Trip Report: TT BNE-SYD-BNE (photos)

[Brandon Giacomin]

Hi all,

Last Saturday I went to Sydney for a few hours as I managed to get great fares with Tiger back in November. My second daytrip after flying to Rocky in December last year.

So in late November last year Tiger Airways had $9.95 one-way fares on certain routes for their 3rd birthday. Brisbane – Sydney was one of these routes and I thought I’d try to book a daytrip there as I have only been to Sydney a couple times before back when I was very young and just for a stopover. I looked at a few dates hoping to find a day where I could go over on the early morning flight and come back on the afternoon flight. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a day where I could do this. So I looked to see if I could get on the late morning flight. And I found a day where I could do this, March 5. So I booked it, the fares all up were $19.90 but then there is the seat selection fee and the credit card fee. So all up it cost about $50, very cheap!

I didn’t really want to book another daytrip before my first one to Rockhampton as I wanted to see how it went. It went very well, I had a great time, and I couldn’t wait for my trip to Sydney. And 3 months later it was March 5th.

Spotting in Brisbane

My parents dropped me off at about 1030 for the 1140 departure, I was going to try and get to the airport at 10am but I went on the net at about 9 and saw that my aircraft had departed Melbourne for Sydney about half an hour late. Using the planefinder app on my iPod I saw that my aircraft was VH-VNC, was happy to see it wasn’t VND who I got on my only other Tiger flight. It was pretty boring at Brisbane, I just bought a coke and sat down at my gate. Used the new centre satellite for the first time and it is very nice, still two or three gates aren’t open yet. Jetstar Telstra logo jet arrived while I was waiting and parked near my gate (first time I have seen her). Strategic A320 VH-YQA was then towed over next to VQN. And then VNC came in 20 minutes late from Sydney. Also Eva Air A332 took off to Taipei. And that was about it…
Time for some photos!

Two Jetstar A320s at the common user terminal, with Eva Air behind.


VNC arrives from Sydney where she will soon return with me onboard


March 5, 2011
Tiger Airways Australia
TT6104
BNE-SYD
VH-VNC
Seat 16A

As usual I was one of the last to board. As I was in line to get my boarding pass checked the Air NZ 747 taxied out to RWY19, looked very nice! Just love the 747! Got my boarding pass out, had it scanned and I was on my way out to the aircraft. No aerobridges in the centre satellite so I walked out on to the tarmac and up the back stairs. Was greeted by a female f/a and I went to row 16, in my last trip there was someone in my seat both times, but this time there was no one in my seat. Sat down in 16A, both 16B and C were occupied.

Had two windows, view out of 16A window 2


Saw VH-ZPN pull in to the Virgin terminal, flew on her in December to Rocky! Pushed back about 20 minutes late, was told that the projected flight time was 1 hour 10 minutes! Usual safety demonstration was done and we were on our way out to RWY19.

VH-VQN and VH-YQA


Flight attendant went through the cabin while taxiing and I was told to put my camera away for takeoff. Never been told that before. So I put it in my bag and thought I’d bring it out as soon as we’d taken off. Got to the end of the runway and I saw that there was a aircraft on finals, for some reason I thought please not VUY, please not VUY. Was still yet to get a decent shot of VUY, saw her a week earlier but only managed a hazy shot of her landing on RWY01. And as the aircraft got closer I could see the paint scheme and who was it? VUY!!! Looked so good as it went past. I then noticed another aircraft on finals, so this time I was thinking, please not VUZ, please not VUZ. And luckily it was just a Qantas B738. No more aircraft to wait for so we lined up on 19 and we were off!

As soon as we were up I got my camera out of my bag. We turned left and I got a great view of BNE. You can see QF15 taxiing out of the international terminal and two Virgin Blue aircraft at the end of the runway.


Not a very nice day in Brisbane…


Flying past Cleveland I think


For about 20 minutes the view was just grey clouds, so didn’t bother taking photos, finally above the clouds


Window 1, cruising at 38 000ft


Window 2