My First TR: 21 Flights in 28 Days

[PLANT]

Capital is a good tour.... Nice university in town too... I walked miles around the place.

 

[exceladdict]

Austin Day 3


Waking up we walked to Farmacy to try their breakfast menu. My Mocha was nicely decorated;



and my 'Sunny Coast' omelette with cheese and scrambled egg hit the spot.




We booked in a trail ride around a ranch later that day so needed to hire a car. Hertz were the cheapest, so we booked but when we rocked up, their lot was empty and they were 'Sorry they couldn't help us'. I guess booking something online doesn't guarantee availability these days. Luckily Avis were on the block around the corner and had a full yard, so we booked an accent (i30) using the AA discount code ended up with a Kia Soul, which had a bit of kick and my wife enjoyed driving (it was her turn to try the RIGHT side of the road). We somehow got free insurance which saved about $30, the lady at the desk said 'she didnt understand why'. I didn't complain.



With a car at our disposal, we drove out to the San Marcos Premium Outlets where I found a Bose Outlet that was open and had the QC20is in stock at $220. I then claimed the sales tax back at some place at the outlet mall too so I was very happy with the deal. Short review: they're not quite as good as QC15/25s, given they're in rather than over ear, but they are still very comfortable. I plan to use them for sleeping on later flights where over-ears won't work sleeping on my side. We also visited a few accessories stores but the stock was quite limited so we didn't pick anything else up. Somewhere along the way we passed Slaughter Creek.



These signs were all over the place. I thought it would have gone without saying?




Perhaps obeying signs used to be optional.

We then headed to the Trail Ride at a ranch about 45 minutes south of Austin. My wife loves horseriding and while being only my second time, I've taken a liking to it. The saddles we used were also aparrently much more comfortable than traditional 'english' saddles which explained the lack of pain I was expecting to experience.


We rode for about 90 minutes around the ranch's property, and crossed a stream at one point which was exciting. The photos I took on horseback are all a bit blurry unfortunately but I did get a photo afterwards of their other farm animals including a harnessed pig.


We used the car to explore a bit in the afternoon, tried Church's Chicken (basically slightly less tasty KFC) and got to drive around the Aboretum area. It's quite nice and if we had more time could be a good place to stay and walk around.


On the way we found another nice cupcake store - sweets seem to be a thing in Austin - and enjoyed a red velvet cupcake and chocolate brownie.

 

[exceladdict]

We had a good browse around a Barnes & Noble - it's nice how big bookstores are surviving in some parts of the world - and then drove back towards our accom for a quick stop before dinner. For this, we headed out to Z'tejas, on the other side of downtown. I had what was probably the best burrito (steak) that I've ever had - I may be young but I've had a few burritos in my time, and in all my travels this takes the cake. I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy Salsas as much back home.




My wife had 'Street Tacos' which were reportedly also up there with the best ever.




It was a cool experience eating at this place as they had a live band playing all through dinner, which was loud, but something really different to anything I'd usually see.





We then visited a local independent bookstore - 'Book People' - which was quite nice and my wife found a book that would turn out to be useful in tomorrow's weather delays (it's fun writing this retrospectively!).


At the recommendation of someone in the bookstore, we headed across the river to a Games & Comics store - Tribe - and managed to find 'Pirate Fluxx', which we'd been seeking for a long time. B&N don't stock it in store so it was cool to finally find it.


Then it was time to drive home for a short night's sleep before some more flying tomorrow.


Final anecdotes about Austin:
- It seems to have a 'college' feel to the town, the 'Keep Austin Wierd' slogan around the place fits perfectly (think busker playing a banjo conversing with a passer-by on rollerblades as a standard sighting).
- If staying downtown or near to downtown, a car probably isn't necessary. We only got one for going to the ranch. Uber and our feet did the rest, and there's a very cheap bus aparrently that runs from the airport.




Next Up: Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

 

[TomVexille]

Exactly why most "Mexican" (if you can call it that) food in Australia is disappointing

 

[exceladdict]

14: Austin-Bergstrom Airport and AA1635 to Dallas Fort Worth, Y, Seats 9A/B


With a flight departing at 9am, we left at around 6.45am to fill up the car and return it to Avis at the airport. Getting to the petrol station from the highway however required a u-turn across the highway, which was a little scary as it took a few minutes for a gap to appear (must have been peak hour).


AUS is quite a small airport so the car return terminal was very close to the departures check-in, about a 30 second walk in fact - quite pleasant compared to the DFW bus. After check-in, there was no priority line at security for OW pax, just a nondescript 'premium line' and as I wasn't in the mood for arguing we just jumped in the short general pax queue.


There were lots of Dell ads up at the airport as it was Dell's hometown. Not sure why I pay attention to in-airport advertising.





We didn't realise there was a lounge, so we got a coffee and muffin and was impressed by the size of 'small' (I guess we forgot we were still in Texas).



