Dot's second DONE4 (for this year)

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Well, this is (I think) my fifth DONE4, but only the second for this year. Current itinerary is as follows:

MEL-HKG-LHR-BOS-DFW-LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

I was going to add in a LHR-MCT-LHR MR before the LHR-BOS flight, but Mrs Dot banned me from doing it - shame, I would have liked to do it.

For my first instalment, let me reference this post - http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/open-discussion/yay-qf-cx-boo-amex-13113.html

I successfully got onto BA28 to LHR (Thanks to QF and the CX staff acting on behalf of QF in HKG) and had an enjoyable an uneventful flight. It was on a 744, and I was upper deck in 62K - an excellent seat and as per my preference for club world seats, rear facing. I chatted with a lovely lady in 62J for the first few hours who was returning form Hong Kong after attending a giftware trade event there. I managed to get quite a few hours sleep (somewhat interrupted) before arriving into LHR. The food on the flight was adequate, but not outstanding. The service in-flight was very casual - I know that would disturb some pax, but it doesn't bother me too much, but I preferred the QF29 cabin staff.

On arrival into LHR - I received my first (ever) fastpass card for immigration, which was fast and uneventful. Surprisingly, my suitcase actually came out on the baggage carousel. While I was confident that BAA would have all the baggage woes sorted by now, it was the lengthy stopover in HKG that had me a little concerned. I used the T5 Arrivals lounge and quite enjoyed the experience. I have photos but have been having some trouble uploading them, so I will post the T5 photos once I can sort those problems out.

 

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I've managed to get the images of T5 and the Arrivals lounge uploaded...

Baggage carousels at T5.

Some structural features

There are two lounges - Gallaries and Skyflyer Solo - I am not sure what the solo lounge is for...

The entrance to the Galleries Arrivals lounge (sorry about the camera shake)

 

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Inside the lounge, there was a pleasant dinning area that had a selection of cold meats , cheeses, anti-pesto, cereals, toast and a selection of hot breakfast food in a beaumarie (bacon, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, baked beans etc)

As for drinks, they had coffee machines (a la QP) and a selection of cold drinks (soft drinks, milk, drinking yoghurt) - it was breakfast time after all.

Casual dinning area

The day spa and showers area is down the right hand end of the lounge through this relaxation area.

I figured I would use the shower facilities given the overnight nature of BA28. The shower stalls are wrapped in vertical wood slats that give a classy appearance.

Once inside the stall, it was VERY warm - in fact sauna like - far too warm to have a shower and feel refreshed afterwards - After my shower, I felt like I was perspiring due to the heat, thus eliminating the effectiveness of the shower somewhat.

The drain on the shower made a huge racket - the first real indication that I saw that T5 was still a work in progress. In the door of the shower stall, there is a hanging space for you to hang your clothes - I presumed that this was to have my clothes ironed and returned to the door space fresh and ready to wear. I dutifully pressed the 'Valet' button inside the stall, but no such service arrived - so I put my clothes back on un-pressed.

On departing the lounge, I noticed another 'work-in-progress' part of T5 - gaffa tape holding the lift call buttons in place!

On exiting the terminal, it was a short walk to the Hertz bus and I was promptly delivered to the Hertz depot.

 

[Keith009]

Thanks for the pics dot. Of the T5 lounges I've seen thus far I think I like the Arrivals Lounge best. Simple, understated and clean line modern. None of those weird horse thingies they installed in Galleries First, and it looks alot more casual than the CCR.

There are some pics on SQTalk of the other lounges:
http://www.sqtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4241
http://www.sqtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4062

 

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I am currently over Canada en-route to BOS form LHR. On checking in at LHR T4 in the First class area - they were separating the First class ticketed passengers from the OW Emeralds - and letting the F Pax 'jump' the queue to get served first. This is the first time I have seen this and as a result, I spent about 15 mins in the queue waiting to get to the check-in desk due to a constant stream of F pax coming along and slotting in in front of me - hardly a pleasant experience - in fact, quite frustrating. Several OW Emeralds in the queue behind me gave up on waiting and went to the J check-in counters. I probably would have done the same if I wasn't at the head of the OW Emerald queue. I wonder if they will be doing the same at T5 First check-in given the only manned check-in is at T5, I would expect it to get a lot of use - and this sort of segregation would prove very frustrating for the OW Emeralds.

