Travelogue Day 1

5/24/06

I didn't get all of my cleaning done before leaving the apartment, so that'll be fun to come back to. I also left 30 minutes later than I had intended, but I still managed to get to the airport, check in, and get through security by the time I had intended to arrive at the airport. Sometimes the speed of the MBTA is surprising. Now, I sit looking out the windows listening to the breaking news of an airport fire in Istanbul on CNN.

DFW: In 30 minutes early. I actually remembered the rules to the card game I know as Idiot thanks to two pretty girls sitting next to me on the flight who were playing cards, which jogged my memory. The rules can be found here.

LAX: Got in about on time and, luckily, Qantas departures to Sydney are run out of the same terminal that American Airlines uses. I had a very short walk from picking up my bags to the beginning of the best flying experience of all my traveling.

The Qantas people at check-in were very pleasant and helpful. Getting through security was a bit of a pain because they only had two screening stations open, but once through, the wait for the plane wasn't bad. I met Devon, and we had a little something to eat as we waited for everyone else to arrive.

Once on the plane, the experience got very much better. I was seated in a window rather than an aisle seat, but it made little difference. The gentleman seated at the aisle was quite agreeable and accomodated me each time I wanted to get up.

Qantas gives each passenger on overnight flights a little kit with a sleeping mask, socks, and a travel toothbrush with a bit of toothpaste. On our plane, we even had personal terminals with on-demand access to the onboard media library of 40 or more movies, various TV episodes, a number of CDs, and video games (if I'm leaving anything out, it's because there was just so much to take in). The whole setup is great. In the morning, the crew even came by with hot cloths for freshening up.

Speaking of the crew, they were excellent as well. I have absolutely no complaints with this flight; it was super. I don't know if all Qantas flights are like this one, but if they are, I would encourage anyone thinking of flying to Australia to travel with Qantas. Any possible extra cost for the ticket is more than made up for by the quality of the experience.
(No, they aren't paying me to say that)