Monday, 20 June 2022

The new normal when flying internationally


When you have an international connection to make the last thing you want is for your first flight to be delayed. 

With Qantas right now quite a few flights are delayed - or cancelled. 

With two flights from Hobart to Sydney on Sunday afternoon one was, of course, cancelled. 

The other flight was delayed. 

And there was no catering. ‘Sorry about that.’

And the flight was so full that they were shoving frequent flyers into middle seats. No apology about that. 

And in their rush to get everyone on board they forgot about priority boarding. 

Then there was delay in getting the plane refuelled.

Stress all round.  

We were promised vouchers when we landed to compensate for the lack of catering. 

There were none. Of course. 

Further stress when we were then ordered to spend 40 minutes circling above Sydney because of “air traffic congestion”. 

On the ground I had less than an hour to make it from the domestic airport to the international terminal and go through immigration and security. 

But the Qantas shuttle bus has a schedule. And that wasn’t going to change just because customers had connections to catch. 

Fortunately, immigration and security was a breeze. No time to change dollars to Euros but I made it. 

No thanks to Qantas. My blood pressure levels were sky high when I boarded my Emirates flight. 

The lesson. Give yourself at least six hours between your domestic flight arriving and your international flight departing. Three hours is no longer enough. 

But its 2022 and it’s great to be flying again. Isn’t it? 

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