SYDNEY to AUCKLAND (SYD-AKL) on Qantas 767-300 in business class
Quickly through security and up to the lounge. Time enough for a shower and some coffee, check messages and on-line check in for some more flights the next day. Unfortunately I wasn't able to improve on my pre-selected seats.
Close to departure and a boarding call had not been made for the flight, yet not showing as delayed. So I headed out for the gate. I've been caught out before with this lounge forgetting to make a flight call. The monitors show final call but there is still a trickle of passengers making their way to the gate when I arrive. The flight appears to be full.
Being on a first class ticket I could have taken the earlier LAN flight. I chose not to because of timing issues - if LAN flight is on time and the flight from LAX late (as it was) then the connection is short. Conversely, the LAN flight has terrible on time performance and could be delayed many hours (or even the Auckland to Sydney to Auckland legs cancelled in order to make up about 12 hours worth of delay). Being a busy travel day I would not be assured of being able to be rebooked onto another flight and I needed to arrive back in Auckland by early evening.
So I gave up a more comfortable seat, but the IFE is similar quality and food better on the Qantas flight.
Why is it that some people seated in row 43 spend ages looking at the seat numbers for the front rows? What can be going through their mind to think the front row might be numbered 43?
We have a small delay in closing the door. According to the pilot there are insufficient staff on today (he didn't say what kind of staff - cabin crew, ground staff, etc). Then a further delay for a missing passenger. So once again I am on a flight that leaves late despite boarding being (mostly) completed on time.
The flight itself was short. The runway direction had changed, as is normal for Sydney (due to noise control) and so we took off towards Auckland. At the other end of the flight we had a lazy loop over the city to land back towards the west.
A nice meal and generally very good service. Not quite perfect service though - for example forgetting to offer me some bread (not that I wanted any but I should have been asked).
A moderate queue at immigration and also at customs, but both processed quickly. At customs I headed to an officer who had no queue and was looking bored (all the other officers had someone they were seeing to), but was ordered by a different officer to not use that line. What?!
Oh well.