Ikara
Active Member
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- Jun 18, 2006
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I've just returned from a three week trip to the US and thought I'd pass on some observations and thoughts if you're interested. Apologies for the length. I agonised whether to post each sector individually or just one long ramble. You've got one long ramble. Enjoy.
Adelaide – Richmond Va – Santa Clara Ca - Adelaide
The purpose of the trip was to have Thanksgiving with our Australian friends in Richmond Virginia and then over to Santa Clara California to visit our other Australian friends.
The goal was to travel as comfortably as possible, as close to the pointy end as possible and for as little as possible.
Adelaide – Sydney
For the short legs I chose to travel “Y” so we were booked on a Red-e-Deal on QF. Given the discussions on AFF about on line check-in and seating preferences, I was interested to see what would happen with seating as I hadn’t flown since I retired in March (in fact hadn’t been to the airport in all that time!). On check in I was surprised to see 4D and 4E. With a pleasant smile and a nice “Is anyone in 4F?” in the QP, we soon had 4D & 4F with no-one in 4E. A good start! Qantas booked our bags through to Honolulu with Jetstar so we were all set.
Sydney International Jetstar Check-in
We arrived in Sydney early and even though I didn’t hurry we were in the International Terminal at JQ check-in at 1345. Out flight to Honolulu didn’t leave until 1800, so check in didn’t open until 1500. And when they say 3 hours, they mean 3 hours!! There were staff at the Starclass check in when we arrived and try as I might, they wouldn’t let us check in early. The “but I’m Platinum” and “but we’ve got no bags to check in” didn’t work, so we just had to wait until 1500. Once they opened we were checked into 1E & 1F and on our way to the Qantas First Class Lounge for the first time.
Immigration and Security
Immigration was a breeze with no waiting at all. Then onto Security where I realised what a DH I am. I haven’t been overseas for 3 years so the new clear plastic bag for toiletries was all new to me, but I diligently organised my travel pack in the appropriate clear bag. Now the DH part!!! I also diligently wrapped the bottle of Pickwick Port that I was taking to our friends in bubble wrap so that it would be very comfortable in my carry-on!! Duh!! Duh!! What annoyed me though was that it was just removed from my bag and nothing was said. Didn’t ask who’s it was, didn’t explain anything, just took it out. After my initial annoyance at myself (and I expressed my annoyance at no-one else but myself) I went to duty free to replace it making sure that I put it into my checked in bag in Honolulu for the US domestic legs. The good news is that I was able to replace it at DF, the bad news is that I got to pay $18 more than I paid at Dan Murphy’s in Adelaide. Now I don’t need anyone to tell me how big a DH I am, Shirley (my wife) made sure I knew for about the first two weeks of our trip!
Qantas First Class Lounge
For those who haven’t been there it is everything you have read about it here and more. As we hadn’t had lunch we enjoyed a lovely meal. Shirl had grilled swordfish and I had a steak sandwich, followed by delightful raspberry icecream and chocolate fudge all washed down with a lovely sauvignon blanc. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to snag a massage for Shirl as they were booked out for the rest of the day. All too soon it was time to walk to the gate for boarding.
Sydney – Honolulu. Saturday 22nd November. JQ3 Starclass
Seating was comfortable in 1E & 1F with plenty of shoulder room and leg room. The seats are basically the old QF Business class seats. My only whinge is that they are leather and that makes me sweat like a pig – most uncomfortable. Starclass was about 75% full. We were given a pack that had a blanket, a blow up neck pillow, eye shades, toothbrush & paste. We were also given an individual video unit ( about the size of a small laptop) with noise cancelling (??) headphones. The service was good and the crew were helpful and attentive. A couple of pre-dinner scotches and then a choice of pork medallions or chicken followed by ice cream. It’s not International “J”, but it was OK. Then it’s time to try and sleep – never works for me, so I read and doze, read and doze. Breakfast was a “Maccas” style bun with egg and sausage. We must have had a new pilot who didn’t know how to get to Honolulu as he took all of the rough back roads that he could find and we bounced all the way to HNL, where we arrived on time at 0645.
