‘It's a shocking trip, the one you just completed’

‘It's a shocking trip, the one you just completed.’

That was the verdict, delivered yesterday only partly tongue-in-cheek, by an Australian frequent-flyer friend.

How challenging was it?

Bellingham to Seattle. 98 miles

Seattle to San Francisco 654 m.

San Francisco to Melbourne 7,862 m.

Melbourne to Darwin 1941 m.

Incidentally, all flights other than SFO-MEL were late, but we still had ample connection times.

Put simply…

BLI-SEA-SFO-MEL-DRW = 10,555 air miles.

That included more than 22 hours in the air, and three leisurely layovers, including 10 hours at Melbourne that allowed us to relax in a reasonably priced (USD $72) day room at the luxurious PARKROYAL Hotel across the street from MEL International Arrivals.

Our total travel time from start to finish was well over 30 hours. We’re feeling fine, which shows the importance for us of building in some relaxation time along the way.

We used air miles to fly United Polaris business class on the long leg. It proved to be a good choice for two main reasons.

First, the flatbeds were slightly roomier than many others we’ve experienced.

Second, the cabin was kept relatively cool through the night, allowing us to snuggle up with our pillows and blankets. Not quite blissful, but pretty good!

Before boarding our SFO-MEL flight, we took full advantage of UA’s Polaris Lounge, a truly elegant operation.

We took advantage of the dining room option and ate well.

We even found room for the brownie-in-a-skillet dessert.

In our experience, you’ll generally eat better in a quality lounge like this one than you will onboard.

We skipped drinks and dinner once on board and fell asleep almost immediately after takeoff(well after Midnight PDT).

We slept well for seven or eight hours. After waking up, Brian slept several more hours, while Kathy rested. Thus, we both “deplaned” (that word we love to hate) fairly well rested.

Along with relaxation time at the PARKROYAL, we were able to return to the airport and walk over to Terminal 3, where Virgin Australia is located.

Getting into the weeds a little, UA and VA are “partners,” although VA is not a member of Star Alliance. That’s why UA was able to sell us a mileage-based ticket all the way from San Francisco to Darwin. It does not, however, mean we’ll get good seats on the partner’s flight.

At the Virgin counter’s bank of self-serve kiosks we found an employee who was able to efficiently move us into extra legroom exit row seats. She even waived the fee because we were “nice.” Everyone in Australia is nice, so we don’t get it, but we were happy to accept it.

We then entered the VA lounge, to which we have access by virtue of being UA Gold-status members.

Kathy promptly suffered a nasty allergic reaction to something, most likely some ingredient in the featured Thai Pumpkin and Coconut soup, which is all she ate.

For awhile the upcoming 4 1/2 transcontinental flight (Australia is a big country) seemed in jeopardy, but she toughed it out.

The plane was an older Boeing 737 that felt crowded. We found ourselves sitting in the relative luxury of our exit row seats.

We made it through the flight, landing in a time zone 30 minutes behind Melbourne.

A lot of flights seem to land in Darwin around Midnight, but we found an Uber without difficulty.

We arrived at the Darwin Hilton quite efficiently. The clerk has worked for Hilton for four years and told us Kathy was the first Hilton Lifetime Diamond he’d met. Feeling special in Darwin!