Thursday, February 06, 2020

Australia. January 22 – February 5, 2020.

This is another Chinese New Year trip we are making to Australia.

First about plane tickets, Anne didn’t make the last Hong Kong trip (11/2019) so had to rebook her flights (at a cost of around $300, I forget the actual amount), she rebooked from her original itinerary (via the West Coast) to our current one, pay another penalty, and still came up ahead.  I just did a straightforward booking, at one of the lowest prices I have seen for this route (a little less than $900).

As usual we left our packing till the last minute, so had to scramble a bit to get ready. 

Wednesday 1/22.  We left the house around 12:45 pm for a 2:35 pm flight.  Security at EWR wasn’t too bad, and we saved a little bit of time by using CLEAR.  Anne is in first class, I am in coach.  With an empty seat next to me I’m very comfortable.  Anne enjoyed her seat very much, and managed to get some sleep, which was good.

Priority Pass allowed us to eat at Landry’s Seafood at IAH, which was on our way to the gate for UA101.  Food was good, a bit expensive.  We still had time to stop by the United Club to have a light snack before we boarded.


 The 787-9 reached an elevation of 40,000 feet.

The pressure inside the cabin is about 6200 feet.  (The reference value may be off a bit, but this should be a reasonable indication of the pressure.)

Economy Plus wasn’t very crowded on this flight, and Anne and I were in the middle seats with an empty seat between us.  The flight was over 16 hours long, and felt long today.  Otherwise no complaints, except they had to close one of the bathrooms during the flight, and coach sections are not known for the number of bathrooms they have.  A slight nuisance especially towards the end of the flight.

Friday 1/24.  We got in a bit before 7 am, and with the automated system immigration was straightforward (the USA has a lot to learn from Australia and the UK, especially for how long foreigners have to wait to clear immigration).  We had some chocolate and energy bars with us, so customs asked a couple of questions.

Ruth and Stephen were going to pick us up, but we mis-communicated as to when.  The upshot was we ended up using Priority Pass for breakfast at Mach 2.  I knew enough from past trips to print out a paper boarding pass, but still had to explain why I got in this morning, given the flight left two days ago.  We then went to Market City, a Chinatown shopping center, and when The Eight opened for business, had some light dim sum dishes.  It had been a couple of years since I last visited, and the place has been transformed.

Oh, and when we stepped into the open air from the airport building, we could smell smoke, a result of the raging bush fires in NSW (and other provinces), many of which set by arsonists.

It rained before we landed, and one could see all this "stuff" from the smoke washed down onto cars.  Because of the drought, use of water is restricted.  (Photo by Anne.)

We were then dropped off at Pier One, a Marriott property that we booked with a certificate.  Tim had stayed here before and complained about the low room ceilings, we have a room with a gabled ceiling so don’t get the same claustrophobic feeling.

Our room at the Pier One Hotel, a Marriott property.  Tim in an earlier stay complained about a low ceiling.  Our room has this gabled ceiling which was a lot better.


After settling down, I walked by myself to the Opera House, a short distance away as the crow flies, over a mile as one has to walk around Circular Quay.  The Sydney Guide available at the airport has a coupon for 20% off, but the actual discount was not in the system yet – as the marketing and the IT departments don’t talk enough.  So it took a while to get that straightened out; and when the agent said “we do the best we can,” I couldn’t help (after telling her she wasn’t the problem) responding that “I hope your best is better than this.”  Anyway, bought two tickets for Don Giovanni tonight.

Anne and I talked about but decided against going out in the afternoon.  I wanted but failed to get any sleep.  We took our time walking back to the Opera House, stopping by Hungry Jack for dinner, Anne had the Chipotle Angus, I the Chorizo Angus – they sell a much larger variety of burgers.

The Ovation of the Seas is a large cruise ship that can accommodate close to 5,000 passengers.  Several of its passengers were lost to the White Island volcanic eruption in early December 2019.  It left port by the time we were done with the opera.

