The FLounge Run TR Thread

[Lawlass]

I wasn’t going to bother with a TR, but I’ve been doing some hardcore procrastinating today. Obviously I can only do the TR from one perspective and I didn’t really get around to speak to everyone, so if anyone else can add their own TR to this thread, that would be great.


So here it is. The FLounge run from my perspective.


On the way up from MEL, I was the only one going up on the 0915 DJ flight. I was very excited about having the opportunity to guest nlagalle in to The Lounge because it’s always him guesting me into the good stuff (me being a mere SG and all). The Lounge was big and bright and clean and empty and had more-than-acceptable coffee, so I was pretty happy, but I forgot that nlagalle is a bit of a QF fanboi and he refused to be impressed until I told him he was acting all QF fanboi, which was when he finally begrudgingly said it was okay before wandering off to catch his QF flight.

I breezed through the DJ priority security and then straight through the priority boarding, even though they only had one person doing boarding passes (note to QF – that’s how you do priority boarding. It’s really not that hard).

I was in seat 3A so I had lots of leg room and IFE with about 30 channels that was operating from the time I sat down until the time I stood up again at the other end, so that would’ve been impressive if I actually wanted to watch something instead of reading my paper. I did, however, accept the headphones which conveniently work with my iPhone. Talk about Score. I was also offered the tray with the muffin and stuff on it even though they knew I hadn’t paid for it, but knocked it back, thinking I would be in the FLounge really really soon. Little did I know, huh?

Of course, the minute we touched down I check AFF only to discover that the power in T1 was out and consequent chaos has ensued.

I rang LiamK and we did that thing where you walk around telling each other what you’re walking past until you actually spot each other. He said he would be ‘young-looking’ but I didn’t realise he actually only stopped qualifying as being a toddler a couple of years ago. That’s a compliment Liam – I’m saying your posts are mature. Really.

Liam was there with a couple of other faces I recognised – trippin, awilcockson, Mal and Samh004, and someone who my awesome powers of deduction led me to assume was Taezer. Somehow all these smartypantses had managed to secure JQ35 boarding passes and D stickers and were milling around waiting for power to come on or someone to tell them what was going on and you could totally tell some of them were hoping to get interviewed by one of the TV crews that were there, but I’m not mentioning any names.

Those of us without the magical BPs – including Ewing and ReLoad – went off in search of JQ staff – any JQ staff.

nlagalle rang to say he was going to wait out the power outage in the Dom J Lounge and we all read on the thread that wayne bourke was going to do the same thing, but nobody ever saw him so I’ve decided he probably doesn’t exist. We met up with jdlover, whose JQ30 had been cancelled the day before, but he was remarkably good humoured about this most recent turn of events, all things considered.

Somehow in that way that just happens, total strangers eye each other up until someone mutters ‘AFF?’ and the other one nods. It’s all a bit ‘the rooster crows at midnight and the eagle flies at noon’, but it works and that’s how we met gowatson, harvyk and samiam. Confusingly, harvyk’s and samiam’s names are Andrew and Steve respectively; now if you’re going to have human names as part of your handle, they should be YOUR human names. I’m just saying.

FuzzyAus was being a good Samaritan and trying to assist an elderly couple who were confused about what was going on. The phrase ‘blind leading the blind’ popped into my head but I’m pretty sure I managed not to say it out loud. Ewing, meanwhile, was claiming to be checking the status of everything online, but really I think he was just enjoying wandering around showing of his itty-bitty Mac thing.

I finally spotted a flash of orange and then proceeded to stalk the JQ ladies – who were very good sports about it I must say – as they tried to find out where they were supposed to set up. Now stalking has suffered a bit of tough press lately, but in this case it worked a treat and we managed to be front of line.

Our jubilation at obtaining boarding passes was muffled a little when we saw the immi/security queue – you would’ve been hard pressed to fit that many people into the MCG. However it went surprisingly quickly until finally…

THE FLOUNGE

The early smartypantses had already been there for thirty minutes, but we were pretty happy to get there at all. I settled on to a table with jdlover23, gowatson and markis10 where we ordered Veuve, Tattinger, red wine and our three courses.

gowatson made some comment about flying since 1950 which I was sceptical about,given the lack of facial wrinkles to go with that statement. Upon discovering his age I made a mental note to get the name of his surgeon later.

Markis10 introduced himself as a moderator, which resulted in a mini-tirade from me about the over-zealous moderating and post-deleting that goes on in AFF. I’m not sure that’s the usual reaction he gets because he looked a little startled.

We had an extra chair on the table but it was whisked away when I wasn’t looking and I’m not sure nlagalle actually believed my story that I had saved him a seat, honest I had, because he disappeared, not to be seen again until JQ35 was boarding. There’s rumours he went to play PS3 games with drewbles who told us he wasn’t coming but apparently just didn’t want to hang out with us.

