AF Cabin Crew From French Polynesia, joined Sep 1999, 1036 posts, RR: 37 Posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 32101 times:
Date: September 7th, 2008
Airline: Qantas Airways
Registration: VH-OJF
Name of Aircraft : City of Perth
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Departure City: SYD Sydney Australia
Departure Time: 10:00
Destination: JNB Johannesburg South Africa
Arrival Time: 16:15
Scheduled Flight Time: 13hr 15min
Class: Economy Class
Seat: 37H (moved to 37K)
The next morning was a huge contrast from the two previous days... It was beautiful and sunny and I was leaving for Johannesburg ! What a load of crap... I had been trapped in my room for 2 days because it was cold and raining and now the sun was in full swing...
Any-who...
I went to the airport, got dropped off in front of the Qantas check in area and went to the Stand-By check in counters.
The lady told me the flight was so-so and that I might not get on as there are sometimes problems with payloads... So I went and got a couple of donuts at Krispy Kreme and sat not far from the check in counters.
15 minutes before I was supposed to go and see if I got on, I heard my name on the public address. I went there and was greeted by perfect news... I got on...
I handed over my suitcase and made my way to immigration and security check.
Views of our ride to JNB, City of Perth
Sat in the boarding lounge and took my computer out and went on the internet to speak with my other half who had to stay home due to his work...
After a while boarding was announced and people started to all queue up to get on board.
While I boarded I noticed that the boarding gate we were at was an A380 ready gate and it looked brand new compared to the others.
All passengers were greeted at the door by the cabin service manager or director... Can't remember how QF calls them. he was assisted in his task by a very nice older lady.
I really like the QF uniforms as they retain some very traditional patterns, unique to Australia.
Got to my seat which was originally 37H. I was seating next to a South African couple travelling with their older parents and asked if I wanted to swap seats with them and take the window. I of course replied with the affirmative as I didn't mind the window, in the contrary.
The cabin looked really full and there was only a couple of seats left in the economy class cabin, this due probably to the cancellation of the flight to JNB 2 days ago.
Cabin was clean and the colour scheme was nice and reminiscent of the australian outback with the red earth...
The cabin attendant seated at door 3L was always smiling and nice to the passengers.
Before we taxied he handed out menus with details of our meals for the flight.
the legroom (I'm 187 cm, so quite tall)
The view from my window
When we pushed back I had the chance to once again see Wunala Dreaming getting ready to fly to LAX and JFK
The demos were done while we had our very very long taxi which had us cross the runway to get near the domestic terminals so we had to wait for a few planes that had to take off or land...
744 getting ready for a flight to the USA as well
PTV with views of SYD harbour
This is where we were parked
Air Canada 777 crossing the runway before us
Few heavies visiting SYD
Our Cabin attendant at his jumpseat (he used to work for Emirates before coming back to SYD)
Qantas Boeing 747-300 at the domestic terminal, not too many of these left (flew on it tho in 1998 on JNB-HRE-PER-SYD/SYD-PER-JNB
Just about to line up with a Virgin Atlantic A346 resting before starting its journey back to London Heathrow via HKG
Speeding down the runway with a few nice regular visitors such as LAN, Philippines, Vietnam Airlines or the SQ A380
And we took off...
PTV screen shot with the kids from the QF add from a few years ago
After we had finished climbing the crew went in action and served the drinks followed by lunch
With the packet of crackers open
I can't remember what lunch was but it was really nice !
A loooong way to go...
Mid-flight "snack on Q" with a bag loaded with goodies !
I only took the bottle of water and haven't used the rest...
After another couple of hours we were given a hot drink, either some mint tea or hot chocolate with pink marshmallows served in beautiful QF cups with the new kangaroo logo !
It is about that time that the whoe video system crashed and one by one the rows went down all the way to First Class.
The crew was really nice and apologetic and did their best.
After contacting SYD they decided to reboot the whole system and everything went smoothly after that.
Before we arrived in JNB another meal was served which was also very nice and tasty
Massive wing of our 744
Getting close to South Africa
Our Journey in red
South African coast
Our first view of South Africa, 80 mile north of Durban
Cabin shot
Getting closer to JNB
Getting ready to land
And we touched down ! Welcome back to terra firma
Tons of planes parked at OR Tambo international Airport
Planes of the defunct Nationwide
The earlier arrivals from Europe mainly
We saw a Virgin when we left, here is another one...
This EK flight arrived at the same time as us inbound from Dubai
Thank you for flying us to JNB Qantas !
The beast resting after a job well done !
Walking inside the new part of the terminal. The arrival hall was opened a couple of days before I landed in JNB as there were reports on TV the next evening
I than went thru passport control and got told off because it was a little too full for the womand stamping it and she was patronizing me about making space available for her before I get to the counter as I had a printout of my electronic visa stapled on the last 2 free pages...
Then had to way a while for the bags and when they came out I went out and got a taxi to go to my hotel in Sandton City.
I was staying at the Balalaika hotel, which is very convenient as it was a walking distance from Nelson Mandela Square and Sandton City.
