These are a couple of trips in took over the period May-June.
No pics sorry, bit over taking pics of my meals etc.
This trip was a work trip, my first trip for the company after 7 years. It was an all United itinerary, mixing international long haul Y with domestic F/Y. Given I was going to have a few days to myself at the end of the trip, I also decided on a quick trip up to Phoenix to visit a couple of mates there. For this, I chose a mixture of Southwest and US Airways. The itinerary looked something like this.
MEL-SYD/SYD-LAX/LAX-ORD/ORD-MSP (UA 744/744/752/733)
MSP-DEN/DEN-LAX (UA 733/733)
LAX-PHX (WN 73H)???
PHX-LAX (US CR9)
LAX-SYD/SYD-MEL (UA 744/744)
MEL-SYD/SYD-LAX/LAX-ORD/ORD-MSP
For what is meant to be a pretty empty sector, the check in line this morning was nuts, taking an hour to get sorted with boarding passes through to MSP. At the gate the paranoia of god knows who had passengers herded into a holding area at the gate having undergone a hand search of their luggage after already passing the regular security checkpoint. Given some of the stupid arguments I have gotten into/overheard and the regular security checkpoints over what is being confiscated from passengers, one would think that the Australian security personnel were actually doing there job and we wouldn’t have to go through this crap. Anyway, the short flight from Sydney was nothing out of the ordinary, just a crappy roll and chocolate for the snack with a round of drinks.
Once in Sydney, passengers were deplaned straight into the departures level of the terminal, in the holding pen similar to the one in Melbourne. Both the LAX and SFO flights would board from this same area. Anyone coming off my flight wanting to go to the toilet or use other facilities in the terminal, faced the hand luggage search coming back into the pen.
The flight itself was pretty average. I shared a row of 3 with one other person in economy plus so there was room to spread out a bit. The IFE on UA is shocking. Crappy video on either the small roof mounted monitors of a very average overhead projector, along with the poor audio made most movies not worth watching. The meals were also pretty average, although I wasn’t expecting a lot so no loss. The same snack served on the MEL-SYD flight was served again and was found in my seat pocket upon waking from 6 hours sleep. Sure glad they didn’t wake me for that.
Overall a very average long haul sector, the only upsides being able to sleep through nearly half of it, and the conversations with the young lady next to me which kept me distracted for a good portion of the rest of the time.
On arrival to LAX we were forced to wait at the gate before deboarding as we had arrived early and customs had yet to open. We made it to the desks just before the NRT inbound flight to thankfully the wait wasn’t to bad.
A transfer to the next flight meant some fun with US TSA agents. UA’s terminal 6 is in a pretty average state. Found a place for lunch with the woman from the previous flight to kill some time before our onward flights.
My flight this afternoon was to be operated by a 752, only my second flight on the type so I was looking forward to it.
Onboard service was the standard UA Buy on Board service, with 3 or 4 drinks rounds to complement. The other passenger in my row had his own alternative to UA’s prices and had bought with him what seemed like half of the buffet from his local restaurant. While the smell was good, I think the rubbish alone would have been enough to put him over his hand luggage allowance. A cloudy Chicago afternoon greeted us, with the shining light being the bright UA terminal.
The flight up to MSP was again, standard UA service. The only item of note, was the busty brunette in F who had stowed her hand luggage in the economy plus section and continually wanted to show all the Y folk her lacy undergarments by retrieving stuff from the overheads. I’m sure it was the first time a lot of the men in this section weren’t worried about the lack of IFE on the main screens!
MSP-DEN/DEN-LAX
The flights to MSP the previous week had given me over 10k miles flown on UA, so my mileage plus account had been credited duly with 4 x 500 mile upgrades. Since I wasn’t planning a trip to the states anytime again soon, I though I may as well use them on my way to LAX, both flight being operated by a 733.
The first UA flight of the morning to DEN, was to early for me and obviously to early for the flight attendant as well. After the single round of drinks after takeoff, I’m sure she must have been up in the galley having a sleep as I didn’t see her again until after landing. Which was a shame to, as she was one of what seems to be a rare breed on UA, flight attendants that are actually under the age of 40.
