Saturday 19 December 2009

Trans-Pacific on Air Pacific

If you checked SPOT you already know that we arrived in Australia Thursday afternoon; I wasn’t able to get a good clear view of the sky at the Fiji airport so SPOT shows a straight line from LAX to SYD.

We were the first in line when the check-in counters at LAX opened up at 1630 on Tuesday. We then hauled our checked baggage to the big x-ray machine and headed up-stairs for dinner. After dinner, I returned to the check-in counter to see if we could get a seat in “the bubble” on our 747-400. Unlike most airlines that fly the 747, Air Pacific uses the upstairs cabin for coach passengers, but does not assign seats there, you must ask for them when you check in. I asked and we got; the bubble was not full and as soon as boarding was completed there was a scramble for the empty seats in the back of the cabin. Several passengers were able to secure three seats for themselves so they could stretch out and sleep during the 10 ½ flight to Fiji. We got seats in the first row behind the emergency exit so were able to stretch our legs out--nice!

The flight attendants were pleasant, seats comfy enough, no lines for the lav, and two nice meals were served. On landing in Fiji we were surprised to find that we had to go through security screening again--one machine for approximately 200 passengers--took over an hour. We did have a very upsetting experience during this process, however. We had purchased a nice bottle of Jack Daniels Silver Select Whiskey for Brian Vanden Hogen, our host in Sydney, and were looking forward to presenting it to him. Unfortunately, the bottle was confiscated even though it was still in its sealed duty free bag from LAX! Needless to say we were in no mood to even look around the duty-free shops that surrounded our waiting area.

The flight from Fiji was fine, smooth and on-time. We got a little anxious when getting our luggage as our bags were among that last off the plane. Immigration and customs went well and Brian was waiting to take us to his nicely located and appointed condo that will be home during our time in Sydney.

2 comments:

  1. Great way to see the country with SPOT on the satellite images! Check out the vegetable gardens for me OK?
    DJP

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  2. Does Fiji have some religious ban, or some silly crap like that? Those cretenous troglodytes!
    Parts of the US are under snow; L.A. was in the 70's & dry today.
    Paul S
    {|||O|||} = :)

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