A "French-Apple" Adventure.
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For those that haven’t already noticed, littl_flier has the FF and travel bug epidemic and it was time for the next overseas adventure. For various reasons, I’d been looking at visiting Montreal, but I was also keen to visit NYC and see the sights. I bit the bullet in May and booked a bargain whY fare BNE-JFK with Qantas on a complete whim, just two hours before the sale finished. Thanks to AFF & FT and a desire for those extra few SC’s, I had asked my TA to route me BNE-SYD-LAX-JFK in both directions utilising the daily QF LAX-JFK service. I’d found that getting to Montreal on a combined ticket was quite expensive and so this seemed like the next best deal. Plus, I’d get to spend some time in one of the most exciting, vibrant cities on earth. Whilst I’d travelled by myself before and generally prefer it, I was keen for a Travel Buddy to join me.
Over the next few weeks as I tossed up what I was going to do, I happened to mention it to one of my best friends who immediately jumped at the opportunity to visit NYC. Whilst we’d worked together in my current role, she (from here-on in referred to as SWMBO ) had decided that accounting wasn’t for her and decided to have a change of degree and take up Nursing. To some extent, we would be on opposite ends of the scale now and as a full time student, cost savings would be reasonably important for her. Needless to say, this would be a trip with some “firsts”.
As SWMBO confirmed her arrangements, the struggle was now on to get her a reasonable fare to NYC, and not the $2,800 that QF had on offer at the time. After I’d spent literally hours on student websites combining one way fares to LAX and then another to NYC, I came across a QF fare for ~$2000 that would do the job. The only catch was that travel must be in the most direct manner. To cut a long story short, we opted for a fare that would route BNE-LAX-JFK and JFK-LAX-SYD which would allow us to travel together for all segments except BNE-LAX and would only require a simple SYD-BNE sector booked separately. (which the TA realised after ticketing could have been included in the fare as there was no LAX-BNE flight on Thursday’s and gave SWMBO the price at 50%) SWMBO hasn’t travelled overseas for a couple of years and suffers excruciating ear pain, so if we could be together, our friendship might last a little longer.
Over the next couple of months, we decided we would spend about a week in NYC, followed by 5 days in Montreal. With his “student” and “accountant scrooge” hat on, we decided we would prefer to catch the train between New York and Montreal, and this would give us an opportunity to sleep and relax, and actually see some scenery along the way.
No matter how much of a scrooge I had to be though, there was no way that I was catching the train back to NYC, so for 8000 QF points each and USD$35 in taxes, we now had our Montreal-New York sector booked on AA which would connect us nicely to QF107 onto Sydney. So now our air travel was officially confirmed as BNE-SYD-LAX-JFK and YUL-JFK-LAX-SYD-BNE for myself, and direct to LAX for SWMBO.
Accommodation was always going to be a student’s worst nightmare in NYC but SWMBO had heard rave reviews about the Big Apple Hostel, right in the heart of Times Square. It’d been 7 years since littl_flier had last backpacked (on a school tour) but surprisingly, I was happy with her decision. At USD$37 per night, it was a bargain and meant I could save a few extra dollars for the shopping and upcoming DONE4. (I know this a website about points so I’m probably breaking all the rules by Youth Hostelling so sorry about that) For Montreal, I managed to justify to SWMBO the Four Points Sheraton where I picked up an unrestricted rate of CAD$100 including taxes, another complete bargain. At least I’m guaranteed of a good nights rest with no bed bugs and no one to pinch my Ipod.
As the year flew by and my client commitments started to quieten a little, the great guys on AFF and FT helped plan our trip. On FT, the crew officially decided that we should take Amtrak for the train trip rather than travel by bus, and the crew of AFF gave littl_flier the run down on the “must do’s” in New York. Now it was time to enjoy the holiday.