 Curtain call, Mozart's Don Giovanni.

We didn’t get out of the opera until after 10:30 pm, and got back to the hotel after 11.

 Testing the low-light capability of the iPhone 11.

Accommodations.  Sydney Pier One (1 night).

Saturday 1/25.  There are a few restaurants that serve breakfast in Walsh Bay, a few minutes walk from the hotel.  We had hearty breakfasts (bacon an eggs in my case) there.

After hotel check out we took a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car for the next few days.  The “only” car in our requested size was a Camry Hybrid, and I am still trying to get used to how it behaves (like how quiet it is when the car is at rest).  More challenging has been adapting to driving on the left side of the road.  I am sure the lanes in Australian roads are wide enough, but they all feel narrow when your tendency is to drift the car left, and either Anne or the lane departure warning system would warn me of being too close to the curb.

Nonetheless, I managed to drive first to Le Perouse to have lunch, then to the Eastern Suburbs Cemetery, before driving all the way up to Gosford (total distance around 60 miles) where the others were already there.  In this case the “others” are Tim & Whitney, Ruth & Stephen, Alfred & family, Wilson & family, and Susanna & family; 17 people altogether.  While Wilson and Alfred were cooking the BBQ dinner, Chris was trying to get the small dinghy working – which he did, and gave the children rides on the inlet.

Visiting my parents' graves at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Gardens.


Fish & Chips and Salad at Danny's Cafe, Le Perouse.  (Photo by Anne.)

Frenchman's Beach at Le Perouse was quite busy.  (Photo by Anne.)

Seventeen of us at the East Gosford house.

Stephen's birthday is in early February.  He will turn 89.


East Gosford House as seen from the pier.  Boat house in foreground.  (Photo by Anne.)


View of Brisbane Water from house.

Accommodations.  East Gosford House (4 nights).

Sunday 1/26.  We spent the day driving around the area.  Breakfast was at a nearby café, the staff there told us several points in the area that were worth visiting: the Entrance, Crackneck Point, and Terrigal Beach.

We started by driving around the “harbor” (not exactly sure what to call it) which is called Brisbane Water.  Woy Woy is near the inlet into the ocean, and the town was all set up for Australian Day, meaning many streets were blocked.  Our original plan was to have Fish & Chips there, but decided it was both too early and not worth the hassle.  People were already camped out around the Terrigal area, but we managed to find parking in town (it is an one-hour parking zone so spaces do open up).  We had a Fish & Chips lunch at a seaside restaurant (Fishbonez Café), and walked on the beach before heading out to the next destination: Crackneck Lookout.

When we last visited The Entrance it was after their peak tourist season; things were serene.  Today it was like a fair with rides, and again many downtown streets were block.  This time we parked a few blocks away and walked to the actual “entrance” (an inlet).  The pelicans were still there, but there were lots of people in the inlet, walking and swimming.

Norah Head is another 15 minutes north.  The lighthouse is still operational, its lenses spinning around.  The geology of the shore is certainly varied, and interesting.  We spent some time walking on the beach and the rock formations.

 Seafood Platter at Fish Bonez Restaurant in Terrigal Bay.

It is Australia Day, and a nice day.  All the coastal towns are crowded.

View of Bateau Bay from Crackneck Point.


The inlet at The Entrance is crowded with holiday makers.  Many standing in the channel.  I was more interested in catching the pelicans.  Good that Anne snapped this picture.

Norah Head Lighthouse was first built in 1903.  It is still in use today.

Norah Head Lighthouse viewed from the beach.

Sand dunes in a distance.

Some interesting rock formations.  These cracks had to be natural, or are they man-made?

After that we headed back to Brisbane Water and to Ironbark Point.  From there one could get a reasonably good view of the house we are staying in.

The house seen across Brisbane Waters.  It is the white one above the structure of the boat.

Dinner was at Golden Lotus Restaurant in town.

