Boarding passes in hand and less than an hour to departure, it was a short stop at the immigration desk inside the lobby, then upstairs and another short pause at pre-cleared immigration and security. Given it is just before Christmas I expected huge queues everywhere, but while it was moderately busy with most flights nearly full, I had managed to pick a time of day with fewer flights and so shorter queues.
Off to duty free to pick up my pre-order and then up again to the Qantas F lounge ("welcome back I was getting worried you were missing your flight"). I just had time to check my messages and grab a quick drink and a small nibble to eat - having missed both breakfast and lunch I was getting a bit peckish. For those interested the lounge champagne was Lanson Brut Cuvee.
The flight was called and I was halfway to the gate when I heard a call for the last remaining passengers to please hurry up. While a late call in the lounge is nice, this year they seem to be cutting it finer and finer, at least in my experience. A hurry up is not what I'm looking for.
I boarded last and stow my carry on. Despite pre-departure service still being underway I was not offered a drink, or a newspaper, or indeed anything, nor given a personal greeting
The flight was reasonably full but I had an empty seat alongside.
After take off a menu was handed out, and we were offered personal DVDs. There was no DVD menu this time, but I took my chances on there being something better than the main screen offering of “Man on Wire”. There wasn’t really but I put on some rubbish to doze off to. For some reason the DVD player took a while to get going.
Next arrival cards for Australia were handed out, together with express cards for those in business class. Finally an hour into the flight our drink orders were taken. By now I was getting thirsty so I asked for two glasses! Champagne in flight was Piper Heidsieck I think.
Service was slow and we were halfway across the Tasman before lunch was served. I was glad I’d grabbed a nibble in the lounge for it is getting on for a day since my last proper meal. Only white rolls were available and the “salad” was apparently the small collection of leaves with 2 half cherry tomatoes. My advice is if you are hungry get some food before or after the flight. The ice cream was rock hard as usual (somehow despite having 2 1/2 hours in flight to warm it up a little it still had roughly the consistency of concrete) and we were not allowed to have both that and cheese, it was one or the other. I declined the coffee because I want a nice deep sleep soon, and really I must confess as it is the season to indulge another glass of wine suited me better.
The crew barely had time to collect the meal stuff and DVDs before it was time for “cabin crew please be seated”. We had the now very familiar loop up to Ku-Ring-Gai before landing to the south (I seem to get this on every trans-Tasman flight into Sydney), but I was pleased to see on approach that we were on the main runway for a nice change instead of the 3rd runway with it’s very long taxi back to the terminal.
We landed 10 minutes late. I don’t know why they don’t allow in the schedules for the long approach on Tasman flights. It has been a while since I’ve landed in Sydney on time, come to think of it a while also on longhaul flights. We taxied into the non-oneworld pier of the international terminal, which was deserted at both immigration and customs. Because I had not given an address to stay in Australia, I was asked when my onward flight was but not questioned further when I replied tomorrow morning. Quarantine staff were apparently on a break when I rocked up, the first passenger through in some time by the looks. The officer paused to decide whether or not to open up an xray machine and call a colleague off their break before letting me straight through. The easy way won out this time.
Useless trivia time. Somewhere across the Tasman Sea I passed 1 month in the air in 2008 (not counting time spent at airports), the 4th year in a row I have flown this long.