I wrote this on the plane ride back in July. It just resurfaced on my computer so I'm posting it.
After years of saving up mileage with United Airlines I have finally taken a return. While in New Zealand I decided I would use my mileage for the plane ticket home. Unfortunately for me I didn't yet know all the necessary details about award travel. Each plane allots only a handful of seats to customers using miles. I am unsure if the route between Nadi, Fiji and San Francisco, CA is just a really popular trip for July or if the allocated seats are just precious few. Either way, there were no seats available on my initial call. I was told that reservations are constantly changing though and I should try back the next day. The next day I was able to put a hold on a flight. It wasn't a pretty itineray, but at least I found something. Finding this fast change heartening, I continued to call back every day for the next two weeks. Even though my flight wasn't for another six weeks, absolutely nothing else came up. I even tried for them to give me longer layovers. I was stuck with a schedule that had me at airports at 37 hours. Oh well...
When the day came to fly, due to bus schedules in Fiji I found myself at the airport an hour earlier than I would have liked. I found a friendly woman from Illinois to pass the time. Fortunately for me she was paying a bit more attention to the airport announcements. As we were talking the time was passing more rapidly than I realized. Before I knew it they were calling my name on the intercom and I swiftly making my way to the gate.
My flight was a late evening flight with Air New Zealand. With only 36 passengers it may have been the most empty flight I have been on yet. An easy four hours brought me to Wellington, New Zealand at midnight. After stowing my bag in the storage room at the airport I hitched a ride with another traveler in a taxi. It seemed so natural, with a tinge of strange, to be returning to my former home of five months. I got spend the next four and a half hours with four friends. We played a board game, drank tea, chatted, traded a few massages and watched Rocky Horror Picture Show. When five am rolled around the movie was just ending. Perfect timing. We piled in the car and headed back to the airport. After checking in to my 6:45 flight there were many hugs and fairwells. I count myself fortunate to have such good friends. This was definitely the best layover I have ever experienced.
Time passed quickly at the Wellington Airport. Going through security and browsing the duty free shelves ate up a good portion of the 80 minutes before my flight. Wellington has some comfy couches to sit on while waiting too. From Wellington I had a four hour flight to Sydney, Australia.
A six hour layover is such an awkward amount of time. It isn't enough to do much exploring because you need to be back with plenty of time before your next flight, just in case security takes a while plus they always board about half an hour before scheduled departure. In Wellington it worked alright because I had friends there, plus the airport is located pretty close to the city. Already having a valid visa helped too. Six hours in Sydney however was another story. I'm not close with anyone that lives even remotely close to the airport and public transportation is time consuming. I wasn't sure how long it would take go through customs, nor did I feel the inclination to bother with getting Australian money just for a few hours in a city I have already seen. I decided I would just stick it out at the airport. Having my own laptop to watch videos I decided to continue with the series The Wire. And what luck! Sydney Airport has free wifi.
The United Airplines plane I rode from Sydney to San Francisco was huge. I suppose it was the same size as planes I have been on before when I have flown to and from Australia, New Zealand and California, but before I didn't notice the stairway up to the second level. My seat was an emergency exit seat, meaning plenty of legroom. Thank you kind United lady for offering it to me. The vegetarian food was actually not bad. Though I had no idea what the mash they served me for dinner was suppose to be, perhaps gnocchi, it tasted alright and had a pleasant enough mouth feel. Breakfast was surprising good, consisting of cook spinach, tomato and scrambled eggs with a croissant on the side. Between sleeping, watching The Wire, eating, more sleeping and a bit of writing I found the 13 hours flew by (har har har, “flew” by).
I know flying isn't the most environmental way of traveling, but when people talk about that are they also including the waste that is involved in the food service. Every change they got they tried to give me another cup. Even with efforts to reuse my cups I still managed to use eight. Mostly due to the fact that they left things for me while I was asleep. I wonder if they started doing that due to complaints. I recall a flight years ago on which I missed a meal because I was asleep. It was disappointing. The cups are plastic, so they could be recycled, though I'm not sure they are. It seemed so wasteful to me. Then there is the question of unused condiments. When they take the tray there are often unused, perfectly clean items; such as butter, packaged toothpicks, packaged breadrolls, salt and pepper. What happens to those things? Are they thrown away too?
