continued ...

I arranged to meet some FTers earlier than originally planned as the direct flight is due to arrive a few hours earlier than the flight via Nadi.

There is a passport check at the entrance to the gate area. While waiting to board I (along with a few others) were paged to the desk. My boarding pass was ripped up and I was handed a new one. Was this an elusive op-up? No such luck. I was given a middle seat (still near the back) - arrggghhhh. There is a good reason I pre-selected aisle seat all those months ago. I pointed this out to the agent who said he couldn't do anything, the flight is full.

Boo to the seat shifters. So in a space of a couple of hours I had been moved from the flight I'd selected to another because of an oversell situation, and from a forward aisle seat to a rear middle seat. I was not at all happy, and nor were my seatmates. This treatment I could understand if I had no status and checked in late. But for me the opposite applies - top status and checked in right on time.

Once boarding was complete and I overheard a ground staffer talking with an FA that there were 2 empty seats. I was even less pleased. An announcement was made over the PA of a 30+ minute delay for minor engineering work. Grrr - it would have been nice to have not boarded so early instead of being jammed uncomfortably in the seats for even longer, but I guess they may have expected the work to be quicker and wanted to be ready to leave the minute the work is completed (as some passengers are connecting to onward flights).

One of the empty seats was an aisle seat a couple of rows behind me (where I had been placed until the switch at the gate) and the family occupying 5 of the 6 seats between aisle and window in 2 adjacent rows took pity on us and so we shuffled seats to make the best of the situation.

Dinner was a choice of herb crusted chicken (more crust than chicken) or beef. Salad, roll, ice cream and of course drinks. Upon requesting a water bottle I got a 1.5 l bottle ^

I watched some movies and dozed but did not sleep well.

We made up time en route but still arrived late thanks to having to taxi three quarters of the way around LAX to our gate. This was a quiet time at T2 and thus only our flight at immigration. Unfortunately they were undermanned with just 2 desks for a 747 full load of (mostly) foreigners Eventually the officers on the US citizens desks also processed foreigners, but it was still very slow going. It took me 80 minutes to reach the immigration desk. At least I was processed quickly - probably because I've had so many visits to USA. In under a minute I was through both immigration and customs and on my way to pick up a shuttle to the 4 Points LAX, as a convenient meeting place before heading off for lunch (and a few drinks) with Maple Leaf, +1 and SkiAdcock. BTW at T2 there is a new computerised hotel information system in place instead of the old board with phones - apparently it was turned on less than an hour before I arrived landside.

After lunch we headed back to the 4 Points for beer - where cstead and angelino228 joined us.