rufus102

Brief Summary of ITN no stopovers - just in transits: Actual ITN is in this thread

AA - LGA-ORD
BA - ORD-LHR
BA - LHR-HEL
AY - HEL-HKG (via BKK)
CX - HKG-MEL
(10 days)
QF - SYD-AKL
LA - AKL-SCL
AA - SCL-MIA
AA - MIA-LGA

Well....

I started a neat diary about my trip, but after a while, it became troublesome to maintain it, so I'm going from memory.

LGA-ORD. (American Airlines) First flight on an MD80 - seems like a nice plane. AA's MRTC seems to still be in place (even though I'm reading they are removing it). No big deal, I've just started and it was a short flight.

Check in at ORD for the rest of the legs and get boarding passes to HKG - luggage checked all the way through though. Agent says something about the computer not wanting to print BPs for more than 24 hours in advance or something.

ORD-LHR (British 777). First flight on a 777 - nice plane. Nice food and service which included this exchange:
FA: Drink Sir?
Me: Jack Daniels and Coke please
FA: Here take two (mini bottles) - one for now, and one for later. *wink*
Me: Thank you very much! *inside* (I love you).
Catch a little sleep, watch a little PTV complete with the loopy-loops on approach to LHR (high winds we were told). High winds provide a groovy landing, and later on provide groovy viewing too!

Get some breakfast in LHR then head over to next flight...

LHR-HEL (British A320). Did I mention that nice Agent in ORD changed this leg to an earlier flight so my HEL connection wouldn't be so tight? Well, she did and unfortunately, this turned out to be not so good - more later.
During boarding, watch the final British Parliament question time of Tony Blair before the election. Hilarious! Reminds me of back home (Australia) and the private school boy type shenanigans. Even the politicians can't keep a straight face. Flight was uneventful. I may have slept, who knows... things are starting to get blurry now.

HEL - now I have around a 6 hour layover in possibly the smallest and sleepiest airport I've been in since my mom took me to Essendon airport. I could have been shopping and stuff in LHR, but instead I've done a lap of the terminal in 10 minutes, eaten a strange but tasty hamburger, had a few beers and now I'm half sleeping/half reading/half watching finish cellphone commercials. Yes, that's 150%, but things are blurry, remember?

Later, the departures shows my HKG (via BKK) flight is delayed around 90 minutes. Gosh and bother - I would not have had a tight connection after all. My poor attempt at being mad fades away when I notice my original flight from LHR is also delayed on arrival approx the same time, but as DH said, I probably would have made the connection quite easily. Oh well.

HEL-BKK-HKG (Finnair MD11) - Another nice plane! That's 3 for 4 - nice. I seemed to want to leap off the ground, like a spring chicken! Interesting food too. Some sort of asian curry type thing, I remember it as being the nicest meal I had on the entire journey (at least in an airplane). More sleeping, a little reading, some CDs, and before you know it we're in BKK. Just enough time to grab a smoke (or two) and back on the plane for a short hop to HKG.

HKG - I've seen the amazing engineering show (or whatever it was) about this airport. Strangely, I didn't find it extra impressive. It was nice for sure, but I didn't look at it and think any superlatives or anything. Of course, things are extra blurry with sprinkles of woozy. Keep going soldier, only one more flight to go.

I grab a VERY welcome shower and some VERY tasty Nasi Goreng. A little shopping, more calls home (are you dead yet honey?) and it's time to board the last flight (on the inbound leg). Head over to my gate, and something is wrong. On one side is a Brisbane bound flight with approximate 700 people boarding and my flight (which departed 15 minutes later) has around 12 people looking bored and/or disinterested in everything. Turns out, no-one likes MEL and the plane is probably 25% full (in coach). Also lucky for me is we appear to have an equipment change and my A330 has grown two extra engines (4 long haul I suppose) and is now an A340 (-300 I think). Groovy, my first A340 flight is coming early. However, things rapidly deteriorate after boarding (possibly due to my decrease reserves of strength and reality grip).

HKG-MEL (cathay Pacific A343). Ok there's a problem here.... I have a window seat and the plane is empty, but how am I going to sleep on TWO seats. Who's idea was it to go 2-5-2 (or was it 2-4-2... whatever). I expect three seats here, and I'm not happy. THEN, after checking the in-flight magazine, I'm please to discover that A340 on CX has groovy in-flight entertainment and it looks like I'll be playing playstation (or some-such) for a while. Until... "Sorry sir, the purser says that is not available on this flight". I'll give her credit - she checked 2 or 3 other seats, and then went to the front to determine the cause of my "PTV not working properly" issue... but this is ridiculous. I want my Gameboy dammit! Then to rub salt in the wounds, my JD and Coke is served in a glass. "hello - JD - are you in there?". I don't bother trying to find him, nor do I bother asking for more. *possible racial slur* - My father always said Asians make the best food, but don't know squat about drinks. Seems it applies to planes as well as restaurants.

AnywayI watch as the fabled A340 wing does it's dirty work. Despite the half-empty plane (or maybe because of it - I don't really know much about these things), we rotate half way down the runway, but don't actually lift off until 5-6 seconds later. (I noticed this twice more on my trip). We just rolled along, pointing at the sky. How about we actually lift off before we end up in the.. oh there we are! Oh well. More sleep and I'm in Melbourne in no time.