The DEN transfer was easy enough, just walk down about 6 or so gates, wait a couple of minutes while the gate agent knocks back 30 or so people who rush the line when the first boarding call is made, then make my way onto the aircraft where I am asked for my drink choice within seconds of sitting down.
While this flight attendant wasn’t as pleasing on the eye as that of the previous flight, she made up for it with some excellent service and some delicious apple pancakes. She continually made sure passengers had what they wanted throughout the flight and was more than happy to interrupt her Sudoku puzzle to help out with whatever you wanted. Chatted briefly with the guy next to me who was apparently an NFL player. Nice guy, did find out his name but didn’t care enough to remember it longer than what was actually served with the apple pancakes.
LAX-PHX
In the spirit of adventure, I thought I would take Southwest up to Phoenix to add another airline to the list. A 5 hour connection at LAX and the severe lack of any shops airside had me standing in the check in line for my WN flight around 15min after landing from PHX. The line moved slowly, and I whipped through check in via machine in quick time, to be told at the end that I couldn’t check in more than 4 hours before my flight. The attendant printed my boarding pass out anyway given it was now 4hr and 10min from departure time and I headed off to drop my bags on a big pile of bags at the TSA checkpoint, hoping in the next 4 hours it would find its way from the bottom of the growing pile to my fight.
Spending the best part of 4 hours in Terminal 1 was like trying to fill in 2 weeks holiday and your grandma’s house when you were a kid. I read a National Geographic back to front, browsed the net, used the men’s room god knows how many times, had lunch twice and still had to sit around killing time at the gate.
With my flight being the next to leave from gate 4 I think it was, I was getting excited about my upcoming flight. After all, all of these people standing in line 30 min before boarding even starts must mean that something brilliant was coming up. Last time I lined up for that long without being forced to was to get tickets to a Beastie Boys concert and I remembered how good that was, so this must have going to be awesome.
WRONG!!!
Not going to list all my gripes here, just a couple. The flight attendants looked like they should be working in a home wares store or something, not having you put their lives in your hands. All wore different combinations of the “uniform” and none looked any good. When it came time for the round of drinks, our row was missed for some reason. I was busy doing the airline geek thing and was glued to the window so didn’t notice until the guy next to me complained. By this time we had already started out descent, so while thumbs up for the flight attendant not charging for the beers, telling us we had to drink it while he stood there as he had to collect the rubbish took me back to a high school drinking game.
PHX-LAX
After a good night visiting a couple of mates, I arrived at PHX to do a bit of spotting before an early afternoon flight. I had been hooked up with a buddy pass on US from one of the mates I had visited and the 1300 or so departure was very lightly loaded with only 17 booked on the CR9. Perfect for me, the type I had wanted to fly. No names called at the podium for standbys, just the boarding passes left for people to collect. On board, we were told to sit wherever we wanted, with that call being changed to allow for balance issues. Acceleration on takeoff was quick! Certainly would beat my Honda off the line that’s for sure. Drinks, pretzels blah blah, you know the deal.
LAX-SYD/SYD-MEL
A 1.5hour delay greeted us when we arrived at the gate. This was soon cut down to an hour as they seemed to have fixed the problem early. While looking for something other than a beer to cure my headache, I came across some headache tablets with a sleeping formula in the newsagent. The recommended dosage was one tablet, so naturally I took two. Once on board another problem arose with one of the doors not being able to be closed. A quick fix and we were off. Not that I remember this part. The sleeping component of those headache tablets had kicked in and I awoke briefly while we were speeding down the rwy and then not again for 8 hours or so. At this stage I probably should have popped a couple more tablets with around 6 hours still to go, a flat laptop and some very average movies on the overhead. Breakfast was very average, it was the first time I had been served up with pancakes that were crunchy!
Landing in SYD meant a trip through transfer security and the dumping of my liquids from LAX.
