Melbourne and the Australian Open

The Emirates Lounge at JFK

We arrived at jFK just before 7am which meant that the Emirates counters were not open yet.  Another ten minutes later at 3.5 hours before departure, open for business.

With plenty of time, I thought that I'd do some lounge hopping.  The Amex Centurion Lounge isn't that great...

 ... so I headed for the Chase Sapphire Lounge.

But not about to waitlist.

So The Emirates Lounge it is.

... where I was the first customer of the day.

This morning's A380 with Wimbledon livery arriving at the gate.

Emirates First Class Lounge Dubai A Concourse

Lucky today to both arrive and depart from the A gates, home of my favorites Emirates First Class Lounge.

Time for breakfast lunch a meal in the Fine Dining Room.

Always fun to check out the wine fridges...

Enjoying a wonderful Corton-Charlemagne

When I get this alert from Garuda.  Say what??   My CGK-MEL is delayed 18 HOURS!!!! 

OK, time to search for an alternative way to get to MEL by Sunday night.

Step 1 in the search is more wine.  LOL

Now we're talking.  Perfectly medium rare fillet with béarnaise.

Off to my gate.  This would have been nice but would have cost $10,000+ more on a multi-city.   No thanks.

My gate for Jakarta,

And direct boarding, sort of.

My unexpected 6 hours in Jakarta

What should have been an easy and perfect 3 hour connection turned into a complete mess thanks to Garuda delaying their CGK-MEL nonstop by a mere 18 hours!   "Sorry for the inconvenience"  LOL.   I had already done research for backup options but absolutely everything from SE Asia to Melbourne was sold out.  

And then there is dysfunctional Garuda.  After I cleared immigration, I headed upstairs to the Garuda counters for find out exactly what the problem was. I was directed to the far end of the departures check-in to Garuda "customer service".  Found out that the issue was our inbound A339 was still in... Melbourne.  Apparently, they only have one A339 and it's not departing Melbourne... until the next morning.  Maybe.

Since the departure monitors showed a CGK-SYD Garuda flight departing in 75 minutes, I asked to be moved to that flight.  LOL.  Agent pulled up my booking and said "oh, you're on a free award ticket for Air France. You'll have to call them".  After I refused and pointed out that it was their plane, their delay and their responsibility to get me to Australia.  Tap-tap-tap.  "There are no awards seats left on that flight so I can't move you."  During the 15 minutes he disappeard to find a supervisor, I checked Google flights and EF on more time.  And amazingly, a single Business Class seat had gopened on Malaysia's 9:40am A339neo from Kuala Lumpur for "only" $1,700.  Even more amazing was that Malaysia had a 4:25am Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur connecting flight.  Book it Danno!

At the same time, I declined Garuda's offer of a hotel room at an unnamed hotel and just booked a room for free... using Amex FHR program.  Using my semi-annual $300 Platinum hotel credit.

Yes, 5 star hotels in Jakarta are amazingly inexpensive.

Booked a Grab Premium and I was on the road.

Rain in Jakarta??  LOL.  When does it not rain?

First time at the Mandarin Oriental and it was very nice.

Lovely suite...

Tossed my bags and headed downstairs to the bar for a much needed drink, or two.  Compliments of Amex and my $100 food and beverage credit.  So they are paying me to stay here tonight.  LOL

At these prices (USD$12), I need 8 drinks before I hit my $100 F&B credit allowance.  Sadly, the MO bar closed at midnight.

Meanwhile, credit for my EK flights posted and my status updated to Gold.  Only 2 more roundtrips for Platinum.

Back up to my room for a much needed shower and power nap, before heading back ot the airport.

Malaysia First Class Lounge and A339neo to Melbourne

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia's Golden Lounge with Business Lounge and First Class Lounge from the days when MH had a First Class cabin.  As hard as ever to get to.

I was able to access the First Class Lounge with my newly minted Royal Air Maroc One World Emerald Platinum status, thanks to a status much of my Flying Blue Platinum.

First Class Dining Room.

And the main lounge area.

With a pathetic selection of serve yourself "stuff".

Relaxing while on hold with the Flying Blue Platinum line for nearly 90 minutes, trying to cancel my CGK-MEL ticket and get my miles redeposited.

My A339neo which just arrived from AKL.

Off to my gate with an ominous line or all lines for security.

Ugh.

Turns out there are two flights departing from the same gate area, Muscat Air to Muscat and my MH flight to Melbourne.

What a mess.  Apparently someone here saw Changi and thought "we can be just like Singapore".  LOL.

Finally got thru to Flying Blue but waited off to the side to complete the cancellation and refund.

Kuala Lumpur KUL to Melbourne MEL

Very nice Business Class cabin.

And my seat 2K.

We're next.

Complimentary WiFi which worked less than 1/2 the flight. 

Today's menu...

Delicious Malaysian Nasi Lemak.

Lie flat with closed door, and I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.

WiFi finally working.  And we get to find out the matches for tomorrow night...

A couple of hours before landing, wonderful Satay snack.

Fabulous.

Almost there mercifully.  And only 54 hours after I left home.  Yikes.

Gorgeous summer sunset on approach to Melbourne.