BigMal's World

Wednesday 27th March 2024

Woke up today at a reasonable time and went for a morning walk.  The hotel was kicking us out well before our flight, but we had plans to go and check out Cairns for a bit since we had not yet done that.  After breakfast and checking out, we drove our way down to Cairns and parked by the Esplenade and walked around for a bit.

The area had changed a lot and we were done walking around in the blazing sun with no breeze at all.  The city was pretty empty (considering everyone is probably on day tours) and we picked up some lunch at a local bakery (including a vanilla slice) before heading to the Cairns Botanic Gardens.  Now I was trying to stay off my foot, and decided to find a spot and just read my book.  Heidi went off to explore for a while and we ended up meeting back at the car after a while.  From the gardens we went to the gas station to refill the car and then it was off to drop off the car at the airport. 

We dropped off the vehicle with the rental company and then we headed into Check in and just before we got to the doors, I got an alert that the flight was delayed.  O well too late now!  And then the double whammy, right in front of the doors on the inside was the Virgin Australia check in, so that was great however check in would not open for almost an hour!  Greaaaaaat!  The landside part of the terminal was crammed full of people waiting to check in and there wasn’t many choices of places to sit.  We found a crowded spot and sat down to eat the lunch we bought and waited it out.

Eventually we were able to check in and we were a few people behind some people we were on tour with the day before and they took our bags and off they went into the baggage check.  We had one seat between us that had been empty until a little earlier in the day and I made a joke about moving the person in that seat to the empty aisle that was showing, of course for their benefit.  But they said they will see what they could do!

We headed for security and my continuation of Australian security being worse than America this time I was fine on my body after the shenanigans in Sydney, but they wanted me to empty out everything that was in my backpack and put it through the xray machine 3 times!  What an adventure!!  I will never complain about security in the USA ever again (though I haven’t had to wait on any occasion really, no more than 5 minutes).

After making it through security, we headed out into the terminal to find a bathroom and a place to sit out the wait.  The Cairns Airport looks much better than it used to and is now quite spacious and has lots of shops, restaurants and cafes.  We found a great seat and just sat down and I pulled out my book and continued to read.  We wiled away the time just letting the airport move around us.  I was staying far away from the lady who was sitting close by continuously coughing.  This made me put on a mask and just stay well away!

Virgin Australia – VA784
Cairns to Brisbane
1420-1640
Boeing 737-700 (VH-VBY)
Economy Class (Seat 18A)

Boarding: 1428 (Gate 18)
Push Back: 1453
Take Off Roll: 1505 (Runway 15)
Top of Descent: 1631
Touch Down: 1656 (Runway 19R)
Shut Down: 1706 (Gate 40B)

Boarding was eventually called for our flight shortly after the delayed inbound had disgorged everyone.  They had already boarded people with assistance and they called business class and priority elites first.  But at the same time they had those in the back of the plane line up so that once they were done, we were ready to go.  Thankfully they use back of the plane boarding so rather than having to go up and down the ramps, we just turned left and went out the door onto the ramp straight out to the back of the plane.  Up the back steps and into the aircraft.  Heidi and I were hoping we could keep the seat free between us, but she took the middle seat just in case, that way the person in the middle can at least have the aisle. 

Boarding continued and the plane filled up and eventually they told us that the doors were shut and boarding was complete.  There were 2 seats left on the plane.  One was in between me and Heidi and the other was on the other aisle in our row.  Heidi moved back to the aisle seat and then the child on the other side of the plane, put their plush toy into the aisle seat and buckled him in.  Good use of the seat 😀

We got the safety briefing as we pushed back and headed for the runway.  We took off to the south and then turned out over the ocean and out the window you had a great view of all the reefs and islands off the coast as we went south.  We tracked over the coast to around Townsville and then went inland from there.  Service onboard started pretty quickly, i mean they are trying to get you to spend money, but I took a water and just sat back and enjoyed the flight south watching a movie from the streaming service onboard.

We eventually began tracking back towards the coast after crossing over the Morayfield area on our descent into the airport.  We were landing from over the bay but we didn’t turn again over Tangalooma and that could have been because we were coming from the North, but as we turned onto final, we seemed to be further north than I thought we would be.  That was strange to my brain as I figured we would be heading to the old runway, but being so much further north, it meant we were coming into the new runway…… Finally!!!

The landing on the new runway was smooth and the facilities looked great.  As we taxied back next to the old spotting loop road (which still existed and I assumed there was a tunnel to get over there now) and we passed a fancy new fire station, the first time I had seen it over on this side of the airport.  We pulled into the Virgin side of the domestic terminal and I checked the tile and thankfully my bag showed in Brisbane, so that was a good start.  We deboarded through the back of the plane this time as they had quickly brought over the steps and gotten it all hooked up, unlike Qantas in Cairns when we arrived.

After making our way across the ramp, up the steps, up the ramp we were finally in Brisbane and I was home for another month.  Heidi was back in Brisbane for the first time since 2016 and we were headed to get our bags, our rental car and then home for a quick night stay.

