BNE-LAX on ANZ in J, PE & Y for Xmas

[IainF]

PT 1

Several months ago, Mrs F & I decided to spend Xmas & New Years overseas after a long work year.
We had a number of options and after putting them into a hat (literally) we drew out LA & Vegas.

I hunted for a few good airfares, but also as we are both Gold & on double SC's with Velocity, we decided to go with AirNZ and booked the Skycouch. It was $3700 return for the two of us. Def cheaper than PE on QF & DJ....

I did a bit of research and after much wringing of hands, I finally booked us into 4 nights at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, 4 nights at Aria in Las Vegas, and 1 night back in LA at the Beverley Hills Intercontinental on points.
I also spent much time looking at hire cars, and booked us a Mercedes E350 for the duration from Hertz.

So, booked, we left BNE on the 24th of December.
We got through Customs and went to the Air NZ lounge. It's not bad, a standard lounge but very friendly staff.
The flight was called and we stood in line to board, then interestingly, we heard a call for Mrs F over the PA.
She got out of the line, went to the desk and I could see a very big smile on her face.
A lovely way to start a trip is an upgrade to J....
We boarded and had a great flight to AKL. The Business Prem seats are fantastic and IMHO much better than the QF Skybeds.
We landed and had a short amount of time in the Air NZ lounge.
They called our flight, and we made our way into the 777.
The plane was new and had the nice white Prem Econ seats.

We settled in for the 12 hour flight and had a light meal about an hour in to the flight.
After a movie, we put the Skycouch into place.
According to the brochure in the seat pocket, we should be quite comfortable lying down together.
In reality, we were not.
If there was an adult & a child, then it would be fine.
Two hobbits would be fine.
But two adults, not so much.
In the end, I sat in the aisle seat and Mrs F had two seats to herself.
That worked.
For her.....

We landed an hour ahead of schedule at 1pm and after a short delay in customs, made our way out to grab the Hertz bus.
Good timing meant a 1 minute wait then a short trip to the Hertz rental lot.
Our E350 was waiting in the Pres circle area and after checking on the insurances, we headed straight to Santa Monica for a coffee & some pre Xmas shopping.

After grabbing some essentials, we headed to West Hollywood and the London Hotel. The room rate was $275 per night but with taxes and ++ ended up about $320.
I was a bit unsure of the hotel when booking it, but upon geting there, I was very pleasantly surprised.
We were greeted with a glass of champagne and shown to our room.
I was completely blown away by the size of the room and the lady who took us to our room, explained we were upgraded to a Vista View suite.
On Xmas day, we availed ourselves of the free breakfast and then drove to Malibu for the day.
Light traffic made the going easy and we stopped several times along the way for coffee.
After a long lunch at a place right on the beach, we headed back to the London to get ready for our Xmas Dinner at the hotel restaurant "Gordon Ramsay"

TBC.....

 

[IainF]

PT 2

I had made a reservation at "Gordon Ramsey" well in advance, as the opportunity to have Xmas Dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant was too good an opportunity to pass up for us.

They had a preset menu, which was fine with us, and Mrs F had the wine matching.
It was a brilliant meal, certainly in the top 3-4 I have ever had, and apart from some local Gen Y's having tequila shots over dinner, the total experience was first class.
The total bill was $485 for the two of us and well worth it.

We retired to the roof top for a few quiet drinks and a fantastic view over LA.

The next day we headed to Cabazon premium outlets for the Boxing Day sales.
A 75 mile trip from the hotel, but well worth it for $300 Hugo Boss suits and $30 Polo shirts.
We had planned for this shopping trip well in advance and had a budget to shop with.
I would have stuck to this, but the bargains were just too good....
Thankfully the Amex was not phased by the heavy hit, although my 28 Degree M/C I had brought specifically for this shopping stopped working after lunch.... When I called them, they said they were concerned about fraud due to the high volume of purchases.
Oh dear. The boot of the Merc was completely full by the end of the day.
After 8 hours + we headed back to the London for a well deserved sleep.

The next day we wandered around Beverly Hills for the day and Mrs F had a specific plan in mind to shop at Louis Vuitton.

A friend who is a renowned foodie & who is an attorney in SF, came down to meet us for dinner.
We again went to the roof top bar at the London, polishing off a bottle of French bubbles.

The hotel car was booked to take us to Bouchon in Beverley Hills.
This is one of Thomas Keller's (The French Laundry) restaurants.
Another exceptional meal followed. The service was awesome & I had the best steak of my life.
Mrs F & our friends polished off several bottles of Sonoma Pinot and we headed back to the Hotel after midnight.
The bill for the 4 of us was $850, but that included the two bottles of wine.
We said our goodbyes, and the hotel car picked us up for the quick trip back to the London.
The next day we were checking out and heading to Las Vegas.