When we got back, Tim and his friends Isen and Winnie were already home.  Isen brought along ingredients for a meal, and I ate a small piece of the Wagyu beef he prepared.

Monday 1/27.  Most of the day was spent on various chores.  For lunch we went to Erina Fair Shopping Center, we also bought some groceries for dinner tonight.

While Tim and Whitney went out to try to get masks and goggles for Alyson (supplies running low for medical staff who are combatting the Wuhan virus), Anne and I drove to Bouddi National Park for a visit.  It was about a 30 minute drive.  The only noteworthy event was the credit card reader (for admission) grabbed on to my credit card, and I had to find a nearby camper with a pair of pliers to pull it out.

Given the threat of mosquitoes, we took only a short walk along the beach.

 Putty Beach at Bouddi National Park.

Interesting rock formation at the end of the beach.

Ruth was the main cook this evening, chicken curry and grilled salmon.

Tuesday 1/28.  It took a while to get the four of us (Anne, Tim, Whitney, and me) organized, and we ended up heading out for lunch at The Coast in Gosford.  The food was well-prepared, the portions were large, so we ended up taking quite a bit home.

 Selfie at The Coast Restaurant.

We ordered a lot of food.

Tim and I put the engine on the dinghy, which we managed after quite a bit of struggle, at one point nearly dropping the entire engine into the water.  The small boat ran quite well and we took it along the shore back to the Coast Restaurant before heading back.

Anne and I then planned to visit Nelson Bay, which is about 2 hours away.  It didn’t take long before we realized that was a bit too ambitious, so we changed our plan to driving around Lake Macquarie.  The first town we stopped at was Toronto, a little after 3 pm, which is undergoing considerable redevelopment.  Part of the foreshore needed a lot of work.  That evidently isn’t to some people’s liking, and we saw a banner saying “we need a masterplan.”  What upset me the most was the carrot cake I bought was blown off the table before I finished it!  Just a bit beyond Swansea is Reid’s Reserve and Reid’s Mistake, must sees for us as Reid is our grandchild’s name.  This is where ocean enters Lake Macquarie and we saw some rowing crews training at the inlet; things looked difficult.

The Entrance was quiet when we got there (about 5:30 pm), the heavy rain didn’t help.  Only pelicans and seagulls were about, we didn’t see one single person in the inlet.  (I didn’t mention this earlier, The Entrance is the inlet for Tuggerah Lake.)

We stopped by Erina Fair Mall again, most of the shops were closed, including the food court.  We did get some burgers at the Grill’d.  It was after 7:30 pm when we got home.

Our grandson's name is Reid, so he'll probably find Reid's Reserve and Reid's Mistake quite interesting.


 We see a couple of surf boating practicing in the inlet (Lake Entrance to Lake Macquarie).  This boat was doing high speed turns, another one braved the breaking waves and went out to see.  Life saving is serious business in Australia, with its many beautiful but dangerous beaches.

Grill'd at Erina Fair Shopping Mall.

Wagyu burger served in a low-carb "bun."

Tim took the boat out again this afternoon, and the engine quit a few minutes into the ride.  It took him about half an hour to row the boat back to the house.

Wednesday 1/29.  Today was a day of travel.  We left the house a few minutes before 10 am, and drove straight to the airport, or rather a gas station close to the airport.  We put 530 km (329 miles) on the car, and that used about 22 liters (5.8 gallons).  Works out to 56.7 mpg, so this hybrid does put in impressive gas economy.  When I tried to get our luggage tags from the Qantas kiosk, I got a note that we had to see a service agent.  Turns out the auto-bag drop system wasn’t working, so everyone had to see an agent.  The terminal was quite quiet, so it was not an issue.

The agent printed out new boarding passes for us, and I found out our seats wee 25B and C, and the Qantas APP showed 7E and F.  The seats I picked when I booked the tickets, and when I checked in yesterday, were 47K and L, the side seats in an A330.  The switched the plane from the A330 to a B737, which means a lot fewer seats (around 250 to 180), and a full plane.  I was dreading the 4:30 hour flight a bit, but it ended up being okay.  The movie (Terminator) I was trying to watch kept resetting (a problem they decided not to fix), so I saw only half of it; WiFi worked reasonably well – and was free.