Saturday 23rd March 2024

Woke up at a normal time this morning and because we had the morning free we took it mainly normal, going for a nice walk in the morning (watched the sun rise behind the Opera House) and then headed back to the hotel for breakfast and time to pack up our stuff.  Since we had arranged for late check out, we ended up spending some time sightseeing by going up the Sydney Tower Eye and have some Devonshire tea.

We checked out and requested a DiDi for the ride to the airport. I had a discount code that would get us there for a good price cheaper than what the two train fares would be!  The ride to the airport in the DiDi probably took as long as what the train probably would but it was slightly more comfortable.

We got dropped off at Terminal 3 (Qantas Domestic) right in front of the doors and the place was desolate!  This made it easy as we got Heidi’s bag tag printed and I got my bag sorted using the QTag and unfortunately it took Heidi’s bag tag a few goes to get picked up but it eventually worked.  Then it was time for security which was empty as well.  Sadly though, my experience today was not that great.  They were adamant I was smuggling something in my crotch and made me go off to a private room for a wanding and a pat down and a scan, which was negative of course.  *sigh*.  It was very embarrassing as they were going to make me do it without my shoes on and I told them that was not advised by my doctor (they don’t recommend I walk barefoot).  With it all sorted out, it was finally time to get my stuff and we could explore the terminal.

The place was pretty deserted and there was some flights heading out around the country, but not that many.  Still proof that even in Australia, Saturday afternoon flights are the best.  Our flight was not full at all and a good portion of the seats in the back of the plane were open, which was fine with us as we would have a good chance of keeping an open seat between us (it stayed open… yay!).

We sat around by the gate and got a sandwich to share and then just waited for our flight reading a book.  I had screwed up the time a little and in a way that wouldn’t affect us in a bad way thankfully.  What our boarding time was, I thought was departure time, so we were ready to go a little early.

Qantas Airways – QF926
Sydney to Cairns
1535-1740
Boeing 737-800 (VH-VZC)
Economy Class (Seat 27A)

Boarding: 1515 (Gate 8)
Push Back: 1532
Take Off Roll: 1537 (Runway 16R)
Top of Descent: 1702
Touch Down: 1723 (Runway 15)
Shut Down: 1727 (Gate 20)

Boarding was called for Business class and Heidi was wondering where the call for people with assistance was.  Well they were already onboard as that is what happens when the airline runs the assistance staff, they are all well known already and all lined up and taken care of well ahead of time.  Once the business class had been called everyone lined up on the Economy side waiting to get onboard.  I had to throw some trash away which was next to the line, so I got in line anyway. 

When boarding for Economy was called, everyone else bum rushed the other line, cutting in front of a lot of other people and it was like being cut off on the road.  Everyone made comments to themselves but never said anything and I was too far back to actually care.  Eventually I scanned my boarding pass (making sure not to scan Heidi’s which has happened before) and then it was down the jet bridge onto the aircraft.  There was no double door boarding today and it didn’t really matter as the flight was just over half full anyway.

Boarding was done within about 10-12 minutes of the process beginning and we closed up early and even left the gate early.  We had a stupid quick taxi straight to the end of 16R which was right outside our gate almost.  With no one in front of us, no waiting for any arriving aircraft, we pulled onto the active and the pilots just blasted us off.  They didn’t even have time to give a small talk until we were already on our way out of Sydney!

We climbed out pretty quickly and I did not even notice the seat belt sign coming off and it was nothing like an American domestic flight where the seat belt sign pretty much stays on the whole flight, this was off with no fanfare at all.  No one really got up at all during the flight, it was strange.  We climbed up to cruising altitude and as we climbed up there was a smell filling the cabin.  It smelt pretty good but I assumed it was drifting down from Business class.  I was wrong!

When the service trolleys started coming out one started from the back and considering there was only a few of us back here we got served pretty quickly.  They offered us mini sausage rolls with our beverage of choice.  They smelt really good, they tasted ok, but they were greasy as hell, so I gave most of mine to Heidi since she loves a good sausage roll.  The Bundaberg Ginger beer went down really well with the rolls.  Add on a bottle of water and we were kept pretty well hydrated for our flight.

The aircraft did not have seat back tv’s like the one I was on flying down to Sydney, but it had streaming entertainment and free WiFi so both of these helped while away the 2 hours and 47 minute flight.  We spent most of the flight above cloud cover, so wasn’t really sure where we were, but Flightradar24 helped with that.  When we started to descend it was still cloud cover and for most of the descent into the Cairns area the clouds were still there and then right as we turned over Yorkeys Knob and heading in on final, did the clouds break.  Not that great of a view, but it did the job.

We touched down in Cairns and had a relatively quick taxi to the gate.  They were trying to walk out the steps so that we could disembark from the back, but all I saw out the window was a Qantas staff member arguing with the Menzies staff member for about 5 or more minutes and by the time the back door was opened, everyone else was off the plane so we just went straight out the front.

We stepped off the jetbridge, walked back and forth down the ramps that Cairns is famous for and then when we stepped into the terminal, it looked WAY different to the last time I was in Cairns (2011 I think it was).  The terminal was full of all new food and shopping outlets and we came out into a small, newer looking baggage claim.  While Heidi got the bags, I got the rental car sorted with SIXT and then it was off in our 4WD (thanks to upgrades) off to Palm Cove.