Back onto the same plane for the quick trip to MEL and another hand search of the luggage at the gate. Enroute it was overheard on channel 9, a call being placed by the flight deck to the maintenance guys at LAX that had dealt with the problem that delayed the flight initially. We were experiencing the same temperature problems with the number 4 engine. The flight would later be delayed departing from MEL back to SYD so they must have been having a tinker with it there.
Less than 3 weeks after getting home from this trip, it was time to head off on vacation. I would be heading to Europe and the UK on a variety of carriers for 3.5 weeks of sun (or so I had hoped).
Itinerary was booked as:
MEL-BKK (TG 772)
BKK-AMS (BR 744)
AMS-STN/STN-AMS (U2)??
AMS-LHR (BD A320)
LHR-DUB/DUB-LHR (EI A321/A321)
LHR-AMS (BD A320)
AMS-BKK (BR 744)
BKK-MEL (TG 722)
MEL-BKK
A very long check in line for tonight’s late departure, with not a lot of spare seats visible once on board. This flight is a favorite with holiday makers, with the sparse number of bags once arriving in BKK confirming the high number of connecting passengers. Boarding was called extremely early with the result being a departure 10min early. When booking this flight I was a devote aisle seat passenger on long haul flying. I’ve since discovered the joys of sleeping in the window seat and tonight was a night I wish I had one. The fact that the guy in the window was ordering drinks before boarding had finished meant that my planned sleep for the flight wasn’t looking to good. And how right I was! Up, down, up, down, up, down! This guy was worse than a jack in the box. Some good Thai hospitality though meant that the waking hours passed quickly. One particular feature of this fairly new 772ER that impressed me was the mood lighting. The red/orange light at dinner time meant that those wanting to sleep could do so, while those eating could still see what they were eating. Same thing for breakfast, this time a blue light though. Nice touch.
Arrival in the early hours at the new BKK airport was easy as always. With a whole 22 or so hours to fill, checked luggage was dropped off and it was off to do battle with the heat of Bangkok for the day, consisting off some spotting, shopping in central Bangkok and the odd sleep on the airports seating.
BKK-AMS
EVA check in opened promptly 3 hours before departure. My seat that I had chosen after booking in the Evergreen Deluxe cabin provided ample room for the flight to AMS today. It was interesting to note that while other airlines persist with small Y+ cabins, EVA has devoted a large chuck of the Y cabin to the upgraded Y+ product, and today’s flight proved its popularity with every seat full. Departure into a thundery Bangkok sky provided a nice bumpy ride which hampered my sleeping efforts slightly. I was awoken at one stage to be asked my meal choice for dinner which I declined given it was around 4am BKK time. Around 8 hours after departure I awoke to the smell of breakfast.
I’m not to sure if the PTVs actually showed anything during the flight. The main screen showed nothing for the most part except the flight show and a few adverts for the airlines products towards the end of the flight. As always, arrival to AMS was a no brainer, no forms to fill out, no interrogation of your passport, just a stamp and a smile and your on your way.
AMS-STN/STN-AMS
These flights were meant to be to attend the Duxford Flying legends show. However the forecast looked pretty ordinary midweek so the decision was made to pull the plug and spend an extra couple of days with the family. Or course the weather ended up being decent, but you can’t win them all!
AMS-LHR
Time to bring this part of my trip to an end. After nearly 2 weeks visiting family in my fathers homeland, it was time to head off for some plane geeking. My father was flying out to SIN/MEL 10min before me so we checked in and hit the bar for a few last drinks (there had been plenty over the previous 2 weeks). Eventually staggering my way down to the gate with a quick stop for another ale, the A320 flight to LHR boarded 10min late, but I wasn’t in a state to care. A quick service was offered was airborne, and it was another drink and dinner that had me a few to many pounds poorer. Arrival to T1 at LHR reminded my more of a hospital ward than an airport, which seemed appropriate given the scrubbers BMI had tried to pass as flight attendants on the flight across.
