standby travel SYD-PER 14 March and QF founders museum

[rog747]

ladies and gentlemen,
first visit to oz,
would any kindly QF person or Virgin blue person please let me know if standby travel is 'easy' for one person syd-per sun 14th march...in the morning

i am retiree now and have a zed fare tkt or a VB staff pass...

i am getting the ship mv ATHENA from fremantle on that evening to sail home
to the UK deps 1900
thanks awfully
i am also hoping to visit the QF founders museum too up north, hope its good,
cant wait!
cheers rog

[The Green Goblin]

Pilots have nothing to do with travel bookings buddy.

Try Flights and Airfares | Holidays and Vacations | Travel Consultants | Flight Centre (http://www.flightcentre.com) :ok:

[VH-XXX]

There are plenty of "pilots" on here than can help you with this query.

Problem is that you are way too early unfortunately.

Usually you can't really tell until the last few days.

Best way you can find out yourself on the website. What you do it put in the proposed flight date, select the time and select a high number of passengers (eg. 15). This will help to tell you how many seats are left as the fare types will disappear as the seats are sold. Then try again with a lesser number and the other fare types should start to appear.

Quite often during the last day for VB flights only the fully flexible or premium economy have space.

Relying on staff travel to catch something important like a cruise can be very risky so I'd consider trying to catch that flight earlier by perhaps a day to have a greater chance of making it as Syd-Per is not flown nearly as frequently as Syd-Mel so less flights to get on.

Enjoy your holiday and cruise.

[roger_ramjet]

Staff travel to Longreach can also be difficult, most aircraft leave 90-95% full and if there's weather in Brisbane your seat will be given away for 160lbs of fuel! DHC8-300 is pretty close to max range and if there's anything worse than an inter in Brisbane then it's hard to get 50 people on.
Still, plenty of good deals on this time of year for discount tickets. Like the previous post mentioned, the availability of cheap seats is the best indication of how full the plane is getting.

[rog747]

thanks chaps,

being ex airline for 30 years i do appreciate any replies...
we always looked after the staff in the old days lol
i never left anyone behind if i could help it!
and oz is a long way from home for me lol

i have had a pm from some kind person in QF and it seems syd-per is really
really good for 14th march, so far...

i was not going to do longreach by standby as i knew it was a small
a/c, dash 8...
i just wondered if the QF museum was worth a long trip upto it from syd?

i only have a few days in oz before the ship home to blighty....
cheers
rog

[Worrals in the wilds]

The Qantas museum is very good but it's a long trip from Sydney if you've only got a few days. The Q'link dash 8 service is usually fairly pricey because there's no competition, it's Qantas, Qantas or Qantas.

Personally I think it would be more practical to leave it for when you're doing a trip to Queensland. I've seen it twice and it's good, but I wouldn't make a special trip from Sydney just to visit (standing by for flamage :}).

Distance wise Longreach is 1100 kms from Brisbane which is 1000 kms from Sydney, AFAIK You have to fly via Brisbane or Townsville to get there, and there's usually only one flight a day from Brisbane. You would probably write off most of a day getting there. It's not the same as flying 2100 kms in Europe where there are three carriers fighting for the route.

The Q'link timetable is at this link if you want a squizz.
http://www.qantas.com.au/flightinfo/qf_pdfTimetable_QantasLink.pdf

Good luck and enjoy your stay in Oz. :)

[rog747]

thanks so much for all the kind replies

i have had a few helpful pm's too, thank u

looking forward to my trip and visiting the QF musuem and i will also
go to the drover's one as well there...

am gonna fly out to oz virgin 747 london to jo'burg (is pretty empty in j and w when i go)
get a hotel day room in jnb
then saa a340-600 which is pretty comfy (i hear) to perth, and only about 9 hours...
seems like the jet lag is minimal that way (hopefully)

could go lhr-lax then QF to syd (would love to try the a380) but its a ol' long
slog...
V australia also go lax-syd too

looking fwd to oz very much especially seeing the outback.

[harrowing]

I hope you enjoyed your visit down-under and saw some of the things you had planned. Lucky you were here when the exchange rate was more favourable than it is now.
Cheers