Friday 8th March 2024

Woke up this morning at the Artura Adelaide Airport and had a lazy morning with some breakfast in the hotel (included in my rate) and having a nice conversation with the wife.  Once it was time to leave it was pretty simple.  Lift down to the lobby, check out and then walk across the hotel lobby, directly into the Arrivals area of the airport and up the escalators to departures.  Then just walk up to the Rex area.  It was going to be a new experience with a new airline for me today.

Check in was doing pretty well until my bag was rejected by the bag drop machine.  Then I had to go get it seen by someone who fixed it all up.  Once that was cleared up it was off to security, where BOTH of my bags got pulled aside to be searched AND they made me take off my belt even though it has been fine in other places.  Sigh.  It eventually got all cleared up.  After that I just walked down to the gate and just sat down and used the free wifi for a bit catching up on life.  

After a while the inbound plane showed up and everyone deplaned. They had just wheeled out the the carry on scales and I began to panic.  They had clearly stated that the combined weight of your carry on and personal item was to be no more than 7KG.  My Camera bag, the carry on, weighed over double that.  O boy…. Thankfully, no one ever said anything about it.

Regional Express – ZL906
Adelaide to Brisbane
1030-1230
Boeing 737-800 (VH-8KH)
Economy Class – Seat 3A

Boarding: 1002 (Gate 12)
Push Back: 1027
Take Off Roll: 1036 (Runway 23)
Top of Descent: 1151
Touch Down: 1212 (Runway 19L)
Shut Down: 1217 (Gate 38)

Boarding was called in normal Australian fashion.  Pre Board, Business Class and then… BUM RUSH!.  Yet this system works here because theres no 15 zones, no one is holding stuff up, they use two doors to load the plane and they can fully load the plane in less than half an hour, something you can not do in the states.  The process looks like bedlam and it usually is, but it just works.

I got my boarding pass scanned and headed on down the ramp towards the jetbridge.  Nothing was said about my carry on, so that slid past.  I stepped onto the aircraft and while the outside was Rex, the inside was still Silk Air.  It looked identical to Silk Air, down to the seats and that was something.  Rex has a mixed bag fleet of some ex Virgin and some Ex Silk Air aircraft.  It does the job.  At least they kept a similar Row 3 to the other Ex Virgin Aircraft and that is the seat I had preselected today for an extra couple of bucks.  Worth every cent!

Got myself situated in my seat and made sure my backpack was in the overhead bin as there was no storage in the row in front in this row as theres no curtain, its a hard bulkhead.  It was looking to be a busy flight and someone showed up for the middle but she asked to move closer to the bathroom as she was pregnant, so they moved her right up the back… I will try not to take it as an insult.  Meant a middle seat free!

We closed up early and were off the gate and to the runway very quickly.  This was good, but then we had to hold.  But once the NJE Q400 touched down, we turned onto the active and only had to hold for 30 seconds before it was our turn.  We took off out of Adelaide and the seatbelt sign went off once we cleared 10,000ft.  Totally unlike the states!  But once that was done, not many people were moving about, no one really did much. I didn’t move much at all.  I watched some videos on my phone and they brought around a choice of either Water, Tea or Coffee (had water) and some free mini cookies as a snack.  Not much to choose from, not much to complain about to be honest.

The flight just passed away really quickly and soon enough we started to have our descent into Brisbane.  I figured we had started descent really late, and we didn’t really start descending until over Toowoomba and the outskirts of Ipswich.  We did go a loooong way out of the way to descend with a turn for final over Tangalooma.  That was a shock to me and totally out of the way.

We came in on what is now the Left runway, aka the old runway when coming from over the bay, I was hoping for the new runway but its ok, got a few more flights to tie that one up and then we headed into the gate area.  Being Rex it was heading to the common user gate area so that was a first for me for a looooong time.  

We pulled in and while they took a while getting the jetbridge connected, eventually we were let loose into the terminal.  I walked out into a terminal that looked absolutely nothing the way it had and it was also the first time in a very long time that my folks had not met me at the airport.  They are getting older and not really driving much these days, so I was on my own for getting from the airport to the house, which is what Uber is for right?  I waited for my bag and just like anywhere else in the world that isn’t the USA, my bag took forever.  O well, at least it showed up.  I headed out to the curb to the rideshare pick up and waited for my ride.  Time to head “home”, it had been a long week of travel.

Wednesday 6th March 2024

As I took the elevator down to the lobby I was kind of excited for the upcoming flights.  As I walked up to check out, about 3 staff offered to take my bags which originally I was going to decline, but they told me that the car was already here and they were ready to load everything into the car.  This was not anticipated and quite surprising. Check out took a while and in the end they couldn’t even get it to charge properly so said they would do it later… I hope they forget ;).  Into the car which for me was a first being a BMW Station Wagon (Estate…. sorry) and off to the airport.  About a half hour later, I was dropped off at the Etihad premium check in, why I don’t know.  The driver swore this is where everyone was dropped off for Business Class, even other airlines, but that was not the case as it was clearly Etihad only.

