Short turnarounds: Have you flown back from your destination with the same crew?

[Bjet]

Also same aircraft. I remember I flew with EK 77W from SYD to DXB, however there was a problem with the engines. It took more than 3 hours to stay inside the plane. What a nightmare!

When I arrived in DXB, I had one night free stopover. Lovely place to stay there! The next day, I hoped that it was not the same aircraft. Unfortunately, it was the same aircraft!!!! I was worried that there would be same problem as last time. Glad we arrived in FRA on time!

 

[ayebee]

Did this once, but quite a while back in 1999.
Departed MEL on a Sunday afternoon (QF9) arriving London Monday morning.
Had a project meeting in Coventry all day Tuesday, then took the scenic route back to Heathrow for the Wednesday evening QF10 back to MEL. Same crew as the inbound flight with a few "haven't I seen you before" looks. I do recall the return flight had business right into the pointy end of the 747.
Arrived MEL Friday, so a whole week taken just for "one of those meetings where you just had to be there". (not really but it was political)
The only good thing was I never had jetlag getting home.

 

[drron]

Another example was flying AA from NRT to DFW. Our son had moved to the States for 7 years so we went 2-3 times a year. QF was just Too expensive with back then J return fares of $13000. But JAL had a seniors return flight BNE-NRT-JFK for $6500. Every now and then they had a seniors special - BOGO. It was a no brainer. It was before JAL had joined OW so you could get QFF points but only on the BNE -NRT sector. I discovered that you could get AA miles on both legs hence the start of a long relationship.
I eventually got enough points to get 2 J awards on AA NRT -DFW. Were on board and the gate agent came on board and gave us 2 new BPs in F. I think there was then about 10 F flights NRT - DFW. For 8 of those flights we had the same purser and a few of the FAs. Got to know them really well.

 

[SeaWolf]

For a while I was regularly doing same day returns on the SYD-CBR route. I'd fly down first thing in the morning (usually having to get out of bed at 5am), attend the meeting and then fly back in the afternoon. It would be pretty normal to get the same crew on the return and even be on the same aircraft. Those planes often just spend their day flying back and forth between Sydney and Canberra.

Fortunately now I usually get a few nights in Canberra before flying back. I would not recommend the same day return, it's tedious and exhausting. Good way to rack up a ton of status credits though, if you're doing it regularly.

 

[bashworth]

The only time I did this was about 15 years ago flew up to Rockhampton one night for a job interview the next morning. Immediately after the interview I caught a plane back and one of the flight attendents recognised me.

 

[trooper]

Not exactly...but a similar situation. Did a quick SYD-AKL-SYD to lock in Gold on NZ for a series of upcoming long hauls... As we approached AKL one of the FA's started going through connections (we were running a bit late)..she looked at me and said... "Mr trooper... you are connecting to ...... (pause)... Sydney??? " Explained the reasoning and she really did "get it".

 

[Seat0B]

For a while I was regularly doing same day returns on the SYD-CBR route. I'd fly down first thing in the morning (usually having to get out of bed at 5am), attend the meeting and then fly back in the afternoon. It would be pretty normal to get the same crew on the return and even be on the same aircraft. Those planes often just spend their day flying back and forth between Sydney and Canberra.

Fortunately now I usually get a few nights in Canberra before flying back. I would not recommend the same day return, it's tedious and exhausting. Good way to rack up a ton of status credits though, if you're doing it regularly.

I used to do this too but in the opposite direction of CBR-SYD! Regularly had the same crew on both Dash-8 and B717s.

 

[AIRwin]

Not exactly...but a similar situation. Did a quick SYD-AKL-SYD to lock in Gold on NZ for a series of upcoming long hauls... As we approached AKL one of the FA's started going through connections (we were running a bit late)..she looked at me and said... "Mr trooper... you are connecting to ...... (pause)... Sydney??? " Explained the reasoning and she really did "get it".

Super @trooper !

