Anna
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- Jan 17, 2005
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Trip report – Santiago and USA - March/April 2013.
Or, how I earned 600 status credits in one trip.
Disclaimer – there are no doubt cheaper ways to earn the SCs, and myriad other ways to earn more SCs. But this trip suited where I needed to be at the time and what I wanted to do, so it worked well for me. YMMV.
QF27 SYD – SCL. I needed to be in Santiago and this seemed like a good way to get there. Booked in W. The F lounge assured me I was first in the queue for the points upgrade I requested on booking (9 months prior). Points upgrade did not come through, so having booked W for years I finally get the chance to try it. Waited till last to board but all in J boarded. Priority boarding was clearly announced and appeared to work well. Ground staffer said that half the seats on the flight are dedicated to LAN and QF cannot use those seats for points upgrades even if they are empty. From what I can see the J cabin looks quite full though.
Aircraft is a 3 class 747. 34B bulkhead aisle seat. Recline is not bad. There is some seat shoving when the pax behind moves around the cabin, which is often. (I'm thinking a prostate issue). The footrest is better than nothing, not great but I have the bulkhead to stretch my legs on when needed. On a 12 hour flight taking off at 12.30pm my body clock is not set to sleep mode but I think the seat was comfortable enough to sleep in if it had been a night flight.
The seat is not hard to navigate – screen, table, lighting etc all quite easy to work out. IFE is extensive. The ads exhorting us to vote for QF in the Passenger Choice Awards are also extensive.
Sparkling wine offered before take off and another drinks run shortly after take off. Tablecloth service with lunch. The printed menu is (physically) about half the size of a J menu. Printed in English and Spanish. Choice of 2 main courses. I'm pretty sure the chicken dish I'm given doesn't match the one on the menu but it's tasty enough. The other choice is pork. Dessert is Weis ice cream bars, which I don't like so don’t eat.
The sun goes down just after lunch and doesn't come up until it's breakfast time. Doesn’t suit my body clock at all – this flight is 10 or 11 time zones in 12 hours, a jet lag disaster.
Only 1 toilet for the W cabin, its location specially pointed out by the FA after take off. Ok except when the J pax use it. What appears from the outside to be another toilet in the W cabin remains locked all flight. Mysterious.
Ask for water after lunch and get a look from the FA. Whoops, I forgot this wasn't J service. Luckily not long after, they come round with bottles of water.
Later I ask for a "refreshment" from the menu – described as blue cheese and broccoli tart. Another FA comes round with a warm cardboard box, which turns out to contain pizza. Difficult to eat in the dark but somehow I avoid sloppy cheese and tomato accidents on my shirt. The first FA comes back 30 mins later to confess he forgot my refreshment and do I still want it? No, I've had the pizza now as initially in the dark I thought it was the "refreshment" I had asked for.
Breakfast served 2 hours before landing – choice of hot or continental. Hot choice is frittata, quite tasty.
Flight lands 30 mins early. Queue for the Chilean reciprocity fee for Aus and US passports is horrendous as a US flight also just landed.
SC earn – 90. Verdict – not as good as J, but worth the extra money not to be in Y.
(Surface travel interlude.)
AA677 MIA – STT. No problem getting access to the Admiral's Club nearest to gate D34, and I'm given 2 drinks vouchers but don't use either of them. The flight is 40 mins late due to delay of incoming aircraft and there's a gate change that is not announced but I'm onto it. It's an evening flight on a 2 class 757 in J. Priority boarding is announced but there's a scrum at the gate due to the delay.
On booking, the system gave me seat 6F but I changed it to 1E. A very large gentleman is in 1F. He has to ask twice before he gets an extension seat belt. He also has to decline dinner as there's no way he's going to get the tray table level over that enormous belly.
The overhead locker is taped up with gaffer tape and is marked "do not use". It appears damaged. Luckily there's still some space above row 2. In any event I discover the crew are not terribly diligent at enforcing the "no carry-on on the floor in row 1" rule.
