2006 - FIP Salvador Bahia: Day 1 – 25 Aug: Canberra to Santiago via Sydney and Auckland

It was an early start for me, and I met Steve in Sydney. I was in the QC Business lounge and when Steve presented his boarding pass to enter, he was informed that because he was a Platinum frequent flyer, he was entitled to enter the First-Class lounge! So, he collected me and off we went. How salubrious is that lounge? You cannot even order your own drink at the bar – well you can but they ask you where you are sitting, and they bring it over. So, whilst in the First lounge, one must do as a other First-loungers do and drink champagne (not sparkling wine as it was Veuve Clicquot) for breakfast! At least I had mine with a touch of OJ which is a breakfast beverage. After a larger than required breakfast of eggs benedict and bacon, and my champagne and OJ, it was time to make our way to the other end of the terminal to our gate. My second international Business class flight 0 woohoo. When I saw the aircraft, I was a tad dubious it would get us there as it only had two engines – it was an A340. However, it did go via Auckland, so I guess it must have refuelled there. The cabin was not very busy, and the meals were very good, and the seats were fully flat when in the down position.

After over 16 hours flying and a short stopover in NZ, we landed in Santiago, Chile. We quickly made our way to the Admirals Club which Steve had access to with his platinum FF status. Thank goodness for Steve, because if he was not platinum, we would have been out in with the common folk for the 12 hours wait before boarding for Rio.

Because we had so much time to wait (and for once, this was not my stuff-up, rather QANTAS Defence bookings – they changed our flights without consultation) we took it in turns to wander the duty free shops, eat, drink and sleep. This is where I discovered the liqueur Disaronno, which is like Amaretto, only much, much smoother. I had been limiting my champagne intake with copious glasses of water in between when Steve told me I just had to try it. After a while I gave in and tried it and was hooked. Poured over ice, it is delicious!