Ground Hog Day trip

[Peter JB]

Took the missus to Penang recently and to think I would get a variety of planes to travel on was wishful thinking. Departed from and arrived back at the same gate in Melbourne (but to be expected somewhat given it was Emirates). Had A340 A6-ERG outbound to KUL and yes had it on the way back! I didn't mention to the missus that it was the same plane that almost crashed at Tulla last year until we got off it in KUL! But she was cool with that.

OK, so we get to KUL and arrived at Gate C22 and guess what - C22 on the way back to MEL. Malaysian A330 up to Penang we flew on 9M-MKG and 4 days later back to KUL - 9M-MKG. And to add insult - yes the same gate at Penang.

For those of you watchful enough you may be asking - which gate at KUL for the flight to PEN - different gates!!

For those of you who have been through KLIA - a magnificent, huge place. Oh and the security to get on Emirates at KLIA - we went through 3 seperate security areas and at the gate, a further security team to also check the passports one last time! Plus there was an Australian lady (presumably from our immigration) very intently checking various randomly selected foreign passports - I guess doing some advance work on behalf of the immigration team in MEL.

Emirates A340 - seats hard and uncomfortable. Loved the forward facing camera for take off and landing though.

Malaysian A330 - inside cabin rocked and rolled and vibrated on take off's and landings and the sound of the hydraulics whenever the brakes were applied or released was quite disconcerting

[Jon B]

Aust Immigration staff in overseas airports are usually paid for by the airlines as if they bring in people who turn out to be "illegal immigrants" the airline gets a fine of i think about $2000 per pax. They used to do the checks at check in then found that if people got through that they would destroy passport after passing through local border control passport check before boarding the aircraft. Thus they do at gate now and can then screen all pax and not just one person trying to cover 6 or more check in desks.
On arrival in Australia they then claim/seek asylum. In BKK they have been doing this for years (since 1990s that i know of) sometimes DIMA staff on secondment and sometime other expat Australian citizens who DIMA train. They also train the local check in staff. My wife worked for QF in BKK and she once called her supervisor over a group of passports and before they could do anything the group of about 6 people ran off leaving bags behind at check in counter. Interesting to note that illegal aircraft arrivals are still much much higher than those by boat but it rarely gets any media attention