Trip Report - NTL-BNE BNE-NAN-LAX LAX-ORD-FLL MIA-ORD-SLC SLC-LAX-NAN-BNE-NTL

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Verde

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Mar 28, 2010
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My ten day holiday was very pleasant, my first time to fly better than economy (even if only domestic US flights) and got me most of the way to Gold QFF status.

The drive to Newcastle was pleasant, stopping at the Rydges Capital Hill hotel in Canberra on the way which I can recommend, having a fantastic nights sleep there. I paid for an upgrade to have a spa in the bathroom since it was the start of my first "luxury" trip.

The Qantaslink flight NTL-BNE on the 3rd of July actually departed early which was nice, though then had to slow down due to air traffic control (according to the pilot). I do enjoy the view from the windows of the Dash 8 300 and will someday get some nice photographs - particularly when you are getting near to Brisbane, I think the lower altitude view is great. Even better, the "refreshments" consisted of sandwiches, which were very appropriate given it was lunch time during the flight. The choice was between corned beef and pickle or cheese and ham, but somehow the FA mentioned to one customer that there was a single egg and lettuce sandwich, so I'm not sure why they'd have the special offer (vegetarian?).

I am always paranoid about missing significant flights, so arrived at Brisbane airport before the AirPacific checkin was even open.. I'll try and control this urge more in the future. The flight was a 2-3-2 arrangement which I thought was quite nice (and better than the 3-3 flight back from NAN-BNE at the end of my journey).

Strangely, they sprayed some stuff around the cabin to kill things we could be taking to Fiji from Australia, yet didn't do the same from the USA before arriving in Fiji. I wouldn't have thought there were too many things Australia had which the USA didn't have (and would expect the USA to have unwelcome organisms that Australia doesn't have to threaten Fiji with).

I probably won't use Fiji as a transfer point again as the five hour wait between the BNE-NAN flight and the NAN-LAX flight was a bit painful. The security check as a transit passenger was amusing as I'd filled up my water bottle air side in Brisbane and had some water in it still. It was spotted in the X-Ray and they checked my bag, found the water and didn't care about it, letting me keep it and its contents. On the return trip the different staff seemed to be making passengers leave it behind (but I remembered and drank all my water while I was waiting on the return trip).

I had a "Mr Bean" moment on the flight. I've never bothered with deodorant or liquids as carry on before, but after feeling like I might smell a little in last years LAX-SYD flight, I decided to take some with me and do the whole security routine of having it in a plastic bag etc. So halfway to LAX from Fiji, I decide to apply some fresh deodorant. Heading to the tiny bathroom, I went to unscrew the top of the roll on deodorant and POP, the top comes off and a neat circle of frothy white liquid sprays around the room, creating a line around the wall, mirror and my face. At first I was glad that it wasn't all over my clothes, but then where it had crossed my eye started to sting and I was preoccupied trying to get rid of that... then with cleaning the mess up from the walls etc. It took a few hours before my eye felt fine again, watering away for a while, so I doubt I'd try that routine again (or I'll take a solid deodorant to apply rather than liquid). Now I almost wish I had grabbed my camera to get a photo of the white line around the walls and can laugh about it, but I was a little shocked at the time (and hopeful that there isn't anything toxic to your eyes in deodorants).


Arriving in LAX all went smoothly and I found the complimentary shuttle bus to my hotel nice and easily. Despite having passed through LA a few times in the past I'd never actually stopped there to do the tourist thing, which I did this time for two days (I actually hated LA the first time I passed through it, but over a decade will soften opinions and I think I could appreciate it this time around).

It was my first stay at a Hilton and I realise the Hilton Airport LAX is a lower grade than many, but I suppose I was a little disappointed that there was little special about the rooms. The worst quality tea I've ever come across was available in minimal quantity along with a total of two little dairy containers. Coffee drinkers were better supplied (so long as they didn't want white coffee). I'd paid a bit extra for the towers floor which was fine for the continental breakfast but disappointing for the evening supper etc.

I'd booked an overnight LAX-ORD-FLL flight taking advantage of an AA sale a while back when the flight as an AHUP was much the same price as economy, thus achieving my first above-economy flight. I was quite concerned by the amount of delayed flights out of LAX as I waited for my flight, especially since those that were delayed always seemed to be about another 50% further delay than what was announced. My flight was delayed, the 45 minute delay blowing out to be about 80 minutes. The plane had been there for hours, but it was crew we had to wait upon. I found it pretty concerning that about one in five AA flights seemed to be having delays, and this in summer when the weather was pretty good across the entire nation.

Sitting in a first seat felt a little odd at first, having extra space around me. I'm not large, so never had a real problem with economy seats. The limited extra recline didn't make much difference as far as my ability to sleep goes either, so I can see why flat beds are viewed so highly.

Somehow the flight made it to Chicago a mere 30-40 minutes late and my flight to FLL was still boarding. It was a much nicer flight, where I did feel it much more special than economy, getting metal cutlery, rounds of drink offers and a decent breakfast. To my amazement my luggage was even in FLL waiting for me (I figured if boarding finished about five minutes after I'd walked/run to the gate then my luggage had no chance). One observation I do have, is the priority luggage tag in the USA with AA seemed to consistently cause it to be delivered quickly, so it may have been what saved my bag on that trip.

I normally become irritable if I miss out on much sleep, so I was amazed how well I handled the 3hrs I got the night I flew from LAX to FLL (then took a shuttle bus to Miami). IMO it lends a lot of weight to the idea that it is the excitement of the trip that stops jet lag when heading overseas but which makes it an issue upon returning.

In fact, I had weird experiences, such as on the tour down to the Florida Key's I'd suddenly doze off, but while there I was 100% awake and not tired, but then suddenly dozed off for a period on the way back.

