Ha made you look.

I thought this might be of interest to those contemplating similar hops outside AKL considering that these routes seem to feature less in TRs.

Sector – SYD-WLG
Flight number – QF47/ “Jetconnect for Qantas”
Class – Business
Seat 1A/C, then 1 D/F
Aircraft – B737-400

I decided to continue my DONE4 over my one week mid semester Easter break, repositioning back to Sydney where I last left the ticket in limbo and spending a night there - as well as using 2 of my SWP segment allowances to do SYD-WLG-MEL. I’ve always wanted to check out Wellington and Qantas, through its Kiwi subsidiary Jetconnect serves WLG out of both SYD and MEL.

I was initially put off by the equipment on this route. In comparison, AKL is served by a B744 service (332 on certain days but same hardware) out of MEL with all the bells and whistles (as a one stop service to LAX), whilst out of SYD there are Dreamtime seating-equipped 763s or LAN’s A340 service – both with slightly less bells and whistles than the MEL service but nonetheless better than a 734 with convertible seating.

But it wasn’t as poor an experience as it could’ve been as the Jetconnect 734s have been refurbished to not only feature the Millennium seating (cradle style seating used on domestic aircraft), but they also feature new fabrics which made the cabin feel a lot fresher and cleaner. The pre-refurbishment fabrics were looking rather jaded.


QF 734 J cabin featuring new fabrics and Millenium seats



Not being familiar with the 734s (despite flying to CBR with them I’ve always been stuck in whY – nowadays I stick to the Crash8s though), I’d booked 1C without realizing that the legroom is significantly reduced by the bulkhead/cloak cupboard. However the cabin was rather empty with not a single soul in row 1 and I was able to swap to row 1D after boarding had ceased. Much better!


Legroom in 1A/C


Legroom in 1D/F

The champagne was Charles Heidsieck MEC 04 – kudos to QF for not skimping on champagne unlike the Kiwi sparkling wine that NZ offers on the trans tasman sectors. As much of a fan I am of wines from Australia and New Zealand and as much as I’d like to see the respective national carriers promote local produce – it is only because I think Australia and NZ are world leading when it comes to wine. OTOH nothing beats French when it comes to the bubbly stuff.

Champers was served prior to take off despite the 0900 departure which of course is only right so one does not have to feel bad when the crew members are made to turn back to the galley to retrieve champers. Ok I was really describing myself there. But hey I wasn’t the only one having the champers judging by the number of empty flutes on the FA’s tray when she collected them in preparation for departure – so kudos to my fellow pax on this flight for demonstrating that there’s no such thing as “too early for champagne.”

As an aside, I was more in need of alcohol then than any other time. Let me back peddle a little and start from the nefarious activities I partook in the night before the flight. I was in Sydney to catch up with a good mate. Said good mate has a hobby which involves concocting very potent cocktails (everything above board) and his friends are guinea pigs in such experiments. Sometimes these are a party in a mouthful, other times not so. In exchange for some joint champers demolition, I agreed to be the subject of the latest experiment which involved rapidly sculling a pint of Jaeger bomb mixed with a shot each of coffee liqueur and green tea liqueur (dropped in with their glasses). Does wonders for your brain cells and your heart of course. However thankfully this fell into the former category of experiments. I must now admit that I’ve warmed to the idea of broadening my palate (beyond champagne, wines and Student Unity punch) as the drink was delightful, as is the immediate ‘aftershock.’ Warm clothing is essential if any one of you ever try this mix. So after sculling several pints of the lethal brew, a Moet 2000, lots of wine, and simultaneously trying to analyse a film about The Dismissal (conveniently titled ‘The Dismissal’), I was more than ready to call it a night. The hangover on the other hand… let’s just say it was unprecedented.

So it might be a bit of an urban myth to suggest that the best way to ease a hangover is to ease back into drunkenness. Certainly in my case however, especially that very morning – it is no myth.

We departed a little bit late due to congestion and hence lack of ATC clearance.

Lunch was served on this flight. A bit odd that it’s not breakfast given the morning departure, so I presume that they were operating on NZ time which is 2 hours ahead of AEDT. I thought I’d had to go without salad due to my shellfish allergy as it contained prawns but the very resourceful crew members found a salad sans prawns for me without prompting. On probing as I’d wanted to make sure they hadn’t just removed the prawns from the salad (and apologies to any FAs reading this, pardon my ignorance about your training), it was revealed that they were extras from the crew meal.

I had the beef for the main course which had a very nice texture and was nicely flavoured. But the vegetables that came with it were quite soggy. I had the cheese plate for dessert and was very glad that I let the FA talk me into trying the dessert wine (“Please, just trust me.”  so I did). Even for someone who doesn’t normally drink dessert wine (*hands smelling salts to NM*) I couldn’t help liking it very much. Regrettably I can’t recall the label but it was beautifully fragrant and paired the cheeses very well.


A choice of nuts or olives to go with champers





Full menu here.

The youthful Jetconnect FAs led by a very young CSM did not equate to a less polished service. Quite the opposite! The level of service rendered was very much equivalent to the generally high levels (IMO) of service of their mainline counterparts. This set of crew created a very warm atmosphere onboard, and made the effort to provide a fun yet professional and personalized service. The enthusiasm must have had a positive impact on my hangover too!

Personal DVD players were handed out but I didn’t use mine as I was too tired to enjoy any movie properly. The combination of my hangover, the lack of sleep and too much champagne and dessert wine meant I passed out about 40 minutes prior to arrival, only to be shaken awake by the FAs as we arrived at our gate. I can’t remember the exact time we arrived but it couldn’t have been very much behind schedule.

Next: The InterContinental Wellington