QF009 visits the US of A [dedicated to taipeiflyer and HUGE AL]
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littl_flier
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QF009, a great continuation of the TR.
Pleased you made it through okay!
Pleased you made it through okay!
Sector - LAX-LAS
Flight number - AA3105 (operated by American Eagle)
Class - Economy
Seat - 11A
Aircraft - ERJ
The cab dropped us off at AA's F check in area at LAX T4, and before too long we were handed our boarding passes with bags tagged to LAS for this ultra long haul segment to Vegas. We had the emergency exit row blocked off for us, but we had to speak to the GAs to get our seats assigned.
I'd tried to get the AA mainline service so that we wouldn't have to do the shuffle across to the American Eagle terminal, but there was only 1x daily and it departed 90 minutes before this flight and we figured we could use the extra time for sleeping in a little and having a leisurely brunch at Nine Thirty.
TSA was relatively quiet, and we headed across to gate 44E for the shuttle bus across to the American Eagle terminal. The gate info for our flight kept changing, like once every 2 seconds and we'd just planted ourselves into a random set of seats whilst we waited for the relevant gate info to be confirmed. I decided to make calls to HUGE AL and taipeiflyer to make sure both are ok after the somewhat wild night that we had (the night after Cedars-Sinai) - my first night totally sober in a long while!!
Our gate info was finally confirmed, and the gate team had shown up - and we got our boarding passes exchanged for new ones that showed our seat assignments. There was a hive of activity as the gate team busied themselves with balancing the load on this oversold and overweight flight. No takers for the travel vouchers offered in exchange for being bumped off though. Looks like some are going to be denied boarding - hopefully not us!
It was then I realised that AA PLT status was even more useful when flying with AA itself. There were no priority boarding calls for elites. Being slow we'd ended up at the back of the queue. But midway through boarding they halted the queue, and hauled all with EXP and PLT statuses (there were only 2 of us - the other pax was an EXP) and our traveling companions onto the plane. Probably saved us from being bumped off! We never saw a lot of the people in front of us in the queue again...
The ERJ had a pretty cramped cabin, but it was a pretty cute plane, almost toy-like. Row 11 being the exit row is pretty spacious and offered plenty of legroom. I had the solo seat to myself, whilst my parents were seated together across the aisle.
Take off and landing were smoother than I'd expected, given my previous experiences with NZ turbo props which were of similar sizes. Of course the ERJ is a proper jet and so that helped.
Not much other than 2 rounds of drinks were served by the solitary cabin crew member on this epic service to LAS. Drinks were free, except for alcohol - which of course aided my transition into sobriety.
We then descended over some vast, sweeping desert - until the Strip and the airport suddenly came into view and assured us that we were actually landing in Vegas.
Next: Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino; Las Vegas
Flight number - AA3105 (operated by American Eagle)
Class - Economy
Seat - 11A
Aircraft - ERJ
The cab dropped us off at AA's F check in area at LAX T4, and before too long we were handed our boarding passes with bags tagged to LAS for this ultra long haul segment to Vegas. We had the emergency exit row blocked off for us, but we had to speak to the GAs to get our seats assigned.
I'd tried to get the AA mainline service so that we wouldn't have to do the shuffle across to the American Eagle terminal, but there was only 1x daily and it departed 90 minutes before this flight and we figured we could use the extra time for sleeping in a little and having a leisurely brunch at Nine Thirty.
TSA was relatively quiet, and we headed across to gate 44E for the shuttle bus across to the American Eagle terminal. The gate info for our flight kept changing, like once every 2 seconds and we'd just planted ourselves into a random set of seats whilst we waited for the relevant gate info to be confirmed. I decided to make calls to HUGE AL and taipeiflyer to make sure both are ok after the somewhat wild night that we had (the night after Cedars-Sinai) - my first night totally sober in a long while!!
Our gate info was finally confirmed, and the gate team had shown up - and we got our boarding passes exchanged for new ones that showed our seat assignments. There was a hive of activity as the gate team busied themselves with balancing the load on this oversold and overweight flight. No takers for the travel vouchers offered in exchange for being bumped off though. Looks like some are going to be denied boarding - hopefully not us!
It was then I realised that AA PLT status was even more useful when flying with AA itself. There were no priority boarding calls for elites. Being slow we'd ended up at the back of the queue. But midway through boarding they halted the queue, and hauled all with EXP and PLT statuses (there were only 2 of us - the other pax was an EXP) and our traveling companions onto the plane. Probably saved us from being bumped off! We never saw a lot of the people in front of us in the queue again...
