Today was a travel day, as we flew from Melbourne to Brisbane! We checked out of the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, took an uber to the airport, and had time to grab a late breakfast before our flight. While we were eating, an older couple was seated at the table next to us and we ended up chatting with them for about 45 minutes (very uncharacteristic of us!). They live in Perth, although they're originally from New Zealand, and they've traveled extensively in the U.S., so we had a great conversation about things to see and do in America and in Australia!
You might recall that I wasn't particularly thrilled with Qantas the other day when we flew to Melbourne from Sydney. While I still think their boarding process is utter nonsense, I would say I'm pretty pleased with Qantas today! The reason for this change in my attitude is simple: we got an email two days ago asking if we wanted to pay $65 AUD (about $44 USD) to buy the middle seat between us to ensure it was empty for our flight! Brilliant! Had the flight filled up and they needed to give the seat to someone, our money would have been refunded, so of course we said yes immediately! What I'd really like to know is why all airlines don't have this same offer when flights aren't completely full, because we would gladly pay a fee like this on every single flight to ensure an empty middle seat between us when we can't fly on a 2-4-2 or 2-4-3 plane! It would be such easy money for the airlines!
A few observations about domestic flights in Australia...on both the Sydney-Melbourne flight and the Melbourne-Brisbane flight, no one checked our identification at the airport. Not a single person. We tagged our bags at the self-serve kiosk, took them to the self-serve bag drop, went through security, and got on the plane without anyone asking to see our passports. It seemed incredibly bizarre. We had to scan our boarding passes when we tagged our bags and then again when we got on the plane. That's it. Frankly, I'm a more than a little uncomfortable with people's identification not being checked. I know I'm in a different country, with different rules and protocols, but checking identification to confirm the people on the plane are who they say they are seems like a basic safety procedure?
The flight was only two hours and I was asleep before takeoff and woke up when they made the announcement about starting the descent, so clearly it was pretty uneventful! Once we landed, it took less than 45 minutes to get our bags, take an uber, and be checking into our hotel! Sunday and Monday were both long days for us, so today was pretty low-key. Looking forward to exploring Brisbane over the next few days!
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| best middle seat passenger ever |
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| the self-serve bag drop |
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| beautiful views as we were landing |
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we went to a pancake place
that's in a former church |
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| it was pretty cool and quirky |
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| the pancakes were amazing! |
Happy Tails to you!
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