Trip Report Contents
SUMMARY: The fun part of the trip was over and it
was time to go home. This is about our journey back from down-under
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How a Day Becomes
Two
Because of the way the International Dateline works,
we lost a day going west, but regained it going east. Gaining an extra
day sounds like a winner, but, in reality, a forty-hour day is a really brutal
undertaking. It all began bright and early, with a four o’clock wake-up
call, for our five o’clock airport shuttle, for our six o’clock flight to
Melbourne.
Shuttle Stress
We’ve all stayed in airport hotels: they are
24-hour enterprises, with people checking-in and out at off hours; people
coming and going; flight crews showing up at odd hours to check in and sleep;
and, so on. So, imagine my surprise when we got downstairs at about 5:50
to find the lobby dark, the desk unattended, and nothing going on. There
was a sign on the front desk that the lobby was unattended and offered a number
to call if we needed help.
Eventually, at just a couple of minutes to six
someone turned up to “open” the hotel. At a few minutes after six she
announced she needed to fetch people from an adjacent property to also get them
to the airport. She returned at about ten after six, just fifty minutes
before our flight was to go. It was all so stressful, especially given
the lines we saw at the airport check-in desk.
At the Airport
Thankfully we were in Business Class, so we could use
the short, businesses check-in line. I don’t know if we would have made
it otherwise. We checked-in, made it through security, and were at the
gate pretty quickly.
At the gate we waited. And waited. And
waited. Our boarding time came and went and we approached departure time
before there was much stirring. We had a long, long layover in Melbourne,
and our aircraft was there, so I wasn’t worried about making the
connection. We eventually boarded, climbing the steps just outside the
terminal doors.
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| Early morning in the gate area at Hobart International |
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| Our gate |
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| Our gate to Melbourne |
To Melbourne
The flight to Melbourne was a quick one, but they
somehow managed to serve a full meal on the 55-minute hop. We took off
just as the first glimmers of sunshine began to make themselves known.
The air was choppy and the pilot announced that there’d be no hot beverages
served, lest they spill and burn someone. But, up front we were offered tea
or coffee, as well as juice to go with our breakfast. It was a really
nice service for such a short flight.
Laying Over in Melbourne
In Melbourne, we had a full four hours to
layover. That gave us time to stop past the Virgin lounge in the domestic
terminal and then to re-clear security and visit the Air New Zealand lounge in
the international terminal, which is a partner lounge for Virgin Australia.
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| Me in the Virgin Australia lounge |
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| The Virgin Australia lounge |
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| Virgin Australia lounge |
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| Virgin Australia lounge. The red plane directly outside the window was our plane in from Hobart |
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| In the Air New Zealand lounge |
On Board to LAX
Eventually time came to board our flight to
LAX. We found our way to our seats and, interestingly enough, found one
of the cabin crew from our outbound flight. This time we could answer
“yes” when asked if we knew how the seats and order of service worked.
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| "Would you like a glass of champagne?" If I must |
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| After boarding. These champagne glasses are apparently a signature item of Virgin Australia, as I read a few things about them on the Internet before we flew |
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| Business class cabin |
After champagne, we were offered menus.
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| The Menu |
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| The Menu |
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| Lunch offerings |
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| Breakfast offerings |
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| Wine menu |
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| Wine menu |
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| Wine menu |
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| Wine menu |
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| Wine menu |
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| Wine menu |
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| Breakfast ordering card. This is really a brilliant innovation. It is just like the room service ordering card one gets at a hotel: you choose exactly what you want and hand it off to the flight attendant. You can order whatever you and and be as specific as you want. And, you get to say whether or not you want to be woken for breakfast. It's a great idea |
As with the flight to Melbourne, boarding went
smoothly enough and soon after we took off meal service began. (Read about our meal service on the way to
Australia here.)
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| Smoked salmon |
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| Beef & potatoes |
On the way to Australia, we ate dinner and went
directly to sleep. We were both so keen
to not be jet-lagged that we wanted every moment of rest we could get. Heading back home, though, we had no such
incentive, so we went back to the bar area and chatted with some Australians,
one from Perth and the other local to Melbourne, if I recall correctly. We chatted for an hour or so before returning
to our seats and getting some sleep.
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| Business Class bar area |
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| Spirits on offer |
Next morning we had breakfast again, which was served
about 75 minutes before landing.
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| Breakfast |
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| Breakfast. The lighting really does this no favors! |
At LAX
we used the Global Entry lane. Usually,
if we’ve checked bags, the speediness of these special lanes is somewhat
negated by the lag of baggage delivery, but, in this case, the bags were up
really quickly. Moments later we were at
street level, ready for the next leg of the journey.
Laying Over at LAX
Because we couldn’t get an award ticket for this leg
of our trip, we bought tickets on American. So, in addition to having to
claim our bags, as we would have had to do anyway, we had to change terminals
and re-check-in, this time at the American desk.
Check-in at American was easy and speedy enough.
Since I’m elite with them and because we were flying First, either one granted
us access to the priority security line. This was an extra bonus, as the
regular line was crazy long and even stretched out the terminal and down the
sidewalk. We even managed to get Pre-Check, so security was extra quick. In the terminal we headed for the American
Admirals Club.
By the time we got to LA, we both really wanted a
shower, and, with five hours to spare, there was plenty of time for it. So,
we were so thankful for the showers on offer in the Admirals Club. The
American club at LAX has about a dozen shower rooms, each a full bathroom, with
toilets, showers, sinks, and plenty of room to move around. Very
functional and just the thing we needed just then.
The time ticked by ever so slowly, but, the waiting
was certainly much more pleasant in the lounge than it would have been out on
the concourse. Eventually, it was time to board the flight from LA to
Dallas.
Out of LAX, through DFW, and Home
Service on our LAX to DFW leg was spotty: our
FA was nice but seemed awfully scatter-brained. It seemed to take her
extra time to do just about every part of the service. But, she did
manage to get it all sorted through. Connecting through DFW was pretty
easy, just a quick hop on the train. The last leg of such a long trip is
usually the worst, and can indeed feel even longer than the longest of the
other legs!
Back at National Airport, our baggage came up pretty
early. Mine was fine; Philip’s was broken, so we had to make a quick stop
at the baggage office. Somehow they managed to destroy his bag between
LAX and home, after making it halfway round the world and back.
Baggage claim time notwithstanding we made it home by
about eight o’clock, pretty spent from the experience and so glad we had a full
day between us and going back to work.
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