I know it is a bit early to be starting on this report, but I am very excited about this trip. Lots of different aircraft types, mostly Boeings with some Airbuses too including big beasty (TM by MAN Flyer), a mixture of cabins and airlines. Great company. Oooh I can't wait!
This is another reason for posting early. You can join me (and many other FTers) at the *A / Airbus Mega Do (November 3 to 6). But you need to hurry, the ticketing deadline is next week. Here is a sample of the Mega Do itinerary (my report will also include a world of flying to & from the Do).
USA portion
First event at Chicago O'Hare hosted by United
Party flight to Newark
Second event at Newark hosted by Continental - welcome to *A
Party transfer to JFK
Party flight to Frankfurt
European portion
Champagne breakfast at Frankfurt hosted by Lufthansa
Charter flight to Oslo
Champagne breakfast at Oslo hosted by SAS
Charter flight to Toulouse
Private Airbus factory tour
Charter flight to Frankfurt
Charter flights include being waited on hand & foot by Randy and a team of moderators (hopefully not in the uniforms which some airlines have )
Dinner at Frankfurt
Slumber party near Frankfurt (at Lufthansa's training centre)
Full day event at Frankfurt hosted by Lufthansa
15,000 miles (incl EQM) on the charter, on selected FFPs only
When the Do was confirmed I immediately said yes please and set to working out how I'd get to USA or Europe for it. Unfortunately it was quickly obvious that my crazy schedule prevents me from taking part in the USA and trans-atlantic component. It also means getting to & from Europe I need to take fairly quick routings with little flexibility. So I decided I should travel in first or business class and set to find award seats.
Travelling as much as I do I have a good idea of the schedules between NZ and Europe and realised I would need to fly via Asia rather than via North America. This is because I cannot get out of a meeting early enough to make the evening flights to USA or Canada. So I used the ANA award booking tool to find flights that worked on Star Alliance. The ANA tool only searches for nonstop or connecting flights with a single transfer, so I had to plug in various intermediate points to check out all the options. I also used the Qantas award booking tool to find flights that worked on One World.
Within the constraints I had there was only one obvious routing with availability, and yes it is available in first class both ways. Even better I was fairly sure I'd get Singapore A380 (a class beyond first) suites, which are normally unavailable for awards. I ticketed it straight away and was perhaps the first person to ticket their flights to & from the do, just 32 minutes after the Do was posted Yes I was very keen to go and no way was I going to miss out by letting a great award booking slip through my fingers.
It was only some months later when the Do charter flight was confirmed as being on Condor 757 that I realised I almost had a Boeing straight, with flights on 747, 757, 767 and 777 aircraft in the 2 days of flying en route to the Airbus factory (without any stopovers). I found a way to add a 737 flight into the itinerary to complete the straight.
I fly so much that I shouldn't be surprised any more when very unusual events (eg the first ever attempted hijacking in New Zealand) occur while I am travelling. Another rare event took place during a little trip I have just taken.
AUCKLAND to WELLINGTON (AKL-WLG) on Air New Zealand 737-300 in economy class (space+ seating zone)
Arriving at the airport I headed straight for security and the lounge. Normally I'd take a moment to visit the check in kiosks to see if I could improve my seat, but being near the end of school holidays I expected the flight would be totally full and so no point in even checking. I had already selected an aisle space+ seat (for the extra legroom, available free to elite status passengers as well as those on full fares) months ago at the time of booking when I checked in.
Security was busy and slower moving than normal due to the number of infrequent passengers. What do you mean I have to take my cellphone out of my pocket? And my wallet? And the laptop has to come out too?
Eventually I was through and up the escalator to the lounge. E-pass on the back of my phone against the scanner for admission and straight to an empty desk. I had enough time to catch up on some messages and grab a juice before the flight was called. I waited until the second call but I should have waited for the third call as there was still a long queue at the gate when I reached it.
The flight was full but no problem finding space for my carry-on & duty free goodies. We pushed back just a few minutes late, close enough to count as on-time for the stats. Another sign of infrequent flyers came with the giggles during the "nothing to hide" safety video.
By the time we took off I was asleep. It had been a very busy week and I really needed the 40 minutes sleep onboard, waking with the announcements prior to landing in Wellington. It was very windy with a howling southerly. We flew through cloud until over Newlands with first glimpse of land the hilltops not far below on the edge of the harbour.
We pulled into gate 10 which seems to be used very often on the Auckland flights, at least on my ones lately.
