Surf to Sand – French Polynesia to the Atacama – Day 1 can be found here.
The night before a big flight is always a wildcard in terms of both quantity and quality of sleep. With all four of us overnighting in an airport hotel with a 4:30 am wakeup, we weren’t holding out much hope of sleeping well – though that was the intent behind leaving a day early.
To our eternal surprise, we all got a decent sleep. I was woken briefly at 1 am when a loud-talking group went back to their rooms, but I managed more than 7 hours of rest. That’s more than I often get at home, particularly when I’m getting up with the kids in the morning.
Regardless, this is going to be a long day – 30 hours long, to be exact, thanks to the wonders of time zones.
We’d planned everything carefully to minimize the number of suitcases we’d need to deal with – nothing came out of checked bags, and we were able to pack up our remaining bags within minutes. Another few minutes to scarf down some adequate croissants, and we were on our way to the elevator.
We made it to the front door for 4:45 am and waited – and waited some more. Perhaps we’d just missed the shuttle? But it arrived before 5 am, and we were able to load all of our bags without incident – though we would have struggled had there been anyone else on the shuttle with us. There was a second shuttle immediately behind the first one, though.
It took us 10 minutes to reach Terminal 1, and we were soon unloaded and ready to attempt to check-in.
Total cost for the two rooms, dinner, and four breakfasts? Roughly CAD$450. A good deal particularly when compared to the cost of upgrading to business class, which is usually the only other way to get a decent sleep during a long flight.
United had wanted US$4,500 per person to upgrade to business class for this flight. We all shared a good laugh at that. The number was large enough as to be meaningless to the kids, but when we explained it was roughly $450 per person per hour in the air they realized how ludicrous it was.
All in all, the Four Points worked even better than we had hoped – we would definitely book in at another airport hotel in advance of other early-morning flights, or if it looked there would be bad weather on the day of our drive.
It was then time to re-attempt to check-in. The wait in line was blessedly brief, but the check-in process proved more complicated than we had hoped. Multiple overrides and comments were required to get us cleared to check-in. The agent persevered – along with some help from a very patient colleague.
The good news? The bags would be checked through all the way to Papeete, so no need to collect them during our stopover in San Francisco.
This was fortunate, as we still had no idea as to whether we would need to reclear security after we land. And unless you’ve been living as a hermit, you’re likely aware of the US Government shutdown – which also impacts TSA agents.
These impacts will be (hopefully) minor in the first few days, but likely will result in short-staffing if they carry on for long. It was another wildcard in an already long and chaotic travel day.
On to security, which I botched by sending us to the regular line as opposed to the Nexus line. The impact was minimal, however, as we would have had to remove liquids, gels, and electronics regardless. (Non-US Nexus flights let you leave everything in your carry-on bags – a true luxury.)
We of course have all the electronics, and all of the liquids, and all of the gels – so it was a slow process. But we got there.
Then off to the US customs line, where our Nexus cards proved to be worth their weight in gold. Adults simply step up to a camera where the system confirms you are good to carry on.
It was more complicated with the kids as they had grown sufficiently to be unrecognizable to the cameras. It still took only a minute or so to get through.
The officer suggested we stop in to get the kids’ photos updated at the Nexus desk just past the exit – we tried, but it seemed like the office wouldn’t open til later so we decided to carry on through to the terminal. Maybe next time.
We’d initially planned to eat breakfast at Burger Federation, but soon realized it would be a 15 minute walk in the wrong direction. So we opted for The Hearth by Lynn Crawford instead.
The parents opted for the farmer’s breakfast:
While the kids had the chocolate chip French toast with extra bacon:
We’ve had a lot of airport breakfasts over the years, and I can confidently say that this was the best we’d ever had. And again – worth it, compared to the added cost of going business.
Way too much food, though – the adults ate perhaps 2/3 of their meal, while the kids scarcely managed half. They kindly offered to box it up for us, but that sort of meal just doesn’t keep.
By the time we settled the bill, it was time to head to the gate. I turned off our phone data at the network level with Rogers itself – we’d been burned in the past by iPhones using data while roaming even when data roaming was turned off – and turned on our Airalo global e-SIMs. These include 20 gb of data, 200 texts and 200 minutes of voice calls. Much cheaper than roaming, even compared to Rogers’ new long-term packages.
My phone began pinging as bags were loaded, and the countdown to boarding ticked down. We’ll be sitting for at least 13 hours today so we didn’t mind a bit of standing – though we were careful not to block the early-boarding zones, as that’s one of our pet peeves.
