Landing at YVR

We've arrived - about an hour early.

Aboard AC 36: BNE-YVR

 

Brisbane Airport (BNE) Air New Zealand Lounge

We left our hotel on a paid shuttle bus (AUS $5 each) a bit after 7:30 AM, and we're now comfortably seated in a very pleasant Air New Zealand lounge.

Security this morning was metal detectors, and the automated exit passport control was a breeze.

We were denied entry to the adjacent Singapore lounge, even though the sign reads "Star Gold." The woman told us we had to go where we were invited, and seemed to have no concept of the significance of that sign. Oh well... this lounge is perfectly pleasant.

We have nearly 90 minutes before boarding Air Canada #36. It's due to depart today - Tuesday - at 10:40 AM (5:40 PM yesterday at home), and our landing at YVR (Vancouver) is scheduled for 7:10 AM PDT Tuesday morning, 7351 air miles later.

We've completed most of a circumnavigation of the world since flying out of YVR a couple of weeks ago, something over 22,000 miles in four different business class offerings.

We suspect AC will stack up pretty well, but we'll have a better idea 16 hours from now.

Brisbane Airport (BNE) Ibis

We drove back to Brisbane from Noosa this morning, giving two Flyertalk friends a ride. The traffic wasn't bad, and we were happy to drop off our SIXT rental car, which was a heavily dented 2012 Corolla with 110,000 km. on the odometer.

The rental shuttle driver kindly dropped us off at the nearly-new Ibis before taking Glynnis and Saibal to the terminal.

The hotel only opened last October, and still has that brand-new shine throughout. It's a budget hotel but pleasant nonetheless.

They had a room for us at 11:30 AM, and there's a nice little restaurant on site. We'll hang out before taking a 7:30 AM (paid) shuttle to the airport in anticipation of Air Canada #36 to Vancouver at 10:30 AM, as another Oz Fest concludes.

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, Beerwah

Crikey! Great place to visit.

Kathy's Birthday Dinner at Noosa RACV Resort

The Arcuri Restaurant is in the main reception area just a two-minute walk from our apartment. We chose their three-course special, as the choices included two of the birthday girl's favorites, pork belly and duck.

A lovely Shiraz...

Pork Belly for Kathy...

Brian's Hiramasa Kingfish appetizer...

Duck breast for the main...

Dessert...

Not cheap (hardly anything in Oz is cheap), but good value and a beautiful meal...

Miles and More Miles

We just noticed that the miles on this trip are adding up since we flew out of YVR May 15.

YVR-LHR-AMS-CDG-HKG-BKK-BNE totals 16,747 flown miles.

That's a fair amount of flying by most standards, but nothing we'd brag about to the Flyertalk friends we'll be seeing soon at Oz Fest. 

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/communitybuzz/1847290-oz-fest-15-sunshine-coast-qld-australia-usa-memorial-day-weekend-may-25-27-2018-a.html

We like to think it places us at least in the "average range" of frequent flyers.

Noosa Heads, Sunshine Coast Australia

We picked up our SIXT rental car,  a badly scratched and dented Toyota Corolla with 110,000 km. on the odometer.

That's great, because now we won't have to worry about parking lot scratches.

We made the drive from the airport to the RACV Noosa resort in 90 minutes or so, with only a few roundabouts to keep Brian on his toes.

https://www.racv.com.au/travel-leisure/racv-resorts/our-destinations/noosa-resort.html

We have a nice little apartment here with all the comforts of home for next five nights, complete with a bottle of duty-free Beefeaters on the counter to share with our Aussie friends.

Brisbane Airport

We slept hard and landed a bit ahead of schedule, taxiing up to a jet bridge, thank goodness.

The Thai 787 and its flatbeds were just fine, and the flight attendants were characteristically friendly and attentive.

Brisbane Airport (BNE) is very quiet this morning, as this shot of the uninspiring arrivals area shows.

We don't pick up our rental car for another 50 minutes, giving us time to stop for a cup of good Australian coffee.

Thai's Annoying Boarding at BKK

We walked a mile from the lounge to our gate, then had our luggage gone through by employees wearing gloves.

We then walked down a long switchback ramp to the gate.

Once we were allowed through, we realized we had three flights of stairs to walk down to board the buses for the remote gate.

Kind young Australians offered Kathy and her aching knees a seat, and also talked an employee into carrying her rollaboard up the stairs to the 787.

It was no fun but we made it. Is that the best Thai can do at their home airport?

Eight hours and 45 minutes to Brisbane.

HKG Thai Royal Orchid Lounge

It's warmer than the Singapore Lounge on this very hot day, and they're not pouring Moët Chandon here.

Still, the views are great, as it's an open design one floor above the departure gates.

There are some terrific Thai dishes here, including Tom Yum soup, Larb, and chicken curry.

Yes, this will do just fine until we board downstairs in less than 40 minutes.

HKG Terminals 1 and 2

Hong Kong Airport's Terminal 2 is used only for checking in by some airlines - it has no actual departure gates, despite its impressive entrance.

Thai is among the airlines that use it, so we picked up our boarding passes, went through pleasantly relaxed exit Immigration and security, and rode a couple of trains to Terminal 2, still the world's third biggest terminal (after Dubai and Beijing).

Our first flight (to Bangkok) doesn't depart until around 7 PM, so we rode the moving sidewalks in a completely different direction to spend some time in Singapore's Silver Kris Lounge, which we're allowed to access as Star Alliance Golds.

We plan on a couple of hours here before moving to the Thai Royal Orchid Lounge that's closer to our boarding gate. It's a pleasant way to pass some time before the flight.

Hong Kong's Airport Flyer Bus A10

When we mentioned to the T Hotel supervisor on checkout Edgar we were returning to HKG on theAirport Flyer, she consulted a website or app and told us the next one was due at our Pok Fu Lam Village stop within the next three minutes.

We hustled down to the bus stop and arrived with a couple of minutes to spare. All we had to do was to enjoy the scenery on the 60-minute drive.

We crossed a couple of big bridges along the way.  HKG is of course located on a largely reclaimed island.

It's one of the best transportation bargains among the airports we've visited, at about US$8.25 round trip per person.

We arrived at Terminal 2 almost before we knew it.