What Happened In 2008

[Bundy Bear]

I thought I would add a few trip reports that I have written over the last year. Parts have been posted on the internet over the past year but as I prepare to finish my Round The World Trip for 2008 I thought that I didn't really want to just post it to the 20 or 25 people who might read it. I needed a bigger audience if I am going to put in that much effort.

Each trip is separate and is written for an international audience. Yes some of you might know the details but no names/usernames will not be used, but you could probably work out who they were.

Some of you write fantastic reports so there is no way I can compete with that but some parts might be interesting or even useful for your future travels.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Not Long In Longreach

This trip came up from something I read on the other board. Qantas were offering a heap of specials to lots of locations one being Longreach(LRE) Longreach is home to the Qantas Founders Outback Museum the main draw card for aviation enthusiasts and also home to the Longreach Stockmans Hall of Fame. It would have been nice to travel over a Saturday and Sunday but Qantas weren’t offering specials for Sunday travel so I settled for a day off work. 3 of us made the booking back in July and surprising all 3 of us went.

8 Feb 2008
BNE-LRE QF2534 3C Dash8-300 VH-SBV

Made it to the airport about 7:00am having already online check in at the 24hour mark the previous day, it was fast through security as per Australian standards. .

The lounge has a good selection of cereals; fruits; toast tea/coffee and juices. I wasn’t sure what to expect on the plane so I ate while the other 2 travelling companions talked.

Boarding was called about 20 minutes before flight and we walked out to the aircraft. Plane was 28/50 so a few spare seats. As this was the first flight for day they do an extended warm up period for the engines. Take off was to the south pass the international terminal where I could see the Emirates plane due to depart. With a jet you usually don’t turn until after you cross the river about a 1 mile from the airport but this being a slow prop plane we made quick turn to the northwest on ascent to 18,000 feet. There was a snack offered on this flight with a fruit and nut bar(they are now on my don’t eat list) with water and Tea and coffee was also offered.

After 2 hours we landed at Blackall and 13 passengers deplaned. We were required to wait on the plane while 1 passenger boarded.

There wasn’t much service on the 25 minute run to Longreach although the flight attendant did make a magazine run offering Time which I had a quick read through. I didn’t expect anything on the 25 minute run so it was nice that the FA made a magazine run in the first place.

After the short 25 minute flight we landed at Longreach to find the place green due to recent rain. All the photos of the area show almost no grass and brown dust. You know its Longreach as there is a parked Qantas 747-200 and 707 which we would later visit.

We stayed at a local motel which was only a 5 minute walk from the airport. Yes I mean walk there isn’t a lot out there, where we dropped out bags and headed back to the airport and the Qantas Founders Outback Musuem.

http://www.qfom.com.au/

Museum is rather small but has some interesting videos on the 747 and the finding and putting back into flying a worn out 707. There was quite a bit of really early Qantas history. Qantas were based in Longreach from 1921 until 1936 when there maintenance base and head office was transferred to Brisbane. Interesting Qantas brought a DH50 and then later built some DH50s under license from de Havilland Aircraft.

We did a tour of the 747-200; it was very informative and then did a tour of a 707, the first jet Qantas brought from Boeing in 1959 tour which wasn’t so good.

You know you are in Longreach when you land and find a 747 and 707 next to the airport.

After spending a 4 hours at the Qantas Museum we walked over to the Longreach Stockmans Hall of Fame. http://www.outbackheritage.com.au/

The fascinating story of outback Australia is told through our five major galleries: Discovery; Pioneers; Outback Properties; Life in the Outback; and Stockworkers

They mentioned it was fascinating; no not really, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours.

I guess the main reason for the trip besides the miles was the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, which was well worth the effort.

9 Feb 2008
LRE-BNE QF2533 3B Dash8-400 VH-QOD

Getting up at 8:00am and walking to the airport and boarding the plane at 9:00am; where else can you do that in the world?

Longreach is the smallest airport I have ever visited 1 room, no security check.

The Dash 8-400 seats 72 but it would have been lucky if it was even half full.

Today’s flight was a snack a bread roll with ham, lettuce, cheese and cucumber. Tasted really good served with water and tea/coffee. No inflight in the dash 8 so read the Time magazine that I started during the flight from Blackall to Longreach.

We landed back in Brisbane after one hour 30 minute of flight time. Dash 8-400 is certainly quicker than the Dash 8-300 and cruises a few thousand feet higher, this flight being 25,000 feet. There was good seat pitch so the plane wasn’t uncomfortable at all, I just wish Qantas added this much room into there Boeing 737s, which they seem to want to cram with as many passengers as possible.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Sydney First Class

This trip came up from something I read on another board. One of the posters had mentioned a good sale fare between Sydney and Brisbane on the international flight. This required a trip to Sydney on the Friday night then an early morning wake up to head back to the airport to catch a flight to Brisbane on Saturday.

The flying wasn’t the main reason for the trip but to meet up with other travelers who had access to the First Class Lounge. Qantas in May 2007 had refurbished their First Class Lounges in Sydney and Melbourne and that any platinum’s traveling could access the First Class lounge including a guest.

22-Feb-2008
QF555 6:45PM – 9:15PM 737-400 VH-TJJ

Three of us had made a booking to travel down to Sydney the night before so we could catch the flight back in the morning. We had checked in at the 24 hour mark only to find that we were all seated in different parts of the airplane, thanks Qantas NOT even after I rang them to request a combined booking, their explanation is that Qantas don’t allocate seating until 5 hours before the flights. Yeah sure. :evil: When I online checked in the plane was already ¾ full. I was lucky enough to get a middle seat next to one of the travelers and hoped that the third one could check in at the airport and try and steal the third seat in our row from the other passenger.

The 3 of us met after they came off the train from the city, and then we proceeded to the Qantas Lounge/Pub to have a few drinks and get the third members seat reallocated.
.
Qantas announced a 15 minute delay so that really meant another drink before heading off to board the plane. I was drinking light beer no idea what the others were drinking. 5 years ago Qantas set up a bar area and served free alcohol and wine after 1:00pm. Thanks Qantas.

A hot meal of spaghetti with salami in tomato sauce was served soon after leveling out at 30,000 feet. More beer or wine was available with the meal, its not as though 1/3 the plane hadn’t already been to the lounge. The 737-400 was showing its age with the worn looking seats and the CRT TVs displaying the nightly news bulletin and a short feature program. The 737-400 has a really fiddly channel controller built into the side of the arm rest which makes it hard to work out what channel you are listening to. The one redeeming feature of the old 737-400s is the extra seat pitch, bonus as I was in the middle seat.

The flight landed 15 minutes late so we really didn’t make up much time. I caught a taxi to my friends place while the other 2 caught a cab into the city. The cab drive asked how long I was in Sydney; “One night” he thought I was out of my mind, next time I think I will just lie and say for the weekend. It was good to catch up with a friend but If you really want a good night sleep then don’t try and drink 1 liter or more of anything with caffeine in it or you will be wide awake most of the night.

23-Feb-2008
QF175 9:55AM – 10:30AM 747-400 VH-OJE

So I got out of bed at 6:30am caught the taxi to the airport at 7:00am and arrived at the airport about 7:15am. Qantas economy check in had mass crowds while the business class lounge had practically no one, so check in was done within about 2 minutes. Qantas standard club membership gets you access to premium check in but it doesn’t get you First Class Lounge unless traveling first class or are platinum flyers.