We also found a make up vending machine, not a big deal but it was a novelty to us:

 

[exceladdict]

We thought we'd chill at the gate but on walking towards it we saw a sign to an Admirals Club. Hooray!? It was a small lounge and the lounge angel was friendly, but I'd call it cosy for our 45 minutes to departure.




The standard seating areas and business nooks were present but the view of the tarmac was not great.






There was no cereal in the lounge but they did have bagels and a toaster so we used those and topped it with some cream cheese. I don't understand why we get premium drink coupons at 8am, but we seem to never get them in afternoons.

 

[exceladdict]

We made our way down to the gate as priority boarding was underway, there were lots of pax in the seemingly-priority queue but no dragoning in play. We thought that perhaps we were on a flight of DYKWIAs, and that turned out to be the case. One very important-acting person in F was grunting when other boarding pax were blocking him from putting his bag in the overhead compartment (he had about 4, I presume wanting to make sure his extra bags were not force-checked as the flight was again super-full). He grunted when my wife and I moved past him to board (it was really, really important that he was able to do whatever he needed to do, after all) and as soon as I got past him he pushed out and swung his bag up, hitting my wife in the side of the head with his hardcase bag. Unfortunately she didn't tell me until we were seated, with a hoard of pax between me and the DYKWIA in row 3, as I would have very much liked to ask him if he knew just how important he was. Of course he ran off the plane after landing so there was no chance there either.


Speaking of seats, we were back in 9A/B which was row two of MCE on the AA 737's. As mentioned the flight was full and someone was already sitting in 9C, reading a broadleaf newspaper. Here we go. He insisted on standing for us to take our seats, and then proceeded to claim not only the armrest but a significant percentage of the space between me and the seat in front of me as well (with his NY Times International Edition of course). At least the top left corner of his newspaper was interesting until I could put my tray table down and reclaim my airspace.


Despite the clouds, Austin looked quite nice from the sky as we took off to fly north.




Back on Row 9 and MCE; I do appreciate the extra legroom and distance to the seat in front. I think that at the cost of one Y row, QF or VA could really impress their domestic Y-pax with something like this on the longer flights - such as PER-SYD on the A330 - or charge general pax extra for it (like the exit row on long haul INT).


We had quite a short flight time of 37 minutes but right at the end a foul pong seemed to emanate through the cabin. An unfortunate end to an otherwise pleasant/bearable Y-flight. Landing was smooth and it was still icy in Dallas as we flew in - with a taxi to the gate, we arrived in terminal D.

Time to check out another AC!

 

[exceladdict]

15: Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Terminal A AC, & AA194 DFW-ATL

Arriving into Terminal D Gate 31, we were off the plane quickly and took the nearby escalator up to the skylink/skytrain/inter-terminal-train. From here we had a nice view of plenty of planes lined up:




The train around does give a good view of the airport (or the snowy weather) and was quite fast so we had to hold on! We got in to Terminal A and walked for a few minutes to get to the Terminal A AC. The downstairs Lounge Dragon demanded to see my QF card despite it being on the ticket.

They do seem to put effort into hit-or-miss artwork at the ACs.



I did a quick walk around and there was a fitness centre, complete with treadmill, cross-step machine and bike:



There's also a miniature arrivals lounge - which was basically a room with couches and the desk was unmanned. Not sure if its appeal.

Seating areas in the main section of the lounge are nice:



Photos of the food on offer turned out terribly so I'll summarise: disappointing. I picked up some of those familiar chocolate-chip cookies and a soda water, but there was no soup this early in the day and I didn't care for another bagel. I couldn't resist asking for a cheeky upgrade but was denied as the plane was full and/or the attendant was grumpy (I think both).

On the upside, they did have some nice toffees in a box at the entry desk. They're worth keeping an eye out for if you're visiting an AC in the next little while. I sat down to do some emails for a little while before heading back to gate A10 for boarding, and priority pax were being called just as we arrived (it was a decent walk to gate 10).

 

[Valeriexray]

Looks yummy. Good tucker Worked today with med rep from Texas. She assured me snow there is not normal at all

 

[exceladdict]

AA194 DFW-ATL, Y, A321 Seats 9A/B (MCE)


Boarding the plane it clicked that this was one of AA's new A319s, which have arrived to much controversy with AA loyalists (or whingers on SeatGuru) prefering the old MD80s. Finally a chance to test it for myself, firstly in the Y MCE Section. Being a new plane, it was clean and felt nice, and the style of the interior was quite modern.



Hold on - surely this can't be - IFE on AA Domestic Y?!



False alarm, apart from two programs you have to cough up for a pass.



Seat pockets are very small, you'd barely fit an iPad in here.



MCE area had a power socket on the rear of each seat though, which is cool.

 

[exceladdict]

This picture shows though that the IFE boxes do restrict the amount of legroom for window seats (A/F) - so I can understand the seatguru complains in that regard.






The ice on the windscreen of the plane next to us was worrying - we'd need to de-ice on the way out for sure.



