LAS/LAX/STL - a week and a half in the US

[munitalP]

My story begins a few months back when I was requested to present a technical paper by the organisers of a previously attended conference in the US. The paper would involve some cutting edge technology we use as a company along with about ten years of my own work – the company I work for didn’t blink an eyelid when I requested that I went, so I quickly requested SYD/LAX/LAS flights booked, the Las Vegas Hilton booked and I went off into a corner to write a 38 page technical paper.

Fast forward 7 weeks, and the engineering services part of the company required so much modification to the paper to suit the US market, that I decided to withdraw my presenter status, and after a quick check with the boss, I was still able to attend as a delegate (win!). On top of that, the engineering services part of our company based in St Louis requested that I pay them a visit to discuss improvements in methodology and some algorithms that are used. Fine – an extra few days in the LOTFAP and a city that until now has been well off my radar.

My wife was travelling with me and her flights had been booked on a separate PNR to suit my flights, and now with my flight changes, this meant she would be flying home from LAX by herself. Unavoidable and by the time I finally hit Australian soil I wont hear the end of making her fly home by herself (!), however, that’s a few weeks away so I wont be unprepared.

Changes to my flights now have me SYD/LAX/LAS/LAX/STL/LAX/SYD. This has opened up a Pandora’s box for me, my AA flights are AA not QF credited, so I will have my qualifying flights for AA with hope to have plenty of time to start crediting all personal flights to AA. This would easily get me to their highest status in 12 months – I just need to find out exactly my year close out date, and I may make a run for AA status!

I booked the LAX Hilton, and the St Louis Hilton –I believe by my return, I will have Diamond status in my own right. Virgin Australia have been having some problems getting my status match moved from my existing HH Gold to Diamond, so I have now resigned to having only HH Gold while in the LOFLAP, not to worry, it kind of feels better knowing I have earned the status, not had it comp’d.

Monday. I arrive at the office with 6 days to go before I leave. A national sales manager requests my presence at a conference and meetings in Melbourne this week. I could barely contain myself with the joy of spending nearly the week at home – well Melbourne at least! Monday dragged out and it wasn’t till quite late in the afternoon that we realized no flights had been booked to Melbourne. So I quickly scanned the Virgin Australia website (I have dedicated all remaining flights this year to VA that I can get away with – our company has a strict Qantas policy) and found a suitable flight that would get me into Melbourne the following day at about 1715.

Screen shot through to the travel coordinator, and I was off home. Due to a wormhole in the space/time consortium, Monday has been the longest Monday at work I have ever experienced.

Once back at my apartment in Sydney, the dilemma was hand luggage or checked. I dug out my Jag carry on – and started packing. I had not expected to have to pack for most of the week in Melbourne as well, so this was a spanner in the works for the hand luggage only plans, but I did decide that I would give it my best shot.

I was able to pack all my clothes required minus a blazer however was at a loss to get my additional clothing into the cabin bag. Don’t get me wrong, I was able to pack the extra 3 point something days clothing and additional, I just couldn’t get the weight into a manageable number, so begrudgingly I wheeled a mid sized Titan X2 4 wheeler out of the closet and upended the carry on into it with room to spare. For the first time in a long time, I am checking luggage – bummer! The good news is the blazer will travel in checked luggage and will make a visit to the drycleaner on arrival at the Hilton in Vegas.

Tuesday. Flights booked and I head out to the airport to park my car at International long term. OK, fail number 1. Parking will be $400 odd for the 17 days I am away – you got to be kidding right? Screw that, so I head out in search of another parking company. Eventually after a fair amount of cursing and swearing, Park n Fly got my car, and after a very professional check in service, I was whisked over to the domestic terminal. Dropped off in front of T2, I wandered down to the VA kerb side check in, only to realize as I walked through the door that they don’t have the facility to check luggage in. Fail number 2.

