Getting stuck … or unstuck?
I had hurriedly googled a few possibilities for handling my nearly 7h18 delay in Sydney, before proceeding to the gate. I got to gate later than I normally would have. It was actually a perfectly-timed boarding onto Virgin Australia’s 737-800 to Sydney.
It was a pleasant flight with a light breakfast and 15 mins of free internet. This airline is what I call “light full service”. The don’t come with sides and dessert. One gets a beer, wine, soft-drink with the meal and further rounds are payable. Coffee, tea, juice, water are free-flow. And they don’t seem to supply sick-bags; I had a good look in my seat pocket and the nearby ones because I wanted to eat my bag of cherries and dispose of the pips.
The crew were quite pleasant, professional without being too friendly or familiar. A couple of them offered to check on alternate schedules when they heard of my flight delay.
We landed in Sydney a little earlier but the long taxi to the gate meant that we were on-time. I enquired with the staff at the gate about the possibility of heading into the city through the arrivals area, or getting meal vouchers which would be issued and used in the departure area. It was either or.
Either way it was going to be a very long day by the time I get to Bali … flying time from Auckland of 3h40 + original connection time of 2h25 + delay of 7h18 + flight time of 6h30 to Bali. Not good considering I had to wake up at 0400 this morning in Auckland.
Killing time
I decided to go through transit security to departures and was given two lots of AUD16 meal vouchers for the 7h18 delay. Upon pondering, the lady gave me a voucher for AUD8 as well. The first meal voucher didn’t go far; two small sushi rolls took up about AUD13 which didn’t leave me anything for a drink. There were better options around as I realised later.
I asked if I could be re-accommodated on an earlier flight but it was only an hour-plus earlier. Garuda was flying in over an hour but they would only transfer me if my flight had been cancelled rather than delayed.
It was only around 0930 and I had my next flight was now at 1838! That’s over 9h! Going into town seemed like a good idea now. I asked the Virgin Australia staff and they said they would check with immigration and escort me through to arrivals if they were given the OK. There were now other people in the same situation asking to do the same. Most had come through as transit but a couple of locals had checked-in at the airport and missed the delay notification sent out at 0625 local time.
A number of passengers took up the option of going to the city instead of meal vouchers. I was the only one that had both! We were led through to the arrival area and completed the arrival card before exiting.
Then it gets worse
I spent the day in the city before heading back to the airport around 1630. The only gripe is Sydney Airport’s train service which costs AUD20 each way! There is a surcharge for the airport stations and the base fare is actually quite reasonable.
Going back airside was truly a breeze today even though the automated gates didn’t work for me this time. Immigration and security was super-swift.
This time I was determined to get more value for my AUD16 meal voucher. I didn’t have quite enough for a gourmet burger and a drink. I got pissed off that they would charge a credit card surcharge on the entire transaction rather than the AUD0.60 excess that I’d pay by card.
Then McDonald’s found me. An Angus burger, salad and large drink cost about AUD13. I topped up AUD2 towards a donation. The kind lady said that I could get a soft-serve cone and then I’d only have AUD0.25 unused! Perfect!
Once satiated, I walked off my early dinner and connected to the internet. Then more bad news came. The flight had been delayed further till 2113. That made a delay of 9h53 and a connecting time of 12h24 (as opposed to 2h25).
Because of the lack of communication, a small group of disgruntled people had gathered to find out more from Virgin staff. Several people had not been offered any refreshment or meal vouchers. Some were angry and an older American gentleman who got a little loud had the cops called on him. He was barred from travel but because he was very amicable once he had cooled down, he was later allowed to travel because he apologised to the staff member whom he shouted at.
We learnt that there had been bad weather in Melbourne and Wellington. Air New Zealand had a cancellation, Qantas a 19h delay. But I still believe that at home base, they could have minimised the disruption to our particular flight. Especially when Virgin’s 1715 flight left at 1934, before ours which had an original scheduled time of 1120.
At around 1800 I was starting to get tired and sleepy. I received two AUD8 vouchers. Together with one remaining AUD8 voucher, I got a ginormous coffee which helped keep me awake along with the plenty of walks. I spent the last of the vouchers on a cup of cut mangoes (yummy) and cut pineapple to bring on board (when I realised they had far less calories compared to the mango).
Finally on the way
We finally departed around 2115. There was applause as the plane took off from the runway! The ground staff had shifted me to a window sea from my pre-selected aisle seat. When I had enquired just before boarding, they told me I had the entire row! Cool! That allowed me to have 2h30 of dozing on the flight, with my pack as a pillow.