Boarding started right on time and went smoothly for once – very few people trying to board before their zone number was called. No premium economy this leg, so we booked economy comfort instead. This was a modest upgrade at a mere $85 per person – well worth the extra cost, particularly as it seemed to also move us up to Zone 3 for boarding.
One late-arriving Zone 1 passenger tried to board after my wife had scanned her pass but before our kids and I had the chance to do so. I gently pointed out that we were travelling as a family, but it took the gate agent repeating it slower and louder before she finally stopped trying to insert herself into the middle of our family.
Farewell, Toronto! (And hello to my wife’s new iPhone 17 Pro, which takes fabulous photos)
Air Canada had their usual breakfast menu on offer, but we’d just eaten so we opted to content ourselves with some drinks, pretzels and cookies instead. I then took a couple of hours to get caught up with the blog. The flight has free wifi for Aeroplan members, so I was actually able to upload a post and publish a mid-flight – a first for me!
Also interesting to see that Air Canada has started showing when Aisle Service was on offer.
Handy!
This being an early morning flight, there wasn’t much in the way of food on offer – breakfast sandwiches were about as good as it got. I had some complimentary coffee and garlic pretzels, then later followed it up with some hummus and crackers at the low, low cost of $6, which was enough to tide me over after the massive breakfast.
Hello, San Francisco! We were hoping to spot the Golden Gate bridge, but I suppose the Giants’ Stadium will have to do
We landed perhaps 10 minutes behind schedule, which is essentially on time for a 5 hour flight. But the big question remained – would we need to re-clear security?
Good news – we found a set of screens immediately after exiting the plane.
Bad news – they only covered the flights on this side of the terminal.
We knew from before that the corridors between terminals can be tough to spot, so we moved slowly. Thankfully, we soon reached a central hub that showed all the flights – so we were able to quickly verify our gate (G12) and found a corridor that led toward the G gates.
So far, so good. We carried along the corridor wondering if we were about to be exited – but our luck held, and it became clear we would not need to re-clear security.
With that load off our minds, we set out in search of what was either an early lunch or an early dinner, depending on how you looked at it – I try to switch over to new timezones as quickly as possible, so let’s go with early lunch.
We’d initially hoped to pick up pizza for lunch and sandwiches for the plane, but then the kids spotted Bacon Bacon – so that settled the question of lunch (though not of their eventual high blood pressure).
It took some time, but the result was worth the wait:
We still had almost 90 minutes until our flight was due to leave, so we slowly meandered the rest of the way down to the G gates, looking for sandwich options as we went. There were plenty of sandwiches, but nothing really caught the kids’ fancy – by which I mean everything was too fancy.
We reached the gate for our flight to Papeete, but there was very little left in the way of seating. So we found a less-crowded gate a ways back, and I went all the way back to the previous restaurants set of restaurants to pick up some pizza. It was going to take a bit of time, but we still had more than an hour so I thought we would be good.
I thought incorrectly. I was just about the pick up the pizza when I got an e-mail informing me that boarding had started for our flight. So I texted my wife and began the 15 minute walk back to where I’d stashed the family.
I still figured we’d be fine, as they usually start with an announcement about how much they look forward to boarding you, followed by pre- pre- boarding, then boarding for Elite Supreme Super Diamond Gold Members, and so forth and so on.
Alas, they were well into boarding Zone 2 by the time we returned to our gate – thus triggering my wife’s greatest flying fear, which is that There Will Not Be Enough Overhead Bin Space.
(Though when all 4 carry-on bags are stuffed full of electronics the thought of trying to remove them all so the carry-on can safely go as checked bags is daunting. And since not removing all electronics can get your bag left behind – or start a fire and take down your plane – it remains a valid fear.)
But there was nothing for it now but to board and hope for the best, though everyone’s patience was tested further by a pair of passengers that couldn’t decide which gate attendant should be bestowed the honour of checking their ticket.
But we eventually boarded, and we were relieved to find that there was still plenty of overhead bin space remaining. So much, in fact, that I was able to also store my complimentary pillow, blanket, toiletry kit, and headphones up there along with my backpack. I’m not sure I’ve had more footspace except in lie-flat seats.
The seats in Premium Economy were comfortable – about what you’d expect from domestic business class. There aren’t any lie-flats but I’m at most shooting for a doze on this flight. Too much sleep and I won’t be able to sleep tonight, whenever tonight might actually arrive.
Farewll, San Francisco! Still no luck with the Golden Gate bridge, but it is a pretty view
United’s in-flight entertainment isn’t as modern as Air Canada’s, nor is there free internet – but there are free drinks, so I won’t complain.