I was given a boarding pass and told I was in seat 2A – Win number 1 for the day – a front seat, and headed back into the main terminal to check luggage. The line was nonexistent at priority, and I was quickly through security and up to the lounge to a refreshing cold beverage (Crown Lager) and a sandwich. My flight was called soon after, and I proceeded to gate 40, past 125 people waiting to board and through priority onto the aircraft. Seat 2A is premium economy service- I had had an operational upgrade and didn’t realize till I was seated. Win number 2. I tweeted @virginaustralia to tell them of my love for their priority boarding and thanks for the OpUp.

Nearly ready to land into MEL, so MacBook Air away.

 

[munitalP]

Thursday. The A380 service has been canned Sydney/Las Angeles, and my prime seating (row 1 of Y A & C seats) got dropped and I ended up many rows back in on the replacement 744 service. To say I was pissed is an understatement – I had planned this seating, booked well in advance and I was not taking this on the chin and letting it slide.

I spoke with many Qantas reps/supervisors over the next few hours – and all of them (bar 1) were helpful and felt my pain, but couldn’t get the seating arranged / changed. At this point in time – being a bit upset – not because I was sitting further back in the plane, but because Qantas had just said F you to a true and loyal customer and the plebs who look after the ticketing didn’t give a flying rats cough about the dilemma they had caused.

I tweeted @Qantasairways and told him of the problem, and to his credit, was immediately trying to move hell and high water to get the front rows back, but again came up against ticketing’s brick wall.

Unexpectedly, @Qantasairways made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse in regards to an apology, and to say I was stunned would be an understatement. I wont elaborate what the offer is, but I will say it is substantial, and my wow factor of @Qantasairways power was quite high on the wow scale especially all I wanted was my lousy front row seats back which I didn’t get, but now at this stage, quite a low care factor.

Friday rolled around, the cattery people arrived at home and the two Raptors were caged and sent to cat prison for a week or so. A little way into the afternoon, the phone rang and it was Qantas looking for my wife. “What’s this about?” I questioned, and was explained that the SYD/LAX flight was oversold, and they were contacting MEL/SYD/LAX PAX and asking if they were interested in a direct MEL/LAX flight instead.

I explained the two separate PNR’s and suddenly the QF Rep was apologetic and insisted that they would never have asked my wife to change if they had of known I was also travelling. I told her not to sweat it, and in fact, we would both be happy to take a service change and avoid the extra flight MEL/SYD on Saturday morning. A win! Not long after, @VirginAustralia tweeted me and told me my HH Diamond status had been activated – another win!

Arrangements were made, and our seats were now on VH-OEB (744) “Ceduna” MEL/LAX. On top of that, we were A & B 2 rows into the Y cabin.

Saturday. An early start saw us into MEL and checking into the First Class suite. Ticketing issues had us stranded there for about 20 minutes while they sorted the problem out, and we quickly headed through the customs area up to the F lounge for breakfast for eggs and bolly!

In what seemed way too short a time, the flight was called and we went down for boarding. We got settled in our seats, a tall skinny man took the C seat (turned out a Gold FF Doctor) and we watched with interest a couple of bogans arguing with the CSM. At that time, I had no idea what the argument was about suffice to say, the CSM wasn’t taking any ****, and the bogans were getting a little wound up.

30 seconds after the seatbelt sign was off, the CSM quickly bee lined down to me, and introduced herself, then apologized for the request, but would Mr & Mrs munitalP mind terribly moving forward to the Y+ cabin as there were a couple (the bogans) who had thought they had a window, and ended up in the middle, and she (CSM) didn’t want any trouble later on…! The doctor felt quite displaced as he was well aware of his next 14 hours of hell next to the VB swilling bogans who would quickly find out there’s sweet FA to see out the window between MEL & LAX.

Of course we took one for the team, and subjected ourselves to Y+ seating and service to LAX. I must say, it wasn’t too shabby either. A good food selection, excellent attentive service, large IFE screen, seat power, and truck loads of room in the Y+ seat with a good recline and a foot rest (which should incline another 20 degrees or so!)

