My Qantas flight left Darwin at an impossibly early hour this morning – but that was expected. I packed my eye mask in my carry-on in anticipation of trying to get a decent sleep on the way home (I also knew in advance that I had seen the movie – Fun With Dick and Jane). Because I was booked in at the absolute bargain basement price ticket – there was no way of getting upgraded – so I had to be content with my fairly small seat on the 767 (could have been worse and a 737) that was making the flight back to Sydney. Unfortunately the guy next to me was a bit of a chatter and I really didn’t relax much which made the four our trip bloody annoying.
The flight arrived right on time – at the crack of dawn in my home town. Granted it was very early in the morning – but I was kind of thankful of being out of those impossibly humid environs. I am not sure I could ever get used to living/working in a place that had such high levels of humidity – but I have really enjoyed the trip (some more than others). All that said – I am also very glad to be back home. I got a cab to Surry Hills, put on my first load of washing and promptly crashed.
Now of course I need to start living like a pauper – so that I can get my credit card back under control and start to get my budget sorted again. No more living without thinking about the consequences of my spending (that will be a hard ask – but needs to be done at some point). Need to start being a good boy again. That said, I abandoned my plan of going back to work today – because I would have been in a very big shit of a mood going back to work only two hours after arriving off an overnight flight. It was probably a good idea – because I had a few jobs around the house and a bit of sleeping to catch up on.
Having just finished a holiday it was interesting to read the big announcement by Qantas regarding its plans (or lackthereof) for Australian Airlines and Jetstar International. The announcement confirmed what everyone thought – that Australian Airlines is being absorbed back into the mainline operations of the parent from July with Jetstar expanding internationally in November. Now while this was always going to happen – its a shame because I really like the Australian Airlines brand – the desert sand coloured planes with the cool kangaroo design tail were one of the best liveries in the sky I reckon. All the 767 aircraft will be repainted as Qantas and returned to the main fleet.
Jetstar’s expansion on the other hand will see four A330 aircraft transferred from Qantas with a range of planned destinations including Ho Chi Minh City, Osaka, Phuket, Bangkok, Bali and Honolulu. The plan is to then go to other cities in Asia with second-stage flying to Europe (my bet is they will expand Jetstar Asia to give it some legs and European routes). The brand is going to get twelve of the new 787 aircraft. Luckily it appears that the Jetstar will interline with other carriers and even codeshare with Qantas (which hopefully will have a similar frequent flyer point policy to its domestic counterpart – with more flexible tickets offering points).
Makes me want to plan another holiday.
