Anyone flying on Christmas Day?

[AVC]

We're flying on the 22nd, although we did a Xmas day flight a few years ago, but nothing really out of the ordinary. Maybe plus 10% on attitude.

 

[v8Statesman]

Flying CX 2355 25/12 So boxing day most of the flight

 

[Mal Ware]

Flew BNE - PER Christmas day, plane broke down in Brisbane and everyone was put onto the next flight.

Some very unhappy travellers missed their Xmas lunches.

Pilot came out and walked around the plane to speak to everyone and tried to crack a few jokes over the pa system. It was all kind of awkward.

Food was actually disgusting and I did not eat it. Some sort of Rice and yellow coconut chicken thing, terrible.

The highlight was the 15 dollar voucher which was used at Hungry Jacks prior to departure.

Nothing special about Qantas on Christmas day . HO HO

 

[Bofter]

It seems not many people were flying Virgin on Christmas Day from Denpasar to Perth. One passenger on the 1.30pm departure and two passengers on the 6pm departure. It was an interesting experience for my fiancee and I being the ony passengers on the later flight. The cabin crew and pilots also helped to make it a memorable occassion, in a good way of course.

 

[seriouslyash]

I flew ADL-MEL on Christmas day on QF. The cabin crew were all wearing hats and tinsel! Also in J class we were given Chocolates inside a Bon-Bon shaped box. I know on some JQ and QF aircraft the crew put up decorations. All in all a very festive and relaxed flight.

 

[mella2007]

It seems not many people were flying Virgin on Christmas Day from Denpasar to Perth. One passenger on the 1.30pm departure and two passengers on the 6pm departure. It was an interesting experience for my fiancee and I being the ony passengers on the later flight. The cabin crew and pilots also helped to make it a memorable occassion, in a good way of course.

Incredible!!! The only two on the flight?? WOW!! Did you get upgraded What was the experience like?

 

[Simo]

Incredible!!! The only two on the flight?? WOW!! Did you get upgraded What was the experience like?

Priorty Boarding would have been good.

 

[Bofter]

Check in - we found the counter and were addressed by name. The guy then informed us that as a Christmas present he had blocked off all seating in the plane except for ours. Looking at the seat map before checking in we had wondered just how many passengers we going to be on board, and now we knew. I think check in opened on time 3 hours before the flight, and then was able to close 2:45 before the flight. We had allowed plenty of time before our flight to account for how busy I understand that airport is normally and also to fit in a shower.

Outward immigration - upon landing in Bali we had paid our $20 each to avoid the queue, well this time the process was faster as well as free. I think there was one person ahead of us.

Airport lounge - fairly empty, but not completely

Gate lounge - just us and staff across three gates. Our cabin supervisor came and introduced herself and updated us on the flight ahead. Boarding was invited by name with no PA announcement required. There were no purple ropes in sight, but priority boarding seemed to still work pretty well regardless.

On-board - well we were the only two passengers, with four cabin crew and it was Christmas Day. We were very well looked after, right down to little touches like home-made Christmas biscuits. Cabin announcements were generally personally addressed to us.

Inward immigration and quarantine - quite a different experience to what I have often had in Australian airports, with a choice of counters with staff waiting. Nevertheless the quarantine guy still managed to destroy the packaging on our painting that we had brought back, by rushing in a way that took longer in the end.

Long-term carpark bus - points to Perth airport for their bus decorations, very comprehensively done. We weren't alone on the bus, sharing it with our crew and also I think passengers on the Jetstar flight from Bali, of whom there looked to be about a dozen on board.

Overall - I think someone was questioning recently the value of a points redemption in economy. It may be a bit hit and miss, but you can still have some particularly incredible travel on such flights, especially when combined with a 30% off points offer.

Thankyou to Virgin for still running the flight as a normal flight and not trying to shift us and running the flight empty. We had time for only a short holiday with a deadline to get back to work (yesterday) for my partner, so a change would not have suited us well.

 

[cmon0005]

Check in - we found the counter and were addressed by name. The guy then informed us that as a Christmas present he had blocked off all seating in the plane except for ours. Looking at the seat map before checking in we had wondered just how many passengers we going to be on board, and now we knew.

So was it in Business or Economy?

 

[docjames]

I am incredulous that they would not cancel one of the two flights at least (3 pax for 300 seats!). I guess the outbound must have been very full and/or the cargo hold might have been loaded to the hilt to make the return leg economic to operate.

 

[Bofter]

I am incredulous that they would not cancel one of the two flights at least (3 pax for 300 seats!). I guess the outbound must have been very full and/or the cargo hold might have been loaded to the hilt to make the return leg economic to operate.

We were told that the outbound flights were 99% full and that the aircraft and crew were needed back in Perth to keep shuttling people to Bali on more full flights. I am glad that they chose to operate the service still as a revenue service (in a loose sense of the term) rather than boot us off and re-position the aircraft empty. I am not sure what the marginal cost was to run it as a normal service over re-positioning empty, but I doubt that our couple of beef pies and a can of coke really showed up strongly compared to the fuel bill.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Dr FM flew on Christmas morning SYD-CBR - nothing special on flight, but on arrival into Canberra they were handing out christmas hats and freddo frogs to the kids - not sure if it was QF, or the actual terminal people.

 

[Pollywaffle]

I flew MEL-SYD on QF.

We got the chocolate filled cracker mentioned earlier but that was it. Even flying J, it was nice to have a spare seat beside me, so I guess that was a bonus.

The only downer was the clouds in Sydney. I sat by the window to get those iconic views when flying in from the north but we were in the clouds for so long and did not see anything until close to the end of the flight.

 

[flyingfan]

I flew MEL-SYD on QF.

I went in the other direction. Coming into SYD on a relatively lightly loaded international flight (on which the FA went around with an iPad, greeted me and offered a whole row of presumably middle seats to myself - I was happy with 24A and a shadow), we were very quickly out the hall. At domestic transfer, I asked if we could get onto an earlier flight (fare N). She said normally that's not allowed but as it was Christmas they were permitted to move us.

At the domestic J lounge, a couple of Christmassy cakes. Thunderstorms shut down the airport for a while. Once we got underway to MEL, some of the FAs had reindeer antlers etc, and one was wearing an apron saying 'Santa's Helper.'

 

[Rhiannon]

Well, I did my JASA Status run (except I spent 2 nights) SYD-BNE-DRW on Xmas Day. SYD J lounge staff wore Santa hats. On both legs, cabin crew also wore Santa hats. Disembarking BNE, all pax were handed cellophane bags with chocs. On BNE-DRW leg, we had tinsel on the overhead bins and a few other decorations. As extras, were given the chocolate bon bon others mentioned, plus mince tarts with coffee; all J class pax (5 or 6 of us) were given bottle of wine. All children on board were given a plush toy with tag by the CSM who really got into the spirit of things. Landing in DRW, gifts with our names were on luggage carousel - mine were QF pyjamas. So it was quite a festive mood for both flights. (Good thing, as I had got up at 4.30 AM to make the flights). Glad others had pleasant Xmas trips.

 

[Kefuan]

A bit late, But i flew BRIS -> TSV on Christmas Morning.



Ended up getting a golf umbrella which I unfortunately lost of my travels.... Pictures speak for themselves though. Made the day a bit more enjoyable!

 

[samh004]

A bit late, But i flew BRIS -> TSV on Christmas Morning.

Ended up getting a golf umbrella which I unfortunately lost of my travels.... Pictures speak for themselves though. Made the day a bit more enjoyable!

Pretty cool, especially considering more than a few have complained about the baggage handlers at TSV!