Index to this trip report
Map by great circle mapper ================= INTRO Regular readers of my trip reports know I take a long trip around Easter each year. I love travelling at this time of year. The change of the seasons is great for those like me who do not like extreme heat or cold. There are also often great bargains to be had on air travel and accommodation. Not to mention it is usually a few months since my previous longhaul trip and the siren call of travel cannot naturally be withstood for too long. Originally (pre-FT and sometimes since) I'd travel to Europe and back (e.g. Iceland 2004). Then I took longer around the world trips (e.g. zig zag around Europe 2005, 5 continents 2006, 4 continents 2007, axis of evil 2008, 2009). Last year it was back to a quick trip to Europe, in great comfort, by way of first class trifecta 2010. This year I don't have enough time for a RTW so I planned a quick weekend trip to Europe instead. I had the usual constraints - decent fare, limited time, a desire to go someplace new, rack up a lot of miles quickly & in as much comfort as possible, and try to experience some new products. With a bit of playing around with fare rules and schedules I booked a trip that met my constraints. Unfortunately there are no hotels at the destination that are affiliated with my chosen hotel program but I was still able to use points to get a decent hotel for a good rate. The past couple of months have been very hectic and one thing keeping me going was the thought of this trip, assuming I would not have to cancel it. To some it would seem hellish flying all that way to spend little time on the ground. Especially with the hassles of flying today - nude-o-scopes, liquids rules, increased flight cancellations, etc. Not me. This is fun, and I was looking forward to the trip. |
Excellent, Kiwi Flyer and eight black giving us new trip reports, at the same time? Man, life is awesome. All we're missing is a new Seat 2A.
Looking forward to this. |
Originally Posted by muzthe42nd
(Post 16273104)
Excellent, Kiwi Flyer and eight black giving us new trip reports, at the same time? Man, life is awesome. All we're missing is a new Seat 2A.
Looking forward to this. |
Good to have you back KF! Was only thinking about you the other day.
|
WELLINGTON to AUCKLAND on Air New Zealand A320 in economy space plus
I arrived at the airport early because I'd need to check in manually (epass RFID chip won't work on international itineraries and nor will the kiosk) and my past experience has been that manual check in at Wellington can take an age due to under-staffing. The people who feel a need to check in hours early before any international flight had turned up in numbers for the mid-afternoon flight to Sydney, and so there was a decent queue at manual check in. While I waited I wondered how I'd react if I got a call requiring the trip to be cancelled? The past few weeks have been so crazy that even now standing at the airport I couldn't rule it out. The phone vibrated. I jumped. People stared. Did I just swear out loud to myself? I answered with trepidation but fortunately the call was innocuous. My attention distracted I now realised I was at the front of the queue and was being asked to come forward to the counter. Checking in took slightly longer than normal on account of I hadn't provided API information, specifically my address in USA. Well if you look at my itinerary you'll see I'm just in transit to another country. Oh, yeah. That sorted, I was given 3 boarding passes and an explanation I couldn't get boarding passes for the further onward flights as check in wasn't open yet for those. Up to my second home (well it feels like it), the koru club. At the entrance I went to place my phone against the scanner and then realised it wouldn't work this time and fished out the boarding pass which I'd shoved inside the carry on. There are so many things I do often with mind switched off, running on autopilot. A brief chat with the staff on duty and then time to send some messages and a stiff drink - not in order of priority. I was finally starting to relax. My mind wandering with thoughts of the next few days. Boarding was called. I ignored it. A final call was made. I ignored it. A second final call was made and I headed for the gate. For the lounge had been rather full and simple maths together with an idea of upcoming flights had led me to deduce there were rather a lot of passengers on this flight who had been in the lounge. The next logical thought is it would take a while for them all to get through security at the gate. So I may as well stay in the lounge a while longer and have another drink. Sure enough when I stumbled downstairs and turned towards the gate I got just a couple of paces before joining a queue that was still more than 50 people deep. Crud. I could have had another drink before leaving the lounge. The security queue was moving fairly quickly. After a couple of minutes a rather anxious looking woman stormed past the queue to ask the security if she could skip the queue so she didn't miss her flight. I glanced at the monitors and noticed that despite there being two gates served by this screening point there was only one flight due to depart from either gate in the next 3 hours - namely this flight. Sure enough security told the woman to go to the back of the queue as everyone else is on the same flight. A few people cheered. Perhaps I imagined that bit? Then I trod on some keys. I