Perhaps it was just because my expectations were so low, or maybe I had my mind on too many other things at the time, but this was not nearly so bad as I had anticipated....


29 August:

* JQ708: Sydney - Hamilton Island.

(As an aside, whilst Hamilton Island is a fantastic stop for a holiday - Mrs Shillard and I honeymooned there - their ability to organise and execute a conference is rated as '****house'. Don't even bother - ever.)


Well aware of the strict JQ check-in policies, I departed home in Newcastle (165km north of SYD) via car at 09:00 for my 12:55 flight. Sadly there were no decent connections available through Aeropelican, and QF abandoned the NTL-SYD route with the advent of DeathStar.

A very clean run on the F3 freeway with no discernable police presence, so at 10:54 I pulled into the parking lot between T2 and T3 @ SYD. 5 minutes later I was lined up to check-in, scoring SEQ number 08 (the 8th pax to check-in for the flight). Mindful of the traumatic effect of unallocated seating on such a seating fusspot as myself, I did everything to ensure I would have a decent pick of the seats.

Straight to the T2 QP to work on the presentation I was due to give in two days, the time quickly vanished and the 'go to gate' notice appeared on the monitors. With visions of a Ryan Air-style stampede aboard, I thought the better of waiting for the official boarding announcement in the QP.

Met up with some colleagues who were also part of the advance party on my way to the gate, and managed to be in the first group of bodies on board. Boarding was reasonably orderly, those with SEQ numbers 1-65 boarded first, everyone else next. Pre-boarding for the breeders and the nearly-deads.

Amazingly, despite all the parents with rugrats boarding first, all the exit rows were empty. Snagged an aisle exit seat for myself, the two next to me for colleagues, and the final member of our party (in the post-65 SEQ group) landed the aisle seat immediately across from mine.

A bit of spark and humour in the safety demos, and we were airborne on schedule.

Allowing for the fact that I was in an exit row, I was still pleasantly surprised by the room I had. Lots for the legs, and decent breadth of seats. The leather(ette?) seats were comfy enough, with far superior back & neck support to what you get on a QF737 or older 767.

A decent amount of space in the overhead locker, too. No doubt assisted by the lack of Americans (and wannabe-Americans) lugging 25kg rollaboard cases into the cabin with them.

I availed myself of the tea on offer for sale, but was stocked up on other snacks - the nachos on the way back helped to battle an appalling hangover (more in part 2).

In no time at all (no doubt due to the ferocious amount of work completed on the flight) we were descending into Hamilton Island, beautifully illuminated by the last sunshine we would see for four days (until boarding the return flight on Thursday AM).

Landing was smooth, with the usual hard-core reverse-thrust on touchdown.


...Next: Shillard battles a monster hang-over on the return flight, after some very intense conference work, and celebrates his 30th Birthday on JQ.....