Off to Dubai

Off to Dubai

One of my travel buddies, Flyertalker batmands, and I do an annual 72 hour RTW First Class trip.  Last year's trip revolved around dinner at Gaggan in Bangkok and included ANA First, Singapore New A380 Suites, Thai First and Air France La Première.  This year, we had planned and ticketed Emirates A380 First Class from Houston to Dubai to Melbourne with lunch in Melbourne, dinner in Sydney, JAL First Class to Toyko, 24 hours in Tokyo and finally ANA First to SFO.  As COVID took hold and shut down travel in much of the world, we first eliminated Australia and finally Singapore and Japan.  When the dust settled, Dubai was the only one standing and welcoming tourists.  As EK dropped US cities, we changed our EK booking to JFK-DXB as we figured that it would be the one route unlikely to be cancelled.  Earlier this year, we booked two easy to find A380 First Class award seats on November JFK-DXB A380 flights that were temporarily operating with a New First Suites 77W.  We eventually won our gamble that the 77W substitution would continue and lucked into 27 hours in new First Suites when Emirates swapped their daily double A380 to a single daily New Suites 77W.  

So early Sunday morning, I headed up the 405 from OC to LAX.  And only 45 minutes today what little traffic there way flowed at a consistent 85 MPH all the way.  I've never seen the Sepuveda exit off the 105 this empty.

7am Thanksgiving Sunday at LAX is very quiet.

Navigating my way thru construction to T5 parking.

I was one of only two passengers at T4 PreCheck.

I had planned on visiting both the Admirals Club and the new Centurion Lounge.

The AC was reasonably crowded.

Full bar service but limited food options.

After a few minutes and some pics, I headed over to the Bradley Temrinal to check out the new Amex Centurion Lounge... or so I thought.  On the way, right by my Gate 41.

I was warmly greeted by five Centurion Lounge staffers, who sadly informed me that Lounge was closed due to the same LA County edict that shut down Catalina restaurants.  Apparently AA didn't get that memo or chose to ignore the edict.  I was permitted to use the lav and then took a few pics along the way.

And was given a take-away food box. 

Not bad for a picnic box.  Mabe someday I'll get to experrience the real thing.