My pork belly was lovely (at least it was until FrankC ordered it a bit later and got FOUR bits to my lousy three, making me most jealous), the salt’n’pepper squid was bland and the sticky toffee pudding was an cough on a plate. I admit my enthusiasm for my food grows exponentially with each glass of red wine, which I eventually just had to keep refilling myself; I guess the staff were pretty busy. Either that or they were giving me a subtle hint which I accidentally missed.

After dinner I decided to go an introduce myself to anat0l’s table, where I met he and stark, who’d brought a book along in case we were all a bit too boring. At the end of their table, thewinchester seemed to have misplaced his copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People, because he immediately said “Lawlass? Oh, I have you in my block file because you posted something which made me believe you were a ****head.” He either couldn’t or wouldn’t remember what it was, but my in-person charm must have won him over because he later not only unblocked me but also later facefriended me.

Unfortunately JQ35 was only thirty minutes late. You’d think it would’ve had the decency to be delayed by at least as long as we were held up getting in there. I wanted to make sure I got my $25.87 worth.

I was regretting being unsociable and requesting no AFFers sit beside me on JQ35 when I realised that meant I was sitting next to Joe (or in this case Joanne) Public. Harvyk had a much nicer seat and I tried to get him to swap, but my assurances that my seat was next to a hot blonde in a short skirt (and it really really was) fell on deaf ears, citing some sort of wife creature back home.

A ripple of excitement went running through JQ35 as the AFFers realised the latest page we had heard was for the mysterious Misha. Was he on board? Had he somehow sneaked in to the FLounge without us noticing? Time would tell.

As soon as the seatbelt sign went off, about a dozen AFFers jumped up and congregated around the Samh004 in-flight bar, where I was disappointed to discover the little bottles he was handing out had no alcoholic content at all. Bzzt. Fail.

The poor FA kept trying to act stern and get us back to our seats, but she clearly hadn’t been to the QF Dragon FA classes and she was pretty ineffectual. All we really did was shuffle around and change spots with each other.

When Samh004 found a safety card for an A320 in his seat pocket, he became extremely excited and agitated in turn, flashing it about and pretty much demanding the plane (which was, by the way, an A330, so he sort of had a point) turn around and go home for this blatant safety violation.

Upon landing a few QF fanbois went off to the J Lounge, while the rest of us trooped into the Virgin Lounge, where the gals were extremely accommodating about letting all the non-VA cardholders in.

I briefly met Misha, whom I immediately insulted by telling him he had a girl’s name and then he didn't speak to me again. I think perhaps this might have been the point where someone could’ve said “Enough drinkies for you, Lawlass”, but nobody did.

Some West Coast Eagles players entered The Lounge and I have to ask, are they making footballers a whole lot younger nowdays? These ones were practically foetuses. But even with all us AFFers and all those WEagles, the Lounge was still practically empty.

Back in town, nlagalle left us for a hot date and jdlover23 said he was leaving us to go to bed, but he fibbed and really went out with other cooler people.

I went to dinner with Samh004, awilcockson, penegal and Sam’s sister Chi-Chi (I so know I got that spelling wrong) to a fabulous restaurant chosen for us by penegal. It was a four-block walk and by now I had blisters and was finding myself tottering more than a little bit on my heels, but the guys were mostly really nice and made hardly any ‘drunk tart’ comments at all.

Awilcockson and Samh004 had made all sorts of grand plans for staying out drinking until 5am when they could return to the J Lounge for some sleep. However, given that their eyes were practically dropping out of their heads by the time we hit Melbourne, I took pity on them and offered them beds (hey, mattresses on the floor qualify as beds in some countries) at my place. Once we got there, these hardcore partiers immediately jumped on their respective iPads until sleepy time.

THE END
(and apologies to anyone I inadvertantly, or event vertantly, insulted)

 

[markis10]

I was only startled by the slow service, did the lounge staff not realize how much money had been spent to achieve a seat at that table . One wonders what they think of the JQ flyers every Saturday, might have to go back and ask? Nice TR BTW!

 

[nlagalle]

On the way up from MEL, I was the only one going up on the 0915 DJ flight. I was very excited about having the opportunity to guest nlagalle in to The Lounge because it’s always him guesting me into the good stuff (me being a mere SG and all). The Lounge was big and bright and clean and empty and had more-than-acceptable coffee, so I was pretty happy, but I forgot that nlagalle is a bit of a QF fanboi and he refused to be impressed until I told him he was acting all QF fanboi, which was when he finally begrudgingly said it was okay before wandering off to catch his QF flight.

Me fanboi??? lol!! the coffee was pretty good! And I found out I have access til the end of August according to the front door girls..

