Trip Report: SYD-LAX (QF A380) and LAX-SFO (VX A320)

[Shameel Kumar]

G'day folks, ... or should that be Howdy Y'all since I'm living on the other side of the Pacific Ocean now.

This will be my final trip report for quite a while, so I thought I'd make it a good one. Good as in lots of photos, my usual 2-line caption for each photo, and of course added rambling about this, that and the other.

So the reason for the flight?... I made the big decision to migrate to the States. Condition of my visa is that I can't leave USA for at least 2 years, so I thought I'd treat myself to a flight on the A380 (since I was still heart-broken from the V Australia delay)..and then further treat myself to a First Class seat on Virgin America (VX) to get up to San Francisco.
So now that you know the background info, let's get rolling with the trip report. Upwards and onwards!

Date: January 25, 2009 (yeah I know, the day before Australia Day..what a date to bid farewell to Australia)
Flight: QF11
Route: SYD-LAX
Aircraft: Airbus A380

So yeah, I purposely chose QF11 to get a flight on the A380 to make-up for my missed opportunity to fly VA and their 77W. Check-in, immigration and security were simple as per usual. Thanks to Sam Chui for the Business Lounge access, so my girlfriend and I enjoyed a little bit of time in there before we boarded our aircraft.

Prior to going through immigration, I went up to the Observation Deck to check-out the midday action. Here's an Etihad A340-600 being taxied back from The Pond for its usual afternoon departure (A6-EHH).


The A340-600 has to be THE most beautiful aircraft to look at head-on! Perfect proportions all-round, and the EY livery further accentuates the A346's beauty.


Inside QF's Business Lounge about 20 minutes before boarding. Mainly just relaxed in there to kill time (and of course to get some bottled water for the flight). 'Lounging' is not my sort of thing, I prefer to wonder around checking-out all the planes at their gates, but this trip was an exception because it was rather hard to say good-bye to my parents and friends.


Two icons in one frame. The Flying Kangaroo and Sydney's Centrepoint Tower. The new 'Roo doesn't look all that bad here.


A closer view of one of the four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines that hang under the A380's massive wings. Makes the B744 engines look... well... small.


Wider view of VH-OQA just seconds before boarding. This was taken behind the glass window of the new A380-compatible aerobridge. The new 'Roo looks like a ballerina right there!


A shot of QF's new AVOD system. I have to admit this new system is very nice to use and very user-friendly. It can be controlled by either the handheld controller (which is stored in your armrest, good thinking as clipping the controller to your seatback gives an unpleasant look) or by touchscreen. The screen image is the introductory screen of iQ.


The view across the 10-abreast Economy cabin. Taken from seat 82K which is in the rear of the lower-deck. Soon after take-off I moved back to 86K to get a slightly better view since there were only about 7 people in the rear-section of Economy. I'm hoping that guy just had an itchy nose...


Don't let any one tell you that size doesn't matter! Okay okay, perspective can be deceiving, but the big (yet still boring) 'fence'-tip of the A380 makes the Rex prop' look like a toy!


The rear section of the QF A380 Economy cabin (seat colour: Desert Orange). Quality's a bit crap because I couldn't be bothered holding the camera real steady so I just jacked-up the ISO.



Trip report continued below...