MEL - PER return on Qantas (long!)
Mar 8, 2004, 10:34 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SYD and (sometimes) MEL
Programs: QP Silver; CX MPC Green; Virgin AusRed
Posts: 694
MEL - PER return on Qantas (long!)
Although I've been aware of FlyerTalk for quite a while now, I have never thought of signing up cause I thought I will need to fork out some money to have the privilege to post (like airliners.net). Having been sensually indulged by all those trip reports here, I decided to find out more about FT and see if I can sign up. Anyway, this is my very first trip report and although this trip has been completed, I will try to recall as much as I could remember to make it an enjoyable read.
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
It's the 13th of November 2003 – the date I can finally let my hair down now I have completed my last exam for the year. I was looking forward to the long (yet deserving) break from university. Since my family is not going back to Hong Kong to visit relatives and friends, we decided we will stay down under and head interstate in search for holiday. We decided to visit Perth since we have never been there and, from the word of mouth, it is a pretty interesting place, more on that later. We booked through our travel agent in September and I have been always looking forward to 20th November when we head across the continent for our holiday.
20 November 2003
Qantas Airways Flight QF 485 (CityFlyer service)
Melbourne Tullamarine, Australia (MEL) – Perth International, Australia (PER)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-201
Aircraft registration : VH-EBD “Traralgon”
STD/ATD: 08:25/08:36
STA/ATA: 09:20/09:35
Departure Gate No: 3
Pax: 225 Crew: 10
Sector Mileage: 1,483 nautical miles / 2,747 km
Sector Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Seat: 47E
My mobile phone's alarm woke me up at 6:00, and, since I have packed all my stuff the night before, I was able to read the paper, have breakfast and watch TV before we left at 6:30. The drive to the airport took about 45 minutes and we parked our car at the long-term carpark. After making sure we have all the documents (tickets, booking confirmation etc.), we waited for our mini-bus in the chilly weather that will take us to the Qantas Domestic terminal. The mini-bus actually drove around the parking lot to pick up any passengers and soon our bus filled to capacity and sped out of the carpark and zoom up the departure drive to drop off passengers at the Virgin Blue and International terminal before deposited us at the new Qantas terminal 15 minutes later.
Upon entering the terminal, I was shocked to see a huge line has been formed at the economy check in already with about 30 people. Well never mind, this just gives me more time to admire this fine building. Soon it was our turn to check in, dad presented our e-ticket and the check-in agent asked for out ids. This proved to be painless (so was security screening) and I inquired the availability of window seats for us. She tabbed on her computer and shook her head, but she can give the three if us a row of seats in the middle. She put me and my dad together at 47D&E and my mum at 47 G, since the system would not allow her to 'block' any seats, this allocation will lower the likelihood of someone being allocated to 47F and we can keep the row to ourselves. I thanked her and in reply she wished us a pleasant flight.
After security, we turned left into the 'old' part of the terminal while some (mostly businessman) briskly turned right and hurried to the gates where CityFlyer flights to Sydney and Brisbane usually depart. I headed to gate 3 first while I waited for my parents to use the bathrooms; I was greeted by the gleaming shine of VH-EBD despite some chipping of the paint in her nose. Boarding commenced at 8:05 sharp and I managed to grab myself one copy each of the local newspaper (both complimentary as part of the CityFlyer service) as I head towards the gate. The gate agent inserted my boarding pass into the machine and wished me a pleasant flight.
Upon entering EBD, I immediately fell in live with the A330; the décor is simple yet elegant (particularly the blue colored seats). Although Qantas managed to squeeze in 303 seats (38 J and 265 Y) into this aircraft, I don't feel too cramped at all in the middle seats and settled myself quickly. The door closed right on time at 08:25 and the captain came on through the PA system to welcome us aboard and inform us there will be a few minutes delay due to heavy traffic around the tarmac during this time of the morning. We pushed back at 08:36 (another ‘on-time’ departure even though we left 11 minutes late). During our taxi to runway 27, the B737’s we pasted was dwarfed by the size of the A330. Take off was swift and after we leveled out, the head purser announced the services for our flight today which will be a breakfast and a morning tea service.
