2 weeks in the life of Mr!

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munitalP

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For something slightly different, I have taken a snapshot of two weeks of my life and posted it here - I have left out the scary bits, the gory bits and the bits between flying...
 
QF 600 ECONOMY 11AUG08 MELBOURNE/BRISBANE

My day starts at 0330 when the alarm on my phone erupts into a symphony of good news. I can’t press the snooze and grab an extra 5 minutes of shut eye, Mrs! will be into me like a rat up a drain pipe for waking her up, so I carefully get out of bed and successfully stand on the dog creating more noise than if I had of gotten that extra 5 minutes.
Doggy! gets let outside and I check Mr. Cappuccino machine is warming up (the timer turned it on at 0300) and call Doggy! back inside. It’s cold, I guess 2 or 3 degrees and the heater is struggling at this stage to dent the chill in the house. It usually takes 5 minutes to bring the house to a cozy temperature, so I know when I get out of the shower, warmth will greet me with its loving arms.

Into the shower, shaved and dressed (wardrobe set up in spare room so not to disturb Mrs!) and into my home office to quickly check the nights email activity and pack my laptop up. After the cord for iPoddy, Samsung mobile and the power leads are packed away, I venture back to the kitchen and stream out a scolding hot coffee which I take out to the front porch to enjoy while waiting on my driver to arrive.

The black Caprice pulls into my drive with the lights off, we load up my case and my laptop, and off we head to Tullamarine for my 6AM flight. It is now 0430 and I settle back listening to my driver telling me how good Carlton played and how much the Saints (my team) sucked on the weekend…

We pull up in front of the terminal at about 0515 and I bid my farewells and also let him know what day to pick me up. I head into the business line to check my case in (I still refuse to use quick check) and get issued 7C. In past the security naz_’s and up the escalator to be greeted by a Qantas Dragon who is doing the channel 7 news thing – standing in the isle greeting people and checking boarding passes / cards. A new and novel way and 100% more friendly than the behind the desk thing as normally encountered. I will call her a Qantas Lizard instead of a Dragon.

Straight through the QC and into the business lounge to be greeted again by QC staff. Unfortunately for me, the barista station is still being set up, so I settle for apple juice and pancakes with berries and a healthy dose of maple syrup with a brew from the old faithful cappuccino machine that never quite makes a good coffee…

Browsing a news paper, my flight is called and I head for the gate. As I am on the air-bridge, iPoddy gets released from my laptop wheelie bag and when I reach row 7, I find a slot, put my bag in and climb into my seat with little disruption to those around me or behind me. I am always surprised how inconsiderate people are while getting ready to be seated, blocking the isles or worse, the man opposite me thinks it’s OK to be pushing his bum in my face while he tries to get a 1m x 1m bag into an 800mm x 800mm slot…. The door gets closed and thankfully, the B seat is empty so I get comfortable with the aid of extra arm room. The safety announcement over, I get the headphones on and just choose play on my Pink Floyd folder on iPoddy – I have every album so chances are, it won’t run out before BNE (mind you, ATC have been active in slowing nearly every QF600 flight I have been on over the Balina area for weeks). I was asleep before the wheels left the ground and was awakened on descent to turn off iPoddy.

We pulled into gate 20 or 21 and I was quickly off the plane. A pit-stop at the ATM in the food court and down the escalator to retrieve my luggage. My BNE driver was waiting for me at the luggage conveyer and my bag quickly popped out.

Into the Fairlane and out into the BNE traffic. BNE driver always skirts straight into International, up and over, down the service road below the rail line and into Lamandra(?) Drive. Driver then goes along the road near the river then cuts across by xx_X and the stadium, then onto Centenary Drive to head out west to the factory. Today, the traffic is reasonable and the trip lasts for about 30 minutes, most of that time consumed by BNE driver telling me how good his footy team played and how bad the Melbourne Storm played – a familiar theme here I’m thinking between drivers.

I arrive at the factory and spend a productive day at the coal face. After work I get taken to my serviced apartment / motel where I have had the same apartment for weeks – it’s nice, a kitchen, a lounge room and a bed where 5 or 6 people could party with ease! It’s huge! I wonder if Hugh H can spare 5 or 6 party people from the mansion…

After a quick freshen up, one of my staff arrives and we carry on a late meeting over dinner of oysters and steak not to mention a good bottle of chardy. Bed for me is about 9.30 and I’m knackered.

