My DONE4 to Seattle, March-April 2011

[Emkay]

Yesterday I started a DONE4 itinerary taking me to a professionally-related 3 day conference in Seattle next week, so here's the start of a report.

I initially considered buying a simple J class return ticket (BNE-LAX-SEA-LAX-BNE) but the Qantas price was about $16K, which I considered somewhat excessive. I am way past being willing to endure a quick turnaround return across the Pacific in economy. I imagine I'm not alone in thinking that the Aus-LAX flights are the most gruelling single sectors in existence. I just detest them in economy – typically leaving BNE/SYD/MEL one morning and arriving in LAX slightly earlier the same morning, after a night in which it gets dark for only a couple of hours, and most of the passengers don't seem interested in sleeping as it's too early on their Aus-time body clocks. So in economy you are closely surrounded by people jumping up and down, talking loudly, and headphone audio leakage in full operation otherwise, so trying to sleep doesn't usually have much effect apart from on one's temper. To minimise jet-lag, I have a firm rule that I don't bed down in the new time zone before the usual time at the destination, which leaves me struggling to make it through that first day in the US. OK, I'm the wrong side of my 50s, and I don't cope like I once did, so I'm prepared to cough up a few more $$ for a more tolerable experience. But $16K?

Actually, there was a $12K discount business return fare on offer but only for departures before March 31, which would have left me cooling my heels on the west coast of the US for 5 days before the conference, and it's not my favourite region for recreation. So I took a oneWorld Explorer round the world (DONE4) fare for about $11.5K, travelling in my favoured westerly direction. Under the rules, I still had to be away from home for more than the conference demanded, but at least I can choose to take my recreation break in a place where I want to be.

The DONE4 also gives me an opportunity to ensure that I retain my Platinum status next year. I chose the routing to earn me 1000 SCs, and I will easily earn the other 200 required to re-qualify for WP on my planned discount economy domestic travel. Here is the itinerary (OK, it does have a few zigs and zags, but in J seats and in First lounges, I can live with the additional flying and connection time):

QANTAS AIRWAYS QF0507 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 29MAR11 BRISBANE 0635 ARRIVE 29MAR11 SYDNEY 0910 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL D ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 3 ----------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF0127 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 29MAR11 SYDNEY 1145 ARRIVE 29MAR11 HONG KONG 1750 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1 ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- CATHAY PACIFIC CX0635 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 30MAR11 HONG KONG 1525 ARRIVE 30MAR11 SIN CHANGI 1910 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1 ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF0031 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 30MAR11 SIN CHANGI 2359 ARRIVE 31MAR11 LONDON LHR 0635 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1 ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 3 ----------------------------------------------------------------- AMERICAN AIRLINES AA0087 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 04APR11 LONDON LHR 1015 ARRIVE 04APR11 CHICAGO ORD 1310 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 3 ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 5 ----------------------------------------------------------------- AMERICAN AIRLINES AA0425 FIRST (A) CONFIRMED DEPART 04APR11 CHICAGO ORD 1555 ARRIVE 04APR11 SEATTLE TACOMA 1825 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 3 ----------------------------------------------------------------- AMERICAN AIRLINES AA1598 FIRST (A) CONFIRMED DEPART 08APR11 SEATTLE TACOMA 1045 ARRIVE 08APR11 DALLAS FORT WORTH ----------------------------------------------------------------- AMERICAN AIRLINES AA2473 FIRST (A) CONFIRMED DEPART 08APR11 DALLAS FORT WORTH 1845 ARRIVE 08APR11 LOS ANGELES 2005 ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 4 ----------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF0094 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 08APR11 LOS ANGELES 2330 ARRIVE 10APR11 MELBOURNE 0820 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL B ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------- QANTAS AIRWAYS QF0612 BUSINESS CLASS (D) CONFIRMED DEPART 10APR11 MELBOURNE 1005 ARRIVE 10APR11 BRISBANE 1215 DEPARTS FROM:TERMINAL 1 ARRIVES AT: TERMINAL D

So I have a day in Hong Kong and 4 days in London for my recreation, which ideally suits my interests right now.

