I arrived from the Airbus Express from downtown to the airport and began my trek to find the Air New Zealand check-in desks at the other end of the airport.  I eventually came across a series of Air New Zealand counters and kiosks and got in line before wondering why I hadn’t seen any signs for premium cabin passengers.  I stepped out of line and returned to looking around, finding the business class check-in desk down a bit further and cloistered off from the rest of the airport.

The advantage of the business class check-in desk?  A dedicated passport control line and a slightly faster security line.  Compared to the hassle of a normal TSA security line, anything looks good.

Compared to the cheese and cracker fare at the United Clubs, the Air New Zealand lounge had a good variety of options.

With boarding scheduled to begin shortly, I headed to the gate.

We had a delay in boarding.  With moments to go before our scheduled departure, the gate agents announced that there was a problem with the avionics system and that there was no ETA, advising passengers with lounge access to return to the lounge.  I decided to stick around while a Canadian couple behind me left for the lounge.  As it turned out, boarding commenced shortly after the indefinite delay announcement.  The couple had just reached the lounge when the boarding announcement was made.  “Rebooting” (in their terminology) the aircraft electrical system caused the IFE to not be up and running during pushback and taxiing, leaving the crew to give the safety announcements the traditional way.

Air New Zealand 84
Auckland, NZ (AKL) – Vancouver (YVR)
Saturday, December 31st
Depart: 8:00PM
Arrive: 12:15PM
Duration: 13 hours, 15 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-219ER (ZK-OKF)
Seat: 5A (Business Class)

Once again, I was on a 777-219ER, so the Business Premier cabin was the nearly same as my Sydney to Auckland flight.  The notable addition to the scene is a tightly rolled memory foam mattress pad and a pillow.

The amenity kit came with the standard contents.

Immediately after takeoff, it was time for the obligatory airshow.

The menu read as follows:

Air New Zealand puts quite a bit of attention into describing the alcoholic beverages, especially the wines, served on board.

To open:

I had (obviously) requested a vegetarian meal in advance.

I decided to watch a movie and then asked to have my bed made up.  While the bed was quite comfortable, I had a slight cold and didn’t get the most optimal sleep I could.  When I awoke, the flight attendants were going around serving fruit juices and smoothies.

The egg was sadly a bit over cooked to the point of being browned and crispy in parts.

While my Vancouver layover was originally scheduled due to the mercy of award availability, it afforded me the opportunity to do my NEXUS iris scan on my way back to the United States.

When I was looking for hotels in Auckland, I came across the Best Western President Hotel Auckland at 50% off via American Express Travel, bringing the nightly rate to just over 60USD.  Had it been a complete disaster, I would have been able to walk away from the room and check-in to another Auckland hotel.  For the rate, the stay was comfortable, but obviously not the lap of luxury.

The front desk clerk was friendly during check-in, but the more manager-type working the desk began muttering “look at the rate for his room.”  I played dumb and asked what the matter was to “discover” that the going rate was just over double what the hotel was being paid.  I’m still not quite sure if the point of this exercise was to lower my expectations even further given the rate I was paying.

Based on my flight last night, there’s a joint Citi-AAdvantage promotion offering 30 free minutes of wifi per flight until February 16th.

Having finished lunch in Sydney and quickly growing tired of dragging my bag with me, I decided to head to the airport a bit early.  Air New Zealand doesn’t support online check-in on its international routes, so I was left to check-in at the airport to obtain a boarding pass.  Rather unfortunately (and unknown to me when I was deciding to head to the airport), I couldn’t obtain a boarding pass until three hours before departure, leaving me with 30 minutes or so to kill waiting near the ticket desks.

Rather surprisingly for me, the Qantas employee staffing the Air New Zealand desk needed to see a printed itinerary showing that I had a ticket out of New Zealand.  Given Air New Zealand was to fly me in and out of New Zealand, they were privy to both ticket numbers of my Aeroplan award and should have had this accessible to them (or so I would have believed).

