This trip was meant to be a third visit to hospitable Iran on AirAsia X’s ridiculously cheap fare. But with the Iranian currency crisis, the flight got cancelled and I eventually settled on a trip to Kashmir (via Australia’s Red Centre and Timor), continuing to the Cacasus and Scotland (plus a few detours).
I had originally booked to fly from Auckland to Sydney on the 1535 flight on Qantas. My award ticket didn’t have any change penalties and I monitored the availability of the award booking class over several weeks and was pleased to finally see that seats had become available on the 1240 flight.
I had hoped to get on the earlier flight so I enjoy Sydney briefly before the next day’s connection.Yesterday, I had checked-in online 23h59 mins prior to departure … one minute after check-in opened. I was automatically assigned a middle seat in the last row! I managed to change to the aisle seat next to it. The rest of the plane was marked off as assigned already. Good one, Qantas!
The flight did turn out very full and cramped, but the meal was yummy and the ice-cream following was a nice touch.