QF445 SYD-MEL 14 Sep 08 (Y)

I just about acclimatised when in Sydney for 30 hrs or so, now on to Melbourne and four days of business before back to Sydney for two days of pleasure! Firstly, the Intercontinental, yes it's OK but it didn't shake my biscuit, maybe it was the weekend, maybe the location, but it was too quiet and not enough eye candy at all! So, when I return I am going to try the Shangri La (any views) or potentially the Four Seasons ...

Following a leisurely breakfast, it was into a car and off to Kingsford and Qantas's T3 domestic terminal just as the heavens opened. It's a rather sweet little terminal, very clean and tidy, relatively easy check in even though the self check in kiosk spat me out and I had to join a long but fastish bag drop queue to see an agent. Security was a breeze, no shoe circus (Heathrow and BAA please get on to this), a security agent who smiled (YES I said SMILED!) at me and said hello and then into the terminal. Quick stop for a glass of Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc served by a very smiley waiter and to the gate area. Now rueing the fact that I missed one last AA domestic flight in the US which, if I had taken it, I would have been BA Silver and therefore OW Emerald and able to use the Qantas lounge ... never mind, it wasn't a long wait even though the flight was delayed 30 minutes or so.

And on we board, lots of people at the gate area which surprised me, online check in showed a half empty flight ... sat down in ... drum roll ... economy (WTF!. I haven't flown in coach / economy / as SLF for years, what the heck who made this basic error? Well, me actually, not checking what the corporate travel office had done to me then reasoning on check in that it's only 70 minutes and I could survive. So, I sit down, noticing the leg room is, well, very short, that the armrest doesn't fit my forearm let alone the lady next to me, there's a box thingy under the seat in front (IFE anyone?) and all sorts of things that are somewhat limiting ... I look around and notice how new and shiny things look. On check-in this was a 767 and I thought, those overheads are all very new and the seats have IFE, doh! it's a 330-200, and it proceeds to get chocka. I did notice the Qantas lie flat seats in business, enviously ...

We depart, it's a long way to the end of 34R for a northerly take off at SYD, I thought we'd driven to Melbourne by the time we did and what a smooth and powerful take off and climb these 330s deliver too! Cabin crew didn't seem to mind earphones on during take off I noticed, as lots of other people had them. Must try that on landing me thinks ...

Well it's a weird place to be over the wing isn't it? One of the joys of turning left is always being in front of the engines and getting the smoother ride. Nor do you get any champagne ... heck I'm not doing this again (mind you, you don't get champagne on VS one or two hours into a flight anymore [:w]). That said, the FAs do a full cart service of drinks and snacks. I had a mango juice and cookies, but there were proper drinks on offer too. Read my book, played the iPod and stared out of the window at the Australian country passing by.

Since the plane had IFE I decided to have a go and see if there was anything on, expecting for such a short flight that there wouldn't be. But all the channels were actually on, no one else seemed to have noticed so I played a few snippets of stuff (very extensive options, better in a short look than VPort) then settle on the flight map which stayed on as we landed.

The flight being only 70 minutes long, the plane's nose soon heads downwards and we descend from FL38 toward Melbourne. I left my headphones on as a test, but about five minutes before landing I knew that it was stupid, could I hear an announcement, no, would I hear an emergency, no - so off they came and experiment over. It's a good thing not to wear headphones during take off and landing kids!

At both ends of the flight there were two jet bridges, pity VS can't always manage this. The crew were lovely and chatty and polite, the plane incredibly smart and I thought, hmmm domestic on QF ain't so bad. Even in the cheap seats although I am not doing this again in a hurry!

RobL where are you, I need help! My firm recommended the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne. I hate it! (Is that too mild, no I loathe it.) Reminds me of my fusty grandmother's house, I need something newer, fresher, modern, luxe ... any recommendations please, anyone out there, help me!

[mitchja]

Another good TR. Thanks for posting [y]

Can I recommend the Stamford Plaza. A great all-suites hotel. Stopped there on 2 seperate occasions now. Good location on Little Collins Street and very friendly, helpful staff. It wasn't silly money either [y]

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja
Can I recommend the Stamford Plaza

Hmmm, obviously a good recommendation ... it's booked up according to their web site, might walk by and see if there's a walk up opportunity.

Judging by the time stamp I was on a plane to Dubai. Where it is hot and hazy. Will get round to doing a TR but probably won't be before the w/e as not much free time.

Having not stayed in any hotels in Melbourne and this is probably too late now - I would have plumped for the Sofitel as it has a wonderful atruim bar on some high floor and I think all rooms have great views of the city or the Langham with its views out over the river across to the city.

Qantas get an appalling rap here, in Oz, bit like BA do in the UK but they do provide a good service.

Which did you prefer Syd or Mel (discounting the hotel issue)? Mel is a bit more cosmopolitan with the CBD busy 7 days a week.

Nice to see that QF have put some decent metal on these short runs (I thought they were only for routes like PER-SYD, MEL-CNS).

Seems the QF domesitc NZ product (old rust buckets of planes) is a long way off the Oz standard.

Goodness, you had a better experience of Qantas Y than we did. The only saving grace on our MEL-SYD flight last year (other than the mercifully short flight time) was the all male crew whose approach to stewarding was akin to a bunch of out of work pantomime actors who were far too used to playing the ugly sisters. I loved 'em!

When we were in Melbourne we stayed at the Westin - in a corner studio - and had a thoroughly nice time of it.

My only previous experience with Qantas Y was a short flight from Melbourne Ð Canberra where the poor cabin crew had to provide a complementary food and drinks service to a very full plane in a very short space of time! Needless to say, sitting right at the back, I had no sooner been given my tray when we started our descent and it had to be cleared away fairly swiftly! Still managed to finish my wine though... [:w]

I won't add another for the return, safe to say however that I was no in Y. An older 763 this time with a 1 - 2 - 2 across arrangement in business, the 1s must be covetable by elites only because I couldn't select them online. The Qantas lounge in MEL is a bit of a bus terminal, very busy and nosy, not conducive to work at all. So I had 3K, proceeded to sit in 1K then realised my mistake and compounded it further by having a senior moment and settling in 2K, then George Gregan sat down next to me. What a lovely chap, huge hands, very attractive, talked a lot about rugby (of course) iPods and Bose headphones and places to go in Sydney. Made a very pleasurable seat neighbour.