jdevereux3's Marvelously mad mileage run across Australia

[jsd]

jdevereux3's Marvelously mad mileage run across Australia

After 12 months of planning it came down to this: 7 Australian cities, 3 different airlines and a healthy mix of Business and Economy travel. All crammed into one short week. Am I crazy….Yes, but the old saying stands “Why go direct when you can connect”.
The trip ended up something like this, however due to the volcanic ash cloud a few flights and times have ended up a little different from their originals:

HBA-MEL (QF)
MEL-SYD (QF)
SYD-BNE (QF)
BNE-ROK (QF)
ROK-MKY (QF)
MKY-TSV (QF)
TSV-CNS (QF)
CNS-MEL (JQ)
MEL-PER (DJ)
PER-SYD (DJ)
SYD-MEL (JQi)
MEL-HBA (QF)



So enough with the intros, here comes the report


Qantas Airways QF1010
HBA-MEL
June 06, 2011
Departure: 06:05 (scheduled) 06:02 (actual)
Arrival: 07:20 (scheduled) 07:11 (actual)
Seat: 1F - Business
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800 VH-VXE Coffs Harbour

I dragged myself out of bed at around 0300 to prepare for the day ahead, my lift arrived 20mins ahead of schedule so I arrived at the airport at around 0350, some 10 minutes from check-in opening, I tried to use my Q card to check in at the pole but because of the number of sectors on the booking it directed me to the service desk so I lined up at the front of the business class queue… from my understanding Qantas domestic check-in opens 2 hours prior to the flight departing, that was fine by me. So 0405 rolled by in no time, so did 0415 and 0435, at around 0440 a lone check-in agent rolled up and looked surprised to see someone in the queue. I was quite frustrated at this point as I’d now been standing in line for around 45 minutes but I didn’t say anything as I wasn’t going to let it ruin the day ahead.

Shortly after I had all my boarding passes for the day in my hand and I went to the Qantas Club to grab some breakfast and see if I could secure better seats for the flights in economy which was quickly done with a smile by the Club attendant.


VH-VXE warming up for its day ahead after overnighting in HBA

I left the Qantas Club before the boarding call was made as people that live in Hobart generally have no idea of how to form and orderly queue and I like to be the first on-board anyway.

Boarding was started and I was quickly trudging across the tarmac to our aircraft form the morning, once on board I was quickly offered a welcome drink of orange juice while we waited for all the riff-raff up the back to board and we were soon on our way to Melbourne a few minutes ahead of schedule.


Mmmmm, So much legroomies in Business Class

Once in the air the CSM introduced himself and the rest of the crew and breakfast was soon served. Today’s meal was a simple warm quiche with a mixed museli served with tea/coffee or a cold juice which I downed in no time (The quiche has gone missing from the picture below, I wonder how that happened ).


Business Class breakfast - pretty stock standard fare


Sunrise over the Bass Strait

After the meal was done I tuned into the IFE which filled in the rest of the flight, we arrived into Melbourne 4 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time, disembarking was fairly quick given I was in row 1 and all .

More to come soon....real soon


Next Up: Qantas Airways QF414 - Melbourne to Sydney

 

[drron]

Well done.A great start to the TR.
The patented QF009 foot shot definitely gives you away as a Tasmanian-shorts in Hobart at 0600 in June!!!

 

[ejb]

Well done.A great start to the TR.
The patented QF009 foot shot definitely gives you away as a Tasmanian-shorts in Hobart at 0600 in June!!!

However would QF009 ever wear black shoes with white socks? I think not!

Great start to the TR however.

ejb

 

[drron]

However would QF009 ever wear black shoes with white socks? I think not!

Great start to the TR however.

ejb

Yes definitely Tassie style.Of course up here in QLD it would be white shoes with black socks.

 

[turtlemichael]

Yes definitely Tassie style.Of course up here in QLD it would be white shoes with black socks.

Also, the socks with thongs look is making a comeback here just for those cool winter mornings.

Good start to your report. Good you got in lots of GCC walking while doing it!

 

[QF029]

Boarding was started and I was quickly trudging across the tarmac to our aircraft form the morning, once on board I was quickly offered a welcome drink of orange juice while we waited for all the riff-raff up the back to board and we were soon on our way to Melbourne a few minutes ahead of schedule.

View attachment 2543
Mmmmm, So much legroomies in Business Class

Given the denim shorts above, I hate to think what the riff-raff were wearing!

 

[Nigelinoz]

Given the denim shorts above, I hate to think what the riff-raff were wearing!

