Departure Day!! Almost...and Again....

Wednesday, Feb 13 @ 7:53pm PT - San Francisco Global First Class Lounge

It's departure day for Australia round 2!!! I'm traveling with my friend Eric, who was part of the group for our last trip, and a new adventurer, our friend Brad. We started the day with being at O'Hare early for our 1pm departure - first class all the way to Sydney (with a stop over in SFO).

During this return adventure we plan on spending our first 3 days in Sydney (to get adjusted to the time), then flying to Port Douglas (6 days) to do some diving at the Great Barrier Reef, and touring (Rainforest), and then back to Sydney (11 days) for the remainder of the trip.

We boarded on time and everyone got settled --- and then we sat about 50 feet from the gate for about an hour! There was a problem with one engine that they couldn't resolve by a computer reboot. "Not to worry" because there was an "approved workaround/deferral" with "plenty of redundant systems" but we all had to deplane while maintenance came aboard to run all the tests and approve the deferral of actually fixing the problem. By 4pm we were back on the plane and headed to SFO!

Currently we are enjoying the secret and very exclusive Global First Class lounge at SFO airport. There is a nice sign posted outside the lounge that states that ONLY those ticketed in Global First Class are allowed entry. Sorry...those poor suckers in domestic first class, global business, or business first...Please turn around and head over the the general United Club. Buh bye....