English does not appear to be the first language of many of the crew but they are pleasant. There’s a drinks run first. Dinner is pasta in a tomato and ricotta sauce, followed by chocolate cheesecake. There's no choice so I have to eat the cheesecake. Lucky there's no calories in mandatory desserts. There's plenty of Californian wine on offer but I opt for something called, approximately, "Diet Sierra Mountain Dew" instead.
The pilot's initial announcement says we're expecting a smooth flight. It doesn't inspire my confidence that we bounce all the way to STT like we're on a dirt road. It's so bumpy I'm surprised the crew keep serving. The seat belt sign remains on for almost the whole flight, and is roundly ignored by almost everyone.
On landing I realize that 6F wouldn't have been such a bad seat after all as disembarking is from the middle door behind row 6, not the forward door. Y pax are held back while J disembarks on to the tarmac.
The flight lands a bit late. My accommodation has been ringing the communal taxi drivers to make sure they drop me off in Charlotte Amalie first before other pax going to large resorts. Not sure if this is more for my benefit or my hostess's but I'm grateful. It's after midnight by the time I'm in bed after a very long day that started early with an unbelievable 2.5 hour queue to get through US immigration at Fort Lauderdale (but that's another story). And just then, a text comes through from QF informing me my upgrade from W to J on QF12 in 2 days time has been confirmed.
SC earn – 60. Verdict – if that was J then I would hate to be in Y.
36 hours later –
AA1774 STT – MIA. After being ripped off $6 by the cab driver, and an immigration interrogation by one of the rudest officers I've ever encountered (thanks "Sasso" but the actual name of my next hotel was "Hilton Grand Vacations on the Las Vegas Strip", I wasn't trying to be evasive about its exact address like you implied), I'm remembering all the reasons why I prefer the British VI to their US counterparts. Just to top it off, scheduled departure of 0850 is delayed by nearly 2.5 hours. There's no lounge at STT. No announcements are made at the gate and the screens continue to show boarding time as 0830 until after the scheduled departure time, even though a delay is increasingly obvious as no ground staff have arrived at the gate. We're first told at 9am that there's a 45 minute delay. The pilots go on board followed by the FAs, and then the pilots come back for coffee. We're then told boarding at 10.15. The pilots go on board again with their coffee and this time they don't come back. I get more info from the AA website about what's going on than I'm getting at the gate. There's some kind of battery malfunction apparently.
I spend the time trying to select a seat for QF12 and from the seat map it's obvious that we're getting a 747 and not the A380. I select 12J upstairs.
When it’s time, priority boarding turns into a melee as almost every pax has PRIORITY ACCESS emblazoned on their boarding pass. Luckily few of them are in J.
Another 2 class 757. Finally on board and in the air in 1A for the view of the islands. It doesn't disappoint. Turks & Caicos do indeed have a turquoise sea, as do the Bahamas.
The seat belt sign is not turned off until the aircraft is at cruising altitude, much later than QF would turn it off. This seems to be standard on all my AA sectors this trip. It’s generally ignored by pax anyway, and not enforced by the FAs. The lady next to me in 1B keeps a large bag on her lap the whole flight. QF would never allow that during take off and landing.
There's sparkling wine offered with the by now very late breakfast and then Mimosas offered after breakfast. Again the crew do not have English as a first language. Due to the delay there's a lot of pax worried about making connections. There's complaints about the heavy accent of the first FA announcing connection gates and the announcements are taken over by a different FA with a more standard US accent.
Disembark by the forward door. This aircraft is continuing to LA which is my ultimate destination, but as an AFFer I'm obviously not going direct when I can connect. Especially when direct is in J and I can connect in F
SC earn – 60. Verdict – there was a reason why I deliberately booked my onward flight to depart 3 hours after my scheduled arrival from the USVI, and I was proved right. Continued on to –
AA539 MIA – DFW. MIA is intimidatingly huge as usual. I would hate to be running late for a flight here. Different Admiral's Club this time. Not given any drinks vouchers and didn't request them. Seat 1A in F. Another 2 class 757. Seat and service indistinguishable from my 2 previous J sectors. After take off there's a drinks service and a hot meal. The same ricotta pasta and cheesecake as MIA – STT is offered on one of my flights this evening – not positive now if it was this one. It was still tasty the second time whichever flight it was. Flight is on time and priority boarding isn't a problem. We land on time at DFW. Forward door disembarkation. My first visit to Texas – yee ha.