The ERJ had a pretty cramped cabin, but it was a pretty cute plane, almost toy-like. Row 11 being the exit row is pretty spacious and offered plenty of legroom. I had the solo seat to myself, whilst my parents were seated together across the aisle.
Take off and landing were smoother than I'd expected, given my previous experiences with NZ turbo props which were of similar sizes. Of course the ERJ is a proper jet and so that helped.
Not much other than 2 rounds of drinks were served by the solitary cabin crew member on this epic service to LAS. Drinks were free, except for alcohol - which of course aided my transition into sobriety.
We then descended over some vast, sweeping desert - until the Strip and the airport suddenly came into view and assured us that we were actually landing in Vegas.
Next: Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino; Las Vegas
docjames
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2007
- Posts
- 9,468
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It's scary how quickly you can get into trouble when you have an allergiv reaction - glad TF and BA acted so quickly!
Glad all's well and you even managed to not have to change a single flight! Thank heavens for small mercies!
Glad all's well and you even managed to not have to change a single flight! Thank heavens for small mercies!
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- Earn up to 200,000 bonus Velocity Points*
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Alanslegal
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2007
- Posts
- 5,238
Glad 2 C that you've made thru your med incident & continue on your very good TR!QF009 said:Los Angeles!!
Shopping on Rodeo. I actually prefer Robertson but for some reason didn't take pics of that.
Also this is a nice photo, I have taken an identical photo to yours
@ Las Vegas - If I may suggest a visit to Fremont Street @ night is a must - many people miss this attraction but it is definitely worth the visit!
Thanks for the kind words, folks - very much appreciated. 
Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, a Sheraton Resort
Las Vegas Blvd (aka "The Strip") South
This was one of two Starwoods in Vegas that I could choose from, the other being the Westin that was off the Strip. As we wanted to be on the Strip, and the reviews for this property didn't seem to be too bad, we chose the PH for our stay in Vegas.
This hotel does not come with standard Sheraton amenities, being a special-themed resort. It did not have an Executive lounge - but in-room internet was relatively affordable and there was free wifi at the Starbucks located on the Casino floor. And being a resort property, late check out was based on availability on the day of check out instead of being automatically guaranteed - they do generally have no problems with granting late check outs when requested on the appropriate day according to the front desk, we certainly got ours without having to promise any of our organs to the person on the other end of the phone.
Our bags were taken from us by the porter as soon as we pulled up at the hotel. Tacky late 90s music (am still trying to work out if this is part of theme) was blaring out from the very gaudy lobby as we entered the hotel. We were concerned at the huge queue in front of the check in desk but were pleased that the hotel vigourously maintained a distinct queue for Golds and Plats (and some other category of hotel guests - can't quite remember what) which was empty when we got there. We'd booked a standard city view room. There weren't any suites which fulfilled our requirement of having 2 double beds, and so our upgrade was to a resort view room on a very high floor with a view of the Strip and apparently had a larger floor plan than other rooms of the same category. We had to call the porter for our bags, perhaps because this was such a huge property with a poor staff:guest ratio - but our bags were returned very efficiently after we'd asked for them by dialing the extension on our baggage claim ticket.
We got a renovated room and floor. I am not sure if all rooms had been renovated but there were still some floors yet to be converted over from the old Aladdin theme. The room was very spacious indeed - a suite it ain't but there was more than adequate space for all 3 of us. We were pleased with the decor and general conditions of the room. We had 2 Queen beds and they were much larger than the beds at the W LA which were doubles. The room came with a huge bathroom fitted with a Jacuzzi and a separate shower. The supplied bath amenities didn't took too tempting and so we used the Bliss Sinkside 6 sets that we'd amassed from our stay at the W LA, as well as my visits to the Bliss spas in London and the W LA earlier in the trip.
Dad having a quick rest on the comfy armchair
There are hotels that are overly fussy to the point of being intrusive, then there are those that totally ignore you and treat you like a mere statistic to be processed asap. Most hotels manage to balance a fine line midway between the 2, regardless of the size of the property. The PH unfortunately falls pretty much into the latter category.
Physically, the entire set up felt very cold and unwelcoming, and had a total lack of personality. Service-wise it was not the easiest reaching anyone on the phone - one had to go through an entire list of automated menu options to reach the front desk if your request fell into 'other.' It also sometimes took a long time to get anyone to answer the phone. Staff in the lobby weren't the friendliest. I'd say that the concierge was the hotel's best asset - except that the hotel had outsourced all concierge functions to be performed by Travelocity on location and so all praise be to staff of that organisation and not the hotel. Annoyingly, the outsourced concierge desk also meant that we couldn't charge stuff we booked to the room when I'd been hoping to increase my Starpoints balance.
