The flight from Adelaide worked best for me, and the extra miles getting there and back is an added bonus. Also, convenient to get the last 2 stays required for
Hilton's 3/5/7 promo ^
I flew NZ AKL-MEL (Auckland-Melbourne). Took the 747 service as I hoped to get F seat in business (no F service trans-tasman) as an elite customer. This flight also had the advantage, for someone like me who packs just before leaving for the flight, of not needing to get up at OMG o'clock (3am) for a 6:00am, 6:30am or 7:00am flight. What a nice change - it is years since I have had this luxury for trans-tasman travel (at least from NZ->Australia).
Anyway I am ready early, which is just as well as my ride also arrives early. On the way to NZ premium check-in area, I notice on the monitors the flight is delayed. Looks like my very comfortable connection at MEL is now merely an okay connection and may get tight if flight delayed further. So when I check-in I ask if can check in for my QF flight (same ticket on NZ stock!) to ADL, to protect my seat in case of further delays. Was told no. Anyway good news as I indeed do get an F seat.
(As an aside, the NZ premium check-in at AKL international is a great system as not only no or almost no wait but also bypass the main immigration queue with a dedicated officer, and unlike QF premium check-in the bypass takes you straight to security.)
So I exit the premium area to go to QF check-in. The agent doesnt think she can check me in, but after a few key presses out comes the boarding pass. Excellent. Back through the NZ premium area (love to bypass those queues!) and soon I'm browsing the duty free and off to the NZ lounge. Its quiet at the moment, but today becomes fairly busy as it seems a few aircraft are late arriving from US and asia so most flights are delayed
Never mind, its a big lounge and very nice so its no hardship to spend a little longer here than planned.
The rescheduled boarding time comes and goes and finally its time to board. Settle down with a pre-departure drink and then comes an announcement, slight delay as we are significantly under-catered.
Eventually we take off and I realise my very easy connection could be tight if we get big immigration queues at MEL. Fingers crossed.
The flight is very pleasant with nice meal and very nice drinks. I read some of a book I brought as had read this month's in-flight magazine several times already and also seen all 8 movies showing. One thing I had forgotten was how it felt to take off in 747 for a short flight - it has been several years since I was on a 747 on anything other than long haul and it felt like the plane leapt off the runway after a short takeoff roll.
At MEL I raced off and was happy to see no queues at immigration - a very nice surprise as most times I go through there is some delay. I guess that's a benefit of the flight being so late. MEL is very easy to transfer to domestic terminal (unlike SYD - dont get me started on that one) and it is only a few minutes before I am relaxing in the QP (Qantas Club, known as Qantas Pub on the QF forum).