Those of you who followed my earlier thread know that I was at serious risk of making this trip in economy on a totally sold-out flight. United, though, came through like a champ, and an hour before departure, not only got me into business, but got me an exit row aisle business seat upstairs, with 8 feet of room in front of me.

Boarding was pretty good from my point of view... since UA waited till the last minute to upgrade me, I retaliated by being the very first person on the plane. The FA's upstairs were uniformly very friendly, and must have had the concierge training, since they ID'd me by name and recognized my "loyalty to United." No arguments from me... United really went out of their way to make sure I got not only my business seat, but the best one on the plane.

The plane itself had the latest generation business seats, with noise reducing headsets, in-seat video, and long footrests, covered in the soft material that makes it way better than the old metal footrests. In first, the seats were the middle generation seats... not the new first suites, but also not the old light gray seats. They had the personal video built into the seat, with their choice of tapes, as well.

One interesting point... I love the airshow system, that shows during the flight where you are, time to go, et al. The FA told me, when I asked why it wasnt on, that they had disabled all of them out of overheating concerns, as regards Swissair. This did not involve the in-seat movies, just airshow.

We left about 25 minutes late, with a flight time planned for just over 14 hours to Sydney. Dinner was the slightly downgraded biz fare... a poached salmon appetizer, and four entrees to pick from.. I had Short Ribs, which were tender and well sauced. It came with good mashed potatoes (I could taste the milk and butter used in cooking them), Haricort Verts, and a nice salad with good tomatoes. Salt was in paper tubes, for those that care about such things. They had about 6 wines, and I had a killer 94 Cote Rhones Red whose maker escapes me, but it was three cuts above the usual biz class wines on the overseas flights. After dinner, I had the newly downgraded cheese plate with two cheeses and grapes, which was considerably reduced in size and quality from the old platters. Others had Eli's Cheesecake. Coffee and tea was brought around often, and I even had a Frappucino.

After dinner, I stretched out my seat fully, took a Melatonin, and had 6 hours of fitful sleep while the movies plaed on my player. I must note that the noise reducing headsets really work.. it is amazing how much quieter the flight is with them on.

Midflight, I got some chips and an apple, and restlessly ambled about. The flight was generally smooth, with two exceptions that lasted less than 20 minutes or so.

Two hours before landing, a nice hot breakfast was served, and this was an upgrade from previous biz class breakfasts... hot omelet, good croissants, OJ & Coffee, fresh fruit. It was comparable to a domestic 1st class breakfast, and better than the continental breakfast they have often served on the pacific flights. Landing was 25 minutes late, but the pilot nailed it.. you could hardly feel when we touched down. Of course, after 15 hours on the plane, I was numb anyways.

Baggage was slow, because the flight was full, and it was 45 minutes after landing that I received mine, having cleared immigration in 10 minutes or so. Customs was another matter... 15-20 minute line just to get out for those with nothing to declare.

Upon exiting, the counters to re-check baggage and get boarding passes for Ansett were just jammed. I headed to the Business counter (as a 1K, I am Star Gold, and this line was identified for *Gold), and was handled in less than 5 minutes. I was too late for my connection to MEL, but they rebooked me on another 30 minutes later (still in economy, as the UA upgrade doesnt carry over to partners). Even though we had just come from an international flight, we had to pass back through security to get on a bus to the domestic terminal, and this literally took almost the whole 30 minutes I had until my new flight was to leave. With the Olympics coming, they need a much better system for transiting passengers. This was just a pretty busy AM, and they were utterly overwhelmed. Travelers to MEL would be better off taking UA's LAX-AKL-MEL flight (soon to become nonstop LAX-MEL), and skipping Sydney. I couldnt.. it was full.

The bus traverses the ramps, and takes 10 minutes to get around to the Ansett section of the terminal. With not a minute to spare, I got to my flight, bulkhead row in economy on an Ansett 767-200.

The flight pushed back 15 minutes late, and we were off 10 minutes later. I dont have a lot of comments on the flight, except the breakfast was the singleworst meal I have seen on an airline in 1999. Some kind of pasta sheet encasing a loose omelet sort of operation, witha hard roll and margarine. Pass, thanks. The bathroom I used was pretty creaky, with doors hanging open. But the infamous Ansett syring disposal box was in place.

Arrival was 15 minutes late in Melbourne, and baggage took 15 minutes more. Cab waiting at the curb with no line (it was about 9AM Sunday morning), and off to the Hilton on the Park, which will be subject of the next section of this report.



[This message has been edited by Brian (edited 10-17-1999).]