Brisbane-San Francisco inaugural flight

Mid October last year we discussed over dinner one night how nice it would be to be on the up and coming Brisbane to San Francisco inaugural flight in February... then two weeks later our dream became a reality. My wife, two daughters and I have been counting down the days ever since and I am really excited to say that day has come.

Qantas have a special 787-9 VH-ZNJ painted up in a special livery celebrating their 100 yrs and apart from waiting four months to see this aircraft I was hoping Qantas would put this on the inaugural flight tonight since it was in Brisbane.

but unfortunately it wasn't to be. We ended up getting VH-ZNI

QF59 was due to leave at 8.30pm so we arrived at the airport around 5pm.
Apron arrival at check in we received a commemorative T-Shirt, there was also a cake, special biscuits and a hotdog and popcorn stand. After the speeches from delegates we headed downstairs to the departure lounge.

Clearing customs and security we wondered around the international airport for a while.
We boarded our flight through gate 86 at 7.50pm.

My wife and I were in 50 H and K and my daughters were in 51 H and K. The cabin door was closed at 8.41pm and we pushed back at 8.44. We taxied out at 8.50 and we lined up on 01R. We departed at 8.56pm and climbed to 410. Out track took us out over Port Vila over the top of Honolulu and into San Francisco. We began our descent at 8.48 Brisbane time (2.48 San Francisco time).

We landed on 28R at 3.22pm San Francisco time and taxied to the gate. The whole flight took took 12 hours 26 minutes.