13 Aug 2008
QF 2300 ECONOMY 13AUG08 BRISBANE/MACKAY


0430 –the good news from Samsung again awakes me at a time when only them birds with that first worm on their minds should be stirring. Showered and packed, I wait for my mate from the other night who’s picking me up to take me up to Mackay to have a look at a job. We hit Qantas Valet at about 0545 and get ourselves checked in through business. I’m not looking forward to this flight, Crash-8 and 3 stops before I get to where I’m going – The Milk Run…

Breaky of cappuccino, pancakes, fresh fruit and some apple juice. You know, if it wasn’t some stupid hour of the morning, I might even be enjoying myself…

Flight 1. Full. BNE /GLT. Slept most of the way in seat 5B
Flight 2. Near empty. GLT / ROK. Skimmed the trees :)
Flight 3. Bollocks! We have to get off the aircraft and recheck through the security naz_s! GLT didn’t have an X-Ray – didn’t I say I wasn’t looking forward to this flight?… Anyway, into the QC lounge at ROK and had a coffee and some fruit cake. Grabbed a couple of more slices and a couple of packets of biscuits from the tray as well – morning tea on the run in MKY, that’s if we ever get there, that is…
Flight 3. Half full plane – got an empty row next to me so I slid on over and give myself and my mate a bit extra arm room. Smooth as silk and in MKY in no time at all.

By lunchtime, the task in hand was over and we were doing laps of MKY in the rental. We both had a Death Star flight back to BNE at sometime after 5pm – I’m not one to wait around so I rand my PA and got onto the next flight out of Mackay to BNE, DJ954 at 1255. Embrayer – we had the last row on the plane and a friendly aircrew. While exiting the terminal, I was on the phone to an overseas client, walking down the cover-way to the tarmac, a virgin ground staff member (GSM) did the following:
GSM – tells person he’s talking to on his mobile to wait up…. “hey Sir, you can’t talk on your phone out here…”
Mr! – “Why not, you are…”
GSM – “well my mobile is a special mobile issued by Virgin…”
Mr! – “ Bollocks – it says Telstra on it…”
GSM – “Well it’s a special phone and you have to turn yours off…”
Mr! – “you’re special… %^&&-hole…”
GSM – “what?”
Mr! – “^&**-HOLE – HEAR IT THAT TIME?”
GSM – “It is a special phone… anyway, I’m allowed to talk on my phone out here…”
I told my client I would call him back and turned off my phone.
I walked out onto the tarmac with my mate who by this time had finally stopped laughing

A good, smooth fast flight with a crown to wash away the grime and an excellent cabin crew who liked their job.
I got dropped off at Rydges Southbank where I caught up on emails then wandered down stairs for a couple of beers and a discussion with the chef about making my dream pizza – which he did and did well! I was in bed by about 2130 where I caught some news and was quickly asleep.
 
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14 Aug 2008
QF 611 ECONOMY 14AUG08 BRISBANE/MELBOURNE


0530 Awake. I made use of the sleep function for an extra 10 minutes then got up and packed ready to leave. I was signing my credit card receipt when my BNE driver can in and grabbed my case and laptop. We loaded up and headed out to the airport where checked in at business.
The check in person (CIP) checked me in to MKY and was about to deposit my bag onto the conveyor when I noticed the mistake. I told the CIP that I was there yesterday and I just wanted checked through to MEL. The CIP mucked around for a while then had to get a supervisor. The new check in system is playing havoc on QF and frequent travelers will notice frequent problems.

Finally the CIP and his supervisor worked out the problem and proceeded to check my luggage to AKL. Again, I pointed out that I only wanted to go to MEL where I needed to retrieve my luggage. This seemed a difficult concept to the CIP however, after some frustration, my tags were correct and I only had 1 boarding pass to MEL. I didn’t have the heart to pick the CIP up on priority tags instead of business tags – I let it go…

Again, cappuccino and pancakes with berries for breakfast and I chatted to a nice lady who was also off to NZ except she was via SYD.
I boarded a half empty aircraft where we pushed off on time and landed on time. I managed to sleep most of the flight and again had no one next to me, so plenty of arm room. My driver was waiting for me at the bottom of the escalator where we retrieved my case and he took me home. I raced out after patting the dog and checking email and had lunch with Mrs! at her work.

