The flight from Adelaide to Melbourne was easy enough, but after a long wait in the customs queue at Melbourne International, I was a little surprised at how small the jet was. I remember them being bigger, but then again, I was only 13 last time I went on one that big.



The flight from Melbourne to Singapore was uncomfortable for both of us, my "flight socks" (which kaye paid $35 for to help prevent DVT) developed a small hole near my left toe, which hapilly popped through the sock just to annoy me.

After 10 hours of travelling, we were both quite tired. Neither of us had a huge amount of sleep on Saturday night before we left, and now it was after 11pm (Singapore time) Sunday. I found my way up to the Qantas Business Class Lounge and approached the lady at the reception counter. I asked her what the chance of an upgrade was, I was looking to get out of Economy and into World Traveller Plus (which Mark D had recommended to me late on Saturday), even if it meant paying some reasonable amount extra to do so.

Elaine (as I recall her name was) explained that our tickets were not flexible and therefore she couldn't take payment for an upgrade and nor were there any complimentary upgrades available (due to the fact that no standbys were waiting for economy seats).

I made the best 'oh no' sad face I could, explaining how uncomfortable we were. A few phone calls later, Elaine apologetically explained that there was nothing she could do for us in terms of an upgrade to Business Class, but that she could, however, move us into World Traveller Plus if that was OK. I contained my excitement and thanked her for her efforts and took hold of the new boarding passes. One free upgrade as ordered :-)

Some interesting things we saw in Singapore airport included free internet access stations that used IRDA to connect laptops or PDAs to the Internet (although they weren't working) as well as free mobile phone recharge points for all sorts of brands of phone.



Needless to say, the remaining 16 hours or so from Singapore to London were much more comfortable, given the larger seats with leg rests, etc. To cap it off, we were in the front right two seats of the middle row, meaning we had a HUGE amount of leg room :)

The seats came with groovy touch sensitive computer / video screens which, apart from showing a nice range of movies, also provided useful flight information to help pass the time and answer the "are we there yet" question with precise accuracy :)



Some pics of our approach and landing at Heathrow: