- Joined
- Jul 17, 2004
- Posts
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In what started as an announcement on the other board that Jetstar were taking over all domestic routes in New Zealand a few people decided it would be a good idea to hold a farewell to Qantas Domestic NZ. A plan was hatched that involved flying Auckland to Wellington and return in the morning and flying Auckland to Christchurch in the afternoon. Saturday May 9 seemed to suit a few people so a few flights were booked.
Now I don’t just book random flights for the fun of it;
well I have: read the previous trip report but I thought it a bit silly to go flying about in another country without catching up with the relatives.
I planned a schedule on Air NZ for the Friday to use the rest of my Air New Zealand air points and catch up with my mums sister on the Friday night, I would fly about Saturday afternoon; no point getting up at 5:00am in another country. On Sunday I headed up north to see my cousin (daughter of mums other sister). On Monday the plan was to catch Emirates to Sydney on the A380, the 3rd airline with an A380.
Getting a schedule together is not always easy but sometimes a plan full into place.
Friday 8 May 2009 BNE-AKL NZ136 747-400(ZK-SUH)
I had hoped to catch the Air NZ 777-200 but as there was a major football game involving both countries and the daily 777 was upgraded to the 747. After getting to work; checking the mail, and the bank and making sure the place wasn’t going to fall apart I headed to the airport around 10:00am for the 12:25pm departure. Check in line took about 10 minutes and soon I was at the counter, the check in person was happy that I had already selected my seat and my simple itinerary to Auckland meant that I was an easy passenger to process. My cabin luggage weighed in at 7.5kgs. The rule is that the bag needs to be under 7kgs but as long as it reads 7 something then the check in staff are happy to let it pass. I am not sure if they noticed that I had a camera in one pocket and I was holding a book and some head phones. I changed some Australian money to New Zealand dollars at a coughpy exchange rate. Not everyone takes credit card and cash can always make bartering for a better price easier. To leave Australia before passport control you need to fill out an immigration card, explaining why you are going overseas; where to and for how long and what job you have. Before passport control another person checks the oversize carry on luggage so it seems that while check in staff do check carry on luggage that some people might try to add extra to their bags before going through passport control.
The plane turned out to be a 747-400 not my expected 777-200. One thing that the 747 has over the 777 is the extra legroom; 34inch compared to the 32inch on the 777 and better than the 31 inch on the Qantas plane.
Push back was on time and we were soon on our way to NZ, the updated PTV software now allowed you to watch the PTV as soon as the safety announcement was completed. . The flights across the Tasman are scheduled at 2hr 20 minutes so if you want to watch a long movie then you have to start it almost straight away, the movie Shopaholic wasn't a long one so I was able to take a photo across the southern part of Moreton Bay.
The lunch had a choice of chicken or a meat pie both with some sort of pasta. New Zealand beer and wine was available with the meal along with tea and coffee.
The flight across the Tasman was enjoyable with good service from the cabin crew; a roomy seat lay out and a nice PTV with a good selection of movies.
After landing in Auckland the current health form needed to be filled out but as they didn’t have enough we were handed them out before we left the aircraft and were required to fill them out before we went through passport control. What a mess that was. The form had the same information as was on the New Zealand inwards immigration form, so I am not sure why they didn’t just copy the form and give one to the group looking after the Swine Flu epidemic.
9 May 2009 AKL-CHC QF2769 737-400 (ZK-JTQ)
I spent the morning shopping with my cousin and then was dropped off at the airport just after 2:00pm. I caught up with the group in the Auckland Qantas lounge, seems like I turned up not a moment to late as the lounge staff had organized to seat us all in the 2nd and 3rd rows of the plane and I was the only one not to check in. After a chat and a photo the flight was called.
Recognize anybody.
The 734s on New Zealand domestic runs are sold as all economy but the front 3 rows have business class seating as the planes do flights across the Tasman where business class is sold.
The service on the afternoon flight to Christchurch was afternoon tea which included water, a piece of cake and tea and coffee. Beer and wine was available for a few dollars. I had already had a drink in the lounge so there was no need to buy more.
The flight down to Christchurch was smooth. The flight attendants had been the same FAs on the previous flight from Wellington. I am sure the flight attendants enjoy serving passengers who enjoy flying just as much as they do.
9 May 2009 CHC-AKL QF2774 737-400 (ZK-JTQ)
After stepping off the plane the group of us headed over to the Qantas lounge in Christchurch; the lounge attendant was surprised when we explained our story that 8 of us had flown down from Auckland just for the afternoon and were headed back on the same flight back.