14 Aug 2008
QF 039 ECONOMY 14AUG08 MELBOURNE/AUCKLAND


A friend arrived at about 1530 so I shut down my laptop and we demolished a 6 pack of crown before my driver returned to take us back to the airport at about 1630. We stopped at the local where I grabbed another 4 crowns (2 each) for the ride out. Traffic was usually heavy and slow. My friend decided he couldn’t have his second crown because his “back teeth were floating” and insisted that I should have it. Knowing it would be un-Australian not to take it, I forced #3 down as we pulled into Qantas 1st check in.

Thank God for QF First – if old mates back teeth were floating, mine were being washed away – we were checked onto the flight and in a toilet releasing far too many crowns within a few minutes…

Through the security naz_s – ahh what a pain in the rear these guys are in Melbourne – Old mate has recently had a hip replacement and is not that mobile as he still needs the other one done. I had to shake my head at their lack of comprehension of why he kept the beeper going off… Old mate ended up nearly naked (ok a bit of an exaggeration here) before the naz_s finally realized that he wasn’t packing a RPG launcher in his boxers… Anyway, through them and into duty free where I stocked up on Wild Turkey Rare Breed and for something different, Wild Turkey Rare Breed – pattern emerging here?

Up into First to the usual welcome and a comment about the Saints –I am wondering how the doorman knew to even mention them and I walked away astounded – that’s not in my profile I was thinking… I noticed a while later that my membership pin was on the collar of my cashmere coat – left there from the last St Kilda FC social club visit. I demolished a salad and a minute steak and a cheese platter along with a number of glasses of good Riesling.

We boarded the 737 for the short trip across the Tasman where we had 19A & 19C – again the B seat was empty – my disappointment was we were way back in the bus but I was happy for the arm room again. During the flight, I developed a thirst for a couple of Heinekens (what the heck, Fridays a day off and I’m having a long weekend – hoorah!)and by the time we landed, I had snoozed for an hour or so and was ready to get off the plane and into a bed..

Immigration was painless and both of us were quickly outside in the cold waiting for our hotel transfer bus – I knew we would be drinking on the flight and in first so I had arranged a hire car pickup for Friday morning instead of Thursday night (although 0130 is technically Friday morning)..
The weekend in NZ was had in a little town called Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty where I done a surprise visit for my dad’s 80th birthday. I stayed in a town 25km away called Whakatane. I had a great time, beer was cheap, the food was good and it was nice to see family and friends some of whom I hadn’t seen in over 10 years.

17 Aug 2008
QF 134 ECONOMY 17AUG08 AUCKLAND/MELBOURNE


We checked in early due to the thieves at Europcar wanting a full day rental if the car was returned after 12pm. I am AVIS preferred and Thrifty BC, I don’t know why I went Europcar – it defiantly was not price…
Cool – the ransom charged by NZ to leave the country is now incorporated in the fare – It’s been 12 months since last in NZ and I had to pay then so I wonder when this was dropped?

Up into the lounge – armed and prepared to do battle with the QC dragon – my seats were 13C and 13B for my mate. Here goes…
Mr!. – “hello, my profile says a forward isle, 13 is not that forward and also, with my mates crook hip, I asked in Australia for seat allocation for either opposite isle seats or an A – C or D – F with blocked seats between – Australia said this would be no problem – why has it been changed?”
QC-D – “well Sir, there are 21 other platinum flyers on the flight, we can’t meet everyone’s request…”
Mr! – “Excuse me? (body temperature increase of more than 60 degrees at that point)
QC-D – “Just because you ask for something doesn’t mean we are going to give it to you… anyway, the plane is full”
Mr! – “Lets go back to the other 21 platinum flyers – what’s that got to do with my seat allocation? I book economy flights on a Friday for MEL to BNE on a Monday morning first flight and still end up in row 5 or 6 – and I am sure there would be 20+ Platinum’s on QF600! Please change my seating arrangement – we don’t care if the last row is the choice for C & D – please!”
QC-D – “well Sir, leave your boarding passes with me and I will see what I can do”

There’s no points in guessing nothing was done. There were any number of empty seats on the aircraft and many were B’s and E’s. I moved after takeoff so old mate had the isle and I grabbed an isle with the E empty slightly forward of where we were allocated.

