Check in was nice and simple used a kiosk entered my booking reference and was asked if I would like to transfer onto an earlier flight, traveling for work on a full fare ecomony ticket, I was booked on 0730, offered 0700 or 0715, as it was just approaching 0630 I opted for the 0715, didn't fancy rushing, and just took the seat allocation offered. Proceeded through security and straight to gate. Boarding commenced at 0655, onto a 737-800, and made way to seat 25A, near the back. Flight was not full so ended up having three seats to myself. At no point had I been asked to show any form of identification which I found odd. In fact the only interaction with a human was the lady putting the boarding passes through the machine who just said have a nice flight.
Pushed back a few minutes late due to another aircraft starting up behind us. Uneventful take off and as soon as seat belt sign turned off in flight entertainment switched on! TV screens dropped from overhead panels and showed a couple of programmes, should have been a news programme but it was unavailable, so I listened to the music channels. I was surprised there was any IFE with it being such a short flight. Served a light breakfast consisting of a yoghurt, muesli and a warm tea cake for want of a better description (sweet bread roll with sultanas), a bottle of water and tea and coffee.
After we descended through the cloud had an excellent view of the Harbour Bridge, downtown Sydney and a partial view the Opera House. Landed in Sydney 5 minutes late and with a lot of reverse thrust. I was off aircraft and in a cab within 10 minutes.
The flight was far better than I had imagined for such a short trip I was not expecting food, which was perfectly fine, or IFE. Cabin crew were friendly and efficient. I hope the return leg is as good on Thursday. I will be doing the same trip with Virgin Blue, leisure trip even though they were $10 more than Qantas, at the beginning of August so it will be interesting to see the difference.
Rob
