I’m currently sitting in the Star Alliance lounge in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. I’ve found that this is one of the nicest international terminals I’ve seen, blowing away pretty much everything except Terminal 4 at JFK. After making my domestic connection through Charlotte, we landed in the smoggy city. I was told that I was departing from the international terminal and thus would have to take the bus, so I wandered outside, caught the bus and was ushered into the terminal. Absolutely beautiful. After some questioning, I found the Singapore Airlines check in, and realized that my flight was actually stopping in Japan. I thought I was flying on the all-business product, but apparently that leaves at 8PM tonight. So I am on the upper-deck of a 747 bound for Tokyo.
The lounge experience here at LAX has been unparalleled. Since I had a business class ticket, there was no wait to check in, so I headed up and right through security. Now, a giant beautiful lounge with free alcohol access? Yes please.
The food was pretty good, they had a selection of both american style lunch foods and asian style lunch foods, since our destination was the far east. The lounge was also being used by other star alliance flights, and as such, I was seated next to some folks headed to Germany via Lufthansa, and there was an ANA flight also departing for Tokyo.
After boarding, the Singapore Airlines experience was fabulous. I was seated on the upper deck in an exit row, and I was immediately offered a pre-departure beverage. In the interests of taking my experience as far as possible, I ordered a Singapore Sling. The post-departure beverage was champagne, and this kept flowing until I decided (somewhere around Vancouver [USA! USA!]) that it was sleepy time. A few movies and a few hours sleep later, I landed at Narita, marking my first experience in Japan, and becoming the 3rd generation of men in my family to visit Tokyo. (Story to come later)
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