The IFE system was turned on and we were treated with a morning edition of the news. About 45 minutes into the flight we were served breakfast, the choices for today are JustRight cereals with cold milk or an egg omelet (I am not totally sure of the other choice since no menus were given out). Both are presented with a prepackaged blueberry muffin and a tub of orange juice. Tea and coffee were served afterwards. Since I have switched to seat 47F already to give dad more room, I am absolutely surprised to be the first to be served in the economy cabin! I chose the cereal and it was just like the one I had this morning (abate a smaller portion presented in those little plastic cups they are in).
After the trays were cleared, I dozed off a bit and woke up about 30 minutes later to watch Freaky Friday. Morning tea was served about an hour out of Perth, it consists of a prepackaged muffin (blueberry again!) and a serving of Tea or coffee. Being a little hungry, I kindly accepted a cup of Tea along with the muffin. After that, the crew started to clean out the cabin in preparation of landing.
We approached from the airport from the east and after a few turns and twists along the way, we landed smoothly on runway 21 and taxied to the Qantas domestic terminal. We parked at gate 3 and people began to stand up and ready to disembark, however, we stood for about 5 minutes with no sign of people getting off. I peered out the window as discovered the plane was not connected to the aerobridge at all! Then the captain came on again to ask us to return to our seats to allow him to maneuver the aircraft into the correct parking position! The truck pushed the aircraft out a bit and the captain moved the aircraft slightly to the left so they can connect the aerobridge.
Soon we joined the mass congregation of people already surrounding the dedicated CityFlyer baggage carousel and waiting for their luggage to emerge. We collected our luggage and hire car soon afterwards and left the airport about an hour after we disembarked.
*** *** *** *** *** ***
After 9 fantastic days in Western Australia, it is time to catch our flight home. Before that, we have to drive form Albany (about 400 km south-east of Perth) to get on our plane. (As we drove Albany airport, I made the suggestion to dad to drop of the car there and fly back to Perth
. We left Albany at 4:30 pm and arrived at the airport at 9:50 after a quick trip to Maccas and top up the fuel of our hire car.
28 November 2003
Qantas Airways Flight QF 648 (CityFlyer service)
Perth International, Australia (PER) – Melbourne Tullamarine, Australia (MEL)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-201
Aircraft registration: VH-EBB “Albany”
STD/ATD: 22:50/22:50
STA/ATA: 05:15(+1)/05:17(+1)
Departure Gate: 3
Pax: 250 Crew: 12
Sector Mileage: 1,467 nautical miles / 2,717 km
Sector Time: 3 hours 11 minutes
Seat: 44A (window seat)
After dropping off our hire car, we made our way to check-in. There was not a lot of people in the queue, but I heard a little boy crying somewhere in the queue and wished he will not be flying to Melbourne (please, please to Sydney). Turned out I don’t need to worry as they are indeed flying to Sydney. We were greeted by a friendly check-in agent and again she asked us to show our identification before she could issue a boarding pass. As usual, I asked her about the loading of this flight. I’ve heard (from various sources) that this red-eye special is usually empty because of the timing of the flight. She said the flight is pretty full (about 220 seat in Y has been taken and there is only 1 row of 3 seats left in the middle if we wanted to seat together. I enquired again if there are any windows seats and she managed to find one single seat left on her computer. Although this means we have to seat together, I didn’t mind because I always enjoyed seating near the window. She then printed our boarding pass and wished us an enjoyable flight.
Security was a breeze again, but dad has to take off his belt, glasses and shoes to get through. After finding our gate, I proceed to the newsagent and read Australian Aviation before boarding commenced at 22:30. Before I board, I tried to make out the registration of the aircraft, but it was parked too far out for me to see with my naked eye. I have also noticed an entire family (I assume) assembled at the gate next to us waiting for the arrival of QF 499 from Melbourne. I handed my boarding pass to the agent and she wished me a pleasant flight. I spotted the rego of the aircraft through the windows in the aerobridge.
