Pink Flight to Sydney's Mardi Gras

After a successful "pink flight" from Auckland to Sydney last year, Air New Zealand experimented with the same concept from San Francisco to Sydney this year. Kathy Griffin was the special hostess on the flight.

"This flight is fantastic," she told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview close to the end of the flight. "It is truly historical and hysterical. It's a 'Pink Flight.' It's the gays. It's the drag queens. And my favorite is that there are a couple of straight people who just aren't supposed to be here. And they are kind of my favorite ones to watch. I think there are about four people who are just flying to Sydney and didn't realize it was the Pink Flight. They're all being very kind."

The average passenger paid $1,200 for the roundtrip flight.

Passengers more than got their money's worth from the flight. It began with a party at the gate at San Francisco International Airport's international terminal. The gate was cordoned off to ticketed passengers and invited guests. The party included free food and drink as well as entertainment from drag queens. The flight crew itself sang and danced in a performance number at the gate. The nose of the jet was positioned in front of the gate decorated with a giant pink boa and pink feathers fashioned as eyelashes on either side of the cockpit.

Even the check-in section outside the gate was decorated in pink with airline employees dressed in pink and wearing pink balloons fashioned as hats. One employee was making pink balloon hats for whoever wanted to stop by and get one. People who were checking in on other airlines stopped by to take in the impromptu show.

The airline created a weblog for the flight.

Here's a report from Ed Walsh about how he spent his time at Sydney's Mardi Gras. He is, BTW, the one who runs the weblog for the flight.