Meals that I had were:
1[SUP]st[/SUP] meal – salad, chicken & veges
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] meal – hot breakfast selection, sausage, egg & fruit
Call button snack – toasted tomato, cheese & ham

Drinks – usual selection

IFE – pain in the butt, was reset 2 times during the first 3 hours, but after that it worked OK on all channels except “Flight Path”.

Service – as good as the business cabin. Flight attendants were very friendly and attentive.

Seating – Quite wide with a reasonable incline. Foot rests don’t incline enough, a few more degrees incline, Y+ would be a soft business product comfort wise. The armrest tables wide and solid with a lot of forward movement so the dinner tray / laptop could be kept at a distance from you. Armrest IFE – good size screen, PITA control position though and quite difficult to release the clasp holding the remote in place.

 

[munitalP]

We touched down in LAX just about on time, and proceeded to then be held up for 45 minutes at immigration. A quick transfer to the AA terminal, through the “nude-o-matic” and we were upstairs into the Flagship lounge. With our names on the shower list, we went through, found a spare table and connected to the WiFi and found out what had happened in the world over the last 14 or so hours. Showers completed, some food demolished, we went down to the departure gate and onto the AA 738 for a short flight across to Vegas. Allocated exit rows, so no shortage of legroom.

Mrs munitalP could hardly keep her eyes open, and I had a DYKWIA jerk seated next to me who felt the need to keep his iPhone on and surfing some internet site even after being told 3 times by the FA’s to turn it off. I had a few words with him.

We touched down in Vegas and after a quick train ride, were reunited with our luggage – the Titan X2’s – yes two of them, and off out the door and into a cab to the Hilton.

On arrival, the Hilton was typically busy with long lines of guests trying to check in with an empty VIP line. Scenes from Up in the Air running through my head, we queue jumped to the front and were quickly served by an attentive staff member who once I mentioned I was now diamond, and after a quick call to confirm, she tore my booking up and upgraded us to a suite. Class act, thanks Hilton! We had to mill around for a couple of hours waiting for the room to be ready, so it was a good chance for Mrs. munitalP to explore the place, a couple of drinks, then we were up to the room for showers and a change of clothes.

Dinner at the buffet – the chef at the “we cook for you” station remembered me from last year (I was impressed!) and our need for sleep finally overtook our common sense to stay awake as long as possible. Soon it was the next day…

Sunday. Out and about day. Leaving the Hilton, we cabbed it back to the airport and into AVIS. I had booked a car the previous week through the usual method, used the company AWD number and had a great deal. I had followed the company profile on insurances etc and for a 6 day rental, it was $540 inclusive for a medium sized vehicle. On checking in, the AVIS attendant asked if we would like to upgrade and he rattled off a list of cars including Mustangs, so for an extra $10 per day, I ended up in a shiny blue Mustang.

What a nice car. Sirius (Welcome to the world of satellite radio - SiriusXM Radio) satellite radio, full leather, a blue neon glow interior (very cool, even the cup holders had a light neon glow) and a powerful engine – did someone mention hedonistic pleasures?

Sunday was spent re-introducing to the task of driving on the opposite side of the road, a Wallmart supermarket for some supplies, a Wallmart department store for a few more supplies and a side trip to the Hoover dam. Sunday drew to an end and we both were in bed asleep by 10pm.

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday were spent at conference. Mrs. munitalP found a designer clothes outlet, and in the evenings we walked the strip, saw lions, went up the Eiffel Tower, drank too much, ate too much and Mrs. munitalP spent too much!

Thursday. A site visit I was going to attend that was a private tour of the “actual” hoover dam got canned (boo hoo!) so after a quick discussion with Mrs. munitalP, we checked out of the Hilton, filled the Mustang up with petrol and headed toward Los Angeles.