After seeing my parents off at their seats (Row 37 or something), I headed towards the rear of the plane looking for my seat. Row 40…41…42…43, ah! Found it and wow, I have got an exit row window seat! : D In front of me is a vast amount of space and a crew seat. Wow! I can get some sleep! As the flight attendant on my side put it “You’ve got to have the best seats in economy and probably have more room than business class!” Ah, for the price of an economy, I can enjoy the seat pitch of business. Wonderful! All in all, the cabin filled up quickly. We pushed back on time and the captain came on over the PA to welcome us aboard and gave some flight info. We taxied past many aircrafts that will stay in Perth overnight (except for VH-EBA “Cradle Mountain” to Sydney and another B737-800 to Brisbane) and took off right away on runway 21.
The crew quickly swung into action as soon as I heard the 10,000 ft altimeter ping. Menus and amenity kits were passed out by the friendly cabin crew. Here is the menu transcript:
Menu:
Green Leaf Salad with red Wine Vinaigrette
Choice of:
Chicken Coq au Vin with Beans
Or
Penne Bolognaise
Chocolate Biscuit
Coffee Tea
About an hour after we depart, supper was served. I chose the chicken which looked and tasted quite well. After the trays were cleared, the lights were dimmed, and the movie – Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was shown to those of us who are still awake. It was pretty average and I dozed off during the movie.
When I woke up about an hour later, I discovered my flight log was placed in the pocket on the side wall after the crew decided not to wake me up to return it. How thoughtful were they. Since most of the passengers are still sleeping, I decided to pay a visit to the bathroom and galley. I chatted with the crew for a bit and they offered me an orange juice without me asking! Eventually, the cabin turned on the lights about half an hour before we were due to land and the crew went around offering everyone orange juice. At this point I spotted a glow of orange lights and found out we are just flying south of Ballarat.
The seatbelt sign went on again, and I had packed my copy of the in-flight magazine and my log book into my backpack and stored it in the overhead bins. I sat and stare out of the window, admiring the growing lights as we fly through the western suburbs before turning left for our final approach to land due north. We toughed a tad earlier than scheduled and briskly taxied to gate 3, the exact gate that I board my flight 9 days ago (perhaps this is a dedicated gate for the A330?). I thanked the crew and disembarked into the ghostly terminal. I met up with my parents at the gate lounge. Surprising, they didn’t sleep at all and do feel quite awake (note it IS 02:15 am local time when we arrived).
Since the next arrival is not due until 6:00 from Darwin (another overnight trans-continental run), our luggage appeared quickly. We collected our luggage and hop on those orange mini-bus that will take us to our car. We left the airport at 6:00 and after a quick 35 minute drive, I arrived home, exhausted and crashed on my bed and slept like a baby for another 5 hours.
*** *** *** ***
If you have read this far and are not bored to death yet, thank you! I hope you enjoyed this trip report as much as me writing this whole thing up.
Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcome!
Regards,
Ricky
(Edited 9/3/2004 16:34 AEST)
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
It's the 13th of November 2003 – the date I can finally let my hair down now I have completed my last exam for the year. I was looking forward to the long (yet deserving) break from university. Since my family is not going back to Hong Kong to visit relatives and friends, we decided we will stay down under and head interstate in search for holiday. We decided to visit Perth since we have never been there and, from the word of mouth, it is a pretty interesting place, more on that later. We booked through our travel agent in September and I have been always looking forward to 20th November when we head across the continent for our holiday.
20 November 2003
Qantas Airways Flight QF 485 (CityFlyer service)
Melbourne Tullamarine, Australia (MEL) – Perth International, Australia (PER)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-201
Aircraft registration : VH-EBD “Traralgon”
STD/ATD: 08:25/08:36
STA/ATA: 09:20/09:35
Departure Gate No: 3
Pax: 225 Crew: 10
Sector Mileage: 1,483 nautical miles / 2,747 km
Sector Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Seat: 47E
My mobile phone's alarm woke me up at 6:00, and, since I have packed all my stuff the night before, I was able to read the paper, have breakfast and watch TV before we left at 6:30. The drive to the airport took about 45 minutes and we parked our car at the long-term carpark. After making sure we have all the documents (tickets, booking confirmation etc.), we waited for our mini-bus in the chilly weather that will take us to the Qantas Domestic terminal. The mini-bus actually drove around the parking lot to pick up any passengers and soon our bus filled to capacity and sped out of the carpark and zoom up the departure drive to drop off passengers at the Virgin Blue and International terminal before deposited us at the new Qantas terminal 15 minutes later.
