The Flight
January 27, 2023
Most of you are probably wondering how our 14-hour flight to Sydney was. To start with, as you may or may not know, this was our 4th day of flying standby to Auckland. At this point, we were looking at all options to get out of San Fran, so we decided to fly standby to Sydney because the flight had the most openings and thus had a higher likelihood to get us to Auckland. Flying the Sydney route did mean we had a 3-hour longer flight, a 5-hour pitstop, and then an additional 3-hour flight from Sydney to Auckland.
The standby process is usually pretty straight forward – if there are seats available, you get a text message that you got your seat assignment. Because there were so many seats available on this flight to Sydney, the ticket agent asked all people who were flying standby to please come up to the gate and get their seat assignment. I literally hear this, turn around, and Bridget is GONE! She took ONE of her bags and sprinted to the gate (reminder this is day 4 of waiting to get on). I awkwardly pick up all the bags (and neck pillow) and go up to the ticket counter where she is first in line. She comes running over with paper in her hands. I look at the tickets and we got amazing seats – exit row!! Woot Woot!
Instead of describing the flight, I thought it would be better to share my unfiltered thoughts during the remaining boarding process and flight:
“Thank goodness we got on. Oh no! In all the excitement, I forgot to go to the bathroom.”
“Nothing worse than trying to fight through aisle traffic to go to the bathroom.”
“Umm….we are pretty much the last ones to board the flight, meaning no overhead bin space.”
Walking through the aisles – “Yup no overhead bin space and everyone is walking in the wrong direction trying to find space.”
“Where the hell are these seats, I have to pee, and I am tired of sharing this aisle with people trying to find bin space for their carry on.”
“Damn!!! Look at these seats! Extra leg room and right by the bathroom! Bridget, here, hold my bag while I go to the bathroom.”
Come out of the bathroom – “Where is Bridget with my bag?”
“Ope there she is – Bridget found a place for my bag in first class! Now we don’t have to go to baggage claim.”
“Oh my! We get a blanket and a neck pillow – BOOYA!”
“Shit! Bridget we have to book our flight out of Sydney to Auckland! Cell signal sucks, I guess I’ll just pay the internet fee when we take off.”
“Jeepers creepers these seats are nice.”
“14.5 hours of flight time – WOOF! But look at all these movies and TV shows – Bridget we should watch a series or movie together – what do you want to watch?”
“I don’t want to watch the Kardashians. No Bridge, I don’t want to watch the House Wives of blah blah. Fine we will watch our own shows.”
“First meal already – DAMN! Chicken Marsala – not bad – little different, but it’ll do. Umm yes I’ll take a free glass of wine!”
“I just finished that entire Elton John movie and had dinner – 2.5 hours down! Better go brush my teeth and try and get some sleep.” And of course I got yelled at for getting up with the seat belt sign on.
“I wonder how people expel their gas on a plane. Everyone has got to be gassy, right? Something to do with the air pressure? Is everyone just farting in their seats?”
“Ok time to go to sleep - just find a movie that you will sleep through…Doctor Strange…no…Thor…no…INTERSTELLAR – perfect!”
3.5 hours later (6 hours into the flight) – “I slept during that entire thing!! Perfect. Bridget is clearly having trouble sleeping. Her neck is crunched and she is flopping around like a fish on a boat deck.”
“Why are the lights coming back on? Dinner number two!?!?! Snack time baby!! Oh no my ‘turkey sandwich’ is missing the turkey part. Wine? I suppose so…”
Flight Attendant seems to offer me a glass of water. I say yes - turns out its wine again…Score…”Bridget did you order us a glass of wine? No, well maybe we have that vibe? Whatever…”
“Crap – Bridget we need to book our flight from Sydney to Auckland – I guess I’ll pay the internet fee. Ok, purchased our flight and we are set to go.”
“I can’t watch anymore of these TV shows or Movies – maybe their game section is better on international flights? Trivia – heck ya…no one else is playing – boring….Tower Defense – I love this game! 2 hours later…Ok, I am bored again and can’t sleep.”
“What do all these buttons do on this screen? Oh shit! I just turned my light on and blinded the person sleeping next to Bridget…So sorry – my bad.”
“OK – getting kind of BORED and CRAMPY and feel BLOATED – time to land this baby!”
“Anybody else gassy?!?!”
Lights are coming back on… “Is this another meal? I guess it’s kind of breakfast time – yup breakfast.”
“Is there free wine for breakfast – that would be funny. Bridget, I don’t see any wine in that cart just coffee…”
“Ok, I’ve been fed 3 glasses of wine, two meals, a snack, and have moved like 20 feet in total over the last 12.5 hours…get me outta this plane…”
“Jeez - I feel like someone has pumped air into my body and the only way it’s coming out is by farting…is this normal? Is this due to the amount of food I have been eating or is it just the air pressure factor of flying? Bridget, do you feel like this too? Great I am not the only one…”
“Oh good we are finally making our initial decent…perfect.”
“Easy landing…feeling great, minus a little gassy, but couldn’t be happier to be out of San Fran!!!”
Overall, this 14+ hour flight was rather comfortable. Not just our seats, but getting out of the gate on time, taking off shortly thereafter, all the snacks and meals that we got, coupled with my ability to sleep well, made this flight actually pretty enjoyable! Now we just have a layover and a 3-hour flight in between us and the start of our 2 months in New Zealand. We are gettin’ there!
