I said goodbye to family last night. I got to Kuching airport about 2h before the 1045 departure. I had breakfast landside as there is no longer food available airside internationally, since the area has now been properly segregated from domestic.
The short flight to Singapore had been rescheduled a couple of weeks ago from 0945. The captain explained that it was due to closure of Singapore’s Changi airport for a military exercise. I just couldn’t believe that the government would disrupt so many people for the exercise.
Our ETA was just after the scheduled reopening and there was a chance of delays due to late reopening and a backlog. We were assigned a non-standard holding area “amongst the cotton candy clouds” that may give us a “roller coaster ride” but “a bit of bargaining” saw us avoiding that. Yes, the captain was a bit colourful with his language, right from the start when he described the air-con on the ground as “a little screwy” (it was fine and cool enough for me).
Changi wasn’t its super-efficient self today with luggage claim and immigration. I got out quickly enough still and did an early bag drop for my flight to Sydney and onwards to Auckland on Qantas.
This allowed me to go see my aunt for a few hours. She fed me a filling lunch and we chatted. I took a lie down then a swim in her cool refreshing pool before returning to the airport.
Even in just Terminal 1, I had a choice of three lounges to choose from. I chose SATS because I stumbled upon it first. Despite arriving 3+ hours early at the airport, time went quickly and I was soon on board the Qantas A330 bound for Sydney. The -200 series plane had an older version interior than the previous flight (on -300), with a smaller TV and no footrest basket.
A late passenger delayed us. He eventually turned up but it took time for the ground staff to return the luggage containers. We pushed back 30 minutes late and arrived into Sydney 15 minutes late, having made up part of the time.