pastries but chocolate donuts and pineapple upside down cake!

With breakfast consumed (although the oatmeal was watery) I was off to pick up my rental for a day exploring Los Angeles. I had booked a car for the day with National and knew that although the National office is a little bit further from the hotel than the likes of Hertz, Budget and Avis it was worth the walk, since I was working off a sneaky piece of cake. The usual process with National awaited me of getting to choose whatever I desired from the Executive Aisle (a benefit I must find a way to keep!).

As usual it seems my luck was again against me in LAX as there wasn’t much in the way of cars that I was hoping for. I was hoping for a Ford Escape or an Edge or some sort of SUV just to give them a try (I would of loved to try the new Escape to let my dad know what they are like) but there was none on the lot. It was all nissan all the time again. But with a few goodies strewn throughout. I did ask if there was any 300Cs or SUVs around that I could get, but someone had just snagged the last 300C on me and the only SUVs were Chevy Captiva’s.. .pass!

As I was about to jump into one of the 3 Dodge Challengers sitting on the lot (there was also a Mustang Hard top but that would not of fit the suitcase of doom very well) the lot attendant came running up to tell me that there was a 300C waiting for me if I still wanted it, freshly cleaned and sitting in prime position. I jumped at it and threw my bag into the car within seconds.

I did mention in this post just how much I LOVED this car. It had everything I could of wanted and more and was definately something I would of loved to of owned myself. Back home in Aus I can see why these are used by limo companies everywhere, they are a sweet ride!

I will admit to giving it a good thrashing up and down Aviation Boulevard during the day and using it to drive over to the California Science Center for a tour of the Shuttle Endeavour but my day was filled with the usual exploits for a stay in LAX. Plane Spotting. A bit different this time as I was not carrying the bigma and using my 70-300mm Travel lens. So although I don’t think my camera turned out my usual quality of camera, it was still a great day with some good unique catches.

I finished off my day of fun with dinner at the Proud Bird restaurant overlooking the southern runway approaches chatting with my mate Kevin from Aviation Photographic as I shouted him dinner for his birthday. A great way to end the day and prepare myself for a long flight ahead.