Day #1: RDU DFW LAX MEL

Today the adventure begins!

First goal for the day was to avoid the $50 charge for overweight luggage (glad life doesn't charge me $50/day for being overweight). Their system includes a self serve kiosk that stops dead in it's tracks when you request confirmation of an international destination. The screen states "Wait HERE" for a representative. Don't move, don't even think about moving out of the way, stay right there. So I did. Nothing. Nada. Only after everyone within 500 yards of the checkin desk had been handled did a representative ask me what was wrong.

She walked to the machine, inserted her key, then magically it completed the process allowing me to check in. Then I was instructed to bring my luggage to the desk. The moment of truth! While getting my luggage on the scales, I asked if she would check them through to Australia and she said "certainly!" Feigning great surprise and overwhelming gratitude, I proceeded to compliment her all the while pushing my luggage past the scales and onto the stationary rim on the otherside nearest the belt. I even said "Can you reach the handle from there?" being the helpful passenger. Both bags were tagged and I was handed a boarding pass. Success!

Second goal of the day: Carry on 4 separate items, clearly in defiance of the one carryon and one personal item limitation. As I approached the TSA agent, I said "I need your help today." He said "what can I do for you?" I said "I know there are regulations for carryons, but I am facing 25 flight hours, 36 awake hours and loosing an entire day of my life to get to Australia. I really need all of the items you see here. And it's really just 1 item per flight leg. It's survival gear!" He laughed and smiled and said that my need was greater than most travelers today and that it was ok.

The first flight was uneventful, on time to DFW. I read 1/2 of my first paperback and wondered which flight Sue was taking since she wasn't on this one.

We landed at DFW and I emerged from the jetway into a sea of chaos. Chicago was shut down due to multiple feet of snow and flights were diverted, planes and crews were stranded, and everyone was trying to get a seat on a flight going in their direction. My flight wasn't listed on the monitors, so I located a lone gate attendance who looked up the gate for me. My flight was delayed 2 hours and had 30 people on the stand by list. I managed to get a seat and as the minutes went by, the crowd grew larger. The offers of riches and perks began. Vouchers, meals, upgrades, and papal dispensations. They managed to get everthing sorted out and we were on our way to LAX.

We landed at LAX and I made a quick change to the international terminal, queued up at Quantas for a boarding pass and went upstairs for dinner. Sue was about 1 hour behind me and by the time I called home, she was on her way to join me in the bar for dinner. Then the long wait began.

6 hours till takeoff. We decided to go to the gate and locate electrical outlets to charge our computers, phones and ipods. In my increasingly tired mode, I forgot to extract my official quart baggie of gels and liquids from my luggage. OH NO!!! Would it be confiscated? Would I be "red flaged"? Something worse? Nope, nothing, nada. They didn't even notice it in the luggage. Nice work TSA.

If you have never been in the international gate areas at LAX, you have missed a stark, dingy, under construction area, with exposed wiring, out of service moving sidewalks, and temperatures kept similiar to those of a meat locker. We managed to pass the time taking turns walking up and down between the TWO, yes 2, duty free kiosks. I memorized the flavors of Beef Jerkey for sale, bought some peanuts and Life Savers and tried to stay warm.

Finally, boarding! The Quantas agent gave a stern lecture and warning for all: there will be two lines, first class and every one else. The everyone else line would snake through the seating area around the wall, would be single file, and no one would be allowed to cut into the line. The orderly queue process began and 300+ people began to board. The rich folks went either forward in the plane or up the stairs. The rest of us went to our right into steerage.

When I arrived at my seat, the storage above was full. I spotted available space in the bin behind and lifted the briefcase up for storage. The man seated behind my seat said very loudly "that's the space for this row lady." I pretended to ignore him and added the camera bag to the area. He then said "well, I guess you are going to do it anyway." I sat down next to the Italian couple and assembled my entourage of survival items (more to follow on that). The two seatmates for the row behind me arrived and their bin was also full (now that I had disobyed the ruling by the self appointed bin steward) and what happened? The bin steward rose to this feet and offered to help them find an open bin for their luggage!! Against my instincts, I didn't make a comment. I guess I didn't look worthy of his help.

The next instructions by the Quantas drill sargent was "there will be no sleeping on the floor on this flight." Now this was my first Quantas flight, but I can ony imagine what these flights looked like BEFORE this directive was added to the litany. I was releaved that I didn't have to step over snoozing bodies litering the aisles and galleys.

We were off! I readied myself for 15 hours in the seat, while anticipating viewing the 60+ on demand movies, cds, and television shows. Or perhaps I would just read my novel. Then came the dreaded announcement: "we are experiencing difficulty with our in-flight entertainment system." NOOOOOOO! Ok, don't panic yet. She said she was rebooting the system so it will probably be just fine. In the meantime you can just read---if your light above your seat was working. No go on the light. Out came the book light and we took off.

Back to the survival gear. After careful consideration and several lengthy flights of experience, I had accumulated quite an arsenal. Here is a semi-comprehensive list: blanket, neck pillow (actually looks like a whiplash collar, not attractive, but fashion doesn't play a role in 15 hours of economy flying), second pillow for back, headphones, earplugs, eye covers, extra jacket, paperback, magazines, candy, water, air purifier, eye drops, nose spray, glacier water spray for face, chapstick, hand lotion, fuzzy socks, jet lag pills, advil pm, and rolaids.

more to come....[quote]