BNE | Jason Around the World

Brisbane to Auckland on the Emirates A380 in first

Airports, Australia, First Class, Flights, South Pacific Tour 2014 2 Responses »

Nov 232014

Despite it being an early morning flight, I decided I would take the train to the airport in an attempt to be fiscally responsible. Actually, what sold me on the idea is the fact that there was a Starbucks across the street from the train station. Proper caffeination is essential for travel. Was there a few minutes before they opened at 6am, was caffeinated and out the door by 6:15 and on the way to the train station. Only about a 10 minute wait for a train, not too bad:

The other great thing was that I only had about $5 left on my transit card, but they only check the balance when you enter the system. The ticket was way over $15, leaving my card with a balance of nearly $10 negative when I checked out. I guess this is part of the reason there’s a deposit to get the card. Bargain!

Check-in with Emirates was a bit of an unpleasant experience. Likely because there was nobody waiting to be served, the first class check-in person had called over someone from the economy line. Someone was a group of like 15 Chinese tourists. Unfortunately the business class line wouldn’t help me either, because there were people waiting to check-in for business class. All told, I was in line almost 20 minutes to check in, which is pretty much inexcusable for first class.

Off to the Emirates lounge, which is shared with first and business passengers. Somewhat surprised Emirates doesn’t offer separate lounges.

That said, with Veuve on offer and a great buffet. it’s better than any first class lounge in North America, so can’t complain too badly.

Only had about 15 minutes in the lounge, and then it was time to board. Boarding was done directly from the lounge, which is always a nice touch.

Emirates flight 434
Brisbane, Australia (BNE) to Auckland, New Zealand (AKL)
Depart 8:25, Arrive 14:35, Flight Time 3:10
Airbus A380, Registration A6-EDM, Manufactured 2010, Seat 2K

This was to be my second time on Emirates A380 in first. The first was a complete “accident.” I was flying on a United award from Dubai-Frankfurt-London with Lufthansa in first, connection to a paid United ticket from London to Washington. Unfortunately, the Dubai-Frankfurt had a minimum two hour mechanical delay, meaning there was no way I would make it to London in time for my connection. I pulled up ExpertFlyer, and saw there was a direct Dubai-London on Emirates A380, and decided to try my luck with the Lufthansa agents. They had to call the station manager, but he approved it! Talk about taking care of passengers when things go badly!

The seat/suite was just as nice as I remember:

Something to drink? I suppose the Moet will do for a pre-departure drink. In fairness, the flight attendant was very apologetic. I’m always surprised airlines are too cheap to pay the duty on liquor to serve the good stuff on the ground.

This was a breakfast flight, and due to the relatively short flight service started immediately after takeoff…when the bubbles were upgraded to Dom. Much better!

Bread. On a plate. Take note United.

Another glass of Dom? Don’t mind if I do!

Decided to go with the sweet option, and the apple crepes didn’t disappoint:

Cabin shot…I’m not a fan of the Emirates bling, but…

Today’s bubbles selection:

Didn’t have any, but the wine list was rather unimpressive I thought:

The breakfast menu:

Now, let’s get to the real fun. Emirates is the only commercial airline where you can shower on board, and it’s exclusive to the A380. In addition, Emirates was offering the first 100MB of WiFi for free on this flight, with a small $1 charge for additional usage. This was going to require the first-ever live in-flight shower posting.

The shower stall:

Back to the seat and feeling refreshed…with more Dom of course.

One of the very few flights I’ve taken where I can honestly say it went by way too quickly. I would have definitely liked a few more hours to enjoy the service, but it was not to be. Perhaps another time. I’ll save the comparisons of Emirates first for the trip post-mortem after it’s all over, but it was an overall solid experience.

Honiara to Brisbane with Virgin Australia, two nights in Brisbane

Airports, Australia, Flights, Solomon Islands, South Pacific Tour 2014, trains 2 Responses »

Nov 232014

I should subtitle this entry “because there hasn’t been enough drama already” but I’ll resist. Woke up to an email…my Virgin Australia flight had been canceled. For some reason, the inbound was canceled so might flight was canceled as well. Called Virgin, and they said “no problem, you’ve been rebooked for tomorrow.” Um, I don’t want to go tomorrow, I want to go today. Ugh.