Upon entering the terminal, I was shocked to see a huge line has been formed at the economy check in already with about 30 people. Well never mind, this just gives me more time to admire this fine building. Soon it was our turn to check in, dad presented our e-ticket and the check-in agent asked for out ids. This proved to be painless (so was security screening) and I inquired the availability of window seats for us. She tabbed on her computer and shook her head, but she can give the three if us a row of seats in the middle. She put me and my dad together at 47D&E and my mum at 47 G, since the system would not allow her to 'block' any seats, this allocation will lower the likelihood of someone being allocated to 47F and we can keep the row to ourselves. I thanked her and in reply she wished us a pleasant flight.
After security, we turned left into the 'old' part of the terminal while some (mostly businessman) briskly turned right and hurried to the gates where CityFlyer flights to Sydney and Brisbane usually depart. I headed to gate 3 first while I waited for my parents to use the bathrooms; I was greeted by the gleaming shine of VH-EBD despite some chipping of the paint in her nose. Boarding commenced at 8:05 sharp and I managed to grab myself one copy each of the local newspaper (both complimentary as part of the CityFlyer service) as I head towards the gate. The gate agent inserted my boarding pass into the machine and wished me a pleasant flight.
Upon entering EBD, I immediately fell in live with the A330; the décor is simple yet elegant (particularly the blue colored seats). Although Qantas managed to squeeze in 303 seats (38 J and 265 Y) into this aircraft, I don't feel too cramped at all in the middle seats and settled myself quickly. The door closed right on time at 08:25 and the captain came on through the PA system to welcome us aboard and inform us there will be a few minutes delay due to heavy traffic around the tarmac during this time of the morning. We pushed back at 08:36 (another ‘on-time’ departure even though we left 11 minutes late). During our taxi to runway 27, the B737’s we pasted was dwarfed by the size of the A330. Take off was swift and after we leveled out, the head purser announced the services for our flight today which will be a breakfast and a morning tea service.
The IFE system was turned on and we were treated with a morning edition of the news. About 45 minutes into the flight we were served breakfast, the choices for today are JustRight cereals with cold milk or an egg omelet (I am not totally sure of the other choice since no menus were given out). Both are presented with a prepackaged blueberry muffin and a tub of orange juice. Tea and coffee were served afterwards. Since I have switched to seat 47F already to give dad more room, I am absolutely surprised to be the first to be served in the economy cabin! I chose the cereal and it was just like the one I had this morning (abate a smaller portion presented in those little plastic cups they are in).
After the trays were cleared, I dozed off a bit and woke up about 30 minutes later to watch Freaky Friday. Morning tea was served about an hour out of Perth, it consists of a prepackaged muffin (blueberry again!) and a serving of Tea or coffee. Being a little hungry, I kindly accepted a cup of Tea along with the muffin. After that, the crew started to clean out the cabin in preparation of landing.
We approached from the airport from the east and after a few turns and twists along the way, we landed smoothly on runway 21 and taxied to the Qantas domestic terminal. We parked at gate 3 and people began to stand up and ready to disembark, however, we stood for about 5 minutes with no sign of people getting off. I peered out the window as discovered the plane was not connected to the aerobridge at all! Then the captain came on again to ask us to return to our seats to allow him to maneuver the aircraft into the correct parking position! The truck pushed the aircraft out a bit and the captain moved the aircraft slightly to the left so they can connect the aerobridge.
Soon we joined the mass congregation of people already surrounding the dedicated CityFlyer baggage carousel and waiting for their luggage to emerge. We collected our luggage and hire car soon afterwards and left the airport about an hour after we disembarked.
