Saturday, 28 August 2010
I decided to take my chances and use a Delta Family Pass to go to Sydney. After all, it saved me about $500, and that's money I could spend on other stuff, like getting from Sydney to Melbourne and back, and the hotels, neither of which are very cheap.
The travel route for today is Tampa to Atlanta, Atlanta to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Sydney. I had booked myself on the 12:10pm flight from Tampa to Atlanta, but due to the fact that my 1-hour nap Friday night turned into 6 hours, I was asleep when I should have been packing. Needless to say, I still had much to do this morning, and I just didn't get it all done in time to make it to the airport in time for that flight. Plus, I still had to stop by the mailbox place to pick up the Aussie plug and power converters that arrived on Friday.
Since I am flying standby, it's no big deal to change my flight. I got to the airport and went to the check-in kiosks like I always do, only it wouldn't work. Turns out that I needed to have a visa to visit Australia. I don't remember seeing that in any of the travel books, or anywhere on the AussieCon website. I must have been looking in all the wrong places. So, I had to go to the regular ticket counter where two wonderful Delta employees helped me purchase my visa online. It was $20. Not bad.
Turns out that I had got to the airport before the 12:10 flight left, but not in time for me to board the flight, so I was listed for the 1:25pm flight. Off I went to wait at gate 62. By the time the screens started showing the flight information, I was happy to see that there would not be a problem getting on the flight. I crossed my fingers that the trend would continue. The flight to Atlanta is relatively short, about an hour. While this flight did have WiFi, I decided to crochet on the baby afghan I brought along, and save the WiFi for later flights.
* * * * *
For those of you who have ever been to the Atlanta airport, you will understand why I was amazed that the gate I landed at was only 5 away from the one I would take off from! Since I only had a 1-hour layover in Atlanta, I bought an expensive sandwich & soda to eat for lunch on the plane. While they do feed you in Coach, you have to buy the food, and it isn't cheap on the plane, either. Oh, they no longer take cash on Delta, just plastic. Isn't it illegal to refuse to take cash as payment? I'll have to look that one up.
Again, once the screens started showing the flight information, I was happy to see that there would not be a problem getting on the flight. Whew! I only had 2 chances to get to LA in time to make the 10:35pm Sydney flight, and considering it's a 14-hour flight to Sydney, I wanted the extra time in LA to stretch my legs.
I was disappointed to find that this flight had no WiFi. Some of the cross-country Delta planes do, but I guess this one hadn't been upgraded yet. It did, however, have the individual video screens on the back of every seat. I took advantage of the free showing of the pilots for LoneStar (Fox) and The Big C (Showtime). Both were very good, and totally different shows. After that, I pretty much slept the rest of the way to LA, though I did take some cool photos of California from the air.
* * * * *
On the ground, safe and sound in LA. I bought some bright pink and yellow fuzzy socks from The Good Life store. I forgot to bring sleep socks for the plane, so I could take off my shoes and not have my feet freeze. I also bought one of those U-shaped sleep pillows since I'd left mine at home. This new one is much better than my old one, too. Lots softer. After getting coffee and a giant chocolate chip cookie, I went in search of a power outlet to charge my iPhone and iPad, and to make some reservations. Once upon a time, in what seems like a lifetime far far away, I did things ahead of time, and didn't wind up running out of time for everything, having to do it all at the last minute. I hope one day to be that way again. Until then, there I sat at LAX, making train reservations from Sydney to Melbourne and back. Figures that I wouldn't get to Sydney in time for the early train to Melbourne, and since it's a 12-hour trip through the Australian country-side, I'll be doing the first trip at night. At least the trip back to Sydney will be during the day, so I'll take photos then. I'll just sleep my way there Monday night. At least that's one less hotel night in Melbourne, right? As for a hotel, the convention is using a booking service, which I really hate, and they aren't reachable by other than email. I sent off a request. I'll see if I get a reply when I arrive in Sydney.
I had about 5 hours to kill before the flight to Sydney took off, and 4 hours before I needed to be at the right gate, so I just played around on the computer for a bit. Eventually it was time to wander over to gate 58 to see how the flight looked. I was totally amazed that there were still 9 seats available in Business Elite class (the equivalent of First Class on this flight), and only 5 people on the standby list. That meant that not only would we all be getting on the flight (there were 35 open seats in coach), but we'd also all be getting seats in Business Elite! How wonderful! These are the seats that fold down into beds! I can sleep laying down instead of sitting up.