I had no preconception of what Perth is like, but the airport terminal looked modern enough.  Taxi into town cost close to A$40, Uber probably around A$30.  We got upgraded to a suite at the Hyatt Regency, which was a nice surprise.  Our stay also afforded us access to the lounge, where we went for snacks after settling down.  Dinner was at a small Chinese Restaurant on Hay Street, and the dishes remind me of those we had in Gosford.

Another impression of Perth is this is a small city.  Adelaide and Hay appear to be the main streets that lead to the CBD.  By the time we were out and about (around 5 pm) there was little pedestrian traffic.
We got upgraded to a suite at the Hyatt Regency.



View of the Swan River from the Regency Lounge at our hotel.

Simple dinner (Mongolian Beef and Qwai Diu) at Munch Terrace.

Accommodation: Hyatt Regency Perth (4 nights).


Thursday 1/30.  Today was spent on visiting Rottnest Island.

Rottnest Island was named by the Dutch when they encountered these small marsupials known today as the Quokka, which the Dutch mistook as giants rats, thus the name.  The island’s fame is helped by people such as Roger Federer taking selfie’s with these cute animals.  They used to roam over much of Australia, but populations were killed off by foxes and cats brought over by the Europeans (British being the main culprits) as game and pets.  About 12,000 of them live on this island.   Despite signs all over asking tourists not to touch or feed them, those that live around human settlements tend to get sick, and have a life expectancy about half of those in the wild (4 to 5 years vs 11 or so).


The other notoriety of the island is its use as prison for aboriginals, who were incarcerated for the slightest “crimes,” many because of cultural differences.

The waters around the island are clear, partly because there are no rivers on the island that drain into the sea.  And there are many small secluded beaches protected from the elements.

We were picked up at around 8:05 am by the tour company’s bus, which made many stops before dropping us off at the Barrack Street Jetty where we picked up our tickets and boarded the ship for the island.  The “tour” consists of a roundtrip ferry ticket and a bus tour.

The photos of these quokkas are certainly cute.  They are all over the ferry terminal and the island.  We did see a few live ones.


The ferry took us on an hour-long cruise down the Swan River which drains into the Indian Ocean at Freemantle.  Along the river are 10 yacht clubs, including the Royal Perth Yacht Club which won the America’s Cup in 1983.  After picking up more passengers at “Shed B,” the ferry did the rather rough crossing to Rottnest Island.

The ferry that took us from Perth to Rottnest Island, and from Freemantle to Perth.

 City of Perth behind us.

The bus took us on a 90-minute round the island tour that passed by several beaches, the Wadjemup Lighthouse, and a few quokkas.  While it was a pleasant journey, and the commentary from the guide was interesting, both Anne and I kept thinking “Kangaroo Island.”

The chapel was completed in 1858 with prison aboriginal labor, used as a chapel until 1904 when the prison was closed.  It was rededicated as an Anglican church in 1965 and has been in use ever since.

Visitation of Mary with Elizabeth.

The Tea Tree (or Maleleuca) tends to lean in one direction.  The guide said it wasn't so much the wind but rather the trees were trying to avoid the salt in the air.

At the Cape Vlamingh Viewing Platform at the western end of the island.  South Africa is due west.

Shearwaters could be seen flying around.  (Not in this photo.)

Some of the informational stand are, well, informational.  This talks about the natural diversity of the area.

This is on display in the Island Museum, describes how the rising ocean created the Island.

There are twelve osprey nests on the island.  This is visible from the road.  We saw an osprey carry a fish.

Wadjemup Lighthouse, first lit in 1896, was the only lighthouse on the island until the City of York ran aground in 1899 when it was deemed necessary to build a second lighthouse (Bathurst).  Wadjemup is the name of the island in the native language.

