Troubled Qantas A380

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Qantas A380 VH-OQD

On my way back to KL from Canberra, I took a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Singapore, scheduled to depart at 5pm local time. The domestic flight from Canberra to Melbourne, on the puny Qantaslink plane, went smoothly and so I had more than 2 hours to laze around the airport. Boarding time was at 4.20pm.

Around 4pm, there was an announcement that the flight is delayed. Since the plane was just right outside, we could see some (presumably) engineers working on the plane. The new departure time was 6pm, with boarding time at 5.30pm. I just shrugged and continue reading the free newspapers.

Melbourne Airport - Departure

Unfortunately, at about 5pm, there was yet another delay - this time to 7pm. Goodness, that meant the plane was scheduled to touch down in Singapore only at about 11.45pm (local time). I was feeling bad for my friends who would need to stay up till then (I was going to stay over at their place). I groaned and silent said, "You gotta be kidding".

To give them some credits, Qantas gave out a AUD20 F&B voucher to each passenger to be used in the airport, which was great since dinner was going to be late. However, everyone had the same idea and so all eateries had long queue. By the time I was served, it was just 10 mins away from the scheduled boarding time of 6.30pm. So I ate only a small sandwich and drank a bottle of orange juice and bought a bottle of mineral water to bring onto the plane. The flight on British Airway on the way from Singapore to Sydney did serve water but in the standard paper cup.

It turned out that the boarding time was delayed by about 15 mins. Once on board, we were informed that the plane could depart only after the engineers had gotten some documents signed. That took a good half an hour! Goodness gracious. I rolled my eyes once again.

Singapore Changi Airport

The bad luck continued in Singapore: once it touched down, the auxiliary power wasn't functioning. Apparently it was needed to get the plane to the parking bay. Fortunately, everything else was working. So that added another half an hour of delay. By the time I entered the airport terminal, it was already 1am. I reached my friends' place at about 1.45am, feeling so embarrassed about being so late (compared to the scheduled touch down at 9.45pm).

On the bright side, I managed to watch the movies Green Lantern and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Ban didn't want to watch either) and the entire 4th season of Big Bang Theory, except for the last 7 mins when I had to disembark. Unlike previous experience where it was switched off during take-off and landing, the entertainment set was functioning from the time I boarded the plane till the time I disembarked. Oh, and remember the bottle of mineral water I bought? Turned out that instead of serving in paper cups, they freely gave bottles of mineral water. Goodie!

The plane was very new, with nice comfortable seat (unlike previous experience where my tail bone would hurt) and toilet taps that had sensors. It was only later on that I realised it an A380 plane - a first for me.

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