I met up with the 2 who I had flown down with the previous night plus one other to guest me into the First Class lounge soon after check in. Being an international terminal requires a walk through passport control and then an extended security check. No trouble for domestic passengers but it takes a bit of extra time.

Regular visitors to the First Lounge know the way around and so straight after security you head right and up the stairs to the lounge areas bypassing the mass shopping area.

The First Class lounge attendants check and scan your boarding passes to make sure you have access.

The feature of the lounge is the great tarmac views, nice furnishing with plenty of room with each small group of chairs block off from other areas, I guess to keep the noise down.

The lounge has a restaurant area where you can sit down and are quickly served by one of the attendants. The breakfast service is started with a glass of juice and then a waiter comes round to ask for your choice of breakfast from the menu. Tea and coffee is then served and if desired champagne. The service reminds me of a first class restaurant the only hint that you are at an airport is the very nice plastic knife, and of course the tarmac view.

Had a quick look around the lounge, views of the airport to the south

There was interesting clicky departure board, it was already 9:10 but they didn’t seem to want to update to include our flight even after the others had departed.

The Singapore Airlines A380 taxied past and so we waited for it to take off. Boarding for our flight was called at 9:30.

Our flight was called for the second time when the SQ A380 started its take off roll. I have flown in the A380 but never seen the taxi off from the outside.

The funniest thing from the day was when we were making our way to the gate was getting our names called over the terminal "These passengers have not boarded QF175, please to immediately go to gate 36 and read out a list of 15 or so names, your flight is now closed and waiting for immediate departure.

Boarding a virtually empty 747-400 especially as we were the last passengers to board was very quick. We then had to wait for the last connecting passenger. They had gone through passport control instead of going to the transfer desk, we had to wait for the airline to find the passenger or find the bags. The passenger won.

Take off was to the south before making a left hand turn over Botany Bay.

The cabin crew served a snack service including small cake with water and tea/coffee.

The 747 was one of the better AVOD systems but I can’t remember any of our group ever turning it on. I guess we were all to busy talking to each other to check.


We never did catch up any time on our way to Brisbane, and landed just before 11:00am. We had to walk through passport control then walk around to the other side of the baggage screening before we gave them our boarding passes before we could leave the secure area.

Going to Sydney for breakfast was definitely worth the $193.00

 

[Bundy Bear]

Jetting Off to Hamilton Is + Dashing Home

At the end of last year I traveled down to Lake Macquarie in New South Wales to compete in Australian titles in a small boat. Just before Easter I got the chance to sail in a larger boat which was having there Australian titles in Hamilton Island North Queensland. To get the boats to the venue we had the option to drive the 1300 Kms and then catch the ferry to the Island or load the 5 boats onto a specially built trailer and fly.

4 out of the 5 teams decided to take the fly option while one team drove and took the 5 boats with them.

Here is a picture of the 5 boats, each boat is 126kgs so it took about 6 hours to properly load the boats and each boat associated gear and sails onto the trailer.

I used points to redeem the complete journal; which was 1 way on Jetstar and a return on Qantas. I should have saved the Qantas miles on the one way Jetstar flight as it was still showing $109 2 days prior and the cost was approx 12,000 points. The return journey on Qantas was definitely worth the 18,000 points, as such a complicated trip is hard to purchase.

BNE-HTI 29-MAR 11:50 – 13:30 17D VH-JQJ

We got to the airport at 8:30am as the original scheduled departure time for this flight was 9:45am. Check in and the check in assistance advised that there has been a delay for 2 hours due to the operating aircraft.

When flying Jetstar this gives me access to the Qantas lounge for me and 1 traveling companion. The Qantas club lounge attendant was nice enough to allow me 2 as I was traveling with the one I was sailing with and his girlfriend. Nice way to spend 2 hours as the flight had been delayed. This would mean that we would miss an afternoon sail but it worked out better as the boats had been unloaded without us. They were 120kgs each.

Jetstar flights had the usual buy onboard; so I filled up with food at the Qantas lounge and only brought a can a coke on the plane. My 2 traveling companions each brought something to eat and drink.

We landed into Hamilton Island after a fairly bumpy flight and we landed into clouds and wind. Not really the kind of weather you want for an island holiday.

The racing

Accommodation was good which also included all you can eat breakfast. The hotel overlooked the ocean so it was only a short walk from where we were staying to where we sailed.


We had a mixed bag of results: when it was windy we were a bit slow but when it was lighter we were a lot faster due to our lighter crew weight. We ended up 15th out of 28 boats with our best result a 2nd.

HTI-CNS 5-APR 9:00 – 10:25 2C Dash8-300 VH-SBB

Time to head home; Getting up at 6:30am is not a fun way to end a holiday but I was looking forward to the flights today. I had brought the complete journey using Qantas points and one of the return flight options was a multiple stop Dash 8 flight to Brisbane.

Check in took about 10 minutes.

Both Jetstar, and Virgin Blue fly in narrow body 737s and A320 and Qantaslink serve Hamilton Island with Dash8-300s.

The Dash 8 comes in from Cairns and flies directly back to Cairns and its used as a connection for the Qantas and Jetstar overseas flights from Japan as the usual safety briefing was also repeated in Japanese.

Service was morning tea which consisted of a piece of cake; water and tea or coffee. Flight arrived and left on time.

I had more than 2 hours to spend at Cairns airport. The airport is under going some renovations which are a good idea. To change planes it takes about 10 minutes as the arrival building is separate from the departures area.

Another stop by the Qantas lounge; I got knocked back from getting a visit last time as I was flying Macair using Qantas miles back in October. The breakfast menu had been cleared away and the pastries were very filling and the bar serving beer and wine was available from an earlier time of 12:00pm. So after a couple of beers I was right for the rest of the afternoon.

CNS-TSV-MKY-ROK 5-APR 12:50-4:30 Dash8-300 VH-SBV

This is the same flight that continues all the way to Brisbane, I was changing planes in Rockhampton so didn’t get to go the whole way.

Cairns to Townsville had a similar service as the previous flight. A piece of cake; water tea or coffee. Each stop continuing passengers had to remain onboard.

Townsville to Mackay was a similar length flight about 45 minutes. The service this time was lunch with a ham and cheese roll; water and tea or coffee.

Mackay to Rockhampton was back to the standard cake; water tea and coffee. Actually the same type of cake as the Hamilton Island-Cairns flight earlier in the day.

We were about 20 minutes late coming into Rockhampton so I knew I was going to be cutting the connection short. The plane taking me to Brisbane as the Dash 8-400 the same one as I flew in from Sydney to Canberra which has the pink colour markings in support of breast cancer.

Dash 8-300 that took me from Cairns to Rockhampton. No you aren't allowed off the plane if you are doing the all stops route.

ROK-BNE 5-APR 4:50-5:55PM 4B Dash8-400 VH-VOH

The Dash 8-300 was about 20 minutes behind schedule so disembarking at Rockhampton requires you go into the non secured area and then I had to go through security again. I think I must have been inside Rockhampton Airport less than 2 minutes. (can anyone beat that)

This plane was a Dash 8-400 but the plane probably had less than 30 passengers.

