My next destination was Kuala Lumpur. But getting from MIA to KUL is always going to be a long trip, and with 12 hour time change, its can be difficult on the body clock. So I was booked onto the CX885 daytime trans-Pacific flight with the intention of staying awake most of the journey and spending the night in a hotel near HKG airport before connecting the next morning to KUL.

To make the CX daytime flight out of LAX (their only daytime flight option from USA to HKG) I had to leave MIA early in the morning. For weeks there had been no availability on the non-stop MIA-LAX morning flight in A class, so I was booked on a 6:10am departure from MIA and transiting in DFW. A few days before I left Australia the waitlist for the non-stop flight was successfully cleared and I was very happy to have an extra 2 hours to sleep in MIA and 2 hours less travelling time.

However, this all came unstuck when my MIA-LAX flight became a MIA-MIA-LAX flight.

AA283 MIA-MIA-LAX
Scheduled Departure: 8:00
First departure: 7:58
MIA arrival: 8:30
Second departure: 11:00
Scheduled LAX arrival: 10:36
Actual LAX arrival: 13:30
Seat 5J (763)

Soon after takeoff, the captain announced there was a technical problem with the aircraft and we would be returning to MIA. Just before we landed, he announced the problem was and indication of heat in the engine where there should not be heat, and as such we would be met by the airport fire services as soon as we had cleared the runway. At this point many passengers did their sums and realised they were in trouble with connecting flights. The person next to me was connected to an AA flight to NRT and then a JAL flight to SIN. Others around us had connections to QF8 to SYD.

Soon after all the flashing lights and men in fluorescent jump suits decided it was safe for the aircraft to taxi to the terminal, we sat and waited for the engineers to determine if they could repair the aircraft. After about 45 mins waiting they decided it was going to take a long time to repair and they made arrangements to use another aircraft to get us to LAX. We were told the ground staff at the other gate would handle questions about connections at LAX.

Using my normal style of fast walking through airports, I was first to arrive at the new departure gate and I started the queue behind the unmanned service counter. By the time the cabin crew and pilots arrived from the other gate, quite a queue had formed behind me, but there was no ground agent to assist. When one finally arrived (and she was on her own), she first had to prepare the system for boarding the flight, and the she started working out AA domestic connections at LAX. Before she could even hope to start to look at international connections it was time to board. It was more important to get us all on board and in the air on our way to LAX rather than wait around while they addressed connection issues.

We arrived at LAX about 10 mins after my CX flight to HKG was due to depart. I also say Wunala Dreaming (VH-OJE) pushing back from T4, which will have been the QF8 flight departing for SYD which may other passengers had obviously missed.

Knowing I had missed my CX flight, and knowing the next CX departure to HKG was 10 hours later, I went straight to the Admirals Club lounge at Terminal 4. If I had to wait out 10 hours, I was going to do it in the FLounge at T4 and not in a shoebox at TBIT.

The agent at the service desk at the T4 lounge was brilliant. I was pleased to be the first from our flight to arrive at the lounge as I saw a long queue of people forming behind me, including my seatmate on his way to NRT and SIN.

The 11:55pm departure to HKG was fully booked and Precilla tried everything she could to get me onto it. She even found the AA codeshare for that flight was showing F1 and she booked me into that F seat only to be told by CX that there were no seats even in F and I would not get on.

So she eventually got me a J seat on the 1:55am departure of CX881, which would get me into HKG in time to make my connection to KUL. But my bags were only tagged to HKG since I was supposed to be overnighting in a hotel there before my HKG-KUL flight the following morning. Precilla called CX and had them locate my bags and re-tag them to KUL instead of HKG - 10 out of 10 for effort and customer service. She even scored me an exit row seat on the upper deck.

So I made myself comfortable in the Terminal 4 FLounge for a few hours, including taking a shower and a guiness or three. I also fired up the laptop and made use of the T-Mobile hotspot to get some work done and to check out what was happening on AFF and FT of course.

