clipped_wings
Established Member
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2016
- Posts
- 1,109
This is the possibly the longest trip report for the shortest trip in history. Mr Clipped and I flew to Melbourne and back yesterday - thinking we could crash him over the Velocity Platinum Line once more.
The story so far: Husband needed 2 more sectors to reclaim Velocity WP. And although glomming it in Gold is no shame fest, the planning of our upcoming (8 pax) USA 2020 trip needed the kind of ammunition afforded only to a Velocity Plat. We had plenty of points and SC, so that wasn't an issue.
So we calculated a devious plan: Feed the teens breakfast, tell them we're headed over to the factory (on a Sunday - yeah right) for the day, then do a quick return run to Melbourne before they've looked up from their Battlefront V consoles.
We were each owed an Amex comp flight and were running out of 2018 to redeem them. So we booked for January and copped the few bucks in fees. The deal was made even more attractive by Flight 830 SYD-MEL @ 10am - which was an A330. Ha! I rang Velocity and upgraded us to Biz with 20,000 points - which is probably a stupid move given the flight time of one hour. But as I said: it was an A330 people! I scored 1A/2A for this sector, then booked us on VA853 home on the dreary B738. Ho hum. Didn't bother upgrading this leg, because I figured we'd have chewed our way through enough lounges that an inflight meal wouldn't entice.
Anyhoo, we crept out of the house at 6am, crept down to Sydney and crept into the Virgin Australia Lounge at exactly 8am. Two glorious hours to feast on free food, read the paper without having to solve the "MUUUUMMM - where's my black hoodie?" and the ultimate parental privilege: use the bathroom with the door closed. Am I right, or am I right?
I must remind our viewers that the objective today, was to NOT spend any money on food. Not one cent. All meals would be courtesy of the Sydney and Melbourne Lounges, as well as our flights. We parked the car and slid into the VA Lounge early. Time to hit the breakfast bar. A scrambled egg offering was just the thing, coupled with some nicely charred baby sausages. Dreamy cappuccinos that melted on contact - and crisp newspapers that were devoid of previous readers' DNA. Virgin Australia's Sydney Lounge was simply the epitome of good taste and polite conversation. Sunday is a great day to fly!
We bid a temporary goodbye to our secluded corner and jostled with the mainstream day trippers to Gate 45 around 0920. Oddly enough, my Virgin app beeped and warned me that boarding was now closed. We were only at Gate 31. I panicked and ran faster than a pensioner to the Red Spot Special at Big W.
Mr Clipped however, exercised a level of restrained caution with his new knees (which, annoyingly - were subject to a most public display of scrutiny at check in - AGAIN). He cantered expertly to the departure gate and met up with me. By now I was panting and totally out of breath. I looked like the scraggly cat in Bugs Bunny. And he looked like Pepe Le Pew. Most passengers had already boarded. But gate staff ushered us through with a smile and we took our place at the front of the plane.
Business Class on the A330 is as tantalising as it is on the B777. Sink into those familiar cushioned armchairs and nothing else matters.
Cabin crew introduced themselves and a generous glass of non-vintage bubbly makes a welcome appearance. The world, it's problems, even our kids - all are a distant memory as we climb into the clouds.
Today, we were YES men. Today was all about saying "yes" to everything. So when they offered us breakfast, we said "yes".
Mr Clipped had the smoked salmon and I dined on a potato rosti of some sort. Very nice - and presented with the kind of pride you would find at some groovy cafe.
Our trays were overflowing with extras - juice, bread rolls, biscuits, yoghurts etc. I wolfed most of it down, except those delightful parmesan cookies. Instead, I stashed them in my bag for later. Yum.
The flight was almost over before it really began. There was no need to watch TV, so I just flicked through the latest issue of Voyeur and listened to Train on my Quiet Comforts. Cabin crew were responsive and polite, but not as adorable as some of them can be. The (ugh) used bandaid that Mr Clipped found stuck to his chair was a pretty nasty shock, but our FA removed it and disinfected the area as soon as we brought it to her attention. I don't blame the cabin crew for this - but the contract cleaners at Sydney have a bit to answer for.....