Fortunately, my good friends at Solomons Air also had a flight that day…but Virgin wouldn’t rebook me on it. It actually took nearly 30 minutes of fighting to get them to agree to give me a refund. Ugh. There was an upside though – the new flight on Solomons wasn’t actually about $100 cheaper booked day of…so in the end, things actually worked out well!

Got to the airport only about an hour before the flight after all the drama, but no problems at all. Checked in, got the exit row again, and life was grand.

Oh look, same plane as a couple days prior! That’s because Solomons only has one jet…

Welkam on board!

Solomons Airlines flight 700
Honiara, Solomon Islands (HIR) to Brisbane, Australia (BNE)
Depart 15:00, Arrive 17:15, Flight Time 3:15
Airbus A320, Registration H4-BUS (ex Air Canada) Manufactured 1992, Seat 15C

The flight was only about half full today, which meant I had the entire exit row to myself. Score! Double score…there was no sketchy sandwiich on this flight but a proper meal. It was described as “beef” and was actually reasonably tasty:

Quick shot how the “other half” lives on the way out.

Landed right on time, and decided to give the eGates at Australian immigration a try, not wanting a repeat of my experience coming into Darwin. It worked like a charm, and soon I was on the airport express train downtown and back to the Four Points hotel. The downtown area was an absolute security nightmare, with the G20 set to happen in a couple of days.

Checked in, had a quick shower, and headed out to get some dinner. While I was talking to the front desk lady about something, I heard a loud popping sound, kind of like if someone had popped a giant piece of bubble wrap. I looked around expecting to see something broken, on fire, something. What I didn’t expect to see is a giant flying creature that apparently I had stepped on.

Quiet evening, caught up on sleep a bit, and then had another full day to decide what to do. With the giant security mess, I decided I would get out of dodge for the day and see something new. Caught the train down to the Gold Coast…or at least attempted to. It took me like three tries to figure out the trains…because not every train goes to every station. Then you need to take a bus. Then, your iPhone decides to die when the bus drops you off, so you have no idea where anything is in town. Yeah, that.

Grabbed some lunch, and my iPhone decided to come back to life. I had an email from my hotel…note this was about 2pm. The email told me they were sorry, but needed me to move out of my upgraded room to my original room no later than 4pm. Um, you told me at check-in I had the room for both nights. Replied that I’m sorry, at the beach for the day, but happy to discuss with them when I return. This was followed up by an email instructing me if I couldn’t move on time, I would have to pay for the upgraded room. Uh, you expect people to sit around their hotel all day waiting? Then, they offered to pack up my belongings and move them for me. Um, no. That’s a recipe for things to get lost and the blame game to start.

Finally, sent them an email saying I was really disappointed in the way they were treating a platinum member over what is a $50 a night upgrade. (It was just a high floor room.) They went silent. When I got back later, the new manager on duty was very apologetic, offered Starpoints in compensation, said I could keep the room, and said “this whole situation could have been handled much better.” Ok, apology accepted.

Back to enjoying the beach. Wandered around for a bit, and what do we have here:

Couldn’t resist, and had a very fun hour or so trying! Sometimes, the most fun travel experiences are the ones that are totally unplanned. I went down to the Gold Coast with no plans what so ever, and ended up having an unexpected great time.

A few shots of the beach at Surfers Paradise:

Post-surfing lesson reward. Mmmm…

Surfers Paradise has this meter maid thing down. I think I’m going to suggest to DC that they make this the meter maid uniform in DC as well:

Caught the train back in time to get some quick dinner before crashing early. It had been an unexpectedly busy day going down to the beach (rough life, I know) and was going to be an even earlier morning with the flight to Auckland!