Anyway - I finally managed to get to the counter and guess what? 'I'm sorry Mr Dot, I can't check you in for your AA flights for some reason.' - Oh NO! Not again! - I explained what that the ticket had been re-issued in HKG and showed the agent the documentation that QF gave me then - she checked the itinerary she could see against what I had (form QF and the original one from Amex Corporate Travel) - she said they were the same, but could not explain why she could not issue boarding passes. AAAARRRRGH! I'll have to go to the departures area at BOS to get my BPs. Suitcase is checked all the way through though. I hope this wont be a repeat of what happened at HKG earlier in the week.

The check-in agent informed that the J Lounge opposite Gate 10 is currently closed and I would need to use the lounge near Gate 1 which would be a very long walk to the gate. I ased about the Flounges, and she told me that the Gate 10 Flounge is still open - I'' head there then. I am not sure why she would assume that I would go to the J Lounge rather than the F Lounge. Anyway, the Lounge dragon looks at my BP and asks to see my WP Card, then directed me into the lounge at the same level as the gates - I thought it was curious that it was labelled as a Concorde lounge, but anyway - it was the same lounge I used back in January, so in I head. Hand over my BP to the dragon inside who informs me that the lounge is only for F ticketed pax, Concorde Club members and CL card holders - I should go downstairs. I asked he if this had changed recently as I was in this lounge in January - she said no. Very odd. I was sure I went into the gate level lounge. Oh well - down stairs, and into a crowded and much smaller Flounge - I grabbed some ordinary breakfast (bacon baguette and scrambled eggs) and waited for departure.
Taxiing at LHR - I saw a SQ A380 next to a CX B747 and a VA A340 - by crikey it is a big plane - just the height of the tail fin is incredible.

Some other photos of LHR T5 and the whole of LHR just after take-off are below:

Once I get to BOS, I have a feeling the next big challenge is going to be using my APEC BT Card to get through immigration quickly - we shall see if the officer knows about the card and Condelisa Rice's promise of using the crew lane. The other concern I have is that on exiting the US last time in January, the I-94W slip was left in my passport - I sent it off to the address in the US with proof that I did actually leave the US, so hopefully that will have been processed by now - one State department web page suggested that if I wanted a receipt of the situation being resolved, it would take three months (I hope that is not how long it takes them to process these things..) - regardless, I have a copy of the I-94W slip, the letter I sent and some of the evidence I sent at that time to prove that I departed the LOTFAP.

Hopefully, I will be able to upload this post from AA lounge at BOS before I get on the MD-80 (!) to DFW.

 

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I'm at DFW now - waiting for my flight to LAS - in the Admirals Club in Terminal D. I've just had a refreshing shower and have about 25 mins up my sleeve at the moment.

At Immigration control at BOS, I couldn't see a crew queue (to use my APEC BT Card) so I lined up with the other non-US citizens - there were only 15 people in front of me, so it wasn't the end of the earth. The immigration agent was completely non-fussed about my I-94W slip that I returned. Interestingly, rather than just scanning the index fingers on each hand, the scanners at BOS scan you whole hand (RH 4xfingers, RH Thumb, LH 4xFingers and LH Thumb) which took a bit of extra time. I am not sure if all of the entry points are getting this, or if it unique to BOS.

Transfers to Terminal B (from E - the International arrivals terminal) was via a shuttle bus and uneventful apart from having to wait for ages for the right bus to come along - I considered walking, and actually started but there was no clear walkway defined and I figured it was too great a risk of getting lost and taking more time than I had available.