After walking through the mall that is the Sydney Airport international terminal, I reached the two Star Alliance lounges, one run by Singapore Airlines and the other Air New Zealand.  I chose to go to the Singapore lounge first.  Upon entering, the desk clerk suggested that since I was flying on Air New Zealand, I go to their lounge and come back if I decided that the Singapore lounge “was nicer.”  Having been to neither lounge, deciding which lounge would be nicer in advance would be difficult.  As a business class passenger with Star Alliance Gold status by virtue of being a United 1K, I was directed to the empty business class lounge.

Besides two staff members who kept checking on the food and drink supply, I was the only person in the lounge.

The various crackers they had out initially were quickly substituted for a wider variety of offerings.

From the seats near the window, I had a rather nice view of a Thai A340 while views of other aircraft were obstructed by various jet bridges.

Eventually, I decided to leave to visit the Air New Zealand lounge.

Initially, the lounge was quite full as many of the passengers were waiting for the United flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Nonetheless, I was able to find a recliner near the windows overlooking the tarmac.

As a testament to the utter confusion that code shares can cause passengers, a group of travelers sitting next to me near the window began debating when their “Continental plane to Los Angeles” was going to show up.

As the boarding calls for the United 747’s were made, the crowd thinned out.  I was quite appreciate that even while reasonably busy, the wireless internet remained speedy.

Air New Zealand 118
Sydney, Australia (SYD) – Auckland, New Zealand (AKL)
Wednesday, December 28st
Depart: 3:45PM
Arrive: 8:45PM
Duration: 3 hours
Aircraft: Boeing 777-219ER (ZK-OKA)
Seat: 3A (Business Class)

Based on the scarce award availability on this route even right up to the flight, I expected the business class cabin to be reasonably full.   I was very mistaken.

I was the only passenger on the left aisle.  Three other passengers were seated on the right aisle.  Most seats had a dedicated overhead bin, virtually assuring space for passengers in business class without resorting to placing bags in the various closets of the aircraft.  One of the business class flight attendants greeted me, introduced herself by name, and offered a Auckland paper while offering a predeparture beverage.  I took the orange juice.

Taxiing brought us past N197UA headed back to San Francisco having flown to Los Angeles and Melbourne since I left it.

The safety video featured the All Blacks rather than Richard Simmons.

Upon takeoff, it was time for the initial flight show.

The menu read as follows:

I had requested a vegetarian meal in advance.

Upon arrival, we had to wait a few minutes to deplane for our jetbridge to be brought up to the aircraft.  Overall, customs was quick and painless (and didn’t require use of the express card handed out by the flight crew).  The immigration officer asked me what I was doing in Sydney: (“Being a tourist” sufficed.  The biosecurity officer asked me what sort of science I do:  I started to offer an explanation, but he quickly passed on hearing it.

Word on the street is that the Chase Sapphire 50k Ultimate Rewards points for $3k of spending in 3 months is now a “limited time offer.”

NYBanker of SitInFirst found an excellent video on YouTube about the coach experience.

United is advertising 20-25% off redemptions to Europe and Central/Southern Africa.  There are a handful of restrictions:  tickets must economy saver tickets, the trip must include a Saturday stay, and tickets must be booked by January 16th.

Rather oddly, they’ve further subdivided the discount into 20% off (“peak” days) and 25% off (“off-peak” days).  Given we are already discussing discounted economy awards, it’s surprising that to have even further distinction in award levels in a two-tier award chart.

The bottom line?  One can travel to Europe for 45k miles roundtrip in coach.

FlyerTalk reports a possibly targeted Hertz promotion:  Get 500 gold plus points for two rentals or 1000 gold plus points for three rentals.  1000 gold points is enough for a two day weekend rental.

I was able to register, but I hadn’t received the targeted email.

For my three days, two nights in Sydney, I booked a revenue stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney Darling Harbour.

I was quite pleased by the location, as it was a short walk from the restaurants and shops of Darling Harbour while still remaining close to the central business district of Sydney.

From exiting customs at the airport, I took the train and immediately headed to my hotel.  I was able to check-in at 10AM, but the best room available was on the third floor.  I took it, happy to be able to take a shower.