asked the people around me if they'd lost theirs. Not us. I picked it up to hand to security when I reached the station shortly afterwards, and pointed out exactly where I'd found them. I was soon through security and made the same mistake as I had at the lounge entrance - namely try to use my RFID tag to board then fumble with my boarding pass which I'd again put into the carry on. Sheesh - mind like a sieve today. There was just enough room in the overhead bin to stow my carry on. One thing I've noticed in the last couple of years of domestic flying in New Zealand is that more and more passengers are carrying on more and checking in less. It hasn't yet reached US epidemic proportions, but there are flights when if seated in the first few rows and boarding late your carry on ends back over row six or similar and a proverbial pain in the butt when it is time to disembark. Air New Zealands domestic A320s are brand new and unlike the international configured A320s still have the generous space plus seating section at the front with 35" pitch. The bulkhead is removed on ABC side, much like Jetstar's A320. There is moodlighting during boarding. The seats are slightly wider than on 737, but the seat pockets are much smaller and cannot fit a decent sized report or paper. Doors closed a few minutes behind schedule, which is pretty good considering at least 100 passengers boarded in about 10 minutes. We had the awful new Fit to Fly with Richard Simmons safety video. I think it is great that for the past few years Air NZ has invested time & effort to make safety videos interesting so more people watch them. But this latest effort is truly cringing and I for one am not sure how many more times I can take viewing it. On reflection I should have put this warning before the link so the innocent are warned. Oops. Perhaps you can be distracted from the awfulness by playing spot Mr Fyfe, CEO, in the safety video? The lucky .......s in row one are seated too far forward to see any screen and thus get a manual safety demonstration (a rather glaring design flaw). I bet that isn't listed on seatexpert as an advantage of those seats. While the video was playing we'd taxiied almost to the runway. There was a short delay waiting for some flights to land and then it was our turn. I didn't pay much attention to the flight as I was absorbed in reading and annotating a report which I needed to send some messages about while in transit in Auckland. There was the usual choice of vege crisps, biscuit or jet plane lollies, tea, coffee or water. The trivia quiz continues to play on cycle on the overhead screens, with more and more ads added each year it seems, and the questions are getting more and more obscure. We must have had a strong headwind because instead of the usual 40-45 minutes flying time we had about 60 and thus landed slightly late. When we arrived at the gate there was no one on the airbridge so another few minutes delay. Fortunately my transit time is decent so no worries about making the onward flight. |
Auckland transit
It was a lovely day, warm even given it was well into autumn. So mindful of the many, many hours of sitting aboard planes ahead of me I walked across to the international terminal. I love the walk as you can get a good view of a third of the international apron and, with a bit of familiarity with airline schedules, spot which flights are on time & which are late. At this time of day it is relatively uninteresting - the middle of the day flights by the Asian airlines have all been and gone, LAN and Aerolineas Argentinas if you are lucky to be passing during their short transits, a few Air NZ widebodies although most are parked on remote stands where they've been sitting all day before flying to 3 continents in the evening, some Emirates (although usually only one aircraft will be visible from the inter-terminal walkway), maybe a lone Qantas aircraft if you are lucky. Being school holidays and the start of a public holiday weekend, the check in area was busy despite being off peak for departures - too early for check in for the evening flights and too late for the early afternoon busy period. With boarding pass in hand I strolled into the entrance of the premium check in lobby and stepped straight into the lift to premium immigration. The layout is really poor for restricting usage of premium immigration to those entitled to use it. There was a short queue and after a brief exchange of pleasantries I was soon waved through. The security queues had been reconfigured slightly since my previous international trip. Now there is a snake beyond non-premium immigration which the exit from premium immigration bypasses, thus you can get to the head of the queue for security. Previously those using premium immigration joined the same snaking queues as other passengers. Security didn't take long and I managed to avoid the random pat down. Upstairs to the lounge and this time I remembered to scan my boarding pass for admittance. |
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.168 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/130)
Hey Kiwi! Glad to see you back in the air and, rightfully in style I assume. Looking forward to the next posts. Hopefully they'll be online by the time I go to bed tonight CET. |
Originally Posted by muzthe42nd
(Post 16273104)
Excellent, Kiwi Flyer and eight black giving us new trip reports, at the same time? Man, life is awesome. All we're missing is a new Seat 2A.
