IainF
Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2007
- Posts
- 372
- Qantas
- Bronze
- Virgin
- Platinum
- Oneworld
- Emerald
- SkyTeam
- Elite Plus
- Star Alliance
- Gold
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.....
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.....