Anyone Still Flying Domestic?

[oirets]

There are probably plenty of domestic road warriors here still battling on.

What's it looking like? Are people still flying or are planes literally empty?

 

[BNEFlyer]

With WA border restrictions easing soon, what odds on the Perth QF lounge(s) opening? Anybody got inside info, or seen an announcement?
Same question for Hobart...

The PER Business lounge has been open since 1 July. HBA is still closed but that may change once capacity increases.

 

[jakeseven7]

The PER Business lounge has been open since 1 July. HBA is still closed but that may change once capacity increases.

TAS / NSW border just confirmed to be opening on Friday so this will massively increase volume, hopefully lounge to follow soon now.

 

[JackMiles]

The PER Business lounge has been open since 1 July. HBA is still closed but that may change once capacity increases.

Thanks - I read the QF webpage too quickly, just saw the Club lounge was shut and missed that the Bus lounge re-opened on 1 July, as you say.

 

[nutwood]

I did LST-SYD on Jetstar Sunday evening. I was booked 1C but BP was 12C. I queried this and there was a bit of discussion based on the light loading and weight allocation. I ended up back in 1C but it was definitely not a full plane.
SYD-ADL Monday morning with QA. I boarded toward the end and was in row 1 so didn't get a good look but I'd put it at reasonably full. ADL-SYD Monday evening with QA was a light load, especially in J. I was the only one in row 1 and the rows behind me weren't full.
SYD-HBA today was with VA. Again, row 3 viewpoint limited the picture but my best observation was that the middle seats, basically a third, were generally empty.
On the upside, Qantas managed to leave my luggage in Sydney just so they could demonstrate excellent customer service by VIP couriering it to me in Adelaide three hours after I arrived. I really can't fault their handling of cough ups but it would be so much simpler if they didn't make them in the first place!

 

[drron]

Tonight's JQ LST-BNE was full.Not a spare seat according to crew.
Full JQ catering including alcohol.
About 10% mask usage though row 26 was at 100%.

 

[bPeteb]

We're off to CBR for the weekend, down Friday mid-afternoon and back Sunday evening. Will report on our return.

 

[Drinazz]

I'm flying QF PER to BNE late next week as I'll be able to get back to WA the week after (assuming WA border still opens as planned). Has anyone got recent updates on onboard Wifi and Entertainment. QF website says they are progressively turning Wifi back on. Any anecdotal evidence of that? Also with such a long flight, sounds like I need to bring my own entertainment. Any recent travellers wish to comment?

 

[bPeteb]

Party pies at the J lounge in BNE. Off to CBR. I should have looked at what they actually were. They were nice, as was the potato salad

 

[oz_mark]

I'm flying QF PER to BNE late next week as I'll be able to get back to WA the week after (assuming WA border still opens as planned). Has anyone got recent updates on onboard Wifi and Entertainment. QF website says they are progressively turning Wifi back on. Any anecdotal evidence of that? Also with such a long flight, sounds like I need to bring my own entertainment. Any recent travellers wish to comment?

On Tuesday had an internet connection through the wifi, but no entertainment content.

 

[bPeteb]

Internet was terrible on yesterday’s BNE-CBR flight. Unable to stream anything

 

[Lynda2475]

It is easier for QF to reinstate the WiFi as the nbn staellite service that provides this, is charged on a usgae basis, so if no one connects on a given flight, QF dont pay anything.

Whereas, the provide IFE, QF have to have a subsciption with a content provider, which I suspect they cancelled to save $ when they were barely flying.

Amazon Prime / Netflix / Stan / Disney + and even free services like ABC iview / sbs on demand / 7Plus / Nine Now allow you to download content onto your phone or tablet for offline viewing. Suggest you download some tv and or movies to stream before you leave home or whilst in the lounge.

 

[muppet]

It is easier for QF to reinstate the WiFi as the nbn staellite service that provides this, is charged on a usgae basis, so if no one connects on a given flight, QF dont pay anything.
...

This post from another thread suggests QF does have to pay a connection fee:

For anyone interested, NBN Co wholesale charges for the service Qantas uses for in-flight Wi-Fi are as follows:

- $9060/month for the circuit (charged per aircraft)
- plus $2130/month for each Mbps of provisioned bandwidth (CVC), with minimum of order of at least 100Mbps (charged per aircraft)

So at least $222,060 per month per aircraft and that's just the NBN wholesale charges. Doesn't include IP transit, management and other service provider charges. With most of the planes grounded, it's not surprising Qantas wants to turn this off for now to save some dosh.

Changes to inflight service and offerings

From tomorrow: WIFI and all IFE will be turned off. As of last Friday: Domestic flight catering is a bottle of water plus a refreshment box in Business or refreshment item in Economy until at least May. Changes already implemented for some time: No hot towels Inflight magazine removed

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Agree this is the easiest option and will by approach ... probably even when entertainment is switched back on given the usual selection.

...Amazon Prime / Netflix / Stan / Disney + and even free services like ABC iview / sbs on demand / 7Plus / Nine Now allow you to download content onto your phone or tablet for offline viewing. Suggest you download some tv and or movies to stream before you leave home or whilst in the lounge.

 

[bPeteb]

Report on the weekend's flights.

BNE-CBR - J lounge in BNE was moderately busy. 737-800 - boarding was by section but premium line open as well. Flight down was maybe two thirds full. I had a shadow so we had three between two. Wifi was terrible and I was unable to stream anything, though email, facebook etc was fine. bigal worked the whole way down. Snack in Y was crackers and salsa plus cold drinks. Hot drinks were brought on request. Zero checking of anything/by anyone on arrival in CBR.

CBR-BNE - J lounge again moderately busy and seats not to sit in clearly marked. It took a lot of the lounge out of action. Boarding announcement in the lounge stated that it would be by row from the rear of the plane, only. 717-200 - there was no priority boarding and people just followed the process without exception. No entertainment on board and we'd forgotten to download anything to our devices so it was a reading flight home for me. Same Y snack as flight down - crackers and salsa and surprised to be offered drinks (as in beer, wine etc). Flight was 18:10. Wine was poured from bottles into plastic cups. We left CBR a few minutes early and at the gate in BNE 25 minutes early. Full sit down border check at BNE. As we were waiting to leave the plane I overheard a family across from us discussing border passes. Wife - do we have border passes. Husband - we don't need them. As you went through security at CBR there was a sign clearly saying if you were flying to Qld you needed a border pass. That family was in for a surprise as they got off. Drove out of the carpark just before we were due to land.
It's time to stop hiding behind COVID to justify things like not having the inflight entertainment active. That's just bs. Our room in CBR wasn't serviced for the same reason. CBR hasn't has an active case in weeks so it is now nothing but cost cutting/avoidance. My employer is guilty of this too...