When you get out the calculator, it's fairly easy to justify paying $11,500 for J over say $2500 in discount economy. First, the conference is for my ongoing professional development (well, maybe 'maintenance' would be more appropriate at my stage of career, but I am still working in the field and have a few years of practice and income and tax-paying ahead of me), so the expenditure is tax deductible – I will get about $4500 back in my next tax refund. Then there's the frequent flyer points. I know they have no formal value, but with the status and cabin bonuses and the extra 5000 you get for every 500 SC earned, the trip will net me over 100,000 pts. This is about 40% of the pts required to get my wife a J award seat next to me on my next RTW itinerary. So, at the $11,5K I would have had to pay for her, the >100,000 pts would be worth another $4500 or so. These returns on the investment cut the real cost back from $11,500 to about $2,500, and then there's the additional points I will earn next year because I have retained Platinum status – it's a no-brainer really, as long as you can afford the initial investment. And as long as the Qantas FF bank doesn't crash before I have a chance to withdraw my deposit.

Left home planning to breakfast in the excellent a la carte dining area in the Qantas First lounge at Sydney International. I resisted everything in the BNE lounge before departure, but (having risen at 4:30AM) couldn't resist trying just the J class toasted muesli on the 737 to SYD – it was very good. That easily saw me through to the First lounge, where I confirmed my good opinions of the place.

QF127 (747-400) left SYD and arrived HKG on time without the slightest incident. My seat was on the upper deck – more quiet and relaxed than the main J cabin below, and no comparison with the back of the bus (where I have been more times than I care to remember – see my report of a LONE4++ itinerary I endured in economy a year ago on this site at:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-photos/new-record-lunacy-my-lone4-22503.html

Lunch was fairly forgettable. Had a short sleep and watched the second and third of 'The girl who ….' trilogy, which certainly helped to pass the time.

By the way, I am travelling without check-in luggage again. I did this for the first time on my LONE4 ride last year, as I had a few excessively tight connections and no spare time in the itinerary to make up for any misses. It taught me to travel light, so this year I have taken a 55cm Delsey roll-aboard and a smallish lightweight laptop case with enough space for my 10” Toshiba notebook, a hardcover book (LeCarre's The Night Manager'), mouse, compact camera, Cowon X7 media player, cables & chargers and travel docs. I think I have enough clothes to get me right around. In HKG I found that my Blackberry just hooked back up to Telstra, surprising me because the last time I visited (a year ago) I had to select from a list of local carriers. That's some coverage from Telstra in Oz! Or presumably, they are operating in HK now, as is ANZ. I withdrew some HKD cash from my ANZ account (without transaction fee) from the ANZ ATM in the airport express station and topped up my old HK MTR Octopus card. Used it to take the Express to Kowloon station (HKD90), changed to the Tung Chun Line platform, and went back up the line one stop to Olympic station (no charge). Walked 10 minutes to my accommodation at Cosmo Kowloon, using covered elevated walkway all the way from Olympic, apart from the final 100m or so. Found this relatively new, clean hotel on Booking.com the week before, at an incredible HKD780 + 10% tax for a standard superior room. I gather these are quite small (as expected for a new hotel in most big cities) but they upgraded me to a suite on the 23rd floor (which was still a bit small for a suite, but fantastic value for the price I paid). Hit the hay early and got up early this morning; walked to Mong Kok MTR (15 minutes), zipped over to Central on Hong Kong side (HKD9 on the Octopus), had a poke around the lower and mid levels, Hollywood Rd, etc as the shops opened, back on the MTR from Hong Kong station to Olympic, explored some of the back streets of Mong Kok that I hadn't seen before, a couple of shopping centres, and back to check out by noon. Walked back to Olympic, caught the MTR four stops out to Tsing Ye, crossed to the Airport Express, and back to the airport. Fare from Olympic to Airport this way was HKD65 or so, and about the same amount of time as via Kowloon the night before.

Lunched leisurely on the unspectacular buffet in the Cathay First Lounge and caught CX635 (777-300), left a little late but made most of it up enroute to Singapore, where I am now relaxing in the Qantas lounge keenly awaiting my QF31 first flight on the A380. This was a factor in my picking this routing and flight. I am expecting the RR engines will be on their best behaviour for this flight back to their home country where they might have to face their own engineers and maintenance men if they play up, and that I will be able to provide a report of that flight sometime during my time in London.

But it looks like I am getting even more of a treat than I expected - my boarding pass says First and the seat is 5F. Surely not - the first time I ever got an upgrade to First, if it's not just a cruel hoax. Can't type any more - all trembly, go to go!

 

[FuzzyAUS]

Good write up, I'm looking forward to the next few installments..

I do need to look at some of these routing options, as the straight Syd-lax that I do twice per year is bloody expensive when you think you could spend a few extra days and go back to a few places you haven't been in a while..