Honolulu Airport
Off the plane and onto the ubiquitous Honolulu airport bus and off to Immigration and Customs. Sure beats the hell out of entering the US via Los Angeles. We were the first ones into the Immigration hall and there wasn’t anyone there so we were through in minutes and waiting for our bags. Our next flight was with American to Dallas Fort Worth at 1800 so we planned to check-in and go into Honolulu for the day. After a bit of confusion, probably helped by my not listening, we found AA First Class check-in. Handed our details to the agent and there was far too much key-board tapping for my liking. Sure enough, our flight to DFW was having a change of aircraft in HNL and would be leaving 3 hours later meaning we wouldn’t make our connection to Richmond the next day. Bear in mind that we are booked on a YUP (P code 1st class with lots of restrictions) but the agent was most helpful and managed to get us onto HNL – LAX at 1555 and then LAX to DFW at 0015, into DFW at 0500. What about the curfew? What curfew?? It was raining, so we decided that we would stay in the Qantas/Admirals’ club for the day. A good decision as it didn’t stop raining all day.
Naturally to get to the QP we had to go through security and ofcourse as we had changed our booking at short notice we got the dreaded “SSSS” on the boarding pass so we had the full body pat down and bag search. No problems, and yes I did remember to put Mr Pickwick’s Best into my suitcase! Walked to the QP and it was chockers with passengers waiting for JQ4 & QF4 to Sydney. We found a table to share and decided to wait until both flights had left before we had our showers and changed. The club finally emptied out about 1030 and then it morphed into an Admiral’s Club. All the food and alcohol gets put away to be replaced by coffee and noodles. Fascinating to watch. We showered and changed, had some takeaway for lunch and whiled away the day watching the rain – and I mean rain!
Honolulu – Los Angeles. Saturday 22nd November. AA284 First Class
B767-300. Seats 6D & 6G – middle two at the rear of the 1st class cabin. Seat Guru says these are not good seats because of the limited recline. That’s wrong as all seats are the type that recline into a shell and lay “flat”, so were very comfortable. Service was excellent and we didn’t have to wait for anything. Again a couple of pre-dinner scotches and then dinner. The main was a choice of Macadamia Nut Chicken (which Shirl had) and a Four Cheese Raviolli (that I had). Both excellent. Followed by an ice cream sundae or a cheese plate all washed down with Vinum Cellars 2006 Chenin Blanc. We managed to get a couple of hours good solid sleep on the flat beds so we arrived in LAX “reasonably” refreshed.
Los Angeles Airport
We arrived in LAX early at 2245, so we had 90 minutes between our flight to DFW. Up to the Admirals Club and into the WP inner sanctum (forget what it’s called – the one with the special swipe card?). Time to relax and have a cold softie and try and not work what the “real” time is.
Los Angeles – Dallas Fort Worth. Sunday 23rd November. AA2408 First Class
B737-800. Seats 6A & 6F. The seats are the same as QF domestic “J”. Because of the change to our schedule in HNL, the agent was unable to get us seats together on this flight. In fact we got the last 2 first class seats. No worries, says I – I’m sure 6B or 6E will swap!?!? Leant across both of them to speak to Shirl, asked both of them to pass something to Shirl but neither “aisle seater” was going to swap so we went to DFW separate. All that was “served” and I use the word loosely as we had obviously interrupted someone’s evening, was a coffee and a cookie. Thankfully it was only planned to be a 2hr 50min flight. As it turned out we arrived early at 0445.
Dallas Fort Worth Airport
We arrived at 0445 and there were two men and a dog in the airport at that time of the morning. If you haven’t been to DFW it’s something to behold. Five separate terminals all joined by an overhead train (similar to the mono-rail in Sydney). We were both starving by this time and the only thing open was Maccas, so a Maccas breaky it was. At that time of the morning and as hungry as we were, it was bloody lovely! The Admiral’s Club didn’t open until 0530, so we were the 1st in. Hadn’t planned to have a shower and change but we did have a shower to freshen up even if we did put tye same clothes back on. Again we twiddled our thumbs until it was time to board our last flight to our destination at Richmond Virginia.
Dallas Fort Worth – Richmond. Sunday 23rd November. AA690 First Class
MD-S80. Seats 3E & 3F. Again, the seats are a standard QF domestic “J” class. Row 3 is at the front of first and I continually asked why there was no row 1 or 2, but no-one could give me an answer. Boring last leg into Richmond. We were served a breakfast of omelette and sausage which was OK. We finally arrived at Richard E Byrd Richmond International Terminal on time at 1250. The whole trip had taken us 43 hours and 20 minutes since we had left home to drive to the Adelaide airport. We still had another 40 minutes to drive to our friends home (they did meet us, so I wasn’t driving), but we arrived in remarkably good shape and both had a good nights sleep at the normal (US) bedtime and woke up Monday morning none the worse for wear.