SC earn – 90, same as the trans Pacific flight but in about a quarter of the time and an even smaller fraction of the cost. Verdict – how does AA get away with calling that "F"? I'm grateful for the SCs though. Continued on to –
AA1692 DFW – LAS. The Admiral's Club nearest to my gate is the fanciest I've seen, with plenty of marble and granite. I'm given 1 drink voucher but I don't use it. I take a walk on the concourse past the Dallas Cowboys store and the Texan souvenir stall featuring rhinestone studded Western shirts and cowboy boots. Disappointingly I only see one man wearing a cowboy hat, and it looks more like a 5 gallon than a 10 gallon one to my inexpert eye.
My previous flight number was continuing from DFW to LAS, but AFF has taught me there's more SCs in separate flight numbers. Seat 1B in F on another 2 class 757. There's nobody in 1A so I move over to see the lights of LAS as we land. This is the best crew of the flight – bright, engaged and cheery. Still a bit slack with carry-on compared to QF though. Disembark from the middle door again. Can't get used to that!
My bags don't appear on the carousel so I make my way to the baggage office, where I see them sitting up straight and perky, waving their tags at me. Looks like they continued on the same aircraft all the way from MIA while I detoured in DFW for the SCs. I show my baggage receipt and I'm soon escorting my bags to the shuttle bus to the Strip.
SC earn – 90. Verdict – good flight, if you overlook that's it's a poor excuse for F.
Overnight in LAS for shopping next day at Fashion Show Mall before continuing on to –
AA1713 LAS – LAX. The super-helpful checkin agent checks my bags all the way to SYD even though I'm on a different PNR on QF12. I didn't even ask, she just volunteered to do it when she heard my Aussie accent. Breeze through the special security lane for F pax leaving from D gates. No lounge at LAS but there's good free wifi at the gate. Incoming aircraft is delayed and again the AA website gives me more info than I'm getting at the gate. Overall delay is about 30 mins. There's lots of Aussie accents to be heard while we wait.
This aircraft seems to be a 737 rather than a 757. Seat 3A in F, which is the front row. Just when I've got used to "Diet Sierra Mountain Dew" or approximation, it's Sprite Zero on this flight. There's a small unmemorable hot snack followed by a choice of cookie for dessert.
When we land at terminal 4 there's a special page for 2 pax. Lo and behold there's a QF First host on the aerobridge to meet them. I follow at a not very discreet distance. I had expected to walk round to TBIT but by sticking close to the host and following the signs I end up on the bus that takes us across the tarmac. Best of all, there's no need to go through security again when we arrive at TBIT.
SC earn – 60. Verdict – well worth the SCs.
QF12 LAX – SYD. By following the First host it’s easy to find the QP. The First host's pax and I are admitted to the OW Emerald lounge while other hangers-on from the LAS flight are directed elsewhere. The staff inside don't have enough to do and are practically begging me to ask them to do something. It's only about 7.30pm local time but it's closer to 10.30pm by my body clock. Departure is set for 22.10 and I snooze a bit during the wait. When I wake up a lady is smiling at me. Hope I wasn't snoring. Or dribbling.
I go to the gate in plenty of time and of course there's a short delay in boarding. My body thinks it’s 1.15am so I don't need that. The First host is still clucking around his 2 pax brood, who also have to stand and wait like the rest of us. Luckily priority boarding is efficient with plenty of staff for the crush of DYKWIAs who storm on to the plane.