 

[Emkay]

Yes! Was upgraded to First for the SIN-LHR flight on that beautiful big bird. But how can I comment on the aircraft when my only experience has been in that cabin? I expect to have my second experience, in the business cabin upstairs, on the homebound LAX-MEL flight next weekend. But even then, I guess I will tend to overvalue it, so take these comments in that light.


In the A380-800 I think Airbus really has created not just a match for my favourite aircraft (the Boeing 747-400 series), but has significantly lifted the standard. I know that the airlines have a fair degree of flexibility in configuring their purchases, and Qantas has deliberately chosen not to squeeze the maximum possible number of passengers into theirs, but my impression was of space, quietness and smoothness – in one word, refinement. A practical example relates to my Etymotic 6i earphones. These fit inside the ear canal and are great at noise exclusion in flight. But in every aircraft I have used them in in the past, lying on my side (even with my head on a pillow) with these filling the ear canal transmits engine vibration to the inner ear and significantly detracts from the listening experience. I get a similar effect just from wearing earplugs – its not the fault of the 'phones. But on the A380 I got none of this. Maybe it's reduced vibration in the engines, the design of the airframe or the seat structure, maybe its the cushioning in the First seats, or the additional mattress they install for the night, or a combination of all these? Would be interesting to see whether there is any difference when those engines start playing up – maybe I have the makings of a novel early warning system for engine vibration, but I'm not about to volunteer for test flights on aircraft with suspect units.


A less trivial example of the refinement was my sleeping experience. The beds go fully flat, are much longer than my185 cm, have great cushioning and are almost infinitely adjustable. I ate in the SIN lounge before our 2359 departure and skipped the in-flight dinner (what a waste of my first First experience!), got the crew to make up my bed immediately after levelling off, and was asleep before the first hour was up. My body clock and bladder woke me up approaching the Caspian Sea after nearly 6 hrs straight, and after attending to the latter, went back to sleep for another two hours, waking over Russia with just over 4 hrs left to fly. I don't usually sleep well in flight unless I take some form of relaxant, which I didn't take this time, so this experience is exceptional – really the proof of the pudding for me, in this case, is in the sleeping rather than in the eating.


So my comment on the in-flight eating has to be limited to the breakfast – which was great, plenty of choice, was hot, fresh, and the coffee was great. I watched Natalie Portman's fantastic Black Swan performance on the very nice IFE system, particularly enjoying the (19” diagonal?) screen. Great acting, great performance and production all round, pity about the silly story underlying it.
I also thought the tail camera ('Skycam') was a nice touch, and really enjoyed it during landing, once we got below the clouds (at 200m!). Great also that they leave the system on all the way to the gate.
As you might have gathered, it was 10/10 cloud and raining at Heathrow, so I didn't rush into town. I used the AA arrivals lounge at T3 (turn right at the meet and greet crowd, 50(?)m to the lifts, up to 2nd floor). Showered and a light second breakfast and dealt with the last 14 hrs of emails before buying an Oyster card and catching the Tube to South Kensington, changed to Circle line, around to Edgware Rd, and 20m walk to the Hilton London Metropole where I was able to check in immediately at 10:30AM. Am here for the four days at a great rate I picked up during their 50% off weekends sale back in January. Got a King Deluxe for £103.50/nt + VAT, incl breakfast. Nice spacious room on 14th floor of the tower block with an uninspiring view of a typical chunk of London, but no traffic noise through the good double glazing from the adjacent Edgware Rd and Marylebone Rd overpass.


The weather cleared after lunch so I headed out in the patchy sun to explore the nearby canal system, built in the early 1800s just before railways took off. The Paddington Basin is right behind the hotel – I walked down this and around the Little Venice junction between the Grand Union Canal Paddington Branch with the Regents Canal, and followed the towpaths of the latter around Regents Park to Camden Lock and Camden Town. Lots of canal (narrow) boats, a surprising amount of bird life for central London, and some beautiful genteel old properties fronting the canal, particularly around Maida Hill and Lisson Grove. This is a side of London I have missed in the past, as I have usually fallen to the lure of the Tube, just popping up at the usual tourist attractions like a rabbit out of a burrow complex, losing the sense of how it all relates, and missing such areas as these. Had a great afternoon and caught the tube back to the hotel in the early evening.


