The Heat is On - another longhaul economy trip in under 60 hours
Jun 8, 2007, 11:40 pm
#31
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Sydney to Auckland (SYD-AKL) on QF 767 (domestic config)
Through security fairly quickly - not very busy this time, which surprised me given the large number of international arrivals just after curfew ends. I managed to again avoid the explosives check. Upstairs to the lounge. First a welcome shower, and then a nice breakfast. Even though (or perhaps because?) there are few people eating, the service is bad - surly, painfully slow, and making like every simple request is a chore and inconvenience
On the plus side, this time I was only asked three times for my boarding pass - before the entrance, at the upstairs entrance desk, and once inside.
Then off to follow up on some tickets that had a deadline for ticketing of today. That sorted I have time to check email and FT for a short while before time for the flight. As the load likes full I head to the gate before it is called in the lounge. It turns out they are not ready for boarding for some time, and when it is called a scrum forms with more than half the pax either business, platinum/emerald, gold/sapphire or qantas club members. Dang I should have chosen a less conveniently timed flight.
The flight is indeed full in economy but several spare seats in business. Again a domestic config a/c is used.
Lunch is a choice of beef noodles or a pasta dish. I try unsuccessfully to doze. The flight time is short thanks to good tail wind, but for once we manage to fit in the entire movie. Something as simple as selecting shorter length movies and starting them quickly in the flight seems often beyond Qantas on these short eastbound trans-tasman flights, but this time I'm pleased to say they got it right.
We land on time despite the late start. Immigration is a bit of a zoo but I am processed in about 30 minutes. Again upstairs lanes for NZ & Australian passports are not being used. With 3 short international trips (2 of them longhaul) in just a few weeks, and an odd destination noted on my form I expected to get secondary so was pleasantly surprised to walk right through.
Through security fairly quickly - not very busy this time, which surprised me given the large number of international arrivals just after curfew ends. I managed to again avoid the explosives check. Upstairs to the lounge. First a welcome shower, and then a nice breakfast. Even though (or perhaps because?) there are few people eating, the service is bad - surly, painfully slow, and making like every simple request is a chore and inconvenience
On the plus side, this time I was only asked three times for my boarding pass - before the entrance, at the upstairs entrance desk, and once inside.
Then off to follow up on some tickets that had a deadline for ticketing of today. That sorted I have time to check email and FT for a short while before time for the flight. As the load likes full I head to the gate before it is called in the lounge. It turns out they are not ready for boarding for some time, and when it is called a scrum forms with more than half the pax either business, platinum/emerald, gold/sapphire or qantas club members. Dang I should have chosen a less conveniently timed flight.
The flight is indeed full in economy but several spare seats in business. Again a domestic config a/c is used.
Lunch is a choice of beef noodles or a pasta dish. I try unsuccessfully to doze. The flight time is short thanks to good tail wind, but for once we manage to fit in the entire movie. Something as simple as selecting shorter length movies and starting them quickly in the flight seems often beyond Qantas on these short eastbound trans-tasman flights, but this time I'm pleased to say they got it right.
We land on time despite the late start. Immigration is a bit of a zoo but I am processed in about 30 minutes. Again upstairs lanes for NZ & Australian passports are not being used. With 3 short international trips (2 of them longhaul) in just a few weeks, and an odd destination noted on my form I expected to get secondary so was pleasantly surprised to walk right through.
Jun 13, 2007, 1:21 am
#33
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Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
... but for once we manage to fit in the entire movie. Something as simple as selecting shorter length movies and starting them quickly in the flight seems often beyond Qantas on these short eastbound trans-tasman flights, but this time I'm pleased to say they got it right. ...
It's still up to the CSM to fire it up though; more than once in my experience the Eastbound movie has failed to finish in time ...
Last edited by serfty; Jun 13, 2007 at 1:26 am
Jun 13, 2007, 1:28 am
#34
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Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
... On the plus side, this time I was only asked three times for my boarding pass - before the entrance, at the upstairs entrance desk, and once inside. ...
Jun 13, 2007, 12:35 pm
#35
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Yup - very dependent on the crew. Considerate, starts the movie as quickly as possible = just enough time to see the end. Will get to it when have a chance = run out of time to see the end.
Jun 18, 2007, 10:36 pm
#36
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Posts: 1,482
Another hard core run there KF - I do wonder what drives you to do it sometimes. I understand you love to fly but even I struggle to work out where the pay off for you in this sort of trip is.
We might cross paths one day and you can explain it to me
We might cross paths one day and you can explain it to me