The First host accompanies his charges into the upstairs J cabin and makes sure they are comfortable in their exit row seats before he departs. The aircraft substitution means they’re not in F like they booked, but they don’t seem irate about it.
I'm not allowed to set up my sleeper seat before take off but FA Meg promises to come back to do it immediately the seat belt sign is off, which she duly does. I go to sleep without “supper”. I wouldn't fancy any of the choices even if it wasn't already 2am by my body clock.
There's the usual stream of J hand outs before take off – amenities kit, menu, PJs. On late departures I'd suggest that each pax could be given the hand outs in one go rather than in dribs and drabs.
I wake up early. There's no real snack service so I have to make do with a chocolate bar, ice cream and an apple as the hours pass until breakfast. An FA also brings me a Florentine with a cup of tea.
The screen is tricky to raise and Meg has to help me. Other than that I manage to drive the seat ok.
Breakfast looks spartan until I realize I ought to order more courses as they are individually tiny. The FA says it’s because of pax demand for a “cafe style” breakfast and more sleep rather than more food.
The CSM gives me my immigration forms during breakfast and I promptly drop my express card somewhere down the bowels of the seat. Risking electrocution I stick my hand in to try to retrieve it. I break a nail in the process but can't find the card. The potential fire hazard makes me nervous for the rest of the flight. Meg helpfully brings me a replacement express card.
The flight is smooth and lands on time. Smartgate won't let me through as I've been in both South America and the Caribbean in the previous 6 days but I still get through immigration before my bags arrive on the carousel (where I break a second nail hauling them off). I proudly display my painted wooden souvenir Panamanian parrot and butterfly to AQIS and they wave them through. I'm back! And QF have emailed me a DSC offer in my absence, even better.
SC earn – 90. Verdict – QF J beats AA F (or AA J) hands down. Well worth spending the points for the upgrade too.
Total SC earn including domestic sectors to and from ADL – 600.
Cost of QF sectors – approx AUD3200 ADL – SYD – SCL (surface) LAX – SYD – ADL.
Cost of AA sectors – USD1090 J/F fare “with restrictions”.
Or, how I earned 600 status credits in one trip.
Disclaimer – there are no doubt cheaper ways to earn the SCs, and myriad other ways to earn more SCs. But this trip suited where I needed to be at the time and what I wanted to do, so it worked well for me. YMMV.
QF27 SYD – SCL. I needed to be in Santiago and this seemed like a good way to get there. Booked in W. The F lounge assured me I was first in the queue for the points upgrade I requested on booking (9 months prior). Points upgrade did not come through, so having booked W for years I finally get the chance to try it. Waited till last to board but all in J boarded. Priority boarding was clearly announced and appeared to work well. Ground staffer said that half the seats on the flight are dedicated to LAN and QF cannot use those seats for points upgrades even if they are empty. From what I can see the J cabin looks quite full though.
Aircraft is a 3 class 747. 34B bulkhead aisle seat. Recline is not bad. There is some seat shoving when the pax behind moves around the cabin, which is often. (I'm thinking a prostate issue). The footrest is better than nothing, not great but I have the bulkhead to stretch my legs on when needed. On a 12 hour flight taking off at 12.30pm my body clock is not set to sleep mode but I think the seat was comfortable enough to sleep in if it had been a night flight.
The seat is not hard to navigate – screen, table, lighting etc all quite easy to work out. IFE is extensive. The ads exhorting us to vote for QF in the Passenger Choice Awards are also extensive.
Sparkling wine offered before take off and another drinks run shortly after take off. Tablecloth service with lunch. The printed menu is (physically) about half the size of a J menu. Printed in English and Spanish. Choice of 2 main courses. I'm pretty sure the chicken dish I'm given doesn't match the one on the menu but it's tasty enough. The other choice is pork. Dessert is Weis ice cream bars, which I don't like so don’t eat.
The sun goes down just after lunch and doesn't come up until it's breakfast time. Doesn’t suit my body clock at all – this flight is 10 or 11 time zones in 12 hours, a jet lag disaster.