Rottnest Island was considered strategically important as guns during WWII could reach Freemantle and Perth from this island.


Bathurst Lighthouse.

A peacock, a quokka, and I are having a meal together.  (Anne took photo.)

My feeble attempt at a Quokka Selfie.

The mother (above photo) has mottled skin due to her eating human food.  This joey still looks healthy.

After having lunch (pies and cake) at Rottnest Bakery, I walked to the Bathurst Lighthouse and we then visited the island museum, a small building with information on the history, geology, flora and fauna of the island.  As to the latter, the island is mostly limestone, was connected to the mainland until about 6500 years ago when the oceans rose considerably.

We took an earlier ferry to get to Fremantle where we spent about an hour – not much happening there, and then caught the scheduled ferry from Freemantle back to Perth, arriving at around 6:45 pm.

We didn't see much in Freemantle, but did come across this St. Patrick's Basilica.

Dinner was at a Korean restaurant in the CBD, and we took the free bus back to the hotel.

Friday 1/31.  Breakfast was at the hotel’s café, a full buffet that may (or may not) cost A$15 per person.  In any case, we ate quite a bit of it.

We decided to give Freemantle a chance.  Our main objective was to visit the Fremantle Prison, which was built with convict labor by the British, then turned over to the state as a “modern era” prison, starting around 1902, although the conditions for the inmates did not improve much.  As an example, all the “toilets” inside the cells remained buckets – the brief introduction of portable toilets was suspended as the inmates used the chemicals to make alcohol.

There were several tours to choose from, we picked the “Behind Bars Tour,” a 90-minute walk through various parts of the prison led by a guide (Ian in our case).  It was interesting, somehow reminded me of Alcatraz, but somewhat expected.  The only uncomfortable part of the tour was the death chamber where over 40 inmates were hanged.  It was last used in 1964, and Australia abolished the death penalty soon after that.  There was an addition to house women (mostly girls, it seems) whose typical crime was vagrancy or drunkenness, for which they typically got a few months incarceration.

The guide stressed quite a few times that this is now a World Heritage site, the same designation as the Sydney Opera House.

The Fremantle Prison has been declared a World Heritage Site.

The inside reminds me of Alcatraz.

Some inmates decorated their rooms.  The artwork has been kept.

We then stopped by the Market which on weekends have many small fruit stands, food stalls, and other markets.  We got only light snacks as lunch as we had a big breakfast.

The Fremantle Markets are open on Fridays and weekends.  It was quite busy when we visited.

West Australian Maritime Museum is a short hop away, and we visited that for a bit.  My takeaways are Australia’s naval involvement in World War II, and that it won America’s Cup in 1983.  The Australians contributed a lot to the war, one of the many losses it suffered was the destruction of HMAS Sydney, with the loss of the complete crew of about 700 sailors.  Australia II beat Liberty 4 races to 3, and the last race by 40 seconds.  This (naturally) was attributed to perseverance and ingenuity, a new keel design (claimed by the Dutch) was one aspect.  In defense of the cup in 1987, Australia lost to America 4-0, by over one minute each race.  Reasonable people may attribute the Australian win to other reasons, but – hey – they won.

West Australian Maritime Museum.  We thought the logo could add another M to it.

At least this part of the museum was purpose built to fit the sailboat Australia II, which won the America's Cup in 1987, becoming the first foreign country to do so since the cup's inaugural race.

Nothing wrong with national pride, especially if the country knocked off is the USA.

Our trip to Freemantle from Perth was by train, which was quite inexpensive (A$4.90 each way).  The Freemantle today was much busier than the one we saw yesterday.  We probably were not in the correct part of town for activities, or today was start of a weekend.


We attended a West Australian Symphony Orchestra concert in the evening.

Perth Concert Hall was completed in 1973.

The Western Australian Symphony Orchestra at the conclusion of the evening's concert.

