After a terrible ordeal of GE failing me and ending up at secondary for a whole hour and essentially getting the movie-like third-world treatment of US border
interrogation immigration, I was relieved to see a QR uniformed ground staff waiting for me at the already deserted bag claim with my boxed laptop ^ I forgot her name but thank you SO MUCH for not screwing up my arrival further.
I had around 1.5 hours left (thankfully not negative), but bits and bits of time got wasted including having to walk from T2 to T4, trying but failing to get PRE on my bp (apparently because of having SSSS previously, but thank god at least there was no SSSS for this leg), no F security at LAX today etc etc...there was no time to see if QF F dragons would card and blockade me again, let alone visit the AC for a bottle of water.
At least the flight was departing from gate 40, closest to TSA today. Sunday afternoons and end of spring break for a lot of colleges. I'm not surprised the lice game was strong:
Turns out that it would also be my first AA flight under the new boarding process. Well, what is the point when you call multiple groups at a time?
With a bit of huff and puff shoving my rollerboard in the overhead, the FA standing there staring blankly and me popping into my pillowless bulkhead seat, I told myself, welcome back to the real world...
In full LAA fashion, boarding was chaotic and no PDBs were offered, at least they hung my jacket. The safety video may or may not have played as it was as forgettable as it can be. Anyway, we still managed to push back religiously, I think the only thing I appreciate about US carriers is the obsession with on time performance (and of course when they manage to make that work).
After a traditional long LAX taxi we took off to the West, in parallel style:
And turned back soon after
'Showtime.' HAH!
Back to being underage...
And of course, dinner would be as unappealing as it would be. The same grilled slab of chicken that I've had for so many times over the past few months. At least the salmon and rillettes, while a far cry from my QR DOH-CDG flight, made me a little bit happier. At least, the FA miraculously apologized for the lack of pretzel bread as it was 'only for the inbound'.
And of course, at least there was this one thing that does not go wrong on AA:
Passing through Colorado as the sun began to set:
The rest of the flight, of course, was essentially nothing, although we did arrive early, the FA once again made my jaw drop by actually offering to bring me a cup of warm water to my seat as I felt a bit burnt out again, after I asked her in the galley
(timidly first for just hot water and ice), and a final score of getting home all by myself for just POOL pricing
For a 2323 scheduled arrival I was back home before midnight. That's it! The End. 9am class tomorrow...