LCD TV notwithstanding, the room was showing its age.  In terms of upkeep (or simply an oversight in design), the door bar had made a small, but sizeable dent in the plaster of the wall.  In more practical areas, I was most disappointed by the internet access, especially at 24.50 AUD per day.  The connection in the room was wired and was rather slow.  The experience reminded me of the present state of wifi on airplanes within the United States, except that the wifi on airplanes is cheaper (order $12.95 for a transcontinental flight) and faster.

FlyerTalk and Million Mile Secrets have found a 60k Mileage Plus explorer offer offering 50k miles on first purchase and 10k miles after $25k in spending.  dabearz73 on FlyerTalk suggests logging into one’s United account and then going to the offer website.

I currently have the United Mileage Plus Select Visa Signature card and formerly had the Continental OnePass Plus Mastercard.  I’m able to see the 60k offer when I’m logged in.

After finishing exploring the Star Alliance lounges of SFO, I left for the gate to snap some predeparture photos of the plane in old-new livery.  I was slightly foiled by the pattern in the glass.

United 863

San Francisco (SFO) - Sydney, Australia (SYD)

Saturday, December 24th

Depart: 10:39PM

Arrive: 7:51AM

Duration:  14 hours, 12 minutes

Aircraft: Boeing 747-422 (N197UA)

Seat: 14K (Business Class)

Ordinarily, I’m an aisle seat person, but I chose a forward facing window seat on the upper deck.  Extensive analysis on FlyerTalk puts the length of the bed in this particular seat at 75 inches.  My laptop bag and a book from my rollaboard suit case comfortably fit in one half of the window bins of the seat.

The overhead bins on the upper deck are quite small, however, and could not accommodate my suitcase.  The flight attendant noticed me staring at the overhead bins for a moment before suggesting I remove anything I might want during flight and he would stow it in the closet.

After stowing my bag, the flight attendant returned with a tray of predeparture beverages (water, orange juice, and sparkling wine).  I picked the sparkling wine and settled in.

As the third passenger to board the plane, I had some time to kill before boarding finished.  I started by reading the menu before turning to a book I had with me.

As I had requested a vegetarian meal, I was served an off-menu first course with the on-menu vegetarian ravoli.

For dessert, I chose the ice cream.

I played with my laptop for a bit prior to going to bed.  The amenity kit was simple yet practical.  Honestly, with my suitcase in the upper deck closet, the only essential I needed was a toothbrush.

I woke up around 6AM Sydney time from a combination of the sun and a crying baby.  Both of these are largely my own fault as I left my window shade up and chose not to use an eye mask nor ear plugs.  Nonetheless, it was a reasonably high quality six hours of sleep as I made it through the next day and evening without feeling prematurely tired.  I prefer to sleep on my side, so my only complaint with the lie-flat bed is that there’s a smallish headrest that sticks out near the very top of the bed.

A flight attendant was by soon after to offer a hot towel and to start serving breakfast.  The vegetarian breakfast omits the yogurt listed on the menu for some reason.

Just prior to landing, it was time to checkout the air show.

Customs was quick thanks to the Express Path cards handed out to business and first class passengers.  Of the fifteen or so minutes I spent getting landside, most of it was walking from the plane, through the duty-free store, and then ultimately out of the customs/immigration area.

After spending the day and early evening in San Francisco, I took the BART back to reclaim my bag from the left luggage service and to head through security.  With three Star Alliance lounges to choose from, I decided to visit all three.

My first stop was the United Club in the international terminal.

After coming up the escalator, I turned right and found a nearly empty lounge area with about four other people in it (including for a brief bit, a screaming infant).

At least the United Club food and drinks are consistent?

After a bit of time, I decided to head over to the United Club in terminal 3 to visit until the SilverKris lounge opened.  The decor is essentially identical, but there’s a nice mural just past the front desk of the zodiac constellations.

After checking out this lounge and opening up my laptop to purchase some American Airlines tickets for which my hold was about to expire on, I decided to head over to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounge.  Since I actually had an international boarding pass departing directly from SFO, I had access to the lounge.

The front desk clerk had to make copious notes onto a roster at her desk with details from my boarding pass and United 1K card.  It left me feeling rather glad that United is able to just scan the boarding pass to determine whether a passenger has access to the lounge.

