Qantas 13/4/2010 Newcastle to Albury (via Brisbane and Sydney)

Flight 1: Qantaslink Newcastle to Brisbane

• Checkin at regional airports always seems to go smoothly with virtually no line and this flight was no exception. Following the Qantas trend of late, the plane was also late to depart - not even arriving until a few minutes after we were supposed to have started boarding.

• Four star service seemed to be the name of the game too - perhaps because the Qantaslink planes are smaller and often a bit more expensive than the VirginBlue and Jetstar services which also service Newcastle (along with Aeropelican and Brindbella). I always find it a bit odd when called "sir" by staff, but it happened when checking in.

• Refreshments on the flight turned out to be a light lunch, with quite a nice corned beef and pickle sandwich. Softdrink and tea/coffee were supplied along with a Time Out chocolate at the end of the meal, cementing the trip as that step above VirginBlue.

• The Dash Q300 is a little smaller than the Q400 which services most locations these days. I'd deliberately taken a seat further back in the plane since Seat Guru (the best guide to seats on planes) had suggested I'd be out from under the wing. It wasn't entirely accurate, but the wing was much higher than on a normal plane so some visibility was available from all seats. Only about 75% full, there were a reasonable number of spare seats available.

• Views from the plane were exceptional on the way up, making it well worth the trip (I'd considered canceling the NTL-BNE-SYD leg and instead catching the train from Newcastle to Sydney). It was a fairly clear day and the lower altitude of the turbo prop gave fantastic views of the land beneath us and so wonderful viewings of clouds. I was really quite sad that I'd forgotten my camera for this trip. I counted 29 ships off Newcastle harbour, though most were further south compared to the last time I'd been in a good position to count them from the air.
  

Flight 2: Qantas Brisbane to Sydney

• Once again Qantas seemed to be running late. This time the plane was present for boarding well in advance (I'm fairly sure it was there before I arrived, more than an hour before the flight) and yet some of the flight crew didn't arrive until after boarding was supposed to have started.

• Reasonably full, I once again had a seat towards the back so I'd have a good view. The plane was about 80% full, with some scattered seats free (including next to me, which was the case on all three flights that day).

• Refreshments consisted of a drink (soft/tea/coffee) and a raspberry muffin and/or apple. Unlike the flight the week before, the flight attendant was offering people an apple even if they took the muffin, so I enjoyed both. The flight the week before had apples in a bowl but they were never explicitly mentioned and I don't think I saw anyone have one - on this flight probably a good 25% of people ended up with an apple - much better to have healthier eating encouraged on the plane.

• The views from the plane were almost as good as from the Qantaslink plane. I was actually wishing I had a video camera with me, as some of the mountains beneath us with their valleys etc looked like they'd be great footage.

Sydney Terminal

• Arriving in Sydney was pleasant enough. I stuck around in the dedicated Qantas domestic terminal for a while, as I was concerned that if I changed terminals that I'd have trouble finding a Qantas Web Connect terminal. This turned out to be the case - there seemed to be none in the general domestic terminal.

• Clearing security was a breeze, everything seemed to be flowing well. If I had a tight connection, one of the things which would bother me is that between changing terminals and going through security again you could easily lose a lot of time if things weren't flowing well.

• I made the mistake of stopping by one of the Wine Selectors displays and tried one of the samples. When I'm in holiday mode I can be pretty easily convinced, so signed up for the wine club... guess I'll see what the dozen is like and then decide between them and Cellarmasters who I am already receiving a dozen bottles from a quarter. I'm expecting the Wine Selectors will be a good notch better wine quality, but it will also cost me more and not earn any bonus frequent flyer points as Cellarmasters does (though wine has to be pretty poor to put me off and I'd be surprised if Wine Selectors had the bargain options at various times which Cellarmasters does - so it'll come down to choosing between quality and affordability I suppose).

Flight 3: Qantaslink Sydney to Albury

• Having done this flight a few times, it was pleasant to find out my memory wasn't wrong and the evening flight does provide a full refreshments service. The flight attendant was generous with the wine (ie. two trips offering it to you) and the snackbox had a tasty dip and chocolate within it. It was once again marking itself as a 4 star flight compared to the VirginBlue and Rex offerings which are 3.5 and 3 (that said, the daytime flights without the more generous refreshments are only rated 3.5).
  

• Despite it being dark by the time I flew out of Sydney, there were some nice sights of the city below until we rose higher and got past Sydney. This flight was about 75% full, continuing the trend of having a reasonable number of spare seats. It also actually left on time, making it the one Qantas(link) trip out of the four to do so successfully.
  

• I should have resisted the second round offering of a wine refill as it hits you twice as hard when at altitude and even though two glasses in an hour shouldn't have had me over the limit I was certainly feeling the effects for the next hour or so after touchdown.

Conclusions

• Despite my reluctance to do the NTL-BNE-SYD leg I think it was a very relaxing way to travel. I doubt I'll do the two positioning flights again, as the train to Sydney takes a similar amount of time and saves a fair bit of money.
  

• Window seats on domestic flights are fantastic when there are good views to be had. Someday I'll take the seaplane between Sydney and Newcastle to enjoy its views.

• I've now met the 4 qantas(link) requirement to go up in Qantas Frequent Flyer status, so I'm ready to gain silver on my July trip to the USA (and gold upon making it back to Australia).