The lounge had a good selection of food plus the bar fridge was open with the usual selection of beers and wine.
Flight was called after about 20 minutes, soup was hot the beers were cold and it was back on the same aircraft. We had been allocated different seating so we all had someone new to talk to on the way back to Auckland. The service on the evening flight was a meat pie with water, with beer and wine was also available for free.
The flights with a group of others were a lot of fun.
One of the locals gave us a lift to the city where we had some dinner and then retired for the night.
Sunday morning I got up and caught a bus north to Whangarei about 100 miles north of Auckland. Flying was not an option as my cousin lives about 10 miles south of Whangarei in an area called Springfield, Monday I did the trip in reverse.
11 May 2009 AKL-SYD EK413 7K A380-841 A6-EDE 6:00PM-7:25PM
After a delayed trip out to the airport blame the road system, I headed to the check in area just after 4:00pm, the economy line was long and after standing around in the economy line for all of 1 minute I thought there must be a business class somewhere further along. The business class line took about 5 minutes. Security and passport control was fairly quick, there was no need to pay the departure tax at Auckland International Airport, it was taken them a few years not to just include the tax as part of the airfare. Christchurch airport don’t include the tax in the ticket and you have to pay separately before going through security and passport control.
I went and purchased some duty free before heading to the lounge. There were quite a few people in the lounge as Emirates runs 3 flights a day from Auckland to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Sydney flies the A380. There were a few hot snacks plus the usual selection of beers, spirits and wine.
Each of the Emirates flights were called; firstly Brisbane then Melbourne and finally Sydney. The lounge was quite full when I first arrived and the passengers seemed to be evenly spread over the 3 flights.
The flight was called and then I made my way to Gate 16 one of the new gates in the new part of Auckland International Airport; they have built a new pier to the right of the existing original part of the terminal.
It was nice to board the plane as soon as I arrived and use the airbridge which led to the second level business class cabin. My seat 7K was a window on the first row of business class. I didn’t check in that early and I guess it shows how empty the business class cabin was.
The crew came around with a drinks tray with the choice of champagne, water or juice, there is no real contest which one I chose.
I found the seat a bit cramped, the plane has been designed with too many nooks and crannies including a small bar for drinks, which I found a bit unnecessary.
The IFE was rather easy to use but I only had one thing in mind to watch, the movie “Australia” and as flights to Australia are just over 3 hours that doesn’t allow much time to browse the selection. The selection of movies, music and information was rather large and on a flight to Europe you would never get bored with the choices.
Thanks to B747-437B for the meal options as I had almost forgotten what I had.
Appetiser
? I know there was one but I cannot remember, none of B747-437b options.
Main Course
Lamb machbous
lamb marinated in Arabic spices and cooked with rice, topped with fried onions and sultanas, accompanied with a tomato chickpeas stew and served with mint raita
Main course salad
Classic chicken Caesar salad topped with parmesan shavings, focaccia croutons and tender marinated chicken strips, served with a creamy dressing
Dessert
Chocolate and raspberry sponge rich chocolate sponge filled with fruity raspberry confit, served with a white chocolate Anglaise
Fresh seasonal fruit
International cheese selection
specially selected international cheeses, matured to perfection and served with a selection of crudites, crackers and dried fruits
Bread basket
The movie finished on descent into Sydney and I switched to the front camera for landing; probably made it with about 2 minutes to spare.
I was through immigration and passport control fairly quickly as I had already brought my duty free allowance in New Zealand.
11 May 2009 SYD-BNE QF556 44F 767-336 VH-ZXD
After landing in Sydney; clearing passport control took about 25 minutes I thought with this many people at passport control the Qantas transfer area might be a long wait. Turn up at the Qantas check in area for international passengers to find the place empty. I had done a similar timed flight last year and the place was packed. On the bus over to the domestic terminal there were 2 of us. A CX pilot and myself; and I hung around the boarding gate until the flight was ready for boarding. You know if you decided to go straight to the gate you are in for a wait; flight ended up being delay for 40 minutes. I was surprised that Qantas used a 767 as the plane was practically empty. Being an evening flight beer and wine was available for economy passengers this time served with pretzels.
It was fun to have paid economy but to sit in business class so that was fun on the AKL-CHC-AKL run, especially when you are with 7 others who just want to talk about planes and travel, and they don't mind if you take a heap of photos.