Though even in Premium Economy you find some bad behaviour:
I would like to say that this is the worst that a fellow passenger did that flight – but I would be lying
Anyway, that came to an end once late-lunch-dinner-or-whatever was served.
It was a very credible chicken breast – I can’t comment on the rest of it, as I was too full to do more than nibble.
Soon after the meal, they dimmed the lights so that we could get some rest.
My son found a brick-breaking game that he very much enjoyed:
And I did my best to get some sleep.
Unfortunately – with most passengers already on Pacific time – they opted to stay up for the flight. So despite the dimmed lighting and windows, we had to contend with the sound of chattering and my neighbour, Shuffles, who elected to use this time to practice his card shuffling skills.
Shuffles took on average 7.6 seconds to shuffle a deck of cards. I know this because I counted. And I was able to count because he did this over and over and over again. For hours.
(My wife later pointed out that this was likely the fidget that he used to cope with the stress of flying – and if that’s the case, then fair enough. We did have some turbulence in the middle of the flight, at which point we would’ve been in the absolute middle of nowhere.)
The rest of the flight was uneventful. I managed about two hours of sleep, at which point I somehow convinced myself that we were imminently landing – but no, we still had another three hours to go. United came through with snack service and with a small second dinner-lunch – your choice of either cheese pasta or a corned beef sandwich.
I chose the corned beef:
It was perhaps one of the better airline meals I’ve had. Nice and simple, which is the way it should be. The lower slice of bread was soggy, but the top one was still nice and crunchy.
Then it was time to land – roughly 8 hours after we first set off.
I’d hoped to get photos of Tahiti as we landed, but we went through some dense cloud cover on the way in – and darkness had fallen by the time we touched down.
An artist’s rendering of the view from the airplane as we descended into Papeete
We had a staircase to take on the way down, but Premium Economy was relatively close to the front of the plane so we ‘only’ had 45 minutes to wait at customs.
We found out later that they have VIP programs that lets you skip the lines for customs, baggage, and includes porter services. It’s not cheap at 319 Euro for two people, but we’d give it a harder look next time. You really feel that extra wait when you’ve already been on the road for 20 consecutive hours.
Eventually the European Union citizens cleared through, as did the flight crew – opening up another three kiosks. Then the line really started to move.
On the bright side, we didn’t have long to wait at the baggage carousel. And we were among the first to reach the taxi stand. We waited there for perhaps 10 minutes before a vehicle pulled up.
We had tried to arrange a private transfer, only to be told that their vehicle was too large to reach our intended hotel – Fare Suisse. It was also going to cost 80 Euros or more, which seemed a bit ridiculous for a 10 minute drive.
The hotel had said there would be a complimentary shuttle available – but given our volume of luggage, we weren’t sure we were willing to chance it. If anyone else was there, it would have taken two trips – and that could’ve easily meant another 30 minute wait at the airport.
So we opted for a taxi instead. Given our volume of luggage, we weren’t sure if a single vehicle was going to work. It was a near thing, but we managed it by keeping bags atop of everyone’s laps. 10 minutes later – and a mere US$45, tip included – we arrived safely at Fare Suisse.
It took some doing to find reception – next to the kitchen – but it wasn’t long before they had us settled into our rooms – one ‘triple room’ and another ‘family room’. The two rooms were unfortunately far from one another, but they were clean and had showers and air conditioning. Given how tired we were, that was enough.
We had also wrestled with where to stay for our single night in Tahiti prior to heading on to Moorea. Most hotels wanted roughly $800 per room per night, with very little in the way of family accommodation.
Airbnbs / VRBOs were also reasonable, but it’s only really worth learning their particular peccadillos – how many times to caress the faucet to make it run, or the interpretive dance needed to turn down the air conditioning – if staying for more than one night.
Photo Credit: Fare-suisse.com
Photo Credit: Fare-suisse.com
Fare Suisse offered a good compromise – reasonable pricing and clean, though not particularly fancy.
Even in the dark – and now in the drizzling rain – I could feel the heat permeating my skin as I lug the bags to this room, and then the next.
Eventually all was unloaded. The family room was particularly nice:
But what I really wanted to see was this gorgeous shower:
I stepped inside and savoured the gloriously indescribable feeling of rinsing 10,000 km of travel from my body. It was then 9 pm Tahiti time – 3 am in Toronto – and so it was most definitely time for bed.
Perchance to dream of pristine coral reefs, and not of the travel day still to come.
Continue reading Surf to Sand – French Polynesia to the Atacama – Day 3.