The Sydney Opera House as we saw it last Friday, February 26th.Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm way late on updating this blog as far as our trip to Australia is concerned. It's been busy enough, it's been fun enough, and the trip is going well so far. This entry is mostly quick thoughts and observations of the trip so far.
• Our flights to Los Angeles were excellent examples of how to cut an expected 4-hour time cushion in LAX in half. We got to the airport in Shreveport in plenty of time. Mom brought us over and hung out with us until we felt it was time to proceed through security to get to our gate. Jonnene took a little longer to get thru because her arm sling needed some extra going-over by the TSA folks there. When we got to the gate we found out that our flight to Dallas was going to be delayed by almost an hour, and it was. Well, almost, about 50 minutes later...and our jet had been replaced by a turbo-prop. Well, okay, the pilot puts on the burners but we still get to DFW much later than planned....but we manage to get to our connecting flight (on the opposite side of DFW, by the way) with time to spare. But it didn't matter....we actually leave the gate, pulling out about 50 yards when we stop for a long while. Then the pilot comes on, saying that we're returning to the gate because he doesn't like the sound of our left engine. We couldn't tell if the sound was odd but if the pilot doesn't like it then I'm fine with not flying! We find out that a hydraulic pump in the engine has to be replaced and we leave the plane to sit around the gate area. About two hours after we were supposed to be in the air, we finally reboarded our flight and headed on to LA. We arrive at LAX with just over two hours before our plane to Australia is supposed to leave, so we rush to get our bags over to the Bradley International Terminal and check in. Well, miracle of miracles, we fly through check-in and security with hardly a wait in line...and find ourselves with over an hour to kill before we even start boarding the plane!!
• We flew on the new Aerobus A380 that is the jewel of the Qantas fleet. First off, the plane is NICE...it is extremely quiet (you can easily talk to anyone without raising your voice and be heard clearly). It is big and has plenty of amenities such as a "pantry" you can visit at any time to get drinks and food. You can see a tour of the aircraft HERE. However, we had our problems with the economy section. First off, we're never flying it again after this trip. It has its pluses but not enough to overcome the tighter spaces and the amazing amount of tilt the seats have that let the one in front of you practically hit you in the head if you're leaning too far forward when the passenger in front drops his seat back. Suffice it to say that we will fly Premium Economy whenever we fly Qantas internationally in the future. More leg room and wider seats...of course you pay more for it but both Jonnene and I think it's worth the extra expense. We'd prefer to fly business but I don't think we can afford the +/- $10,000 it would cost for a seat round trip!
More to come....it's Saturday night here and my eyes are drooping....
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