The 400 series is a longer and more powerful version than the 300 so take off was quicker and louder and we got quickly to 19,000 feet. Service was completely different to the other 4 flights; actually nice to have something different. Cheese, dip and crackers with water; tea/coffee and surprising beer or wine, not to bad for a short flight service wise.

There is no IFE on the Dash 8s but the cabin crew do come around and distribute magazines, which is a nice touch. I had already read the important parts of the Qantas in flight magazine so being able to browse a copy of the latest Time magazine was nice.

Landing back in Brisbane just before 6 pm we got out and walked over to a bus that took us to the terminal. I guess it probably would have been easier to let us walk to the 100metres to the terminal but maybe they don’t want stray passengers walking around airside.

Now the big question did the bag make it. Yes it did but I was a little worried as after everyone else had got their bags mine still hadn’t come out but after about 5 minutes it eventually turned up.

The return trip was a great use of Qantas miles to be able to take the all stops flight to Brisbane from Cairns back to Brisbane.

 

[Bundy Bear]

YBBN (BNEBrisbane Eagle Farm) to YBAF (Brisbane Archerfield)

Back in July 2008 I got the chance to fly between the 2 Brisbane Airports.

BNE the main airport for Brisbane at Eagle Farm handles your interstate and overseas flights and some charter flights. Over at Archerfield on the southern side of Brisbane is home to lots of your smaller aircraft mainly used for maintenance, charter flights and your smaller aircraft, if you want to learn to fly you would look at Archerfield. In July I got the chance to fly from Brisbane BNE to Archerfield in a small 12 seater plane.

The plane is used on flights out to the mining areas of Queensland and this particular day the plane was being ferried between Brisbane and Archerfield for scheduled maintenance.

The distance between the two airports is 14 miles and the time was just over 8 minutes.

I got the phone call on Saturday evening from my brother saying that the plane was to be shuttled between the 2 airports and was I interested in a ride.

We got to the airport about 2:45PM and the pilot made a call to Melbourne to book in the flight which was scheduled for a departure at 3:10pm.

Our cruising altitude was to be 1500 feet and the approx time was to be 8 minutes and there would be 5 passengers onboard.

The plane was checked and fueled for the short flight, while we waited behind the security fence. Once the pilot had done his checks and fueled the aircraft we were ready to board.

No individual security checks of each passenger were required, although the pilot does require an Australia security clearance card to get through the gate with the passengers.

So just after 3:00pm the plane was started up; we listened to the ground briefing advising us of the current wind conditions before we moved off the stand and headed over to the main runway.

We waited while a Virgin Blue 737 landed before we could line up on the runway.

We took off and made a turn to the left; before straightening up and heading south west towards Archerfield.

We flew round the south of Archerfield before we did a 180 degree turn before lining up on the south eastern runway.

Overall a very pleasant flight with some great views, pity there was a bit of rain in the area.

The taxi back to Brisbane airport took about 40 minutes.

It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon; have some nice photos and great memories of the flight.

 

[Bundy Bear]

BNE-MEL via Sydney for F Lounge(Not)

As usually happens you have nothing much planned for some weekends and other weekends you have 2 things on the same weekend.

Someone from the other board(Australian version) they know who they are: was organizing a weekend in Melbourne with the main draw the Saturday dinner with a representative from Virgin Blue frequent flyer program Velocity and a representative from American Express.

Also on the same weekend was the Sydney Boat Show, usually I go to Sydney on the Friday and return on the Monday, but as Friday was the start of the new month I do the accounts and look after the financials I sent someone else to take my place and as they were going to be there Friday I thought they could stay there Saturday so I could go to Melbourne.

2 Aug 08
BNE-SYD JQ18 A330-200 VH-EBE


When flying I never look for the most straight forward option. Jetstar International has a daily Brisbane Sydney flight; which I thought would be nice to catch, its an extension of a flight that comes in from Kansai.

Check in for international opens 3 hours before and closes 1 hour before departure so you can’t be late or you miss the flight. I got to the airport soon after 7:00am.

Jetstar and Qantas are one of the same but Qantas still allow Jetstar passengers to access Qantas lounges, Jetstar only offer buy on board food options so the Qantas lounge offers a selection of toast and cereal plus tea and coffee so its a good idea to fill up before you Jetstar flight.

Flight was called for boarding about 8:30 for a 8;55am departure. The flight has a lot of Japanese as the flight as flown in from Japan. Each cabin crew announcement is in English followed by Japanese.


Food is buy on board so I brought a hot drink and thought that I should pre-order some food for my flight to Japan in November as part of my RTW.


2 Aug 08
SYD-MEL JQ35 A330-200 VH-EBE

I brought this ticket separately as Jetstar currently don't offer BNE-SYD-MEL on the one ticket, so after arriving in Sydney I had to exit passport control then wait for check in to open for the next flight. I wasn't the only 1 crazy enough to do this routing as another person from Brisbane joined me on the same flights, but thats not all; another person was joining us in Sydney; yes they have First Class Lounge access, but that lead to a problem; First Class lounge are very strict on who they let in. Well I made the choice that if only one was allowed in it wasn't going to be me as the other person who travelled down to Melbourne with me from Brisbane spotted it first.

So I went to the J lounge myself had a few beers and looked over the dissappointing lunch selection.

Flight was nothing great even after I paid business class for it; I was thinking of the miles. It was nice as business class of 38 seats probably had 5 people in it including the 3 of us. It almost feels like your own private jet as the back of the plane seemed rather full.


Being afternoon tea they served nuts, biscuits with nuts and a chocolate bar with nuts and choice of beer and or water. If you didn't like nuts or couldn't eat nuts you were out of luck.

Exit the aircraft was fast but then we had to wait for baggage to arrive(not mine) and then had to go through passport control again

3 Aug 08
MEL-SYD QF73 B747-438 (NOT) Cancelled

I had originally booked this flight to access the Qantas First Class Lounge, no I don’t have access but I had got another Platinum to book the same flight. This flight continues onto San Francisco. Due to high fuel prices and probably lack of customers the extension was cancelled and passengers were transferred onto domestic flights.

MEL-SYD QF418 B767-338 VH-OGI

I transferred onto an earlier flight so that I could be in Sydney a few hours earlier. I caught the skybus from the city out to the airport which takes about 20 minutes.

I arrived late at the airport at 8:30am and I notice that the new boarding time was pushed back to 9:00am with a 9:20am departure. Thanks Qantas at least I could get some breakfast at the Qantas lounge. The 8:00am flight serves breakfast, while the 9:00am flight is only a snack. It being Sunday I thought the sleep in was more important, and I could rely on the Qantas lounge to provide a range of breakfast cereals. If I got up in time. or the plane is late.

The Qantas flight morning tea included the standard 2 biscuits and the choice of tea or coffee and water.

5 Aug 08
SYD-BNE DJ207 B737-700 VH-VBJ

Usually I don’t fly Virgin Blue but my mum had a Virgin Blue credit to use so I really couldn’t fly Qantas just for the points. No lounge no priority check-in how was I going to cope.

Getting up at 5:00am for a 7:00am departure sounded like a great idea on paper but the reality of getting up at 5:00am it is no fun. At least when leaving for the airport at 5:30am there is no traffic so it was a fast trip to the airport. I went to the machine to get a boarding pass then stood in line for about 10 minutes to check in my luggage, if I was in the US I could have carried my luggage onboard and Australia is very strict if you luggage weighs more than 7kgs.

