Trip Report: Aboard the flying Tiger! TT8902 Adelaide to Sydney - 06/10/10

[Maikha Ly]

Hi all

The following is my Trip Report having flow on Tiger Airways recently from Adelaide to Sydney, last Wednesday.

Trip Report - Introduction

Well, it had been the end of a wonderful fortnight I spent in the State of South Australia. In a nutshell, I had done some bike riding along the coast of an afternoon, explored the CBD, did some bushwalking in Belair National Park, went to an old theatre, spent a day visiting museums in Port Adelaide, spent a week in Port Augusta, visited an old rag tag railway, and other natural attractions around the area.

I decided to return to Sydney on Tiger Airways, for one, when I booked the airfares back in the beginning of August, they were $38 RAW (Which ended up being $90 in total anyway, after the baggage check-in charge, service charge, seat choosing charge, travel insurance, etc), still was slightly cheaper than the rest. The other reason was simply, I wanted to give them a go, as I was becoming pretty fed up with people constantly bagging out the airline and having never flown them before, but making their judgement purely on that Ch7 television show. I pretty much approached this flight with an open mind, and having thoroughly read the Terms of Carriage!

Adelaide to Sydney
TT8902 - Tiger Airways
VH-VNG: Airbus A320 - VH-VNG
Seat 2F

Check-in in Adelaide: Part 1 of 2

An 0400 wake up, and an 0430 get out of the house where I was staying at (Modbury), I was astounded that it only took me 25minutes to get to the airport, and that was without doing anything illegal! Admittedly, upon arrival at the airport and the Rental Car bays, I was a little emotional having to part with my Toyota Yaris, which had been my honourable and reliable travelling companion for the past fortnight, and shared the same wonderful sights as I.

Entered the terminal, and had abit of trouble finding the Tiger Airways check-in counters. I went up to an Adelaide Airport staff member and asked “Good morning, I’m hoping you could point me in the direction of the Tight*** Airways check in desk?”. She burst out laughing and was in stitches for a good 10s before pointing me in the general direction towards the Jetstar stands. As my photos will illustrate, in terms of numbers, it was a quiet morning.




The Aerocare check-in staff were pretty friendly. Although when I placed my checked-in bag on the scale, it was 20.3kg! It seemed my bag gained 0.5kg from the previous night, and overall… I gained a few kg in checked luggage with the purchase of some books in Adelaide! I was told to remove a jumper or something and that would get me the right weight, so I removed a pair of volleys which essentially got me a straight 20kg. Check-in was extremely straight forward, and all I had to do was front up with my reservation number, collect a boarding pass and go.

Got to airport security, and may I just say, this is one of the parts of air travel I HATE the most. The security staff here, including one individual had some chip on their shoulder, and snapped at me as I knowingly removed certain items from my bag onto the trays which I didn’t have to. I realise it’s 0530 in the morning, but c’mon! Such behaviour was REALLY unnecessary!

Made it through security without an assault charge, then went and found breakfast. The young lady behind the counter was seemingly impressed I pronounced my order (Whatever it was, forgot the name) in Spanish with the silent ‘j’ and all that. She seemed pretty chirpy for that time of the morning. I consumed that, and pretty much spent the rest of the time at Gate 20, watching the procession of traffic and posting the photograph on the other thread with my wireless internet stick.








When boarding came around at 0630, it astounded me how passengers already started queuing and shoving even after the ground staff announced ONLY exit row passengers, and parents with young children to board first. Some parents with kids couldn’t get through the crowd, and even one old bogan scrag (Apologies for the reference) somewhere in the crowd kept yelling “WE WANT TO GET ON NOW!”. Boy wasn’t this going to be a fun flight!






Finally we started to stroll onto the aircraft, and as I was in Row 2, I didn’t have far to go. The overhead locker above me was full, so I threw my bags and jacket above the other locker opposite mine, and then sat down and buckled in. A young couple then sat next to me on Seat D and E, and the girl in E was frantically looking for her seat belt and couldn’t find it. She brought the attention of one of the cabin crew, and sitting next to her, I could sense her absolute fear and hesitation that paying to fly on this cheap airline, they would not supply seat-belts! In the end, it seemed I accidentally buckled my belt to her clip and was sitting on my one. You folks had to be a fly on the wall for that moment, it was hilarious, but too early in the morning!




We pushed back from the terminal, and by 0705, we were on Runway 23 and took off, over the coastline, making a turn to take us on a heading towards Sydney.