Emirates A380 was ok; especially in J but it is kind of boring when its just yourself, connecting onto QF to Brisbane wasn't too bad
Great weekend it is sad to see the end of Qantas domestic flights in New Zealand.
AKL-CHC-AKL corrections; changes or additions are ok as well.
Now I don’t just book random flights for the fun of it;
well I have: read the previous trip report but I thought it a bit silly to go flying about in another country without catching up with the relatives. I planned a schedule on Air NZ for the Friday to use the rest of my Air New Zealand air points and catch up with my mums sister on the Friday night, I would fly about Saturday afternoon; no point getting up at 5:00am in another country. On Sunday I headed up north to see my cousin (daughter of mums other sister). On Monday the plan was to catch Emirates to Sydney on the A380, the 3rd airline with an A380.
Getting a schedule together is not always easy but sometimes a plan full into place.
Friday 8 May 2009 BNE-AKL NZ136 747-400(ZK-SUH)
I had hoped to catch the Air NZ 777-200 but as there was a major football game involving both countries and the daily 777 was upgraded to the 747. After getting to work; checking the mail, and the bank and making sure the place wasn’t going to fall apart I headed to the airport around 10:00am for the 12:25pm departure. Check in line took about 10 minutes and soon I was at the counter, the check in person was happy that I had already selected my seat and my simple itinerary to Auckland meant that I was an easy passenger to process. My cabin luggage weighed in at 7.5kgs. The rule is that the bag needs to be under 7kgs but as long as it reads 7 something then the check in staff are happy to let it pass. I am not sure if they noticed that I had a camera in one pocket and I was holding a book and some head phones. I changed some Australian money to New Zealand dollars at a coughpy exchange rate. Not everyone takes credit card and cash can always make bartering for a better price easier. To leave Australia before passport control you need to fill out an immigration card, explaining why you are going overseas; where to and for how long and what job you have. Before passport control another person checks the oversize carry on luggage so it seems that while check in staff do check carry on luggage that some people might try to add extra to their bags before going through passport control.
The plane turned out to be a 747-400 not my expected 777-200. One thing that the 747 has over the 777 is the extra legroom; 34inch compared to the 32inch on the 777 and better than the 31 inch on the Qantas plane.
Push back was on time and we were soon on our way to NZ, the updated PTV software now allowed you to watch the PTV as soon as the safety announcement was completed. . The flights across the Tasman are scheduled at 2hr 20 minutes so if you want to watch a long movie then you have to start it almost straight away, the movie Shopaholic wasn't a long one so I was able to take a photo across the southern part of Moreton Bay.
The lunch had a choice of chicken or a meat pie both with some sort of pasta. New Zealand beer and wine was available with the meal along with tea and coffee.
The flight across the Tasman was enjoyable with good service from the cabin crew; a roomy seat lay out and a nice PTV with a good selection of movies.
After landing in Auckland the current health form needed to be filled out but as they didn’t have enough we were handed them out before we left the aircraft and were required to fill them out before we went through passport control. What a mess that was. The form had the same information as was on the New Zealand inwards immigration form, so I am not sure why they didn’t just copy the form and give one to the group looking after the Swine Flu epidemic.
9 May 2009 AKL-CHC QF2769 737-400 (ZK-JTQ)
I spent the morning shopping with my cousin and then was dropped off at the airport just after 2:00pm. I caught up with the group in the Auckland Qantas lounge, seems like I turned up not a moment to late as the lounge staff had organized to seat us all in the 2nd and 3rd rows of the plane and I was the only one not to check in. After a chat and a photo the flight was called.
Recognize anybody.
The 734s on New Zealand domestic runs are sold as all economy but the front 3 rows have business class seating as the planes do flights across the Tasman where business class is sold.
The service on the afternoon flight to Christchurch was afternoon tea which included water, a piece of cake and tea and coffee. Beer and wine was available for a few dollars. I had already had a drink in the lounge so there was no need to buy more.
The flight down to Christchurch was smooth. The flight attendants had been the same FAs on the previous flight from Wellington. I am sure the flight attendants enjoy serving passengers who enjoy flying just as much as they do.
9 May 2009 CHC-AKL QF2774 737-400 (ZK-JTQ)
After stepping off the plane the group of us headed over to the Qantas lounge in Christchurch; the lounge attendant was surprised when we explained our story that 8 of us had flown down from Auckland just for the afternoon and were headed back on the same flight back.
The lounge had a good selection of food plus the bar fridge was open with the usual selection of beers and wine.
