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Published: August 9th 2012
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Today is our first day of our awesome trip to Australia, the land down under. Michael, Cindy’s Dad and I arrived at the Houston airport (IAH) around 3:15pm. Our flight was scheduled for 5:20pm. Before going to the gate we stopped at the United Club in Terminal E for a few beverages and snacks. We began boarding at 4:40pm. We were very fortunate to be in first class for our first leg of the flight. Cindy’s Dad was very generous to miles to upgrade Michael and I.
As mentioned, our flight was scheduled to depart at 5:20pm, however the fueling crew had difficulty loading the fuel. We were delayed 40 minutes. We finally left at 6:00pm. While on the plane, United served a great dinner. There were two choices, short ribs or penne pasta. Michael and I had the short ribs and Cindy’s Dad had the pasta. The meal also included a small shrimp cocktail, dinner salad, dinner roll. For dessert, a hot chocolate chip cookie. Very low calorie diet, not… One observation I have about the first class crew is they are very friendly and quick and willing to make customer service a priority. Michael was very excited to
be sitting in first class. I is great seeing him happy like that.
When we arrive in LAX we had a 3.5 hour layover. Like in Houston we waited in the United Club. This club was much smaller than Houston with fewer amenities.
Around 9:30pm we proceeded to our gate to board our Sydney flight. Again we are very fortunate, thanks to Cindy’s Dad, we were able to upgrade to business class. The plane was a 747-400 series. A few weeks back Michael heard that plane has two levels in business class. He wanted to sit on the second level. I worked my magic before leaving and moved our seats to the second level. When entering the plane Michael immediately went up the stairs. Interestingly enough our seats were rear facing. A strange feeling. The seats also reclined and converted into a bed, Wow. Michael and Dad were very excited to be experiencing this. Our flight was 14 hours, so the seating arrangement was awesome.
Before taking off, we were presented with a sundry kit and food menu. The menu was great. The menu included an appetizer, main course and dessert for dinner. I had the salmon and Michael had the pasta. Half way into the flight we were offered snacks. A few hours before landing we had breakfast, cheese omelet, yummy.
Aside from the food, the in-flight entertainment was great. We had movies on demand and if you needed to stop the movie there was a pause feature. I had never experienced that before.
We arrived in Sydney at 6:10am, Thursday, August 9. Between the time change and distance of flight, Wednesday somehow disappeared in front of us. Talk about the day going by fast.
Thursday we will visit the Blue Mountains on an organized tour. Stay tuned for my next blog to include pictures.
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