It all started routinely. The last of my usual four trips each week, this time waiting for my DJ flight to bring me home from ROK to BNE for the weekend. 45 minutes in the air, before getting home.
Upon arriving at the airport, I made a quick stop off at the check-in counter to pick up a boarding pass, having checked-in online, but not having easy access to a printer to print the boarding pass out. My favourite ROK check-in angel was on duty; which meant not needing to show ID to get my boarding pass. When you travel in and out of a regional airport once or twice a week, you tend to get to know the check-in staff and the security staff.
My favourite 3A was gone, but I’d settled for 3F (for the non-regular Virgin Australia domestic flyers, rows 1 and 2 are premium economy, and row 3 is configured with premium economy seating, but is sold as economy and pre-assignable only to Gold and Platinum frequent flyers). It turned out to be a bad move. Well, maybe not so. There were certainly some funny parts to come, and the more I reflected on them after the trip, the more I thought I’d write up a trip report.
The check-in angels move to be gate agents once boarding starts, and more than once, when I'm through the gate and walking across the tarmac to the plane, I’ve had fellow passengers ask if I’m airline crew after being greeted by first name by the gate agent prior to me handing over my boarding pass, and then me responding to the gate agent on a equally familiar basis. Usually, they nod sympathetically when I reply and let them know that I just travel too much for my liking, except in one memorable instance when a fellow passenger accused me of lying - I was about to tell him off when I noticed his eyes looking at my stomach level - oops... I’d forgotten to remove my ASIC (airport ID card) which I’d needed for a project I’d been working on immediately prior to the flight.
Settling into 3F for the 45 minute flight, I expected a nice quiet trip home. That is, until Mr DYKWIA sank into 3E with a sigh... For the first of what would turn out to be a common refrain, he said, “I’ve never flown Virgin before”.
One minute later, and it was “I don’t like this plane. It’s too crowded and small. The Qantas planes are much better.” Ummm... this was a Boeing 737, and Qantas only flies Dash-8s and the odd wet leased Fokker 100.
The next minute, and it was “I get treated much better on Qantas. They always save me a seat that’s not in the middle”. Ummm... not hard to do on a 2x2 config, I’d say.
I just nodded and tried to look sympathetic.
Then, it was “Do you know, I fly so much on Qantas that I’m one of their most important customers? They even gave me my own silver frequent flyer card.” I couldn’t resist. “So”, I said, “why are you on Virgin today?” “Because they said Qantas was going on strike and so they booked me on Virgin.” Time to rub it in. “You know, it’s only the mainline Qantas services affected. Rockhampton to Brisbane is actually operated by Qantaslink and they’re not affected by the strikes. And even the rest of the mainline Qantas services are only delayed or combined.” “You mean I could have flown on Qantas?”, with a look on his face as though he was about to ask to be de-boarded. Just then, the last cabin door closed, and we started to roll. “Too late now”, said I, with a smile.
I was treated with a 5 minute monologue about how much he flew, once a month down to Brisbane to meet with his employers. Fortunately, the food service started. “You mean I have to pay for a drink? I don’t believe it. On Qantas we get all the drinks we want free.”
We started our descent, much to my relief, and that of the passenger in 3D. And probably the passengers in rows 1, 2, the rest of 3, 4, 5 and 6.
We lined up for a standard arrival from the north (GLENN or DAYBO - not sure) onto Runway 01. “Why are we going this way? I don’t know where we are. The Qantas pilots are much better. They always fly over the sea and land straight in instead of turning around over land. If I was on the Qantas plane now we’d already have landed coming in over the sea.” I internally debated for a moment as to whether or not to try to explain to him about ATC and approach/landing patterns. I decided against it.
As we prepared to disembark, I pulled out my backpack from under my seat. The one with the QF Gold coaster, and my DJ, TG and A3 gold luggage tags on it. His eyes popped. I smiled and said, “I don’t even fly half as much as some people I know.”
