Trip Planning: Connection, Drive or Y?

[Leroy87]

I'm doing some planning for a trip to South West WA from Melbourne.

I'd not paid much attention to it before, but QF run a 3xWeekly PER-BQB service (Busselton regional). It doesn't cost any more points to tag the flight on, so why not see what lines up?

I can get J awards on the A330 on QF761 (0640 MEL - 0850 PER) but sadly not on QF763 (0905 MEL - 1115 PER). QF1750 departs PER for BQB at 1230.

So here's the question. Would you...

- Take the J awards and the longer connection (~3hr sitting in Perth Airport)?
- Take the J awards and just do the drive down (~3hr sitting in a car), skipping the tag flight?
- Fly Y with the ideal connection?

A few other data points that may or may not sway the answer:
- I'm non-status, so there's probably no lounge access in PER unless I can scrounge some passes.
- Car hire out of BQB is surprisingly plentiful and much cheaper than Perth Airport (go figure?).
- Primary school aged kids are in tow (x2)

Would love some ideas!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I would be taking the early morning flight anyway! The one arriving at 1115 is a bit too tight, especially if there are any delays leaving MEL.

Three hours isn’t that long… time to get off the plane, and boarding half an hour before departure. Only leaves a couple hours.

 

[Leroy87]

I would be taking the early morning flight anyway! The one arriving at 1115 is a bit too tight, especially if there are any delays leaving MEL.

Three hours isn’t that long… time to get off the plane, and boarding half an hour before departure. Only leaves a couple hours.

Not a bad call actually.

Having just looked at recent timings for QF769 (the 0905 departure at this time of year) there's two instances in the last 10 days alone of it being late enough to completely miss the connection!

One 1244 arrival and one 1307 into PER (both due to delays leaving MEL).

That may have neatly answered the question .

 

[dajop]

Assuming Jetstar nonstop is not an option you’d be interested in? That would be the other alternative that completely cuts out the connection.

 

[Daver6]

I assume you're hiring a car regardless? Is there much of a difference in hire car costs?

Where are you actually staying?

The drive from PER to Busselton airport is more like 2.5 hours and a pretty easy drive. Drive from BQB to say Margaret River is a good 45 minutes, but if you were to drive directly from PER its just on 3 hours.

Depending on your destination, I think I might just drive it from PER. You're not saving any time by flying.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Assuming Jetstar nonstop is not an option you’d be interested in? That would be the other alternative that completely cuts out the connection.

I have friends from WA that live down that way… very excited with the launch of the direct flight.

Except they say it’s not uncommon for it to be cancelled, and JQ puts you on a bus to PER anyway

 

[dajop]

I have friends from WA that live down that way… very excited with the launch of the direct flight.

Except they say it’s not uncommon for it to be cancelled, and JQ puts you on a bus to PER anyway

Looking at sources I can’t find any cancellations over the last 6 months but there was one instance in April where it got to BQB, got down to 5800ft and did a circuit before continuing to PER. With no onwards flight, and another where it diverted to PER directly before continuing on after 90mins on tarmac. Presumably weather related and BQB doesn’t have the gear for landing in difficult weather.

Not that I’m advocating Jetstar for the OP, it is after all Jetstar, but just throwing it out there.

 

[DrJ]

As a long time PER resident who frequently indulges in trips to "Margs", I would only get the flight to BQB if you can get comparable hire car rates down there (and from my sad experience, regional hire car hire is almost always more expensive and/or comes with ridiculous max daily included kms). More power to you if you can, but otherwise hire a car in PER - it is all dual carriageway (as of this April - long overdue!) to Busselton now from PER, akin to BNE city to Noosa (though slightly longer)
(EDIT - just saw your point re car hire out of Busso - amazing, perhaps go with it! Pity LEA (or MCY for that matter) can't follow suit!)