Saturday 2/1.  We started the day having ambitious thoughts, but ended up taking it relatively easy.

Breakfast was again at the hotel, after which we took the bus to the Elizabeth Quay area, with the aim of visiting the Perth Museum.  When we got there, things looked so quiet that we decided to skip the museum, and instead walked around the waterfront.  Nearby was Transperth ferry which for a nominal price (A$2.2) will take one across the Swan River to South Perth.  We decided to do that.  South Perth was nice enough, and even quieter.  A short walk took us to Perth Zoo, and we decided to give it a go.  Out of the four sections, we visited two related to Australia (Wetlands and Bushwalk), and skipped the Asian and African sections.  No the biggest zoo in the world, but its compactness made it manageable.  It was here that we saw our only black swan, which is supposed to be quite common.

Sculpture in front of Elizabeth Quay.  Per their website, "Spanda" is a 29 meter design that represents ripples and links the Swan River, land and sky.

Sculptures of a frilled neck lizart and a numbat are on display near the South Perth ferry terminal.

The numbat sculpture led us to think this is a rather large marsupial (Anne took this photo).

Groups of meerkats are placed along the walk from the South Perth pier to the zoo.

Some penguins at the zoo are rescue animals.  This one must be hand-fed and showed no interested in the fish being tossed about during feeding time.

The perentie is Australia's largest lizard.

Two stilts in front of a black swan (Anne took this photograph).

Storks.

A marine biologist can explain why this small fish stays close to the much bigger fish.

The numbat is Western Australia's state animal.  A rather small marsupial.  (Anne took photo.)

This is appropriately called the Blue-Billed Duck.  It's body is quite wide relatively its length.  (Anne took photo).

A Tree Kangaroo (Anne took photo).

At Elizabeth Quay is "The Island" that is connected to mainland via this bridge.

View of skyline from bridge.


It was still quite a bit of walking, so we toyed with the idea to go back to the hotel.  When we got to the bus stop, we decided to go “the other way” and visit Kings Park.  It is a 400 ha (about 1000 acres) park with many memorials and a botanical garden.  We visited part of the botanical garden and a memorial before taking the bus back to the hotel.

The baobab tree is native to Australia.  This one was moved from northern Western Australia to this spot.

Part of the State War Memorial on the grounds of Kings Park.

Snack at the Regency Club followed by dinner at Wok and Ladle, a small Thai Restaurant on Hay.  In between I walked along the Swan River waterfront for 20 or so minutes.

Between the hotel and the Swan River is this Langley Park.  A huge expanse of manicured lawn.

My impression of Perth is quite positive.  We visited during a lull in their summer heat, which helped.  The forecast is over 100F a few days from today, we have been enjoying mid 70s to low 80s highs the last few days.  In any case, I suspect this is a better place to live than to visit.  A resident would take the time to enjoy what the city has to offer, a visitor (at least this one) would quickly run out of things to do and see.  Some of the most popular tours are outside of the city (Rottnest and Pinnacles, for instance).

Sunday 2/2.  This morning I discovered that my T-mobile line wasn’t working.  That includes the data plan I purchased for US$50.  As I type this on 2/4 at Holiday Inn SYD it remains inoperative.  I don’t know if it is a phone issue (T mobile is on eSIM in my iPhone 11), or they suspended my service because of some issues.  I say that because last time they said I was roaming too much, and I had just traveled to Australia and Hong Kong and purchased the same plan which also gave me 15 GB of data.

Back to the trip: It was a short taxi ride to the Perth Airport.  This time the luggage system worked fine and we were through security in a few minutes.  Again the plane was packed, Anne had the good fortune of having an empty seat next to her.  If you looked at flightstats.com you would see our flight was diverted, cleared the gate at 9:59 am, diverted to Perth at 10:16 am.  Reality wasn’t nearly as exciting, they ended up having to change a bulb, probably one that lit up a critical gauge.  We landed about 30 minutes late, and Wally and Ling were waiting for us at luggage claim.