Through security and down to the departure area took about 5 minutes. I was in search of some breakfast; mainly McDonalds and the pancakes, they moved the McDonalds from where it used to be they now replaced it for a bigger Virgin Lounge.

Flight got called at 6:30am with boarding soon after. Boarding was from the front aerobridge or via the rear stairs. I took the rear stairs option. All Virgin 737s now have Live2Air TV and they were already available for free viewing of the 24 channels. The TVs were on from the time from when we boarded the plane until about 15 minutes after take off so a good 30 minutes to watch the morning news. After they requested payment I switched it over to the in-flight tracker

Brought a drink; and watched skyshow while reading the Virgin Blue inflight magazine.

Landed back in Brisbane just after 8:00am caught a cab to work and got there just before 9:00am; not on time but good enough to get work done for the day, so getting up at 5:00am was useful in a way; I guess you can always sleep when you get home. :shock:

So that was the end of it, no first class lounge even after I went to all the trouble of booking all those flights. Dinner on the saturday night was worth going to Melbourne but not sure if going via Sydney on the way to Melbourne was such a good idea. Sleeping in; Sunday morning was definitely worth it, so I picked that fly time perfectly.

 

[Bundy Bear]

To The Kiwi Mainland

Well more precisely the New Zealand south island where the other board was organizing a weekend in Christchurch. I had previously been there before but only for 12 hours so thought it was worth a trip back.

What was I thinking I have just moved house, maybe I needed some time away from the new house mates. I got an airfare on NZ using some Air NZ airpoints, Emirates flies out of Christchurch late in the evening on an A340-500 a new aircraft type for me which connects nicely with the last Qantas evening departure to Brisbane burning some Qantas miles. The other board had organized a tour of the Air New Zealand Engineering Services ANZES so why wouldn’t I go.

THU 18-SEP BNE-CHC NZ804 A320 ZK-OJO 18F

I finished a days work and organized a taxi to the airport, well I got my work done but the taxi didn’t wait around long and decided to ignore my address and parked himself outside another building, oh well their loss. Got to the airport a little late but check in was deserted so was checked in quickly and head downstairs through security and passport control Air New Zealand have 4 departures after 6:00pm, one to each of the New Zealand major cities of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. The international terminal is under going some renovations; previously passport check was done first followed by screening but has now been swapped. The rest of the centre of the departure area for screened passenger is still a bit unorganized. The food court got moved and extended; I guess with so many low cost airlines flying I guess you need some food options before your flight.

Boarding was started on time and progressed quickly; I am never in a hurry to board an economy seat so I waited until more than half the passengers were already onboard. I boarded the plane and asked for the rego of the aircraft and they tell me it’s ZK-OJO and they proudly announced its one of the first Air NZ A320s to have the new Individual PTVs fitted. I had heard that they were in the process of fitting IFE to the A320 fleet but wouldn’t have thought I would be so lucky to get on one in its 2nd flight.

Unlike the earlier NZ IFE this was available soon after the safety briefing was completed so it was nice to be taxing around the airport and lining for take off watching an episode of The Simpsons. After watching The Simpsons I went and watched a movie, knowing that I had to start it quickly to get it finished in the short 3 hour flight to Christchurch.

Dinner was served about 1 hour into the flight with the usual 2 options. I had a shepherd’s pie which included a salad and a small cake for dessert. Beer and wine was available with the meal and tea and coffee were provided later in the flight. The Air NZ food portions are small but sufficient for the short trip across the Tasman.

What else is different besides the TVs, Air NZ have removed 6 seats from the aircraft so the plane now has 146 seats instead of 152 and the light brown leather has been replaced with regular seat fabric which is a dark shade of green which saves a heap of weight with the installed IFE.

Landed in Christchurch and went through passport control, I had some work stuff and some relatives gifts to be posted once I reached New Zealand but I had no idea what was in the gifts so I declared them at customs inspection; the work stuff was quite big so I thought it easy to declare it all and let them have a look through it.

I got through the easily and exchanged some money for New Zealand dollars and caught a taxi to the hotel.

Spent 3 days in Christchurch, Friday saw a supplier, then went and did a tour of the ANZES which was good, went for a walk and then had dinner at a Thai restaurant.

Saturday did a tour to Akoroa a small holiday port about an hour south east of Christchurch. Had lunch and went on a harbour cruise to go and look at some dolphins and other marine life.

SUN 21-SEP CHC-SYD EK413 A340-500 A6-ERH 38E

After a really good weekend it was time to head home, our last planned activity was at the Antarctica centre which is only a 10 minute walk from the airport.

Check in was quick and then you have to pay an airport depart tax of NZ $25.00 or AUD $22.00 which suited me fine as I was down to my last NZ $5 which I was planning to buy a drink with. I didn’t check any bags in as I was connecting to another flight and didn’t want to have to stand around waiting for the luggage to appear.

Once I had got through security and passport control the terminal was pretty much deserted with only a few passengers waiting for our Emirates flight to Sydney.

Boarding was called at 5:30pm, it was a little warm seems like they were saving money on not operating the air conditioning. Plane was more than half full; and for some reason I didn’t get a aisle and some how got stuck in a middle seat.

The Emirates A340-500 has the new ICE system that is supposedly the best in the world; I was playing around with it but it didn’t seem to be operating properly and I was thinking this can’t be the best IFE system in the world; the number of TV channels and music channels available was way more than I needed. On a short flight you don’t want to spend the first hour trying to figure out the IFE choices. Emirates have the forward looking camera but it didn’t appear to be operating. After about an hour then cabin crew announced that the system needed to be reset. So after 10 minutes it was ready to use again, and this time the menus were laid out better, there was still the 1000s of choices but least navigation was easier.

Dinner was more than enough for the 3 hour flight across the Tasman but I can’t remember what it was but they had run out of my choice and they had to go and get some more. The other choice was fish which I don’t like and was worried that they wouldn’t return; as they served the tray without the hot meal portion. What ever it was it tasted good.

Landing was on time so I had plenty of time to go through duty free and passport control knowing that I would have plenty of time for my connecting flight. Looking for duty free took a few minutes but I found it; duty free a bottle of Jim beam 1,125ml is $26 duty free, 700ml in the shops is $35.00, so its worth a 5 minute stop to go and buy some. Without any baggage I was through in about 15 minutes after landing.

SUN 21-SEP SYD-BNE QF556 737-800 VH-VYE 7A

I checked in at the Qantas international terminal domestic connections area. It was quite busy with a number of overseas flights arriving and passengers catching domestic flights home. I was advised that there was a 20 minute delay on my flight, I said no problem which kind of surprised the check in agent, I was in no real rush and I was just glad that I didn’t have to rush to catch a connecting flight and of course I had Qantas lounge access for this flight. As I had brought some duty free I checked one of my bags, it wasn’t as if I had to catch another flight tonight, and it would save me from carrying it.

Check in is at the international terminal where security screening is done; it’s a separate area to international and then you catch a bus to the domestic terminal, the bus travels past some maintenance area where the highlight of the bus trip was the A380 which had arrived into town that day, sorry no pictures.

You would think that the last flight of the night would be empty. To my surprise it was packed as I had a middle seat but the guy who had 7A asked if I could move to 7A, no problem for me.