LHR-DUB/DUB-LHR
Following more than just a few drinks with my dad the night before while we had awaited our prospective flights, meant that my alarm at 0330 the next morn for my return flight to DUB (wanting to fly the A321) was slept straight through. This is the first time I’ve missed an alarm wakeup ever. Waking up a couple of hours later and realizing my flight was about to leave sent me back to bed and some much needed sleep for a few more hours.
LHR-AMS
A nice surprise on today’s flight. When boarding we were herded out onto the tarmac and onto waiting buses. A trip through the heart of Heathrow (the English have even managed to put roundabouts down here as well) and we pull up at our aircraft. Was certainly a surprise to see a star alliance scheme and it was even better to see it on an A321 instead of the scheduled A320.
AMS-BKK
Time to begin the trip home. This flight has awkward timing as the lunchtime departure makes it hard to sleep on board, while then arriving in BKK in the early hours. The fist meal service about 1.5 hours out of Amsterdam, was disappointing in that there was only one choice of meal by the time the cart got to us, about ¾ of the way through the cabin. Not much of a movie choice, but was enough to keep me occupied long enough. It was interesting to see the seat belt sign come on as we crossed the Afghanistan border and not turn off for the rest of the flight. At no point did anyone pay attention to it, so there always ended up being people walk around during turbulence. During the time over Afghanistan it was also interesting to watch three fighters of some sort doing circles over an area below us. Not a lot of people around at 0430 on arrival into Bangkok, except the heat that is, that’s one thing that’s always around.
BKK-MEL
Certainly was glad to be boarding the final flight home, and judging by the amount of passengers rushing the gate at the slightest hint of boarding, I wasn’t the only one. Departure had us level out at around 5,000 feet to allow traffic to pass overhead on approach to BKK. The usual chop as is expected in these parts. Through this time around I would put the IFE through it’s paces and it performed well. Sound quality was pretty good and the screen a decent size. Got through a couple of movies as well as some music, only getting around an hour or so of sleep for the flight. Landed at a quiet Melbourne airport to a sea of customs officers in the jetway and around the baggage carousel. No guessing why they pay extra attention to the BKK flights, myself being questioned separately about my movements outside of the normal areas and being sent for a hand search of my bag which never eventuated.
No pics sorry, bit over taking pics of my meals etc.
This trip was a work trip, my first trip for the company after 7 years. It was an all United itinerary, mixing international long haul Y with domestic F/Y. Given I was going to have a few days to myself at the end of the trip, I also decided on a quick trip up to Phoenix to visit a couple of mates there. For this, I chose a mixture of Southwest and US Airways. The itinerary looked something like this.
MEL-SYD/SYD-LAX/LAX-ORD/ORD-MSP (UA 744/744/752/733)
MSP-DEN/DEN-LAX (UA 733/733)
LAX-PHX (WN 73H)???
PHX-LAX (US CR9)
LAX-SYD/SYD-MEL (UA 744/744)
MEL-SYD/SYD-LAX/LAX-ORD/ORD-MSP
For what is meant to be a pretty empty sector, the check in line this morning was nuts, taking an hour to get sorted with boarding passes through to MSP. At the gate the paranoia of god knows who had passengers herded into a holding area at the gate having undergone a hand search of their luggage after already passing the regular security checkpoint. Given some of the stupid arguments I have gotten into/overheard and the regular security checkpoints over what is being confiscated from passengers, one would think that the Australian security personnel were actually doing there job and we wouldn’t have to go through this crap. Anyway, the short flight from Sydney was nothing out of the ordinary, just a crappy roll and chocolate for the snack with a round of drinks.
Once in Sydney, passengers were deplaned straight into the departures level of the terminal, in the holding pen similar to the one in Melbourne. Both the LAX and SFO flights would board from this same area. Anyone coming off my flight wanting to go to the toilet or use other facilities in the terminal, faced the hand luggage search coming back into the pen.
The flight itself was pretty average. I shared a row of 3 with one other person in economy plus so there was room to spread out a bit. The IFE on UA is shocking. Crappy video on either the small roof mounted monitors of a very average overhead projector, along with the poor audio made most movies not worth watching. The meals were also pretty average, although I wasn’t expecting a lot so no loss. The same snack served on the MEL-SYD flight was served again and was found in my seat pocket upon waking from 6 hours sleep. Sure glad they didn’t wake me for that.