I didn't even make it to the AC in BOS - way too rushed. As it is, I only just made my DFW flight. As feared, I had the same problem at BOS when I went to collect my BPs for BOS-DFW-LAS. The ticket hadn't been issued or ticketed or something correctly - so check in took about 20 mins. By the time I completed that, I walked through the security checkpoint and straight onto the plane - no time for AC, no time to scratch myself. I guess this time, it is Qantas/CX to blame after the re-issue of the ticker in HKG. I can't take a trick...:evil:

 

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Oh, can I say - I hate the "food" AA serve inflight (in F) - it sucks.

That is all

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

I've just checked in at LAS for my mega-leg back home. The check in agent commented that she had never seen a single leg with so many stops - her system couldn't even do a luggage tag for my bag - possibly the sign of bad things to come. We'll see. As a result, I have a manual luggage tag and she manually put a RFID tag on the back. It makes me wonder if AA's normal tags have a RFID tag built in...

Anyway - no Admiral's club here at LAS, so I am slumming it with the proletariat while I wait for my DFW flight. I might have to spend some money to get a drink!!!! Oh well... I'll try to post an update from DFW once I get settled in the AC there.

Perhaps I should take the advice I read in another thread last night - buy some food in the airport and take it on.

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

The LAS-DFW flight was uneventful and the food was even edible. The FA's served omelette's with a bagel - while not as good as a freshly prepared breakfast, having just lived through a week of Las Vegas convention food, it was comparatively good. Oddly, they didn't offer Tea or Coffee - they may have been able to serve it, but I didn't ask.

While taxiing at LAS, I noticed a few interesting things:

• LAS appears to be the home to more 737 BBJs than I have seen in any one location before - I spotted seven of them - not to mention dozens of smaller corporate jets - Lears, Cessnas and Gulfstreams.
• There was a 747SP parked with a similarly painted MD-80 among the charter aircraft (white with blue and white tail) - love those SPs.
• They appears to be using all 4 runways simultaneously at LAS. The two E-W runways for landings and takeoffs and the two N-S runways for takeoffs. There didn't appear to be that many taxiing aircraft that would force them to use all four.
• About half way to DFW - I happened to glance out my window (1A) and spotted a US Airways A320 (could have been a A319 or a A321) about 500-600 meters away tracking directly opposite to us - it whizzed past really fast. It was producing noticeably black exhaust gases behind it - it reminded me of the older US Air Force heavy jets (KC-135, B-52) at take off - they use different fuel to most other current jets and produce a lot more 'smoke' as a result.
• I wish I had my camera at hand on departure from LAS - I had a great view of the strip, Nellis AFB and Lake Mead. A Lesson learned.

As expected, the AC lounge dragons (that's not really fair - they were actually quite pleasant) only gave me one drink voucher, so I am going to have to pack up my PC now to go ask for another one - thats the problem with traveling solo - no one to watch your stuff when you go to the bar, the toilet or to the front desk... I'll get back to you when I get to LAX... I should be able to get some photos up by then too.

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

Unfortunately, my DFW-LAX flight was about an hour late, so I dont have much time to post an update. I will prepare one offline and post it when I get to AKL.

Just quickly - The pilot told us that if we looked out the LH side, we would see a formation of 4 F-16s (the Thunderbirds) - unfortunately, I didnt see them

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

OK - I've just left LAX - about 40 mins late - and I have my QF PJs on, a glass of bubbles on it's way and feeling a bit more relaxed now that I have some time to think.

Learning my lesson from my LAS-DFW leg, I made sure my camera was in easy reach this time. I will post the photos when I get a chance to optimise and resize them. Unfortunately, I completely missed the Thunderbirds - now that would have been a good photo to get. The flight was a pretty average MD-80 affair with ordinary food. I think I prefer the leather seats in the 757 to the fabric ones in the MD-80s. On arrival into LAX, I fond that there is a new (since the last time I went through LAX in January anyway) shuttle bus that departs air-side from T4 and takes you to air-side TBIT - saves going through the extra security check at TBIT and certainly a welcome change. The shuttle leaves from near gate 44 in T4 and takes you to gate 117 in TBIT - then it's up the lift to level 5 and the FLounge.