Only 1 toilet for the W cabin, its location specially pointed out by the FA after take off. Ok except when the J pax use it. What appears from the outside to be another toilet in the W cabin remains locked all flight. Mysterious.
Ask for water after lunch and get a look from the FA. Whoops, I forgot this wasn't J service. Luckily not long after, they come round with bottles of water.
Later I ask for a "refreshment" from the menu – described as blue cheese and broccoli tart. Another FA comes round with a warm cardboard box, which turns out to contain pizza. Difficult to eat in the dark but somehow I avoid sloppy cheese and tomato accidents on my shirt. The first FA comes back 30 mins later to confess he forgot my refreshment and do I still want it? No, I've had the pizza now as initially in the dark I thought it was the "refreshment" I had asked for.
Breakfast served 2 hours before landing – choice of hot or continental. Hot choice is frittata, quite tasty.
Flight lands 30 mins early. Queue for the Chilean reciprocity fee for Aus and US passports is horrendous as a US flight also just landed.
SC earn – 90. Verdict – not as good as J, but worth the extra money not to be in Y.
(Surface travel interlude.)
AA677 MIA – STT. No problem getting access to the Admiral's Club nearest to gate D34, and I'm given 2 drinks vouchers but don't use either of them. The flight is 40 mins late due to delay of incoming aircraft and there's a gate change that is not announced but I'm onto it. It's an evening flight on a 2 class 757 in J. Priority boarding is announced but there's a scrum at the gate due to the delay.
On booking, the system gave me seat 6F but I changed it to 1E. A very large gentleman is in 1F. He has to ask twice before he gets an extension seat belt. He also has to decline dinner as there's no way he's going to get the tray table level over that enormous belly.
The overhead locker is taped up with gaffer tape and is marked "do not use". It appears damaged. Luckily there's still some space above row 2. In any event I discover the crew are not terribly diligent at enforcing the "no carry-on on the floor in row 1" rule.
English does not appear to be the first language of many of the crew but they are pleasant. There’s a drinks run first. Dinner is pasta in a tomato and ricotta sauce, followed by chocolate cheesecake. There's no choice so I have to eat the cheesecake. Lucky there's no calories in mandatory desserts. There's plenty of Californian wine on offer but I opt for something called, approximately, "Diet Sierra Mountain Dew" instead.
The pilot's initial announcement says we're expecting a smooth flight. It doesn't inspire my confidence that we bounce all the way to STT like we're on a dirt road. It's so bumpy I'm surprised the crew keep serving. The seat belt sign remains on for almost the whole flight, and is roundly ignored by almost everyone.
On landing I realize that 6F wouldn't have been such a bad seat after all as disembarking is from the middle door behind row 6, not the forward door. Y pax are held back while J disembarks on to the tarmac.
The flight lands a bit late. My accommodation has been ringing the communal taxi drivers to make sure they drop me off in Charlotte Amalie first before other pax going to large resorts. Not sure if this is more for my benefit or my hostess's but I'm grateful. It's after midnight by the time I'm in bed after a very long day that started early with an unbelievable 2.5 hour queue to get through US immigration at Fort Lauderdale (but that's another story). And just then, a text comes through from QF informing me my upgrade from W to J on QF12 in 2 days time has been confirmed.
SC earn – 60. Verdict – if that was J then I would hate to be in Y.
36 hours later –
AA1774 STT – MIA. After being ripped off $6 by the cab driver, and an immigration interrogation by one of the rudest officers I've ever encountered (thanks "Sasso" but the actual name of my next hotel was "Hilton Grand Vacations on the Las Vegas Strip", I wasn't trying to be evasive about its exact address like you implied), I'm remembering all the reasons why I prefer the British VI to their US counterparts. Just to top it off, scheduled departure of 0850 is delayed by nearly 2.5 hours. There's no lounge at STT. No announcements are made at the gate and the screens continue to show boarding time as 0830 until after the scheduled departure time, even though a delay is increasingly obvious as no ground staff have arrived at the gate. We're first told at 9am that there's a 45 minute delay. The pilots go on board followed by the FAs, and then the pilots come back for coffee. We're then told boarding at 10.15. The pilots go on board again with their coffee and this time they don't come back. I get more info from the AA website about what's going on than I'm getting at the gate. There's some kind of battery malfunction apparently.