Summary of Outbound:
I've flown JFK-xxx-SYD/MEL around 10 times, and EVERY time, I had felt like a ton or bricks hit me 3 hours after getting off the plane. Jet-lag bad. After this trip, I felt great! (perhaps a little "spacey" though). After 11am arrival, I easily stayed awake until 9pm. My 9pm-7am sleep appeared to take approximate 15 seconds, but that's ok.
AA - fine (only domestic short-haul)
BA - very nice
FY - unexpectedly nice. love the MD11 - something intangible about it (and Finnair)
CX - friendly enough, but even though I was only in coach, I was still underwhelmed by the service compared to the reputation. It was nice but lacked something... possibly the very light load put everyone into relaxation mode. No complaints though.

Return trip:
Houston we have a problem. I've never been away from my Son (17 months) so long (previous longest 2 nights) and I'm missing him like crazy. (yes darling, you too *the wife*). I was in no hurry to get to MEL so that journey was fine, but now I want to concorde it straight back to NYC. Oh well, take my self-imposed medicine.

SYD-AKL (Qantarse 767) - Have I ever mention that I hate Qantas? I mean, I hate their guts, and luckily they didn't let me down this time. Apparently, we have such a heavy load that they seated us like this: (occupied seats are in bold)

row 22: AB CDE FG
row 23: AB CDE FG
row 24 AB CDE FG
row 25: AB CDE FG

... through the entire plane. I was in 24A staring at two empty rows in front of me and... well... anyway, I'm sure that's complete BS that we had to sit that way but it's Qantas right? Food probably sucked and so did the drink service and I think the guy landed us on the wrong runway (possibly at the wrong airport) - can't remember.

AKL - I have to go outside to smoke and get a stupid "I'm in transit so don't make me pay the departure tax" stamp, and the McDonalds "we only take New Zealand cash or New Zealand EFTPOS" - "but this is an international airport - "we only take... " - oh be quiet..... I think AKL is the Qantas of airports. What a hole. BTW, it's actually "We only take New Zuland caresh or New Zuland Airftpos" - I dislike Australia a lot, and New Zuland is a poor man's Australia so.... who's idea was it to take this routing? oh yeah, Lan Chile A340 (see where this is headed?

AKL-SCL (Lan Chile A343 - I think -300). Apparently, there's PTV here. Seems it's only showing one thing, and if I switch to the Skyshow, the music goes off. Nice idea. Also, there's a shortage of ice in Chile, a shortage of Eggs for breakfast, even though I'm in about the 12th row of coach - I really hate that. After watching another lethargic A340 (emirates I think) takeoff in AKL (nice viewing area, if only it was at a good airport and/or good country), I experience another Space Shuttle type take-off. People think this plane is good?

Anyway, after starting watching sky show from way too far out from landing (3 hrs), we finally see South America on the horizon. Strangely - instead of Santiago being on the coast, we most nice cities are, we fly inland, over some mountains and begin decent in some strange smoggy dust bowl surrounded by mountains and lots of brown. *yukk*.

After landing, I try the Lan Chile desk to see if I can re-route SCL-GRU (lan) and catch the AA777 from GRU to MIA (or JFK - can't remember). They can't help me - I have to check at the AA desk (they won't be at the gate for 5 hours) and the desk in outside customs which means $100 usd. Bah humbug!
Oh well - more sleeping - eat the worst sandwich ever - spend 2 hours smoking and wonder if I'm going to puke, have an accident in my pants - or just die. I got over it.

SCL-MIA (AA 767) Finally it's time to board.. AA - I could kiss you. pay for drinks? Don't care - still love you. Sit on taxiway and back to gate for MX? Still don't care. No PTV? Fine! Just keep talking to me with normal accents and get me the hell back home. Which they did. We zoom back to MIA (sleeping/eating/music/etc) - quick breakfast - some smoking - call home (daddy will be there in 6 hours) and off to the gate for the LGA flight.
Security in Terminal 5 is probably the biggest joke I've seen. Slow and stupid.

My carryon gets "Flagged" for inspection after x-ray. takes 10 minutes for someone to come over and check it.
Him: "You have a lighter in here?"
Me: "Yes"
Him: "Lighters are prohibited"
Me: "I took this through LGA without a problem"
Him: "When?"
Me: "Last week"
Him: "it just came into affect on the 15th" (yesterday?)
Me: "Oh" (liar)
He opens the bag - "where is the lighter" (are you stupid?)
"IN that pocket" - he opens the pocket and find one of the two lighters in there and takes it.
"Ok - you can go" (yes, are you very stupid)

Awesome - I rush off to try and start a fire somewhere, but strangely it doesn't work. I must really suck. BTW, did I mention some ahole stole my zippo from my checked luggage? - at least they left a security sticket on my bag.

Finally, I land at LGA - almost run to the car and drive home about 140mph up the Merritt Parkway.

There you go. I recommend it highly, except for the return part - and the Melbourne part - and the lighter part.

Oh, and I forgot my Camera. Please take a number and smash me in the face when your number is called. I have number 1, and I'm not done yet.

bombayhog

Interesting....kind of like a speed-trip report. Fitting as your trip was a speed-trip.

I agree about the intangible attractiveness of Finnair and the MD-11.