Filling car with petrol. Sounds simple. In practice – pain in the butt! Due to pumps being prepaid – no big deal, swipe credit card at pump, enter PIN number – ERROR – hmmm, enter PIN again – ERROR – hmmm, read screen correctly – enter ZIP code not PIN number – ahh ok, enter 3000 – ERROR, PLEASE GO TO STORE. Hmmm

In store –
“Hi foreign credit card – need to fill up the ‘tang on pump 4”
“How much you putting in boi?”
“Dunno – never filled it up before – you have any idea?”
“Wadda I look like – a gas station attenda…. Hmmm OK boi, try $40 dolla, if it’s too much, it’ll refund ya credit card..”

PUSH IN NOZZEL AND TILT TO START GAS FLOW

Another instruction it took some time before I read. PUSH IN and INSERT have two totally different meanings.

Petrol issues over - $40 gave me ¾ of a tank from near empty, the ‘tang was pointed in the right direction and off we went travelling at near 100mph with other traffic for a fair portion of the journey, only interrupted by a brief stop at Dennys for coffee and breakfast.

Into California via a stop at the boarder control then over the mountain range and into LA to be greeted by a quite surreal fog covered city. The GPS done its job and managed to get us safely to the LAX Hilton where the car was valet parked and we went off and checked in. After a quick freshen up, a visit to the lounge and a room change to a room facing the runway (what an AVGeek!) we ate dinner at the restaurant downstairs and had a reasonably early night only interrupted by the occasional noisy takeoff!

To be continued…

 

[cove]

Thanks for the nude-o-matic concept. I remain ok about it as long as I don't hear laughter coming from the back room viewers. Very good summary...I felt I was nearly on your plane....the 744 IFE can be a bit tricky to get working and to keep it working.
I still haven't made it to any of your Sydney drinks despite all my good intentions so I remain a good 5 hours from making that happen by being in Perth.
With CHOGM on in Perth we get a public holiday with Julia dreaming she is running the country from over here so it cannot get better than that.
Keep up the eloquent entries as I would rather read your thread than anything else on a public holiday.

 

[Fantic125]

Changes to my flights now have me SYD/LAX/LAS/LAX/STL/LAX/SYD. This has opened up a Pandora’s box for me, my AA flights are AA not QF credited, so I will have my qualifying flights for AA with hope to have plenty of time to start crediting all personal flights to AA. This would easily get me to their highest status in 12 months – I just need to find out exactly my year close out date, and I may make a run for AA status!

What about registering for an AA Platinum challenge and using these flight to contribute?

 

[serfty]

... I just need to find out exactly my year close out date, and I may make a run for AA status! ...

AAdvantage? 31Dec - every year and for all members ...

 

[NM]

AAdvantage? 31Dec - every year and for all members ...

While that is true for the membership earing year, status is valid for 2 months after the membership year ends, being end of Feb each year. So status earned this year before 31 December 2011 is valid through to 28 Fab 2013.

 

[munitalP]

A few pics from iPhone - sorry for the quality...



View from MEL F Lounge



View from Hilton Las Vegas



The pretty little Mustang



A beautiful morning in Vegas



Taliban - beware!

 

[munitalP]

Entrance into Las Vegas Hilton



View of foggy LAX



Wouldn't be a munitalP trip report without a picture of a cold beer!



Bar at Long Beach opposite Queen Mary



St Louis

 

[Princess Fiona]

Enjoying your TR enormously, great score with the PE seats
The whole pre-pay at the gas station thing befuddles me every time although the attendants usually give me a sympathetic smile when I put on my lost face and shrug my shoulders when asked how much do I want to put in

 

[munitalP]

The next morning our disappointment of the dismal breakfast offerings was overtaken by the thoughts of a day or two in LA. Now to set the record straight. I don’t like LA. I never have. I never will. It is a false city in my opinion, from the Beverly Hill desperate housewives through to the Malibu “look at me” locals through to the beggars on every corner, but this wasn’t going to detract from finding Din Tai Fung and crossing another restaurant from my list! So, with the address carefully copied from their website, the GPS was loaded and off we went out toward Pasadena direction.