The last flight includes a cold snack; I think some biscuits and a cold drink; either water; juice or a coke. This plane was fitted with the new grey colour fabrics.The airport was almost empty I got my bag that was checked in and went home. My new place is only 20 minutes from the airport so I was home in record time for me.

 

[anat0l]

Nice snippets of your travels, Bundy Bear. Here's to more travelling and great experiences to come.

Advantage of your TRs is definitely terseness. Longer TRs are good reading material but take a long time to write. Trying to write well and from the heart also takes considerable effort.

 

[Bundy Bear]

You Don't Get to Fly Like This Everyday

Another trip report, which I haven't even posted anywhere.

Well my brother is a professional skydiver so he knows a few pilots and last year I got to go flying in a Cessna 180. Yes it makes a Metro23 look big in comparision.

We took off from Redcliffe Airport and followed the coast up to Bribie Island before turning around and heading back along the same way.

As you can tell we had another passenger aboard, no I didn't leave them there for the journey although with the right sticky tape I probably could have.

So we took off from Redcliffe and did a turn to the north and followed the coast line up to Bribie Island.

Its nice to see your reflection in on the water from that high up.

We were joined by another plane. A Tiger Moth; you may have heard about them recently on this board.

But there was another plane close by as well, who joined us; an Auster, almost the same vintage as the Tiger Moth.

We did a turn over Redcliffe, you can't get these kind of photos from a commercial flight.

Yes the side window was open, which was a bit unnerving at first we hit a bit of tubulence soon after take off but the air settled down so I was able to steady myself enough to take some photos.

Yes I probably should have cleaned the windscreen before we left but still a nice photo.

Flight lasted about 30 minutes.

Not many words but I have about 100 photos. Camera was an Canon 400D with 75-300mm lense; so the plane wasn't that close but still close.

Next up the RTW.

 

[Bundy Bear]

The Round The World

This will be in a few parts.

This trip was organized back in April using 140,000 Qantas miles all travel in economy. My plan was to spend the weekend in London and then go to Amsterdam for a trade show, then after the trade show head over to Dallas and have a week with my cousin and enjoy Thanks Giving before flying back home.

All the flights were booked online, using the easy to use Qantas website; all flights I wanted were available including a flight on Finnair on the MD11. My original schedule was to have flown via Sydney on Jetstar but that flight was cancelled and I ended up flying via Cairns, in the end a better choice, shorter flight and breakfast on the Qantas flight to Cairns.

About a month before departure I decided to change some flights. I changed to a later BA departure to Amsterdam; I wanted a bit more time in T5 and I changed from a direct LAX-BNE flight to a flight via Sydney on the Qantas A380. With the financial crisis the A380 wasn’t filling up so fast and Qantas released some seats for points redemption.

13 NOV 08
BNE-CNS QF798 737-400 VH-TJH
SEAT 9A
BOARDING TIME 0640
GATE 18

Getting up at 5:00am for an early start wasn’t so bad as Brisbane doesn’t observe daylight saving time as it was light when I got up. I left the house around 5:30 for the quick taxi ride to the airport.

The Qantas terminal was already busy at this time of the morning. Check in at the business/Qantas club check in took a few minutes. I received a boarding pass for my flight up to Cairns but I would have to check in with Jetstar in Cairns for the Jetstar boarding pass. The luggage would be automatically transferred to Jetstar so I wouldn’t have to worry about collecting baggage and rechecking it in Cairns.

Quickly through security and upstairs to the Qantas lounge to wait for the flight. At this hour Qantas have a selection of breakfast cereals; bread; jams and fruit. For the first time there was a barista servicing coffee. With the early rise I thought a shot of caffeine would be a good start to the day.

The flight got duly called and I headed off to the gate. Some of the Qantas gates in the early flights have the local newspaper available, so I grab one of them; something to read on the flight from Cairns to Osaka.

Flight pushed back at right on time at 7:00am but it took about 18 minutes before we took off; slow for Brisbane standards. A lot of flights arrive from overseas at this hour.

The flight up to Cairns included breakfast. The breakfast included; Just Right Cereal, apple, fruit juice, water with tea/coffee served soon after the meal was served.

On the overheads was the Qantas early morning news provided by one of the national TV stations along with 12 audio channels. This aircraft had the new grey interior. Qantas hadn’t tried to squeeze in another row so the seat pitch was still good.

A second drink service of water was distributed just before we commended descent into Cairns. Descent began at 8:52am remembering because the weather had cleared and the Great Barrier Reef could be seen. Landing was at 9:08 so I had plenty of time to change terminals and check in with Jetstar.

13 NOV 08
CNS-KIX JQ15 SOLD AS QF241 A330-200 VH-EBB
BOARDING TIME 11:40am
1220 – 650pm
GATE 5
SEAT 53A

The international terminal is separated from the domestic terminal via a 150 metre under cover walk way. I found the check in area was not too busy but there was a number of Japanese passengers all in a group almost about to join the check in queue so I quickly joined the queue and saved about 15 minutes of waiting around. My baggage was already transferred with Qantas and I just had to show them the passport and was selected a window seat towards the back of the plane.

Departures for all Australian overseas flights all require a departure card to be filled out; which includes details of which flight you are on; where are you spending most of your time overseas and reason for your overseas trip. I don’t know of anywhere else in the world where you have to fill in a departure card.

There was a fairly long line for passport inspection; seems like there was a Cathay Pacific flight departing as well as a 757 charter going off to Asia.

Another visit to the Qantas lounge to fill up on lunch and drinks before the flight up to Osaka. I wasn’t sure what Jetstar were going to serve. I had prepurchased a meal with the flight but it wasn’t really clear what I was going to get. Better to go over fed than hungry.

Boarding began at 11:40am and the flight left just after 12:30pm; load was about 50% and there was spare seat beside me.

Lunch was served after the blankets and digi players were handed out. Each seat had a 250ml water bottle which was a good idea.

The lunch choices were a pork curry & rice or vegetarian curry rice which was accompanied with a bread roll and a biscuit shortbread.

The flight showed 2 movies plus a short segment on Jetstar. First movie was Indian Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull; followed by Sex and the city which I skipped, wasn’t even sure it was on. Jetstar have been running a 30 minute travel program on the cities they serve. Its almost like an Easyjet program but with more of a focus on the location of where they travel to.

There was no inflight snack compared to my Qantas flight to Japan 2 years earlier but thankfully a light meal was served about 90 minutes before arriving in Osaka.

The light snack was a ham & cheese roll or salad roll and a drink.

The flight arrived 6:40pm docked at 6:50pm, the flight was continuing onto Nagoya.

All passengers were asked to leave the plane including those travelling onto Nagoya. We caught a tram to the main terminal, passport control was fairly quick and then I found myself in Japan. Hmm; where to go I had booked some accommodation but hadn't checked what bus stop to use, found it with a bit of trouble its separate to the others and I made it to the hotel and got checked in.

Next up the flights to London via (HEL) Helsinki - which isn't that bad.

 

[Bundy Bear]

14 NOV 08
KIX-HEL AY0078 MD11 OH-LGB
BOARDING TIME 11:20
GATE 5
SEAT 54D

My main reason for going via Osaka was to try out the Finnair MD11. I woke up around 8:00am Japan time, 9:00am Brisbane time. I went downstairs to get some breakfast. What surprised me the most about the outside was the amount of haze; glad I live in Brisbane. The breakfast at the ANA Hotel was nice with a selection of both Western and Japanese style.