*** *** *** *** *** ***
After 9 fantastic days in Western Australia, it is time to catch our flight home. Before that, we have to drive form Albany (about 400 km south-east of Perth) to get on our plane. (As we drove Albany airport, I made the suggestion to dad to drop of the car there and fly back to Perth
. We left Albany at 4:30 pm and arrived at the airport at 9:50 after a quick trip to Maccas and top up the fuel of our hire car.28 November 2003
Qantas Airways Flight QF 648 (CityFlyer service)
Perth International, Australia (PER) – Melbourne Tullamarine, Australia (MEL)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-201
Aircraft registration: VH-EBB “Albany”
STD/ATD: 22:50/22:50
STA/ATA: 05:15(+1)/05:17(+1)
Departure Gate: 3
Pax: 250 Crew: 12
Sector Mileage: 1,467 nautical miles / 2,717 km
Sector Time: 3 hours 11 minutes
Seat: 44A (window seat)
After dropping off our hire car, we made our way to check-in. There was not a lot of people in the queue, but I heard a little boy crying somewhere in the queue and wished he will not be flying to Melbourne (please, please to Sydney). Turned out I don’t need to worry as they are indeed flying to Sydney. We were greeted by a friendly check-in agent and again she asked us to show our identification before she could issue a boarding pass. As usual, I asked her about the loading of this flight. I’ve heard (from various sources) that this red-eye special is usually empty because of the timing of the flight. She said the flight is pretty full (about 220 seat in Y has been taken and there is only 1 row of 3 seats left in the middle if we wanted to seat together. I enquired again if there are any windows seats and she managed to find one single seat left on her computer. Although this means we have to seat together, I didn’t mind because I always enjoyed seating near the window. She then printed our boarding pass and wished us an enjoyable flight.
Security was a breeze again, but dad has to take off his belt, glasses and shoes to get through. After finding our gate, I proceed to the newsagent and read Australian Aviation before boarding commenced at 22:30. Before I board, I tried to make out the registration of the aircraft, but it was parked too far out for me to see with my naked eye. I have also noticed an entire family (I assume) assembled at the gate next to us waiting for the arrival of QF 499 from Melbourne. I handed my boarding pass to the agent and she wished me a pleasant flight. I spotted the rego of the aircraft through the windows in the aerobridge.
After seeing my parents off at their seats (Row 37 or something), I headed towards the rear of the plane looking for my seat. Row 40…41…42…43, ah! Found it and wow, I have got an exit row window seat! : D In front of me is a vast amount of space and a crew seat. Wow! I can get some sleep! As the flight attendant on my side put it “You’ve got to have the best seats in economy and probably have more room than business class!” Ah, for the price of an economy, I can enjoy the seat pitch of business. Wonderful! All in all, the cabin filled up quickly. We pushed back on time and the captain came on over the PA to welcome us aboard and gave some flight info. We taxied past many aircrafts that will stay in Perth overnight (except for VH-EBA “Cradle Mountain” to Sydney and another B737-800 to Brisbane) and took off right away on runway 21.
The crew quickly swung into action as soon as I heard the 10,000 ft altimeter ping. Menus and amenity kits were passed out by the friendly cabin crew. Here is the menu transcript:
Menu:
Green Leaf Salad with red Wine Vinaigrette
Choice of:
Chicken Coq au Vin with Beans
Or
Penne Bolognaise
Chocolate Biscuit
Coffee Tea
About an hour after we depart, supper was served. I chose the chicken which looked and tasted quite well. After the trays were cleared, the lights were dimmed, and the movie – Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was shown to those of us who are still awake. It was pretty average and I dozed off during the movie.
When I woke up about an hour later, I discovered my flight log was placed in the pocket on the side wall after the crew decided not to wake me up to return it. How thoughtful were they. Since most of the passengers are still sleeping, I decided to pay a visit to the bathroom and galley. I chatted with the crew for a bit and they offered me an orange juice without me asking! Eventually, the cabin turned on the lights about half an hour before we were due to land and the crew went around offering everyone orange juice. At this point I spotted a glow of orange lights and found out we are just flying south of Ballarat.
The seatbelt sign went on again, and I had packed my copy of the in-flight magazine and my log book into my backpack and stored it in the overhead bins. I sat and stare out of the window, admiring the growing lights as we fly through the western suburbs before turning left for our final approach to land due north. We toughed a tad earlier than scheduled and briskly taxied to gate 3, the exact gate that I board my flight 9 days ago (perhaps this is a dedicated gate for the A330?). I thanked the crew and disembarked into the ghostly terminal. I met up with my parents at the gate lounge. Surprising, they didn’t sleep at all and do feel quite awake (note it IS 02:15 am local time when we arrived).
