Wellington to Sydney (WLG-SYD) on Qantas (QF) operated by Jetconnect 737-800 in business class
I like flying Qantas. A lot. Indeed there are only one or two airlines I've flown more than on Qantas. One if measured by number of flights - I have flown Air New Zealand nearly 1000 times but Qantas just under 500 times. Two if measured by distance - I have flown Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand both over 1 million miles but a little less than 500 thousand miles on Qantas.
I don't get to fly Qantas as much as I used to. Less frequency of flights and inconvenient schedules are part of the reason. I also haven't done much travel intra-Australia during the past few years whereas previously I would spend a few days to a few weeks exploring the continent whenever I got the chance.
Still, I fly enough that this flight is a familiar experience. Up at oh my god o'clock after trying and failing to get much sleep.
My phone rings. My pre-ordered taxi is early - 20 minutes before the arranged pick-up time. Ugggh. I know check-in will be open by 0400 but there is no point arriving too early since immigration doesn't open until about 0430. As it is when pre-booking the taxi strongly encourages you to select a time that is too early for check in to be open, let alone immigration. Arriving early just rubs salt in the wound. Why do I pre-book a taxi then you may ask? It is from hard experience. At that time of day many bars are just closing and it can be difficult to find a cab to hail, and if calling when ready it may take half an hour for a cab to become available. Thus, for early departures I prefer to pre-book even though it forces an earlier wake-up than is strictly necessary.
I pack and head downstairs. I don't know why I should feel guilty about making the driver wait a few minutes given he is so early, but I do. Arriving at the airport, check in hasn't yet opened so I go to my usual quiet spot and chill for a while, being careful not to fall asleep!
I wasn't sure if I would get boarding passes for all of my flights "today" given the flights are across two airlines and the third flight departs more than 24 hours from now. If not I have a long enough transit to collect them from the transfer desk without any hassle. I was handed 3 boarding passes.
By now immigration was open so I queued up for security and proceeded through smartgate, take the compulsory walk-through the duty free shop being careful not to knock over any displays and on to the lounge where I am welcomed back.