USA 2026

I’m off again, my annual pilgrimage to the US for the future problem solving world finds. My Adelaide trip was a fail in terms of blogging, then again there’s only so much you can write about wine tours. However, I’m still buoyed by my success with Vanuatu, so we’ll see how we go this time. At this point I’m about 20 hours into travel, closer to 24 from when woke up yesterday, which will be today again when we land – date line shenanigans.

The trip has been largely uneventful so far. When I went to collect my boarding passes in Perth, the lady was a little confused, but I think that was because I had checked in for the Perth to Sydney flight, but not the Sydney to LA flight. I actually had checked in, but when you get the upgrade to business apparently in checks you out / tells you to check in again, but I’ve never seemed to be able to do that check in again when the upgrade has come through after I’ve already checked in.

Domestic security was basically empty so it was very quick. I walked across to Terminal 3 departures and it was closed. It said it opened 3 hours before but it was about 2 hours and 5 minutes before my flight, so I found that a little strange. I went back to the toilet, and when I came back it was open. The passport gate didn’t seem to recognise me, but there was no Issue when I went through to the person. International security was a bit of a pain because you have to pull all your electronics out but no issues.

Then it was the international business lounge, coffee, fruit and yoghurt. I tried dragon fruit for the first time and it was actually pretty nice. It doesn’t have a lot of flavour but it slightly sweet with a texture that is probably similar to kiwi fruit. I also had a cheeky glass of sparkling wine.

The flight to Sydney was good. We did leave and board a bit late, but that was no big deal. They announced boarding a bit before they were actually ready. When I did board I had to go aside, I had seen on my app that my seat had changed and sure enough they had to print a new boarding pass. I was in premium economy on the Dreamliner for the first leg and for a daytime flight if you’re not trying to sleep I think it’s almost as good as business. It’s a pretty small cabin, with dedicated staff, you get your glass of sparkling on boarding and the food is pretty decent, not quite as lavish as business but pretty good. Sadly premium economy isn’t usually an option flying domestic, but if it was I’d be tempted to use points to upgrade to that rather than business. The cabin was also very empty, so I’m guessing quite a few people got off the flight in Perth (it was QF6 which started in Rome).

I had a new experience at Sydney airport – international to international transfer which I haven’t done before. Basically it’s just a very long walk that spits you out in front of security so you can go through again. This time my bag was pulled aside, but they checked on the computer and it was fine.  I worked out where the gate was and I only had about 15 minutes until boarding but I ducked across to the Qantas lounge and ordered a take away latte. I sat down for a few minutes, then headed across to the gate. After a short wait, there was an announcement that there had been a spill on the runway by another aircraft and the crew and pilots would be getting off while they cleaned that.

(It’s now Sunday and I’m at the Grand Canyon waiting for sunset, so I’m way behind already but let’s see how I go) Myself, and a few others went back to the lounge. They said it was only going to be a 20 minute delay but it was a bit longer than that. By the time we actually departed I think we were about an hour late. The flight was great because I was in business class.I took some photos of the menu and the dinner so you can see those below. I enjoyed the room and the lie flat bed, though I didn’t actually sleep that well the flight was fairly bumpy and that made it hard for me to get off to sleep. I probably got around 4 hours or so which as OK, but not great. I didn’t really do much on the flight, I watched most of crazy rich asians, rewatched some of love actually, read a little and listened to some music. I think I spent a reasonable amount of time lying there not sleeping too. I decided to order a slightly bigger breakfast this time, the fruit was good, but they forgot the yoghurt. I also had an egg white omelette which was fine (though I think they’re yummier if they have yolk in them!)

LAX security took a while (I think DFW is quicker) but I got through OK and the bags were on the carousel by the time i got there. I feel like this was a really long post for just the travel leg, so let’s start a new post.