Richmond
We had a great time in Richmond with our friends and thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. We had all the traditional trimmings and just like I’ll do on Thursday I ate far too much. We didn’t do a lot this time in Richmond as we’ve been there many times before. However I did get to the rather excellent Air Museum at the airport and being an ex-Navy type I ventured down to the Norfolk. There is a magnificent General Douglas MacArthur museum. If you haven’t been to Richmond and you are a bit of a history buff there is an awful lot to see – particularly for Civil War buffs. All too soon it was time to say goodbye and head off to Santa Clara.
Richmond-Dallas-San Jose. Wednesday 3rd December AA1091/AA1395 First Class
MD-S80. Seats 3E & 3F on both flights. Each leg was about three and a half hours long. We had a lunch service on the RIC-DFW leg and a dinner service on the DFW-SJC leg. Again, it was standard Aus Domestic J seating, service and meals. The leg from DFW-SJC was 100% full – not an empty seat on the plane. The cabin crew commented that it was always like that on this leg – must be a Silicon Valley thing. I am still amazed at the amount of carry-on luggage people take on board in the US. One woman had two suitcases the same size as the one that I had checked in!!! There are always announcements prior to boarding and then the cabin crew do nothing about it. Fascinating. I wouldn’t want to be fighting for overhead bin space down the back. An interesting observation on the MD-S80’s. When sitting in row 3 (which is the front of 1st) you can clearly hear the “metallic sounding female voice” calling out the altitude as the plane comes in to land. Plus any other alarms that sound during landing.
Santa Clara
We took the opportunity for a couple of short side trips while staying with our friends in Santa Clara. We drove up to Lake Tahoe to a place called Truckee to visit our friends son & daughter-in-law. Beautiful scenery up there but they were desperate for snow. They had a small snow in late October and nothing since (well up until we were there – they’ve had a dumping since then) and the ski resorts were in deep doo-doo. All geared up, staffed up and ready to go with no snow. Not a happy place. After a weekend in Truckee we drove down to Yosemite National Park. Now, I’m not a “Tommy Tourist” by any stretch of the imagination, but this place is awesome. The scenery was magnificent. I thoroughly recommend a visit if you have the time. Again it was all too soon and we had to head off, but this time we were on our way home.
San Jose – Los Angeles. Friday 12th December. AA3181. Economy class
This flight was operated by American Eagle and was a one class aircraft. Embraer RJ140. Seats 11B & 11C. The aircraft is a one seat, aisle, two seat configuration and interestingly I was able to get 11B & 11C allocated back in May even though they are exit row seats. We were asked the usual “are you happy to sit here” type of questions on board, but no problems doing it on line. An hour flight to LAX so all we got was a soft drink. We parked at the American Eagle satellite hub and had to catch a bus to the main terminal. Ninety minutes before our flight to Hawaii so up to the Admiral’s club where we had a light salad for lunch as we were getting a meal on our next leg.
Los Angeles – Hawaii. Friday 12th December. AA283. First Class
B767-300. Seats 3H & 3J. As with the flight from HNL-LAX, a very comfortable flight. Seats were excellent so we ate, drank, read and dozed our way across the Pacific. Dinner was a choice of Teriyaki Beef Fillet or Cheese Ravioli, and I have to say the beef was one of the best airline meals that I’ve ever had. Bloody brilliant. Followed by the usual ice cream sundae and all washed down with the Chenin Blanc. Service and crew were excellent.
Honolulu
We planned to spend the weekend in Honolulu and fly home on the Monday. We stayed at the Hilton Prince Kuhio hotel. I had booked it using Expedia, so we were unable to get points for the stay, but they did recognise my Gold Status (after I rang them from Santa Clara to make sure they had it in my booking) and upgraded us to a King room with an Ocean view and Club privileges. The Club was being refurbished so a temporary club was set up in the lower lobby, but atleast we got a free continental breaky and some savouries of an evening. I had pre-booked a “Day at Pearl Harbour” on the web before we left, so we were picked up by a limo (also pre-booked) and arrived at Pearl Harbour at 8.00am. We left at 4.30 in the afternoon after a very full day visiting the Arizona Memorial and museum, USS Missouri (personalised guided tour), Pacific Air Museum and the submarine USS Bowfin. A great day for an ex-Navy type like me. On Sunday we caught a local bus to Diamond Head and walked up to the top. Bloody hard work in the humidity, but well worth the effort for the view. The whole exercise cost us $6. Much cheaper than a tour.