Touchdown at Melbourne was on time and uneventful. Our plan was to hot foot it to the Virgin Lounge where we would relax for a few hours before boarding our homeward flight at 3pm.
Now, I am not a huge fan of tennis, but I do appreciate it as a spectator sport. The Australian Open is obviously a big deal, and I respect that. But the rowdy revellers who converged on the VA Lounge and pretend they were actually at the Open - were nothing short of disrespectful. Every single shot was met with a collective and ear splitting "AAAAHHHHHH or OOOOHHHHHHH or YAAAAAAAEEEEEEES!"
Lucky for us, there were some loud crying babies to offset this din, so we chomped down on the soup, bread and salads and drank our weight in Coronas - then toasted a magnificent day thus far.
Flight 853 carried us home to Sydney. J was packed so we couldn't upgrade, but counted our blessings for Row 3. I gotta say, the food served in Business on the way back did not smell appealing, but maybe that's my brain reconciling the fact that I wasn't in Business and it was just trying to make me feel better.
Mr Clipped and I closed our eyes for most of the journey. When we opened them, the familiar outskirts of Sydney closed in and we glided over a million red roofs and touched down in Sydney with a comfortable babump.
Isn't row 3 awesome for disembarkation? We made our way back easily into the Virgin Lounge to test the Arrivals Theory. I am pleased to report the welcome mat was just as genuine as the pre-flight one. This time, dinner was being served. A delicious slow roasted beef that we stuffed into mini wraps with cheese, sour cream and whatever cold salad items we wanted. Another shout of Coronas before we called it a day and waddled back to the Stamford Hotel for the evening. We rang the kids and confessed our evil plot, "Uh'huh" was the deadpan response.
Laughing like a pair of cheeky kids, we thought we were so very clever with this quick trip. But the last laugh was on us. Velocity politely advised today that our Amex comp flights were not eligible sectors. So it looks like we have to book another flight somewhere for the day...
What's the odds we can fool the kids twice?
The story so far: Husband needed 2 more sectors to reclaim Velocity WP. And although glomming it in Gold is no shame fest, the planning of our upcoming (8 pax) USA 2020 trip needed the kind of ammunition afforded only to a Velocity Plat. We had plenty of points and SC, so that wasn't an issue.
So we calculated a devious plan: Feed the teens breakfast, tell them we're headed over to the factory (on a Sunday - yeah right) for the day, then do a quick return run to Melbourne before they've looked up from their Battlefront V consoles.
We were each owed an Amex comp flight and were running out of 2018 to redeem them. So we booked for January and copped the few bucks in fees. The deal was made even more attractive by Flight 830 SYD-MEL @ 10am - which was an A330. Ha! I rang Velocity and upgraded us to Biz with 20,000 points - which is probably a stupid move given the flight time of one hour. But as I said: it was an A330 people! I scored 1A/2A for this sector, then booked us on VA853 home on the dreary B738. Ho hum. Didn't bother upgrading this leg, because I figured we'd have chewed our way through enough lounges that an inflight meal wouldn't entice.
Anyhoo, we crept out of the house at 6am, crept down to Sydney and crept into the Virgin Australia Lounge at exactly 8am. Two glorious hours to feast on free food, read the paper without having to solve the "MUUUUMMM - where's my black hoodie?" and the ultimate parental privilege: use the bathroom with the door closed. Am I right, or am I right?
I must remind our viewers that the objective today, was to NOT spend any money on food. Not one cent. All meals would be courtesy of the Sydney and Melbourne Lounges, as well as our flights. We parked the car and slid into the VA Lounge early. Time to hit the breakfast bar. A scrambled egg offering was just the thing, coupled with some nicely charred baby sausages. Dreamy cappuccinos that melted on contact - and crisp newspapers that were devoid of previous readers' DNA. Virgin Australia's Sydney Lounge was simply the epitome of good taste and polite conversation. Sunday is a great day to fly!
