Today, in Northern California, it was about 55 degrees during the mid-day and in a few days we'll be basking - or should I say baking - in temperatures that could exceed 110 degrees. Quite a shift as we travel from California to south of the Northern Territory of Australia. Luckily, our trip will also be taking us to cooler destinations in Australia and New Zealand, as well.
With a leisurely flight to LAX that started at close to 3pm, we will transfer to an evening 15 hour flight to Sydney, Australia. With a little assistance of a half Ambien and a business class "lie-flat"seat, I should be able to sleep through a few of the 15 hours of flight time. Hard to remember that we flew coach on a similar flight to New Zealand about fifteen years ago. The downside of moving up a flight travel class for long distance travel is that it's hard to move back to coach.
The Qantas flight to Sydney is on an Airbus A380. With 450 seats over a double deck seating layout, this plane is one huge flying machine. One wonders if the size of the A380 was related to the April 2011 incident in which an Air France A380 wing clipped the tail of a smaller regional jet at JFK while taxiing.
Most of the A380 seats are devoted to 332 coach seats, with 72 business class seats, 14 first class seats and 32 premium economy seats. The premium economy seats are located on the top deck, right behind business class and the rear of the top deck. The business class seats do not seem to be pods, such as the seats we had on a Cathay Pacific flight back from Vietnam last year, but more like traditional seats with a lie flat capability.
With a leisurely flight to LAX that started at close to 3pm, we will transfer to an evening 15 hour flight to Sydney, Australia. With a little assistance of a half Ambien and a business class "lie-flat"seat, I should be able to sleep through a few of the 15 hours of flight time. Hard to remember that we flew coach on a similar flight to New Zealand about fifteen years ago. The downside of moving up a flight travel class for long distance travel is that it's hard to move back to coach.
The Qantas flight to Sydney is on an Airbus A380. With 450 seats over a double deck seating layout, this plane is one huge flying machine. One wonders if the size of the A380 was related to the April 2011 incident in which an Air France A380 wing clipped the tail of a smaller regional jet at JFK while taxiing.
Most of the A380 seats are devoted to 332 coach seats, with 72 business class seats, 14 first class seats and 32 premium economy seats. The premium economy seats are located on the top deck, right behind business class and the rear of the top deck. The business class seats do not seem to be pods, such as the seats we had on a Cathay Pacific flight back from Vietnam last year, but more like traditional seats with a lie flat capability.
With a 10pm departure, we should be
able to have a light snack and then hopefully have at least six hours of sleep time.
Of course that leaves only nine hours to keep occupied while trapped in a what
is basically a large flying bus.
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