I walked around to the check in area and waited a little bit behind some other people not in Business (sorry…. First Class) holding stuff up.  Once I was helped I saw my bag weight and it was now at 24KG which meant I was screwed for my flight in a couple of days to Brisbane, but I can figure that out later.  Once checked in with boarding passes in hand, I headed for immigration, which was just an electronic border gate, then security, where my camera bag was stripped apart for no apparent reason, but once they let me repack it they seemed to not care.  I stepped out into the Abu Dhabi terminal and my jaw just dropped.  While I had seen a small glimpse on arrival, this place was just impressive.  The scale, the look, how empty it was (apparently 3 in the afternoon is a peaceful time at the airport).  

I headed towards the lounge, and while it was not the Etihad lounge all other airlines in the airport use the “Pearl Lounge”.  It was still a decent lounge.  When I checked in they walked me into an exclusive “First and Business Class section” which was a smaller sectioned off area, and I was the only person in there.  They even offered to bring food in if needed, although I could also go out to the main lounge if I wanted (I didn’t).  I didn’t intend on eating much and they had some nice small light food.  

After sitting in the lounge, reading my book for a while, I headed out from the lounge towards the gate area.  I wanted to see what the airport had to offer.  It was impressive, such an amazing airport and it was still really empty, I was impressed.  I took my time heading to the gate, just enjoying the walk (though my feet probably wouldn’t) and the terminal.  I sat down to wait by the gate for a little bit. 

Qatar Airways – QR1051
Abu Dhabi to Doha Hamad International (AUH-DOH)
1745-1755
Boeing 737 Max 8 (A7-BSE)
First Class – Seat 2A

Boarding: 1658 (Gate B23B)
Push Back: 1748
Take Off Roll: 1804 (Runway 31R)
Top of Descent: 1728
Touch Down: 1744 (Runway 34R)
Shut Down: 1750 (Gate V8)

Boarding was called right on time and as I was ready I headed over towards the gate and got swiped in.  They did tear off part of the boarding pass and thankfully it was not the part with my bag tags, which I was glad for.  I walked down the jetbridge, not being able to get a decent photo (a common theme at these airports for sure) and stepped onboard my first ever 737-8 Max.  It didn’t look much different but the 2 row business.. .sorry First.. Class section was small.  It didn’t matter, this flight was short, stupid short.  The cabin was almost full and by the time the doors closed, just one seat was empty.  

As the door closed up and we began to push back, we took our time getting to the runway but after a powerful take off roll, we were up in the sky and headed for the short flight to Qatar.  After we had barely cleared 4000ft the flight attendants were up and getting our meal options ready.  Not everyone was eating, but everyone had drink orders etc.  It was a sight for sure, to be served a meal (albeit more a snack) on a flight time of 50 minutes (shorter in our case).  While not a big meal, it was still impressive and really tasty. I had the vegie option and it was quite delicious.  It was delicious and hit the spot nicely as it would be a while until my next full meal.  I probably wouldn’t eat in the lounge, while I could, I didn’t really have much time there.

We started our descent over the water directly into Doha’s runways coming in on the side with the royal terminal.  We touched down and taxiied away from the main terminal area.  This meant a bus gate.  Which while to some it might be bad, I was hoping, for one simple reason.  The buses take you directly to immigration or transfers.  No long long walks, just up the escalators and straight in.  Simple as pie!  

Thankfully this time there was no stripping of my camera bag but I knew that was coming thanks to Australian laws for entry from the middle east, why I needed to go to the gate early.  I made my way towards the lounge after stopping for a photo of the creepiest teddy bear known to man.  Before heading up into the lounge, I asked if I was better off heading to the one in the “Garden” area and they said that this one was closer, so I just stayed with the Al Marjoun lounge, the original one.

Now I had been to Hamad International back in 2012 when the place was still being built and it was amazing to see it in full blown now, even more than when it was set up back then.  The lounge was impressive and the main things I wanted to do was get some water for medication purposes and to just relax before my flight.  I didn’t have much time though, as I knew I would need to be at the gate early and they claimed they started an hour early, but with additional security, I am sure it would be probably more.  

After chiling out for a short while, I collected my things and headed for the gate, I took some time to walk past some of the shops, take a few photos.  As I approached, before I could even gather my stuff ready for the security check, they started scanning people in.  An hour and a half before departure…. I expected that! Does this count as boarding started, or is it preboarding.  I got out my stuff and they decided it was time to confiscate half my water bottle, which meant I had to down in right there and then, sadly.  Now it was time to have my bag scanned.  O well, knew it was coming.  It got swabbed multiple times, along with me. It was negative, as expected.

I handed over my boarding pass to the gate agent who asked if i was flying to Kathmandu.  I wasn’t sure if this was a test on me, or he was just joking.  He was obviously making a mistake, but it was a funny moment and I did ask him if it was a test and he laughed.  He scanned me in and told me to go sit in the priority area.  It was then I noticed that the gate area was split up into zone seating, which was surprising, but made perfect sense.  Time for more waiting and sadly no access to a bathroom after downing half a bottle of water.