After a manic day in the office tying up loose ends and trying to organise everything for two weeks leave, my first sector is in 7.5 hours with a wake-up call of 3:50am. After a last minute call to SWMBO detailing the meeting spots at LAX (QP if possible) and the contingencies plans if SWMBO mis-connected, everything was sorted. With 25 hours of travel ahead, it’s time for littl_flier to head to bed.
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"I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty." Lily Bollinger on champagne
Probably a little late now but I can't help but extoll the virtues of "earplanes" - they don't work for everyone it seems but with mrssimongr they have dramatically reduced ear pain when flying.
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Waging War on Corporate Travel agents! Fight the Powers!!!
After a restless couple of hours sleep due to storm cells moving through the area, I woke at 3:30am, 15 minutes before the alarm was due to go off. I felt like I’d already taken one of KiwiFlyer’s RTW in 60 hours challenges. After a berocca, a couple of vitamins and some toast, I was ready to face the world. A quick shower did a world of good and I finished the last of my packing.
At 4:30 I piled everything into the car for the hour long trip to the airport. There was still water on the roads but the traffic was quiet at that hour. We arrived at the airport around 5:20 and were inside at the International Connections counter within five minutes. The customer service representative was reasonably helpful but also grumpy at that time of the morning. I presented my passport and he looked up the details and printed off the boarding passes for me and mumbled something along the lines that I shouldn’t be in Business class. With this fixed he reprinted the BNE-SYD and SYD-LAX BP’s. After tagging my bags to JFK, he asked me for the address I was staying at in the US and told me I was free to head upstairs. I decided to quickly enquire why he hadn’t tagged my bags “Priority”. (which would later be helpful because at LAX, F, J and Priority luggage was loaded onto one carousel and Economy onto the other) I was informed that this wasn’t a benefit for either Qantas Club or OW Ruby which I thought was a little strange but I didn’t really know whether this was true or not. I mentioned this seemed a little strange at which point he consulted his guide card. He still wasn’t sure and so yelled to the supervisor on duty 15 metres away who mentioned I would be allowed them. With the bags now tagged, I was on my way.
I passed through security and managed to dodge the explosives test again. We walked upstairs and entered the Qantas Lounge. My mother and sister had decided to come for the drive to drop me off and say goodbye. The rules of the Qantas Club indicate that only 1 guest is allowed to accompany the member but the QP staff member barely looked at my boarding pass and didn’t raise a question about my two guests. The QP was rather quiet at this time of the morning but there was plenty of food and drink on offer. I had my usual fruit salad and a glass of juice. When I returned, my sister was excited that she was sitting opposite James Courtney who looked vaguely familiar to me, but I’d never have guessed who he was. (James is a V8 racing car driver and was on the Australian version of Dancing with Stars for those who weren’t quite sure)
About 6:10 as boarding was due to commence, it was announced that boarding would be delayed by twenty minutes due to the late arrival of the inbound aircraft from Perth but they were hoping to be fully boarded for a 6:40 pushback, only 10 minutes behind schedule. There were also other delays that morning including one where the QP staff plainly announced that a crew member had not turned up for work and a replacement would need to be found. I had another glass of juice and enjoyed spending some time with the family. We also had a quick conference call with my father who was in Melbourne for a reunion. I’m pleased I’m not the only family member that goes hoarse on a Saturday morning.
An initial boarding call was made in the lounge at 6:30 and we walked the short distance to Gate 23. After a quick goodbye, I was on the aerobridge for the start of the adventure.
QF 507 BRISBANE – SYDNEY (468 MILES) Scheduled Departure: 6:30 Scheduled Arrival: 9:00 Actual Departure: 7:00 Actual Arrival: 9:20 Aircraft: VH-ZXG “Karratha”
Today’s SYD flights were heavily loaded but for some reason this flight still had wide open availability on EF. Despite this, the flight was still 60% loaded and boarding took longer than expected. This was probably fortunate as I’d left my jacket with my sister. As she’d got to the car and realised, she raced back through security and up to the gate. The fantastic gate attendant had printed another boarding pass for me and came onboard to deliver it. Another great experience from Qantas!!!!
