Some nice views as we near California
Palm Springs International Airport
Passing Palm Springs as we start our descent
March Air Reserve Base
Back in Los Angeles after landing on RWY25L. The flight was about 5 hours.
Nice line-up!
Parking next to a new livery AA B772
Disembarked and went to pick up my bag, that’s when things went bad!
LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Ok, so we found the baggage carousel for our flight. The conveyer belt started to move and the first bag came off, it was wrapped in plastic and looked quite badly damaged! Felt sorry for the poor bugger who owned the bag. That’s when I realised it was my bag, S***!!! I grabbed it and I couldn’t believe this had happened! The entire back of the suitcase had been ripped off and it was just taped up. Thankfully I had all my valuables in my carry on! I was pretty p****d off!! I was focused on my suitcase but thankfully Josh heard that I had been paged and was to go to baggage services. After he grabbed his bag we walked over.
I walked in with my suitcase and went up to the counter. I told the lady there that I had just been paged. She started typing on the computer and then went out back. I didn’t say anything because I was quite tired and angry and I just assumed she knew what she was doing. After about 10 minutes she came out did some more typing and said, “I’m sorry it looks like we’ve lost your bag!” Turns out she didn’t know what she was doing! I said to her that I have my bag! I showed her the bag, so now that she knew what was going on, she got me to fill out a form and then went out back to get me a new suitcase!
A few minutes later she came out with a nice new bag! Straight away I went from being rather annoyed to being very happy! I thought it was great that AA replaced the bag without any fuss! So I opened up my old bag and put all the stuff into my new one. I had a laugh as I transferred my stuff, the bag was absolutely buggered!!!! She threw away my old bag, I thanked her and then Josh and I walked out of the terminal. There was a note in my bag but I didn't read it til I got home. It said that for security reasons some bags are searched and mine was chosen! It also said that if your bag has a lock on it (which mine did!) they will be forced to break it open. I understand that they have to check bags, but couldn't they just break the lock rather than rip the back of your suitcase off!!! Oh well, it all worked out in the end!
By then it was just after 7pm. We caught the complimentary transfer bus to terminal 3, which VA uses for departures. There was a small line which moved quite quickly. VA1 to Sydney left before ours, at about 10:30pm. Our flight was due out at 11:55pm. We checked in together, and just like the flight over to LAX, because we booked all our flights separately we were hoping we could get window seats next to each other. I was originally assigned 34K (which would have had a great view!) and Josh was giver 4*K (can’t remember which row exactly). The lady checked and found two window seats together, 49A and 50A. A bit too far back, but I wasn’t bothered because I was tired and just wanted to get home!
So with that sorted out we went through security and went to Burger King for some dinner and then we found a couple of seats, it was very busy at the time. VPD and VPF were in LAX (unlucky for Josh as he has been on both of them), I was hoping for VPF as she is still in the old livery but she was off to Sydney! So we would be on VPD, which Josh got on VA8 in 2011
I was exhausted; I managed to get a little sleep as we waited. Finally at about 11:10pm it was time to board.
June 10, 2013
Virgin Australia
VA8
LAX-BNE
VH-VPD B77W
Seat 50A
Boarding was very un-organised with people crowding around the gate. Finally I step foot onto the plane. I was greeted by a female flight attendant who had a nice Aussie accent; it was great to hear that after hearing pretty much only American accents for the last 2 weeks. It was a great feeling to be going home! Boarding finally finished, I had a couple next to me. Josh had no-one next to him, so the lady next to me moved to 49C so we could all spread out a bit more which was good. I had the occasional chat with the guy next to me. He was an air traffic controller at LAX for a couple of years in the 80’s, he now lives in Toowoomba.
At about midnight we taxied out to RWY25R (so I used all four runway at LAX
) and at 15 past midnight we took off. Half an hour into the flight the crew came through with dinner. There were three choices, I took the chicken with mash potato (can’t remember the other two choices). It was quite nice but I barely touched it because I lost my appetite, probably from all the travel!
I managed a little bit of sleep, but as we neared Hawaii I didn’t feel that I’d be able to get back to sleep so I decided to watch a movie. I watched Identity Thief, it was alright. It had its funny bits, but it was very annoying! I then watched I give it a Year, again it had its funny bits but it was pretty crap. Then I just relaxed and stared at the time to go on the flight map very slowly go down haha!
Passing Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu
2 hours out of Brisbane, it was breakfast time. Unlike the flight from BNE-LAX where they just flicked the lights on straight away, they used the mood lighting which was nice. The choices were French toast with something and I forgot the other option haha! I still wasn’t hungry so I just took a glass of orange juice.
Nearly there!!!
The sun slowly rises over the Pacific
Finally it was time to start our decent