The hotel has its own Casino and some shops. According to my parents (I refuse on principle to spend a single cent on casinos) the Casino at the PH was pretty boring and lacking in games. It is located on the Strip itself - but the whole street is so huge that we'd get a taxi to go to most places. There was no shortage of taxis with hardly anyone in the taxi queue whenever we needed to catch a taxi. The Paris next door had some very good restaurants though, particularly Mon Ami Gabi which served some sensational steak frites.
On the whole, don't expect much else other than a good room with clean, comfy beds and a reasonable location - after all the most important factors when choosing a hotel, and you'd be right.
Next: Las Vegas
Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, a Sheraton Resort
Las Vegas Blvd (aka "The Strip") South
This was one of two Starwoods in Vegas that I could choose from, the other being the Westin that was off the Strip. As we wanted to be on the Strip, and the reviews for this property didn't seem to be too bad, we chose the PH for our stay in Vegas.
This hotel does not come with standard Sheraton amenities, being a special-themed resort. It did not have an Executive lounge - but in-room internet was relatively affordable and there was free wifi at the Starbucks located on the Casino floor. And being a resort property, late check out was based on availability on the day of check out instead of being automatically guaranteed - they do generally have no problems with granting late check outs when requested on the appropriate day according to the front desk, we certainly got ours without having to promise any of our organs to the person on the other end of the phone.
Our bags were taken from us by the porter as soon as we pulled up at the hotel. Tacky late 90s music (am still trying to work out if this is part of theme) was blaring out from the very gaudy lobby as we entered the hotel. We were concerned at the huge queue in front of the check in desk but were pleased that the hotel vigourously maintained a distinct queue for Golds and Plats (and some other category of hotel guests - can't quite remember what) which was empty when we got there. We'd booked a standard city view room. There weren't any suites which fulfilled our requirement of having 2 double beds, and so our upgrade was to a resort view room on a very high floor with a view of the Strip and apparently had a larger floor plan than other rooms of the same category. We had to call the porter for our bags, perhaps because this was such a huge property with a poor staff:guest ratio - but our bags were returned very efficiently after we'd asked for them by dialing the extension on our baggage claim ticket.
We got a renovated room and floor. I am not sure if all rooms had been renovated but there were still some floors yet to be converted over from the old Aladdin theme. The room was very spacious indeed - a suite it ain't but there was more than adequate space for all 3 of us. We were pleased with the decor and general conditions of the room. We had 2 Queen beds and they were much larger than the beds at the W LA which were doubles. The room came with a huge bathroom fitted with a Jacuzzi and a separate shower. The supplied bath amenities didn't took too tempting and so we used the Bliss Sinkside 6 sets that we'd amassed from our stay at the W LA, as well as my visits to the Bliss spas in London and the W LA earlier in the trip.
Dad having a quick rest on the comfy armchair
There are hotels that are overly fussy to the point of being intrusive, then there are those that totally ignore you and treat you like a mere statistic to be processed asap. Most hotels manage to balance a fine line midway between the 2, regardless of the size of the property. The PH unfortunately falls pretty much into the latter category.
Physically, the entire set up felt very cold and unwelcoming, and had a total lack of personality. Service-wise it was not the easiest reaching anyone on the phone - one had to go through an entire list of automated menu options to reach the front desk if your request fell into 'other.' It also sometimes took a long time to get anyone to answer the phone. Staff in the lobby weren't the friendliest. I'd say that the concierge was the hotel's best asset - except that the hotel had outsourced all concierge functions to be performed by Travelocity on location and so all praise be to staff of that organisation and not the hotel. Annoyingly, the outsourced concierge desk also meant that we couldn't charge stuff we booked to the room when I'd been hoping to increase my Starpoints balance.
The hotel has its own Casino and some shops. According to my parents (I refuse on principle to spend a single cent on casinos) the Casino at the PH was pretty boring and lacking in games. It is located on the Strip itself - but the whole street is so huge that we'd get a taxi to go to most places. There was no shortage of taxis with hardly anyone in the taxi queue whenever we needed to catch a taxi. The Paris next door had some very good restaurants though, particularly Mon Ami Gabi which served some sensational steak frites.
On the whole, don't expect much else other than a good room with clean, comfy beds and a reasonable location - after all the most important factors when choosing a hotel, and you'd be right.
Next: Las Vegas
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Geez, I wouldn't want to return to my room after a large night and have that wall, carpet, purple bed bits and lamp combination waiting for me. Actually the first time I saw the photo I had to do a double take as it appeared the Red M&M had made an appearance!