 

[Ewing]

Me fanboi??? lol!! the coffee was pretty good! And I found out I have access til the end of August according to the front door girls..

I liked the comment I got from the girl on the desk when I handed her my DJ Gold card after a bunch of WP cards had been displayed:
"Oh, you actually have one of our cards!"

I nearly retorted with "I can give you my Qantas Platinum card if you prefer?" but refrained.

 

[nlagalle]

I liked the comment I got from the girl on the desk when I handed her my DJ Gold card after a bunch of WP cards had been displayed:
"Oh, you actually have one of our cards!"

I nearly retorted with "I can give you my Qantas Platinum card if you prefer?" but refrained.

I would have!! hahaha!! :mrgreen:

 

[FrankC]

Great TR
I'm just grateful to be guessed in

For those that are interested - my return flight the following day on JQ was cancelled & they put me on a QF flight
I didn't ask why it was cancelled, I was just happy with a QF boarding pass

 

[Lawlass]

Great TR
I'm just grateful to be guessed in

For those that are interested - my return flight the following day on JQ was cancelled & they put me on a QF flight
I didn't ask why it was cancelled, I was just happy with a QF boarding pass

Where were you for the group photo??

 

[samh004]

Well here goes, but I can’t promise I’ll be anywhere near as funny as you Lawlass.

My journey started a little differently, on Friday night, with a drive North-West from the Gold Coast to awilcockson’s abode, where I ate, drank, watched a movie on an amazing home theatre setup and finally slept.

On Saturday morning we were up at an ungodly 04:30, but quietly optimistic because of a post from ozbeachbabe about helping us get our JQ boarding passes in BNE. Following a harrowing drive down bumpy rural roads, we made our way to Taezar’s place in the city, and then eventually to the airport, where we strangely found a park opposite the lifts in the longterm carpark.

On entering the terminal we found Mal and trippin_the_rift waiting for us, and were soon receiving JQ boarding passes from the very obligating JQ staff. This is also where Taezar decided to drop her QP card into, and under, a baggage belt. It was gone. Not too long later anat0l arrived, collected his boarding pass too and we were off to the QF J lounge.

Not being content with just visiting the one lounge today, we had pancakes from the new pancake machine in the QP, I then had porridge in the J lounge, and finally we set off on an expedition to the Virgin Lounge at the other end of the terminal, where toasted sandwiches were made. On our way back we went straight to the gate, and boarding was not long after, onto a brand new 738 with IFE on every seat.

On arrival into SYD, all with JQ boarding passes, and some with D stickers they’d picked up in the QP, we took the transfer bus, forgoing breakfast in the J lounge and figuring we’d now have 6 hours in the F lounge, enough time for breakfast and lunch. However, things were not to be, and we did wonder why there was a siren going off as we got out of the bus at the INT terminal.

On entering the terminal it was surprising to see power off in the check-in rows, but not for the shops and restaurants. We quickly approached the QF F checkin desks and when the lady behind our desk said she couldn’t see well enough in the dark to write on our D stickers, trippin_the_rift was quick as a flash to use his flash on his iPhone as a torch. With the assistance of some Express passes we headed through into the immigration hall, getting as close to a desk as about a metre, before everyone was told they had to leave as there wasn’t enough air in the hall, and the power was down anyway so they couldn’t process us.

What ensued was about 3 hours of lining up in a queue that was eventually told to bugger off, however we did happen to find a few AFFers while waiting around, including LiamR, Lawlass, Ewing and ReLoad.

When the main entryway to immigration did open, it was a mad dash to get through the very small opening by a lot of people, and we did our best to weasel our way in, despite having lined up at another door for the past 3 hours. Despite the massive amount of travellers trying to get on with their journeys though, we made it through immigration and customs quite quickly.

Finally we were at the threshold of the F lounge, and once our party of 6 was together, we made our way in to find a very deserted lounge for us to enjoy.

I sat on a round table in the second section of the restaurant, with trippin_the_rift, Taezar and awilcockson. We were quick to order our first glasses of wine and champagne, and I don’t think the staff quite understood that we’d been stood outside immigration since 9AM. It was now midday.

I had the buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes to start with, followed by the chicken laksa, both of which were excellent. In the case of the buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, things really had improved since my last visit, where I was given a truly mediocre 3 slices of tomato. Clearly they take feedback seriously. For dessert I had the chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice-cream and rhubarb, not realising I could have had the same cough as Lawlass with the sticky toffee pudding, as the lava wasn’t very runny for me.

At about this time trippin_the_rift and I were onto our 4th glass of champagne and sampling the Noble One with dessert, were told that it was a bit stronger than the champagne and we might want to be careful. We were also mistakingly served coffee, which we pointed out wasn’t ours, and after a lap of the room, we were asked if we would like them anyway. Hint perhaps?