I was tempted to refer him to AFF and FT, but decided not to inflict him on us here...
Upon arriving at the airport, I made a quick stop off at the check-in counter to pick up a boarding pass, having checked-in online, but not having easy access to a printer to print the boarding pass out. My favourite ROK check-in angel was on duty; which meant not needing to show ID to get my boarding pass. When you travel in and out of a regional airport once or twice a week, you tend to get to know the check-in staff and the security staff.
My favourite 3A was gone, but I’d settled for 3F (for the non-regular Virgin Australia domestic flyers, rows 1 and 2 are premium economy, and row 3 is configured with premium economy seating, but is sold as economy and pre-assignable only to Gold and Platinum frequent flyers). It turned out to be a bad move. Well, maybe not so. There were certainly some funny parts to come, and the more I reflected on them after the trip, the more I thought I’d write up a trip report.
The check-in angels move to be gate agents once boarding starts, and more than once, when I'm through the gate and walking across the tarmac to the plane, I’ve had fellow passengers ask if I’m airline crew after being greeted by first name by the gate agent prior to me handing over my boarding pass, and then me responding to the gate agent on a equally familiar basis. Usually, they nod sympathetically when I reply and let them know that I just travel too much for my liking, except in one memorable instance when a fellow passenger accused me of lying - I was about to tell him off when I noticed his eyes looking at my stomach level - oops... I’d forgotten to remove my ASIC (airport ID card) which I’d needed for a project I’d been working on immediately prior to the flight.
Settling into 3F for the 45 minute flight, I expected a nice quiet trip home. That is, until Mr DYKWIA sank into 3E with a sigh... For the first of what would turn out to be a common refrain, he said, “I’ve never flown Virgin before”.
One minute later, and it was “I don’t like this plane. It’s too crowded and small. The Qantas planes are much better.” Ummm... this was a Boeing 737, and Qantas only flies Dash-8s and the odd wet leased Fokker 100.
The next minute, and it was “I get treated much better on Qantas. They always save me a seat that’s not in the middle”. Ummm... not hard to do on a 2x2 config, I’d say.
I just nodded and tried to look sympathetic.
Then, it was “Do you know, I fly so much on Qantas that I’m one of their most important customers? They even gave me my own silver frequent flyer card.” I couldn’t resist. “So”, I said, “why are you on Virgin today?” “Because they said Qantas was going on strike and so they booked me on Virgin.” Time to rub it in. “You know, it’s only the mainline Qantas services affected. Rockhampton to Brisbane is actually operated by Qantaslink and they’re not affected by the strikes. And even the rest of the mainline Qantas services are only delayed or combined.” “You mean I could have flown on Qantas?”, with a look on his face as though he was about to ask to be de-boarded. Just then, the last cabin door closed, and we started to roll. “Too late now”, said I, with a smile.
I was treated with a 5 minute monologue about how much he flew, once a month down to Brisbane to meet with his employers. Fortunately, the food service started. “You mean I have to pay for a drink? I don’t believe it. On Qantas we get all the drinks we want free.”
We started our descent, much to my relief, and that of the passenger in 3D. And probably the passengers in rows 1, 2, the rest of 3, 4, 5 and 6.
We lined up for a standard arrival from the north (GLENN or DAYBO - not sure) onto Runway 01. “Why are we going this way? I don’t know where we are. The Qantas pilots are much better. They always fly over the sea and land straight in instead of turning around over land. If I was on the Qantas plane now we’d already have landed coming in over the sea.” I internally debated for a moment as to whether or not to try to explain to him about ATC and approach/landing patterns. I decided against it.
As we prepared to disembark, I pulled out my backpack from under my seat. The one with the QF Gold coaster, and my DJ, TG and A3 gold luggage tags on it. His eyes popped. I smiled and said, “I don’t even fly half as much as some people I know.”
I was tempted to refer him to AFF and FT, but decided not to inflict him on us here...
