The Red Eyed Special.

Sunday 22nd April 2012.

Picked the Tels up 10am all very excited, Merry Megsy and Pete were there to see us off. We then proceeded to my very special Aunt Vals at lalor arriving 11:20 to enjoy a cuppa and specially baked fruit cake.
Left the car with her and employed Turkish Taxi driver Sidic to take us to Tullarmarine. He left us around 1pm and said he would pick us up on 1st June.
After the usual booking in at gate we checked out Duty Free and boarded singapore Ailines flight No. SQ228 Airbus A380 leaving on time for Singapore. The aircraft was packed to the gills however this plane is so large the numbers were hardly noticable. After 7 hours and smooth flight we arrived Singapore quite fresh still very excited and after a 2 hour stop eager to set off for Frankfurt. This is going to be easy don't you think?

We are off again, out to the runway we taxi with a fresh crew its around midnight and the weather is good however the Captain now advises us of a small technical problem, which means that we must return to the gate so that engineers can fix the problem. Thats ok an hour to fix and we'll be off again, but no it will now take half an hour to top up with fuel, eventually we get off 1.1/2 hrs late. Its now 1:30 am Melbourne time Monday 23rd April.

Flight to frankfurt is smooth but we got little to no sleep on this 13 hour flight, checked out the movies and games all good, however we need to make up time as we only have about 2.1/2 hrs at frankfurt to meet our next flight to Budapest, normally there would have been plenty of time but the loss of 1.1/2 hours with the "technical problem" has left us only 40mins to clear customs, registrations and boarding. The thought that we may have made up time was at the least a pipe dream as most of the way heavy head winds were the experience. No matter after much lobbying of the crew we were informed that as there were a number of passengers on the plane needing to meet this conection to Budapest there would be airport ground staff to meet us, expediate our clearences and bus us to the appropriate aircraft. We have at last landed all now quite tired and anxious to say the least, off we get and there they are the ground staff, collecting us they raced us through all the appropriate checks etc. and in the process advised that boarding passes would not be required to board Lufthanza to Budapest. Onto the bus out to the plane which is quite a distance from the terminal. The plane is still there we are ok. Wrong after all assurances we are now told we need boarding passes to board. Our furious objections do little to change there minds and we are now bussed back to the terminal to arrange same.
We are all furious at this stage and let it be known but we can get no satisfaction the plane leaves for Budapest without us. The end result is that Singapore Airlines book us on other flights much later in the day which are not direct as we are routed through Dusseldorf where we must then catch a plane which takes us to Budapest. We arrive Budapest seven hours late, tired and after 48 hours in much need of sleep.
closing now I must say that staff on the planes were great to us and the food was excellant. Till next time Crackers the Eagle.