Honolulu – Sydney. Monday 15th December. JQ4 Starclass
The only problem with an 8.15am departure is that check-in opens at 5.15am which means getting up at 4.00am to shower and get a taxi to the airport. This is effectively 1.00am Sydney time, so it’s the start of a very long day. Little did I know it was going to be one of the longest and worst of my life! Check in was OK, through security and then up to the QP. Everything on offer if you wanted it, including fruit, yoghurt and cereal for breaky (plus booze – a bit early for me). Then it was time to board for home. Now I know I’ve had worse flights, I just can’t remember when! Had pre-booked seats 1A & 1B back in May and these were duly allocated at check in. Walk on board through the front door, turn the corner to see a woman and a child in our seats. She looks at me and snaps “I hope you’re not expecting to sit in these seats ‘cos we are!” Well yes says I, as we have been allocated 1A &1B. Well so have we she says and turns to her husband in 2A & 2B with their other child and says show him our tickets. Long story short. He’s a legend in his own lunch-time. Some Australian surfer of note (who I don’t know)and we’ve been gazumped because they wanted the baby cot spot. No real issue, but felt she could have handled it a little more pleasantly. Ground crew come on board and with much apologising by them and the CSM we are given 3A & 3B. *class is about 50% full so should be a comfortable trip – CSM says we can spread out after take-off. Seat belt light goes off and there is huge commotion coming from the economy cabin. Next minute cabin staff escort another surfer (this one I knew) and his entourage and kids (lotsa kids) are escorted in *class and promptly take over everything. Now I’m a grandfather and I know that babies will cry. The one that bumped us didn’t cry, he squealed all the way to Sydney for 10 hours. No. I lie, he did sleep for about an hour. The rest of the kids ran riot – the aisle was a gymnasium and seat arm rests became swings. What really p!ssed me off is that the parents did nothing about it and the (all female) cabin crew seemed to be in awe of these two WS’s. S as in surfer and W as in WP! Finally got to Sydney and breezed through immigration and collected our bags. I had declared food stuff – the obligatory Hershey’s chocolate, Dentyne chewing gum, Kona coffee and Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Mix and was consequently waved straight through. Just as well as I’d forgotten about my jar of genuine Virginia Moonshine in my suitcase which would have put me over my alcohol limit. It’s now about 4.15pm and we are booked on an 8.45pm flight back to Adelaide. I had checked Seat Counter in Honolulu QP and there were no “O” class available on any earlier flights. I smiled sweetly and asked nicely if there was anything earlier available and without blinking we were moved to a 5.25pm flight. Jumped the bus over to the domestic terminal and had just enough time to check out the new Business Lounge (it was opened after I retired in March). First impressions were positive but then it is a quiet time travel wise. Seats 9D & 9E on a full 737-800 made more comfortable with a copy of the Australian that I picked up in the lounge plus two free reds and all of a sudden we were home being met by our grandkids. Home – what a great place to be.
Observations
Did we meet our goal of travelling as comfortably as possible, as close to the pointy end as possible and for as little as possible? I believe we did. I can’t sleep on a plane so flat beds are wasted on me, hence *class was fine, internal US domestic first was comfortable and the first to and from LAX was excellent. Total points earned by me were 54205 with 1050 SC’s. Total cost for the two of us was A$11032. Don’t forget that I booked the US segments back in May when the $ was very strong (0.90 cents).
Would I travel Starclass again? Yes, I would. I can’t blame *class for the problems from HNL – SYD. We’ll probably venture up into Asia next in *class.
Weight limitations. I set a goal of no more than 20Kg per bag (even though I was actually allowed more than that) as we had a total of 4 bags at our disposal. We left with one each and came back with one extra. To monitor the weight, I bought a set of the luggage scales advertised on AFF. Shirley used them on her European walking trip in September/October and they were a hit with everyone on the trip. $40 well spent in my opinion.
I also think entering the US via Honolulu is the way to go and will entertain doing that next time we travel to the US.