 Not all diversions are nail-biters (whew!).  Our plane left the gate, taxi'd for a couple of minutes, and then returned to the gate because of a defective lightbuld.

Dinner was at the house Ling and Wally moved into late last year, and I took a walk to meet my exercise objectives for the day.  (Same on Monday.)

Brisbane can get quite warm during the Australian summer, and it did for both nights.  The A/C for the sleeping area was broken, so I had a little bit of problem getting to sleep at night.  It did cool off during the night.


Accommodations: Ling’s house in Billbowrie (2 nights).

Monday 2/3.  The day was spent on BST BoR events, starting with breakfast with Andrew P.  The meetings concluded at around 3:30 pm, and traffic was fine on the way back.  There was a slight delay in the morning.

Tuesday 2/4.  We took things easy this morning.  The trip hasn’t been exhausting, but feels long enough.  After lunch Wally took us to the airport, where we had lunch using our Priority Pass privilege.  Flight again was quite crowded, and Anne again had an empty middle seat.

All my Qantas flights were on 737-800s.  These are efficient planes that pack them in and get them there.  QF is nice enough that they have a good entertainment system and free wifi, which help make the long flights bearable.  While the SYD-PER and PER-BNE flights aren't quite as long as EWR-LAX/SFO transcon flights, the former felt a lot more comfortable.  Only issue was on the PER-BNE flights entertainment was only available through a cell phone app which we didn't download.

We will be flying transcon LAX-EWR "tomorrow," in a 787-10.  I hope United demonstrates it can keep up.

The data speed on this Qantas flight (QF541) should put United's to shame.

The taxi ride to the hotel was short.  I could hear the groan of the driver, let’s hope the rather generous tip I leave him make it somewhat worth his while.  (One could argue law of averages would eventually work out for him, I guess.)

After checking in, we walked to a neighborhood O’Porto for dinner.  I have driven through this area multiple times on my way to the airport, but never walked in it.  It is a mostly residential area, most buildings are quite new.

Accommodations: Holiday Inn Mascot (1 night).

Wednesday 2/5.  Going to the airport from Holiday Inn was straightforward enough: an A$8 ticket on the supershuttle gets one to the International Terminal in about 10 minutes.  Only problem was the van leaves every 40 minutes or so.  We took the 9 am one for our 11:50 am flight, which would give us time to relax at the airport.

Getting through Immigration was equally straightforward with the new electronic system.  Anne again (!) got selected for a swab test.  I couldn’t help it but utter “they always select the low risk people,” realizing I may end up getting picked for detailed scrutiny.  What I got from the agent was a chuckle.  Another lady who got selected actually had to use a wheelchair.  I sometimes wonder if they indeed do a disproportionate amount of (what I would think are) low-risk people so there is less paperwork; I certainly hope that’s not the case.

We actually have a choice of four lounges at SYD International: 2 via Priority Pass and the Singapore and New Zealand lounges of Star Alliance.  Our pick Singapore was very busy, and somewhat disappointing.

Boarding was on schedule (11 am for an 11:50 am flight) but was halted for a while.  We noticed many mechanics walking in and out of the cockpit, and the captain outside talking to passengers in Row 1.  Eventually he came on the PA system and said there was a problem with the brakes, so United needed to purchase them from Qantas, and it should be quite straightforward to replace the system.  Obviously easier said and done, because he eventually let people off the plane (I wonder if the 3-hour tarmac rule applies in this case, or this country).  Anne and I went back to the Singapore lounge, and it was empty this time; we grabbed lunch.  The plane eventually took off at around at 3:16 pm, and landed at LAX at 9:17 am (per flightstats.com).  The purser actually joked the crew was “barely legal;” indeed I was worried that the delay might have necessitated a new crew.