It took another half an hour to get our 5th glass of Bollinger, disappointingly. Though we were now seated away from the restaurant.

As Lawlass pointed out, our flight was only half an hour late, so we begrudgingly left the lounge at 15:00 and made our way to the gate.

I can’t say much about our flight, other than it was the fastest its ever been for me, as there was so much going on I hardly noticed the time. Congregating at where they should have installed the in-flight bar was an enjoyable experience, as was not being told off for sitting in the crew seat opposite Taezar in her exit row.

Unfortunately LiamR forgot to tell us Taezar was on her way when we took the group photo, thus eliminating her from the evidence that she even joined us.

A few drinks later in the Virgin Lounge we felt it was time we headed into the city, taking the Skybus as always. We met my sister, Sze Sze () at Southern Cross and penegal at China Town, and finding the line too long at a local dumpling place, took penegal’s advice to try Sichuan House, where we had the most delicious spicy food.

When the night ended awilcockson and myself took up Lawlass’ (is that correct use of an apostrophe?) offer to stay at her place, and took a tram to St Kilda. And the mattresses on the floor were much more comfortable than the alternative that a pubs floor would have been.

I got back to Brisbane Sunday evening, having spent another 5 hours in the MEL QF J lounge, having unsuccessfully tried to change my flight to an earlier one. I then used my DJ Gold anytime access and had dinner in the BNE Virgin Lounge, while waiting for Taezar, Mal and anat0l, along with a member whose name alludes me now, to arrive from SYD.

 

[Lawlass]

I'm glad I didn't have to wait in that queue as long as you guys, even if you did get an extra 20 or 30 minutes in the FLounge :mrgreen:

We need TRs from everybody! Everyone had a different experience after all.

 

[drewbles]

We had an extra chair on the table but it was whisked away when I wasn’t looking and I’m not sure nlagalle actually believed my story that I had saved him a seat, honest I had, because he disappeared, not to be seen again until JQ35 was boarding. There’s rumours he went to play PS3 games with drewbles who told us he wasn’t coming but apparently just didn’t want to hang out with us.

<snip>

(and apologies to anyone I inadvertantly, or event vertantly, insulted)

I'll try not to be insulted

I had work to do. As mentioned in the actual thread about this, I shouldn't have even gone on the trip. I just didn't feel like forfeiting my fare so managed to negotiate with my boss that i'd do stuff whilst up there. Unfortunately thanks to the bloody power cut at the airport, I was so far behind I didn't get time to say boo (hence my also rather fast departure from MEL back to the office to get stuff done when I got home).

nlagalle just hijacked my improvised 'office' to do his real estate wheeling-and-dealing. Fortunately I just had to focus on a laptop screen and far too many issues

Next time though I promise to be more sociable!

 

[Lawlass]

As mentioned in the actual thread about this,

That's where I got the PS3 info from

Next time though I promise to be more sociable!

Yay!

 

[drewbles]

That's where I got the PS3 info from

I must admit next time I'm in the F Lounge, i'm tempted to go into one of the suites again, although this time yes, the PS3 would get a work out. Great little room (and the same sofas on there as out in the main lounge) just with your own computer/fax printer/PS3/plasma.

Only down fall was that there was no option to call for a waiter, although upon getting one they were happy to deliver!

 

[harvyk]

Well my day started at a fairly civilised 7:30am where I got up, got dressed and drove to the airport.
On arrival I went to the J counter and checked in. I received all three boarding passes however was told that QF couldn’t change my seat allocation on JQ flights. That’s ok I thought, I’ll do that when I get to SYD as I knew there were a few people who would need to go to the JQ counter anyways.

I went up to the J lounge were on presentation of my MEL-CBR boarding pass (a J boarding pass) they let me in. The guy at the counter simply said “as long as you have a J boarding pass for some time that day he was happy to let me use the lounge”.

I went and got myself an OJ a coffee and a small selection of brekkie pastries and put up the Facebook post of “is sitting in the business class lounge at canberra airport... yay for free breakfast...”
A short time after Ewing arrived at the airport our flight was called and we went and boarded.
My seat was the exit row 11F, and I didn’t have anyone in 11E... Sweet, extra legroom plus elbow room to boot.

On landing in SYD Ewing informed me of the power issues. We mulled over simply heading up to the J lounge at T3, but decided we’d go over to T2 and see about getting Ewing a JQ boarding pass, and I’d see if I could get a better seat (I had a horrible seat allocated to me by the JQ system).

After seeing the line at T2, and not even knowing if JQ at T2 could do anything for a JQ flight leaving from INT we decided to catch the train across and meet up with the others.