If any of this makes any sense and you have any questions as a result that aren’t answered here, send me an email and I’ll be happy to help you.
JB
Adelaide – Richmond Va – Santa Clara Ca - Adelaide
The purpose of the trip was to have Thanksgiving with our Australian friends in Richmond Virginia and then over to Santa Clara California to visit our other Australian friends.
The goal was to travel as comfortably as possible, as close to the pointy end as possible and for as little as possible.
Adelaide – Sydney
For the short legs I chose to travel “Y” so we were booked on a Red-e-Deal on QF. Given the discussions on AFF about on line check-in and seating preferences, I was interested to see what would happen with seating as I hadn’t flown since I retired in March (in fact hadn’t been to the airport in all that time!). On check in I was surprised to see 4D and 4E. With a pleasant smile and a nice “Is anyone in 4F?” in the QP, we soon had 4D & 4F with no-one in 4E. A good start! Qantas booked our bags through to Honolulu with Jetstar so we were all set.
Sydney International Jetstar Check-in
We arrived in Sydney early and even though I didn’t hurry we were in the International Terminal at JQ check-in at 1345. Out flight to Honolulu didn’t leave until 1800, so check in didn’t open until 1500. And when they say 3 hours, they mean 3 hours!! There were staff at the Starclass check in when we arrived and try as I might, they wouldn’t let us check in early. The “but I’m Platinum” and “but we’ve got no bags to check in” didn’t work, so we just had to wait until 1500. Once they opened we were checked into 1E & 1F and on our way to the Qantas First Class Lounge for the first time.
Immigration and Security
Immigration was a breeze with no waiting at all. Then onto Security where I realised what a DH I am. I haven’t been overseas for 3 years so the new clear plastic bag for toiletries was all new to me, but I diligently organised my travel pack in the appropriate clear bag. Now the DH part!!! I also diligently wrapped the bottle of Pickwick Port that I was taking to our friends in bubble wrap so that it would be very comfortable in my carry-on!! Duh!! Duh!! What annoyed me though was that it was just removed from my bag and nothing was said. Didn’t ask who’s it was, didn’t explain anything, just took it out. After my initial annoyance at myself (and I expressed my annoyance at no-one else but myself) I went to duty free to replace it making sure that I put it into my checked in bag in Honolulu for the US domestic legs. The good news is that I was able to replace it at DF, the bad news is that I got to pay $18 more than I paid at Dan Murphy’s in Adelaide. Now I don’t need anyone to tell me how big a DH I am, Shirley (my wife) made sure I knew for about the first two weeks of our trip!
Qantas First Class Lounge
For those who haven’t been there it is everything you have read about it here and more. As we hadn’t had lunch we enjoyed a lovely meal. Shirl had grilled swordfish and I had a steak sandwich, followed by delightful raspberry icecream and chocolate fudge all washed down with a lovely sauvignon blanc. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to snag a massage for Shirl as they were booked out for the rest of the day. All too soon it was time to walk to the gate for boarding.
Sydney – Honolulu. Saturday 22nd November. JQ3 Starclass
Seating was comfortable in 1E & 1F with plenty of shoulder room and leg room. The seats are basically the old QF Business class seats. My only whinge is that they are leather and that makes me sweat like a pig – most uncomfortable. Starclass was about 75% full. We were given a pack that had a blanket, a blow up neck pillow, eye shades, toothbrush & paste. We were also given an individual video unit ( about the size of a small laptop) with noise cancelling (??) headphones. The service was good and the crew were helpful and attentive. A couple of pre-dinner scotches and then a choice of pork medallions or chicken followed by ice cream. It’s not International “J”, but it was OK. Then it’s time to try and sleep – never works for me, so I read and doze, read and doze. Breakfast was a “Maccas” style bun with egg and sausage. We must have had a new pilot who didn’t know how to get to Honolulu as he took all of the rough back roads that he could find and we bounced all the way to HNL, where we arrived on time at 0645.