I checked out just before 10 and caught the shuttle bus back to the airport. Approaching the airport I noticed that the MD11 had arrived and it hadn’t been upgraded with an A340.

I got to the airport a bit late around 10:30 and was one of the few remaining passengers to check in. Why rush when you don’t have lounge access. Check in was a bit slow but after getting my boarding passes for both flights I went down stairs and through passport control and security. I caught the train out to the gate area. I used the last of my Japanese Yen to buy a drink and some snacks. My previous long day flight I got hungry and thought that it would be a good idea to take a few snacks onboard with me.

Flight got called around 11:30am: took some pictures with Freddie Jr and the plane in the background.

Got onboard; and headed down the back of the plane; in economy Finnair have 2 sections; the 9 abreast seating and the 10 abreast seating in the back of the plane. I was in the back half of economy.


On the seat were a blanket and head phones. Head phones are really weird. The MD11 uses the single prong but the headsets that are used have the dual prong and so you have to fold one of the prongs to make it fit into the seat arm. Very weird, the Japanese person next to me had the same problem until I showed them you could fold back one of the prongs, I wonder how many other passengers have that same problem.

Flight left on time and the third engine started up, probably not much difference sound wise compared to a 767.

The flight tracks north across Japan and across Korea before turning left and heading across the top of Russia. The flight goes a far way north; and what is surprising is that the sun actually sets half way through the flight, it appears again as you head southwest through Finland before landing.

The IFE is the basic kind with 8 channels of radio with an overhead TV; the flight starts off with news from BBC World and then 2 movies are shown. The first movie is Mamma Mia. The movies are in English with Japanese subtitles.

Lunch is served about an hour out from Japan. Picture here.

The meal was chicken and rice; the meal was quite good; better than I had expected; the strangest part of the meal was the cold green noodles, I just added lots of pepper.

The FAs brought around drinks every hour so at least we didn’t go thirsty. There was also a tray of biscuits and small chocolate bar in the galley.

Our flight landed at 3:10pm but it seems to take ages to be allowed off the plane. You are herded along a series of corridors which then splits into 2, one for those staying in Helsinki and those that are connecting to other flights. Seems like a few flights from Asia fly into Helsinki about the same time For the connecting passengers we are sent through a security check and then those that are connecting to non European long haul destinations like UK are then into the international concourse. Those passengers that are flying on flights through out Finland and Europe are directed to a passport check.

What was good is that you could use Euros to buy a drink and feed the internet kiosk so in a way it was nice that the European currency had included Finland.

Another nice feature was that my Nokia mobile phone was home.



14 NOV 08
HEL-LHR BA0799 757-236 G-CPER
GATE 32
SEAT 18A
BOARDING TIME 16:45

There were only 3 or 4 gates on the non Schengen area. I could have caught the earlier Finnair flight to London but I thought it would be nice to be on a British Airways aircraft, even though I was on a British Airways flight the lounge is operated by a third party so no access for Qantas lounge members.

It was nice to be on a familiar airline after spending 10 hours between 2 countries that you don’t know the language.

Somehow I missed the first boarding call for the flight and at about 5:00pm I thought I would go and check to find that boarding was well underway and there was only a few people left in the queue.

The flight was only about half full, it was interesting to notice how many business class seats there were. I was in 18A with 18B free and someone in 18C

We departed at 5:18 and went through the clouds and into a darkening sky. The sun had set almost an hour ago but being further away from the equator the twilight lasts longer. Finland time is GMT + 2, and the flight was scheduled for 3 hours and 5 minutes.

The service on todays flight was a choice of 2 sandwiches, Ham and Tuna or Egg and Mushroom, neither choice was inspiring so I took a guess and had the Egg and Mushroom one, Tea/coffee; soft drinks; and beer were available. Two older guys looked after the business class cabin and two younger women looked after the economy cabin. After the meal service I went for a walk to the back of the plane. There is a FA galley between business and economy and a FA galley at the back of the plane with a mid station lavatory. What is interesting is that there is no IFE TV or radio, Australia we live in the lucky country. The story I got is that most passengers now use there MP3 players and so there is no need for IFE on these 2hr flights.

Our flight landed just before 6:00pm for those passengers with European or British passports no immigration form was required to be filled out but for others then you had to fill one out. Fairly short form asking the usual questions of where you are staying and what is the purpose of the visit. You would have thought that with T5 open then we would have docked at an air bridge. Firstly the business class passengers were first off the plane then it was another 5 minute wait for the economy class passengers to be allowed off the plane. The reason for the delay is that there was a separate bus for business and economy passengers. So after we were all on the bus it was through a concrete mass of T3 then off the bus and through another walk way. Yes really well organized this. I reach passport control and as there was only a few non English passport holders I was at a passport officer pretty quick, then he asks me all these questions. What was I doing in the UK; how long was my stay; where have I flown in from, was someone picking me up from the airport, where was I headed tonight. Get over with the questions as I was in a rush to catch a bus and I didn’t want to wait around for another hour. It was now 6:40pm(4:40am) Australian time and I really didn’t want to miss the bus at 7:00pm.

Finally with the questions answered and the passport stamped it was off to find the bus station; I had previously used the tube x 2 then train to Croydon but there was a bus that ran every hour for 2GBP. It was fairly easy to find; there is arrows for the underground and another arrow for the bus station. I reached it just before 7:00pm and then waited, and waited; it was now 10 past and I hoped I hadn’t missed it. I sent a few text messages and one reply was “What do you expect for a 2GBP bus”, by about 7:15pm I was less worried as there were a few passengers like me waiting for the bus so the more anxious they were the more relaxed I was. Bus showed up just after 7:20pm, I made it to Croydon about 1hr 40 minutes later and made sure I didn’t fall asleep.

Saturday

Got up at a reasonable time; had some breakfast, went to the post office; they are as bad as they are in Australia and then got a lift to the train station to catch a train down to Brighton for the day. I caught up with a friend from Australia and met 2 friends who I had I met in previous trips to the UK. Welcome the UK; it was dark by 4:00pm, thankfully the sun came out for about 5 minutes, and I was told to enjoy it as it won’t last long. It didn’t.

Sunday

I went into London for the day, first I went to catch up with my Australian friend and his wife, secondly I went and caught up with another friend and did a tour through the Tower of London; what can really stuff up your thinking is when the Underground shuts down a tube line for the day for maintenance, so much for planning without checking that there was going to be a service disruption.

About 2:30 I got a call from another friend who was going to be at Gatwick airport from 6:00pm until about 11:00pm

So after a nice early dinner at an Indian restaurant the daily London pass was upgraded to include a trip out to Gatwick and back. I arrived at Gatwick Airport and proceeded to the check in area for Ghana International Airlines.

FT user B747-437B was standing around looking important and so after 10 years and a few emails back wards and forwards I was finally able to meet him. After a drink and a long chat it was time for me to head back to Croydon. I have been pretty lucky with trains to and from Gatwick Airport so within 10 minutes a train turned up.


We even got Freddie Jnr a boarding pass.