Pictures of the room
After a nice shower and some rest and internet I went out for dinner, on my own.
Had a nice dinner of beef carpaccio and than a salad with fried cheese at the Tivoli Italian restaurant next door to the hotel.
And you can't go to South Africa and not drink a Creme Soda ! and a green one please !
This concludes my SYD-JNB flight with Qantas.
Qantas is clearly an excellent airline and I was amazed at how much QF gives to the passengers in economy, food, drinks, snacks, ice cream, hot chocolate etc...
The IFE program was easy to use and had loads of choices and the crew was absolutely perfect !
AALuxuryLiner From United States of America, joined May 2008, 38 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 31519 times:
this is a great trip report. i've never seen a report for this route. the food looked great too.
SQ772 From Singapore, joined Nov 2001, 1792 posts, RR: 5 Reply 4, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 31292 times:
Thanks for the great report. It's really nice to see the quality offerings onboard QF's Y class. It looks like QF has new serviceware on your flight - very retro looking. Was this introduced in conjunction with the launch of the A380 service?? It didn't seem too long ago when they introduced their previous servicewares (which IMHO looked classier).
Jmy007 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 591 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 31266 times:
Awesome Report, thanks for taking the time to write it!
Could you just clarfiify what you ment here please?
Quoting AF Cabin Crew (Thread starter): I than went thru passport control and got told off because it was a little too full for the womand stamping it and she was patronizing me about making space available for her before I get to the counter as I had a printout of my electronic visa stapled on the last 2 free pages...
Cookies are the Gateway pastry. They lead to Éclairs and Bear Claws.
LHR777 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 30855 times:
A very nice report, for a somewhat unusual route. Well done! I'm glad you liked the food, I recently flew QF LHR-SIN-LHR and also found their food in Y class to be quite delicious. They do a good job with inflight catering.
Quoting Semsem (Reply 7): In terms of food compared to what they used to give 22 years ago,it looks measly. Thanks for the interesting pics. Clearly they like so many have cut.
Many things in the airline industry were very different in 1986......
AF Cabin Crew From French Polynesia, joined Sep 1999, 1036 posts, RR: 37 Reply 10, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 30459 times:
Ia Orana all !
Sorry about the pictures but I exceeded my bandwith on photobucket the pictures will be back in a month...
Sorry about that.
QANTAS077 From China, joined Jan 2004, 5745 posts, RR: 49 Reply 11, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 2 days ago) and read 30069 times:
Quoting Caspritz78 (Reply 6): A trip report about an unusual flight route. The Indian Ocean down south looks pretty empty. Not many places to divert, too.
its not the Indian Ocean, that's the Southern Ocean.
a true friend is someone who sees the pain in your eyes, while everyone else believes the smile on your face.
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16575 posts, RR: 11 Reply 12, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 29925 times:
Rdwootty From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2005, 900 posts, RR: 2 Reply 13, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 28754 times:
I think the first meal was a sweet and sour dish.The rule for passports in SA is >
There must be 2 pages clear of all stamps (opposite each other) It is a real pain when you have one on a page that blocks the other for use in SA, never mind you will need a new one now
ScotLAN From United Kingdom, joined May 2008, 5 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (4 years 7 months 2 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 27946 times:
I managed to catch your TR before the photo bandwidth over-ran, and they were excellent, thank you for showing in such detail the service on a route that doesn't get mentioned a great deal. I was impressed with the routing of the flight - I had expected it to take an arc to the south, but I didn't realise that it got quite as far south as it did (you must have been within spitting distance of Antarctica!). There aren't too many diversionary airports in that part of the world, I recall a discussion on a recent Air Mauritius trip report (SYD>MRU) that these long flights over the Indian oceans are ETOPS excluded, so can only be flown by 4-engined equipment. Although there's not much to see in the Southern Ocean, did you have any cloudless skies at any point, or was there pretty much constant cover?
AF Cabin Crew From French Polynesia, joined Sep 1999, 1036 posts, RR: 37 Reply 16, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 26283 times:
Ia Orana All !
I upgraded my photobucket account so that you guys could have access to the pictures. They are now back !
Enjoy,
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16575 posts, RR: 11 Reply 17, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 26001 times:
Quoting AF Cabin Crew (Reply 16): upgraded my photobucket account so that you guys could have access to the pictures. They are now back !
Enjoy,
Johnboy From United States of America, joined Aug 1999, 2472 posts, RR: 1 Reply 18, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 25221 times:
Excellent job and beautiful pics.
Nice of you to upgrade....i can't tell you how many times i've been disappointed eagerly awaiting to look at a TR, only to see that ugly white Photobucket screen mocking me.
Airbuseric From Netherlands, joined Jan 2005, 4015 posts, RR: 52 Reply 19, posted (4 years 7 months 1 week 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 25198 times:
Great report, great pics! And what a route!
Of course this can only be flown on 3 or 4-engines, missing one isn't such an issue then and the flight can continue or return. Missing more power, will give big problems to such a flight.
Thanks for posting this story!
"The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going"
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