Before I begin to explain my day of flight cancellations and delays, let me first advise everyone that they should never book flights with an airline company whose mascot can't even fly. A tiger is a land animal. If I would have thought about this BEFORE booking my flights back to Sydney from the Great Barrier Reef, I would have been back like 10 hours earlier! I don't know why I did not analyze the importance of the mascot before booking the flight. My bad!
Tiger Airways is the cheapest airline in Australia. The other airlines are Virgin Blue, Qantas, and JetStar. Qantas is the airline that most people fly to get to Australia and they serve the best hot chocolate! Virgin Blue and JetStar are about mid-range. . .and Tiger Airways, oh ya, is the cheepest airline provider. Though my friends and I had heard some stories about Tiger Airways from our marketing teacher, we decided to fly with them because the price difference seemed worth it. And we actually had 2 pleasant flights with Tiger Airways- from Sydney to Melbourne and from Melbourne to Mackay (near the Great Barrier Reef). I will admit- after these flights, I was a big fan of Tiger Airways. . .
Until the flight back from Mackay. The planned route back was a flight with Tiger Airways from Mackay to Melbourne and Melbourne back to Sydney. The first flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20AM, so we needed to check in at 6:20AM. (To make a long story short, we took a night bus the previous night that dropped us off at 2:30AM in a city near the airport, so we took a taxi to the airport instead of paying for a hotel or hostel for an extremely short stay.) So, we arrived at the airport at 4:30AM and waited (aka slept) until we checked in at 6:20AM.
To our surprise, the flight was cancelled and the next flight that we could take was the following day. Though we wanted to stay, I had to get back for a class presentation and the other girls had to get back for exams the next day. So, we frantically called all of the other airlines trying to find a flight back to Sydney.After reviewing all of our options, Virgin Blue offered a flight directly to Sydney at 1:30PM that we decided to take! By the time we found this flight, we had 6.5 hours left to wait, but we were happy that we would get back in the early evening on Sunday afternoon.
Let me just say this- Sunday was not our lucky day because at 1:30, an announcement was made that the flight was delayed because the airplane needed windshield wipers that had to be shipped in from Brisbane. 5:30PM was the new departure time. At 5:30, the departure time moved back to 6:00, and at 6:00, the departure time moved back to 6:30PM. AND WE FINALLY LEFT THE MACKAY AIRPORT!!! After 47928 games of cards, 27 naps on the airport sofas, and 5 trips to the airport store to look at the magazines, WE LEFT!!! I don't think I have ever been so relieved or excited to see the Sydney Airport when we finally arrived back!
14 hours in the Airport + 2.5 hours on plane + 30 minutes on train + 30 minutes on ferry + 5 minute taxi ride = Arrival back at school! (and a very long day!)
Conclusion: Tiger Airways should change their mascot and everything will be better. Some amazing options are Eagle Airways, Magic Flying Parrot Flights, Australian Magpie Airways, or my all-time favorite option: Kookaburra Airways. Not only will the airline have a totally new and improved brand name and image, but people would know that they were reliable and could fly. . .like birds!
Me with the Flight sign for Sydney before we loaded the plane after 14 hours at the Airport
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