Since my phone was down, I was looking at a way to contact United to try to rebook.  An email address allows 1K members (Anne, a Gold member, doesn’t have that phone number on her APP), and I wrote them to see if they could put us on another flight.  I did have web access on the flight, so managed to exchange a few emails with the agent at the other end.  The upshot is she couldn’t do anything about our flights, but offered Anne and I each some mileage credits as compensation.  Meanwhile (as far as I could tell from our APPs), United booked us on both the 10:15 am and 12:15 pm LAX-EWR flights, and assigned seats (which I managed to tweak a bit) on the 10:15 am flight.  Our original arrival at LAX was 6:30 am, and departure at 8:15 am; once we were in the air, the revised arrival was 9:15 am.  Connecting at LAX involves clearing customs and immigration at the Tom Bradley Terminal, a transfer (usually walking) to Termainal 7, and security screening again.  When we cleared customs (quite quick even without use of the “short transit” cards United provided) we talked to an agent at the transfer desk.  She could print out our boarding passes (which we didn’t need) but couldn’t put us on the upgrade list.  At that time there were 4 empty seats and 4 on the upgrade list, so one or both of us stood a chance.  The walk between terminals was actually a bit refreshing, and Terminal 7 was quite empty, which was a nice surprise.  Anne had Pre-Check so she went her way; I had Pre-Check on my 8:15 am flight, and somehow lost it when rebooked on the 10:15 am flight, so I used CLEAR to speed up the process.  The place was so empty that it probably saved me 10 seconds.  Sure enough, all the upgraded seats were taken, so Anne had a middle exit-row (but reclinable) seat in Economy Plus, and I chose to take an aisle seat in the regular economy section.  It was a full flight, but I must say it was quite bearable, even after our business class inter-continental experience.  Oh, this flight did have trouble locating a crew, so was delayed by 30 minutes, which made our connection possible.  Actually, we were at the Boarding Gate a little before 10.

Breakfast at SYD Singapore Lounge.

UA842 actual departure and arrival times.  Schedule was 6:30 am arrival.

Not too many items in the menu excite my palate.

Business Class seats.

My coach seat LAX-EWR.

 I had TSA Pre-Check for my original flight, but lost it when they rebooked me on a later flight.

This is not meant to be a review blog, but I do have some thoughts I want to record.

I have never found Business Class to be very compelling for the prices airlines charge, and the SYD-LAX flight confirms it.  Give me an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me and I am fine; I don’t need the entire row to lie down, and I didn’t lie down much on this flight either.  I probably will feel different if I am in the middle seat in a reconfigured and packed 777, but today’s 787 had a wide open Economy Plus section where (almost) everyone had a row to oneself.  There were four choices for lunch, and the only one I felt like eating was the chicken curry.  You get two pillows, a blanket, and linen to make up a bed; my problem was finding the place to stow them.

I may have used CLEAR four times since I signed up.  The setup in Newark is such that if one doesn’t have pre-check one ends up in the security line where people with odd-shaped objects (such as strollers) go, unless one aggressively cuts into the next line.  MCO (Orlando) can be congested, but not the time I used in last month.  I don’t know how much it is worth for me, but I am quite sure I won’t pay $179 (list price) for it.

The third area I wanted to say something about is United's atrocious WiFi.  Because of some prior experience I wanted to make sure I stay connected when I am in the air if the price is not prohibitive.  I paid $69 for an international data pass, which worked out well price wise.  United has a variable pricing policy, and (if memory serves) the Florida flights would cost $10 each way for WiFi, but the LAX-EWR flight would cost $40!  However, the speed is so slow that the SpeedTest APP wouldn't work the few times I tried in.  Qantas does it for free (domestically anyway) and at very respectable speeds.

The fourth was T-mobile.  I still haven't summoned up the "rage and sarcasm" to contact them about cutting me off during my trip.  There may be legitimate reasons, or misunderstandings, but not to give me advanced notice was simply inexcusable.  (I may update this blog if I know more after I contact them.)

Anyhow, we Uber’d home and had takeout food for dinner.

No comments: