This entry revolves around travel, and may be a little too detailed for some, it was written mainly so I could remember the details for future trip planning.
A 5AM wake call started day 2 of the trip. We used the Hotel shuttle to get back to Airport at this unearthly hour after about 5½ hours sleep. The first two of todays flights were on United, of whom I had heard nothing but bad things! When the flights were booked there was no space left in business class so we were both at the back of the bus for this leg. About two weeks ago a seat opened up, so being the great guy that I am (and always in great need of brownie points) I gave it to Lyn! About three days before we travelled a second seat opened up, so I grabbed that for myself UNTIL I was told that taking the seat would result in an additional cost of $80 for taxes, fuel surcharge and a number of other scam-charges that I am sure Air Canada make up depending on the time of day, after all Lyn’s change was free. I then impolitely declined the seat and explained to Air Canada what they could do with their scam charges.
I tried again for my own business class seat when we checked in, but all had been filled, however I did get a premium economy seat which has more legroom than the standard back of the bus seat.
Next it was on to US immigration and customs. For those of you across the pond, a little info. Most major Canadian airports have facilities for US customs and immigration offices to operate. This means all the formalities are cleared prior to take off, and when you land in the US the flight is treated as a domestic one rather than an international one.
Even at 6AM the line-ups were long, it probably took close to 30 minutes to get through. Not enough time for a trip to the lounge this time.
Once on the aircraft (with Lyn happily seated in the pointy end) it turned out to be a very empty flight in the steerage section. Once the doors had closed I move to an emergency exit row seat that had no other seat in front of it, a good 6ft of legroom, or double what Lyn had.
Everything was looking good for an on-time departure as we taxied out until we stopped for a while, then shut the engines down. Not a good sign! A few minutes later they were restarted, and the trip continued normally. Turns out those pesky Air Traffic Controllers had delayed us and the engine shut down was to save fuel.
90 minute later we were in Chicago, and decided to spend the 2 hour wait in the lounge. We also needed breakfast as nothing was provide on the flight other than a dry cranberry scone for those in business class.
The next leg to Los Angeles left at 10AM and got in around 12:30. This time we got a hot lunch service, it was also the first meal I had on an aircraft that served soup. Once on the ground we had an 11 hour wait until the next flight. All in all United were nowhere as bad as I expected, another good omen for the trip.
To pass the time we decided to go to Venice Beach. For those who haven’t heard of it Venice beach is a couple of miles north of the airport, it seems to attract all manner of people; the skate-boarding guitarist with his on board amplifier, the marijuana advocates (there were at least three stores on the board walk offer medical marijuana assessments) in general just a weird bunch of people. We managed to pass away about 4 hours at the beach, and then back to the airport as it was around 29C and fairly humid.
Venice Beach
The rest of the time was spent in the Air New Zealand lounge, which is one of the best lounges I have been in. The first thing we did was to take a shower which was great after trudging around in the heat., There was an endless supply of good and varied food to keep us going including hot beef, scalloped potatoes, salad bar various breads and cheeses and brownies. Unlike Air Canada this wasn’t a onetime offering, the food was constantly being replenished. The time went reasonably quickly and around 1030 we were escorted to the check in area, past the waiting hordes straight to the front of the line, I am beginning to like Air New Zealand already!
Told you it be a long (and possible boring entry).