As the flight was a bit late, I didn't get much opportunity to sample the fare - just a quick Corona, a couple of mini-pizzas and talk to Mrs Dot on the PC - then off to catch QF26 to AKL. Unexpectedly, I did come across two work colleagues (both from MEL) - one who was at the same conference as me in LAS, another who had flown in from Baltimore the previous night to catch the LAX-MEL direct, but his flight in to LAX was nearly two hours late, so he missed the plane. He is also a WP and was very disappointed with AA's attitude toward him - no hotel, cab etc - just left to his own devices. To quote his words "They (AA) could give a cough what happened to me" - thankfully QF did look after him and re-booked his flight for this evening. I didn't even know he was in the LOTFAP - both thought I was bonkers going LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL instead of LAS-LAX-MEL and I will admit, the same thought did cross my mind this afternoon while I was sitting at DFW.

I hope this flight is able to make up some time - I only have 1hr 25mins scheduled stop over at AKL, and with this flight getting away late, it will cut down on my time in AKL - I was hoping to have a shower there, but I fear I will not have time now. I'll let you know once I get there...

Some images from the flight:

This was on apprach to LAX - it is Chino Airport (CNO) - home to the Chino Air museum and a lot of warbirds - see it on Google Earth

AA Tails at DFW

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

Well - no chance to connect from AKL either - the LAX flight arrived in to AKL at 5:30 ish - and the BNE flight was supposed to start boarding at 5:15. Needless to say, I headed straight for the International transfers - only to have the kiwi security checkpoint confiscate a tool I forgot about in my backpack (more delays) and then to compound things even more, when trying to get out of the security point, they decide to do a bomb screen on me as well... aaargh. As I get to the gate, there is a PA making the final boarding call - phew! Got there.

Hopefully, the connection at BNE to QF69 (all at the International terminal) will be smoother and I will have time to post these updates - as we got away pretty much on time out of AKL, I am anticipating nearly 2 hrs at the BNE Flounge. I am presuming that I will not have to clear customs at BNE since the CNS flight is also an Int flight and that I will clear customs in CNS, where I will have to collect my luggage (if it actually arrives! I expect it to still be at AKL as I write this given how tight the connection was)

Back to the subject at hand - the LAX-AKL leg. The flight was late departing - but otherwise uneventful. I have to say - I do like the in-flight service I get from QF cabin staff - I know a lot of folks complain about them, but in this DONE4, the QF staff have been the stand out performers among the BA and AA crews. QF get my vote! Additionally, on the trans-Pacific flights, the breakfast that QF do in J is consistently superior to any other airline that I fly (AA, BA, SQ, CX predominantly) - I am not one for photographing my inflight meals generally, but I did this time - it looked so good.

I made sure to check what movie would be on the AKL-BNE leg, so that I didn't watch the same movie from LAX, so I watched the Bucket List (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) - I really enjoyed it. I was allocated 16K, my preferred QF 744 seat and had a interrupted sleep - I rarely get a really good sleep in-flight - par for the course I guess. Fortunately, I am quite used to 4-6 hrs sleep a night, so it doesn't knock me around too much - I will try to rest my eyes a bit on my internal flights in Oz.

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

Back into a 738 with the new materials and the pneumatic J seats - with the lumbar support that keeps self inflating and I have to deflate the bladder periodically to the most comfortable position. On boarding - I notice that there is a sheet describing the DVD movies that would be available for the flight - as I look thought he list, I notice that "Charlie Wilson's War" is not among the list. It was listed in The Australian Way as the movie that would be on the video system and I was looking forward to watching it. Unfortunately, someone at QF jumped the gun and put "The Bucket List" on four days earlier than it was supposed to start - Doh! It is a good movie, but watching it twice in 12 hours is a bit too much.

Shortly after departing AKL - the sun rose on my 4 o'clock, so I was able to capture some photos I'll just call "Winglets at Sunrise".

