It's a fine line between pleasure and pain
Auckland to Sydney (AKL-SYD) on Qantas 767-300 business class
After a hectic day of meetings and errands, and a shortened sleep, I was awake less than 24 hours after arriving in Auckland and preparing to leave for the airport once more. With an oh so early check in time I cabbed it (no point waking others to take me) and the driver and I both noticed how unusually quiet it was on the roads and at the airport itself.
I was checked in fairly quickly in the premium check in area but only given 2 boarding passes - my further same day flights were not yet open for check in
The immigration officer normally on duty in premium check in was nowhere to be found so I'll have to use the main queue - not that it mattered in the end.
As is normally the case this early in the morning, the premium check in desk has no departure tax stickers (and unfortunately I just miss out on an exemption as my international travel is just over 24 hours apart). No problem I thought, I'll use the machine and be waiting for immigration to open in no time. Unfortunately this time saver is no longer available. With the change in currency exchange provider from BNZ to Travelex, the machines have gone
Worse, Travelex is not yet open (with moderate queues even at the downstairs branches) and when they do open I quickly realise most of the staff are untrained and today is their first day. Even simple tasks take a long time and any questions leads to long discussion as they are unfamiliar with reasons for policies etc.
By the time I get through that it is almost 4am - the time immigration has been opening lately. To my surprise I am first in the queue behind the gates, but a long queue rapidly builds behind me. 4am comes and goes. I see a steady stream of shop workers going through their entrance and being searched at security, and so expect immigration will open any minute. 4:30am comes and goes. And 5am. Finally they open. By now there is a huge queue (well over 1000) and I'm thinking my flight is likely to be delayed as it will take some time to clear the backlog.
I'm processed at immigration and security quickly enough and make my way to the lounge to catch up on some work and email. Boarding is called in the lounge later than usual, but not ridiculously late. By the time I reach the gate boarding is nearly complete and as I reached my seat I noticed the business class cabin is less than 1/3 full.
Once again we get a domestic configured 767, which means less room (nullified by the low load) and the option to have a DVD for IFE, which I accept when asked pre-departure. They also ask which movie so it can be pre-loaded. This often happens on trans-tasman flights in business class on the 767 domestic config, whereas the 737-400 flights tend to be given the DVD library to choose for yourself.
We pushback on time and manage to beat the LAN aircraft beside us to the taxiway. However, we have a long wait at the end of the runway. Subsequently I found out that there was an
emergency landing which I hadn't realised at the time, and also an inspection of the runway (which I had noticed and noted as being unusual for this time of day despite the PA wording).