Loooong flight!

Our flight from LAX to Sydney was, well, long.  Not just long - really long!  With a slight gate delay, we spent almost 15 hours on the plane.  Thanks to the many time zones we crossed, we left on Wednesday and arrived Friday morning (more on that later)!  This was my first flight on a Boeing 777 (aka the Dreamliner), the newest airliner from Boeing.  I was plesantly surprised we'd get such a new craft for an overseas trip; the 777 rollout to commercial US airlines has been rather slow in the last few years.

Ramona cleverly researched our flight options, and upgraded our seats to 'Economy Comfort'.  This gave us a few extra inches of legroom and wider seats, as well as a power outlet beneath our seats.  Better still, we chose seats on the starboard side of plane with a seat between us, which made things very easy.

We got two meals on the plane, with a snack and a fair amount of beverage service.  Fortunately, the crew filled our water bottles, so we had a decent chance to stay hydrated.  I think we got was a few hours of sleep at the start of the flight - after that, there wasn't much to pass the time, other than in-flight movies.  There were ample in-flight movies to keep Ramona interested, and the power plug kept my netbook charged to watch movies I had already downloaded.  We stayed entertained for hours, despite the possibility of immense boredom.

As the night turned to early morning, the crew started breakfast shortly before our touchdown in Sydney.  All-in-all, my first flight on Dreamliner was almost as comfortable as the first-class seating we had from Amsterdam to India in 2009.  Still, I wouldn't have minded the kind of pampering we'd received in first class.  Ah, well!