Boarding seemed to finish and nothing happened for a while until we were advised there was something mechanically wrong with a baggage latch (didn't hear if it was in or out of cabin) and that the maintenance team had to fix it before we could take off. A number of groans came from the crowd, that would slowly increase in volume as the maintenance team took a good hour to fix it. Not a good start for the A319!


Someone was able to board super-late because of the delays, so it benefited somebody at least! When we finally un-docked, it felt like we taxid across a snowy wasteland before finally making it to the de-icing station, before being advised we were going to join the back of the queue and it would be 45 more minutes before we'd take off.



I must admit though the de-icing process was interesting. They sprayed us with two solutions, the first being fluorescent orange:

 

[exceladdict]

The second being green:




Which left the planes looking like this!




The captain warned us that it might have smelled funny, but it didn't eventuate. We finally took off at about 1.40pm, with our ascent feeling very steep compared to the 737. I'm not a fan of the high pitch whirr that the engines on the A319s make on take off.

Getting closer to Atlanta it was nice to see some blue sky for a change.



The flight itself was largely uneventful but I'd say the seats are pretty comfortable overall (but then, I had the extra legroom). That is, until landing - it was a little wobbly with some cross winds on approach to landing.

Arriving in to the DL hometown, it felt a little odd and lonely being the only AA (let alone OW) plane I could see at the terminal.



To top off the flight, just after the seat belt signs were switched off, the plane lurched backwards (I don't think the brakes were on!). A few people stumbled forwards but no one appeared to be hurt. Everyone had to re-stow carry on, seat, buckle up, and wait for us to move forward a metre or two before we could try to deplane again.

Once we finally got off the plane, we topped up on fried chicken before catching the MARTA train from the airport, which comes every 10 minutes and stops in Buckhead about 350 metres from a number of major hotels, including ours.

Next up: Atlanta and the InterContinental Buckhead

 

[exceladdict]

16: Atlanta and the Intercontinental Buckhead

Our two-night stop in Atlanta was largely a shopping and rest stop along with visiting another one of America's biggest MegaChurches, so I didn't carry the DSLR around for this stop - hopefully the photos still look ok from the cameraphone. Checking into the IC Buckhead, it felt good to once again be in a hotel where you have this thing called guest services:




I suppose it's to be expected, being an IC, but something about me loves when hotels have superfluous furniture.





The lobby was also very nice - pictured the next morning - and being a Friday night when we checked in, they had a live band playing, which is a nice touch. There was a Bar Mitzvah and a Wedding both on at the hotel that night, it seems to cater to functions. I did feel underdressed.

 

[PLANT]

Lucky no delta flight into NY hey?

 

[Valeriexray]

Lucky no delta flight into NY hey?

Glad you are safe and you didn't land in the drink at NY

 

[ellen10]

Still enjoying the trip report.
The de icing experience is very interesting.
My son was o a flight a couple of years ago and they tried to de ice twice and the plane just iced up again too quickly so the flight was grounded.

 

[exceladdict]

Glad you are safe and you didn't land in the drink at NY

Thanks! More on our journey North East in the next few days... But yes, no DL flights and we're glad that was the case!

 

[exceladdict]

It was time for dinner so we headed over to one of the nearby malls - this was quite a good location for accommodation within easy reach of shopping, though a couple of Marriott properties were even closer to some malls. It was getting late by now so we went to Zinburger for dinner, who had a huge selection:




The burgers weren't much to look at, but they were delicious. The milkshakes, however, were both beautiful and flavoursome:



On our way out, we found a cupcake atm - I'm starting to understand how obesity epidemics start (though I must say that Atlantians didn't seem overweight at all).




The temperature was dropping so we were quite cold walking back to the hotel but couldn't justify an uber or taxi for the 800m walk.

 

[exceladdict]

Atlanta Day Two:


Today was mainly shopping, so there's not many pictures - they discourage taking photos in dressing rooms - but the area around Buckhead is quite nice, it felt quite upmarket.



We started the day with a coffee from a nearby chain - Caribou Coffee.



They were already starting to mourn winter.




We went shopping in the morning and then found a place called "F2O" for lunch (Fresh to order). I can't remember the last time we had such a wholesome meal. Pictured: seared tuna, grilled vegetables, a 1/2 chicken foccacia, and a chicken and vegetable creamy soup. All were amazing.



Back over to the huge mall we'd visited the night before and we were glad to grab some products you couldn't find in Australia. We then headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and ended up going to the restaurant downstairs which actually had decent reviews on tripadvisor and google (I generally tend to avoid hotel restaurants due to the price/quality issue, but this one was nice). They had a really interesting colour scheme complete with roof-hanging paintings:

 

[exceladdict]

We started with two serves of the complimentary 'biscuits' (English: scones) - this is one of them. They were amazing, I avoided the pickles and apple jam but the scones were great.




I had pork belly, which was a bit crunchy on the outside but majorly flavoursome. Luckily it came with a salad otherwise the serving may have been a little small in size.



My wife loved her Gnocchi which was also a bit on the small side but otherwise delicious.