[Maikha Ly]

Getting on and getting to Sydney: Part 2 of 2

The rest of the flight, was pretty much straight forward. Half way through, I did get up to go buy a drink, and take one photo from the rear of the aircraft of the cabin. Got my drink, and was then queried by one of the cabin staff if I was taking photos, why I was taking photos, and what they were used for, like an all out interview! I pretty much told her, I’m just someone who enjoys air travel, and want to take ONE photo of the cabin to illustrate my entire experience on Tiger, and how it has been a positive one. I even offered to show her all the previous photos I took that morning, and all the cabin crew gathered around, and were pretty impressed to say the least. She then went on to mention privacy and commercial confidentiality and all that stuff, again, I’m in their territory, I play by their rules. But c’mon…. what exactly can I be photographing that might be stealing ideas from Tiger Airways?



Anyhow, I was a little astounded that 45mins prior to arrival, we were pretty much told to prepare for landing, followed by an announcement by the captain, a very friendly Indian bloke, that due to traffic in Sydney, we may be delayed by 15-20mins for our arrival into Sydney. Shortly later, I noted we began doing doeys in the air above Goulburn a few times as we descended in to land in Sydney.




So, pretty much we were in the air for abit, before continuing Northbound and making various turns for an arrival onto runway 16R at Sydney.





After a smooth descent over the suburbs, we finally touched down at about 0925 AEDT.

Taxied to the terminal, and already even before coming to a stop, certain people took it upon themselves to already get out of their seat and start getting their bags out of the overhead locker, but were told pretty quickly by the cabin crew over the PA. The humiliation they deserved was priceless, but it seemed they didn’t really give a damn either.



Finally, upon arrival and stopping, it was only a few minutes before I finally made it off the aircraft, onto the airbridge, plastered full of great Jetstar sales and deals on the wall. Wow, Sydney to Osaka for $300, carry on baggage only (WHAT?! Serious, you go to Japan for a holiday with carry on baggage?!), and finally into the T2 terminal.



After a short walk, I stopped to photograph the aircraft I just got off. As I was photographing it, two teenage girls walked past and pretty much yelled at the top of their lungs “Look at that weirdo taking photos of that s*** plane!”. As I turned and looked at them, she then angrily yelled for me to F-OFF! Wow, I thought that was a little random and abrupted, and what are two young teenage girls doing at an airport anyway? Assuming they’ve also just arrived somewhere.

Well… welcome back to Sydney, just as I expected it to be, rude and selfish, compared to my surroundings the past fortnight. I collected my baggage, and made my way for the station for the unpleasant trip home on the train.



Conclusion: Contrary to everyone I meet who scruffs “Oh not Tiger Airways” when I tell them I’m flying with them, I had a good flight back to Sydney. The staff from check-in to the aircraft were friendly, and did their best to serve you, which you could tell they weren’t pushing and putting such impressions on.

If I could ponder some thoughts, it seemed Tiger Airways had their own mixed identity in terms of their customer service. You fly with Virgin Blue, you get upbeat, cheery, happy staff at all hours of the day, you fly with Qantas, you get pretty formal yet well serving staff. Tiger…. I didn’t find any identity I could relate to or expect amongst their staff, and by the sounds of it, it very much came down to individual staff’s initiative, most of whom, served us well. Mind you, the cabin crew on this flight were excellent, friendly people, and even one of them took on the initiative to announce a newly engaged couple on the flight, to a big round of applause!

As with any airline I book with, Tiger or otherwise, I give at least a day after that booking to account for any delays that may occur, such as the computer shutdown Virgin Blue had a few days after I made it to Adelaide. I also approach all flying trips with an open relaxed mind. I think some of the great experiences about travel, is when unexpected things occur like delays, and you’re able to joke and laugh and get to know (Maybe even flirt!) with fellow delayed passengers. I wish everyone had this approach to flying.

I will happily fly Tiger again if the schedules are suitable for me and I know well in advance to save on an airfare. Thank you folks for a good trip home!

[Brandon Giacomin]

Nice report Maikha, some great pics there. Sounds like you had a great time in Adelaide. Shame about some small things (security in ADL, boarding, girls in SYD). I'll be flying Tiger in December for the first time, except ROK-BNE.

[Maikha Ly]

Hey Brandon

Thanks for the feedback! Ironically, these two unfortunate incidents haven't happened with past flights I've been on, so I can see why the ill-informed find it so easy to just blame an airline on such experiences.