Honolulu Airport
Off the plane and onto the ubiquitous Honolulu airport bus and off to Immigration and Customs. Sure beats the hell out of entering the US via Los Angeles. We were the first ones into the Immigration hall and there wasn’t anyone there so we were through in minutes and waiting for our bags. Our next flight was with American to Dallas Fort Worth at 1800 so we planned to check-in and go into Honolulu for the day. After a bit of confusion, probably helped by my not listening, we found AA First Class check-in. Handed our details to the agent and there was far too much key-board tapping for my liking. Sure enough, our flight to DFW was having a change of aircraft in HNL and would be leaving 3 hours later meaning we wouldn’t make our connection to Richmond the next day. Bear in mind that we are booked on a YUP (P code 1st class with lots of restrictions) but the agent was most helpful and managed to get us onto HNL – LAX at 1555 and then LAX to DFW at 0015, into DFW at 0500. What about the curfew? What curfew?? It was raining, so we decided that we would stay in the Qantas/Admirals’ club for the day. A good decision as it didn’t stop raining all day.
Naturally to get to the QP we had to go through security and ofcourse as we had changed our booking at short notice we got the dreaded “SSSS” on the boarding pass so we had the full body pat down and bag search. No problems, and yes I did remember to put Mr Pickwick’s Best into my suitcase! Walked to the QP and it was chockers with passengers waiting for JQ4 & QF4 to Sydney. We found a table to share and decided to wait until both flights had left before we had our showers and changed. The club finally emptied out about 1030 and then it morphed into an Admiral’s Club. All the food and alcohol gets put away to be replaced by coffee and noodles. Fascinating to watch. We showered and changed, had some takeaway for lunch and whiled away the day watching the rain – and I mean rain!
Honolulu – Los Angeles. Saturday 22nd November. AA284 First Class
B767-300. Seats 6D & 6G – middle two at the rear of the 1st class cabin. Seat Guru says these are not good seats because of the limited recline. That’s wrong as all seats are the type that recline into a shell and lay “flat”, so were very comfortable. Service was excellent and we didn’t have to wait for anything. Again a couple of pre-dinner scotches and then dinner. The main was a choice of Macadamia Nut Chicken (which Shirl had) and a Four Cheese Raviolli (that I had). Both excellent. Followed by an ice cream sundae or a cheese plate all washed down with Vinum Cellars 2006 Chenin Blanc. We managed to get a couple of hours good solid sleep on the flat beds so we arrived in LAX “reasonably” refreshed.
Los Angeles Airport
We arrived in LAX early at 2245, so we had 90 minutes between our flight to DFW. Up to the Admirals Club and into the WP inner sanctum (forget what it’s called – the one with the special swipe card?). Time to relax and have a cold softie and try and not work what the “real” time is.
Los Angeles – Dallas Fort Worth. Sunday 23rd November. AA2408 First Class
B737-800. Seats 6A & 6F. The seats are the same as QF domestic “J”. Because of the change to our schedule in HNL, the agent was unable to get us seats together on this flight. In fact we got the last 2 first class seats. No worries, says I – I’m sure 6B or 6E will swap!?!? Leant across both of them to speak to Shirl, asked both of them to pass something to Shirl but neither “aisle seater” was going to swap so we went to DFW separate. All that was “served” and I use the word loosely as we had obviously interrupted someone’s evening, was a coffee and a cookie. Thankfully it was only planned to be a 2hr 50min flight. As it turned out we arrived early at 0445.
Dallas Fort Worth Airport
We arrived at 0445 and there were two men and a dog in the airport at that time of the morning. If you haven’t been to DFW it’s something to behold. Five separate terminals all joined by an overhead train (similar to the mono-rail in Sydney). We were both starving by this time and the only thing open was Maccas, so a Maccas breaky it was. At that time of the morning and as hungry as we were, it was bloody lovely! The Admiral’s Club didn’t open until 0530, so we were the 1st in. Hadn’t planned to have a shower and change but we did have a shower to freshen up even if we did put tye same clothes back on. Again we twiddled our thumbs until it was time to board our last flight to our destination at Richmond Virginia.
Dallas Fort Worth – Richmond. Sunday 23rd November. AA690 First Class
MD-S80. Seats 3E & 3F. Again, the seats are a standard QF domestic “J” class. Row 3 is at the front of first and I continually asked why there was no row 1 or 2, but no-one could give me an answer. Boring last leg into Richmond. We were served a breakfast of omelette and sausage which was OK. We finally arrived at Richard E Byrd Richmond International Terminal on time at 1250. The whole trip had taken us 43 hours and 20 minutes since we had left home to drive to the Adelaide airport. We still had another 40 minutes to drive to our friends home (they did meet us, so I wasn’t driving), but we arrived in remarkably good shape and both had a good nights sleep at the normal (US) bedtime and woke up Monday morning none the worse for wear.
Richmond
We had a great time in Richmond with our friends and thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. We had all the traditional trimmings and just like I’ll do on Thursday I ate far too much. We didn’t do a lot this time in Richmond as we’ve been there many times before. However I did get to the rather excellent Air Museum at the airport and being an ex-Navy type I ventured down to the Norfolk. There is a magnificent General Douglas MacArthur museum. If you haven’t been to Richmond and you are a bit of a history buff there is an awful lot to see – particularly for Civil War buffs. All too soon it was time to say goodbye and head off to Santa Clara.
Richmond-Dallas-San Jose. Wednesday 3rd December AA1091/AA1395 First Class
MD-S80. Seats 3E & 3F on both flights. Each leg was about three and a half hours long. We had a lunch service on the RIC-DFW leg and a dinner service on the DFW-SJC leg. Again, it was standard Aus Domestic J seating, service and meals. The leg from DFW-SJC was 100% full – not an empty seat on the plane. The cabin crew commented that it was always like that on this leg – must be a Silicon Valley thing. I am still amazed at the amount of carry-on luggage people take on board in the US. One woman had two suitcases the same size as the one that I had checked in!!! There are always announcements prior to boarding and then the cabin crew do nothing about it. Fascinating. I wouldn’t want to be fighting for overhead bin space down the back. An interesting observation on the MD-S80’s. When sitting in row 3 (which is the front of 1st) you can clearly hear the “metallic sounding female voice” calling out the altitude as the plane comes in to land. Plus any other alarms that sound during landing.
Santa Clara
We took the opportunity for a couple of short side trips while staying with our friends in Santa Clara. We drove up to Lake Tahoe to a place called Truckee to visit our friends son & daughter-in-law. Beautiful scenery up there but they were desperate for snow. They had a small snow in late October and nothing since (well up until we were there – they’ve had a dumping since then) and the ski resorts were in deep doo-doo. All geared up, staffed up and ready to go with no snow. Not a happy place. After a weekend in Truckee we drove down to Yosemite National Park. Now, I’m not a “Tommy Tourist” by any stretch of the imagination, but this place is awesome. The scenery was magnificent. I thoroughly recommend a visit if you have the time. Again it was all too soon and we had to head off, but this time we were on our way home.
San Jose – Los Angeles. Friday 12th December. AA3181. Economy class
This flight was operated by American Eagle and was a one class aircraft. Embraer RJ140. Seats 11B & 11C. The aircraft is a one seat, aisle, two seat configuration and interestingly I was able to get 11B & 11C allocated back in May even though they are exit row seats. We were asked the usual “are you happy to sit here” type of questions on board, but no problems doing it on line. An hour flight to LAX so all we got was a soft drink. We parked at the American Eagle satellite hub and had to catch a bus to the main terminal. Ninety minutes before our flight to Hawaii so up to the Admiral’s club where we had a light salad for lunch as we were getting a meal on our next leg.
Los Angeles – Hawaii. Friday 12th December. AA283. First Class
B767-300. Seats 3H & 3J. As with the flight from HNL-LAX, a very comfortable flight. Seats were excellent so we ate, drank, read and dozed our way across the Pacific. Dinner was a choice of Teriyaki Beef Fillet or Cheese Ravioli, and I have to say the beef was one of the best airline meals that I’ve ever had. Bloody brilliant. Followed by the usual ice cream sundae and all washed down with the Chenin Blanc. Service and crew were excellent.
Honolulu
We planned to spend the weekend in Honolulu and fly home on the Monday. We stayed at the Hilton Prince Kuhio hotel. I had booked it using Expedia, so we were unable to get points for the stay, but they did recognise my Gold Status (after I rang them from Santa Clara to make sure they had it in my booking) and upgraded us to a King room with an Ocean view and Club privileges. The Club was being refurbished so a temporary club was set up in the lower lobby, but atleast we got a free continental breaky and some savouries of an evening. I had pre-booked a “Day at Pearl Harbour” on the web before we left, so we were picked up by a limo (also pre-booked) and arrived at Pearl Harbour at 8.00am. We left at 4.30 in the afternoon after a very full day visiting the Arizona Memorial and museum, USS Missouri (personalised guided tour), Pacific Air Museum and the submarine USS Bowfin. A great day for an ex-Navy type like me. On Sunday we caught a local bus to Diamond Head and walked up to the top. Bloody hard work in the humidity, but well worth the effort for the view. The whole exercise cost us $6. Much cheaper than a tour.