Great to hear you have soldiered on and well done to the LA ground crew for being very decent human beings.
Great to hear you have soldiered on and well done to the LA ground crew for being very decent human beings.
drron
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2002
- Posts
- 35,804
Keeping up your usual great standard of report.I did not notice before that it was lobster you had been eating.What a bu****.Then no champagne as well!Amazing you had the strength to continue.
By the way in your photos of AA F to me it looked like the Tiger in the Nike cap.May just be my old eyes though.
By the way in your photos of AA F to me it looked like the Tiger in the Nike cap.May just be my old eyes though.
I have been asked to provide some context to the Cedars-Sinai/shellfish episode. This report is actually posted on 4 different forums and I sometimes forget that things that make sense to members of one forum might not mean as much to members of another forum. I apologise that the particular installment might have been somewhat lacking in dimension in the way it's been written, and especially if you don't already know what's going on prior to reading it on here.
So for some background surrounding that particular installment, and if you've got time to waste on some drama, here's a thread that was started when I was still hospitalised by HUGE AL over at SQTalk to provide some real time updates on how I was going:
News Flash: KeithMEL is Welcomed to the USA via Cedars-Sinai Emergency Room - SQTalk
Of course the lack of a similar thread here does not mean that I love any of you on AFF any less - I love y'all too much to unnecessarily alarm anybody here.
So for some background surrounding that particular installment, and if you've got time to waste on some drama, here's a thread that was started when I was still hospitalised by HUGE AL over at SQTalk to provide some real time updates on how I was going:
News Flash: KeithMEL is Welcomed to the USA via Cedars-Sinai Emergency Room - SQTalk
Of course the lack of a similar thread here does not mean that I love any of you on AFF any less - I love y'all too much to unnecessarily alarm anybody here.
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sounds awful, still better than having the same reaction to bubbly stuff. you might as well open the doors mid flight. we do a lot of food allergy testing in our clinic, if you are interested there are test kits for food allergy testing. pm me and I can send you one. from memory you are in st kilda and so are we.
Las Vegas...
"The street becomes a dwelling for the flâneur; he is as much at home among the facades of houses as a citizen is in his four walls. To him the shiny, enamelled signs of businesses are at least as good a wall ornament as an oil painting is to the bourgeois in his salon."
"The crowd was the veil from behind which the the familiar city as phantasmagoria beckoned to the flâneur. In it, the city was now landscape, now a room."
- Walter Benjamin
"The phantasmagoria has been distilled from nature. All the raw materials with which the memory has loaded itself are put in order, ranged and harmonized, and undergo that forced idealization which is the result of a childlike perceptiveness - that is to say, a perceptiveness acute and magical by reason of its innocence!"
- Charles Baudelaire
The whole place felt like a toy town, which of course is the general idea. Not being into casinos I was quickly over it when the Vegas novelty wore off. So I busied myself with going to shows (some fine gems in between the blankets of mediocrity), shopping (no shortage of it here but I guess I'm more Agnes B than Chanel, Kitson over Saks, Robert Marc rather than Sunglass Hut - you get the idea, though I do admit my weakness for Ferragamo and Kenneth Cole), fending off touts, trying to imagine Vegas beyond the Strip, and generally do what I could to alleviate any boredom.
Actually it wouldn't be that bad if I actually got bored. Because to get bored would imply that Vegas was generally pleasant despite being devoid of any form of stimulation. It was certainly not pleasant. If I might be a little blunt - the place gave me the sh*ts. Casinos aside, the entire place simply panders to the lowest common denominator in order to extract every last dollar and cent they could get out of everyone who's there. I accept that being treated like a cash cow is a phenomenon that isn't unique to Vegas, but neither is it so systematic anywhere else. In fact, the place did my head in majorly after the first 2 days.
Admittedly I might have got overly cranky, trying to adjust and make the best out of my involuntary detox. I never knew the dance floor is such a different place when one is sober.
I think I'd have found my stay more enjoyable had we spent less time in Vegas. But as this was a family trip I couldn't just up and leave if I didn't like it. Mum liked Vegas despite not being the biggest fan of gambling. Dad LOVED it. They were happy. And relaxed. I couldn't possibly say no to that.
Some highlights from Vegas:
Some views of The Strip
We watched the Blue Man Group
Helicopter ride!! We had an aerial tour of Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Strip.
"The street becomes a dwelling for the flâneur; he is as much at home among the facades of houses as a citizen is in his four walls. To him the shiny, enamelled signs of businesses are at least as good a wall ornament as an oil painting is to the bourgeois in his salon."
