RB
Established Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2004
- Posts
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There don’t seem to be a lot of domestic trips reported on the forum so I thought I would post this brief report. We were lucky enough to have a long standing invite to visit friends in Melbourne, so we decided to call in the favours and make a visit. Our time was to coincide with the Anzac centenary service and the AFL blockbuster between Collingwood & Essendon (our hosts are members of the MCG & lifetime fans of Collingwood- we would have to excuse them for that!
)
Our Amex carries the bonus of the free flight with Virgin each year & we were able to span 2 years to get 2 SYD-MEL returns. The complication was we live near PQQ so we ended up with 2 separate bookings- this was to later cause us some time wasting but no great complications. SYD is the nearest starting point for flights using the Amex Plat Edge complimentary flights
PQQ-SYD VA 1186
Nothing of particular note here. It has been 3 months since we had travelled & we noted that QF now have new stairs in place at PQQ. Our VA flight was pretty full, pushed back on time & was smooth- we got very limited viewing of the soaked coast with heavy cloud cover in place but our approach from the north let us see the very bloated & dirty harbour in Sydney. The snack on this sector was a small snack bar apparently developed by the CSIRO that boasts it provides 30% of the suggested daily fibre intake.
The separate bookings meant we had to retrieve our luggage & then bag drop & re-enter SYD-probably wasted 35 minutes in the process. The check-in agent advised that if we got the “right” agent in Melbourne on our return we may be able to have our bags checked all the way through! Our light lunch & drink at Movida in T2 was just Ok with the Spanish cava the highlight.
SYD-MEL VA 854
This flight was chockers. Priority boarding seemed to work well for all that were entitled to it but I noted that there were many other passengers who ignored/missed the directive of using the back steps for boarding if sitting back from row 15 & there was a subsequent meeting of the masses towards the back. Again we pushed back on time & only had a short wait for take-off. Our row 15 location seemed to result in confusion among the staff of who had received their snack but the meagre looking offering meant I couldn’t be bothered making a fuss.
We were fortunate that our flight had exclusive use of a carousel & we soon had luggage in hand and waited for our lift outside the Parkroyal hotel. The whole pick up process in Melbourne seemed much more organised, less rushed & the traffic was certainly more civil & quiet than our experiences in SYD.
Qantas stairs in use in PQQ
More to come & I promise the photos will be more interesting!
)Our Amex carries the bonus of the free flight with Virgin each year & we were able to span 2 years to get 2 SYD-MEL returns. The complication was we live near PQQ so we ended up with 2 separate bookings- this was to later cause us some time wasting but no great complications. SYD is the nearest starting point for flights using the Amex Plat Edge complimentary flights
PQQ-SYD VA 1186
Nothing of particular note here. It has been 3 months since we had travelled & we noted that QF now have new stairs in place at PQQ. Our VA flight was pretty full, pushed back on time & was smooth- we got very limited viewing of the soaked coast with heavy cloud cover in place but our approach from the north let us see the very bloated & dirty harbour in Sydney. The snack on this sector was a small snack bar apparently developed by the CSIRO that boasts it provides 30% of the suggested daily fibre intake.
The separate bookings meant we had to retrieve our luggage & then bag drop & re-enter SYD-probably wasted 35 minutes in the process. The check-in agent advised that if we got the “right” agent in Melbourne on our return we may be able to have our bags checked all the way through! Our light lunch & drink at Movida in T2 was just Ok with the Spanish cava the highlight.
SYD-MEL VA 854
This flight was chockers. Priority boarding seemed to work well for all that were entitled to it but I noted that there were many other passengers who ignored/missed the directive of using the back steps for boarding if sitting back from row 15 & there was a subsequent meeting of the masses towards the back. Again we pushed back on time & only had a short wait for take-off. Our row 15 location seemed to result in confusion among the staff of who had received their snack but the meagre looking offering meant I couldn’t be bothered making a fuss.
We were fortunate that our flight had exclusive use of a carousel & we soon had luggage in hand and waited for our lift outside the Parkroyal hotel. The whole pick up process in Melbourne seemed much more organised, less rushed & the traffic was certainly more civil & quiet than our experiences in SYD.
Qantas stairs in use in PQQMore to come & I promise the photos will be more interesting!
