This week we travelled on the inaugural Qantas flight 7 from Sydney, Australia to Dallas, Texas.
The flight time was about 15.5 hours.
Luckily we managed to get an upgrade to business class using frequent flyer points so the trip was not too bad.
There were some TV crews on-board to record the event and they just happened to interview the flight Captain right alongside Candace’s seat. After interviewing the Captain (About 2 hours into the flight), they then filmed the Captain walking up the aisle and stopping and welcoming Candace on the flight.
Next, the camera crew (Rob Penfold) interviewed Candace about how she felt about the new non-stop service to Texas. Being a Texan, she was naturally very positive that it was a good thing and that we could now by-pass the congested Los Angeles airport.
The interviews were shown live on Aussie national channel 9 on Tuesday evening and friends said she did great.
Upon landing at Dallas, (yes, the 747 made it) as we were taxiing to the gate, we were sprayed with water cannon by the fire service there as a welcoming gesture. Lots of photographers and waves all round.
Then, as we de-boarded and entered the terminal, there was another welcoming party headed up by none other than John Travolta. We both shook hands with him as we passed by. He was dressed in his usual Qantas Captains outfit. He bought one of the original Qantas Boeing 707s and still flies it himself.
All in all, a fun trip with lots of surprisingly good on-board food and drink!
In a few months we will be on a return flight, Dallas to Brisbane, Australia and this reportedly takes about 17 hours due to the prevailing westerly headwinds.
John