Flying to Los Angeles via Chicago
We filled yesterday with more shopping; it was our second day of shopping. We also filled our luggage! Things in the USA are cheap if one shops wisely.
Today, we fly from Fort Lauderdale back to Auckland via Chicago and Los Angeles. We left our hotel at 0800 and arrived at the rental car return only thirty minutes later. We got to the airport with over two hours prior to departure but if the traffic had been unkind, it could have easily become stressful.
With all that shopping, Kim’s suitcase was 1kg overweight but United kindly let it through. His suitcase has an empty weight of about 5kg and isn’t really suitable for most travel. As crew, the weight isn’t an issue but as a commercial passenger it certainly is!
Our United A320 from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago departed at 1054. Over 3h later, we landed at Chicago at 1308. I had never been to Chicago and would loved to have stayed. It was a very clear sunny day but it could have been cold out there.
We had 1h50 connecting time before our flight to Los Angeles at 1718. This flight on a B777 had a flight time of 4h18. It was a huge detour to have come through Chicago but we were constrained by price and our flight time from Los Angeles to Auckland in the evening.
Continuing to Auckland
Landing at Los Angeles at 1718 we had to wait 45 mins for our luggage. We made our way to Terminal 2 from which Air New Zealand operates from. Tonight seems to be our lucky night. We were given boarding passes straight away, despite being on standby. Apparently, our tickets were on a high enough category we weren’t treated as standby.
On the downside, we didn’t get our paid upgrades to Business Class which was subject to availability. A Qantas flight had a breakdown last night and passengers had been re-accommodated to our flight, filling the pointy-end right up. Knowing that, we felt very lucky to be even given a seat in cattle class.
We had a light dinner at Carl’s Junior before proceeding to the aircraft.