17 NOV 08
LHR-AMS BA434 A319 G-EUOG
BOARDING TIME 1120
SEAT 22A

My flight wasn’t due out until 11:55am but it’s almost a 2 hour journey across town to get to Heathrow. I caught the train and the tube back to the airport, peak hour on the bus was going to take about 2 hours and as the bus station is closer to Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and I would have had to make a train transfer it was easier to catch the train.

So train to Victoria then a transfer onto the tube line then another transfer further up to catch a train that was going to Heathrow Terminal 5.

Heathrow is big and all shiny and new. I checked in with an agent; they were most annoyed that I didn’t use the machine like everyone else. She begrudging gave me a boarding pass and suggested that I use the machine next time.

Through security and then a walk around the terminal, I headed over to the BA Terrace Lounge North,

Flights are never called in the lounge so you have to be aware of the boarding times of your flight. The lounge had a good spread of food and a fridge full of different English beers, it was only 10:00am but according to my laptop it was telling me it was 8:00pm beer time.

15 minutes before boarding time I thought I had better go and find the gate for the flight, which ended up on the southern side of the airport.

The flight was very full and for some reason my lack of Qantas status gets me a seat in the last row of the plane.

Service on todays flight was a chicken wrap with drinks available, now they are an endangered species. Landing was at the far runway, so long taxi back to gate.

Passport control at Amsterdam Schiphol is pretty straight forward; does it look like you in the photo yes; no questions asked and the passport is stamped and you are through.

I brought a ticket from the train ticket office after first trying to buy one at the long distance counter; they don’t sell you one, and then went and caught a train to the exhibition centre.

Monday was set up for the show and a good chance to catch up with some suppliers.

Tuesday – Thursday was the show so not much to report there.

Friday we caught a train from Amsterdam Central to Dordrecht to see the manufacturing plant of one of our suppliers. The train we were first on was heading to Brussels, so its interesting how small Europe is and how easy it is to get between countries.

More too come; just not now.

 

[Bundy Bear]

22 NOV 08
AMS-LHR BA423 G-EUPP
DEPART 7:25
GATE CLOSE 0705 D16
SEAT 16A

Saturday I got up early and caught a taxi to the airport. Price was 35 Euros and I was at the airport soon after 6:00am. After my last flight on BA I thought I should try the check in with one of the machines. For flights to the US require you to type in the address of where you are staying; not so good if you have hidden the address in the centre of your bag. I typed in some fake address; well the suburb was right but the street number and street name were fake.

I then waited inline to drop off the bag; the person in front of me got turned away and they needed to check in with the machine before dropping off the bag at the counter. I was issued 2 boarding passes. I went through passport control and then went in search of the gate. In big bold letters across the boarding pass said flight closes at 7:05am and as it was already 6:45am I wasn’t going to try and look for the lounge and instead headed for the gate. While waiting at the security screening at the gate I was asked to do a survey on Amsterdam airport; they asked a few questions about why I was here; why had I chosen this airline did I use any facilities; and did I use any of the lounges.

After the survey I was through the security and picked up an English newspaper and boarded the flight. As it had been snowing during the night then our plane would need to be de-iced. This was a first for me as you never see it in Australia, they say de-icing only takes 10 minutes but you know the delay is more than that. Not such a big problem as I had more than 2 hours at Heathrow.

Interestingly in the passenger beside me was someone who worked for KLM and he had been trained to use the de-icing machine; he explained the procedure and time they like to get the procedure done in.

Once we were de-iced we took off and headed across the English Channel. A breakfast roll was served on this flight, a similar size to the one on the way to Amsterdam.

22 NOV 08
LHR-DFW BA193 777-236 G-VIIL
BOARDING 1025
SEAT 33F
GATE A10

After deplaning at the gate I made my way through an area that British Airways called flight connections, they check to make sure you have an onward ticket, they may have checked that you had a passport but the onward ticket was the important bit, after that it was upstairs through security and into the concourse.

This time I would try the Southern Galleries Lounge; the Southern one has an area for First class passengers so it’s up another floor to the business class lounge.

There was quite a good spread of morning cereals and toast. The fridge was also available which had a good selection of beers and soft drinks. Got to love eating cereal and having a beer with your breakfast.

I again kept a watch on the departure time so about 20 minutes from boarding I went in search of the gate. The gate area didn’t look like the regular boarding areas and you had to walk down stairs to another waiting area. This was a bus gate and so we got on the bus and headed away from T5 and it seemed like it was over near T4, well it probably wasn’t that far but you get the idea. It is pretty strange to board a 777 via air stairs. I wonder what would happen if BA had the A380 longer air stairs for them.

Boarding took awhile as the bus had to get another load of passengers. This BA777 is fitted with a larger number of business and premium economy seat with only 120 or so seats for economy. One thing I was shocked with was the small screen for the PTV, these things looked like first generation. These were the loop system so only a choice of about 12 TV channels and about 16 audio channels, this does not compared to the ICE system from Emirates.

What was interesting was that during the push back and safety demonstration you could not listen to anything that was on the IFE as then cabin crew would not be able to tell whether you were listening to the safety briefing or your MP3 player because you may have been connecting from your short haul European service as those flights don’t have any Audio Visual.

A hot meal was offered about 1 hour into the flight, it was your standard 2 choices, it was so unremarkable that I can’t even remember what it was.

With the loop IFE you really had to time yourself to watch the movie start times and if you got yourself a bad choice then you were kind of stuck with it. I watched Kid Rock which was ok and tried to watch the Incredible Hulk but it kind of sucked so did some channel surfing not really settling on anything.

A snack service was offered about 2 hours from Dallas. The snack included some sandwiches and pineapple pieces; soft drinks and tea and coffee were available. I remembered more of this meal because it looked small but it seemed to fill the spot and the pieces of pineapple were something different.

We arrived in Dallas on time to find an airport full of American Airline planes, with a few odds including a Frontier plane; you don’t find them too often.

Sunday through to Wednesday was spent doing nothing or going to the shops. On Tuesday I went downtown via DART, yes Dallas does a small public transit rail system but I didn’t meet any locals who actually used it. Tuesday to have a look at the Dallas Zoo yes they had an Australia kangaroo. I spent the afternoon going through the Six floor museum where JFK was shot. In the evening I caught up for dinner with member from the other board.


28 NOV 08
DFW-LAX AA2473 N969AN
DEP 7:05PM
SEAT10A
GATE 73

Time to head back to Australia; first stop was The American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum, which is near the airport. Nice way to spend the afternoon before my flight on American Airlines. I was then dropped off at the airport soon after 4:00pm I checked in at terminal C as my flight to LA was departing from that terminal; I proceeded through security and then upstairs to go and do a circuit on the Skylink;






I had heard about the trAAin which had been replaced in 2005. After a spin around on the skylink I had a walk through terminal C before going in search of the Admirals Club. The Admirals Club in terminal C is quiet big, I had already checked in and received a ticket in row 20 something, at the lounge I was issued a new boarding pass for seat 10A.

The beers were good but the food selection was terrible; lucky we live in Australia, at 30 minutes before boarding I thought it best to go to the gate. Welcome to flying in America so many people crowding around the podium trying to get that elusive upgrade. Just before boarding commenced there was an announcement that all stand by who didn’t have tickets had to go to the next flight to LA as this one was going out full.