Turned in around 9PM, about 19 hrs since my last sleep in the air, which had me sufficiently tired to sleep until the body clock and bladder again combined to wake me at 3AM – but again (with a fair amount of deliberately refusing allowing my mind to focus on anything, just concentrating on blackness) fairly quickly went back to sleep until 7AM. Expressed on a GMT basis, my rising times each of the past four mornings have been Monday 18:30 (Brisbane 4:30AM Tues), Tuesday 22:30 (H.K. 6:30AM Wed), Thursday 02:00 (in-flight, over Russia), and now 07:00 (London). This adjustment of about 4-5 hrs per day is about the best I can do now, to minimse depth and duration of lag. I am fairly confident I will be fully adjusted from tonight onwards, after another full and active day today.

 

[Grooba]

now thats what i call an opup!
infact probably the mother of all opups!

well done, great report.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Great TR lucky you with the F upgrade :mrgreen:

 

[drron]

Congrats on the upgrade-hope it keeps up for you.

 

[Emkay]

Had a great four days in London. Took the tube out to Hampstead and walked across the Heath to Highgate before tubing back into town. Couldn't find the shelter shed on the Heath that George Smiley found old General Vladimir's chalk marks on, but that was a long time ago. Tube to Notting Hill gate, walked the length of Portobello Rd during the (busy!) Saturday market, on to Ladbroke Grove, then walked the canal paths back to Paddington Basin. Tube to Bethnal Green and walked to Hackney where my late grandmother grew up, visited Sutton House, constructed in Tudor times by an influential gent who moved in court circles during the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary and Elizabeth I, now a National Trust property. Visited a couple of great museums, including a revisit to the fantastic Imperial War Museum. Took in a sold-out all Tchaikovsky Gala performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall. I certainly made the most of the time, until Monday morning when I took the Heathrow Connect service from Paddington to check in to my AA Boeing 777 flight to Chicago. Bought a few kg of Lindt superfine dark chocolate in duty free – best chocolate in the world in my opinion, haven't been able to find it yet in Australia, and probably never will at this price (£4 per 300g block). Checked out the AA Flagship Lounge at T3, which I thought was quite nice, but not really comparable to the BA First at T5, especially as it wasn't big enough to get out of earshot of a few particularly loud, vociferous yanks.


The J cabin in the AA 777 was good, but much much noisier than that fabulous A cabin on the A380, I guess mainly because it is quite close to those two massive engines, which must be doing a phenomenal amount of work. IFE and catering quality were excellent. After lunch and a bit of a nap, and as I was now in the hands of the Americans, I decided to watch the Coen Bros latest effort, their remake of True Grit. A very different treatment of the story from the original of course, as you would expect from those crazy Coens, but I certainly wasn't disappointed. I found it almost as good as my favourites amongst their output, ie 'Brother, where art thou?' and 'No country for old men'. Will certainly add it to my collection.


Due to strong headwinds we landed at ORD almost an hour late, but at that time of the day border control wasn't busy and I sailed through in the first wave, after a wait of only a couple of minutes. The ESTA on-line system is certainly a vast improvement over filling out that confusing old set of forms (I-94(?) etc)), and seemed to speed the actual decision making process of the immigration officer. This was probably helped by them taking the mugshot and all 10 digitprints again, which their computer system probably quickly compared with those taken last entry, and decided that I definitely was that same person who behaved well last time around. So I had plenty of time for a visit to the ORD Flagship lounge. They gave me an access code for their wi-fi, which I used rather than the free fully-public system generally available throughout the airport (and also in the lounge of course). Food offering was typical AA minimalist standard, and coffee very ordinary.


I wasn't allowed to take all my gear onto the domestic flight to Seattle – when added to my roll-aboard and my little notebook bag, my duty-free carry bag of chocolate constituted an unallowed third item, so I had to check in my roll-aboard. No problem, it arrived in Seattle at the same time as me. My DONE4 translated to a seat in First on this 737 flight, as their domestic arrangements are between First and Coach, but that First wasn't up to the Qantas domestic J standard, neither in comfort nor service standards – but still much better than coach, especially for a 4.5 hr flight like this. The view from my window seat became less encouraging as the flight progressed. Over Wisconsin the lakes had a bit of ice, but as we progressed over South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington states, the amount of snow and ice increased much more than I had expected for the first week of April, and we landed in a very cold, wet and decidedly unattractive Seattle. I took the efficient, convenient and cheap ($2.50) light rail from SEA to my Downtown hotel – a lovely, almost new, very comfortable Hyatt Place just near the Space Needle, which I picked up for about A$150/night on expedia.com.au, including breakfast and in-room wi-fi.


The weather here has been showery and lousy through the three days of the conference. Yesterday Seattle's min and max were 2C and 8C. I am quite looking forward to getting out of here tomorrow.