Last week I flew up to Port
Macquarie. I have been flying instead of driving because now that it is dual
carriageway it is a boring 3 and a half hours. Also, if you book in advance you
can usually get up there and back for about $150.
I decided to fly with Virgin
instead of Qantas or QantasLink as they call it up there, as it was
substantially cheaper and I had points to burn one-way.
They have really picked up
their game. They actually serve what you would call a light snack and drinks on
the flight. In the past there has been a cost attached to this.
The other thing that has
changed is they are now flying ATR 72’s. I’ve never been on one of these so
this was a new experience. We boarded through the rear doors as the plane has a
cargo hold in the front of the plane behind the cockpit.
The flight I took was VA1187,
which departed Sydney just before 9am, about 15 minutes late. The plane was
only half full and got us up to cruising altitude quite quickly.
It was at that time we were then
given what I thought was a pretty substantial snack for such a short flight.
Flight time on this plane was just under an hour. The meal included tea, coffee, juice or soft
drink, and a cupcake. Pretty considerable if you think back a few months where
you had to pay for a bottle of water.
We landed making up some of
the time that we were delayed out of Sydney. A lot of people boycott Virgin,
but as you can see their offering is almost on par with QantasLink.