As they had just opened for the evening shift, I was the first passenger at the the lounge.  The seating area for the lounge is quite small and it’s understandable why Singapore Airlines is so restrictive when it comes to letting Star Alliance Gold elites enter the lounge.

I was quite pleased by the food offerings here compared to the United Clubs, especially for such a small lounge.

I was quite surprised to see open bottles of liquor, even in a lounge, within the United States.

The window had a mix of old-new and new livery United planes.

With my flight from New York arriving from San Francisco a bit early, I had a 24.5 hour layover at SFO.  After the Club Carlson 50k promotion went live, I registered and began looking for a chance to stop by a Radisson to participate in the promotion.  Even as I plan to use the points towards a night for a substantially more expensive hotel abroad, I couldn’t bring myself to mattress run locally (even with the $100/nt rate that showed up at the Radisson Lexington in December).  Since I needed to overnight in the Bay Area, I chose to stay at the Radisson San Francisco Airport Bay Front hotel.

I “splurged” and spent $5 at the time of booking for a bay view room.

I’ve come to set a few minimum standards with my hotel stays.  I want a comfortable bed.  I want a fast internet connection.  I want peace and quiet for when I’m trying to sleep.  For hotels with airport shuttles, I want the shuttle service to be frequent and run during the hours posted (unlike what happened at the aloft Dulles North to me in July).

My shuttle arrived within a few minutes of stepping out of the terminal.   Check-in was fast and painless.  Upon entering my room, I heard the occupants next door.  Since it was 10PM and I had little intention of going to bed right away, this didn’t really bother me as I wanted to catch up on my email and use the internet connection for a bit.  Around 1AM PST, my neighbors were still talking and laughing.  I wound up calling the front desk and was able to get moved to a new room on a quieter floor.

By the time I called, I had heard four distinct voices next door.  As I was leaving, I passed another party of four going into that room carrying several cases of beer into the room.  Needless to say, asking for another room was the wisest move I made all trip.  With my basic priorities of hotel stays satisfied, I settled in for the night.

I traveled just over 144k miles this year, approximately 125k of which were revenue flights:

I wound up with four redemptions:

• 2 nights at the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas as part of Starwood’s Free Resort Nights promotion.
• 1 upgrade from coach to p.s. business class on a redeye (20k UA miles)
• New York to Sydney to Auckland to Los Angeles to New York in business class from Aeroplan (76k Amex Membership Reward points)
• A trip to Asia (via Europe) in business class for early 2012 from Aeroplan (50k Amex Membership Reward points)

I earned miles and points from a number of sources:

• United/Continental had 102.5k EQM (mostly from flying, a bit from UA spending) or about 205k redeemable miles from flying.  I earned the 50k signup bonus on both the United Mileage Plus Select Visa Signature card and the Continental One Pass Plus card.  I picked up another 25k Mileage Plus miles from rental cars (until the end of August, 1k per rental from Hertz) and spending on my credit cards.
• American had about 35k EQM from flying (or 70k redeemable miles).
• US Airways Grand Slam yielded about 119k redeemable miles for about $400 in marginal spend.
• I earned 30k SPG points from the Starwood Amex signup bonus (for $4.5k in spending over 3 months).  I picked up another 12k SPG points from 10 revenue stays (including Foursquare/Facebook check-in bonuses) and credit card spending.
• I earned 55k Club Carlson points (50k bonus, 5k for the stay itself) for staying in a US Radisson Hotel by New Years.
• I earned 75k Membership Reward points for the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card and 50k for the Amex Platinum card for $1k in spending in 3 months for each card.
• I’m well on my way to 50k Chase Ultimate Reward points from my Chase Sapphire card (for $3k in spend over 3 months).
• I picked up 40k Alaska Airlines miles from the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card after my first purchase.
• I earned about 10.2k in Hyatt Gold Passport points from 5 revenue stays.

To give perspective on my ability to meet credit card spending thresholds, I spent approximately $22k on credit cards.  My total spend on flights occurring in 2011 (inclusive of StarMegaDo3) was $8367.49 for revenue flights and $431.27 for award flights.  I spent $2703.62 on hotels (19 stays and 23 nights) and $1727.10 on rental cars (inclusive of insurance, but not gasoline, for 19 rentals, 34 rental days).