Flying Qantas, Brisbane to Sydney, in a Boeing 737-800
Like
any trip by plane, there is this need to make sure you arrive at the airport
several hours earlier than the advertised departure time.
For
an 8:00 departure, this means getting to the airport at 6:00 or
thereabouts. Then there's the pre-flight
effect, getting up at the crack of dawn, or in darkness, and leaving adequate
time to get from home to the airport.
It
is astonishing just how many things can go wrong on any road that leads to an
airport with the probability increasing exponentially when you are running late.
This
morning, everything goes according to plan.
At
the airport, we have to leave everything to do with our air travel to chance,
as it is a group booking and tackle the service line. Our early arrival ma knew this less of a
queuing nightmare.
Are
we sitting together, yes. The check-in
staff are familiar with the Trip a deal modus operandi, and our baggage is
seamlessly checked through to Beijing.
The only disappointment, that we are in the middle group of four seats on the
A330-200 to Beijing, on a plane that is a 2-4-2 configuration. We seem destined never to get those elusive
two seats.
Oh,
well, back to being a sardine again, only for the ten-hour flight, it's going to be a new sort of
hell. It just depends on how old the
plane is.
The
flight to Sydney is due to depart at 8:10.
Loading started five minutes early.
Everyone is on board and the door closed at 7:58. It looks like an early departure, maybe.
Pushing
back at 8:00. Take off: 8:08. At 8:28 it is estimated that we will be
landing in Sydney at 9:17
Before
that breakfast will no doubt be served in a hurry. Breakfast cereal, just right and a muesli
bar, who said Qantas wasn't trying to keep it's passengers healthy.
Start
descent at 8:56, not far from Newcastle.
On
the ground at 9:18, at the gate at 9:30.
This means we have just over two and a half hours before the next plane
departs.
Travelling
from domestic to international at Sydney requires a bus transfer from a station
near gate 15. All you need is an
international boarding pass and the wherewithal to stand if the bus is full.
It
might only be a short journey but very stop-start and jerky. It's much better if you can get a seat, but...
The
seats are so small they are not designed to sit you and your cabin bag without
being thoroughly squashed. And it's
sitting on the max 7 kg, ten minutes might be just long enough for your
circulation in your legs to shut down
Mine
nearly did, and that last step off the bus could be your undoing, before your
holiday starts. Someone needs to rethink
the means of transport between terminals.
Once
inside the international departures area, you can be overwhelmed by the vast
duty-free store, swamping the other stores, and then on a mission to find a
bargain, don't bother. Some stuff is
cheaper than outside retail, but not by much.
I suspect its more tax-free rather than duty-free ever since we moved to
having a GST.
Probably
what is different is the range of different products you might not necessarily
get outside, but you will be paying a premium for them.
And,
just to underline the great duty-free myth being just that, the bookshop inside
the duty-free zone sells their books duty and tax included. Make sure you buy any reading material,
particularly books, at your nearest Big W store. There they are half the price of what they
are at the airport.
Soon,
we'll be moving to the gate lounge in preparation for boarding. It's not something I'm looking forward to
because it's another middle seat, but this time for ten hours, not one and a
half.
I
wonder what it's like in a Chinese asylum.
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