Around 9pm I headed over to TBIT as I knew CX checkin would be opening and I had to check that the bag tagging had been completed and get my new boarding pass. I walked up to the F check-in desk (I was entitled to use the F desk as a OneWorld Emerald due to my QF Platinum status). It took the check-in agent a long time and several visits to the ticketing counter to sort it all out. But she eventually came back with my boarding pass for CX881 early morning departure.

I showed her my QF Platinum card and asked for an invitation to the F lounge which she did. But she also thought she would do me a favour and change my AA FF number to my QF number! Ahh. Anyway, I just figured I would fix that in the lounge as this check-in agent didn't understand my request to leave it with my AA number.

So up to the CX lounge on level 6. But only the Business Class lounge was open at that time, so the door agent took my F lounge invitation and asked me to make my self comfortable until the FLounge opened in about 10 mins. 10 mins later, Rose came up to me invited me to follow her to the FLounge. It was quite a walk around the rabbit warren and similar in furnishings to the J lounge, but a little better food on offer (same beverages as far as I could tell).

After the lounge emptied when CX883 (11:55pm departure) boarded, I asked Rosie if she could change my FF number to my AA account and re-print my boarding pass. We chatted about my MIA experience and 12 hour delay that meant instead of taking the planned daytime flight and sleeping in a hotel, I had spent 12 hours at LAX and now had to sleep on the plane. She explained there must have been several people in the same boat as the flight was 30 people oversold now!

About 10 mins before boarding time, Rose came and found me and asked to see my boarding pass. She exchanged it for a new one for seat 1K. So my CX trans-Pacific F experience continues (3 out of 3). Thanks Rosie. Not sure exactly why I was selected, but guess a combination of Precilla from the AA T4 lounge adding a comment along the lines of "please consider for upgrade", and Rosie knowing my saga and also knowing I was a OneWorld Emerald even though my AA status was only Sapphire.

CX881
Departure 1:55
Arrival: 6:50
Seat 1K (744)

As always, the CX service was exemplary. The Balic Smoke Salmon and Caviar appetiser was well received after a 12 hour airport experience. And I think I must have managed a good 8 hours sleep after several glasses of Krug and JW Blues.

Breakfast into HKG was the usual CX F arrangement, and the Chinese Assorted Dim Sum was again my choice. Excellent indeed.

HKG The Pier.

We arrived at gate 73 and my departure to HKG was from gate 71, so The Pier was the lounge of choice. Plenty of time for a shower and then another helping or two of Dim Sum for breakfast.

I did a quick check of some duty-free prices of things I had on my shopping list to pick up on my next visit through HKG in a few days.

CX723 HKG-KUL
Departure: 8:50
Arrival: 12:30
Seat 12G (A330-300)

This flight was originally to be operated by a 2-class A330 but must have been exchanged in the last few days with a 3-class aircraft. I had not noticed the change and my 12G pre-allocated seat remained unchanged, and so I missed out on an F seat for the trip to KUL. But at least I had a long-haul flat (though not horizontal) seat instead of the planned regional business class seat.

I had my third breakfast for the day, holding onto the much touted fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day .

Arrival into KUL was on schedule and there was no queue at the premium immigration lane. A quick visit to the ATM and the KLIA Ekspress training ticket counter filled in some time while waiting for my bags to arrive.

The train trip into KL Sentral was spot on 28 mins as advertised, and there was a HL Hilton porter waiting at the top of the escalator to help their customers to the shuttle bus to the adjacent hotel.

When I went to check-in, they did not have an exec floor room available yet, so I was escorted to the exec lounge where I fired up the laptop to start work for the day. I then called my local staff member and he came into the hotel for our meeting which we held in the exec lounge. Once my room was ready and my bags delivered, we left the hotel and he dropped me off at Bukit Bintang for a bit of shop browsing.