This is my first experience of the BNE Flounge and it reminds me (in terms of size anyway) of the old TBIT Flounge. In every other way though, it is superior. It is starting to get a bit crowded in here - I thought it might thin out when they called the JL/QF codeshare to NRT, but that only removed about four pax. I made use of the shower (I was planning to have one at AKL, but time didn't permit) here and had (yet another) coffee - that's five since about 4am AEST (It is almost 9am AEST now) - probably better lay off them for a bit, I wouldn't want to be bouncing around the inside of QF69 to CNS.

On approach into BNE, there were some beautiful cloud formations - I took the opportunity to get some shots:

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

Amazing! My suitcase arrived at CNS!

I really was expecting it to be stuck at AKL - but, despite the manual tag and the convoluted routing - it made it!

It was a really smooth flight coming up from BNE with clear skys over Brisbane with increasing cloud cover as we headed north. Here are some photos:

Some great views of the Great Barrier Reef north of Townsville

Interestingly, I noticed one of the Heavylift Short Belfasts sitting at the cargo terminal here at CNS and and Airfast Indonesia DC-9/MD-80/717 (Reg PK-OCU) at the international terminal - not sure if it is a regular visitor or here on a charter.

Nearly home...

 

[Keith009]

I have to say - I do like the in-flight service I get from QF cabin staff - I know a lot of folks complain about them, but in this DONE4, the QF staff have been the stand out performers among the BA and AA crews. QF get my vote! Additionally, on the trans-Pacific flights, the breakfast that QF do in J is consistently superior to any other airline that I fly (AA, BA, SQ, CX predominantly) -

Thank goodness. It'd seem I've been living in a parallel universe all this while after reading the tales of woe about QF service on here and FT. Glad to see that's not the case.

Nice brekkies pic btw.

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL

This was my first experience at CNS (I've driven there before, but never flown in) - overall, a present enough experience although during my 4.5 hour wait in the lounge, there were a couple of periods that it got quite crowded, but nowhere near as crowded as CBR gets on a Friday afternoon. I called my wife and mum for Mothers day (again) and managed to get a bit of work done while I waited (as well as update the TR of course). Unfortunately the inbound flight aircraft was late arriving, so that meant we were late departing CNS.

On departure out of CNS, there were, once again, some spectacular cloud formations were to be seen.

I also managed to get a photo similar to this morning's Winglet at Sunrise, but at Sunset this time. Having a seat (1K) one row forward of my trans-Tasman flight prevented me from getting a near identical shot, so I waited for the Sun to go down a bit further to get the shot.

One thing I did notice was a QFLink 717 resplendent in it's New paint scheme (with the new roo and different font). See below:

 

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LAS-DFW-LAX-AKL-BNE-CNS-BNE-MEL (Home finally!)

The 737 from BNE to MEL is actually the same plane I was on from CNS on my previous leg. The BNE cleaning team did an incredible job at turning the plane around for a near on-time departure. Of course it helped that the flight was quite lightly loaded (about 50% in Y and only 3 in J and one of those was QF Staff dead heading). I barely had time to get to the lounge, used the loo and transfer the CNS-BNE photos from my camera to my laptop) before they announced that the flight was boarding. An uneventful flight.

On arrival into MEL, surprise surprise, my suitcase arrived (again)! Fantastic. While I was waiting at the luggage carousel, I looked at the world clock function on my phone - 5:15am in Las Vegas - that means it has been more than 48 hours since leaving the hotel in the US :shock: - no wonder I am feeling tired. Will post a summary tomorrow sometime once I have had a good night's sleep.

 

[MelUser]

your breakfast plate looked a bit sparse - i tick most things on the order form!

 

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your breakfast plate looked a bit sparse - i tick most things on the order form!

I figured I would get a breaky on approach to AKL, then another on the way out of AKL, so no point getting more than I did... still, much better breaky than I've had on any other airline - ever.

 

[Keith009]

your breakfast plate looked a bit sparse - i tick most things on the order form!

I am trying to ration myself on the order form. I have a bad habit of ticking most things but end up not finishing.