The restaurant was found in a group of Asian shops, and typically of Din Tai Fung restaurants I have eaten at all over the world, it was busy. For once I didn’t mind sharing a table, in this case with 5 others and all of a sudden, the beginnings of a great lunch were forming with the Aussie kids as the main attraction.

With lunch over and satisfied that the restaurant hadn’t succumbed to the same fate as DTF in Sydney – capitalism, I paid the bill which was very reasonable, and we went off in the direction of Hollywood.

The fog was still over the city, but just as we got into Hollywood, Mrs. munitalP say the Hollywood sign for the first time and was delighted, snapping off quite a few pics! Stopping in Hollywood, we went for a walk along the walk of stars, visited the Chinese theater, then headed off to Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive plans were to park up and go visit a few shops to try make at least one serious dent in the Mastercard, but alas a car on fire 200 meters off the drive put paid to that and traffic congestion was building with the firemen blocking a couple of roads.

A Bugatti Veyron didn’t help parked on the side of the road either, and I had to lap the same block three times until SWMBO finally got a photo I was happy with (CARnerd).

Pointing the ‘tang west, I headed for Santa Monica with hopes of a nice sunset and a bite to eat. I parked in the beach side park and we went for a walk around the pier and generally just distressed for a while. There was some movie scene being filmed at the base of the pier, so we relaxed watching for a while till boredom and hunger took over and we decided to head back to the hotel.

Almost at the Hilton, I decided to have dinner somewhere at Manhattan Beach, so a quick programming of the GPS, and we ended up there a little later on. Just for the information of anyone staying at the LAX Hilton, they run a frequent shuttle to Manhattan Beach where there are a heap of good restaurants and bars.

We ate at an Irish bar, had a beautiful meal – typically over fed (!) and left satisfied that the money was well spent. I remember asking my wife if she could remember the last time we left a restaurant in Australia satisfied the money was well spent, and like me, she couldn’t. I’m not saying that meals are not satisfying, I’m saying that the ratio of money for food is not a good ratio in Australia, neither is the service.

Driving back to the Hilton had us reflecting on the last few great days we had had and the fact tomorrow was the last day together in the US. Our plans were up in the air for the following day, so we decided to just take the day as it came, but with one Target stop for her to get some Bogan Trackies to wear on the flight home.

Saturday. Up and breakfast in the exec lounge. The offerings were no better and I left grumpy that the breakfast was coughpy. Still, I could have gone downstairs so the grumpiness soon wore off. Valet had the Mustang up quite fast, and soon we were off in the direction of a Target or it could have been a Wallmart. Anyway, does not matter, what does matter however is, GPS may lead you to where you ask it to take you, it is not smart enough to know that where it has lead you, you frankly shouldn’t be! Without even leaving the car to go into the shopping centre we had found, we both felt quite uncomfortable with the staring from groups of people on the side of the road as we drove past to the general “feel” of the neighborhood, so after a blocky, and the GPS reset, we headed out of the area back in the direction we came.

I am not a softie, I am not a whimp, I regard wild Jakarta as one of my favorite cities, and both my wife and I have travelled to a number of 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] world countries. This excluding a time in a cab in Ha Noi, was the most uncomfortable I have felt anywhere and I am glad we don’t have the same “hoods” in Australia (yet).

Back on a freeway I recognized, I thought it best that we just headed down to Long beach, get done what we needed to do, have a peek at the QM, grabbed some lunch at a good Mexican Chilli restaurant, and generally just chill out for a few hours. So we did.

 

[munitalP]

After lunch we headed back towards the Hilton via a Target for Bogan trackies, and dropped the car back to AVIS.

