Flights from Melbourne to Sydney are like Dublin to London, ten a penny and every half-hour or hour. As part of my ‘Walkabout’ ticket (I’ll do a separate post on how Qantas makes it cheaper for international visitors to fly domestically in Australia), I could choose any one and went for 12.30pm – the optimum time (in my mind) to get up at a normal hour and showered, enjoy breakfast, get to the airport and then arrive when the hotel can and will check you in without saying the dreaded words “your room won’t be ready for another 3 hours”!
I picked up the Skybus in Melbourne – this is MUCH cheaper than a taxi and very easy to navigate. The Hotel Link bus calls at or near most CBD hotels and take you to Southern Cross station where the regular Skybus to the airport goes from.
And it’s easy to find out where to depart from! Not every ‘sky bus’ terminal is this clear!
Within 20 minutes, I was at the domestic terminal and ready to check in. Qantas uses mainly self check-in and bag drop. You weigh your own bag at bag drop so you can’t do doe-eyes at the agent if your bag is overweight!!
In the shops, of which there are plenty, and coffee shops too, this delicious-sounding health supplement was on 75% off. Doesn’t everyone want some Essence of Kangaroo? Can’t imagine why it was on sale!
Considering I was in economy, the seats looked pretty comfortable.
I was first on – I know, I’m always first on – but the flight was sold out.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a snack, but good old Qantas had too options – a delicous smelling bacon quiche (which I wish I had had, but yano cholesterol…) or a chicken sandwich. This looks like a giant sandwich, but each piece was only about an inch thick!
The flight was about 30 minutes late taking off as Melbourne was operating on one runway only, but as this is a short hop, it didn’t matter.
I did remember that Sydney Airport is connected on the train line, so I needed to get an Opal card (I’m SURE I have one at home from last trip in 2017!) and there’s a $35 minimum spend to get the card. As it is around $17 from the airport to the city, you’ll likely use up that $35 in just getting from and back to the airport.
Trains come pretty regularly – about every 10 minutes seemed to be the schedule.
There are stops at both the Domestic and International terminals.
Of course, I never seem to stand near where the doors will open! One of the reasons I love Japanese trains is that they mark on the ground where the doors will be so that you can be prepared! Still, it’s not much of a hardship, is it?!
So transiting from Melbourne to Sydney – easy peasy and cheap as chips!
