14.5 Hours to Sydney
Australia Travelog #2
SYD Airport - Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 7am
We've arrived in Australia! We're still at Sydney airport, and I'm just jotting down a few things.
1. The flight was long. It was scheduled at 15 hours 20 minutes. We left a bit late and arrived a bit early, so our actual flight time was about 14.5 hours.
2. Hawk and I had the good luck of an empty middle seat between us. With that plus the few inches of extra legroom in United's Economy Plus it was almost comfortable. Almost. The seat bottoms were too short (an issue for taller people like me) so it didn't distribute pressure evenly across my legs, and the seat didn't tilt far enough back to be able to fall asleep easily. I did get some sleep but only a few hours.
3. I used my new iPad to good avail on the trip. The aircraft had seat-back entertainment screens, but the audio quality through the supplied headphones was awful. It sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher but whispering. I switched to my iPad and watched two movies. After that I slept for a few hours (I think it was a few hours but it could have been 12 minutes). For the last hour or so before landing I played sudoku.
4. People on the plane were mostly well behaved. One kid a few rows over was clearly very ill, having coughing fits for hours at a time when he wasn't asleep. I was glad I wore my mask. Hawk and I were pretty much the only passengers wearing masks, though. Even the wiper behind us wasn't wearing a mask. ..."Wiper" is my nickname for germaphobes who vigorously wipe down their entire seat area with alcohol swaps when they sit. You can smell them even if you don't see them. Suddenly the whole area smells like rubbing alcohol or Pine-Sol. There have always been wipers on planes and trains, even before Coronavirus became a thing, but now their behavior seems flatly ridiculous as these germ-obsessed people never wear masks. I wonder if they adorn their cars with "Baby On Board" stickers while not wearing seatbelts.
5. Passport control and customs at Sydney Airport were swift. TSA in the US could really take a lesson here. Passport control was faster in Australia as a foreigner than in the US as a US citizen with Global Entry.
SYD Airport - Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 7am
We've arrived in Australia! We're still at Sydney airport, and I'm just jotting down a few things.
1. The flight was long. It was scheduled at 15 hours 20 minutes. We left a bit late and arrived a bit early, so our actual flight time was about 14.5 hours.
2. Hawk and I had the good luck of an empty middle seat between us. With that plus the few inches of extra legroom in United's Economy Plus it was almost comfortable. Almost. The seat bottoms were too short (an issue for taller people like me) so it didn't distribute pressure evenly across my legs, and the seat didn't tilt far enough back to be able to fall asleep easily. I did get some sleep but only a few hours.
3. I used my new iPad to good avail on the trip. The aircraft had seat-back entertainment screens, but the audio quality through the supplied headphones was awful. It sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher but whispering. I switched to my iPad and watched two movies. After that I slept for a few hours (I think it was a few hours but it could have been 12 minutes). For the last hour or so before landing I played sudoku.
4. People on the plane were mostly well behaved. One kid a few rows over was clearly very ill, having coughing fits for hours at a time when he wasn't asleep. I was glad I wore my mask. Hawk and I were pretty much the only passengers wearing masks, though. Even the wiper behind us wasn't wearing a mask. ..."Wiper" is my nickname for germaphobes who vigorously wipe down their entire seat area with alcohol swaps when they sit. You can smell them even if you don't see them. Suddenly the whole area smells like rubbing alcohol or Pine-Sol. There have always been wipers on planes and trains, even before Coronavirus became a thing, but now their behavior seems flatly ridiculous as these germ-obsessed people never wear masks. I wonder if they adorn their cars with "Baby On Board" stickers while not wearing seatbelts.
5. Passport control and customs at Sydney Airport were swift. TSA in the US could really take a lesson here. Passport control was faster in Australia as a foreigner than in the US as a US citizen with Global Entry.