You can find the trip report here. Includes pictures of Freddie Jr and the QF F Lounge in SYD T1.

I'm expecting to see Freddie on his repeat ride on the 9th annual Brooklyn Reality Tour.

Date: June 13, 2009 Saturday
Place: Brooklyn, of course.

Info in the link below.

You're invited.

dh

A short report.

Freddie Jr accompanied us (Sue Oz and myself) from MEL-SYD on QF462. I'm not sure if Freddie Jr was intimidated by the old ex BA 767 or was just really tired after his J run with the boys earlier in the day but he insisted in staying in his case above 23 J/K for the journey.

That night he chaperoned us in Rm 626 at the SYD airport HI. In the morning Freddie Jr slept in so we missed breakfast at the hotel but had some at the QF J lounge at SYD. From there it was off to AKL on LA800 sitting in 3D/H. We arrived on time and caught the bus to the Hotel Grand Chancellor AKL airport. Freddie Jr agreed with us that the hotel (Rm 220) was just adequate but comfortable. We didn't risk eating there so went down the road to a really great Chinese/Indian restaurant and had a really good & cheap feed.

In the morning we all skipped the meal at the hotel and headed for the Qantas domestic lounge for a safe though not too spectacular breakfast. From there we boarded QF2791 from AKL-ZQN. Though it was still summer there was plenty of snow on the mountains and had a pleasant and on time journey.
A hire car at Queenstown took is to Wanaka (home of the famous Warbirds Airshow) http://www.warbirdsoverwanaka.com/ and then to Lake Hawea http://www.lakehawea.co.nz/ for a few days much needed rest. Freddie Jr, Sue Oz and I all enjoyed doing not much for a few days before we reversed the trip. ie car to ZQN, QF2792 to AKL, LA801 to SYD and then QF429 to MEL.

Freddie and I then drove home for one night at our new house and then headed off again via QF608 to BNE for the handover to serfty.

Freddie Jr was weighed at AKL airport and got a frown from the immigration lady so we quickly scurried off to the QF lounge and left her to pick on some other poor soul.

Freddie Jr seemed to enjoy the trip as much as we did so all in all very successful. The only part of the trip that was not much fun was when we took Freddie Jr to visit our daughter who has just been through the Gippsland Fires. http://www.gippslandfires.com/

After his Ateroan sourjourn Freddie was handed over to myself at the Annual OZ FT AGM. He was not able to make the skoogle pickup.

He then flew BNE to MEL and Freddie Jr is now ensconced in Patterson Lakes.

His planned routing is now MEL-SYD-[A388]-LAX and LAX-SFO-LAX, all on Friday March 6th. I will be pleased to hand over in LAX or SFO on this day.

Might have been mentioned, but what class of service on SYD-LAX A380-800?

I believe it is whY in 80K (he's gonna road(air?)test the seat for me)

... actually 66A ... need to be nearer the front for US immigration.

(No F Jr., but 80A on the retur; my express pass will see me bypass most of the Oz immigration queues ...)

Can handover in ATL early on 8th as well ...

I've updated post #484 above.

And the flight map is also back up to date.

Thank you, itsalongwaydown and serfty!

Still no takers for a hand-over in the States?

Have you any pictures of Freddie Jr on his travels?

Love the flight map. Too bad you can't "zoom" in on areas to get the local/national scaled map (except for the US).

Notice that QF is #4 on the list of carriers for Freddie Jr. Probably his AU adventures, including my SC run, "artificially" inflated this figure. Well, at least we're beating Air New Zealand.

There are pictures of Freddie around the world all over this thread - it takes a while to go through it all, but if you've got some spare time on your hands, there are many interesting things to discover.

I agree that it's a pity you can't zoom in on the flight map, but I've switched the "local" map to Australia so you can get a closer look at your own flights. I'll switch it back to the US in a couple of days.

EDIT: Looks like that switch also shifted the map perspective a little - interesting.

I'll be happy to bring him from Fort Lauderdale after the Freddies to DUB via CLT, PHL, LHR.

There will be plenty of opportunities to pass him on from there - there seems to be an endless supply of MRers passing this way right now.

I guess I was addressing more Itsalongwaydown whether he had any photos of Freddie Jr to add to the thread.

Thanks for that.

Anyone?