TBC.

 

[IainF]

Pt 3

We checked out of the London & set the Sat Nav for Las Vegas.
I love this drive through the desert, as well as the mandatory stop in Barstow for In & Out Burger.
I am always surprised at the pace that people drive at on this road, given that the speed limit varies between 65-75 for most of the way.
After 7-8 trips to the US in the last 5 years, I am fairly comfortable driving, but on the freeways, some of the speeds that the locals drive at are just nuts. I kept to the slow lane and averaged 85 miles/hour and was still getting carved up. There just seems to be no regard for any posted limit.
I am sure if the state of California introduced speed cameras, they would solve their financial woes fairly promptly.....

We made it to Las Vegas about 3 pm & checked into Aria.
This is the fourth time we have stayed here, and as its one of the newer hotels, it has some pretty cool features in the rooms.
One thing that wasn't so cool, was the room rates over the New Year period.
The four nights rates went like this for a Strip view room.
$159, $159, $300, $650.....
We knew that New Years Eve is one of the busiest nights in Vegas, but as it fell over a weekend it was busier than normal according to the lady checking us in.
The Aria is a great hotel, but I never get quite used to the vanilla/cinnamon smell they pump into the air con of the casino to mask the smokers.
We wandered out onto the Strip to grab a bite to eat, then headed to bed fairly early in anticipation of "Big Thursday"
I had planned "Big Thursday" deliberately as I wanted to get as much done on this day as possible, allowing us to relax for a couple of days before New Years.
Big Thursday arrivered and we were up at 5:30 am and made our way to Boulder City airport to Papillon Helicopters for our Grand Canyon tour.
It was a bit chilly, but the sky was clear and flying conditions perfect according to our pilot.
The 40 min flight to the canyon was fantastic and we got great views of the Hoover Dam, then we dropped into the canyon itself and landed with 4 other helicopters for a champagne breakfast.
An hour later later and after many photos were taken we jumped back in for our flight back to Boulder City.
I would definitely recommend this way of seeing the canyon as it saved a 9 hour drive. Total cost for the two of us was $600.

We then headed to the Desert Hills premium outlets for round 2 of shopathon....
After lunch it was back to the Hotel for an afternoon of massages and Spa treatments.
Feeling quite refreshed, we headed up to the room & changed quickly for our dinner at Jean Georges Steakhouse.
After dinner we jumped a cab and headed to the Rio Hotel to see one of my favourite acts, Penn & Teller.
Buying seats online & early meant we managed to snag them at a reasonable price of $55 each.
The show was a lot of fun and I was quite surprised to see Penn Jillette & Teller doing photos and signing autographs after the show in the lobby.
Mrs F grabbed the phone & snapped a couple of me with Penn. He is one big guy. 6 foot 7 & fairly solid.

After a big day we headed back to Aria and sunk into the famous Aria bed.

TBC

 

[moa999]

great start. love any photos.

 

[IainF]

View from London Hotel in West Hollywood

A full boot of shopping

The Room at the London

Grand Canyon


Me & Penn

 

[IainF]

View from Aria hotel room

Old School


Fireworks from the top of Aria

The Strip

 

[IainF]

View from Beverley Hills Intercon early in the morning


Its an expensive area when you have a McLaren dealer

 

[IainF]

A nice sleep in on New Years Eve, and we wandered out in search of coffee once again.
We spent the day wandering around the hotels on the Strip, and had a long lunch at the Sugar Factory.
The hotels were starting to put up fencing and barricades across the entrances and to gain access from 4pm you had to show your hotel room key card.

We had an early dinner at the Todd English pub inside the Aria, and then went back to the room to watch the build up.
The police had closed the Strip to most traffic at 4pm and completely by 6pm.
We went downstairs to the Strip at 9pm and it while it was cool, it wasn't to cold, which was a nice surprise.
What was a surprise was the repeated messages from the police telling people that open bottles of alcohol and celebratory gunfire were not permitted...

The fireworks were pretty good, although not Sydney Harbour spectacular.
Despite large crowds, everyone was well behaved and we didn't see any trouble.
The only minor incident came when 500-600 people were all trying to get back into the Aria at the same time through the one gate & security were holding the gates shut & not allowing anyone in causing some irritation from people who wanted in.

We got to sleep at about 3 am.
A wake up call at 7am signalled a repack of our bags, a quick breakfast and a run back to LA to try and beat the expected traffic.

TBC.