Five minutes later, the Captain announced that final cargo was being loaded and we would pushback in the next couple of minutes. Thank goodness I hadn’t left the 1hr 10min connection in SYD because I would have been pushing the boundaries. We pushed back at 7:00 and taxied for take off at 7:05am.
It was great to see that I wasn’t the only flight freak onboard today. The gentlemen behind me and his son were plane spotting the different airlines and aircraft types and even commenting on the taxiway names and the runway.
There was some mild turbulence on takeoff but nothing to write home about. Breakfast was served approximately 15 minutes after takeoff but was a disappointing affair. On offer was Special K, some apple pieces and the usual hard bread roll. No juices were offered either.
Unfortunately my preferred radio channel, Billboard, wasn’t playing today so I had to listen to the “Love” channel. With serenade after serenade, I was feeling soppy and in the mood so I decided the “Thank God You’re Here” on the main screen was probably better with 24 hours still ahead of me. Prior to this, Enough Rope with Elton John was screening.
As we commenced our descent, the Captain informed us that we would be landing directly to the south but would have a long taxi back to the Domestic terminal. I still had a substantial wait so I didn’t mind. We didn’t break through the cloud until very close to the ground where we landed onto Runway 3 at 9:14.
As were taxiing back, the First Officer came onto the PA to mention for those interested, the SQ A380 would be taking off beside us in the next couple of minutes. I was lucky enough to see the plane take off on its way up to Singapore. It was incredibly quiet and seemed to glide effortlessly along the runway before rotating and climbing into yonder. I also saw the bird land in SYD a couple of weeks earlier but I can’t wait for QF’s first arrival in August 08.
The man and his son behind me were quite excited and spotting the aircraft, though they weren’t sure who the Viva Macau aircraft belonged to. As we were taxiing, I saw Wunala Dreaming landing and VH-OGL, a QF 767 that was decked out in the Wallabies livery. As we arrived at the gate, I had a quick chat with the man and his son who were in SYD for the day so they could have a couple of hours on the simulator at Darling Harbour before flying back on a 73H flight later that night. Now that’s my ideal Saturday!!!
I was off the aircraft quickly.
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The Domestic to International transit desk is located opposite Gate 1 in Sydney but I knew that the buses only left every 20 minutes at 9:00, 9:20 and 9:40. I had just missed the 9:20 so I popped upstairs to the QP for a glass of juice and to use the restrooms.
At 9:35, I headed downstairs to the Transit Lounge where my BP was scanned and I joined the group waiting for the bus. The bus trip itself was non-eventful and quite pleasant. I enjoy driving past the QF hangers and I was surprised to see the number of QF747 aircraft in them. We also passed the BA birds that do the SIN and BKK runs which were looking very tattered and in need of a paint job.
As we arrived at T1, I dashed straight upstairs and was through security and immigration and in the Lounge by 10:00am. Qantas is currently performing maintenance on their old Qantas Club in Sydney but I had a couple of hours up my sleeve so I decided to lounge hop. The lounge was quite small and tattered with the renovations. The food on offer was quite poor also. It was 7pm in New York though, so I poured myself a glass of champagne while I checked AFF & FT and spent twenty minutes on the phone to our IT department trying to work out why I couldn’t access the work network remotely. We didn’t come to a solution, but that just means no emails for a couple of weeks. I had another couple of glasses of champagne and helped the person next to me with their Footnotes problems.
The QP staff were fantastic and ensured that SWMBO and I were still sitting together for LAX-JFK and blocked the middle seat. She informed me that there would only be 55 in economy for the LAX-JFK sector so we would have plenty of room to spread out once on board.
At 11am, I left the QP and walked past the new FLounge. This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it out in February before the QP BNE AGM “party flight”. On the way, I stopped and bought myself a magazine and withdrew some Aussie $ as a last resort for the trip.
