Pacific Blue How I Love Thee

Story by Johanna from One Girl's Thoughts on Life.

On December 20th 2009 I moved back to NZ after a 2 year stint in Australia.

My Sister and I packed up our lives and between us we had 12 pieces of luggage...that sounds like alot but keep in mind we were moving our WHOLE lives across an ocean.

We had art, clothing, books, just a whole lotta stuff.

We had booked our flights for roughly 6pm so had planned on catching the 3pm train up to Brisbane Airport. At about 1pm we both got a txt message saying our flight had been delayed, we jumped on the internet to check our emails to confirm, called the airport and yes our flight had been delayed. We were now scheduled to fly at 1am blearg.

Mishal being an adventurous girl had a bit of a giggle while I rolled my eyes and sulked on the couch thinking about a red eye flight which would land us in New Zealand at 7am.

We had to catch the train from the Gold Coast to Brisbane (a 1.5 hr ride) and the last train was at 5pm so that is the one we hopped on.

We struggled in the pouring rain with our 12 luggage items and managed to drag it all down the 2 flights of stairs to the train platform (the train station staff (men) wouldn't help us - they were restricted by the health and safety rules of the company, they might get an injury). When we got to the platform Mishal guarded the luggage and I tracked down the train driver and explained somewhat tearfully that we had a LOT of luggage and would he please hold the train long enough for us to load it all on. Out of no-where about 6 lovely men each grabbed two items of our luggage, stowed them on the train, sat us down and told us to just enjoy the ride. Oh and not to worry because they had called ahead and arranged for someone to meet us at the Brisbane end with two luggage trolleys so we wouldn't have to struggled into the terminal with our bags. Bless them.

Whilst on the train Mishal and I stressed out about how overweight our luggage was and that at $10 a kilo for each extra kilo we were carrying we were in for a world of financial pain.

Mishal was roughly 60kg over her allocated 20kg allowance - $600
Johanna was roughly 80kg over her allocated 20kg allowance - $800

We sat together and prayed that the staff would let us come to an agreement with the cost and that it would be reasonable.

Upon arriving at the airport HOURS earlier than we needed to be we were greeted, as promised, by staff with trolley's and they even packed our bags on for us and then walked us to the terminal. We went straight to the Pacific Blue desk and asked if we could check in early so we didn't have to lug around our luggage any more - it was HEAVY and bulky.

The woman behind the desk was lovely and said that of course she could check us in. I felt a bit sick to my stomach as I started loading my bags onto the belt to be weighed and taken away. She put the stickers on each bag and chit chatted as she processed my passport. With a bit of a catch in my throat I mentioned how heavy my bags were and asked if she would be at all negotiable on the overweight cost. With a sweet smile she paused and then informed me that due to the flight delay Pacific Blue were waiving all overweight costs for the flight.

Sorry what now?

She repeated that yes Pacific Blue would not be charging me for my overweight luggage. I promptly burst into very loud uncontrollable tears and said thank-you about a million times and in my head had a bit of a funny chat with the Big Guy Upstairs. He had totally come through but with WAY better results than I could have imagined.

Lovely lady checked Mishal in also and then presented us both with our boarding passes and gave us the standard chat about customs etc. She then presented us with 3 vouchers EACH with a value of $8 EACH so that we could purchase some dinner. That is is $24 each for dinner. I was pretty gob-smacked. Free luggage AND free dinner. AWESOME.

But wait...There is MORE

Lovely lady then gave each of us a letter, with a reference number. Upon landing in New Zealand we needed to call the toll free number to contact the Pacific Blue team. We were both receiving a flight credit for the price of the flight we were about to take.

Mishal and I were speechless.  We just could not believe that a 7 hour delay was rewarding us with such wonderful treatment.

We left the desk and walked over to the chairs to sit down and just stared at each other for a while then had a hysterical conversation that went something like

Can you believe....?
I cant believe....?
This is just....
What the...?
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Then we ran into a family friend who was stuck at the airport a while. He was on his way back to NZ to surprise propose to his girlfriend on Christmas day. We spent the next few hours looking through photos, catching up, eating food paid for by Pacific Blue, looking at the ring that was to soon adorn a lovely lady's finger and just chilling out.

We eventually parted ways and Mish and I boarded our plane.

We arrived at 7am NZ time to FREEZING weather and our beautiful family. We told them the crazy story on the way home and thanked God for his wonderful provision as we were tucked into bed by our delicious Mamma for a good sleep after about 24 hours of being awake.

In June this year I used my credit with Pacific Blue. I got return flights to the Gold Coast.

All up our savings because of Pacific Blue's amazing service and generosity totalled:

Mishal - just over $1000
Johanna - just over $1200

Collectively yes that is about $2,200 in savings.

So a 7 hour delay paid us handsomely...if we were to break that down to an hourly rate we were getting paid sweet dollaarrs.

Thank you Pacific Blue - You gave me the best Christmas present ever.