When we got on the plane, the flight attendants suggested we change our watches to Sydney time, so it suddenly went from 10:20pm Pacific time on Saturday night to 3:20pm Sunday afternoon!
The travel route for today is Tampa to Atlanta, Atlanta to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Sydney. I had booked myself on the 12:10pm flight from Tampa to Atlanta, but due to the fact that my 1-hour nap Friday night turned into 6 hours, I was asleep when I should have been packing. Needless to say, I still had much to do this morning, and I just didn't get it all done in time to make it to the airport in time for that flight. Plus, I still had to stop by the mailbox place to pick up the Aussie plug and power converters that arrived on Friday.
Since I am flying standby, it's no big deal to change my flight. I got to the airport and went to the check-in kiosks like I always do, only it wouldn't work. Turns out that I needed to have a visa to visit Australia. I don't remember seeing that in any of the travel books, or anywhere on the AussieCon website. I must have been looking in all the wrong places. So, I had to go to the regular ticket counter where two wonderful Delta employees helped me purchase my visa online. It was $20. Not bad.
Turns out that I had got to the airport before the 12:10 flight left, but not in time for me to board the flight, so I was listed for the 1:25pm flight. Off I went to wait at gate 62. By the time the screens started showing the flight information, I was happy to see that there would not be a problem getting on the flight. I crossed my fingers that the trend would continue. The flight to Atlanta is relatively short, about an hour. While this flight did have WiFi, I decided to crochet on the baby afghan I brought along, and save the WiFi for later flights.
* * * * *
For those of you who have ever been to the Atlanta airport, you will understand why I was amazed that the gate I landed at was only 5 away from the one I would take off from! Since I only had a 1-hour layover in Atlanta, I bought an expensive sandwich & soda to eat for lunch on the plane. While they do feed you in Coach, you have to buy the food, and it isn't cheap on the plane, either. Oh, they no longer take cash on Delta, just plastic. Isn't it illegal to refuse to take cash as payment? I'll have to look that one up.
Again, once the screens started showing the flight information, I was happy to see that there would not be a problem getting on the flight. Whew! I only had 2 chances to get to LA in time to make the 10:35pm Sydney flight, and considering it's a 14-hour flight to Sydney, I wanted the extra time in LA to stretch my legs.
I was disappointed to find that this flight had no WiFi. Some of the cross-country Delta planes do, but I guess this one hadn't been upgraded yet. It did, however, have the individual video screens on the back of every seat. I took advantage of the free showing of the pilots for LoneStar (Fox) and The Big C (Showtime). Both were very good, and totally different shows. After that, I pretty much slept the rest of the way to LA, though I did take some cool photos of California from the air.
* * * * *
On the ground, safe and sound in LA. I bought some bright pink and yellow fuzzy socks from The Good Life store. I forgot to bring sleep socks for the plane, so I could take off my shoes and not have my feet freeze. I also bought one of those U-shaped sleep pillows since I'd left mine at home. This new one is much better than my old one, too. Lots softer. After getting coffee and a giant chocolate chip cookie, I went in search of a power outlet to charge my iPhone and iPad, and to make some reservations. Once upon a time, in what seems like a lifetime far far away, I did things ahead of time, and didn't wind up running out of time for everything, having to do it all at the last minute. I hope one day to be that way again. Until then, there I sat at LAX, making train reservations from Sydney to Melbourne and back. Figures that I wouldn't get to Sydney in time for the early train to Melbourne, and since it's a 12-hour trip through the Australian country-side, I'll be doing the first trip at night. At least the trip back to Sydney will be during the day, so I'll take photos then. I'll just sleep my way there Monday night. At least that's one less hotel night in Melbourne, right? As for a hotel, the convention is using a booking service, which I really hate, and they aren't reachable by other than email. I sent off a request. I'll see if I get a reply when I arrive in Sydney.
I had about 5 hours to kill before the flight to Sydney took off, and 4 hours before I needed to be at the right gate, so I just played around on the computer for a bit. Eventually it was time to wander over to gate 58 to see how the flight looked. I was totally amazed that there were still 9 seats available in Business Elite class (the equivalent of First Class on this flight), and only 5 people on the standby list. That meant that not only would we all be getting on the flight (there were 35 open seats in coach), but we'd also all be getting seats in Business Elite! How wonderful! These are the seats that fold down into beds! I can sleep laying down instead of sitting up.
When we got on the plane, the flight attendants suggested we change our watches to Sydney time, so it suddenly went from 10:20pm Pacific time on Saturday night to 3:20pm Sunday afternoon!
To view the photos that go along with this blog, I've posted them on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsears42/collections/
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