Overall a very average long haul sector, the only upsides being able to sleep through nearly half of it, and the conversations with the young lady next to me which kept me distracted for a good portion of the rest of the time.
On arrival to LAX we were forced to wait at the gate before deboarding as we had arrived early and customs had yet to open. We made it to the desks just before the NRT inbound flight to thankfully the wait wasn’t to bad.
A transfer to the next flight meant some fun with US TSA agents. UA’s terminal 6 is in a pretty average state. Found a place for lunch with the woman from the previous flight to kill some time before our onward flights.
My flight this afternoon was to be operated by a 752, only my second flight on the type so I was looking forward to it.
Onboard service was the standard UA Buy on Board service, with 3 or 4 drinks rounds to complement. The other passenger in my row had his own alternative to UA’s prices and had bought with him what seemed like half of the buffet from his local restaurant. While the smell was good, I think the rubbish alone would have been enough to put him over his hand luggage allowance. A cloudy Chicago afternoon greeted us, with the shining light being the bright UA terminal.
The flight up to MSP was again, standard UA service. The only item of note, was the busty brunette in F who had stowed her hand luggage in the economy plus section and continually wanted to show all the Y folk her lacy undergarments by retrieving stuff from the overheads. I’m sure it was the first time a lot of the men in this section weren’t worried about the lack of IFE on the main screens!
MSP-DEN/DEN-LAX
The flights to MSP the previous week had given me over 10k miles flown on UA, so my mileage plus account had been credited duly with 4 x 500 mile upgrades. Since I wasn’t planning a trip to the states anytime again soon, I though I may as well use them on my way to LAX, both flight being operated by a 733.
The first UA flight of the morning to DEN, was to early for me and obviously to early for the flight attendant as well. After the single round of drinks after takeoff, I’m sure she must have been up in the galley having a sleep as I didn’t see her again until after landing. Which was a shame to, as she was one of what seems to be a rare breed on UA, flight attendants that are actually under the age of 40.
The DEN transfer was easy enough, just walk down about 6 or so gates, wait a couple of minutes while the gate agent knocks back 30 or so people who rush the line when the first boarding call is made, then make my way onto the aircraft where I am asked for my drink choice within seconds of sitting down.
While this flight attendant wasn’t as pleasing on the eye as that of the previous flight, she made up for it with some excellent service and some delicious apple pancakes. She continually made sure passengers had what they wanted throughout the flight and was more than happy to interrupt her Sudoku puzzle to help out with whatever you wanted. Chatted briefly with the guy next to me who was apparently an NFL player. Nice guy, did find out his name but didn’t care enough to remember it longer than what was actually served with the apple pancakes.
LAX-PHX
In the spirit of adventure, I thought I would take Southwest up to Phoenix to add another airline to the list. A 5 hour connection at LAX and the severe lack of any shops airside had me standing in the check in line for my WN flight around 15min after landing from PHX. The line moved slowly, and I whipped through check in via machine in quick time, to be told at the end that I couldn’t check in more than 4 hours before my flight. The attendant printed my boarding pass out anyway given it was now 4hr and 10min from departure time and I headed off to drop my bags on a big pile of bags at the TSA checkpoint, hoping in the next 4 hours it would find its way from the bottom of the growing pile to my fight.
Spending the best part of 4 hours in Terminal 1 was like trying to fill in 2 weeks holiday and your grandma’s house when you were a kid. I read a National Geographic back to front, browsed the net, used the men’s room god knows how many times, had lunch twice and still had to sit around killing time at the gate.
With my flight being the next to leave from gate 4 I think it was, I was getting excited about my upcoming flight. After all, all of these people standing in line 30 min before boarding even starts must mean that something brilliant was coming up. Last time I lined up for that long without being forced to was to get tickets to a Beastie Boys concert and I remembered how good that was, so this must have going to be awesome.
WRONG!!!