Looking forward to this. And don't forget the other TR Master - Mr. Moomba! |
Originally Posted by muzthe42nd
(Post 16273104)
Excellent, Kiwi Flyer and eight black giving us new trip reports, at the same time? Man, life is awesome. All we're missing is a new Seat 2A.
Looking forward to this. Calling Seat 2A... :D:D:D:D |
Awesome time for a new Kiwi trip!
subscribed as usual but really looking forward to the posts about Air NZ business hoping you have the new 777-300ER in there... hopefully |
AUCKLAND to SAN FRANCISCO (AKL-SFO) on Air New Zealand 747-400 in business class
I had enough time to send off the messages, have a shower and a quick drink. Not necessarily in that order. Boarding was called. The extra screening at the gate for US bound flights is still in existence but has been scaled back further so that only a small number of passengers have to go through. Last time it was only a small number who could bypass the extra screening. Boarding was underway by the time I reached the gate so I skipped through the economy queue to get to the premium line. Once onboard I walked to my usual seat, switched off my phone and started to relax. No last minute cancellation of the trip. Do not pass go. Go straight to pre-departure mode. Bag in overhead bin. Check. Large pillow out from behind seat. Check. Paper to read. Check. Champagne? Yes please. Check. The new amenity kit was on the seat. It is a small box that looks good but is bad design. Who has a box-shaped space in their carry on? The box has a pretty ribbon and is lined with paper. Inside there is an eye mask - these now come with various designs on the front, and today's selection is old aviator googles. Other designs include cut lemons, cats eyes, etc. The nice socks which I love (because they are a good size for my big feet and have comfy padded bits on the soles) are gone, replaced by bright stripy things which barely get over my heel and do not even reach the ankle. The rest of the kit/box is more conventional. Some La Prairie goops, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a pen to fill in any arrival forms. On the ottoman is the menu. The cover has changed but still a dark brown colour and similar size. I picked a movie to watch and was well settled in while the rest of the passengers in the cabin sorted themselves out. Another drink? Why yes please. Thanks. We had the Rico safety video - another abomination and surely not a good idea to have a muppet flouting so many safety rules during a safety video? |
Air New Zealand
Business menu Auckland to San Francisco April 2011 Dinner Starter Trio of sesame miso tuna, coriander prawn, smoked salmon with karengo potato salad (karengo - New Zealand seaweed) Bakery Sourdough bread, dark rye with caraway seed bread and garlic bread Main Course New Zealand lamb loin with horopito salt, roasted baby potatoes, carrot puree and beans (horopito - New Zealand bush pepper) New Zealand snapper on smoked potato mash with wilted spinach, ginger roasted carrots and water chestnut and caper salsa Confit of chicken thigh, kumara puree, warm leek, green bean and watercress salad with chicken jus Light choice of mushroom, spinach and feta strudel with beetroot relish Dessert Gourmet dessert of white chocolate raspberry ice cream and hokey pokey ice cream with chocolate almond wafer Coconut and lemon tart with passionfruit mascarpone Cheese and Fruit A selection of fine New Zealand cheese and fresh seasonal fruit Hot Drinks Freshly brewed or decaffeinated coffee, tea, jasmine tea, herbal tea or hot chocolate Self-service Snacks Help yourself from our range of snacks available for you to enjoy during your flight Breakfast Fast Dine Breakfast Please let your flight attendant know if you would like to sleep-in and we will wake you as late as possible and offer you a hot bacon roll and a beverage of your choice. Wake-up Drinks Start your day with a fruit smoothie, your choice of juice, freshly brewed or decaffeinated coffee, tea, herbal tea or hot chocolate. Light Breakfast A bowl of muesli topped with Greek style yoghurt and fresh fruit is available as a lighter option. Full Breakfast Fruit and cereals will be offered followed by a hot bakery selection and your choice of a hot breakfast. Fresh fruit salad Strawberry yoghurt or plain Greek style yoghurt Toasted Muesli and Cluster Crisp Triple Berry