Another thing you got to love about travel in America is the amount of carry on baggage. I didn’t have very much and was surprised how much some people had. Flight left a few minutes late then we proceeded to line up for take off; not much to report; it was dark outside so there was not much to see on the ground. Dinner was available for purchase and drinks were available with a snack mix. I didn’t purchase anything to eat as I thought then I would probably full asleep at the wrong time. Showing on the over head monitor was the movie Mamma Mia I had already seen it twice already so why not a third time as none of the music channels were interesting. One thing that was nice about row 10 was the extra legroom; probably not 32 inches but its better than the layout on the Qantas 737-800s. We arrived into Terminal 4 at 8:05pm and I would need to transfer across to the TBIT for my flight to Sydney. Terminal 4 looks a whole lot better than terminal 3 the only other terminal besides TBIT I had been too before.


28 NOV 08
LAX-SYD QF12 A380-841 VH-OQA
DEP 10:30PM
SEAT 55C
GATE 101 TBIT

I arrived into T4 from an AA flight and I thought it would be better to try out the Admirals Club T4 instead of going over to the TBIT, when you showed a boarding pass on AA stock they reprinted your boarding pass on Qantas stock. I received another 2 drink chits. Food was again like back in DFW, not much accept for a few crackers and pretzels.

At 8:50am they announced that there was a bus going to TBIT and if you were on QF12 then you should be on it. I ignored this as there was a bus every 30 minutes and if there wasn’t then there was a bus at 10:00pm. Interesting they didn’t announce the 9:30 bus even when I left the lounge soon after 9:25pm.

I caught the bus to TBIT and then proceeded to the gate. TBIT is a mess seems like it’s under constant construction and it was a mob seen around the gate area; there weren’t enough seats for the number of passengers.

The waiting area for flight was a mob scene; the gate really wasn’t the right size for an A380. After a few minute delay boarding started, I had already been on a previous A380 so the new A380 wasn’t that much of an experience but there were a lot of passengers marveling at the new plane. The plane didn’t look that big but the seats and the IFE screens were very nice. One thing lacking on all Qantas aircraft was the seat pitch, which is one thing I was not looking forward to. The plane departed soon after the scheduled departure time of 10:30pm.

One thing that is very noticeable with the A380 take off is how quiet it is, the lack of noise is very noticeable. Once we got to a cruising altitude the captain came on to advise us of the flight time of just over 15 hours and that we were already cruising at 36,000 feet which would be later increased to over 40,000 feet and that as we were flying this high that the ride should be smooth but reminded the passengers to keep the seat belt sign on while you were seated.

The meal service was soon started by now it was already after 1:00am Dallas time and hadn’t properly eaten since lunch. After flying around the world this would be my only overnight flight. Meal cards were available so you knew would was available; breakfast service would start 3 hours before arrival into Sydney.

SUPPER
Tomato and carrot salad with Balsamic vinaigrette
Choice of
Moroccan style roast chicken with sugar snap peas
Or
Seared tuna with Lime and Pepper sauce served with Rice and Asian Greens

Chocolate Lava Cake
Coffee Tea
Cadbury hot chocolate
Organic peppermint Tea

Coffee tea
Australian sparkling wine
200ml chardonnay Pinot noir by Jacob’s Creek
Beer
Hahn Premium Light
Heineken
James quire Golden ale
Victoria Bitter

A plastic draw string bag was handed out which included some snack items; some chocolates and some dried fruit, there may have been a small bag of chips in there was well. With the water which they also provide the head phones the small amenty pack of eye shades, socks and toothbrush and paste this doesn’t leave much room in your seat pocket which then already cramps your legroom space.

I watched a movie then attempted to get some sleep, this is where some nice drugs to knock you out would come in handy. I tried dosing and I guess 6-7 hours went past pretty quickly obviously not quickly enough as I remember sitting awake wishing this flight would be over.

As the captain advised it was a smooth ride and the A380 certainly is quiet; did I already mention how terrible the leg room was.

As promised the breakfast was served 3 hours from landing, I chose the hot meal choice.

BREAKFAST
Choice of
Continental breakfast
Fruit Juice
Seasonal fresh fruit
Apple muffin Cereal
Or
Hot breakfast
Fruit Juice
Vegetable frittata with sausage and sautéed spinach
Apple muffin
Coffee/Tea.

30 NOV 08
SYD-BNE
QF524 767-336 VH- ZXD
SEAT 33D
GATE 12

Through duty free and customs didn’t take too long; slower than the last time I came back from New Zealand but I had a few hours before my connecting flight back to Brisbane.

I proceeded over to the international connection area and then caught the bus around to the domestic terminal. It was nice to be back in familiar surrounds of the Sydney Qantas domestic lounge. I could have caught the earlier flight but the 12:00pm flight gave me a bit of extra time and 12:00pm flights are lunch.

Boarding began at 11:45 at gate 12, todays lunch included, Ham & cheese on multigrain sandwich; with soft drink; and tea/coffee, it was nice to be back on a regular flight and aircraft that you get so used to with the regular music channels and the IFE playing a familiar short TV programs. Actually the TV show was Two & Half Men and I had seen the exact program on the previous A380 flight, so maybe a bit too familiar; they could have shown something I hadn’t had already watched.

I arrived back in Brisbane at 12:30pm; 17 days 6 hours 10 minutes after I boarded the first flight to Cairns after flying 24,826 miles.

 

[straitman]

Bundy Bear,

An excellent set of reports. How did I miss them first time around I wonder :?:

A piece of trivia for you from post #9. Many of the Auster aircraft had the same engine as the Tiger Moth. De Havilland Gipsy Major

 

[serfty]

Nice report - I had forgotten about it. Good to see it completed..

...

I arrived into T4 from an AA flight and I thought it would be better to try out the Admirals Club T4 instead of going over to the TBIT, when you showed a boarding pass on AA stock they reprinted your boarding pass on Qantas stock. I received another 2 drink chits. Food was again like back in DFW, not much accept for a few crackers and pretzels.

At 8:50am they announced that there was a bus going to TBIT and if you were on QF12 then you should be on it. I ignored this as there was a bus every 30 minutes and if there wasn’t then there was a bus at 10:00pm. Interesting they didn’t announce the 9:30 bus even when I left the lounge soon after 9:25pm.

I caught the bus to TBIT and then proceeded to the gate. TBIT is a mess seems like it’s under constant construction and it was a mob seen around the gate area; there weren’t enough seats for the number of passengers. ...

Given your relatively short transit I would do the T4 A/C but only until it was time for the next Bus that could be comfortably caught and the use the TBIT Lounge until time to head to the gate. Note that for a 22:30 flight, QF would generally start boarding at 21:45 and it can take 15 minutes to get to the gate from the TBIT lounges. This is one of the reasons I like to allow 3+ hours for LAX transits.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Nice report - I had forgotten about it. Good to see it completed..

Given your relatively short transit I would do the T4 A/C but only until it was time for the next Bus that could be comfortably caught and the use the TBIT Lounge until time to head to the gate. Note that for a 22:30 flight, QF would generally start boarding at 21:45 and it can take 15 minutes to get to the gate from the TBIT lounges. This is one of the reasons I like to allow 3+ hours for LAX transits.

There was a thread on FT about the T4 to TBIT transfer that Serfty had explained in good detail making this one of the easier parts of the trip. Thanks.

There is a gate error; on my last flight; what is written in the text is correct not what the heading said.