Qatar Airways – QR914
Doha Hamad International to Adelaide
2040-1700+1
Boeing 777-300ER (A7-BET)
Business Class – Seat 5A

Boarding: 1958 (Gate C5)
Push Back: 2047
Take Off Roll: 2102 (Runway 34R)
Top of Descent: 1625
Touch Down: 1702 (Runway 23)
Shut Down: 1713 (Gate 18R)

Right at 40 minutes prior to departure, boarding was called and the bum rush of priority passengers happened.  It was time to head towards the mother country, while not my city, it didn’t matter.  I was heading home.  I walked down the jet bridge and boarded into the 777 and saw the Qsuite product.  It was impressive.  I took as many pictures as I could and then got situated in the seat, it was exciting.  I had seen so many things written abou this product over the years and I finally would get to experience it.  The seat was incredible, way more comfortable than the Turkish Airlines product, and much more spacious.  The only strange thing for this flight for me would be facing backwards the whole time.  That was going to take some getting used to.

Service was great getting everything set up and it took a while to not be impressed by everything, so much so I almost forgot to put in my ear plugs before departure (the door was just shutting when I remembered… woops!).  There was so many amenities with the amenity kit, pyjamas, two pillows, the offer of a mattress pad later on, menus, drinks, hand towells.  The only thing that was not offered was Arabic Coffee and dates, which was suprising.

We pushed back and followed an A380 towards the runway, taking off on the same runway we landed not so long ago on.  The A380 was probably heading to Australia as all the Aussie flights were going around the same time.  As we lined up, listening to that GE90 power up was like the sound of the gods.  Those two powerful GE90s just sucked in the world and spat it out the other end.  We were not taking off, we were pushing the world away from our plane.  Can you tell I enjoy a good GE90 take off and it has been a loooong time (2016) since I got my last hit.

We took off and it was dark out and not much to see, once we passed 5000ft the crew came around closing the windows, including mine, even though I didn’t really want this, I guess I don’t get a choice.  We climbed out with a fair amount of bumps and the crew got the meal service started quickly, much quicker than I expected and I was happy with this.  I just wanted to get some rest for a little bit.  The meal was great and delicious and hit the spot.  It was a little fancy for me, but not at all too bad.  The dessert was amazing looking.  Food on Qatar gets a tick over Turkish… for sure!

After the meal it took a while for the seat belt sign to come off as it had been pretty bumpy.  Once that was lifted and a bathroom stop was done, I let them know to prep the bed for me if they could and I would try and get some rest.  I finished watching the movie that I was watching and then turned off the screen to try and get some sleep.  While it wasn’t full on sleep it was good enough.  It got pretty bumpy and so rather than try to sleep on my side or stomach, I lifted the back of the seat a touch and just slept on my back, or at least tried.

I got some rest for a number of hours and woke up with about 7 or 8 hours to go, not entirely sure.  I started watching another video and waited for the bumping to stop.  A coffee (iced would help get my body back on a normal time line).  It was very very bumpy for a good period of the flight, it wasn’t awful turbulence, but it was tolerable, apart from the seatbelt sign.  Once lifted I got up and hit the restroom and grabbed the laptop to work on the trip report.  It was just time to watch a movie and chill as we flew toawrds Australia.  Most of the flight was going to be over water, I hadn’t seen any land since we left Doha and the Arabian Peninsula, 

As we flew along I got a snack of some cookies and a sprite and started another movie I kept waiting for the flight to head towards Australian airspace, I was excited yet also confused at the same time.  It had been so long since I had been home to aus, i wasn’t sure just how life was going to be for everything there.  Would the changes be something I was ok with, or would I be too used to life in the states that it would just be too much.  I know that part of me was also missing my wife who was now half a world away (although by the time I land, she would be asleep again probably… lols).

As we got closer and closer to Adelaide, and the Australian coast, they started to serve “Breakfast”.  I get that back in the middle east it was breakfast time, but over here in Australia it would be getting towards afternoon tea.  I selected from the breakfast menu, but to be honest I probably should have selected the “Afternoon Tea” from the snack menu, but o well.  

Breakfast was a multi course affair and I still kept it light having some cereal and a coconut chia pudding, and both were delicious along with a croissant (or at least what passes for one on an airline) and it tasted pretty good.  After cleaning up by we were just passing WA and crossing the Great Australian Bight heading for South Australia.  It was time to start getting ready for arrival into Adelaide.  Time to fill out my arrival card etc.  It was finally getting real.  They came around wanting to pack up all the bedding as well and I let them do that while I got myself sorted for an arrival.

We started to descend and this is when things started to feel strange, as I was sitting backwards and it was going down with me facing back up to the sky, it was a strange feeling for sure.  We descended and I really couldn’t see much without fully craning my neck around but we came in over Adelaide city and touched down on the runway shortly after.  I was back in Australia after almost 8 years.  We took almost the whole runway to stop (not surprising) and the taxi back took forever, and then it was pulling into the gate.  We were the biggest plane on the gate and it looked funny seeing this giant 777 surrounded by 737s or A320s or the occasional Dash 8.  We certainly stood out!