Honolulu – Sydney. Monday 15th December. JQ4 Starclass
The only problem with an 8.15am departure is that check-in opens at 5.15am which means getting up at 4.00am to shower and get a taxi to the airport. This is effectively 1.00am Sydney time, so it’s the start of a very long day. Little did I know it was going to be one of the longest and worst of my life! Check in was OK, through security and then up to the QP. Everything on offer if you wanted it, including fruit, yoghurt and cereal for breaky (plus booze – a bit early for me). Then it was time to board for home. Now I know I’ve had worse flights, I just can’t remember when! Had pre-booked seats 1A & 1B back in May and these were duly allocated at check in. Walk on board through the front door, turn the corner to see a woman and a child in our seats. She looks at me and snaps “I hope you’re not expecting to sit in these seats ‘cos we are!” Well yes says I, as we have been allocated 1A &1B. Well so have we she says and turns to her husband in 2A & 2B with their other child and says show him our tickets. Long story short. He’s a legend in his own lunch-time. Some Australian surfer of note (who I don’t know)and we’ve been gazumped because they wanted the baby cot spot. No real issue, but felt she could have handled it a little more pleasantly. Ground crew come on board and with much apologising by them and the CSM we are given 3A & 3B. *class is about 50% full so should be a comfortable trip – CSM says we can spread out after take-off. Seat belt light goes off and there is huge commotion coming from the economy cabin. Next minute cabin staff escort another surfer (this one I knew) and his entourage and kids (lotsa kids) are escorted in *class and promptly take over everything. Now I’m a grandfather and I know that babies will cry. The one that bumped us didn’t cry, he squealed all the way to Sydney for 10 hours. No. I lie, he did sleep for about an hour. The rest of the kids ran riot – the aisle was a gymnasium and seat arm rests became swings. What really p!ssed me off is that the parents did nothing about it and the (all female) cabin crew seemed to be in awe of these two WS’s. S as in surfer and W as in WP! Finally got to Sydney and breezed through immigration and collected our bags. I had declared food stuff – the obligatory Hershey’s chocolate, Dentyne chewing gum, Kona coffee and Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Mix and was consequently waved straight through. Just as well as I’d forgotten about my jar of genuine Virginia Moonshine in my suitcase which would have put me over my alcohol limit. It’s now about 4.15pm and we are booked on an 8.45pm flight back to Adelaide. I had checked Seat Counter in Honolulu QP and there were no “O” class available on any earlier flights. I smiled sweetly and asked nicely if there was anything earlier available and without blinking we were moved to a 5.25pm flight. Jumped the bus over to the domestic terminal and had just enough time to check out the new Business Lounge (it was opened after I retired in March). First impressions were positive but then it is a quiet time travel wise. Seats 9D & 9E on a full 737-800 made more comfortable with a copy of the Australian that I picked up in the lounge plus two free reds and all of a sudden we were home being met by our grandkids. Home – what a great place to be.
Observations
Did we meet our goal of travelling as comfortably as possible, as close to the pointy end as possible and for as little as possible? I believe we did. I can’t sleep on a plane so flat beds are wasted on me, hence *class was fine, internal US domestic first was comfortable and the first to and from LAX was excellent. Total points earned by me were 54205 with 1050 SC’s. Total cost for the two of us was A$11032. Don’t forget that I booked the US segments back in May when the $ was very strong (0.90 cents).
Would I travel Starclass again? Yes, I would. I can’t blame *class for the problems from HNL – SYD. We’ll probably venture up into Asia next in *class.
Weight limitations. I set a goal of no more than 20Kg per bag (even though I was actually allowed more than that) as we had a total of 4 bags at our disposal. We left with one each and came back with one extra. To monitor the weight, I bought a set of the luggage scales advertised on AFF. Shirley used them on her European walking trip in September/October and they were a hit with everyone on the trip. $40 well spent in my opinion.
I also think entering the US via Honolulu is the way to go and will entertain doing that next time we travel to the US.
If any of this makes any sense and you have any questions as a result that aren’t answered here, send me an email and I’ll be happy to help you.
JB
