Flight Out of New Zealand

My 7^th leaving NZ from Auckland

As I previously mentioned, I tried to upgrade my ticket to Premium Economy but my travel agent said it would cost $1300. After exploring the NZAir website I found that you could “bid” a price to upgrade your seat to the next class. I bid $330 to upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy on the way over and $520 for the way back and both bids were accepted. I did my homework and knew that the flight home was on a 777 and Flight N2 plane which had the “space pod” seats and were better and worth every penny!

I had complete privacy from the gentleman next door as well as a

reclining seat with a big bean bag cushion for my feet, unlimited NZ wine and unlimited snack and drinks during the flight. I received a travel kit with a toothbrush/paste, sleep mask, lip balm, a pen and socks. I put on the socks because mine were stinky and worn a few days. The movies were all current movies and I selected Night at the Museum and got situated for dinner.

The dinner consisted of an entre (appetizer in NZ) of salmon in some sauce with couscous. I ate the couscous and the cheese and crackers. The main had several choices but I chose lamb and vegetables. It was good and the dessert was a pana cotta with pistachio cream. Not too bad.

The movie was over, so I switched my channel to music and found Bette Midler’s new album and listened to that until I fell asleep under my cover with a nice pillow in my space pod.

They wake you up slowly on overnight planes by turning up the lights gently. Breakfast was a choice of eggs or vanilla pancakes with berries. I chose the berries and pancakes.   I cleaned up my pod and put away all my belongings to get ready to disembark.

Before a left for this trip I applied for two different travel permissions. One is called “Clear”, which was free from Travelzoo.com and gets you to the front of security lines in 10 different airports, Orlando being one of them, LAX is not. So that was not helping this trip. The second was the Global Entry/TSA clearance. This is a double clearance for $100 they take your photo and fingerprints, check them for crimes and give you a special OK to go quickly through Customs and security. It can be used for entering this country. The Global Entry was a dream come true. I by passed about 100 people to a special kiosk to present my passport and get checked and cleared. This gave me a jump to the head of the line in the Customs section as well.

I picked up my Hertz rental car and headed for Redondo Beach Hilton. Both chosen because I could get bonus points for the car rental and now 7x for my hotel in Hilton points! Actually the car was booked through a special promotion from USAir so I get points for that and Hilton for using that credit card – SCORE! This is the start of my learning how to travel hack points for future travel.

I checked in and started a load of wash at the hotel, made a few phone calls and then decided to drive to Manhattan Beach for some dinner.  I remember going here in 2012 with my mom and sister for dinner one night and I wanted to return to the same street.  I went to  Shellback Tavern, a small dive on the corner overlooking the rainy beach. Finally some American food and I got a ShockTop beer and some chicken tenders cooked in beer batter – delicious! Back to the hotel I go!

A new adventure awaits tomorrow too!