yohy?!
Established Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2009
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Continuing '2010 - The Year of The Mini-Break' my September short trip came about at short notice. DJ, marking their 10th anniversary had very graciously gifted all their staff with up to 20 sectors of heavily discounted flights to use or give to family and friends.
Lucky me it seemed as one of my good friends (who is PB cabin crew) very kindly offered me 2 of his sectors. I decided to go for peace, quiet and relaxation and visit Christchurch with a plan to meander through Canterbury enjoying the scenery and local produce.
Departing on Friday evening's 6:45pm DJ72 flight on 3rd Sept with a scheduled arrival of 11:50pm. I was interested to see how how PB would compare to DJ, first point of difference I noticed was no online check-in or seat selection. Fortunately at check-in I was advised that loads were light and that the middle seat would be kept free for us.
Boarding at 6:15pm I was surprised at just how light the load was, less than half full it seemed. No wonder Go! Fares were still being sold for $160 right up to check-in.
After settling in the CSM came on the PA and completed all the pre-flight announcements in both English and Mandarin, quite considerate really as there were a few Chinese travellers on this flight.
In general I noted that all cabin crew were extremely friendly and hard-working in comparison to cabin crew in Aus. One FA even noticed me and my partner sharing headphones to watch a movie on my laptop and offered to lend us a splitter.
Entertainment offerings consisted of Digiplayers for $20NZD/AUD or in-seat audio (which was shakey and of poor quality on both legs). Food and drink was of the typical DJ buy-on-board variety.
The time passed quickly as I watched 'The Hurt Locker' and before I knew it we were descending into CHC, upon lowering landing gear we heard a very loud sound of rushing air which the CSM was quick to notify everyone of as being normal. I can only assume this was due to low temperature or high winds?
Touching down on-time it was nice to see some duty-free sales going on that actually seemed good value and I quickly snapped up some nice Reds to try. Unfortunately I then noticed that the Smart Gates at CHC were not in operation yet and 2 NZ flights had touched down at the same time as us.
Finally getting through passport control after a good 40min line up we were then subjected to a very thorough search and questioning by customs officers. The reason for the interrogation? - we'd been to HKG twice this year and we were 'on a short trip'. Not a great start or a good impression of NZ to say the least, finally departing at 1am, Hertz pickup was lightening quick as usual then it was off to the Ibis to catch some well deserved ZZZZs.....
As it was, the earth had other plans and at 4:30am we were treated to a cement-mixer ride that was very frightening in our 4th floor hotel room. Lucky for me I didn't wake up, merely incorporating it into my dreams at the time
After the second aftershock at 5, my partner finally managed to convince me that something serious was happening and we made our way downstairs with the rest of the hotel.
Outside on the street in the dark things were ominous, no power or light and just the rumbling and creaking of buildings throughout the CBD. We jumped in the car and headed out of the city (ie went round the corner) to at least get the hire car out of the way of any flying debris. Listening in to Radio National for the next couple of hours was interesting to say the least and the announcer did an excellent job of passing information and keeping people calm. It seemed power was out sporadically across the city and people were beginning to panic about tsunamis and trying to get to higher ground.
We looked at the option of canning the entire trip and seeing if we could leave immediately on DJ71 that morning but unfortunately DJs after hours call centre were not allowed to change our Birthday Fares (only Staff Travel could) and were not particularly sympathetic to the nature of the situation. Being close to the airport anyway we decided to drop-in and see if perhaps the ground staff could help us out but it seemed they had problems of their own with the runway closed and the domestic terminal being evacuated due to structural problems.
Abandoning that idea we grabbed a few hours sleep back at the Ibis then made a booking for the Settler's Inn at Henmer's Spring for the night (excellent accomodation). Packing up we made tracks out of the city, noting that although some old buildings had been affected for the most part the damage was light.
Lucky me it seemed as one of my good friends (who is PB cabin crew) very kindly offered me 2 of his sectors. I decided to go for peace, quiet and relaxation and visit Christchurch with a plan to meander through Canterbury enjoying the scenery and local produce.
Departing on Friday evening's 6:45pm DJ72 flight on 3rd Sept with a scheduled arrival of 11:50pm. I was interested to see how how PB would compare to DJ, first point of difference I noticed was no online check-in or seat selection. Fortunately at check-in I was advised that loads were light and that the middle seat would be kept free for us.
Boarding at 6:15pm I was surprised at just how light the load was, less than half full it seemed. No wonder Go! Fares were still being sold for $160 right up to check-in.
After settling in the CSM came on the PA and completed all the pre-flight announcements in both English and Mandarin, quite considerate really as there were a few Chinese travellers on this flight.
In general I noted that all cabin crew were extremely friendly and hard-working in comparison to cabin crew in Aus. One FA even noticed me and my partner sharing headphones to watch a movie on my laptop and offered to lend us a splitter.
Entertainment offerings consisted of Digiplayers for $20NZD/AUD or in-seat audio (which was shakey and of poor quality on both legs). Food and drink was of the typical DJ buy-on-board variety.
The time passed quickly as I watched 'The Hurt Locker' and before I knew it we were descending into CHC, upon lowering landing gear we heard a very loud sound of rushing air which the CSM was quick to notify everyone of as being normal. I can only assume this was due to low temperature or high winds?
Touching down on-time it was nice to see some duty-free sales going on that actually seemed good value and I quickly snapped up some nice Reds to try. Unfortunately I then noticed that the Smart Gates at CHC were not in operation yet and 2 NZ flights had touched down at the same time as us.
Finally getting through passport control after a good 40min line up we were then subjected to a very thorough search and questioning by customs officers. The reason for the interrogation? - we'd been to HKG twice this year and we were 'on a short trip'. Not a great start or a good impression of NZ to say the least, finally departing at 1am, Hertz pickup was lightening quick as usual then it was off to the Ibis to catch some well deserved ZZZZs.....
As it was, the earth had other plans and at 4:30am we were treated to a cement-mixer ride that was very frightening in our 4th floor hotel room. Lucky for me I didn't wake up, merely incorporating it into my dreams at the time
After the second aftershock at 5, my partner finally managed to convince me that something serious was happening and we made our way downstairs with the rest of the hotel.Outside on the street in the dark things were ominous, no power or light and just the rumbling and creaking of buildings throughout the CBD. We jumped in the car and headed out of the city (ie went round the corner) to at least get the hire car out of the way of any flying debris. Listening in to Radio National for the next couple of hours was interesting to say the least and the announcer did an excellent job of passing information and keeping people calm. It seemed power was out sporadically across the city and people were beginning to panic about tsunamis and trying to get to higher ground.
We looked at the option of canning the entire trip and seeing if we could leave immediately on DJ71 that morning but unfortunately DJs after hours call centre were not allowed to change our Birthday Fares (only Staff Travel could) and were not particularly sympathetic to the nature of the situation. Being close to the airport anyway we decided to drop-in and see if perhaps the ground staff could help us out but it seemed they had problems of their own with the runway closed and the domestic terminal being evacuated due to structural problems.
Abandoning that idea we grabbed a few hours sleep back at the Ibis then made a booking for the Settler's Inn at Henmer's Spring for the night (excellent accomodation). Packing up we made tracks out of the city, noting that although some old buildings had been affected for the most part the damage was light.