WELLINGTON to NELSON (WLG-NSN) on Air New Zealand Dash 8-3 Q300 in economy class
Despite the short transfer time of 35 minutes I had more than enough time to visit the lounge in between flights, and grab a glass of water. Boarding was called soon enough, and instead of the normal gate at the end of the main pier we got the furthest stand at the end of the prop pier. Given the distance I decided against dallying in the lounge and headed out on the second call. It has been a while since I've used this pier in winter, and so I'd forgotten it is unheated. Today was a bitterly cold day and I didn't get far down the pier before you could see my breath.
A group of half a dozen significantly above average age passengers were doddering down the pier blocking the entire passage with all the time in the world until their flight. In spite of this, when I reached the end of the pier we weren't boarding because a couple of aircraft were taxiing in between the pier and our stand.
The passenger in front of me at the door got a red light on the scanner to prompt the agent to check if he was okay being in emergency exit. It took him a while to understand what she was saying and so a nice gap opened up from the passengers who'd gone through before. I was glad of this as it means I could rush across the tarmac and spend as little time as possible in the bracing air. While I was waiting I saw out the window waves crashing over the rocks at the end of the runway spending spray high into the air. A small aircraft, a Beech 1900D, climbed steeply into the winds, its forward speed seemingly almost zero but of course it wasn't.
As I quickly settled into my seat the flight attendant commented on the nice bubbles I was stowing away. I then watched the remainder of the passengers struggle across the tarmac into the wind, with hats, newspapers and umbrellas flying everywhere.
The aircraft was rocking on the tarmac violently enough that I began to wonder if we'd be able to go or perhaps we'd be ordered off into the safety of the terminal. Slightly late we were finally all on board and the door was quickly closed by the FA.
The flight wasn't quite full with just the first row and the seat beside me empty. We taxiied out and took off into the air thick with spray. Before long we passed through low clouds but had barely turned west for Nelson when we broke through into sun. By the time we were half way across Cook Strait all the cloud was behind us and the sun shone brightly through clear skies onto the fresh snow, which had settled low on the hills.
Even in mid-winter it is extremely rare to see snow on the hills around Blenheim (normally only the higher ranges such as the Kaikouras and maybe Richmond Ranges). Even in the Marlborough Sounds there was some snow.
A water pottle was handed out in flight.
We flew my favourite path between Wellington and Nelson, the southerly track over the ranges. This gives great views out both sides - the Marlborough Sounds out one side and the mountains and deep valleys out the other side. The more common path is much further north over the sounds, which means the views to the mountains are more distant. Snow everywhere today. Not quite as low on the Nelson side but still a good dusting on the Whangamoa Hill. Then fly straight over Tahunanui Beach before a 270 degree descending turn to land from the north.
Yes it was a stunning day to be flying this route.
We had a fairly quick flight time just over 20 minutes, and so almost caught up the small delay.
We had a short taxi to the furthest southern stand from the terminal. Another fast walk through air that was chilled by the nearby snow. With no checked bags I was outside and on my way within 30 seconds.
NELSON to WELLINGTON (NSN-WLG) on Air New Zealand Dash 8-300 Q300 in economy class
The first sign of travel inconvenience came on arriving at the airport and being unable to find a carpark. Last day of school holidays with lots of people travelling it wasn't too surprising. We eventually got a park by circling the block several times waiting for someone else to leave. By now it was 20 minutes to departure, but thanks to check in at time of booking and having no bags to check in I was not worried - there is plenty of time to reach the gate. No security here due to the small size of aircraft.
Inside the terminal I went straight to the quick check machines to see if I could find a better seat. These were out of order and there was a looong queue at check in stretching out of the check in area and right across the terminal into the gate area.
We mulled around for a bit. Saw the arrivals and departure information screens showed every flight as on time. And waited.
After a while an announcement was made along the lines of "there is a nationwide computer outage at Air NZ, every passenger must present at check in desk even if you have already checked in, we are processing one flight at a time, passengers flying NZ flight blah blah blah blah to Christchurch please come to check in now and all other passengers please wait in the terminal until your flight is called".
Oh dear. There is a collective audible groan. Somehow I cannot see my first flight of the day being on time.
The problem with the announcement is that no one who has already spent 20 minutes in the queue is willing to leave the queue and start all over again later. The announcements are made far enough apart (perhaps every 15 minutes) that people newly arriving at the terminal and simply join the queue are already irritated by the time they first hear it. Meanwhile those in the terminal already are getting annoyed - it is like those don't leave bags unattended calls, after a while you zone out and stop listening to the PA at all which then means you miss more important calls such as boarding has commenced for your flight.