Once the doors opened we were let loose into the terminal and while I was third off the aircraft, someone stepped aside to let me pass and I was behind someone who had been moved off the Brisbane flight and was trying to connect.  They were on an extremely tight connection and part of the reason I didn’t do it!  I had a bit of a conversation with someone at Border Force because I forgot to sign my arrival card (idiot me!) and then waited for my bag.  I declared the date chocolates I had bought in Abu Dhabi and they didn’t really care all that much and sent me down the Green Lane.  Within 15-20 minutes of pulling into the airport,  I was walking into Australia!

I headed across the arrivals area towards the airport hotel for the night.  I wanted to get my stuff stashed before heading downtown to pick up a sim card and crash out for the night!

Saturday 2nd March 2024

After spending most of the day hanging around the house and doing chores, by the time the mid afternoon rolled around Heidi was home to take me to the airport.  It was only a few minutes from the house to the airport and then it was goodbye to the lovely wife and into the terminal I go.  This was the first time I was travelling without Heidi for a long time.  The last time I travelled without her domestically was 2016 where I spent 4 or so days ticking off new states.  The last time I had travelled internationally without her was 2015 for the adventures to Frankfurt and Lufthansa first class.  This felt so strange to be heading off on a big trip without her.  But it was not forever, we would see each other in a few weeks in Sydney.

I made my way all the way to the very last check in area almost at the current checkpoint 1, where Turkish was checking in (forgot to grab a photo….. sigh).  There was no one lined up for Business Class and I walked straight to the front.  They checked me in and weighed my bags (it was just under my target weight, so I can’t add too many souveneirs in the UAE I guess) and then it was off to the checkpoint.  Since I still had a free trial of clear, I figured I would use them to save me the walk all the way down and back figuring it would be quicker….. Nope.  They wanted my ID again.  Well that was a waste of time.  It’s fine.  It will end at the end of the month and Clear does me no good outside of the USA.  I swear any time I use clear it never saves us any time.

I got myself ready for the Precheck scan and they asked me to wait for a moment and I had no problem as it allowed me time to stash my stuff.  When I went through the WTMD I realized I had my sunglasses on my head….woops but it didn’t go off.  They did however want to do a manual inspection of my lenses because the guy on the scanner thought it looked suspicious.  I have been through it before and had plenty of time.  I had noooo problem.  They let me repack it though as they said they didn’t want me to have anything damaged.

After security it was time to find Lowrider to tick off their airport store from the places I have bought cookies.  After walking around eating a Birthday Cake cookie and seeing what differences had happened to the airport, I headed over to the S gates to find the gate.  I then came across something I had noticed back in September when we landed after our Hawaiian flight but paid no attention to until now.  The train to the S gates has reversed its direction.  WTF.  O well a bit longer on the train than expected.

After a lap or two of the S gates and running into an old coworker who was waiting for her flight to London, I made my way up to the lounge.  Turkish uses the Club at SEA which is technically the lounge we used when we flew to Tokyo back in 2018.  However this is the “new” Club at SEA.  They moved into the space vacated by Delta when they moved out of the S gates.  O boy was it familiar.  The last time I was in that lounge was probably back in 2013 before one of my delta mileage runs and it has not changed at all.  The place looked exactly like it did back then.  

All the window seats were taken, which was a bummer but not the end of the world.  I was really in the lounge for a quiet place to read my book.  No need to worry, I wasn’t all that impressed by the food offerings, but did have some Sheet cake squares (carrot) that reminded me of the Sara Lee cake from my child hood.  I didn’t even feel like going to the bar for a soda and just stuck to water.  I read my book and chilled in the lounge, taking photos while I could and just trying to relax as much as possible.  I had spent the day with what felt like a heap of anxiety, but I coped as best I could and I probably wouldn’t be over that anxiety until I got to Abu Dhabi.

After about an hour and a half in the lounge and well before my flight was meant to depart, I started to pack up my stuff and head towards the exit.  I wanted to fill my water bottle before the flight and figured I would try and get a few laps of the concourse before boarding.  Well one of those two things happened as after I filled my bottle I started walking towards the gate area and noticed they were already boarding!! It was just under an hour to departure.  DANG!  Well I was not even remotely prepared, and rolled up to the gate with my mobile boarding pass, which they wouldn’t accept and they wanted my passport.  So I spent a bit of time screwing with stuff at the gate.

Turkish Airlines – TK204
Seattle-Tacoma to Istanbul (SEA-IST)
1850-1750+1
Boeing 787-9 (TC-LLK)
Business Class – Seat 4A

Boarding: 1745 (Gate S11)
Push Back: 1828
Take Off Roll: 1845 (Runway 16L)
Top of Descent: 1655
Touch Down: 1723 (Runway 34L)
Shut Down: 1748 (Gate D10)

After they took part of my boarding pass (I knew I should have faked losing it) it was time to head down the jetbridge heading towards my next adventure.  I showed up at the door and was asked for a boarding pass, something that has not happened in a long time since US Airlines don’t do that.  And they pointed me to the holy land, turn left please!  I made my way up to 4A and stashed my camera bag in the overhead.  I could probably put my back pack in their as well, but wanted to keep it handy for as much as possible.  