The temporary lounge is located opposite Gate 24. I think this used to be the Temporary FLounge so it was ten times better than the normal lounge and had a better range of drinks and snacks on offer. It was also a lot quieter than the other lounge. I poured myself a glass of Baileys and sat down to admire the view. A few last calls to family and friends and a check-in with SWMBO and I was ready to go. SWMBO had troubles in BNE and Qantas thought she was from Papua New Guinea. All was sorted though and I informed here that her flight was on time and I had seen it leave SYD. For those who aren’t aware, on Saturdays QF175 runs SYD-BNE-LAX with SYD-BNE as a positioning segment. QF have announced that this service will run daily from March so this will no doubt put an end to that. It also means no more FLounge brekkies for those lucky enough.
At 11:30, boarding was called in the Lounge and I made my way to Gate 30. The majority of passengers had boarded so the lines weren’t too bad. I was subjected to secondary screening but was cleared and joined the end of the line.
My BP was accepted and I knew I was finally on my way!!!!
Sorry for the delay everyone, I now respect how hard it is to keep a TR in realtime.
Quote:
Originally Posted by simongr
Probably a little late now but I can't help but extoll the virtues of "earplanes" - they don't work for everyone it seems but with mrssimongr they have dramatically reduced ear pain when flying.
Thanks Simongr, I remember you mentioned these earlier so I'd told SWMBO about them. They worked a treat and whilst she experienced pain, at least there was no spontaneous crying.
QF 107 SYDNEY – LOS ANGELES (7491 MILES) Scheduled Departure: 12:00 Scheduled Arrival: 6:30 Actual Departure: 12:07 Actual Arrival: 6:07 Aircraft: VH-OEJ “Wunula Dreaming”
I made my way down the aerobridge and was greeted at door 1L by the CSM and another FA who pointed me in the right direction. I made my way to my seat which was in the third row of economy (although on my side it was the second row because of the crew rests) and the last row of the mini-cabin. This turned out to be ideal as I could recline my seat at all times, including meals, and not worry about the person behind me. Even though boarding was only 15 minutes in, the majority of economy was already boarded. I stowed my bags in the overhead locker and took my seat.
The aircraft I was travelling on was Wunula Dreaming, the QF 747-400ER that is decked out in the aboriginal artwork. This is also the 747 that has been re-fitted with the new fabrics. I quite like these new fabrics and the cabin looks quite refreshing!
Although the seat pitch is nowhere near as big as on NZ, (34” versus 31”) I still had plenty of room to stretch out with my seat reclined. The safety briefing was performed and we taxied out. We had an excellent FA looking after the mini-cabin, though some may describe him as too much of a larakin. He certainly didn’t mind having fun and had all of us laughing which was a nice way to start a long flight.
One thing I wish QF would implement is the moving map that NZ and a few others have showing movements on the ground. This also gives us the opportunity to see our flight path as we take off.
At approximately 12:10, we commenced our roll and took off. I was initially surprised at how long it took before we took off but I remembered that the flight was full and QF usually carry as much cargo as they can on these flights. We climbed through some low cloud on our way to 31,000 feet.
The audio system was booted up shortly after take-off and I watched the news. Pre-lunch drinks were soon served which included a wide range of spirits, beers and softdrinks. I had a rum and coke to get me started.
Lunch was served shortly after and I chose the chicken which was quite nice, though a little on the small side for a long haul flight. There was also a reasonable side salad (though it was a little bland) and a few little snacks. I washed it down with a bottle of white.
During lunch we were briefed by the First Officer who advised us that we were hoping for a reasonably quick flight to LAX and should be landing about 25 minutes early. Most of the flight would be spent around 31,000 feet but we may have to climb higher later in the flight.
About two and half hours into the flight, the Snack on Q bags were handed out which contained a bottle of water, some chocolate, a biscuit pack and another small snack. Splice’s were also handed out which is a great touch as passengers watch movies. I tried the new Harry Potter movie but didn’t find it the most entertaining so I watched a couple of television shows.