"The crowd was the veil from behind which the the familiar city as phantasmagoria beckoned to the flâneur. In it, the city was now landscape, now a room."
- Walter Benjamin
"The phantasmagoria has been distilled from nature. All the raw materials with which the memory has loaded itself are put in order, ranged and harmonized, and undergo that forced idealization which is the result of a childlike perceptiveness - that is to say, a perceptiveness acute and magical by reason of its innocence!"
- Charles Baudelaire
The whole place felt like a toy town, which of course is the general idea. Not being into casinos I was quickly over it when the Vegas novelty wore off. So I busied myself with going to shows (some fine gems in between the blankets of mediocrity), shopping (no shortage of it here but I guess I'm more Agnes B than Chanel, Kitson over Saks, Robert Marc rather than Sunglass Hut - you get the idea, though I do admit my weakness for Ferragamo and Kenneth Cole), fending off touts, trying to imagine Vegas beyond the Strip, and generally do what I could to alleviate any boredom.
Actually it wouldn't be that bad if I actually got bored. Because to get bored would imply that Vegas was generally pleasant despite being devoid of any form of stimulation. It was certainly not pleasant. If I might be a little blunt - the place gave me the sh*ts. Casinos aside, the entire place simply panders to the lowest common denominator in order to extract every last dollar and cent they could get out of everyone who's there. I accept that being treated like a cash cow is a phenomenon that isn't unique to Vegas, but neither is it so systematic anywhere else. In fact, the place did my head in majorly after the first 2 days.
Admittedly I might have got overly cranky, trying to adjust and make the best out of my involuntary detox. I never knew the dance floor is such a different place when one is sober.
I think I'd have found my stay more enjoyable had we spent less time in Vegas. But as this was a family trip I couldn't just up and leave if I didn't like it. Mum liked Vegas despite not being the biggest fan of gambling. Dad LOVED it. They were happy. And relaxed. I couldn't possibly say no to that.
Some highlights from Vegas:
Some views of The Strip
We watched the Blue Man Group
Helicopter ride!! We had an aerial tour of Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Strip.
Sector - LAS-SFO
Flight number - US473
Class - Economy
Seat - 8D
Aircraft - A319
Another flight outside my DONE4, and I'd picked US as they had the cheapest fare on the route, and I was able to enjoy some *G benefits on them as well as earn M+M mileage. Shortly after ticketing our non-refundable bookings on US, Virgin America announced that they were commencing services on the very same route. I'd read good things about Virgin and I was disappointed that we wouldn't be able to sample what seems to be a far superior airline. It is normally not at all difficult to beat the levels of "service" and "comfort" on US but Virgin sounded like they'd royally trounce US. And the Virgin fare was lower too! Oh well...
We were offered upgrades to F for 50 bucks each at check in but it was such a short flight - so thanks but no thanks.
My poor parents got SSSSed, but fortunately it was a quiet time and so they weren't all stressed out with crowds and such.
The aircraft still had America West interiors. We congratulated ourselves on making the right decision in refusing the paid upgrades when we saw the rather dire "F" cabin which was quite frankly not that different from whY, even by American standards. The area around our seats was filthy, with litter strewn on our seats and on the floor.
Standard drinks/pretzels service... and before we knew it we landed in SFO and were greeted by some beautiful sunshine.
Next: W San Francisco; San Francisco
Flight number - US473
Class - Economy
Seat - 8D
Aircraft - A319
Another flight outside my DONE4, and I'd picked US as they had the cheapest fare on the route, and I was able to enjoy some *G benefits on them as well as earn M+M mileage. Shortly after ticketing our non-refundable bookings on US, Virgin America announced that they were commencing services on the very same route. I'd read good things about Virgin and I was disappointed that we wouldn't be able to sample what seems to be a far superior airline. It is normally not at all difficult to beat the levels of "service" and "comfort" on US but Virgin sounded like they'd royally trounce US. And the Virgin fare was lower too! Oh well...
We were offered upgrades to F for 50 bucks each at check in but it was such a short flight - so thanks but no thanks.
My poor parents got SSSSed, but fortunately it was a quiet time and so they weren't all stressed out with crowds and such.
The aircraft still had America West interiors. We congratulated ourselves on making the right decision in refusing the paid upgrades when we saw the rather dire "F" cabin which was quite frankly not that different from whY, even by American standards. The area around our seats was filthy, with litter strewn on our seats and on the floor.
Standard drinks/pretzels service... and before we knew it we landed in SFO and were greeted by some beautiful sunshine.
Next: W San Francisco; San Francisco
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