Not going to list all my gripes here, just a couple. The flight attendants looked like they should be working in a home wares store or something, not having you put their lives in your hands. All wore different combinations of the “uniform” and none looked any good. When it came time for the round of drinks, our row was missed for some reason. I was busy doing the airline geek thing and was glued to the window so didn’t notice until the guy next to me complained. By this time we had already started out descent, so while thumbs up for the flight attendant not charging for the beers, telling us we had to drink it while he stood there as he had to collect the rubbish took me back to a high school drinking game.
PHX-LAX
After a good night visiting a couple of mates, I arrived at PHX to do a bit of spotting before an early afternoon flight. I had been hooked up with a buddy pass on US from one of the mates I had visited and the 1300 or so departure was very lightly loaded with only 17 booked on the CR9. Perfect for me, the type I had wanted to fly. No names called at the podium for standbys, just the boarding passes left for people to collect. On board, we were told to sit wherever we wanted, with that call being changed to allow for balance issues. Acceleration on takeoff was quick! Certainly would beat my Honda off the line that’s for sure. Drinks, pretzels blah blah, you know the deal.
LAX-SYD/SYD-MEL
A 1.5hour delay greeted us when we arrived at the gate. This was soon cut down to an hour as they seemed to have fixed the problem early. While looking for something other than a beer to cure my headache, I came across some headache tablets with a sleeping formula in the newsagent. The recommended dosage was one tablet, so naturally I took two. Once on board another problem arose with one of the doors not being able to be closed. A quick fix and we were off. Not that I remember this part. The sleeping component of those headache tablets had kicked in and I awoke briefly while we were speeding down the rwy and then not again for 8 hours or so. At this stage I probably should have popped a couple more tablets with around 6 hours still to go, a flat laptop and some very average movies on the overhead. Breakfast was very average, it was the first time I had been served up with pancakes that were crunchy!
Landing in SYD meant a trip through transfer security and the dumping of my liquids from LAX.
Back onto the same plane for the quick trip to MEL and another hand search of the luggage at the gate. Enroute it was overheard on channel 9, a call being placed by the flight deck to the maintenance guys at LAX that had dealt with the problem that delayed the flight initially. We were experiencing the same temperature problems with the number 4 engine. The flight would later be delayed departing from MEL back to SYD so they must have been having a tinker with it there.
Less than 3 weeks after getting home from this trip, it was time to head off on vacation. I would be heading to Europe and the UK on a variety of carriers for 3.5 weeks of sun (or so I had hoped).
Itinerary was booked as:
MEL-BKK (TG 772)
BKK-AMS (BR 744)
AMS-STN/STN-AMS (U2)??
AMS-LHR (BD A320)
LHR-DUB/DUB-LHR (EI A321/A321)
LHR-AMS (BD A320)
AMS-BKK (BR 744)
BKK-MEL (TG 722)
MEL-BKK
A very long check in line for tonight’s late departure, with not a lot of spare seats visible once on board. This flight is a favorite with holiday makers, with the sparse number of bags once arriving in BKK confirming the high number of connecting passengers. Boarding was called extremely early with the result being a departure 10min early. When booking this flight I was a devote aisle seat passenger on long haul flying. I’ve since discovered the joys of sleeping in the window seat and tonight was a night I wish I had one. The fact that the guy in the window was ordering drinks before boarding had finished meant that my planned sleep for the flight wasn’t looking to good. And how right I was! Up, down, up, down, up, down! This guy was worse than a jack in the box. Some good Thai hospitality though meant that the waking hours passed quickly. One particular feature of this fairly new 772ER that impressed me was the mood lighting. The red/orange light at dinner time meant that those wanting to sleep could do so, while those eating could still see what they were eating. Same thing for breakfast, this time a blue light though. Nice touch.
Arrival in the early hours at the new BKK airport was easy as always. With a whole 22 or so hours to fill, checked luggage was dropped off and it was off to do battle with the heat of Bangkok for the day, consisting off some spotting, shopping in central Bangkok and the odd sleep on the airports seating.
