Cairns to Townsville (CNS-TSV) on Qantas Dash 8 Q400 in economy class (operated by Sunstate)
Back in the lounge I had just enough time to confirm meeting with some FTers that evening and freshen up, before the flight was called. The temporary Qantas Club (as with the SYD F relaunch, temporary means 1-2 years) is as crowded as ever. I've visited a few times since the temporary lounge has been used, all at this time of day (middle of the day) and every time it is crowded - standing room only. Queues for bathroom, computers, entry to the lounge and even the drinks.
Anyway, I have the milk run to look forward to. Why fly to Brisbane in a couple of hours when you can stretch it out all afternoon? Get closer views of the coast, islands and Great Barrier Reef. No misconnect risk as it is all on one aircraft. Ahh to have the luxury of enough time to do this.
It also adds several new airports and routes to my personal flown list.
It is not trivial to book this. Enter Cairns to Brisbane in booking engines and this flight does not appear. You need to book as multiple coupons to force the flight. But on the Qantas website, for example, there is a limit of 2 "routes" per day. So if you want to get minimum miles/segment credited for all the segments you need to use other booking engines or split across multiple tickets. Further, when I originally booked this flight it had 25 minute transits between each leg - thus bookable on Qantas website (MCT is 25 minutes). However, some other FTers who booked subsequently found the schedule had been modified with some transits being 20 minutes.
First we have a long walk to the end remote stand - including a wait en route for ground traffic to cross our path. By the time we get inside the airconditioning is a very welcome relief.
The flight is fairly full but the seat beside me is empty. My small carry on fits neatly in the overhead bin.
The flight is short so soon after takeoff the crew are up and handing out the snack. Today it is a small filled roll plus water pottle.
We have nice views of the GBR and islets. To our right the thunder clouds are building and mask views of the ranges.
On arrival at Townsville, through passengers are asked to remain on board and keep their cellphones off while refueling takes place. We are also asked to unbuckle our seatbelts.