I arranged for a car to take us to Dulles Airport rather than drive and park ourselves. I especially didn’t want to have to deal with driving a car home after nearly 24 hours of flying back to Dulles. The car from Columbia Taxi Service (actually Columbia Limousine Service, as it turned out) showed up on time, driven by a very nice man from Kenya. Barb got him talking and we were treated to a long dialog about Kenyan history and culture through the lens of his own family. It was an interesting and entertaining discussion, made possible because Barb didn’t want to suffer an hour-long drive in silence…as I would have.
We got to Dulles three hours ahead of our flight time because we thought we could spend time in the United lounge courtesy of our business class tickets. When we got to the lounge, however, we were denied entry because our international leg was on Air New Zealand, not United. Flying domestic business class doesn’t get you in the lounge. Seems like a stupid rule to me. But we would be able to use the lounge in San Francisco, assuming we would have enough time.
- United #1110 Depart Dulles 2:10PM, Arrive SFO 5:18pm (travel time 6h 8m)
- Seats 3E, 3F, BOEING 737-900 JET
Our cross-country flight was relatively uneventful, even though the plane turned out to be a Boeing 737-Max 8/9 (is that the one with the loose bolts?). We pre-ordered Asian noodles with beef for Barb and enchiladas for me. Both were ok, nothing great. I managed not to drink too much, switching to ginger ale somewhere past the Mississippi. I watched a documentary, The League, about Negro League baseball then listened to two episodes of Song 172 “Hickory Wind” by the Byrds in A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs.
We arrived in San Francisco a few minutes early. I was pleased to find it easy to get to the international terminal and we didn’t have to go through security a second time. We were able to get into the business class Polaris lounge, found a seat and got an ample supply of free food and drinks from the buffet and bar. The business class lounge is nice if you can get into it.
- United #6755 operated by Air New Zealand Depart SFO 7:45pm, Arrive Auckland Sunday 5:50am (travel time 13h 5m)
- Seats 9K, 10K; BOEING 777 JET
- Someone’s review of Air New Zealand 777 business class on YouTube
After some initial trouble with the boarding gate’s biometric scanning system we boarded the plane late but sat on the runway a while before leaving. Despite leaving nearly an hour late, we ended up arriving in Auckland pretty much on time.
Air New Zealand’s business class seat layout was clunky, as discussed in this YouTube review. The herringbone seat layout meant we were facing strangers across the aisle, including the bare stinky feet of a rude young man across from Barb. The seats were odd but the crew was nice, the drinks and service plentiful; the food and the entertainment system were adequate. I had a mediocre cod with pasta but was still mostly full from the Polaris lounge. Barb had a short rib dish and likewise didn’t finish it. I watched the Bruce Springsteen “No Nukes” concert from 1979 for the first time and enjoyed it. I followed that with a surfing documentary and then a few episodes of a New Zealand cooking/travel show hosted by the chef of the Ahi Restaurant in Auckland.
In between video programs, I tried to sleep on the “lie flat” seats after the flight attendants turned them into beds. The arrangement was not very comfortable for me, especially with no CPAP. I spent several hours snoozing intermittently before finally getting about 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Barb had no trouble sleeping solidly for 5-6 hours. I thought about having the flight attendant reconvert my bed into a seat, but then figured I had paid thousands of extra dollars for the bed so decided to try to make the best of it. I think I could have happily saved a few thousand dollars and gotten an economy plus seat. Barb would vote otherwise, I’m pretty sure.