Leaving for China

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I had neglected Asia for so long now. It is so simple for us to jump over to Europe that it was easy to forget about Asia. I had only been to Tokyo and HK and the last time I was over there was in 2002. This needed to change.



The day started out very early for us. I was off work on Friday night at 12:30am and went home to change and pack. I had only made our final plans just hours before. It came down to Venice or Beijing and I ended up picking Beijing. That is the fun of stand-by! You never know where you will go. China was actually not even in the picture until we found out that they have a new 72 hour visa-free policy. We also had to do the nonrev shuffle because the flights from Indianapolis to Detroit became full.

I saw that Dayton was open and it is only about a two hour drive for us. So, we headed down the road for Dayton at about 3am. We got there at around 5am and checked in for the flight to Detroit. It was wide open so no worries there. We were on Delta Connection flight 4198 and I was in seat 2C on the CRJ-200 aircraft. That was a short 40 minute flight to the north and soon we were in Detroit.

We went to the Delta lounge upon arrival, where we would be for the next four hours. We had some food and drinks and then went to the gate about an hour before departure. The Beijing flight was wide open and we cleared for business class. We were in row 5 and I was in seat 5D on the 777-200 aircraft. We settled in for the 14 hour flight on Delta 189 to Beijing. Soon we were off for China! It was a smooth and routine flight and we enjoyed the meal service before going to sleep.

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