Brisbane to Nauru on Air Nauru

Airports, Australia, Flights, Nauru, South Pacific Tour 2014 2 Responses »

Nov 062014

This flight was early. Way too early. Combine that with the fact I’d heard Nauru Airlines wasn’t overly reliable and I wanted to get there early, and it was the recipe for a very tired morning. When I got to the check-in desk nearly three hours before the 7am flight (yes, 4am…just imagine when I had to get up) there was already a line of about 20 people waiting to check-in. Oh, and about 100 bags. I’m not exaggerating…it looked like they were trying to ship the entire contents of a WalMart with them back to Nauru. One guy even had 14 27 inch televisions on two different luggage carts waiting to check-in.

Fortunately, many of them were “a group” and offered to let me check-in in front of them. Well that’s thoughtful. The lovely agent? Well she was a little confused. “Wait, you’re going to Nauru…as a tourist? Is that right? Tourist? Just to holiday? Right?” Apparently, this is not a normal thing. She was very lovely though, and even reserved the exit row aisle for me when I asked. Given the rather healthy appetites of many of my fellow passengers, I figured the extra room in the exit row would come in very handy.

Through security, where horror of horrors, the coffeeshop didn’t open until 5:30. There was also a Virgin flight to Auckland about to board, and the natives were getting very restless at this hour without proper caffeine. Eventually it did open, I got caffeine, and all was right with the world.

Wandered down to the gate, where our 737-300 was waiting for us:

About two months ago, Our Airline rebranded themselves back to Nauru Airlines. Several years ago they had gone bankrupt and had their one 737 impounded and seized in Australia, forcing them to change their name from Air Nauru to Our Airline when they opened back up for business. Now, they were going back to Nauru Airlines. Confused yet? Yeah, that’s just how Nauru works apparently.

Nauru Airlines aka Our Airline Flight 2
Brisbane, Australia (BNS) to Honiara, Solomon Islands (HIR)
Depart 7:00, Arrive 11:00, Flight Time 3:00
Boeing 737-300, Registration VH-PNI, Manufactured 1997, Seat 11D

Flight was about 2/3 full today, but I had the entire exit row of six seats to myself. Score! “Today’s flight time to Honiara will be three hours. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.” Honiara, WHAT? This was supposed to be a direct flight to Nauru. Uh, ok, got it. After about 30 minutes, the crew came by with breakfast, and I asked if we were really going to Honiara, and if so why. Yes, apparently we are, just “for a technical stop.” Uhhh, ok.

Breakfast was decent, considering it was economy and all:

On approach to Honiara:

Ah, so 2/3 of the seats were taken, but the last 6 rows were “empty” because they were filled with peoples’ bags! Including many of the aforementioned televisions, all strapped in. Apparently this is a common occurrence on Nauru Airlines, as they had it down to a science:

We stopped in Honiara for about 50 minutes to take on fuel, which I eventually learned from the crew was because we had so much cargo today and were extra heavy, so couldn’t make it all the way otherwise, lol. This despite 1/3 of the seats being empty. It was pouring rain in Honiara, and I felt quite bad for the fueling guys who were having to load up the plane. Soon, we were taking off again for the continuation of our flight to Nauru.

Nauru Airlines aka Our Airline Flight 2
Honiara, Solomon Islands (HIR) to Nauru Island, Nauru (INU)
Depart 11:55, Arrive 14:55, Flight Time 2:00
Boeing 737-300, Registration VH-PNI, Manufactured 1997, Seat 11D

A “snack” was offered on this segment, and it really was a snack. Well, “Le Snak” to be precise, lol. Apparently America doesn’t have a monopoly on processed cheese spread:

Another shot of my, “fellow passengers” taking up the last six rows:

Just about an hour late due to the fuel stop, and soon we were landing on Nauru where it was bright and sunny out. Taxiing to the terminal:

Disembarking for the walk to the terminal:

Waiting for immigration, a local mural. Note the Our Airline plane in the pic:

Immigration was one officer at a desk for the entire plane:

I’d been told there was a $100 visa on arrival for tourists, confirmed by Nauru Airlines when I booked. However, the immigration officer was very helpful, and said since I was there less than 48 hours she would consider it a transit, so there would be no visa fee! Score…always happy to save some money! Shortly I was reunited with my bags, and was off to see Nauru!

