I'm back in Australia.I left Cincinnati last Tuesday afternoon, Sarah taking me to the airport. Flying one hour from Dayton to Chicago, changing planes, waiting two hours, flying four hours to Los Angeles, changing planes and flying fifteen hours to Melbourne, getting in early Thursday morning.American Airlines did provide me with a dinner - a turkey sandwich in a paper bag we had to collect before getting on board, and they tried to charge two dollars for the headset to listen to the in flight movie. The movie didnt look any good anyway, so I refrained from contributing to their keep-out-of-bankruptcy fund. I was able to pass my time by watching a group of thunderstorms about halfway across the country, an amazing light show spread over about a hundred kilometres of lightning. Qantas from LA were far more passenger-friendly; two hot meals with full cabin service, free headphones AND their travel packs, with nice comfy socks, a sleeping mask and folding toothbrush. Sarah's idea with the sleeping tablet paid off and I was able to get nearly eight hours uninterrupted sleep - a first for being in cattle class on an aircraft! Qantas deserve praise for removing thirty seats from their 747s and giving every passenger an extra couple of centimetres legroom - I had comfortably enough, which made a nice change to Delta on the way across which cramped me with less room than my knees took up, and squeezed me between two fat passengers.Melbourne Airport was the model of fast, efficient service, taking no longer than thirty minutes from wheels touching the runway to being through immigration, baggage claim and customs and standing outside the terminal!
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