 

[IainF]

We loaded up the Merc to the hilt, and headed off to LA bright and early on New Years Day to beat the massive amount of traffic expected later in the day.
The traffic was quite busy, but manageable. There was a number of cars that were really moving through the traffic fast and at one stage we had a very near miss when a SUV cut across the three lanes of traffic at high speed and nearly took out our bonnet. Only missed us by a foot..... That got the heart racing.

We stopped again at Barstow and loaded up on caffeine, sugar, fat & salt at Inn & Out Burger. The place was absolutely packed. I can only imagine the $$$ going through the till that day.

We arrived back in LA at the Beverly Hills Intercon.
We have stayed here twice before, the rooms are large and the service is impeccable.
I had used 40k PC points to secure the room and I was offered a 4pm checkout the next day which was exactly what we needed when you have a 9pm flight.
I also received an upgrade to a larger suite, which I didn't expect due to it being an awards stay.

We dropped our bags and drove to Santa Monica to buy another Rimowa bag for Mrs F.
When we left Brisbane we had 1 checked bag each and 1 carry on. We now had 2 checked bags and 2 carry on.
We also got an email saying Mrs F had just ticked over to Velocity Plat, as we were both on double SCs and I had family pooled to her account.
A lovely dinner in Santa Monica and we headed back to the Intercon for a quiet night before our last day.

I woke early and there was a layer of fog covering LA. It was quite a thing to see as over an hour it burnt off, exposing LA one block at a time.
We grabbed a quick coffee and omelette from Urth Cafe in Beverly Hills & Mrs F went to grab a mani/pedi... I wandered around the shops for a while & basically just car spotted. It seems that Range Rovers are as common as Camrys, and Bentleys are just an average car in this area.

We decided to head to the Grove to do some last minute shopping & I wandered into the Farmers Markets for a decent coffee. I love the Farmers Markets, as it seems to be the only place in LA where I can get real food & coffee.
After lunch we headed back to the Intercon to repack (again), weigh our bags, and have a quick shower.
We checked out & the only charge was the $33 valet fee.

A quick stop to fuel up the Merc and I dropped Mrs F off at the Air NZ premium check in with all of our bags while I dropped the car back to the Hertz lot & caught the bus back to T2.

We checked in and as I had already picked our seats for the Skycouch I didn't pay any attention to our boarding passes.
20 mins in the security line and we were through to the gates.
We went straight up to the shared AirNZ & Virgin Atlantic lounge and grabbed a couch.
Shortly after the Air NZ Concierge, Johno, came over and introduced himself to Mrs F and thanked her for flying AIR NZ.
As he ignored me, I can only assume her newly aquired Plat status was paying off.
He said "I hope you like your seats" and it was then I glanced at our BP's and noticed that we had been placed in PE.
Happy days.
This was our second Op Up in 3 flights with Air NZ and I was starting to see the value of Platinum.

We boarded about 8:40 and made our way to the center seats in PE. I was very impressed with the seats, but Mrs F got a bit huffy that she wouldn't be able to stretch out.
The food was great and the concierge, Johno came over for a chat. We swapped LA travel tips and he offered to see what he could do for final leg back to Brisbane as we were seated in Y.....

We landed in AKL after 12 hours and a few movies later. I managed about 4 hours sleep and despite her moaning, Mrs F got at least 5 hours.
I would absolutely pay for PE over the Skycouch next time we head back to the US.
Given Air NZ's happiness to Op Up DJ Plats, it would make for a great trip.
A three hour stopover in AKL meant a chance to clean ourselves up & to grab a decent breakfast.
As we entered the lounge our BPs were scanned and the lady at the desk handed us two new BP's for PE again.
I know these seats are sold as Y and given to high status customers but I had missed out on picking them.
More fantastic service by Air NZ.
A short 3 hour flight later and we were back in Brisbane.
There was a short Customs & Immigration line so we lined up to get our passports stamped rather than go through the ePassport ghates as we had not been through Immigration going out of the US and I wanted a sticker in my passport to prove I had left the USA.
We were whisked through customs and out into the Brisbane sunshine.
Our house sitter met us in my car, which was needed to take all the bags.

TBC with lessons learnt from this trip.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Great report - in particular your LA content has Cruiserettes mouth watering

Big Thursday arrivered and we were up at 5:30 am and made our way to Boulder City airport to Papillon Helicopters for our Grand Canyon tour.
It was a bit chilly, but the sky was clear and flying conditions perfect according to our pilot.
The 40 min flight to the canyon was fantastic and we got great views of the Hoover Dam, then we dropped into the canyon itself and landed with 4 other helicopters for a champagne breakfast.
An hour later later and after many photos were taken we jumped back in for our flight back to Boulder City.
I would definitely recommend this way of seeing the canyon as it saved a 9 hour drive. Total cost for the two of us was $600.