Melbourne to Brisbane in Qantas business, overnight in Brisbane

Airports, Australia, Business Class, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, South Pacific Tour 2014 2 Responses »

Nov 062014

I’d intentionally booked a midday flight so I could sleep in a bit, so made my way to the airport nice and leisurely. There were some incredibly classy tourists sharing the airport bus with me today:

Check-in…well it was fun! From what I could tell there were absolutely no Qantas agents working behind counters in Melbourne, they had the whole process entirely automated. Checked in at the kiosk which I was used to, but then the kiosk also spit out my bagtags…which it then gave me instructions how to put them on my own bags. Whee, my chance to play airline employee! Then, it was off to the scales in front of the baggage belt, where you scanned your boarding pass, weighed your bags one at a time, and threw them on the belt. In fairness, there were quite a few Qantas employees hovering around being very helpful if you couldn’t figure it out, but I was mainly puzzled just because I’d never seen the whole process so automated!

Next stop, Qantas lounge, for a proper breakfast since all I’d had earlier was coffee. First mission: try the automatic pancake machine! Not bad, not bad at all!

Still a little bit hungry I decided to try the sandwich press too, taking some extra ham and cheese from the buffet to make a nice gooey sandwich. Yum! I wish US airlines could take a page from this playbook…but then again classy US passengers would probably bring doggy bags and treat it as the typical “get my money’s worth” opportunity. THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!

Boarding right on time, and a completely full flight up to Brisbane today.

Qantas flight 616
Melbourne, Australia (MEL) to Brisbane, Australia (BNE)
Depart 12:05, Arrive 13:15, Flight Time 2:10
Boeing 737-800, Registration VH-VYD, Manufactured 2005, Seat 3C

There was a choice of some sort of salad, or a tuna melt. Yes, seriously, a tuna melt on a plane. I had to have it just for the novelty. It was actually pretty good. The tomatoes were marinated in balsamic before grilling and were actually super tasty.

Landed in Brisbane a few minutes ahead of schedule, and took the airport train downtown to the central station. Few block walk to my hotel, the Four Points. Upgraded (I guess you can call it that, they did) to a top floor room with a nice view of the city. One of the more modern Four Points I’ve ever stayed in, and almost felt more like an Aloft. I was in a rush, because I wanted to get to the Lone Tree Koala Sanctuary before it closed at 5pm.

Only option to save time was to take a taxi out there, which was $50. Ouch.

Cool lizard greeting me at the entrance:

Darwin to Cairns (via Brisbane) in Qantas business, overnight in Cairns

Airports, Australia, Business Class, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, South Pacific Tour 2014 No Responses »

Oct 312014

Got to the airport in no time and check-in was quick and easy. No line at all at security, and was in the Qantas lounge less than 10 minutes after arriving at the airport. Darwin airport is tiny with only five gates, so it had a surprisingly large and crowded lounge. The new lounge had just opened about a week before, so it was the perfect time to visit!

Mmmm potato wedges with sweet chili sauce:

Around 11:45, people starting queuing at the bar. No drinks until noon, and everyone wanted to be there the second it opened. It was like vultures descending on a carcass. So, when in Rome…a James Squire One Fifty Lashes…surprisingly decent:

OMG there was a PANCAKE MACHINE! This will come in handy one of these trips…

Boarding right on time, and since the airport had all of five gates it wasn’t too hard to find!

Qantas flight 825
Darwin, Australia (DRW) to Brisbane, Australia (BNE)
Depart 12:45, Arrive 17:10, Flight Time 3:25
Boeing 767-300, Registration VH-OGI, Manufactured 1991, Seat 5K

Looks like an empty flight today! I remember when we used to call the United domestic 767s the “ghetto bird.” Looks like Qantas is taking a page from that playbook…