LIFE UNLEASHED

After nearly a year of travel we were bound to have a few flight/airport stories. But really, who wants to listen to us winge? I guess our poor blog readers will Let the winging begin…

It all started out well on our flight from Toronto to LA. Lisa even convinced ground staff to let us into the American Airlines lounge in LA for free food & internet. If you give them a big enough sob story you can get into any airport lounge in the world (remember she learned a lot about getting what you want using the best story in India!).

An hour later we boarded the new Qantas double decker A380 aircraft bound for Melbourne, Australia. Four hours later we were still taxiing around the runway while Qantas said they were working on a problem with the main landing gear that would not allow it to be retracted once airborne. Shortly after that they pulled in to a gate to allow “engineers” on board to fix the problem. To our dismay these engineers carried guns and LAPD badges and removed 3 passengers. Another hour later waiting for the “landing gear” problem to be fixed while they unloaded the prisoner baggage and we were finally off. No problem they said, we would make up a couple hours in the air plus we had a few extra hours in Melbourne to catch our flight to Perth. About an hour before landing they said “Ummmm, we have another problem.  Melbourne won’t let us land because of strong winds so we are being redirected to Sydney but don’t worry we’ll put you on connecting flights to your final destination”. What they failed to mention was if they would include our luggage on the connecting flights. And… they followed through by not sending us our luggage for a full 48 hours.

Worst flight connections ever but at least the A380 is pretty cool. Heaps of legroom and hundred of movies on your wide screen in-seat entertainment unit. That is, if you can distract yourself from the drama unfolding in the aisle.