My girlfriend flies out of MEL tomorrow on TG466 at 1000hrs
She’s going business
She wants me to drive her to the airport so she arrives 4 hours early because she’s heard all about these delays with security etc. Am I correct in saying this is overkill? Anyone travelled recently and got a good time of arrival to enjoy a bit of comfortable lounge time?
Cheers!
Duff Jr
Personally with international trips I much prefer to get there early in case something happens on the way there as the consequences of missing an international flight connection out of Australia (or any other long haul route) are severe. Unlike say a domestic flight etc where one can usually say just get a later flight without too much drama.
CASE A:
Enroute to MEL from our SE suburb home. Note long before we reach the tunnel, a truck incident happens in the tunnel and it was closed. Instant traffic jam, not just on the tunnel approach, but then also on all alternatives around it. It took one hour longer to arrive at MEL.
CASE B:
We were only off to Indonesia on flights booked on the Jetstar Launch Sale. From memory I think it was $1 for StarClass Tickets. At that price I could not resist booking my wife and three daughters.
Even though it was Jetstar, the Jetstar flight was out of SYD, with a connecting QF flight from MEL-SYD all included within the $1 Sale Price.
Off to airport. We allow adequate time to get there, park at the longterm carpark and check in. All good right up until we reach the check-in counter. Wife goes to get our passports out of her handbag, and out comes hers and our three daughters. Mine, not there. Her handbag gets completely emptied and my passport was still not there.
Wife then recalls how enroute in the car that she opened her handbag to check that she had all passports and they were there. Penny then drops that in doing so that she must have dropped mine when doing so
Your passport is the one item that one cannot travel without!
So there we all are. Our connecting flight to SYD was soon to board. We agree with agent that wife and daughter will still go to SYD on it, while I will go to retrieve the passport which we hoped was still in the car, to return with it and then get onto the next flight to SYD which the agent transferred myself to do.
But time was then TIGHT, very tight.
We had parked in the longterm car[park. So off I go. Of course the bus back I miss as I see it as I reach outside. I have forgotten what the schedule was back there, but every 10 or 20 minutes. So I could not wait...so I have to run back to the longterm carpark. Luckily we had parked on the end near the terminal. and not way down the far end.
Panting I reach the car, and in a frantic search quickly find my passport under the front passenger seat. Relief! But still so little time.....but there was no bus in sight within the carpark (the route is that it enters at the far end and finishes near where I was parked).....so off back to the QF Terminal I run .
Agent was waiting for me. I get my boarding pass and onto the flight. It lands in SYD slightly late. As most would know in SYD the international terminal is reached by bus from the domestic terminal. So more running as I run to where the bus goes and time is now very, very late.
Catch bus and get to International terminal in SYD..get through the sections there and reach the Jetst check-in desk. No one there except for my wife and 3 daughters and the check-in staff. I get checked in, but wife advised that contract check-in staff had wanted to close it 30 minutes ago and go home despite knowing that I was enroute from MEL (I had called her so she knew I was on the QF flight) and that my wife was in tears after having had a huge ongoing argument with the staff on this.
They check myself in with much glaring.
We move on the gate, but on arriving there discover that they had given my StarClass ticket away, and so we now only had 4 StarClass Seats and one in economy. grrrr. We had to accept this or not fly.
Not being happy with that I contacted Jetstar on our return. Initially ignored. I then wrote a letter to Joyce, the CEO and eventually got a reply, and apology and a $500 flight credit.
CASE C:
Flying out of MEL. We had the night before pre-booked a taxi, which a practice we always did for flights if we to travel by taxi. Time comes, and no Taxi! Call up, taxi not coming, no apology and a 40 minute wait to get a replacement. Rang other companies and all had similar or longer wait times.
CONCLUSION
I always plan to arrive early for any international flight.
PS. I also now always carry the passports
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