memelaina | Flying with ESM

On this trip to Australia we decided that instead of paying for full-fare economy seats and upgrading to Business Class, we would take the much less expensive alternative of buying an extra seat between us in United's Economy Plus. Kent made me call the airlines and arrange for the seat, so I did it in my name and I get the extra miles. Thus did we begin our travels with our mysterious and amazingly slender companion - Extra Seat Morman.

The United check in agent at Denver did not require a passport for Extra Seat, and did manage, after about ten minutes of keyboarding, to get my Mileage Plus number entered onto Extra Seat's boarding passes. The flight to LAX went smoothly, but when we prepared to board the flight to Sydney, we found that Extra Seat's place had been given to someone else. Since we boarded first, and were unwilling to move, the airlines found a different seat for the gentleman.

Was it as good as Business Class? Not exactly. The food was truly lousy. Something called Beef Stroganoff for the evening meal, and something called Scrambled Eggs for breakfast - but neither were particularly edible. Sometime during the night while Kent and I were both sleeping, Extra Seat rang for the flight attendant and requested a ham and cheese sandwich. She didn't eat it though (keeping her girlish figure) and there it was on the middle tray table when we woke up.

As for space, I think we actually had more space than for two business class seats. We couldn't stretch out as far, but on the other hand, two of us in three seats was really more comfortable than the increasingly narrow business seats. All in all, a worthwhile and less expensive solution for two large people.

The lines in Sydney for customs and immigration were fairly long, but there weren't any issues or problems. At customs we were chosen to take the shorter "puppy" line where a beagle mix dog smelled our luggage and moved on. The people behind us in the line, however, had a bit of an issue when the puppy found them attempting to smuggle a ham and cheese sandwich (in a United wrapper) into the commonwealth of Australia.

Since Extra Seat Morman was a construct only of the United fligths to and from Oz, we left her regretfully behind to wait for us at the Sydney airport. The flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock was configured 2-aisle-2 and was full to the brim - including about three dozen middle schoolers and their teachers and chaperones. The flight was longer than I expected - three and a half hours - but not unpleasant, even though our seats were a bit tight for the two of us.

We flew above a solid cloud cover, no view of the ground from takeoff until we began the descent into Yulara. As we got below the clouds I was surprised to see not the flat sandy desert that I expected, but a rough, rolling, reddish land covered with green bushes and scrub trees. While by no means "lush" it looked much greener than the high desert we left behind in Colorado. At last, we saw Uluru (Ayers Rock) rising up on our left, with a larger and rougher set of rocks slightly beyond which we later found out were the Olgas (Kata Tjuta). Our luggage made it safely, and in a dripping, overcast mist we boarded the bus for our sojourn in the central desert.