On arrival at T1 and noticing the lack of power we saw the rest of the Affers standing in line for the customs queue. Ewing \ Lawlass and myself started wandering around T1 to see what could be done re JQ boarding passes and a D sticker for me (I had given up hope of getting a better seat at that stage). We wondered down to the Domestic transfer desk to see if they could do anything, which they couldn’t. So we wondered up to check in desk H and stood in the dark. Slowly but surely more lost looking Affers came and met up with us.
Just before check in was suppose to open lights started coming back, a glimmer of hope? We started seeing the JQ girls appearing, to start check in, however they were unsure of where to go, we followed them around watching them trying to find a working check in desk which they were allowed to use.
At check in I was only really there to get a D sticker, but I asked if there was any better seats available? With that the check in girl asked if I’d like to sit in the emergency exit row, sounded good to me, and with that I was given 44K.

FuzzyAUS had just finished check in himself so he and I went to brave the queues at immi. On seeing the long queue snaking around the place and on seeing that express lanes were closed we went and joined the “secondary queue” which was much shorter. Did all the standard smiling for the customs guy and then we saw the security queue. FuzzyAUS had brought some spare express passes which he gave one to me, cut the wait from easily half an hour down to about 5 minutes.

Once we where through security we went up to the Flounge and found a spare table. I had the Pork Belly, followed by the Lamb, followed by the sticky date pudding... My Facebook status changed to “is sitting in the first class lounge at Sydney international... yay for free lunch...” My one complaint was the service was a little slow, luckily we didn’t have anything important to do like you know, catch a plane, so that wasn’t a problem – wait a minute...

On hearing our flight being called I watched several Affers leave straight for the gate, a few of us however held back and waiting until the second call.
With that we walked down to the gate to see the last of the line disappearing down the aerobridge – sweet no line for boarding.

I made my way down to my seat noting the subtle differences between JQ and QF (this was my first JQ flight), including the old style safety demo which I hadn’t seen since 2008.

Once we were underway an unofficial Aff meet happened at my seat. When it came time to sit back down for landing I’d noticed a certain lass has decided my seat was much better than my own. She begged and pleaded and explained about the really hot chick that she was sitting next to, but I’d fought long and hard to get that seat, no way was I giving up on it now.

On landing GoWatson and I had a discussion about how JQ and QF are the one company when it suits them, and how they are two different companies when it suits JQ.

After going through customs \ “aqis” at MEL I met up with my Sister and Brother in Law who was standing outside the arrivals hall. Paul (my brother in law) was nice enough to take a photo for the group. (No it was not some random stranger).

After watching the rest of the group head towards T3 and the DJ Lounge FuzzyAus, myself and my sister \ brother in law went up to the T3 J Lounge. I’d been promising my sister I’d show her in the QP for quite some time as she does a bit of flying but never earned status with anyone airline, of course she saw the QP as we walked through it to get to the J Lounge.

At about this point in time my Facebook status was “is sitting is the business class lounge at melbourne airport... yay for free dinner...”. (there was a few comments about loads of free food for me today).

Dinner was nice but nothing to write home about after the F Lounge.

After finding out from Fuzzy who JB747’s real identity was and saying goodbye to the rest of the Affers who had come back from visiting the dark side, I went down and boarded my flight back to CBR – J Class - Seat 1A...

The flight back to CBR was pretty good, had salmon for “dinner number two”, followed by a really nice cheesecake (so much better than the somewhat ineddible sandwich which I usually get on MEL-CBR flights. On landing I was the first off the plane (can’t complain about that) got my car and drove home, ending an very fun, but interesting in parts day.

 

[Lawlass]

At check in I was only really there to get a D sticker, but I asked if there was any better seats available? With that the check in girl asked if I’d like to sit in the emergency exit row, sounded good to me, and with that I was given 44K.

When it came time to sit back down for landing I’d noticed a certain lass has decided my seat was much better than my own. She begged and pleaded and explained about the really hot chick that she was sitting next to, but I’d fought long and hard to get that seat, no way was I giving up on it now.

"Fought long and hard." Pfffft. Your own fingers say you lie.

Nice TR. Only about another 15 people owe us their own version of events now.

 

[markis10]

Went to the airport, stood in the dark, finally got a BP, eventually got to the F lounge and had lunch, got ear bashed for over moderation oops, got reminded why I dont like JQ (although the gate staff should work for QF with their policing of the priority line), went to DJ lounge where I was not told of a beer limit, caught an E190 home a few hours later after a very nice day!

 

[Lawlass]

got ear bashed for over moderation oops,

Over-moderation and now under-TRing. Jeez. How hard is it to get good help these days?

 

[markis10]

Tough crowd!

