Aussie Flyer

Following up from my recent post about the pre flight briefing for this flight, here is how I experienced it on the day. On Sunday 5 March after staying the night in a local motel my fellow #avgeek friend and I headed over to the local BMX skate park parking area just south of the airport. From this slightly elevated location we had a good view down the runway and would be able to see the aircraft approach as it headed towards us. The aircraft was due in at 7.47am and after a pit stop at McDonald's for breakfast we arrived at about 6.20am, and there was already more than 100 people at this viewing spot, with thousands of others gathering at other locations closer to the runway and on the other side of the airport.

Back in August 1989 Qantas took delivery of it's first Boeing 747-400, 'VH-OJA'. It was to be the first of 31  of the -400 series jumbo jets that Qantas would operate. But this was no ordinary delivery flight, it was a world record attempt, the first flight ever to fly London to Sydney non stop, and the longest ever flight on record. A record that still stands today. Now, 25 years later and after 13833 career flights, VH-OJA ' City of Canberra ' is making it's final journey, and probably the shortest flight it has ever made  too. Sydney to Illawarra Regional Airport (Wollongong), where it will be put on permanent display at HARS. It's all happening this Sunday the 8th of March and I'm going to head down there to see it. Some memorabilia from that day in 1989

Having recently arrived from Sydney  I found myself in the wonderful surrounds of the Thai Airways First Class lounge at Bangkok's Survanabhumi airport. One of the ground services available to First Class passengers is the spa facility. On this occasion I decided not to have the full body massage and instead I had a 30 minute foot massage which was very enjoyable. Once that was over I headed back to the lounge for some food and beverage: Cocktail in the lounge

After arriving from Melbourne on QF400 I collected my luggage (Qantas won't interline to non alliance partners on separate tickets anymore), and took the train between terminals. They charge $5.70 for this 2 minute journey, which other airports in the world charge to transfer between terminals I wonder? Qantas does offer an inter-terminal transfer but I couldn't use this as it is airside and I had to go landside to get my luggage. Fortunately the luggage didn't take too long and I was over at the Thai check-in counters by 8am. Here are the details of todays flight: FLIGHT TG476 AIRLINE Thai Airways  International ROUTE Sydney to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi GATE DEPARTURE 10.00 (Scheduled) / 10.02 (Actual) GATE ARRIVAL 15.25 (Scheduled) / 15.44 (Actual) FLIGHT TIME 9 hours 12 minutes airborne AIRCRAFT Boeing 747-400 HS-TGO Check-in for Royal First, Royal Silk and Economy ...

Over the recent summer and school holiday period Qantas scheduled a Boeing 747-400 on it's Bangkok flight instead of the usual Airbus A330-300. I happened to be travelling the route during this time and although I was booked in economy I decided to do a points upgrade to try out the business class service on the jumbo! I received an sms to my phone confirming the upgrade. the day before and was able to select my preferred seat right away on Qantas.com.

Earlier on in the year I took a flight on Thai's 747 in First Class from Bangkok to Sydney. This is not going to be a full review but a quick run down of the Royal First experience. The flight was operated on an aircraft configured with 10 First Class seats which is typical for the Sydney run and half of the Thai 747 fleet is configured this way. The other half are now in a 'suites' configuration but mostly those aircraft fly to Europe and Japan.   

 After my arrival from the USA into Tokyo Narita I checked in at the airport Hilton for an overnight stay. My onward flight would be departing from Haneda, quite a distance away so it meant a very early start the next morning. I specifically chose Haneda as Cathay offers First Class on that route but they don't from Narita. Firstly, the hotel. Hilton Narita is a short free shuttle bus ride from the airport and they have excellent rates. I payed the equivalent of approximately $100 AUD for the night. It would be even cheaper at today's exchange rates. The hotel is quite isolated but does have free shuttles to the nearby town. I was just here to relax so stayed in my room and ordered room service which was pretty ordinary.

Airline: Thai Airways International Flight: TG476 Sydney - Bangkok Aircraft: Boeing 747-400   HS-TGX (14 years old) Seat: 2A (First Class) Scheduled Departure: 10.00 Actual Departure: 10.05 Scheduled Arrival: 15.30 Actual Arrival: 15.20 Passenger Load: 4 out of 10 in First Class (40%) YouTube Video of Flight:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YalyUDxQ_A8 Check-in Zone for THAI After landing in Sydney from Melbourne I took the Qantas shuttle straight over to international. I had carry on only with a plan to buy a new case in Thailand to bring back any extras I might buy overseas. It was about 8.10am as I arrived and the economy queue was relatively long. Fortunately there was nobody in the First Class queue although the check-in girl was dealing with someone as I arrived. Whilst standing in the queue a Thai representative came and confirmed I was in first class and asked my name. A moment later I was checked in and had my boarding pass and exp...