Finally travelling again after 6 months, spending 6 days in Tasmania.
Packed, discovered that the Skybus has restarted running from near the train station which is handy – 42 minutes to the airport which saves us having to walk – train – change – train – walk – bus; now just walk – bus.
Having read about all the delays at the airport due to staff shortages decided to get there early, so got the 07:00 bus, arrived bang on time at 07:43 ish.
Checked in the day before, so just needed to get through security and then sit for a while before boarding.
The airport wasn’t too busy, the queues were small and moving quickly. Just about to queue up when I got a text “We are sorry to tell you that your 09:40 flight to Hobart has been cancelled”. They forgot to add the middle finger emoji but I assumed it was implied.
Welcome to the new normal of travel, where flights can be cancelled just before they leave.
Went to the service desk and they re-booked us on a flight at 13:15, which was better than I expected. They also gave us 2 breakfast vouchers worth $8 each. Whoopee.
Not a lot we can do, so went through security and sat down for breakfast, we each had 2 McDonalds breakfast muffins each. Last time we had McDonalds was at another airport, Doha 2017.
Settled down for a 4 hour wait – unfortunately they don’t have an open access lounge in the Domestic terminal otherwise we would have sprung for it.
Went for a wander, took about 3 minutes, there’s not a lot at domestic departures. Walked past the busiest place – the bar. People getting on the beers and cocktails at 09:00, starting their holiday early.
Read some stuff, watched a TV show, keeping an eye on the departures board. Our flight appeared. Yay! Cancelled. FFS.
Down to the service desk, into a queue of about 10 people. Got to the desk, trying to be polite but was pretty annoyed. She poked on the keyboard, looked at the screen, poked a bit more – “I’ve booked you on the next flight, 06:00 tomorrow morning”. FFS. So we have to be at the airport at 04:00, which means leaving at 03:00, which means getting up at 02:00. Wonderful. She said she could put us up in a hotel, where did we live? Oh, pity you live in Melbourne – if you weren’t in Melbourne, we could put you up. “Did I say Melbourne, I meant Ballarat”. She booked us into the hotel. I can accept one cancellation, that’s the risk at the moment, but to cancel 2 and leave so many people to have to alter plans is pretty poor.
The queue was now about 200 people long, just as well I went there straight away – I don’t think as many people were watching the board and only realised when it was announced or they got an SMS.
So we were given $20 in lunch vouchers, plus booked into a nearby hotel so we wouldn’t have to get up at 02:00 (04:00 instead). Looked to see if there was a one-way Qantas flight, which there was, but it was $650 ish for the 2 of us. Seriously considered it, thought about it, decided to do it, went back to book and now the price was around $900. Yeah, no.
Called the hotel to tell them we wouldn’t be checking in today, they directed us to hotels.com because that’s who we booked it through, they said they couldn’t do it, so would call the hotel, they couldn’t get through so sent an email. What a pain in the arse. I also had to cancel a restaurant booking.
Went back to the departure lounge to use our vouchers, had 3 banh-mi between us. It was now around 14:30 and I was beginning to feel like the Tom Hanks character in Terminal.
Called the shuttle bus for the hotel, checked in and found out that we also get $60 in restaurant vouchers so booked into the restaurant.
The room was OK, clean and spacious but a bit tired, but probably better than going home and getting up at 02:00.
Moped around for a bit, read and watched a bit of TV, then went to the restaurant and had a passable meal – Song had a seafood risotto-like thing and I had gnocchi with bacon, mushrooms, peas. I also had a Tasmanian beer to remind me that instead of being where we were supposed to be, in a nice seafood restaurant overlooking Hobart harbour, we were in a Motel in Broadmeadows overlooking a carpark.
Went for a walk because we’d been sat down most of the day, then got back to the room and prepared to go to sleep, it was about 08:00 but we’d been up since before 06:00 and were going to be getting a 04:00 alarm call.
This was when we discovered that our room was directly below the function centre where a Christmas party had just started. We may as well have been sleeping on the dance floor. FFS.
Along to reception and told them our sad story, they were very good and moved us to a new room a long way from the function. Opened the room door and…oh. King size bed. Bigger TV. Went in the bathroom…shower, and a spa bath. Yeah, we’re using that, we deserve it.
Sat in the spa, very relaxing and Song said that despite not being in Hobart this is basically what we would have done – meal in a restaurant, go for a walk and if the room had a spa we would have used it.
Went to bed around 21:00, hoping that they wouldn’t cancel the flight for a third time, but the way things are, who knows?
