I'm currently in the MKY airport Qantas Club lounge, waiting to see if/when I'll get back to Brisbane. Mackay has had torrential rain this morning, and I'd estimate visibility at under 1000 feet (though that is just a guess).

Booked on JQ887, being the only scheduled direct flight from MKY-BNE around my planned departure time of 3pm. Around 12pm, one of my colleagues in MKY mentioned that they'd just heard that MKY airport was closed, so I skipped my planned lunch and headed straight to the airport.

Got to the airport, to be confronted with a snaking line of passengers at the DJ service counter, DJ605 from BNE-MKY had been sent back to BNE, and so, as that equipment was planned to turnaround and operate DJ608 MKY-BNE, that service had been cancelled, and the passengers were being rebooked onto DJ610.

EDIT: DJ607 from BNE-MKY has been cancelled too now, and so DJ610 MKY-BNE is gone. DJ is advising all passengers to go home and ring the call centre, unless travel is extremely urgent.

EDIT2: The passengers are not listening and the line at the service counter is getting much longer

Given that my JQ flight was coming up from BNE too, and given JQs reputation for cancelling flights, it was time for contingency planning. I decided to book fully flexible fares on QF and DJ as backups. I went straight over to the Qantas counter and found out that all MKY-BNE services today were zeroed out. Got them to look at MKY-TSV-BNE (which came up to $932 for a fully flexible fare), and MKY-GLD-ROK-BNE - 50 minutes after the scheduled JQ service (which came in at $541), which I ended up booking in Y, on the basis that I'd cancel and refund it if the JQ flight took off. Advised the station manager what I was doing so that they could oversell the service if the JQ service did operate, knowing that I would no show for the QF service. The lines at the DJ counter were increasing, and so I just went online to book the late night DJ service from MKY-BNE, again as a fully flexible fare. At least, as long as the weather breaks somewhat, I should get home tonight.

As I send this, the JQ service has left BNE for MKY - now to see if it lands.

EDIT3: the jq service has landed. Now to see if it can get out again.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you who have read my trip reports over in the Trip Reports section, I will be starting a new job early next year, which will see me commute on a weekly basis BNE-MKY-ROK-BNE or BNE-MKY-BNE-ROK-BNE, but will also see a significant reduction in international travel. So, there may not be as much of interest to write on in the trip reports section. OTOH, I should hit QF Gold or Plat fairly easily, with between 3x50 and 4x50 sectors a year (150-200 sectors). Probably half on cheap fares and the other half on flexisaver fares, so I'd expect to be earning at least 1500SC at minimum with all on cheap fares, and more likely closer to 2500SC, unless I decided to just aim for QF Gold, and also go for DJ Gold as well.