I snapped a lot of pictures of the seat and tried to get myself as comfortable as possible while exploring.  The seat was exactly like the pictures I had seen, but what you don’t see is how tight it feels around the shoulders and getting into the seat.  While the footwell is deep, the space between the seat behinds footwell and the seat in front is not much.  The true window seats have a blocked window thanks to the privacy shield being on the wrong side and the same privacy shield is what ate away at a lot of my shoulder space on the left.  On my right it was fine!

Waiting at the seat was a pillow and a basic blanket along with a pair of slippers and a shoe bag.  The blanket I was soooo tempted to stash in my bag but I didn’t need it, and I didn’t really have the space!  They started to bring around all the fun things.  Menus, pre departure beverages, amenity kits etc.  The “Chef” in her funny hat came around to hand out the menu herself and it looked like an OK menu to be honest.  For the pre departure beverage I had the “home made” Mint Lemonade and it was pretty delicious.  

Once I heard the warning to arm doors, then I knew it was really time to go and get myself buckled in.  The doors were closed and the jetbridge pulled away and they started to play the safety video.  Items were collected then it was time to start to settle in.  I left the screen playing the map, as I wasn’t really all that interested in movies yet.  We headed for the active runway and with a bit of effort, off we went.  Since I couldn’t see much outside thanks to the darkness, once we were up and going, I kind of just ignored the window and got the in flight entertainment going.  There was plenty on offer to watch and that was good as I had a long flight ahead (plus another one after that).

I sat back and got a movie started and the crew were fast to get meal and drink orders going and get a lot of people sorted as quickly as possible.  Meals started coming out about an hour after departure and the set up was pretty great (especially the salt and pepper shakers).  I tried to choose as light as possible, even skipping some options, something I probably would not have done in a previous life, but I felt it best to do so. I wanted to try and get some rest at the start of the flight, maybe wake up with about 5 or so hours to go and then that should be enough to have me kind of on a similar clock to where I was going.  The portions of the food were small, but to be honest, it was plenty and it tasted pretty good.I have had worse!

After dinner was cleared away I finished off my movie and then asked the crew to set up the bedding,  There was a mattress pad which was, ok and they put a pillow case on the pillow (didn’t change much).  I tried to get myself situated but found it lumpy, turns out that was the comforter….. Woops!  I had started using the blanket that was left at the seat and thought to myself, well that was shit.  I was wrong!  While I am not one to get much sleep on planes I did try and it wasn’t that successful to be honest.  There was some turbulence over north eastern canada and into greenland that just kept me up, so that did not help.  Instead I just decided to get up and write the trip report.  An hour or so of “Closed eye rest” should be enough right?

I spent the rest of my time on that flight watching movies.  I just kind of chilled out drinking a bottle of water.  I didn’t try to get any snacks etc.  As we got closer to Istanbul, the cabin started to slowly “wake up” thanks to all the LED lightning and the chromatic windows.  They were able to make it look like we were waking up for the day (even though it was like 4 or 5pm outside).  The meal they were serving was breakfast as well and I still wasn’t hungry after the first meal (though that was 8 hours ago at this point) so I just had some fruit and bread and skipped the main course (I was going to try pancakes anyway).  So the second meal was just simple for me.  I had a cup of coffee to try and keep me awake through the next few hours.

The descent into Istanbul started a while out, which I didnt expect and it made it look like we would land way early.  When we did land, I can see what they do when that happens.  They send the aircraft on a nice little journey, all around the airport.  We spent sooo long taxxing that I thought we were going to end up at a bus gate.  That wasn’t the case, it was just a gate on the other side of the airport  *sigh*.  But we were on the ground and that was a good thing.  

Once we finally made it to a gate, I got my stuff together and headed out into the terminal.  It was fairly warm inside (being cold outside I expected otherwise, but I was pleasantly surprised).  As we headed off the jetbridge into the split for immigration, they pointed anyone headed for baggage claim in one direction and for international transfer another.  This seemed odd to me as I remember looking at a map seeing they were next to each other. The other strange thing, the direction they pointed us was directly into the terminal proper.  This was shocking to me, it was as though it was a domestic flight back home.  

Once in the terminal, it was a matter of orientating myself and trying to find the lounges.  Thankfully there was signs for that, but it did not even put into the picture the scale of that terminal and airport.  I started following the signs and it just kept going, and going, and going.  It took a serious 15 minutes of walking just to get to the lounge.  Up multiple escalators past many many gates.  And the lounge was PACKED.  I was full from my “breakfast”, dying for a bathroom and just wanted to do that first before I even attempted any kind of finding a seat or exploring.  I did stash my bag in one of the lockers (after setting off alarms on 2 others….woops) so that kept the weight off my shoulder for once.

By the time I had made it through to exploring the lounge and finding a seat, it was only an hour or so before I would have to head out again and find my gate (since no gate was posted just a “check back” time.  I did explore the lounge a little and there was copious amounts of food, drinks, there was a golf simulator, a kids playground, sooooo much more.  But I was starting to feel the lack of sleep and just trying to keep going.  So all I consumed was a couple of bottles of water and made sure to take one with me for the walk to the gate.