Could not agree more on the reco for Grand Canyon - we did exactly same tour - 2 best touristy things I have ever done was 1. Helicopter Flight down into Grand Canyon and 2. Extended extended walk / climb along Great Wall of China

Again thanks for posting

 

[TonyHancock]

Thanks for sharing, excellent report. I'm thinking about a Vegas trip next year.​

 

[dfcatch]

Great TR.

California avoided speed cameras as it "violated civil rights" (privacy).

However they are starting to introduce them now, and have massively increased the CHP.

Must have an Aussie advising them on revenue raising

 

[IainF]

Lessons learnt on this trip.
1. Air NZ treats DJ elites really well.
2. Book PE instead of the SkyCouch
3. Stay at the London West Hollywood again.
4. When Hertz offer the chance to upgrade from a Merc to a Cadillac Escalade, take it. In this place bigger is better.
5. Take LESS clothes. Buy them there. Always make Cabazon your first visit.
6. Find a place that does GOOD coffee. Not always easy.
7. Despite my pre warning the credit card company I was headed to USA, always ring them to say you will be spending a lot of money in a short space of time.
8. Always add 20-30% on top of your expected hotel bill for Taxes etc etc that don't show up when you book.
9. Tipping will cost at least $50-80 a day when travelling and eating at high end places.
10. Driving on the freeways in peak hour is not a good idea.
11. Look on Las Vegas | VEGAS.com - Las Vegas Hotels, Las Vegas Shows & More. for cheap deals on shows & trips out of Vegas. You can really save money booking in advance.
12. We have done New Years Eve in Vegas. We don't need to go back there to do it again.
13. Don't bother with duty free booze. The local 711 has it cheaper.
14. Use the hotel car more often. The drivers know some good local tips and saves on parking.
15. Always add one more day than you think you will need.

Thanks for reading.
We have a trip to SIN, PVG & ICN flying Singapore in J, late January and then to DPS/Sin on DJ/Etihad in J in late March booked and will be returning to the USA in October for Mrs F's birthday but doing the East Coast this time. I am hoping to fly PE on Air NZ this time.

 

[IainF]

Just wanted to add to show costings for the eight or so days.

Airfares - $3700
Hire Car - $1400
London Hotel - $1350
Aria Hotel - $1590
Bev Hills Intercon $33 + 40k PC points
Meals total - $1500 approx
Fuel - $324
Shows/trips $800
Sundries- Parking etc - $120
Shopping - to much to consider totaling up right now. Waiting for Amex to send a thankyou note with the next statement.

I would be surprised if the total amount including the shopping, was under $17k for the 8 days, but we had budgeted for it and as we had arranged to meet with some business partners in LA, some of this will be tax deductible, although certainly not the majority of it.

 

[NDiddy]

Great TR Ian. This is a potential trip the wife and I were talking about for the end of the year.

The one thing that put her off was the weather in Vegas around this time, how did you find it? Any warmer or colder in LA?

 

[IainF]

Thanks NDiddy.
The weather in Vegas was great during the day, although you needed a jacket at night. I did not need gloves, beanie etc although Mrs F did have a scarf on. LA was perfect weather day & night, but I would not have expected anything else.

 

[IainF]

Also wanted to say that having the iPad with an AT&T sim and a 2 gig data pack meant some easy local navigation for things like shops & cafes.
Using "Yelp" San Francisco Restaurants, Dentists, Bars, Beauty Salons, Doctors is by far the best way to work out what is good/bad/indifferant and we found some great little places just by using the local search facility on Yelp.
The Sim card for the iPad was given to us free at the Santa Monica Apple Store and I went online and used an American Pre Paid Visa card I had got from a previous visit to set up the data plan.
The data was fast and we had service all the way from LA to Vegas.
To be able to video Skype from the iPad whilst driving was a fun experience as we could show the relatives where we were.

 

[NDiddy]

What kind of temp did you have in Vegas Ian, guessing high teens?

 

[IainF]

It was about 16c-20c during the day dropping to 8c-12c overnight with no wind.
Certainly bearable for me, and nothing like a Toronto/New York type of winter temp.

 

[NDiddy]

It was about 16c-20c during the day dropping to 8c-12c overnight with no wind.
Certainly bearable for me, and nothing like a Toronto/New York type of winter temp.

Sounds pleasant to me as well. Let's see what the other half thinks. Thanks again for the info.

Heading off on the honeymoon on Sunday and Singapore is one of our stops so I'll be sure to do a TR that you can reference for your amusement. Although we are in Singapore in late Jan/early Feb so might overlap. Flying SQ J back from SIN to MEL so really looking forward to that.