dajop said:
As far as the guilt thing goes, it crossed my mind at one point. Have used the new MEL FCL lounge three times - flying TG, NZ & SQ respectively but not yet whilst flying QF.
However on the third visit I had no pangs of guilt as I'd just had 11 QF domestic sectors in the previous 2.5 weeks - most in K class or above. Swings and roundabouts.
I was reading this thread this morning prior to heading for Mumbai (interesting trip - more on that later) and noted that you have been in the FCL without flying on QF - what is your secret? I tried this when flying NZ recently and was kindly advised that I needed to be on a QF flight on the day in question.
When reading through the "rule book", this backs up the FCL staff not letting me in. Do you you have a special relationship with the MEL team? Any hints appreciated.
As for todays flight, we were late leaving SYD as the inbound aircraft was late and then the caterers decided the 333 next to ours should get our meals and that we should get those for the PVG flight. Funnier still... on our first sector to DRW (enroute to BOM) we had 3 Chinese speakers and I was told that the PVG flight had 1 - go figure!
Well when we finally got to DRW, we had a touch and go landing due to wind sheer, so we went around again - same deal. The pilot was very informative at every step and he advised us that if we didn't get down the 3rd time, we'd be off sightseeing around Kimberley. Well it was lucky number 3.
Our departure didn't fair much better, as the expected sea breeze never eventuated and the temp was around 33 degrees. We were hot and heavy. They offloaded a fair amount of freight whilst waiting for the temp to drop - that gave us 1 degree of relief. We then taxied around the airport for a while burning off more fuel to get us a little lighter still. The temp had now dropped under 31 degrees and and off we went! Something a little different!
One thing the captain mentioned when he was explaining the delay on the ground in DRW (individually to all in business), was that next year QF will go direct with the smaller 332 (when they get them from Airbus) as it has a large centre fuel tank, negating the DRW stop. Back to the days of the 743 direct flights! Can't say I'll miss the DRW stop, however the crew said they will - back luck them I say! Maybe the BOM-SYD flights will have a better chance of departing on time.
Does anyone know if the 332's that JQ have are equipped with the extra tank and have the capacity to fly the SYD-BOM sector? I recall hearing that they might, however the issue was that they needed a strengthened floor to enable fitting of the Skybeds? Is this correct and if so is this why they were palmed off to JQ?