Post travel ponderings

We've been back a week and a half - post travel exhaustion put paid to any earlier updates..... but let me take you back to the start of our journey

3.30 am on a Saturday morning is not my prime time but having failed to pack last night I have to hustle some clothes into a bag, get offspring out of bed and hit the road at 4.30 planning for a 5.00 am arrival at the airport.  5.00 am for a 7.00 am departure?  Having refused to pay $6 per ticket for pre-selection of a non guaranteed seat I took a punt that arriving at the start of booking would mean a half decent seat.  

Having not factored in stopping for breakfast on the Ring Road (before the brekkie menu started at Maccas no less) and the park / gulp coffee / transit bus time we did check in at about 5.20.  Row 21, not bad.  

The Saturday morning crowd at the Tiger lounge were a different demographic to when I have used Tiger previously, lots of young families and backpackers, judging from the conversations around me.  Flight to Perth, flight to Sydney then off we trip through Gate 2 to..... a super long walk across the tarmac.  Intellectually I know this is coming, but still, in my fabulous orange espadrille wedges it seems like a million miles.  Every time, princess, every time........  Happily surprised that unlike other flights there is no grappling for overhead locker space, I stow my hand luggage overhead and settle down with my book, the offspring popping their tiny bags under the seat.

Second surprise of the morning, the Tiger trolley does two rounds so I score a hot chocolate.  Not sure I could have faced anything stronger although I spy fellow passengers tucking into Jim Beam and cola, dudes it's 8 am!!!  

Landing early, I revel again in the ease of leaving an airport when you don't have checked luggage and hop into the waiting embrace of parents for a weekend of anniversary fun.  

Coming home I expected it would be the same exercise but in reverse.  Arriving at the airport we start looking for the Tiger check in.... looking, looking, looking thankfully the youngest doesn't have painted on eyes today and spots the Tiger check in in behind the Jetstar counter.  Apart from the secret location our check in is smooth and we head up to departure. Row 23...... can't complain.

Then something happened that I am still finding a bit disturbing.  My youngest is transgender with pink floppy fringe and brightish clothes.  A bit out there but I have seen wilder on the train into the city.  As we head through security I go through, then they stop my youngest and start searching his bag.  The x-ray guy believes that he has a concealed knife in his bag.  The bag is searched, no knife, then back through the machine, they still think there is a knife or blade in there.  They start to dismantle his bag, out come the art supply gifts from his grandparents and his clothes etc.  I am totally frustrated, the poor guy who had been told to search my child's bag is apologetic and I am glaring at the x-ray guy.  Obviously pink hair is a trigger for terrorist activities in Brisbane.  They finally decide that what they thought they were seeing was a shadow in his art book and we are through.  

Events from there are totally my fault.  Having caught up with a fab old friend who has driven to the airport to see me, I relax via a few glasses of red then totter off to my plane.  Damn that stupid walk across the tarmac, my tricky left ankle gave way and I did one of those dramatic hands in the air trip onto the ground.  Ditching the high heels, I pop my trusty flats on, weave my way onto the plane and promptly fall asleep, waking up to have another wine and some cheese and bikkies.

Instead of landing at 11.35, our flight lands at 12.30 ish, we hop onto the shuttle, find the car, pay the parking fee and head home arriving home at 1.30 am.  

So would I do this again?  Apart from the walk of shame across the tarmac, there was nothing really to complain about.  The flight was on time, staff friendly, and my fellow passengers were an amusing lot.  Not raving yet, let's see what happens next time - Hobart in June anyone?

Paying the price for procrastination

Now I have this up and running, I have a confession to make..... I procrastinate (don't faint)

About four weeks ago Mum called, she had a wonderful idea, why don't we all (myself and the offspring) fly to Brisvegas for the weekend of the 12th of April to celebrate the parentals 45th wedding anniversary.  Fabulous idea said I, having recently had a cash injection from the Department of Human Services (federal, not state) HUZZAH!!!  I even looked at flights while I had my mum on the phone.

Monday (yes this Monday 8 April) I thought I had better book the tickets.  Any specials I had looked at four weeks ago were long gone and it is the final weekend of the school holidays here in Victoria, so time and timing were working against me.  No point in looking at Virgin and Qantas, I know from past experience that any cheap seats were long gone.  So off to Jetstar and Tiger.  The Tiger flight was far to early on Friday, and the Friday night Jetstar flight.... well.... let's just say I have paid less for human kidneys.  What to do.... well there is a nifty next day feature on the Tiger site and I spotted flights for 7 am Saturday morning, arriving Brisbane at 9.10 am.  The flights home arrive in Melbourne at 11.30 pm but that is Sunday Jo's problem.

I now have a second confession to make..... I am pretty technically incompetent.

The few times I have used the Tiger site I have been frustrated, information isn't easily located and the layout isn't intuitive.  So booking flights at 6.00 am on Monday morning I was hoping for a hassle free process.  I did not select luggage allowance or seat allocation and went to pay and low and behold I have been charged $120 for 60 kilos of luggage allowance (on a 36 hour trip even I though that was a bit too much),  So I went back, made sure no luggage allowance was selected and proceeded to pay, and there was that darn allowance again!!!  Breakfast time.

At times like this I call on the expertise of the offspring, this morning number two child was up and happy to help.  It appears that Tiger have a 20 kilo allowance set as a default,  Having seen what Tiger customers try to stuff in the overhead storage I am not surprised but still, frustrating.  A $51 service fee and a per fare booking for paying by credit card later and three seats were booked for a return trip to Brisbane for the weekend.

Ideally we have to be at Tullamarine at 5.00 am for checkin on Saturday.  Let's see how that goes.

Where it all begins

So a few years ago I was chatting with my amazing bestie about Tiger airways expanding into Cairns.  Now the bestie is, among other things, a super talented guru in the tourism industry.  I said at the time that I didn't think that those who would travel by Tiger would be her kind of customers.  She put it to me that those who did fly Tiger to places like Far North Queensland would be tourists who were looking to spend more dollars at their destination.
Years have passed since that conversation and I have traveled Tiger a couple of times, interspersed with trips of Jetstar, Virgin and Qantas.  I thought that 2013 would be a good year to set myself a challenge.  Each time I travel I am going to see if Tiger can offer me the best price, what quality service they provide and the demographic of the passengers.  I suspect that Tiger will nearly always beat the others on price for short term travel.... but when you are a bona fide princess there are other considerations beyond the bottom line!!!

Come fly with me!!!