OK, what’s with it and car hire companies? My bill was suddenly $980 for the car and there was no way known I was going to pay for that. I jumped up and down until the agent looked deeper into the booking and realized that when the agen in Vegas had changed cars, he entered the wrong AWD number, and the car cost had soared. Problem solved, the manager came out and I was charged the original price. My MO is usually pull into AVIS and throw them the keys as heading to check in – I will be taking a closer look from now on at the slip the receiver prints out on car return!

After a 10-15 minute walk in the fog, we were back at the Hilton and Mrs. munitalP spent some time packing her case ready for her late night departure. We sat in the bar for a while then ordered a Hilton Pizza delivered to the room as she made final preparations for her flight home.

We grabbed the shuttle over to TIBIT, the only issue being a large group from the previous stop taking her carry on – luck for us it was only one stop back, and the group who took the bag realized and hailed a policeman who chased after the shuttle lights ablaze to inform us of what we already knew.

10 minutes late, all luggage accounted for, we wandered straight into priority line at TIBIT and checked her onto the LAX/SYD flight, seated first row of Y.

Good byes said, I grabbed the shuttle back to the Hilton, and up to the room and got comfortable with a couple of cold beers and a great window view of the LAX runways. Just after SWMBO 747 rotated out of LAX, I hit the sack ready for a big exciting Sunday!

Sunday. LAX/STL. I have never been to St Louis, so I was more excited than a chicken on crack cocaine – ok, well maybe not that excited, but none the less, excited. I went down to check out with my room charge/bill that had appeared under my door sometime the night before, and got ready to pay up. They printed another bill, this one $90 more than the one in my hand. “what’s this” I asked pointing to car parking / valet fees on the bill? I pointed out that on check in I had been told parking was free, and this invoice (the one that had arrived at my room) was correct with no parking fees, not the new one printed.

The desk boy started to argue, so instead of creating a scene, I asked him to please go get his manager to sort this out. After a few apologies, the bill was sorted, and I left thinking about 2 overcharge situations in 24 hours and wondering how many more my complacent attitude toward large hotel chains and hire car companies had cost me over the years. I do swear, there will never be any more though.

Out to the airport sitting next to 2 Virgin US pilots and 2 FA’s on the shuttle and couldn’t help but get deeply engrossed (or was that grossed) in (overhearing) their conversation about the best contraception methods, with some device that is inserted in the fallopian tubes coming out the clear winner with the two female FA’s! Oh well, each too their own I guess.

I checked in and headed upstairs to join the queue for the “nude-o-matic” however, disappointingly I was directed to the old metal detection device which failed to project an image of my dangly bits to anyone.

Up to the flagship lounge for a snack and coffee, then before long, the MD80 was due to depart. Priority boarding worked again quite well, and I was seated in the first row of economy and kicked back for a three hour flight across and up.

I made the most of the onboard internet (as my Facebook Friends will tell you!) and the hours just melted away. Great value for ~$12 and the sooner Australia has onboard internet the better. The only problem will be ours will be 3 times the price…

On arrival at the hallowed ground, my luggage appeared before I was at the carousel, so I was out into a slightly cooler evening and into a cab for the 25-minute ride into the Hilton.

To be continued…

 

[cove]

Was the Bugatti a burgundy and champagne one ??......if so it cost 1.3 million and is parked at the Cove in Marina del Rey. Well that's what our parking concierge told us about the cost.
It makes my hire car look like an American POS that it is.
Did the GPS take you to east LA because that would scare anyone...just keep heading east on Century away from the airport....a few clicks past Costco and Home Depot to get very afraid....to about the 710 freeway and Century boulevard.
Keep it coming....you've got me reading and laughing and I loved your photos.

 

[munitalP]

Was the Bugatti a burgundy and champagne one ??......if so it cost 1.3 million and is parked at the Cove in Marina del Rey. Well that's what our parking concierge told us about the cost.
It makes my hire car look like an American POS that it is.
Did the GPS take you to east LA because that would scare anyone...just keep heading east on Century away from the airport....a few clicks past Costco and Home Depot to get very afraid....to about the 710 freeway and Century boulevard.
Keep it coming....you've got me reading and laughing and I loved your photos.