After a while spent milling around in the little space we could find in the terminal my flight is called to check in. I head to the long queue and wait. After standing there 5 minutes not moving forward at all it is pointed out that those who have already checked in can bypass the queue by going to the 3rd counter which has no queue.
There is a printed seat map which the agent is marking off passengers. As I don't have a boarding pass (I'm using the e-pass RFID tag on the back of my phone) & I didn't bring a printout of the ticket the agent has no choice but to take me at my word that I am on this flight with the stated seat number (fortunately it was my usual seat so easy to remember). I guess if the numbers don't tally with expected number of passengers they would then hunt me down or clarify at the gate when we board.
With a couple of flights boarded the crowd in the terminal thins slightly. There is now enough room for people to exhale but walking around (eg to the shop, check in queue or gate) is still a chore dodging people standing and sitting everywhere.
The check in queue appears to be stuck and time stands still. The seat map is being passed back and forth between agents. People with connecting flights are told their bags can only be checked to the next airport.
Eventually our aircraft arrives and shortly thereafter boarding starts.
At the gate I have no boarding pass for the agent to rip off the stub and the scanners are still down, so I pointed to my epass and gave my seat number and name. The agent scrawled the details on a piece of paper so I could show the FA I really was meant to be on this flight despite no boarding pass.
For a fairly full flight (the only empty seat was beside me), in the circumstances, boarding was completed remarkably quickly. There was a short wait onboard for paperwork to be completed (loads being calculated manually). We left about 30 minutes late - the staff had pulled out all the stops to get the flight out quickly
During the short flight we had great views. Another water pottle and boiled sweet before landing. We made up some time even on such a short flight duration, arriving only 20 minutes late.
WELLINGTON to AUCKLAND (WLG-AKL) on Air New Zealand 737-300 in economy class (space+ seating zone)
I headed to the lounge. To my surprise the scanners at the door were working so they had managed to restore some services by this stage. As expected the lounge was crowded, although not as badly as the terminal in Nelson. I found myself a spare computer (the rest were taken over by school kids playing games) and, since it looked like there would be a significant delay, started on the work I had intended to do back in Auckland this afternoon.
The Air NZ website was still down and the departure monitors hopelessly inaccurate so it was difficult to gauge when exactly we'd depart. I grabbed a quick bite to eat since I'll arrive far too late for lunch, and a couple of drinks to wet the whistle.
The day wore on. Each time I popped out of the business centre for a drink I could see hordes of passengers and harried Air NZ staff rushing around. Eventually boarding was called, only an hour late which I thought was remarkable. Most of this delay was due to one of the pilots flying in from Christchurch being delayed.
I headed downstairs to the gate to find a very long queue for security despite the announcements for final call. It seems the monitors are still not accurately showing departure times and thus four flights worth of passengers were trying to squeeze through one security checkpoint shared between gates 10 & 11, meanwhile on the other side of the pier there are no upcoming flights from gates 16 & 17 and an empty security checkpoint. It is easy to criticise when things are chaotic but I thought they would have been better having aircraft spaced out around the pier instead of bunched all on one side, or at least having someone check people in the queue are only those flying on the flights that are boarding or about to board, not the one in an hour's time.
Anyway, the queue was slow moving. Every now and then some passengers would run past the queue gasping about having to recheck bags from a connecting flight, can they please skip ahead to make the "final call", only to be told politely by the security staff or others in the queue that actually many of us are in the same situation and on the same flight. Relax. The plane isn't going anywhere soon.
I took my seat and settle in. Over the next 30 minutes there is a trickle of passengers and cabin crew arriving. About 145 minutes late the doors finally shut, which is a cue for a flurry of last minute calls and texts. Yes we are just about on our way now.
Inflight all was normal. A choice of crisps, biscuit or sweets. Tea, coffee or water. A much needed nap. Boiled sweet before landing.
It was a much longer than anticipated travel day, but I count myself very fortunate that for a change I had no tight connection for onward flights to be disrupted.
The computer failure was subsequently blamed by Air NZ on IBM.
Amazingly the points for the flights posted within a day. With only hand-written boarding passes and computers down I expected to have to make a manual claim.
They should make a print out on the lovely MYAIRNZ that lists all your booked domestic flights, so you use a million peaces of paper printing e-tickets.
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