 

[Ewing]

I had planned on starting my day at 7:30am, but after feeling how cold it was in the house I decided to stay in bed for another 30 minutes.

After getting ready, I left my house at about 8:40am for a 9:55am flight.

On arrival at Canberra airport I used the newly implemented NGCI poles to check-in for my flight and shortly after I received my confirmation SMS with seat 6C (737-400). I then went through security, naturally having to take my shoes off to be screened separately. Somehow I managed to avoid the secondary screening today.

Once my shoes were comfortably adjusted again and now approaching 9am, I met up with harvyk in the business lounge. Once settled I had my usual lounge breakfast of 1 glass of bircher muesli, 1 glass of rice pudding and an orange juice. There wasn't a pancake machine to be seen

It was a non-eventful 46 minute (gate-to-gate) trip to Sydney. 6B,D,E,F were all empty, and my "row-mate" in 6A was engrossed in his reading materials for the duration of the flight. I accepted a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald and flicked through that on the trip.

Upon landing in Sydney (10:41am), I noticed a post by Mal about the power issues and spoke with LiamR and samh004 on the phone to confirm what was happening.

harvyk and I decided to head over to T2 in an attempt to get my boarding pass (and harvky a D sticker) but after seeing the line and with no confirmation that they would be able to help us we decided to hop on the train and go over to T1 to meet up with the others.

Once we arrived at T1 I noticed the escalators and lifts weren't working, before it clicked - no power *duh* so I carried my carry-on up the stairs.

This was the sight that greeted us on arrival, but we hadn't seen anything yet:

Having been informed that AFFers were waiting around the express path entry, we decided to head over there in search of more information. Lawlass and I didn't have a boarding pass, so we decided to go searching and harvyk came along to find a D sticker. The arrival of a news crew just meters away expedited our departure.

We went to the domestic transfer desk to see if they had the ability to issue JQ Bps, but they didn't. At this stage it was about 11:45 and close to the JQ check-in time so we simply decided to head back to the normal row H and wait to see what happened. On the way I noticed one of the downstairs vending machines still had power so my survivalist skills D) led me to purchase a bottle of water.

Once we got back to row H we ran into some other AFFers including FuzzyAUS, gowatson and samiam. I was feeling a little left out with people like harvyk using iPads, so I pulled out my 11" Macbook Air and checked out what the local news was saying.

Of course at this stage, NoNews was naturally saying that the power outage was only delaying Qantas flights.

At some point the power started coming back on and row H had lights and check-in screens once more. However, a Philippine Airlines flight was using the standard JQ counters.

Soon after Lawlass spotted the orange jackets of the Jetstar ladies and we stalked them while they spoke to the Lady Supreme of the Check-in Desks who first said they could use row G, but then changed to the other side of row H.

With that information in hand we went to the check-in counters and got in line while the JQ ladies setup the desks. As we'd already performed web check-in, we were able to use the StarClass line which was excellent.

Jetstar check-in was complete around 12:30 which wasn't too bad at all. We joined the incredibly long immigration line at a point which may or not have been near the back. When I made it to an immigration agent, at the sight of my D sticker he burst out laughing which of course prompted me to laugh and his colleague as well. The staff were in surprisingly good humour.

Once through I discretely joined the aircrew lane with some other AFFers, and we somehow managed to get stuck behind a lady with hair down past her bottom who had obviously never flown before. She was in the process of losing most of the contents of her carry-on bag including full size bottles of shampoo and perfumes, so I went through in front of her.

Of course my shoes set off the metal detectors again, however before I could take them off the security agent said "Don't take them off. Instead, walk through with your feet together in the middle". This worked, and no alarm!

I waited for samiam and we walked into the F lounge. Interestingly the only escalators that were working in the terminal seemed to be those that led from the plant corridor up into the lounge.

At that point I decided to freshen up and start with a glass of Bollinger and joined one of the big round tables with ReLoad with +1, harvyk, samiam and FuzzyAUS.

I ordered the squid for entree (accompanied by several glasses of Bollinger), the wagyu special for main (accompanied by Shiraz) and the pavlova for dessert (accompanied by Noble One). All were excellent.

I did find the service somewhat lacking on the day, and the peak of my annoyance was when one of the waiters spilled the dressing of one of the dishes (carpaccio?) all down my arm and on my shirt before walking off without saying a word. Fortunately after a quick visit to the shower rooms and the use of a towel and a hair dryer the evidence was able to be cleaned off.

The flight itself has been covered so I won't go into too many details. I had 36G which was fine.

Upon arrival we cleared immigration again, and I didn't hear of any boarding pass mishaps this time around so that was excellent.

After posing for a photo, some of the group went into the Qantas J lounge and the rest went into the Virgin lounge where even those who didn't have DJ Gold cards were warmly greeted.