Yellow and black. Hope you can see it from this link!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...52728284_1007786818_32478152_1946761739_n.jpg

 

[cove]

That would be the reason for Australians to take out collision insurance even when you hire a real POS.So there is more than one in the neighborhood so I won't want one now!Just too too common......

 

[munitalP]

A few more random photos...



QF - LAX/JFK A330 I believe...



Dual runways make great photo opportunities through the fog



Wild animals everywhere you look! (well maybe not so wild)



St Louis high rise



Red water - tribute to the Cardinals who hopefully will win the world series against Texas today

 

[cove]

With your airport photos it looks like the "marine layer" was at ground level or someone spilt curry powder on your camera lens.
If you ever get the chance take a drive west on Wilshire Boulevard....I drove the hire car into a pot hole half the length of the car. I was sure glad it was a hire car that dropped into that one. That bit of road is within a couple of miles of 10 million dollar apartments but the city has no money to fix roads!
Did you enjoy the Mustang?

 

[munitalP]

I spent the next two days in meetings and come the end of the first day, I had bed on my mind, but being 2 hours advanced time zones again, I thought it best not to hit the sack too early.

I wandered over to the park near the arch, harassed a few squirrels and snapped a few shots before the sun was completely down, then headed back into the CBD in search of dinner.

I went into a bar and grill called Calceos – a choice spot for sports fans and foodies alike! The extensive menu was available at seated areas as well as at the bar, and there were a number of draft beers available as well as most other drinks. The only annoying thing about the bar was a model train travelling around tracks above the bar! I got chatting to a Texan and the subject turned to baseball which I know nothing about, so by the end of the first innings of the world series finals on one of the many TV’s throughout the bar, I was enjoying the game thanks to my new mate Glen.

The food in this bar is a reason alone to return to St Louis – it comes on a 8.5/10 on the munitalP scale.

Game over, I wandered over to the Hilton and packed my bags for a long day tomorrow.

A long day at the office had me in a cab out to the hallowed ground – Lambert St Louis for my 1830 flight back to LAX. The admirals club is a temporary affair – I am not sure if it is because of the existing storm damage from the huge tornado that flattened parts of St Louis or not, but there was no toilet. I think a sign saying “Toilets 400M away – don’t leave it too late” is a bit more useful than “Toilets located by gate 16”. Oh well, my back teeth were floating by the time I found the loo, and there as a bar next door to the loos, so the Admirals club was left behind, and I sat in the “toilet bar” for the next hour chatting away to a sales exec from Arkansas.

Boarding the MD80, I was squished into the window, so after takeoff, I headed towards the back of the plane and sat in the second to last row. Boy MD80’s are noisy down the back! I go connected to the Internet again using the onboard WiFi – I still can’t believe how awesome this feature is. As the drink trolley finally made it down to the back of the MD80, I asked for a beer only to be presented with 2 can bottles of Bud – compliments of the chap I had been chatting with at the bar! Of course accepting the shout without repayment would be un-Australian, so an hour or so later after a pit stop or two, the favour was repaid with cans of Corona!

I had a long chat with the male flight attendant who spent a portion of the flight in the crew seat – the last row on the MD80. Ironically (this final report section is being written on Tuesday AM after the grounding) a fair portion of our conversation (at his prompting) revolved around Qantas, their safety record, their aircraft and the industrial disputes. Surprisingly, his knowledge of the dispute was very good, and some of his opinions made a lot of sense – maybe it was the bud doing the thinking for me at this point in time.

Landing late into LAX, we taxied about half way to Sacramento to a stand off bay. Surprisingly the stand off bay had an aerobridge which lead to stairs down to the busses waiting to deliver us to the terminal – right where the bus leaves for TIBIT – perfect.

