Great Southern Land Scenic Flight a.k.a. "The Flight to Nowhere"

[NSun]

On Saturday October 10 I was one of the lucky 150 people to be onboard the Great Southern Land Scenic Flight from Sydney...to Sydney. My last overseas flight was SIN-MEL on March 9 (I am from Sydney but went via MEL to have a better chance of an upgraded). I landed on the day Qantas announced it was cutting international capacity by 25% for 6 months. Within a week it had been extended to 90% then 2 days after that all international flights cancelled until the end of May.

After 3 and a half months grounded I have done a number of QF flights since then, including 5 round trips to BNK. But as soon as I saw this flight I knew I had to get onboard so I stayed on the screen for a few minutes before 12pm then got in quick. I snagged 20K - a window seat on the right hand side of the premium economy cabin.

The flight was my 27th of 2020 but only my 3rd on the Dreamliner. My first was EZE-SCL last year with KLM connecting to SCL-SYD which would be my last 747 flight, my second AKL-SYD in Australia day with Qantas. I had been an A380 fanatic and was sad to see it grounded until 2023 but I became quite a fan of the Dreamliner on this flight as an aircraft in how smooth it flies and I really felt the cabin atmosphere made a difference - in the 8.5 hours I didn't get dry feet as often happens on older aircraft.

But I'm sure you're all reading this because you wanted to see how I found the experiences and the sights and all that is to come. But I'll kick things off with the pre-flight experience...

 

[NSun]

When I got to SYD T3 there was a fair queue for security. Admittedly there was only one lane but nonetheless the busiest I'd seen it in months. I got through within 10 minutes and was straight through to the lounge. Didn't take too many pictures but there were quite some festivities. We all got an area roped off for us and our own bartender.

This isn't one of our 747 bar carts - it was Ansett's. I know the image quality isn't the best but if you look closely you can see it is labelled Ansett. I ended up having some gin coughtail. Pyjamas were handed out as you walked in - we had been advised we weren't permitted to change into them during the flight.



I arrived at 8am and was actually one of the last there. I got a seat at the back of the audience but I could hear our host well - Jim Wilson who is the 2GB drive host. He spoke for about 5 minutes saying how great it was to be back then interviewed Lisa Norman, our captain on today's flight.

Then there was an auction of 747 memorabilia including panels and an emergency exit sign as well as a 787 simulator session. The last prize was won by a woman who paid over $3,000 and bought it as a present for her father to make up for a trip to Canada he missed that was going to be the "747 swansong".



Then before we left we had a musical performance. We had been promised it would be a celebrity and it turned out to be a musician from Icehouse - I'm sorry I forget who it was. No prizes for guessing what song he performed.

 

[NSun]

I went down to the gate a bit early to catch a glimpse of our aircraft. Sadly the best photo I could get was this. As promised it was VH-ZND "Emily Kame Kngwarreye" a near 3 year old Qantas 787.

I'd actually seen it getting built at the Boeing factory in Seattle but had no idea it'd be painted in such a special livery. After some repatriation flights, Emily had been grounded in Sydney since mid-June but did a 20 minute "spin" the day before.



Boarding got delayed a bit but our Icehouse singer came down and sang another couple of songs for us - Shannon Noll's "Shine" and "Lift."



Our other captain, Alex Passerini started boarding by asking "Who's ready to board the flight...to Sydney?" Everyone chuckled and then we got the usual post-COVID boarding announcement.

There were gift bags out but before I could touch them I was been told they were just for economy and premium economy would get different ones onboard and we did.

 

[NSun]

I was one of the first onboard and found my seat 20K.



While I was a 787 amateur I had flown that seat on a SYD-LAX flight on the A380 and couldn't sleep at all - similar to Chris Chamberlain at Executive Traveller when he tried the seat on the inaugural flight. I put it down to not having the leg rest on the first generation seat because I somehow managed 8 hours sleep on the leg home despite having a sore throat. Anyway...the legroom was decent.



I'd made a resolution that if I had to fly the 787 it'd be J or nothing but on a day time flight I could survive and I did. We were allowed to keep the pillows but only told towards the end of the flight. Here's the menu.




We were offered takeoff drinks and I took water. Our CSM made their pre-flight announcement and Captain Alex made a brief one only a minute or so as Captain Lisa had done that already in the lounge.

 

[Daver6]

I presume the Icehouse person was lead singer, Iva Davies?

 

[NSun]

We then pushed back and the Centenary safety video was played. We passed Qantas' 2 other 787s currently stored in Sydney, VH-ZNC and VH-ZNK both of which hadn't been in Sydney more than a fortnight.



