I’m counting our flight as the first day of our Honeymoon, since the door to door trip was well over 24 hours! We were scheduled to fly from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, then connect to a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. Unfortunately, when we arrived at IAD airport in Washington 2.5 hours before our flight, we encountered a sea of people clamoring for a United Airlines representative. Due to multiple flight cancellations from Europe to the East Coast, our flight from Washington to Los Angeles had been cancelled, and the flight United had automatically rebooked us on would have made us miss our connecting flight to Sydney. So we patiently stood in line for over an hour to talk to a United representative, as the cell phone lines were jammed due to the massive amount of people all trying the same number.
When we finally reached the front of the line, we were quickly told that us missing the connection for our Honeymoon ‘wasn’t their problem’ and the representative asked for the next person in line. My husband asked what LAX-Sydney flight we would be booked on in that case, and we were then told it would be THREE days later as all the LAX-Sydney flights were sold out for the next few days. I then promptly burst into tears. My husband tried to politely explain that if we could just be rebooked on another flight to LAX (which my mother in law had texted us about, and still had seats available) we could make our connection, but the representative was not interested, and got started with the next person in line. Then, a woman in a United uniform came over to ask my husband what the problem was, who explained our issue to her. She asked that we follow her to spot adjacent to the United counters, then left for several minutes. At this point I’m pretty sure I was still crying. After what seemed like forever as the minutes ticked by – at this point we had 40 minutes until the flight to LAX we now wanted to be booked on departed, the woman returned and ushered us to an older man in a United uniform. My husband explained the situation, and the man worked his magic on the United computer. We were told that yes, there were 2 seats available on another flight to LAX, but it left in 30 minutes and our bags wouldn’t make it on the plane. Not a problem, because I only packed a carry on! We were given new tickets and literally RAN to the security line. Our flight was in an adjacent terminal (thankfully!), so we figured it would be close but we would make it.
We arrived at security with a fairly short line, waited 10 minutes, and got to the front of the line. We high-fived eachother – still 20 minutes – we were as good as golden! Suddenly a security officer drew a velvet rope in front of us and announced to the 50 people in line (including my husband and I at the very front of the line) that this line was being closed, and we needed to get in the back of another line. My husband politely asked that they make an exception for us, and explained the ordeal we had been through with the cancelled / rebooked flights – noting that the flight for our honeymoon was departing in less than 20 minutes. The security officer was not interested, and I started crying (yes, again). A security supervisor walked over and asked the officer what the problem was, who sneered that “THEY want to cut in line”. My husband explained that we weren’t trying to cut in line – that we had been waiting for 10 minutes before the line was abruptly and arbitrarily closed, and that we just wanted to catch the plane for our Honeymoon. The supervisor directed us to be let through the line (yay!!), and I tried to stop crying.
We grabbed our bags from the metal detector and sprinted across the terminal. I’m pretty sure I broke the female speed record. Finally, we arrived at our gate – they were closing the door but thankfully allowed us onboard. The flight to LAX passed without much excitement, we were just ecstatic to be headed West! We landed with 90 minutes to spare before our next flight, and decided to try our luck with the elusive honeymoon upgrade.
Background: Everyone told me to always ask for an upgrade on your honeymoon – whether for a flight, hotel, restaurant, etc. – stating that it’s the only time in your life you can shamelessly do so. At this point I didn’t want to push our luck, still being appreciative that we just made our flight to Sydney, but figured there was nothing to lose. We waited in line at the gate, and I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the conversation taking place when we were at the front of the line. A twenty-something girl was asking how much an upgrade from coach to first class for the LAX-Sydney flight was. When she was told it would be $8,000, she stomped her feet (seriously!) and started yelling at the poor ticketing agent, stating that she was a frequent flyer and shouldn’t have to be in coach. The ticket agent politely apologized, and asked for the next in line.
I decided asking for a first class upgrade was too ambitious, and instead handed her our tickets and politely inquired about the possibility of an upgrade to economy plus, explaining that it was our honeymoon. While the agent worked on her computer, two flight attendants next to the ticketing agent were talking about Kate Middleton’s wedding, stating that they couldn’t believe she waited 8 years for a proposal. I jumped in (being the Kate fan that I am), and added that I was on my honeymoon, and had been with my husband for 9 years before we got married(!).
The ticketing agent then handed me back a pair of plane tickets, politely saying that economy plus was booked… then winked, which I thought was kind of weird at the time, but she was Australian so I figured it was just a demonstration of her friendly personality. I thanked her for checking, handed the plane tickets to my husband, and went off to buy a bottle of water for the 15 hour flight. My husband sprinted after me, handing me the plane tickets and asking if I noticed anything strange about them. I sighed, exhausted by the emotionally and physically draining afternoon, and said no – they just looked like plane tickets. He told me to check the seat assignments (we were originally in row 63). I looked at the tickets again. Row 6!!!! The ticketing agent had upgraded us and printed out new tickets without us even noticing. Now our honeymoon was really off to a fantastic start…
We boarded the plane and were greeted with champagne and warm nuts:
Enjoyed a delicious dinner:
Indulged in chocolate ice cream bon bons, accompanied by more champagne:
And then settled into the fully flat bed for a good nights sleep over the Pacific Ocean:
After 8 hours of sleep, I woke up to the same ocean:
And savored a fantastic cup of coffee in china instead of styrofoam over breakfast. I felt very civilized.
Several hours later, our view was still of the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately, it is a beautiful sight:
Almost 15 hours after leaving Los Angeles, we spotted land (and it was beautiful)!
Finally, the plane circled around Sydney and prepared for landing. It was completely surreal to see the skyline – punctuated by the exquisite Sydney Opera House – in real life for the first time after a lifetime of seeing it in countless books, photographs, and artistic renditions. It is not an understatement to say that it took my breath away, even from the sky I knew it was the most beautiful building I had ever seen:
Then, we landed in Sydney! I couldn’t wait for our rest of our 20 day honeymoon adventure in Australia to continue.
