I fly out to Singapore in the wee hours of Saturday morning 19DEC after a full day in the office on Friday. I managed to get a bit of a lie in after the street Christmas party before getting dropped at the airport at 0015.
The Air New Zealand check-in area was deserted 90 mins before the flight (or 60 mins before the originaly scheduled time; there had been a pre-notified delay of 30 mins).
As the flight was overbooked slightly, and with the festive season ahead, I didn’t expect to get a boarding pass at all. Surprisingly, I got one immediately without having for the flight to close 45 mins prior to departure.
I had prepared myself for flying Qantas at 0600 and camping at the airport till check-in opened for that flight at 0400. That would require 3h35 connection in Sydney and would get me into Singapore at 1630 instead of the breakfast time.
With only 30 minutes of non-useful time, I didn’t bother going to the lounge with my complimentary voucher. We boarded soon enough and I took my seat near the rear of the aircraft in an aisle seat in the centre triplet, next to a largish woman. Yep, the seats are narrow on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with the cabin designed for 8-across but now accommodating 9.
I stayed up for supper after take-off as I felt sufficiently alert and disturbed by everything around me. I took a sleeping pill after dinner and dozed for 4h before waking up about an hour before breakfast. Walking up and down to stretch my legs, I noticed the aircraft wasn’t as quiet as the Scoot 787 one I flew on some time ago, but it was still much quieter than the Boeing 777.