Upon presentation of my DJ Gold card for anytime access, the girl behind the counter quipped "Oh, you actually have one of our cards!" which was cause for a chuckle. I nearly swapped it out for my Qantas Platinum card but refrained.

After some socialising in the lounge I caught the Skybus into town with Lawlass, samh004, awilcockson, nlagalle and jdlover23 before departing to check into my hotel. This time I was staying at the Swanston Grand Mercure which had a great location on the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets. I picked up an Executive Suite for $125 in an Accor promo a while back.

Once checked in I strolled to the Regent Theatre where I seen Love Never Dies. It wasn't as good as I had hoped unfortunately, and if you weren't already familiar with the story of the Phantom then you may be confused as to the significance of some of the characters.

On Sunday I went and explored some Melbourne buildings as part of Melbourne Open House. The highlight of this was the 45 minute tour through JA substation near Southern Cross that takes 66,000V lines and drops down the voltage for distribution into the Melbourne CBD and some surrounding areas.

Here's a glimpse (click for a larger view). Each copper bar is carrying a phase of 66kV at ~250A.



Thoroughly exhausted from walking all day, I picked up my luggage from the hotel and left to go to the airport to catch my flights from MEL-SYD and SYD-CBR. I though about getting on the direct flight, but E/F was showing it as completely full so I didn't bother asking. I used my newly learned "trick" and was also able to go through security in MEL without my shoes setting off the alarm

In Sydney I had a quick dinner and a few glasses of wine. I also ran into Bundy Bear and JohnK briefly in the lounge before catching my flight to Canberra.

Once in Canberra I went straight home and collapsed in my bed - thoroughly exhausted

 

[Lawlass]

"Don't take them off. Instead, walk through with your feet together in the middle".

I'm trying to picture this and keep getting visions of you jumping through the detector with your feet and knees together

Great TR!

 

[Taezar]

I got back to Brisbane Sunday evening, having spent another 5 hours in the MEL QF J lounge, having unsuccessfully tried to change my flight to an earlier one. I then used my DJ Gold anytime access and had dinner in the BNE Virgin Lounge, while waiting for Taezar, Mal and anat0l, along with a member whose name alludes me now, to arrive from SYD.

That would be BenMay.

My Trip Report - By Tae Baker (though since I wasn't in the group photo I wasn't actually there!)

My quiet weekend of culture was destroyed by the evils of peer pressure.

My weekend started the evening before, as I dutifully packed my messenger bag for my weekend away (looking at you men who turned up with cabin wheelie bags). At 4.15am I awoke to get ready for my adventures in indulgence. Before Sam (Samh004) and Andrew (awilcockson) arrived, I had to make a dash back to work, as I had left my charger there. I had realised this the night before, but as I work next to Suncorp Stadium (home of the Broncos) there was no way I was getting anywhere near my office.

Upon arriving at the Airport we found Mark (Trippin_the_Rift), Mal (Mal) and Sarah (OzBeachBabe), who hooked us up with the JQ goddess Tamara who produced our boarding passes... but not before I a) thought I had left my wallet at home (as I had packed my bag differently) and b) dropped one of my QP cards in the luggage belt. Tamara obviously felt sorry for the "touched" individual with the seasoned travellers and awarded me with an exit row. Daniel (Anat0l) turned up in time to get a golden ticket as well. Sarah advised us to be wary of a strange man named Neal seated next to Daniel and I as he had managed to check in the whole way already without her magic assistance. Could this Neal be a QF spy?

We made our way to the Amazing Pancake Making Robot in the QP, got our round discs of deliciousness and proceeded to the JLounge. I choose not to consume my pancake in the QP as I wanted the yummy jam in J and was not disappointed. Daniel and I chatted happily over our pancakes while Mark, Andrew and Sam ran off for another visit to The Lounge Redux. I checked AFF and saw that the mystery Neal was "Stark" who was sitting by the window - and so the merry band from Brisbane was complete. Neal informed us that he had got his orange sticker from the QP desk, so Daniel and I got ours, while The Lounge devotees went without.

On the new plane, much fun was had messaging eachother, and someone who we thought was Andrew, but who turned out to just be "some guy." We were 4 A,B C,D with Mark in J and Andrew in an Exit Row.

Upon arriving in T3, we got bailed up by a staff member at the TBus desk who didn't want to let us on the bus with our lowly orange boarding passes. However we pushed past her negativity and jumped the next bus.

Darkness.

Darkness and sorrow.