I spend the time trying to select a seat for QF12 and from the seat map it's obvious that we're getting a 747 and not the A380. I select 12J upstairs.
When it’s time, priority boarding turns into a melee as almost every pax has PRIORITY ACCESS emblazoned on their boarding pass. Luckily few of them are in J.
Another 2 class 757. Finally on board and in the air in 1A for the view of the islands. It doesn't disappoint. Turks & Caicos do indeed have a turquoise sea, as do the Bahamas.
The seat belt sign is not turned off until the aircraft is at cruising altitude, much later than QF would turn it off. This seems to be standard on all my AA sectors this trip. It’s generally ignored by pax anyway, and not enforced by the FAs. The lady next to me in 1B keeps a large bag on her lap the whole flight. QF would never allow that during take off and landing.
There's sparkling wine offered with the by now very late breakfast and then Mimosas offered after breakfast. Again the crew do not have English as a first language. Due to the delay there's a lot of pax worried about making connections. There's complaints about the heavy accent of the first FA announcing connection gates and the announcements are taken over by a different FA with a more standard US accent.
Disembark by the forward door. This aircraft is continuing to LA which is my ultimate destination, but as an AFFer I'm obviously not going direct when I can connect. Especially when direct is in J and I can connect in F
SC earn – 60. Verdict – there was a reason why I deliberately booked my onward flight to depart 3 hours after my scheduled arrival from the USVI, and I was proved right. Continued on to –
AA539 MIA – DFW. MIA is intimidatingly huge as usual. I would hate to be running late for a flight here. Different Admiral's Club this time. Not given any drinks vouchers and didn't request them. Seat 1A in F. Another 2 class 757. Seat and service indistinguishable from my 2 previous J sectors. After take off there's a drinks service and a hot meal. The same ricotta pasta and cheesecake as MIA – STT is offered on one of my flights this evening – not positive now if it was this one. It was still tasty the second time whichever flight it was. Flight is on time and priority boarding isn't a problem. We land on time at DFW. Forward door disembarkation. My first visit to Texas – yee ha.
SC earn – 90, same as the trans Pacific flight but in about a quarter of the time and an even smaller fraction of the cost. Verdict – how does AA get away with calling that "F"? I'm grateful for the SCs though. Continued on to –
AA1692 DFW – LAS. The Admiral's Club nearest to my gate is the fanciest I've seen, with plenty of marble and granite. I'm given 1 drink voucher but I don't use it. I take a walk on the concourse past the Dallas Cowboys store and the Texan souvenir stall featuring rhinestone studded Western shirts and cowboy boots. Disappointingly I only see one man wearing a cowboy hat, and it looks more like a 5 gallon than a 10 gallon one to my inexpert eye.
My previous flight number was continuing from DFW to LAS, but AFF has taught me there's more SCs in separate flight numbers. Seat 1B in F on another 2 class 757. There's nobody in 1A so I move over to see the lights of LAS as we land. This is the best crew of the flight – bright, engaged and cheery. Still a bit slack with carry-on compared to QF though. Disembark from the middle door again. Can't get used to that!
My bags don't appear on the carousel so I make my way to the baggage office, where I see them sitting up straight and perky, waving their tags at me. Looks like they continued on the same aircraft all the way from MIA while I detoured in DFW for the SCs. I show my baggage receipt and I'm soon escorting my bags to the shuttle bus to the Strip.
SC earn – 90. Verdict – good flight, if you overlook that's it's a poor excuse for F.