After having a few drinks in the lounge and a couple on board, I was well and truly ready for sleep so I nodded off for a couple of hours. (and the three hours sleep might have had some influence) Cadbury Hot Chocolate was also handed out during the next couple of hours but I missed this because I was knocked out.
About 7 hours into the trip, I awoke and was feeling a little peckish. My friendly FA helped me out with another Splice and organised a Business Class snack for my seatmate who was after something a little more substantial. I also enquired about the Comfort Packs that QF normally offer to their whY passengers in case I missed but I was told that it hadn’t been loaded. Not to worry, but the face mask would have been nice. Sure enough, five minutes later a Business Class amenity kit was delivered to me which was a nice touch!
I dozed for a couple of hours before I woke again as the ride started to get a little bumpy south-west of Hawaii. I was surprised how long it took the Flight Deck to switch the seat belt sign on as we bounced around the sky. The turbulence was probably the worst I have experienced mid-flight but nothing earth shattering. I was in the bathroom at the time so I quite enjoyed the experience but I can imagine an uneasy flyer might not have enjoyed it so much.
After I was seated, I watched “Knocked Up” which was quite funny and every guys worst nightmare, followed by Thank God You’re Here.
About 1.5 hours from LAX, breakfast was served. I chose the omelette which was quite nice and filled a hole. Immigration forms were also handed out straight after breakfast was collected. I spent the last hour of IFE watching Thank God You’re Here before the IFE was turned off at the top of descent. As the captain announced we would be commencing descent, we were also informed on the election results to mixed reactions around the cabin.
Descent was relatively normal but we flew through some thick smoke which I could smell in the cabin. I found out later that this was the result of the Malibu bushfires starting again. The sun was just rising as we descended early into Los Angeles. We had arrived about 25 minutes early and were towed to our gate. After switching off the seat belt sign, the captain informed us that US immigration wouldn’t let us off until our scheduled arrival (no doubt they were still in bed) so we stood in the aisles. I had a great chat to the FA about life as QF long haul FA, their quite tiring schedule and his upcoming roster. What surprised me is that he only gets approx 20 nights home a month. 25 minutes passed and we deplaned.
Next, the US immigration zoo.
Last edited by littl_flier; 15th December 2007 at 10:01 PM.
) had decided that accounting wasn’t for her and decided to have a change of degree and take up Nursing. To some extent, we would be on opposite ends of the scale now and as a full time student, cost savings would be reasonably important for her. Needless to say, this would be a trip with some “firsts”.
For Montreal, I managed to justify to SWMBO the Four Points Sheraton where I picked up an unrestricted rate of CAD$100 including taxes, another complete bargain. At least I’m guaranteed of a good nights rest with no bed bugs and no one to pinch my Ipod. 
he reprinted the BNE-SYD and SYD-LAX BP’s. After tagging my bags to JFK, he asked me for the address I was staying at in the US and told me I was free to head upstairs. I decided to quickly enquire why he hadn’t tagged my bags “Priority”. (which would later be helpful because at LAX, F, J and Priority luggage was loaded onto one carousel and Economy onto the other) I was informed that this wasn’t a benefit for either Qantas Club or OW Ruby which I thought was a little strange but I didn’t really know whether this was true or not. I mentioned this seemed a little strange at which point he consulted his guide card. He still wasn’t sure and so yelled to the supervisor on duty 15 metres away who mentioned I would be allowed them. With the bags now tagged, I was on my way.
Prior to this, Enough Rope with Elton John was screening.
All was sorted though and I informed here that her flight was on time and I had seen it leave SYD. For those who aren’t aware, on Saturdays QF175 runs SYD-BNE-LAX with SYD-BNE as a positioning segment. QF have announced that this service will run daily from March so this will no doubt put an end to that. It also means no more FLounge brekkies for those lucky enough. 
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