The flight was fast, smooth, had good service and plenty of Heineken – I couldn’t complain…

Next time I buy my own seats (1% or less of my flying) I will buy business class…

MEL immigration – straight through, Mrs! picked us up and we were off to my place for dinner and Old mate headed home.
 
21 Aug 2008
QF 679 ECONOMY 21AUG08 MELBOURNE/ADELAIDE


Wow, 3 days without being in a plane…

A leisurely start to the day, some clients from overseas were BNE/ADL so I arranged my flight to arrive shortly after them. 8C with an empty B seat, smooth fast flight with good service.

Meetings in Adelaide and I dropped my clients at their hotel in the city. There had been some confusion to where they were staying and we ended up in separate hotels – I stayed at the Stamford at Glenelg – never disappointing. A late dinner meeting in an Italian restaurant in Glenelg (they taxied it from the city) and I was in bed by 2330 after checking emails etc…

22 Aug 2008
ZL4512 ECONOMY 22AUG08 ADELAIDE/WHYALLA


Samsung good news at 0430 – left the hotel at 0500 to pick up my clients…

I wish REX would spend some maintenance dollars on the inside of their aircraft…

* Overhead lockers which continued to open during the flight
* Tray tables not latching because of the distorted seats
* Lights not working
* Threadbare carpet…

A disgrace – at least we landed on the ground and not in the water like some unfortunate souls have in recent memory (O’Connor)
I also had to pay $33.00 to change my flight as again my clients had mixed up flight times and I ended up on the earlier flight rather than the later 9AM (ish) flight – it was a supposed to be a flexible fare as well :(

22 Aug 2008
ZL4533 ECONOMY 22AUG08 WHYALLA /ADELAIDE


Here we go again, another $33.00 to change flight times to the 3pm service from the 4pm. REX wouldn’t accept that I had already paid a re-booking fee once today –oh well, worth a shot anyway :)
Lumpy bumpy flight where the pilot found every pot hole in the sky… At least this aircraft was in better condition than the previous one…

22 Aug 2008
QF 694 BUSINESS 22AUG08 ADELAIDE/MELBOURNE


1C – I hate bulkhead seats but who’s complaining about an OP-UP? The QC in Adelaide is the best in Australia including any of the business lounges in my opinion. Heineken on tap – need I say more?

The flight was good, the CSM was awesome – what a lady – I even told her she should be long hauling – no dinner for me, just a couple more Heinekens and shortly back in MEL to collect my luggage. MEL driver was there to pick me up – our discussion most of the way home was on who was going to win the Brownlow this year *yawn* (my suggestion was Medhurst from the Magpies) and I was delivered to my door in little under an hour…

A two week snapshot of my life

Mr!
 
The QC in Adelaide is the best in Australia including any of the business lounges in my opinion. Heineken on tap – need I say more?

And they're by far the most accommodating of any QP staff anywhere as far as going out of their way for seat changes etc.

Interesting snapshot MP.

TG
 
Nice report - a fascinating insight ... :D

Hmmm, interesting ...

AFAIK, 13B/C are coveted exit seats on a 73H. Surprising your mate was with a crook hip was allowed there.

FWIW, I'm posting from the AKL Int FL awaiting my "75minute" delayed flight QF134 (a week after yours) - I have 4D, as a WP after booking I could have rang Qantas and requested an Exit seat if I desired. I didn't as I prefer the front row of WHY on a 73H. On a flight next month neither 4C or D were available so I have pre-allocated exit seat 13C.

Don't you try to preallocate on international flights (or at least trans-Tasman)?
 
Nice report - a fascinating insight ... :D

Hmmm, interesting ...



Don't you try to preallocate on international flights (or at least trans-Tasman)?

I have never been bothered - because I am usually travelling alone, I am easy to accomodate - I prefer very front whY whereever possible (except solid bulkhead). QC usually looks after me with no problems. If travelling with Mrs! she always gets her seating arrangement - she's comp gold so they tend to listen - I guess they know WP will be on the phone next if they don't listen to her ;)

Mr!
 
Interesting stuff. I am hoping for a little more frequent and a little less far travel in the future so this was a decent insight :)
 
Excellent... Keep up the good work! Fascinating insight though into your somewhat hectic lifestyle!
 
Very interesting trip report with a nice mixture of aircraft and places to visit.
 
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