LA to Fiji

In hindsight, I could have stashed my bags with the hotel & gone to do something touristy with the day, but not getting into the hotel until midnight didn’t make for a high energy day.

My timing was pretty good getting back to the airport, and I got there about a half hour before the check in desk opened, so I wasn’t lugging the bags around for very long. Security was OK? They have a thing at LAX where you walk through a space and a dog walks through it after you, I assume because it’s smelling for something.

It wasn’t a full flight, so there was a middle seat buffer zone on my row of three. ( I went with an aisle seat in the centre block ) Pretty sure I fell asleep during takeoff and landing, but wasn’t able to sleep much during the actual flight, which is incredibly irritating. The entertainment system had a couple of cameras you could connect to, but a night flight means that all the screen shows once you’re in the air is a blinking red light on a black screen.

I napped a bit, when I could, read a book on my phone & started another, … Anything I could do to fill the time. I almost certainly annoyed some folks when I discovered that Fiji Airways, like Southwestern, do free WiFi for texting only.

Eventually, in the fullness of time & a couple of meals ( cheese ravioli for dinner & a potato curry for breakfast ), we made it to Fiji. Uncrowded flight meant a shorter wait for immigration, which was nice. It took a long-ass time to get my bags, to the extent that I was getting a little concerned, but … Things happen on Fiji time, and my stuff was probably right at the back because I checked my bags as soon as I could.

I killed time in the airport, because I can’t check in until 3pm & most hotels aren’t going to let you check in at 6am. The JW Marriott in Indianapolis seems to be the exception, because I’ve never had to wait more than 20 minutes when I checked in there, no matter what time I arrived; For the 20 minute incident, they gave me a drink voucher for the lobby Starbucks to apologise for not having a room available 8 hours ahead of schedule, which is completely bonkers.

Something I’d not entirely understood is that my hotel room had a kitchen, with cooktop & fridge/freezer, and also a laundry. But it has them, so I was able to wander up to the nearby supermarket & get breakfast stuff. Which became dinner stuff, because cereal is a perfectly acceptable meal at any time of the day.