No, I haven't done this flight before. Thanks for the heads up. I did scratch my chin I must admit when I noticed that they do this route with a 738 ...
What was your main concern with the DJ flight? I'm assuming it would be the relatively long flight (6.5-7hr?) on a rather small and noisy 737-800?
Well I will preface this by saying I was reasonably hung-over after a large 'last night of my holiday' the night before, and this was 18 months ago (when it departed about 1pm), but....
- I stood in the check-in line for about 15 minutes (I was the only one in the check-in line) while I watched the local Thai ground staff sitting on (yes
on), the luggage belts chatting to each other in the typical Thai style. When I was eventually called forward I was advised that the flight had been oversold and they were waiting till the captain arrived to see if I could travel. I found it difficult to believe the captain would decide on the pax numbers - there either was a seat for me, or there wasn't, it was hardly as if the Captain was going to decide to put me in the jump.
- more waiting, captain eventually turned up and I was issued with a boarding pass.
- I was also surprised to see that they ran a 737 on this route due to its length (I'm fairly sure this is VA's longest 737 route).
- Flight 100% full with the usual braided, tattooed, Singha t-shirt bogans wanting to hit the booze ASAP.
- Aircraft fitted with LTA but we were advised that this could not be switched on until we were over Australian land (more than half-way through the trip).
- Movies could be purchased but they were not on demand - they were clumsily announced by the CSM when they started.
- Trolley service excruciatingly slow. I fell asleep after take off, woke up over an hour later and they had still not offered my row food or drinks (I checked with the people next to me). They did several trolley runs throughout the flight, some you could only purchase food, some you could only purchase drinks (no explanation as to why).
That was 18 months ago and it may be very different now. I see it's now an overnight flight with Biz retro-fit. I would strongly encourage points/pay upgrade to Business class if possible - it's a lonnnnnnnnng flight for a 737 and I would
never do again in a 737 Y.