I had decided to travel reasonably light, so not taken a computer. This is fine in Australian airports, but I had real trouble spotting internet terminals around US airports at times. While waiting for my flight out of LAX at the end of my trip, I couldn't even find a single one in TBIT.

Miami was nice and I was impressed at the MetroMover, (free) public transport that seemed fairly intelligently done not something the USA is well known for. Unlike LA which was a comfortable temperature (unusually cool according to the locals), Miami actually felt like a coastal city in summer - hot and humid. It also gets the award for being the most anti-pedestrian city I've ever visited. Traffic lights which had a green and red signal for pedestrians and a button to press but which would never go green, things like that set it as fairly hostile to people on foot, this didn't seem to be such a problem in the downtown area, but at Brickell (financial district) where I was staying it was a pretty impressive effort at annoying pedestrians.

AA once again proved irritating as the 8:30am departure flight was magically changed to 9:30am. I found out later that the "you can check in online now" e-mail had the new time listed (though didn't announce it as a chance), but there wasn't anything, not even an e-mail or SMS which specifically stated a change in flight time. As far as the UA vs AA battle goes, I definitely lean towards UA as the better airline since I've largely flown them on previous trips (just a shame UA isn't partnered with Qantas).

Other than the hour of sleep I didn't get, but which would have been nice on a holiday, the flight was very nice. It certainly is a nicer experience, getting breakfast on the MIA-ORD leg and then lunch on the ORD-SLC flight. I was lucky that the AmericanEagle upgrade to include First had taken place not long before my flights. Lunch was somewhat flawed as the choice of a chicken wrap or cold salad with steak chunks in resulted in most people getting stuck with the steak despite preferring the chicken (not that I was too bothered by it, though the salad with cold steak in seemed to disagree with my digestive system).

The warm nuts fad is something I don't get too. If they'd asked rather than offering them to me, I'd probably have passed after the first ones I tried (though I think they were cold the second time I had them, so maybe it is only late night flights they heat them or something?). AA was selling headphones for $2 (I think), which wasn't very endearing either, I'm glad most other carriers offer them if they're providing a service which can use them (I didn't ask if First got them for free since I already had my own noise canceling set).

The flight from Salt Lake City was on Delta, since I'd decided I'd rather spend more time with my sister and her family there and go on a direct flight to LAX rather than the indirect flight options I had with UA and AA. Delta was the only US domestic carrier which had in-flight entertainment with personal screens out of my US flights and actually seemed quite good. Though their first class check in was the only one I had which instead of being nearly instant, involved about ten minutes of waiting. Delta also managed pre-departure drinks pre-departure (I think AA only pulled that off once out of the four flights), though to counter balance that they were the only flight where the tray table was defective and I couldn't use it.

The SLC-LAX flight was a little early to arrive and went nice and smoothly, leaving me a few hours to kill at LAX. The AirPacific LAX-NAN flight was a bit disconcerting, making some clunks as it taxied and breaking at least one glass item during take off in the galley. I think we were a little late arriving in Nadi, but that was fine since I had time to kill before the flight to Brisbane departed. Having heard of people struggling with economy after tasting alternatives, I was glad to feel quite at home again on the flight back. Only the 3-3 configuration of the 100% full NAN-BNE flight with a large fellow beside me made me miss things a little.

Arriving in Brisbane I phoned Qantas and confirmed my worst case scenario of status credit calculations, that instead of being Gold with my return, I was still about 70SC short with only 60SC in bookings before the end of Sept when my year ends (thus I now have a weekend trip to Adelaide booked for the 31st July). With that bad news I transferred to the domestic part of the airport to await my Jetstar flight down to Newcastle.

Jetstar really did feel like being back on a city bus again after all the other carriers but was fine enough to get me back. Flights of about one hour are fine for a LCC IMO, but longer than about 90 minutes and I think they should have something free available (even if only water/tea/coffee) - like many of the US carriers do (even if they aren't a LCC).

Lessons of the trip?
- Spend more time at locations (though I was originally going to visit SFO & SEA rather than LAX and MIA).
- Stop being paranoid about "important" flights (eg. international).
- If it looks like a loophole to my benefit from an airline, I'm probably wrong.
- Delta may be worth looking at more seriously, especially if to connect with Velocity points, while AA wins the prize for least punctual airline but is good for scoring lots of Status Credits for Qantas.
- Adding a change point for extra points/SC may not be worth it (BNE-NAN-LAX could have done without the NAN, LAX-MIA/FLL would have given me at least another hour or two of sleep, MIA-ORD-SLC worked fine except for AA changing departure times).
- It'll be a dilemma next year whether to work for the 600SC to keep Gold status... but then, if there are more Qantaslink $50/$55 sales, that'll get me part way and opportunity to use lounges.
- Take a small laptop, there was plenty of space to store it and some of the domestic US flights even had inflight wi-fi which would have been neat.
 
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Nice report! The deodorant part was very funny. I was thinking of going to the US via NAN later this year but will re-think that after your experience. Thanks ;)
 
Niced report Verde, thanks for sharing. Whilst I haven't flown on UA before, you're right about AA - only good for SC's and that's about it!
 
Niced report Verde, thanks for sharing. Whilst I haven't flown on UA before, you're right about AA - only good for SC's and that's about it!


I recently had an AA and UA experience. Both were very positive.

UA in steerage; excellent FA's, plenty of room and helpful CSA's guiding me through the YYZ/IAD maze. AA in F, apart from the offspring of an AA staffer behind me who talked ALL the way from IAD to LAX, excellent.

I agree about the nuts. Bring me another domestic sparkling wine instead. Metal knives too; why not on QF??
 
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