When the gate was posted I saw it was an eta of a 15 minute walk to get there, sounds about right.  So i packed up my stuff, gathered my camera bag from the locker and headed out at a slowish pace.  I was not in that much of a hurry as I had left myself plenty of time and I wanted to see what fun things were on offer on the way.  The stores were certainly different to the ones around us and most any other country I had come across, and that was certainly unique.  What really showed in this airport was the scale.  It really felt bright, open and airy.  There was massively tall ceilings (mainly because anyone heading for immigration was seperated above the main concourse) and that really helped to show how impressive this airport was.  

The gate area, even with an A/B gate with split jetbridges was massive, with Lots of seating.  A little while before boarding, the gate agents, came around person to person, checking passports and visas, before even having them approach.  Such a SMART idea!  No lines of people waiting to board and someone holding up the line, and no constant annoucements to have people come forward and crowd the podium.  Eventually boarding began, but not even with an annoucement but a “ok you can come on now” yelled into the crowd

Turkish Airlines – TK868
Istanbul to Abu Dhabi (IST-AUH)
2020-0200+1
Airbus A321Neo (TC-LSS)
Business Class – Seat 5F

Boarding: 2003 (Gate F5B)
Push Back: 2037
Take Off Roll: 2048 (Runway 36)
Top of Descent: 0109
Touch Down: 0135 (Runway 13L)
Shut Down: 0145 (Gate A4)

As I headed down onto the aircraft behind a string of business class guests, I was interested to see how it differed on a 321Neo compared to the 787-9.  Obviously they are not going to put a light flat long haul product, on a single aisle plane used for short to mid regional hops.  On paper the seat looked very similar to the Delta 321Neo first class that Heidi and I flew out to Honolulu on last year. But in reality the seat was very different and the space between seats was MUCH better.  God it was way more comfortable on that plane than on Delta (surprise surprise).  They boarded a full 321Neo pretty quickly and I was hoping and praying that the seat next to me would stay open (it did!) and just getting myself situated.  

Another glass of the lemon mint drink and another amenity kit (this one a differnet look than the others) and once everyone was loaded, they closed the door and the ground crew had to use an air cart to gate start the engines.  Once we were powered up, we pushed back and then taxiied off to the runway on the same side of the airport.  That helped keep it pretty quick (in relative terms).  

The take off roll was spirited and with a flight time scheduled to 4 hours, it was only time before I was going to be safe and sound in a bed.  We got the menus once the flight attendants were released and again, still wasn’t hungry and my body had no idea what time or anything it was, so I just asked for the dessert and some sparkling water and that was my meal. 

The crew on this flight were far superior to the previous flight with numerous times checking on me and the decision I made.  They wanted to make sure that I was ok and if I didn’t want to eat or drink anything else.  I was pretty content (and the dessert was good).  I just sat back and watched a couple of movies on the seat back (same selection as the previous flight) and watched as we flew into the middle east.

We tracked down over Iraq getting great views of all the different cities spotted all over the area.  It was surprising to me as I expected it to be just great big swaths of nothing, and it wasn’t.  At one point we were flying over the oil fields around Basra and the clouds below were all highlighted orange from the oil wells/refineries lighting up.  It was quite the beatiful scene.  Thanks to a kick ass tailwind, we were heading down the Arabian sea towards Abu Dhabi fairly quickly and it meant an early arrival.  Early is good because the sooner I get to Abu Dhabi, the sooner I get to sleep.

We came in the long way looping around the entire city before heading towards the airport. We passed over Yas Island and it wasn’t until I saw this that I realized just how far out the airport is.  O well!  We touched down and again, taxiied alllllll the way around the airport to the other side.  At one point again I thought we were going to a bus gate as there was everything waiting for an aicraft to pull in, but we didn’t, thanfully!

We pulled into an actual gate at the terminal and again this was another grand scale terminal that looked just as magnificent from the outside as many of the world players and I guess this is what Abu Dhabi wanted.  Well they got it all right!  Same situation as before, those heading to transfers go one direction, those heading to baggage claim go another.  That was me!  Off to immigration I went.  Immgration was a VERY long walk away, at least 15 minutes.  I was not too worried as I had someone waiting and I obviously had to still wait for my bag (foreshadowing).  

Immigration was easy he just asked how long I was in town for, where I was headed to after that and take photo and finger print wave (thats right, wave… you don’t touch the scanner).  Then it was off to get my hand baggage x’rayed.  No customs forms anything like that.  The border guard did not like the fact I had a dSLR on me or that I may have a drone hidden somewhere.  I let him know I did not and that I would not be using the dSLR while in Abu Dhabi (I had read up before hand to not even attempt to try and take any plane pictures).  Once that was handled then it was off to get my bag.  My bag didn’t drop when it said “all delivered” so off I went to the baggage inquries counter and they said “no it made the plane and it shows on the belt”.  Well low and behold it was on the belt and had dropped AFTER all bags had apparently dropped.  

Once I had my bag it was time to walk through the green channel for nothing to declare and off into the terminal we go!