From our downtown hotel location the Emirates' car picked us up and took us the thirty minutes wet Sunday afternoon drive to the airport. Check-in and security were rapid, and I spent some time looking at the duty free although I couldnt find anything that interested me.
The Emirates lounge at AKL is fairly spacious although there are no windows. The food is the same cold finger food that weve come to expect: very good quality, but lack of a to-order menu and hot food made it less appealing. It turned out there was a delay of the flight due to the weather, but it was not yet clear how long that delay was. Again we got caught by the irritating and meaningless Boarding and Final Call announcements on the display, to find that we sat for forty five minutes in the pre-boarding holding area. At least we found a seat. Three Emirates planes were visible on the tarmac at Auckland.
This was a new 777-300ER plane with the newer ICE IFE and the First cabin organised with the new flat seats organised as two rows of 2-2-2.
Again we struggled to find sufficient storage space for all of the bits and pieces in this style of cabin.
The IFE was on as we boarded, and I started watching stuff right away. After the ubiquitous pre-takeoff Dom Perignon and Arabic coffee with figs, we took off about an hour late.
Dinner started with canap_s and Champagne, of course. Starters were New Zealand Lobster Medallions and Duck Breast. No caviar on this segment Im afraid #61516;. We both took the Lobster Medallions and I switched from DP to the Pouilly Fuiss_. Again, I missed the Soup and Salad courses.
For the mains, the options were Pan-Seared Yellow Tuna, Braised Lamb Shanks, Thai Style Chicken Curry and Eggplant and Braised Du Puy Lentil Moussaka. I took the Braised Lamb Shanks with the Lynch Bages Bordeaux.
For dessert, there was Fried Banana with Palm Sugar, and Cashew Coco Slice. The benefit of having this all in front of you to choose is that so often the menu does not fully describe whats on offer. Both of these dishes looked superb, and I went for the Cashew Coco Slice complete with gold leaf flakes! This was the best dessert I have ever had in the air. If the GF hadnt been with me Id have had another. And maybe one more. And another to put in my pocket.
Now Id had a dessert, Id be risking my life to have the cheese board so I forewent the cheese and the fruit courses and went straight for the tea. Sadly there was no fresh mint on board so I went for a pot of normal with some lovely chocolate Macadamias. I managed to smuggle a couple of extra chocolate Macadamias while the GF went to the loo.
Attention was not 100% on this flight: I used the attendant call button once but it was ignored so I got up and went to the galley myself. This is frustrating as there were only half a dozen passengers, and service had finished. I just think the call wasnt noticed, but by all four FAs?
The ICE IFE had to be reset at the beginning of the flight, so its still not totally bug free.
We came into land with a superb view over Sydney to our left. We agreed that wed never come in so close in on landing.
When we landed, and made it to the gate, we were half an hour behind schedule. However, the problem now was that at SYD we had a connecting flight to Coolangatta on JetStar, one of the no-frills Oz airlines. I thought wed make it as Id organised a car to take us from the International terminal to T2 (there is no free, convenient or swift transfer at SYD when making connections between International and Domestic terminals).
But then we were not allowed off: one of the passengers had apparently become ill, and they wouldnt let us due to quarantine restrictions. Twenty minutes later and the paramedics announced the all-clear. But by now it was looking doubtful wed make our connection. We rushed down to immigration and we were met with an empty immigration hall yes, I know its hard to believe, but at this time of day, unlike the mornings, the immigration at SYD is empty. The immigration officer was swift, but our bags took a further five minutes to come off. Then another five minutes to clear food quarantine. We found the driver, but by know we only had 30 minutes to make our flight. Despite explaining to the driver that we were already nearly an hour later than we expected through no fault of our own, we are certain this guy had no intention of making any effort to help. On one occasion he deliberately slowed so that we wouldnt make a set of lights. He was driving way under the speed limit and playing around with his phone and searching for something in the glovebox. I am absolutely certain he was deliberately going to drive as slowly as possible.
Well, of course we made it to T2, and there were no JetStar desks open, and no more JetStar flights that day. It turns out we missed it by five minutes. So we walked across the car park to T3 and I bought a couple of new tickets for the Qantas flight an hour or so later. Perhaps this was one of the few times you are actually thankful to have Qantas!
So this time the plusses were the seats, IFE and food, especially the chocolate dessert. Service was OK but not perfect. The delays were mostly unavoidable but rather disappointing. I had been caught again by the appalling lack of transfer facilities at Sydney airport, only this time the results were worse than usual. I still havent had a reply to correspondence I sent a year ago to Sydney Airport asking them why they are the only airport Im aware of in the Western world that has no free and convenient transfer facilities.
DP Consumption so far this trip: 4 1/2 bottles.
