notzac's Velocity blog

A last-minute decision to spend the weekend in CHC saw me booking a flight back to MEL with Pacific Blue. All things being equal, I would have booked both ways with DJ - but the lure of the FLounge was too great.

In case you're wondering, the JQ flight MEL-CHC was a) late and b) uninteresting. I had my exit row seat and was asleep by the time we hit cruise altitude.

Check In and Airport

After swearing black and blue I wouldn't book any future flights at ridiculous o'clock some months back, here I was doing it again. Cab ordered for 4:45, at airport by 5:00, still somewhat under the influence from the previous nights' efforts.

It seems that Pacific Blue international flights can't be checked in online, so I was resigned to standing in a long queue filled with grumpy people - I was eventually served by a patient and understanding ground crew, who was nice enough to allocate me 1A. Legroom + window to fall asleep on = filled with win!

Up the stairs and through Customs and Immigration; was airside in very short order with the horrible realisation that I had about an hour to kill and no lounge to go to! After buying a (actually pretty decent) coffee and pulling enough brain cells together to work out what to do next, I managed to blag my way in to the Manaia contract lounge. It looks much the same as when it was a Qantas Club - slightly updated furniture and fittings is about the only difference I noticed.

Shortly before boarding, I got asked to leave the lounge so that the attendant could close up shop - the lounge only stays open for the QF and JQ flights (EK as well I think?)

DJ61 CHC/MEL
Equipment: 73H
Seat: 1A
Timeliness: dep. 10 mins early, arr. 10 mins early.

I did very well to get 1A for the flight - it turns out that this flight was operated by one of the PacBlue 73H's that has had the Premium whY seating installed. Personally I can't see what the fuss is about; it's very similar to the BA converta seats and IMHO entirely not worth paying extra for. On the ABC side there is no bulkhead for row 1, so I had basically unlimited legroom. Even though Premium whY wasn't being sold for the flight, the B and E seats remained unallocated - a nice touch.

The cabin supervisor did a stellar job of welcoming everyone on board - sounds like a silly thing to mention, but she sounded genuinely happy to see everyone come through the door - something that you don't get very often on any carrier, let alone at 6:30 am! The crew in general were very personable and polite.

The two things that wrecked it for me:

• Continually addressing the cabin as "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls". CC and the Pilot were guilty of this. I suspect this is SOP, and really wish it wasn't.
• CC deciding that they would play a game involving pax - clean out and tidy up the seat back pocket for a prize! Look, I understand you're pressed for time and might need a hand with resetting the cabin for the next flight, but .. really? The "Virgin Flair" strikes again. :-/

There are some things that I think would improve the DJ experience for international flights ex-CHC; namely:

• Premium check-in for Velocity Silver/Gold
• Invitations for Velocity Gold pax to use the Manaia lounge

Complaints aside, it was a great flight. Flight was on time and mostly smooth, seat was comfy (though the previous comment about no headrest "wings" still holds true) and the CC were polite and friendly. I got left alone to sleep off the previous night, but once awake and back on terra firma -- I had a lovely chat with the crew sitting in front of me about their favourite ports as we were waiting for our gate at MEL to become available.

Final verdict? Good but not great. Loses marks for poor handling of premium pax at international ports, loses marks for silly in-flight PA's, gains marks for on-time performance and gains marks for generally good service on the ground and in the air.

Sorry about the lack of photos, but I wasn't really in a mental or physical condition to operate a camera so early in the morning..!