Oh what crimes had we committed to be rejected by Fate at the front of the Immigration queue? It was 9am, and the F Lounge was so close - we had our express passes, boarding passes and orange stickers. Instead we were in limbo - teased by the call of over indulgence yet tempered by the chains of reality. We waited in darkness. I sat in the J checkin talking to Sam, while the lads went exploring. After around 45 mins the power came on and we dashed to the express queue. We were so close to the front it was insane. As staff/feds went in and out, our hopes were continually dashed against the rocks chiselled with the words "No Eggs Benne For You!" During this time we spotted and were spotted by multiple AFFers, some new to me, some not - but all of us faced with the reality that our day just may not turn out as planned. Just on 12pm, a "helpful" staff member informed us that there would be no special treatment for ones such as us, and I led the sneak up the side, with the lads following in my wake.

Finally we were through.

The quiet and aroma of the F Lounge was a start contrast to the noise and lingering smells of the main concourse. I was guested in by Neal (AKA Stark the uber QF spy) and beelined to the Payot spa. Andrew, Sam and Mark saved me a seat while I got a booking for a massage. I arrived back at the table just in time to order and consume the first of 6 glasses of Bolly. I ate the pork belly, duck, chips and sorbet, finishing with the stella bella and dashed off for my massage. I also managed to do a quick swing by the tables saying hello, but that is all a blur - apart from the fact that SamIAm is actually called Steve.

I had a lovely 15 minute massage, though I was a little worried I may miss the boarding call - though I shouldn't have been concerned, as the plane was helpfully delayed by 30 mins (like how can some flights be pushed back 3 hours and we were just 30 mins? I mean how much c0ck did JQ have to suck to get that to happen?). After my massage I stod up and almost fell over from drinking too much too fast, so I did a takeaway (smoked salmon foccacia) at the sandwich and snack desk along with a few bottles of Pelligrino before drinking more Bolly while we waited.

When I left the lads for my massage, Andrew was talking up how he was going to head to the bar and eat a steak sandwhich. Instead I found him a mess of gluttony on a couch. One word for you Andrew - soft.

The flight itself was a bit of fun. Hanging out by the loos. Chatting to any and all AFFers - having some bogan chick complain to a crew member that we were blocking the toilets. I actually read the Jetstar magazine while waiting for takeoff, too. The thing I remember most about the flight was just how tired the male cabin crew member was in his jump seat. Yawning, rubbing his eyes etc... Made me think of the reports that week about how the Thai staff were too tired to fly.

Melbourne was soon upon us. Those of us who weren't at the front of the plane ended up going through immigration faster as we were moved from the domestic line. I used this opportunity to go to the bathroom, informing the lads that I would be back in a few - don't leave without me. True to form, I came back and everyone was gone. I did see Canberra Andrew heading up the travellator so followed that way, only to be called back by Andrew as we were off The Lounge Redux. Thanks Shaun for guesting me in. I was sooooo tired. The early start, the standing, the champagne - it was all coming back telling me to nap. I don't remember much, other than Liam redecorated, I swapped seats, Nick took my first one (watching you!), it lacked atmophere and that they had kettle chips.

Daniel, Mal, Michael and I scooted back to the JLounge for some quite time before jumping our flight to Sydney.

The flight to Sydney was uneventful and we shared a taxi into town. The check in staff at my hotel "helpfully" informed me that I had been booked into a smoking room after I came back downstairs complaining that my room stank of smoke. After much pleading/complaining I got a better room that didn't reek. I slept well.

Sunday saw me up early and adventuring, getting my barings, before breakfasting and heading to Hyde Park and visiting the ANZAC Memorial, then off to the Museum for the Rituals of Seduction I had seen advertised on a flight recently. After exploring the entire museum which is infinitely better than the museum in Melbourne, I headed into the Botanic Gardens (why aren't they the Botanical Gardens?), went to the National Gallery and saw the Pre-Rafaellite Exhibition - which was amazing!!

I then strolled through the gardens to Bennalong, The Opera House and finally Circular Quay before heading to the airport to meet Ben and guest him into the QP before Mal and Daniel could get us into the JLounge. You can see a 360 of my view at the Opera House here.

The flight home was awesome - as Mal and Daniel had picked their seats (aisle in the middle) and were confident that their uber shadow of black card greatness would protect them from someone in the middle... May not have worked out as planned for the Brisbane boys. Ben and I were at the bulkhead talking about everything (including Shaun (Ewing) - were your ears burning?). I remember Mal said something to me, and I responded that I couldn't hear him over all the leg room... I may have had a little too much Baileys before the flight.

Back in my fantastic city of Brisbane, Sam met us at the gate, before we did a quick dash into the JLounge (me for the bathroom - Thanks Daniel for guesting me) and Mal and Ben to do some drinking before their connections (train and plane). Sam drove me home, and I went to bed.

The End.
PS. Sorry for not using handles as I don't think of ppl by their handles.
EDIT: Last night I linked about 10 photos and did all the handles - then the site crashed... I will try again tonight.