BKK-AMS
EVA check in opened promptly 3 hours before departure. My seat that I had chosen after booking in the Evergreen Deluxe cabin provided ample room for the flight to AMS today. It was interesting to note that while other airlines persist with small Y+ cabins, EVA has devoted a large chuck of the Y cabin to the upgraded Y+ product, and today’s flight proved its popularity with every seat full. Departure into a thundery Bangkok sky provided a nice bumpy ride which hampered my sleeping efforts slightly. I was awoken at one stage to be asked my meal choice for dinner which I declined given it was around 4am BKK time. Around 8 hours after departure I awoke to the smell of breakfast.
I’m not to sure if the PTVs actually showed anything during the flight. The main screen showed nothing for the most part except the flight show and a few adverts for the airlines products towards the end of the flight. As always, arrival to AMS was a no brainer, no forms to fill out, no interrogation of your passport, just a stamp and a smile and your on your way.
AMS-STN/STN-AMS
These flights were meant to be to attend the Duxford Flying legends show. However the forecast looked pretty ordinary midweek so the decision was made to pull the plug and spend an extra couple of days with the family. Or course the weather ended up being decent, but you can’t win them all!
AMS-LHR
Time to bring this part of my trip to an end. After nearly 2 weeks visiting family in my fathers homeland, it was time to head off for some plane geeking. My father was flying out to SIN/MEL 10min before me so we checked in and hit the bar for a few last drinks (there had been plenty over the previous 2 weeks). Eventually staggering my way down to the gate with a quick stop for another ale, the A320 flight to LHR boarded 10min late, but I wasn’t in a state to care. A quick service was offered was airborne, and it was another drink and dinner that had me a few to many pounds poorer. Arrival to T1 at LHR reminded my more of a hospital ward than an airport, which seemed appropriate given the scrubbers BMI had tried to pass as flight attendants on the flight across.
LHR-DUB/DUB-LHR
Following more than just a few drinks with my dad the night before while we had awaited our prospective flights, meant that my alarm at 0330 the next morn for my return flight to DUB (wanting to fly the A321) was slept straight through. This is the first time I’ve missed an alarm wakeup ever. Waking up a couple of hours later and realizing my flight was about to leave sent me back to bed and some much needed sleep for a few more hours.
LHR-AMS
A nice surprise on today’s flight. When boarding we were herded out onto the tarmac and onto waiting buses. A trip through the heart of Heathrow (the English have even managed to put roundabouts down here as well) and we pull up at our aircraft. Was certainly a surprise to see a star alliance scheme and it was even better to see it on an A321 instead of the scheduled A320.
AMS-BKK
Time to begin the trip home. This flight has awkward timing as the lunchtime departure makes it hard to sleep on board, while then arriving in BKK in the early hours. The fist meal service about 1.5 hours out of Amsterdam, was disappointing in that there was only one choice of meal by the time the cart got to us, about ¾ of the way through the cabin. Not much of a movie choice, but was enough to keep me occupied long enough. It was interesting to see the seat belt sign come on as we crossed the Afghanistan border and not turn off for the rest of the flight. At no point did anyone pay attention to it, so there always ended up being people walk around during turbulence. During the time over Afghanistan it was also interesting to watch three fighters of some sort doing circles over an area below us. Not a lot of people around at 0430 on arrival into Bangkok, except the heat that is, that’s one thing that’s always around.
BKK-MEL
Certainly was glad to be boarding the final flight home, and judging by the amount of passengers rushing the gate at the slightest hint of boarding, I wasn’t the only one. Departure had us level out at around 5,000 feet to allow traffic to pass overhead on approach to BKK. The usual chop as is expected in these parts. Through this time around I would put the IFE through it’s paces and it performed well. Sound quality was pretty good and the screen a decent size. Got through a couple of movies as well as some music, only getting around an hour or so of sleep for the flight. Landed at a quiet Melbourne airport to a sea of customs officers in the jetway and around the baggage carousel. No guessing why they pay extra attention to the BKK flights, myself being questioned separately about my movements outside of the normal areas and being sent for a hand search of my bag which never eventuated.