Flight was called after about 20 minutes, soup was hot the beers were cold and it was back on the same aircraft. We had been allocated different seating so we all had someone new to talk to on the way back to Auckland. The service on the evening flight was a meat pie with water, with beer and wine was also available for free.
The flights with a group of others were a lot of fun.
One of the locals gave us a lift to the city where we had some dinner and then retired for the night.
Sunday morning I got up and caught a bus north to Whangarei about 100 miles north of Auckland. Flying was not an option as my cousin lives about 10 miles south of Whangarei in an area called Springfield, Monday I did the trip in reverse.
11 May 2009 AKL-SYD EK413 7K A380-841 A6-EDE 6:00PM-7:25PM
After a delayed trip out to the airport blame the road system, I headed to the check in area just after 4:00pm, the economy line was long and after standing around in the economy line for all of 1 minute I thought there must be a business class somewhere further along. The business class line took about 5 minutes. Security and passport control was fairly quick, there was no need to pay the departure tax at Auckland International Airport, it was taken them a few years not to just include the tax as part of the airfare. Christchurch airport don’t include the tax in the ticket and you have to pay separately before going through security and passport control.
I went and purchased some duty free before heading to the lounge. There were quite a few people in the lounge as Emirates runs 3 flights a day from Auckland to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Sydney flies the A380. There were a few hot snacks plus the usual selection of beers, spirits and wine.
Each of the Emirates flights were called; firstly Brisbane then Melbourne and finally Sydney. The lounge was quite full when I first arrived and the passengers seemed to be evenly spread over the 3 flights.
The flight was called and then I made my way to Gate 16 one of the new gates in the new part of Auckland International Airport; they have built a new pier to the right of the existing original part of the terminal.
It was nice to board the plane as soon as I arrived and use the airbridge which led to the second level business class cabin. My seat 7K was a window on the first row of business class. I didn’t check in that early and I guess it shows how empty the business class cabin was.
The crew came around with a drinks tray with the choice of champagne, water or juice, there is no real contest which one I chose.
I found the seat a bit cramped, the plane has been designed with too many nooks and crannies including a small bar for drinks, which I found a bit unnecessary.
The IFE was rather easy to use but I only had one thing in mind to watch, the movie “Australia” and as flights to Australia are just over 3 hours that doesn’t allow much time to browse the selection. The selection of movies, music and information was rather large and on a flight to Europe you would never get bored with the choices.
Thanks to B747-437B for the meal options as I had almost forgotten what I had.
Appetiser
? I know there was one but I cannot remember, none of B747-437b options.
Main Course
Lamb machbous
lamb marinated in Arabic spices and cooked with rice, topped with fried onions and sultanas, accompanied with a tomato chickpeas stew and served with mint raita
Main course salad
Classic chicken Caesar salad topped with parmesan shavings, focaccia croutons and tender marinated chicken strips, served with a creamy dressing
Dessert
Chocolate and raspberry sponge rich chocolate sponge filled with fruity raspberry confit, served with a white chocolate Anglaise
Fresh seasonal fruit
International cheese selection
specially selected international cheeses, matured to perfection and served with a selection of crudites, crackers and dried fruits
Bread basket
The movie finished on descent into Sydney and I switched to the front camera for landing; probably made it with about 2 minutes to spare.
I was through immigration and passport control fairly quickly as I had already brought my duty free allowance in New Zealand.
11 May 2009 SYD-BNE QF556 44F 767-336 VH-ZXD
After landing in Sydney; clearing passport control took about 25 minutes I thought with this many people at passport control the Qantas transfer area might be a long wait. Turn up at the Qantas check in area for international passengers to find the place empty. I had done a similar timed flight last year and the place was packed. On the bus over to the domestic terminal there were 2 of us. A CX pilot and myself; and I hung around the boarding gate until the flight was ready for boarding. You know if you decided to go straight to the gate you are in for a wait; flight ended up being delay for 40 minutes. I was surprised that Qantas used a 767 as the plane was practically empty. Being an evening flight beer and wine was available for economy passengers this time served with pretzels.
It was fun to have paid economy but to sit in business class so that was fun on the AKL-CHC-AKL run, especially when you are with 7 others who just want to talk about planes and travel, and they don't mind if you take a heap of photos.
Emirates A380 was ok; especially in J but it is kind of boring when its just yourself, connecting onto QF to Brisbane wasn't too bad
Great weekend it is sad to see the end of Qantas domestic flights in New Zealand.
AKL-CHC-AKL corrections; changes or additions are ok as well.
