Day 2 (November 4)

After arriving in Los Angeles, my first order of business was hiking the 12 miles to the Tom Bradley International Terminal (not really 12 miles, but it sure felt like it!) to find out the departure gate for my Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong. After figuring that out, I went to the Qantas First lounge (shared with Cathay) and got a quick shower. That was followed by some snacks and a light champagne buzz, then it was time to head down to the gate for departure.

When I was planning this trip, the thing I dreaded most was the 15 hour Los Angeles-to-Hong Kong flight crammed into sardine Economy class. I had plenty of frequent flier miles, so I decided to go all in and cash in 80,000 miles for First Class. That was definitely the way to go. Cathay Pacific First Class, Los Angeles to Hong Kong on a Boeing 777-300ER, is simply amazing. There are only six seats in the First Class cabin, with each seat (suite, really) being allocated an area four feet wide and seven feet long. The seat reclines into a bed, and the flight attendants come around and add a nice thick mattress pad and thick comforter. Then, when you want to sleep, you change into your pajamas (yes, they give you a set of pajamas!) and get into your nice comfy bed. If you ever get the chance to fly Cathay Pacific in First Clsss, don’t even think about it – just do it!

15 hours of bliss – seat 2A, Cathay Pacific, First Class, Boeing 777-300ER

The routing of my flights from Anchorage to Perth is kind of crazy. Since I’m going all First Class, I figured I wanted to really maximize the experience, so that meant getting the longest flights I could (and I had read about Cathay’s First Class, so knew that’s what I wanted). So my flights are:

– Anchorage to Seattle
– Seattle to Los Angeles
– Los Angeles to Hong Kong
– Hong Kong to Perth

The really interesting thing about this routing is that after flying from Anchorage to Seattle to Los Angeles, the flight to Hong Kong (that I’m on right now as I write this) went right back up to Anchorage! We actually flew over the town of Kenai, and I was able to see the lights of Anchorage (and home). So after about 15 hours of traveling from Anchorage to L.A., I was right back where I started!

As crazy as that sounds, there’s actually a very good reason, geographically speaking, for it. Everyone knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So if you look at a globe, and you put one end of a piece of string on Los Angeles, and the other end on Hong Kong, and pull the string tight, you’ll notice that the string does not simply go west across the Pacific Ocean. Instead, it goes northwest up over Alaska and then southwest down over Russia and China. The route marked by the string is called a Great Circle route, and it’s the shortest route between two points on a sphere. So that’s the reason for the backtrack back to home on the way to Hong Kong.

Interestingly, in the 1980s and 1990s, Anchorage used to be a major hub for flights between North America and Asia. Back then, airliners needed to refuel on these long routes, and Anchorage was perfectly situated geographically for refueling stops. However, with the introduction of newer long-range aircraft, such as the Boeing 777, it was no longer necessary to stop in Anchorage for refueling. So now, in order to go to Hong Kong, I first have to spend an entire day flying down to Los Angeles, only to turn around and fly right back over Anchorage! Thanks a lot Great Circle!

Well, we’re over Mongolia now, and the flight attendant is bringing my First Class breakfast, so gotta go!

Not breakfast, but you can’t say no to champagne and caviar!

Posted by Scott