Some of my more mainstream trip reports are here:
TR - Mostly Star Alliance SYD-CPH the long way
Sydney to Iceland via China. Mostly J, some China Domestic Y and Magnetic Levitation!
SQ & LX J, AZ & EN Y and an LH flightless bird
But this was something different. For a while I had been in training ready to hike the Kokoda Track, almost 100km (60 miles) across the jungle of the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua New Guinea. The track is a bit of an icon in Australian military history being the place where a bunch of Australian soldiers, poorly trained and equipped first thwarted the Japanese advance during the second world war.
Today it's still a good physical challenge and a beautiful, rugged landscape, often trekking above the clouds. But this being FlyerTalk I presume you are more interested in another mode of travel above the clouds. PNG also is a difficult place to fly. The nature of the terrain and third world economy makes flying still an interesting activity:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/missi...0812-eh9x.html
So the flying might nearly be as interesting as the trekking. And it almost was.
PX2 - Air Nuigini - SYD - POM (Port Moresby) 737-800 P2-PXC (Economy)
Check in was open at 0530 for an 0830 departure. For the first time ever I was asked to produce my eTicket for my return journey. Probably a PNG immigration requirement. I already had my visa stamp in my passport.
I asked if there were any options available for more leg room and I was pleased and very grateful when allocated an exit row which provided plenty of room for my 6'4" frame. Only 3 of the 12 exit row seats were occupied and the plane generally had a very low load factor. (I would say less than 50%.)
Gate 27 was down a set of escalators and led to a bus bay for the short drive to our plane.
Captain Terry Shannon and First Office Graham Law introduced themselves from the flight deck and shortly announced a few people were missing. While waiting I took stock. No individual IFE, cabin clean and reasonably modern.
One of the late passengers arrived and sat across the aisle next to me. I'll call him PITA 1. He arrived with his wife and young child who he proceeded to ignore for most of the flight. They fended for themselves while he fiddled with numerous bags spreading his stuff over the seats next to him.
One more passenger boarded 50 mins after our boarding time (why we were still waiting is beyond me). She had plenty of duty free bags and I'll call her PITA 2.
PITA 1 was not briefed on exit row procedure (and due to his size would not have been able to get out the over wing exit anyway). PITA 2 sat at a bulkhead seat and stored her duty free bags at her feet.
Departure was about 30 mins late. After the seat belt sign was turned off headsets were handed out then special meal orders were confirmed. FA addressed PITA 1 to confirm his special meal order and he responds with "Yes and if there are any extras I'll have a regular meal also."
Now call me old fashioned, but if you can eat a regular meal you do, if you can't you order a special meal. I think he just ordered a special meal so he could get served first.
Complimentary drinks accompanied our early lunch. There was a choice of beef or chicken. The chicken was with a black bean sauce and with a little pepper and salt it was really quite tasty.
PITA 1 inhaled his special meal so when the regular meals came by he asked for a chicken meal and at the same time asked if he could have a beef dish too. He pulled down 4 sets of window shades (all the rest of the plane was up) in his row and the empty rows in front of and behind him. I won't labour the point too much but he continued to make his presence felt way beyond his seat.
PITA 1 spoke with the FAs in a condescending tone and requested another meal. He had given his cutlery back after meal number two so had to request another set. He couldn't wait and finished his beef dish using just a knife he had left over from before.
During the meal PITA 2 came up and PITA 1 engaged her in conversation. It must have been between "courses". When asked why she was late PITA 2 said she was in the QP and lost track of time. With headsets on she didn't hear the announcements. For 50 mins??? PITA 1 thanks her saying if she hadn't been late he too would have been offloaded. So they thanked each other.
After PITA 2 continued to the lav, PITA 1 tapped me on the shoulder and proceeded to repeat the story for my benefit as if they were something to be proud of. I quickly donned my set of headphones to discourage PITA 1 from bugging be further. He gave up on me and decided to bug other passengers and using the call button to request various things from the FA.
Parental Guidance was shown on central TV screens.
When everybody else was dozing PITA 1 decided to sort through his rather extensive CD collection on the seats beside him. Yes, his bags were full of CDs in their plastic cases and he couldn't do this without slamming the overhead bins several times.
I went to the lav, partly out of need, but partly to escape this annoying individual. When I returned his baby daughter was sitting in my seat. I patiently stood in the aisle in front of them both and he saw me clearly. Do you think PITA 1 would ask his daughter to move? No. It took several minutes before his wife a few rows back noticed and came to collect the child.
Landing couldn't come soon enough on schedule at 1231. All bays were full so we waited for a bit then stopped near the domestic terminal at 1247. An old coaster bus took us to the international terminal where we were trapped behind a locked door for a while before being admitted to PNG.
Inside was small but functional with just 1 luggage carousel. Our bags appeared very quickly and as soon as immigration and customs knew you were a trekker you were waved through as if you were a rock star.