I took the bus to TIBIT - I contemplated walking, but couldn’t be bothered with another nude-o-matic orthe associated crowds. I had a couple of hours to kill and made the mistake of heading to TIBIT instead of hanging out in the Flagship Lounge – ok, will remember next time (said the same last time!).

Entering the Oneworld lounge at TIBIT and it all came flooding back – darn! I bee lined straight through the club with a brief stop to pour a Baileys on ice, and out to register for a shower and pick up my bistro buzzer. The turn around was fast – I had not even finished my drink (admittedly quite large) before the bistro buzzer was telling me the shower was ready.

Showered, shaved, smelling nice and a complete change of clothes, I headed out to try find a seat – denied. What really pissed me off were the number of bags occupying seats. There could have easily been 30% of the seats in the lounge being occupied by a bag, ignorant coughs was my thought… I left the lounge in disgust and headed into the sports bar near the gate where I had a couple of drinks, a snack and a chat with some whacked out dude (in the nicest possible way) who was off on a sabbatical to the Philippines.

Finally boarding time was there and I wandered down to the gate and through to my operational upgraded seat ( ) on this 747 service, again VH-OEB. I had no seat neighbor and was happily content in my present situation. I was served a nice champers before take off and warned the flight attendant that I would be requiring more of that after take off which she obliged with!

Just on rotation, the aircon decided to empty condensate on my head and the lady behind! It must have looked funny, I started by using my pillow as an umbrella then gave up on that and the blanket became a tarpaulin to keep the water off me. It was quite a lot of water I might add, and if a little slower in my reactions, I would have been soaked! Lucky for me, I had changed into my PJ’s so I would have had a spare set of clothes, but even still!

Once up and about, the CSM and another FA fussed over me and the lady behind – I was enjoying the fuss, but like all good things, it came to an end once they realized I was dry and off they went about their business, not another word mentioned until prior to landing when we (lady behind) and I were presented with a “we are sorry” bottle of champers – nice.

My flight was good, and I slept quite well, watched a few movies, some big bang theory, ate no main meal, but a large breakfast.

On landing into Sydney, we were informed of industrial action by immigration – my heart sank thinking of the delays about to be endured. Off the AC quickly, I headed down to the nearest electronic passport booth and registered my entrance back into Australia. Issued with my shopper docket (well not quite) I raced over to the scanners and was through in just minutes from alighting the AC to looking for my luggage. Finding the correct carousal, I headed over and unbelievably; my luggage was on the conveyor already heading for it’s first lap.

The queues of people trying to exit were huge and snaked around a carousal as well as a second line formed off to the left. With express card firmly grasped, I headed to the express lane with no more than 15 people waiting to leave, and quickly popped out the other side at a maximum of 15 minutes from alighting the aircraft.

Journey over.

@cove the Mustang was great. My car previous to the 4x4 Navara was a fully optioned BT XR8, so I have a soft spot, but the Mustang was "special". I have decided it will feature quite high on my list of replacements for the Navara as lease expires next year. A co in BNE is selling the converted cars that meet FORD expectations with all ABS and traction control systems working. Would I buy the Mustang 425HP GT vs XR8 425 GT? XR8 cheaper due to local build - buy Mustang in a heart beat. Over a 335 BMW (which is top of list) - a hard call.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Alanslegal]

Great write up munitalP


ps. the last sets of photos didn't work for me, is it just me?

 

[cove]

That window seat at the back of the MD80 should not be available for sale as it is a doozy. Has your hearing in your ear closest to the jet engine returned to normal?? Now that seat is up there as the world's worst passenger seat seeing the jet engine is just outside your window.
The Mustang is an interesting car if you like to make a bit of noise.....on the other hand I prefer to hear nothing but the CD I am playing.
Very nice trip report....but you seem to have lost a bit of skin from your latest picture that comes with your posting name....was that a side effect of the nuclear blasts in Nevada a few half lives ago?
It is really good to see you out there! Well posted and it got me laughing.