I was excited with my seat believing we were taking off to the north as other aircraft were doing. But we were an exemption and took off to the south at 10.43am.

But my disappointment was short lived as we quickly turned around. Sadly the pics on takeoff didn't turn out as well as I would've liked due to the wing even though I had no problems wide. These were the best ones.





Then we turned slightly south and flew out of the coast over Bondi and set course initially for the Newcastle-Forster area.

 

[Major]

At least you have clear skies with minimal cloud

 

[Ansett]

Thanks Nsun a greats tart to a trip report interested to see more,

I am surprised that the pictures in the lounge show no one wearing masks, Where they required onboard or when boarding?

 

[Pushka]

I saw the headline and thought something must have gone awry.

"Qantas flight to nowhere dubbed Obscene"

150 passengers take off on Qantas’ seven-hour scenic tourism experience

With many itching to travel but forced to stay grounded due to the pandemic, 150 passengers were lucky enough to board a commercial aircraft for Qantas yesterday – en route to nowhere!

www.news.com.au

However the angst was by those who thought it would damage the environment. . It was a carbon neutral flight.

 

[NSun]

Thanks Nsun a greats tart to a trip report interested to see more,

I am surprised that the pictures in the lounge show no one wearing masks, Where they required onboard or when boarding?

No we were just told they were "strongly recommended". Only a handful of people wore them.

 

[jakeseven7]

Did you see the sign that the desperate Sunshine Coast tourism and hospitality locals made

 

[NSun]

So we headed up the NSW coast and I only really saw the sea until we got into Queensland.

Did you see the sign that the desperate Sunshine Coast tourism and hospitality locals made

View attachment 230180

I was on the wrong side of the plane but we were all told about the message onboard.

 

[NSun]

30 minutes in, we got given nuts and offered a first round of drinks and nuts.



As we crossed the Gold Coast we were welcomed to Queensland by our captain and another 15 minutes later we crossed the Sunshine Coast and its message. We also got welcomed from Neil Perry who was onboard, sitting in business class for the most part as well as our gift bags. More on their contents later because I didn't have a proper look until the next day. I peeked inside and most of the stuff was in packages.



As we went across the Great Barrier Reef and Hamilton Island I got to see more than the ocean again. We were flying that low it was like being in a very long helicopter.





The wing obstruction in the photos from my seat didn't look anywhere this bad in real time so I went with it. Thankfully we dipped over Uluru so I got decent photos there.

 

[NSun]

At some point over the reef we got a couple of "parades". First we had someone dressed as Austin Powers and he paraded to the opening theme.



Then someone dressed as Tina Arena.





While the curtain between Y+ and Y was shut for most of the flight it was pulled back for this. The curtain between Y+ and J was not at all.

 

[NSun]

The views of the reef continued and we passed low over Hamilton Island. Unfortunately I only got videos of Hamilton Island.







Then we reached Townsville, did a fly over then set course for Uluru via Mt Isa.

 

[NSun]

By now the window were force dimmed halfway (but not locked) to allow for lunch and a movie to be screened but it didn't work on my screen nor my neighbour's for some reason.



I ordered chicken parmigiana for lunch and had a pinot noir. The former came out exactly like a chicken schnitzel dish that I'd had twice before on Y+ only it had cheese on top. It didn't disappoint.



I did unlock my window for a bit just to see how the Dreamliner windows worked. But took some pics at the emergency exit doors. We were warned we may have had to stay seated during the Uluru flyover due to turbulence and we were. Only big town we crossed over was Mt Isa but there was some great scenery.



Just before we got to Uluru we flew over Lake Amadeus which has over 600 million tonnes of salt.

 

[karen blancfield]

I was watching for the flight to pass over Alice Springs but realised it was too far north.

 

[NSun]

We reached Uluru and the seatbelt sign was turned on. We did a couple of loops of it, at first I was on the wrong side but then got great views. This was easily the best photo I got.




And this was the view from the other side.



We also got to see Kata Tjuta.

 

[jakeseven7]

Incredible photos!

 

[NSun]

We also flew over the nearby town.



Then we set course back to Sydney. By now it was 5pm Sydney time so it was clear we'd be a bit late. It was at this point our flight certificates were distributed.



We were also given dessert.



But even then the festivities weren't over. Qantas gave us a sneak peak of its new merchandise and a few J passengers did a parade around the cabins. Apparently they're on sale from Tuesday.