09.24.06
I love air travel…
Well, I just returned from an attempt to fly to New Zealand today. Clearly, an *unsuccessful* attempt.
I scored the flight through QANTAS’s frequent flier scheme (which incidentally is one of the worst in the world), which meant I didn’t have a direct Sydney=>Auckland flight - QANTAS don’t let you take spare capacity but rather only specifically allocated frequent flier seating, which means you end up on really strange journeys - like today, Sydney->Melbourne->Auckland.
So, I got to Melbourne okay (getting pretty used to that flight) and got on the next leg. About 1/3 of the way over the Tasman, the captain found a warning of a possible engine malfunction, so turned back… _to Sydney_.
Now, safety is a priority when you’re in a metal cylinder hurtling through the sky, held aloft by hope and excessive speed. However, I couldn’t help but taste some bitter irony on landing in Sydney, back where I began. Oh well, at least I got to go home, unlike all the rest of the passengers!
(Special mention must go out to the passenger in Business Class who loudly complained that they had a meeting with the President of Chile and that the QANTAS peon should go order a plane to turn around and fly them to Auckland immediately. It was such a stereotype I kept expecting Ashton Kutcher to show up).
… I loooove flying…