The 787 Dreamliner departed on time at 0100. The crew on board were most obliging, especially with the lady across the aisle from me:
- The lady across the aisle asked to check that her checked-in baggage had been loaded due to having been rebooked. Even just before doors closed, the crew took her boarding pass and bag tags and had this confirmed for her.
- Then she asked for slippers and these were brought down from Business Class for her.
- Then she asked for a cup of water.
- Then during taxi, she spilt the cup of water on her seat. A first crew member came with towels to help dry it off. Then a second with a blanket to cover the wet patch. And then a third with a new seat squab.
The hot meals weren’t so good though with two-thirds of it being rice and the remainder a mix of vegetables and a little meat. This differs from my usual airlines, with meals made up of one third of rice/staple, protein and vegetables.
The crew dutifully placed stickers in front of passengers who were asleep dring the meal service, notifying them that they had been left to rest and to ring for their meals when ready.
I managed to sleep (with a tablet) for about 4h followed by an hour of dozing. The seat-belt signs were on for the entire flight in light of recent turbulent events internationally. This meant that people ignored them when the need to answer nature arose.
We landed a few minutes ahead of the 1730 scheduled arrival time. Before the cabin was sprayed with insecticide, the crew thoughtfully came round with tissues for us to cover our eyes and nose.
With no luggage, I was out pretty quickly at Auckland International Airport, met by Kim for the ride to Home Sweet Home.