cereal, Weetbix, Cornflakes Bakery Croissants, muffins, Vogel's, brioche or fruit toast served with fruit conserve Hot Breakfast Potato, tomato, red onion and cheese omelette with chicken sausage, mushrooms and roasted tomato relish Banana and pecan brioche French toast with vanilla cream Hot Bacon Roll A warmed roll, buttered and filled with grilled bacon, offered with caramelised onion jam and barbecue sauce Drinks Wine The premium wine selection onboard this flight has been chosen by our wine consultants : John Belsham of Foxes Island Wines, Kate Radburnd of CJ Pask Winery and Jim Harré, nationally recognised wine judge. For details of our onboard wines, refer to your Air New Zealand Wine Guide. New Zealand Sparkling Wine Offering a wide range of flavours, from rich, full-flavoured and vibrant styles to those which are finer and more delicate. A superb aperitif choice which also suits a wide range of light or moderately flavoured dishes. Champagne Piper-Heidsieck Cuvee Brut, France This champagne bursts into the mouth with soft generous stone fruit flavours and sweet citrus characters. Traces of liquorice, wild honey and warm brioche add depth and complexity. The finish is fine and long with lemon zest and nuttiness. Spirits Glenfiddich Malt Whisky, Chivas Regal Blended Whisky, Jack Daniel’s Black Label, Gordons Gin, 42 Below Vodka, Courvoisier VSOP, Coruba Rum, Ron Bacardi Superior Port and Liqueurs Portuguese Port, Grand Marnier, Baileys Irish Cream Beer A selection of beer featuring Steinlager Pure, Export Gold, Heineken and low alcohol lager Soft Drinks Mineral water, orange juice, apple juice, tomato juice, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, cola, lemonade, L&P (sparkling lemon drink), tonic water, ginger ale, diet cola and diet lemonade Hot Drinks Freshly brewed coffee, decaffeinated coffee, English Breakfast tea, hot chocolate, chamomile tea, lemon tea, decaffeinated tea, raspberry and peach, apple and blackcurrant, Earl Grey tea, peppermint tea, jasmine green tea, hot chocolate. NZ6_8_DINNER_111 |
As is often the case with US-bound flights from New Zealand, we were slightly late in leaving due to a small wait for US clearance to be given.
The post-departure drink and vege crisps has morphed into a drink just before appetisers are served. Not that I miss the vege crisps - while tasty I can feel the arteries clogging up whenever I decide to have some. I ate and drank while watching some movies and read some reports. Eventually I grew tired and dropped off to sleep, awaking when the crew were preparing breakfast. It made a nice change to be having breakfast at a sensible hour, thanks to the late afternoon departure from Auckland. I'm more used to the US flights leaving mid to late evening which means having breakfast before arrival early afternoon. We'd made up time en route and the captain announced we'd be landing slightly ahead of schedule. Then a few minutes later another announcement that we'd been put into a holding pattern off from the coast. We ended up flying in circles for an hour and so arrived nearly an hour late. Fortunately my connection time wasn't too short. |
San Francisco transit
We had a gate close to immigration and in the main corridor there were hordes of people coming off several flights. I powered up to immigration. Fortunately most other people were Americans and so the Visitors queue was empty. Nice to see the sign has finally been changed from Aliens. The formalities took just a few seconds and thankfully the stamp was on a used page rather than a blank one in my passport. With carry on only I scooted past baggage claim, pausing at customs to assert yes I had all my bags with me and then on to landside. As I already had the onward boarding pass I went straight back through security. Next stop was the United First Class lounge. Since my boarding pass didn't state first class the lounge agent at reception was a bit sceptical but I convinced her I was flying in first so I was let in. After a shower to freshen up and a drink I headed out for a walk. On the way back I popped into the Singapore Airlines lounge. The lounge agent here recognised my seat number as being in first class ;) It was quieter than the United First Class lounge but the amenities were very disappointing. It was soon time to board. |
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