Melbourne International Departures turned into a 200 M Shopping Mall

[serfty]

From another thread:

...
If you would like to look, I have posted some photos on Picasa from my flight to LHR (including AMS snowed in, New MEL Intl termial shopping area, views around HKG and over EU) ...

OT: Aint that a shocker - walk after passing emigration there's now a 190 metre switchback to get to the departures concourse :evil:

After passing Security check and the emigration Passenger now are veered to the right into a hall about 100 metres long.

This hall is lined with "Duty Free" (but not markup free) shops.

There is no signed indication of how to reach the departure gates, but if you peer ahead an a little left you may spy the exit at the far end.

Avoiding the stores you arrive at the exit to find it is not really an "exit", you do a U turn to the left and need to pass another perhaps 90 metres of retail in the other direction before arriving back close to emigration. :evil:

Like most regular travellers, I am aware that duty free is generally not worth purchasing at Oz airports so this is basically annoying.

It has doubled the length of the walk from emigration to the lounges.

All it does for me is to re-enforce my endeavor of avoidance of all things retail in Oz Airports.

 

[kpc]

From another thread:After passing Security check and the emigration Passenger now are veered to the right into a hall about 100 metres long.

This hall is lined with "Duty Free" (but not markup free) shops.

There is no signed indication of how to reach the departure gates, but if you peer ahead an a little left you may spy the exit at the far end.

Avoiding the stores you arrive at the exit to find it is not really an "exit", you do a U turn to the left and need to pass another perhaps 90 metres of retail in the other direction before arriving back close to emigration. :evil:

Like most regular travellers, I am aware that duty free is generally not worth purchasing at Oz airports so this is basically annoying.

It has doubled the length of the walk from emigration to the lounges.

All it does for me is to re-enforce my endeavor of avoidance of all things retail in Oz Airports.

A couple of weeks ago, I got completely lost at Mel International departures...took me ages to find the QF F lounge:shock:....now I know it wasn't my hopeless sense of direction:shock:

 

[anat0l]

It won't be long before they get rid of all the directional signs and use up any remaining floor space for the Duty Free shop...

"I'm sorry, did you say you had a plane to catch and you're on final call? Well, can I interest you in this new fragrance, perhaps a gift for your wife..."

 

[tuapekastar]

It was a little like a (long lasting) maze when I went through a couple of weeks ago, though there was still construction going on. Hopefully(!) when construction is complete it'll be a little more straightforward, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[dot]

I think the path through will remain pretty much the same once the construction is finished - the key difference will be that the 'rat-race' that you have to walk though currently to get from the new bit (see photos below) will open up. I think the distance to walk wont change very much. They didnt appear to have made much progress since my previous trip (3 weeks ago) although the new check-in area land side (that you walk past when going from the QF F Check-in to the security checkpoint) was operational on Saturday (they were using it for V-Australia check-in on Saturday morning) but closed on Sunday when I checked in for QF29.