We bid a temporary goodbye to our secluded corner and jostled with the mainstream day trippers to Gate 45 around 0920. Oddly enough, my Virgin app beeped and warned me that boarding was now closed. We were only at Gate 31. I panicked and ran faster than a pensioner to the Red Spot Special at Big W.
Mr Clipped however, exercised a level of restrained caution with his new knees (which, annoyingly - were subject to a most public display of scrutiny at check in - AGAIN). He cantered expertly to the departure gate and met up with me. By now I was panting and totally out of breath. I looked like the scraggly cat in Bugs Bunny. And he looked like Pepe Le Pew. Most passengers had already boarded. But gate staff ushered us through with a smile and we took our place at the front of the plane.
Business Class on the A330 is as tantalising as it is on the B777. Sink into those familiar cushioned armchairs and nothing else matters.
Cabin crew introduced themselves and a generous glass of non-vintage bubbly makes a welcome appearance. The world, it's problems, even our kids - all are a distant memory as we climb into the clouds.
Today, we were YES men. Today was all about saying "yes" to everything. So when they offered us breakfast, we said "yes".
Mr Clipped had the smoked salmon and I dined on a potato rosti of some sort. Very nice - and presented with the kind of pride you would find at some groovy cafe.
Our trays were overflowing with extras - juice, bread rolls, biscuits, yoghurts etc. I wolfed most of it down, except those delightful parmesan cookies. Instead, I stashed them in my bag for later. Yum.
The flight was almost over before it really began. There was no need to watch TV, so I just flicked through the latest issue of Voyeur and listened to Train on my Quiet Comforts. Cabin crew were responsive and polite, but not as adorable as some of them can be. The (ugh) used bandaid that Mr Clipped found stuck to his chair was a pretty nasty shock, but our FA removed it and disinfected the area as soon as we brought it to her attention. I don't blame the cabin crew for this - but the contract cleaners at Sydney have a bit to answer for.....
Touchdown at Melbourne was on time and uneventful. Our plan was to hot foot it to the Virgin Lounge where we would relax for a few hours before boarding our homeward flight at 3pm.
Now, I am not a huge fan of tennis, but I do appreciate it as a spectator sport. The Australian Open is obviously a big deal, and I respect that. But the rowdy revellers who converged on the VA Lounge and pretend they were actually at the Open - were nothing short of disrespectful. Every single shot was met with a collective and ear splitting "AAAAHHHHHH or OOOOHHHHHHH or YAAAAAAAEEEEEEES!"
Lucky for us, there were some loud crying babies to offset this din, so we chomped down on the soup, bread and salads and drank our weight in Coronas - then toasted a magnificent day thus far.
Flight 853 carried us home to Sydney. J was packed so we couldn't upgrade, but counted our blessings for Row 3. I gotta say, the food served in Business on the way back did not smell appealing, but maybe that's my brain reconciling the fact that I wasn't in Business and it was just trying to make me feel better.
Mr Clipped and I closed our eyes for most of the journey. When we opened them, the familiar outskirts of Sydney closed in and we glided over a million red roofs and touched down in Sydney with a comfortable babump.
Isn't row 3 awesome for disembarkation? We made our way back easily into the Virgin Lounge to test the Arrivals Theory. I am pleased to report the welcome mat was just as genuine as the pre-flight one. This time, dinner was being served. A delicious slow roasted beef that we stuffed into mini wraps with cheese, sour cream and whatever cold salad items we wanted. Another shout of Coronas before we called it a day and waddled back to the Stamford Hotel for the evening. We rang the kids and confessed our evil plot, "Uh'huh" was the deadpan response.
Laughing like a pair of cheeky kids, we thought we were so very clever with this quick trip. But the last laugh was on us. Velocity politely advised today that our Amex comp flights were not eligible sectors. So it looks like we have to book another flight somewhere for the day...
What's the odds we can fool the kids twice?