Overnight in LAS for shopping next day at Fashion Show Mall before continuing on to –
AA1713 LAS – LAX. The super-helpful checkin agent checks my bags all the way to SYD even though I'm on a different PNR on QF12. I didn't even ask, she just volunteered to do it when she heard my Aussie accent. Breeze through the special security lane for F pax leaving from D gates. No lounge at LAS but there's good free wifi at the gate. Incoming aircraft is delayed and again the AA website gives me more info than I'm getting at the gate. Overall delay is about 30 mins. There's lots of Aussie accents to be heard while we wait.
This aircraft seems to be a 737 rather than a 757. Seat 3A in F, which is the front row. Just when I've got used to "Diet Sierra Mountain Dew" or approximation, it's Sprite Zero on this flight. There's a small unmemorable hot snack followed by a choice of cookie for dessert.
When we land at terminal 4 there's a special page for 2 pax. Lo and behold there's a QF First host on the aerobridge to meet them. I follow at a not very discreet distance. I had expected to walk round to TBIT but by sticking close to the host and following the signs I end up on the bus that takes us across the tarmac. Best of all, there's no need to go through security again when we arrive at TBIT.
SC earn – 60. Verdict – well worth the SCs.
QF12 LAX – SYD. By following the First host it’s easy to find the QP. The First host's pax and I are admitted to the OW Emerald lounge while other hangers-on from the LAS flight are directed elsewhere. The staff inside don't have enough to do and are practically begging me to ask them to do something. It's only about 7.30pm local time but it's closer to 10.30pm by my body clock. Departure is set for 22.10 and I snooze a bit during the wait. When I wake up a lady is smiling at me. Hope I wasn't snoring. Or dribbling.
I go to the gate in plenty of time and of course there's a short delay in boarding. My body thinks it’s 1.15am so I don't need that. The First host is still clucking around his 2 pax brood, who also have to stand and wait like the rest of us. Luckily priority boarding is efficient with plenty of staff for the crush of DYKWIAs who storm on to the plane.
The First host accompanies his charges into the upstairs J cabin and makes sure they are comfortable in their exit row seats before he departs. The aircraft substitution means they’re not in F like they booked, but they don’t seem irate about it.
I'm not allowed to set up my sleeper seat before take off but FA Meg promises to come back to do it immediately the seat belt sign is off, which she duly does. I go to sleep without “supper”. I wouldn't fancy any of the choices even if it wasn't already 2am by my body clock.
There's the usual stream of J hand outs before take off – amenities kit, menu, PJs. On late departures I'd suggest that each pax could be given the hand outs in one go rather than in dribs and drabs.
I wake up early. There's no real snack service so I have to make do with a chocolate bar, ice cream and an apple as the hours pass until breakfast. An FA also brings me a Florentine with a cup of tea.
The screen is tricky to raise and Meg has to help me. Other than that I manage to drive the seat ok.
Breakfast looks spartan until I realize I ought to order more courses as they are individually tiny. The FA says it’s because of pax demand for a “cafe style” breakfast and more sleep rather than more food.
The CSM gives me my immigration forms during breakfast and I promptly drop my express card somewhere down the bowels of the seat. Risking electrocution I stick my hand in to try to retrieve it. I break a nail in the process but can't find the card. The potential fire hazard makes me nervous for the rest of the flight. Meg helpfully brings me a replacement express card.
The flight is smooth and lands on time. Smartgate won't let me through as I've been in both South America and the Caribbean in the previous 6 days but I still get through immigration before my bags arrive on the carousel (where I break a second nail hauling them off). I proudly display my painted wooden souvenir Panamanian parrot and butterfly to AQIS and they wave them through. I'm back! And QF have emailed me a DSC offer in my absence, even better.
SC earn – 90. Verdict – QF J beats AA F (or AA J) hands down. Well worth spending the points for the upgrade too.
Total SC earn including domestic sectors to and from ADL – 600.
Cost of QF sectors – approx AUD3200 ADL – SYD – SCL (surface) LAX – SYD – ADL.
Cost of AA sectors – USD1090 J/F fare “with restrictions”.