Since the next arrival is not due until 6:00 from Darwin (another overnight trans-continental run), our luggage appeared quickly. We collected our luggage and hop on those orange mini-bus that will take us to our car. We left the airport at 6:00 and after a quick 35 minute drive, I arrived home, exhausted and crashed on my bed and slept like a baby for another 5 hours.
*** *** *** ***
If you have read this far and are not bored to death yet, thank you! I hope you enjoyed this trip report as much as me writing this whole thing up.
Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcome!
Regards,
Ricky
(Edited 9/3/2004 16:34 AEST)
Mar 10, 2004, 5:25 am
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Brisbane (BNE), Australia, QF/VA Forums Meeting Organiser
Programs: VA Plat, QF Gold (97.4% LTG), QP Life, AA (66% LTG). HH Diamond. Amex Plat, Visa Plat
Posts: 6,519
RickyT, for your first topic and post, you chose one of the most scruitinised forums - Trip Reports...brave!!
Excellent detail on the flights and your personal thoughts. Note that there isn't an option in Y with breakfast, everybody is served the same (unless you have a special meal ordered). Menus haven't been printed for a while in QF Domestic...so don't look too far.
Look forward to more trip reports - don't forget to drop by our friendly QF Forum either.
Excellent detail on the flights and your personal thoughts. Note that there isn't an option in Y with breakfast, everybody is served the same (unless you have a special meal ordered). Menus haven't been printed for a while in QF Domestic...so don't look too far.
Look forward to more trip reports - don't forget to drop by our friendly QF Forum either.
Mar 10, 2004, 2:11 pm
#4
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 154
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by QF WP:
RickyT, for your first topic and post, you chose one of the most scruitinised forums - Trip Reports...brave!!
Excellent detail on the flights and your personal thoughts. Note that there isn't an option in Y with breakfast, everybody is served the same (unless you have a special meal ordered). Menus haven't been printed for a while in QF Domestic...so don't look too far.
Look forward to more trip reports - don't forget to drop by our friendly QF Forum either.</font>
RickyT, for your first topic and post, you chose one of the most scruitinised forums - Trip Reports...brave!!
Excellent detail on the flights and your personal thoughts. Note that there isn't an option in Y with breakfast, everybody is served the same (unless you have a special meal ordered). Menus haven't been printed for a while in QF Domestic...so don't look too far.
Look forward to more trip reports - don't forget to drop by our friendly QF Forum either.</font>
Not entirely true. On MEL-PER and SYD-PER services, menu's have been in operation for the last few months - and everytime I've flown these routes, I've always had a choice of meals.
http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying...omesticEconomy
See the bottom of this webpage for more details.
Mar 11, 2004, 12:32 am
#5
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Brisbane (BNE), Australia, QF/VA Forums Meeting Organiser
Programs: VA Plat, QF Gold (97.4% LTG), QP Life, AA (66% LTG). HH Diamond. Amex Plat, Visa Plat
Posts: 6,519
I stand corrected then (I haven't done PER sectors for 4-6 months)...excellent, I'd better get off my chuff and get on a flight to experience the better service...
Mar 12, 2004, 10:52 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SYD and (sometimes) MEL
Programs: QP Silver; CX MPC Green; Virgin AusRed
Posts: 694
Thanks for all your comments guys!
QF WP, I didn’t have a special breakfast ordered
I am not allergic to eggs . As far as menus go, I recall picking a dinner menu form my seat pocket on the MEL – PER leg. I guess it is somewhat unnecessary to print menus for breakfast.
As far as service goes, I found it to be quite exceptional for both legs, it certainly compares well with what Qantas offers on their international flights.
QF WP, I didn’t have a special breakfast ordered
I am not allergic to eggs . As far as menus go, I recall picking a dinner menu form my seat pocket on the MEL – PER leg. I guess it is somewhat unnecessary to print menus for breakfast.As far as service goes, I found it to be quite exceptional for both legs, it certainly compares well with what Qantas offers on their international flights.