Day 1
Melbourne to Los Angeles
Dylan George Field's Airline ticket of Melbourne to Los Angeles
Journal
An uneventful day. There was some excitement. But really it was just another trip to the airport. I packed my luggage the night before in a $10 suitcase I bought earlier from Facebook Marketplace. What was I going to do with the suitcase? I couldn’t load it on the bike. I’m sure Tucker would know what to do or I could find a dumpster somewhere.
I had a mid-day United Airlines flight. It cost $1000 AUD return off Google Flights. The plan was to get to Tucker’s place in Los Angeles and go from there. I didn’t think too much about it. I planned to carry my helmet onto the flight. I didn’t even know if it was allowed (apparently it is). It was in it’s bag so it looked legit. I stuffed my passport and snacks inside it.
The traffic was bad and the usual fear of missing the flight set in. It didn’t matter. I left 3 hours before the flight. It was the biggest flight of my life. I wasn’t going to miss it. I said goodbye to my dad and I headed over to the check-in.
I was at the front of the line in 20 minutes. I wasn’t paying attention and a man behind me yelled “go, that one’s open”. I moved without hesitation to the next available counter. I gave the lady my passport. She looked at down at me a few seconds later. “This is the VIP line. What are you doing here?”, she questioned. I had no idea. “Some guy told me” “Which guy?” I frantically pointed in the general direction of the line. “He was in the line” She pondered for a few seconds. I wondered whether I was going to the back of the line. She reluctantly let me stay.
I put my luggage on the scale confidently. I checked it out before the flight. It was 32kg. I was wrong. It was 20. “Your luggage is overweight”, the lady said. “What?”. “You’ll have to take something out”.
It was embarrassing enough that to use the ‘vip’ line let alone pulling my gear out of my suitcase in front of everyone. I pulled it off the scale and unzipped it. The lady called the next person from the line. She didn’t even bother waiting. Thankfully, the guy in line felt sorry enough for me to offer a suggestion. “Take the jacket out and wear it on the flight” Thanks brother! I grabbed a spare tyre tube and stuffed it in by backpack to make it under 20kg.
Thank god that was over. I made my way to customs and grabbed a newspaper on the way. I would relax in the lounge until the flight boarded. I love to sit down with a coffee and newspaper. A lady at the entrance to departures/customs was chatty. She asked about my trip and some other probing questions. She seemed genuinely excited for me and maybe even a little jealous.
I popped my bags to be scanned on the belt. I got through the body scanner and waited for my bags to come through. I kept waiting while other’s behind me passed. ‘What now’, I wondered. “Is this your bag?”, a customs officer approached me. “Yeah”. They directed me to the scanner and put the bag through again. They paused it on my bag and pointed at an object. “Can you show me what that is”, the customs officer said. It was my leatherman. It’s like a swiss army knife. I bought it just for this trip. It cost me 80 bucks and now I’m going to lose it. I didn’t even think about it. “Ohh, am I going to have to throw that out?” “Well, yeah”, the officer told me, “You can put it in check-in though”
I remembered somewhow that I was allowed to check-in two items. I asked the officer if I could head back out. They said yes. I checked-in my backpack with the leatherman inside. I wore my motobike jacket, boots and carred my helmet. I got through customs. I’ve never had that much trouble at the airport and I fly somewhat regularly.
I boarded the flight and there was a couple in my row. I made some friendly chit-chat as we’d be stuck together for the next 14 hours. They were on their way to spend a holiday on Lake Tahoe. I heard about it but didn’t know the appeal. The girl was American and her partner was Australian. He’d never been to the USA before.
The 14 hour flight was bearable. I’d taken coutless flights to Asia to see my partner overseas. I learned to:
- Pick an overnight flight. To sleep and be ready for the next day.
- Pick a date that’s easy to get to the airport early. Don’t book before peak hour.
- Get an aisle seat. You won’t be trapped. You can pee, walk around and access the overhead compartment whenever you like without disturbing those next to you.
- Full batteries for movies, books and entertainment.
- Be nice to your neighbours
I arrived safely at Los Angeles International Airport the following day.
