After landing at sunrise on LAX's 24R and a short taxi to the gate, in no time I was at immigration. My advice to anyone who plans to be at TBIT at 6AM going through immigration is GET Global Entry! With the multiple flights from Australia having landed the people in line without GE are most likely still there.
Passing instantly through immigration I circled back upstairs and through security to the Qantas First Class lounge at TBIT. (Note to LAX international arrivals: Anyone can do this provided you have a departing flight boarding pass and you want to visit one of the international lounges.)
First in line was a shower.
Presentable I headed back out and contemplated having my 3rd breakfast for the day. The lounge is beautiful, only lacking a nice view.
There is a view, of the shops below in the terminal.
You can pick from the white room.
Red room.
Or black room.
Or head over to the bar and dining room.
The breakfast menu, I'm sparing you from another photo of eggs.
To the gate and AA101, a one year old A321.
Originally this flight was to be on a 787, but a schedule change swapped it out to the 321. That's the third time this year AA has taken me off their 787.
Time to go on this beautiful clear Southern California day.
Reminiscing on when I lived just past that horizon…
Did I say anything bad about the QF seat? If so I apologize.
Typical US domestic legroom (sans United's A319)
If guess this folding armrest is for your tablet or laptop.
(Notice the jacket, apparently the FA on this flight was trained by Qantas.)
Impressive IFE system on AA's new domestic bird.
Except I couldn't figure out where to plug in the headset, or ear buds as they were. It must have been the cross Pacific trip that knocked out my senses. I actually had to ask the FA!
Nonetheless it's a dumb place for a headphone jack, and filthy down there.
I know I promised no eggs, but don't think I'm breaking that promise.
So I'll leave you with my 4th breakfast. You decide.
A whirlwind 28,500 miles comes to an end. What a fabulous trip!
American Airlines First Class ORD-BOS
On Flight-Report
Qatar Business Class BOS-DOH
On Flight-Report
On rewardflying.com
Etihad Business Class DOS-AUH and First Class Lounge
On Flight-Report
On rewardflying.com
Etihad First Class AUH-MEL
On Flight-Report
On rewardflying.com
Qantas Business Class MEL-SYD-PER
On Flight-Report
On rewardflying.com
Virgin Australia Business Class PER-MEL
On Flight-Report
On rewardflying.com
Qantas First Class MEL-LAX
On Flight-Report
On rewardflying.com
Hello, rewardflying, and thank you for this FR.
A rather anticlimactic conclusion to this series. How about giving us details other than JL 787 regarding your next series? :)
Surely you ordered something else other than eggs in the QF F lounge? Also, how was the lounge staff?
Thanks again for publishing!
HaHa Razza_PR, I can't give out the "tasty" (pun intended) details of the JL trip yet! The shower attendant at LAX was super nice. Otherwise the place was empty. The 8AM QF flight to NYC had just departed so not much going on in the lounge. Had the place to myself. Back soon, thanks for reading!!
QF F lounge looks really nice--haven't had a chance to fly Intl out of LAX in a while though. Too bad the 787 got swapped out. An A321T would have been an acceptable downgrade, even. At least the new domestic birds have good IFE, though it is always hit or miss whether you'll get them, even on these longer 4h+ domestic routes. I've done LAX/SFO-ORD/IAD a few times in the past 6 months and half the time they were old 737s with overheads. With AA recently announcing that they will not put IFE in the brand new 737MAX they will receive this year, AA will be pulling a US Airways and slowly pulling off IFE from the domestic fleet. Really such a shame.
Hi KevinDC, AA just swapped another international jet domestic flight I had booked, MIA-ORD 767 to a 737. That's 4 now. Yes, I read about the IFE on their MAX jets. It's similar to going 10w economy in the 777 (which everyone is doing), let's make it a worse experience for the passenger. We can charge less, pile on ancillary charges, they'll like it less, everyone wins. But in a way I understand, to me it's amazing every flight is sold out, upgrades are impossible even to elites so people are buying tickets. Until they stop airlines won't improve services. That's my rant for the day! Thanks for reading.