Probably denim shorts with the other type of thong.:shock:
Cheers
N'oz
BTW Good start to the TR,looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Misha]

Given the denim shorts above, I hate to think what the riff-raff were wearing!

hahahahaha - is it horrible that I thought the same thing? :mrgreen:

I caught up with jdevereux only an hour or two ago to go to the movies (poor kid is stuck at the MEL airport hotel for a week!!!) and can vouch that he was wearing normal clothes - long-pants jeans at that! he even had a scarf on so I think getting up at 3am means he grabbed whatever was on the floor next to him, not realising a) it was cold, b) he was in Tassie and c) he'd be entering the QP ?! lol

looking forward to the rest of the TR - he has plenty of time to write it up too

 

[ric_melb]

Looking forward to more of the report. So many flights; must have taken some planning.
A week at Melbourne Airport Hotel; surely is painful when travel arrangements go awry.

 

[jsd]

Qantas Airways QF414
MEL-SYD
June 06, 2011
Departure: 08:00 (scheduled) 07:59 (actual)
Arrival: 09:30 (scheduled) 09:20 (actual)
Seat: 26D - Economy
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300 VH-ZXG Karratha

Now I don’t ‘hate’ the 767s, In fact I prefer taking the largest aircraft possible so I purposely picked this particular flight. But Qantas really need to send these things on their way, from what I recall ZXG is one of the ex-BA birds which are apparently newer than the rest of the 767 fleet. To be honest you can’t really tell the difference anyway, in short AJ really needs to get his priorities straight and use the first 787 deliveries for QF instead of JQ…

Boarding was like any other early morning flight from MEL, the flight was not totally full so everyone was on-board rather quickly and we pushed quite a few minutes ahead of schedule only to be held up by ATC which saw us eventually in the sky 1min before our scheduled take-off.

The seatbelt sign was quickly extinguished and the crew sprang into action, being in the first row of the main economy cabin I received what was to be my third breakfast of the day rather quickly….and it disappeared rather quickly too, but I still managed a picture of the half eaten meal, we were served Rolled Oats and an Apple and Cinnamon Muffin with Orange Juice, I must admit it was quite tasty for an economy meal.


Economy Breakfast - Add a warm pastry and it would turn into a J breakfast

The meal trays were soon collected and I tuned into the IFE again for the rest of the flight as I normally do, the selection on this flight was a little more interesting than the last flight as the news had been loaded onto this tape (something which is rarely done out of HBA). We landed around 10 minutes before schedule so I had a few more precious minutes in the Qantas Club in Sydney.


Looking out of the Qantas Club in Terminal 3 over towards the International Terminal


Next Up: Qantas Airways QF516 - Sydney to Brisbane

*Glares at Misha* Happy now?

 

[ozmille]

Interesting trip report. Makes me want to leave on a jaunt myself. The Mrs. would kill me though

 

[Fantic125]

Probably denim shorts with the other type of thong.:shock:
Cheers
N'oz
BTW Good start to the TR,looking forward to the next installment.

If JD's going to continue with the shorts he could at least wax his legs...

 

[Misha]

*Glares at Misha* Happy now?

Seriously, it took you 24 hours to write that?! .. What - do you type with your toes? :mrgreen:

If JD's going to continue with the shorts he could at least wax his legs...

LMAO! I thought the same thing - but being a young'un he's full of hormones - would just grow back in a day, and who wants to deal with in-growns on a status run? :shock:

 

[TonyHancock]

Excellent TR. Photos are great.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Given the denim shorts above, I hate to think what the riff-raff were wearing!

OMG, I think you must be related to Shrek, I am forever trying to wreck those shorts in the wash
Great TR so far

 

[samh004]

Great TR so far, I wonder where I make an appearance

 

[Misha]

Sam: I've insisted that he refer to me in this TR too ... favourably of course, else he'll be swimming with the fishies...

Not worth reading if you don't think you'll get a mention


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[jsd]

God you people are hard to please

I am wearing jeans at the moment. 'Twas a wise decision given that MEL is freezing...

Sent from my Garmin-Asus A50 using AustFreqFly App

 

[Misha]

I am pleased to say that after catching up with J "Jorts" Devereux this morning in the MEL Lounge - it seems what with all his experiences this trip report will only get better.

Alas, I am sad to announce he was indeed wearing the shorts again - yes with the white socks and black shoes!

Can someone please call Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

[Grooba]

Nice trip report there sir, looking forward to the rest!