This morning, it was Pat and Fiona’s turn to go to Santa Monica for a little outing. As for us, we were flying back to Auckland departing at 1335. We set of from the hotel by their complimentary shuttle about 1030.
On the bus we met some Air New Zealand ground staff from New Zealand. They weren’t really hired by the airline but by Hallmark ground handler for 18 months to provide a Kiwi touch to the service in Los Angeles. Hallmark also recruit from Ireland. These foreign staff serve other Aer Lingus, Singapore Airlines and Qantas. They maintain several sets of uniforms and change into the appropriate one at different times of the day, taking rests at the hotel.
Despite arriving at the airport about 3h prior to the flight, the check-in queue stretched all the way to the outside. The weather was clear and the sun scorching. Kim asked the staff if it was OK for us to join the Business Class queue, as we had paid for a last-minute space-available upgrade. They kindly let us do that.
It must have been our lucky day. Despite being on standby, we got our boarding passes immediately and a few seconds later, the Business Class upgrade was given.
During the x-ray screening of the luggage, Kim’s new radar detected showed up. He had to hand the luggage key to the staff behind the scenes for them to open and satisfy themselves. Good luck to them packing everything back!
The queue to get airside took about 30 mins today. It was a relief to get through and board the B747-400. A friend was the boss on the flight and showed us to First Class seats 1J and 1K. The first row in the pointy nose of the Jumbo.
There had been problems with some incoming flights at Los Angeles airport due to forest fires and many inbound connecting passengers didn’t make it onto our flight. Apart from three passengering pilots, we were the only passengers in First Class.
It was extremely quiet in the pointy end. The full recline of the First Class seats were better than those in Business Class. The meals were very nicely presented with the best crockery and cutlery that the airline had. But because there weren’t any commercial passengers, it was a laid back friendly service.