 

[mbell1510]

Had the same crew led by CSM Donna when I did two days up in PNG last year. Great service both ways between BNE and POM, but had the impression they doe this service very frequently (don't blame them given it is almost a 9-5pm shift for them) given the great levels of banter between the regular FIFOs and the crew.

 

[Phoenix-1]

At the time there was a way you could use the Qantas website to select any seat in your cabin, even if it was blocked, and as I really liked 1C on the 737 I'd select that for each of my flights. Wasn't normally an issue as the J cabin was typically only half full on those flights so I didn't ever appear to have displaced anyone from that seat.

I'm struggling to see how this isn't self centred? If you can't select the seat normally, surely you'd be bumping someone from the seat they've chosen?

 

[jamesatfish]

I'm struggling to see how this isn't self centred? If you can't select the seat normally, surely you'd be bumping someone from the seat they've chosen?

My understanding was that the website simply unlocked seats that were blocked for status reasons (ie not being able to select a seat in Row 1 as I wasn't P1/CL), not that it would allow the selection of a seat that had already been allocated. As much as we like to criticise Qantas' IT systems I can't imagine they'd be that stupid as to configure their website to allow people to actively punt others from their allocated seats.

I obviously don't know whether the staffer in this case was pre-booked into 1C and was therefore displaced when I selected that seat online, or whether they booked after my seat allocation was made and just assumed they'd have 1A/1C as that's what they always had.

Either way, I'm happy to admit that I made the best choices for myself using the tools provided by the airline.

 

[paulmcnamara]

Yes needed a few more status points to retain gold and booked business class MEL-LST-MEL on 2 x status. Virgin in all there wisdom changed my flight to MEL-SYD-LST-MEL. Then get another email changing my flight to MEL-SYD-MEL-LST-MEL (yes your reading correctly). Crew on SYD-MEL was same and recognised me and crew on MEL-LST-MEL were the same and recognised me. Moral to story retained gold and got platinum through all the extra flights

 

[Blinky]

A few times this has happened

1. MEL-OOL-MEL on QF as part of a SC run

Same here. More than once.

 

[Saab34]

I flew the JQ MEL-ADL return 630am out, 4pm back a few times. They previously ran this flight MEL-ADL-PER-ADL-MEL as one shift for the crew. It was soon cancelled due to complaints and high sick call ins. I wouldn’t say it was a short turnaround for me, but was one heck of shift for the crew.

 

[4lex]

I recently went to London from Perth for my brother's birthday to surprise him. EK DXB-STN landed Friday evening, back on board Sunday lunchtime. The girls in the F cabin said that was a first for them. EK's F is just so good I keep going back.

 

[paulmcquillin]

Have you ever spent such a small amount of time at your destination that you had the same cabin crew (or even the same plane) when you flew back?

I'm sure a few people here would have done immediate turnarounds at the destination where you didn't even leave the airport, e.g. for a status run or to pick up the first sector of a different ticket. Or perhaps you only spent 24-48 hours at your destination and the same crew was flying back with you.

For those who have done this - why were you flying back so soon and did the crew recognise you when you got back on board?

Last year I flew around Australia stopping at each state and territory for only one night. eight in total. It was a great way to see how big Australian really is and lots of lounge time.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

I had a strange one yesterday. Had SYD-BRI-CNS with a 40 minute layover in Brissy. Got off the plane, went to the lounge to have a drink, then went stright back to the same plane but with a different crew for the onward leg to Cairns.

 

[AIRwin]

I had a strange one yesterday. Had SYD-BRI-CNS with a 40 minute layover in Brissy. Got off the plane, went to the lounge to have a drink, then went stright back to the same plane but with a different crew for the onward leg to Cairns.

Same seat?

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Same seat?

8f-7f... so close.

 

[openseat]

I've had the same crew on turnaround for a status run with BA many moons ago. LHR-MXP.

Also I have had the same crew on a connecting flight BNE-MEL-PER (?).