Can you tell Luke doesn't have kids? People with kids at home exchange understanding smiles with people with kids on planes and airport lounges. I'd also like to point out that on Saturday last week, if Luke was in the Virgin Blue "blue room" he would definitely have been "soothed" by my daughters dulcet tones. I'm pretty sure the lady sitting in the seats near us at Melbourne airport was muttering "I wish I had flown Qantas".
So Luke, since you were so nice to come down to Canberra and relieve me I'll share with you this advice re: Qantas and Canberra - this applies to everyone coming down for TechEd too.
- Pick flights carefully, if available take the DASH-8 flights. The staff seem to be friendlier and the seats have about two inches more room and because they reach their cruising altitude easier you can get some laptop time in.
- If you do manage to get a DASH-8 flight, never take the front seats - especially the ones that face backwards. They are weirdly uncomfortable, an facing other passengers during take off is just weird man. I think it would be more fun if we played a game of celebrity heads or something.
- If you are prone to concocting fantasies about propeller blades breaking off then do sit mid-plane.
- If self-checkin is available take it. Sydney airport is fantastic, I have no idea why those dodos queue, it takes me about 2 minutes flat to check-in - including wait time. To assist in this process, I find it handy to copy and paste the booking ref from the PDF itenary I get into my Smartphone for quick access (you need to key it in at the kiosk). Self-checkin also means you can select your seats instead of relying on Qantas staff to "choose" for you.
P.S. I put that link in there to the celebrity head game not only for comic relief, but because if the Internet is just the beginnings of a big brain as my friend Paul Murphy once suggested, then these little random links are what is going to make it interesting. Or atleast give the brain a few issues that it is going to need to see a shrink about.