BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

Originally I had hoped return to the US from this trip on a Friday, which would mean minimal time off and build in a couple of days to recover upon our arrival back home.  But when the first class seat from Dallas became available on a Wednesday, it was too good to pass up, so I booked it.  Turns out that was a blessing.  If we'd landed in Australia on a Sunday, we would have been flying to Uluru, in the center of the continent, on a Thursday, staying until Saturday.  And as I noticed when I started searching for award tickets to Uluru - award seats on the weekend are rare creatures indeed, at least on Qantas.  As it was we managed to find three award seats to Uluru (one with indirect routing) and only two award seats on the return flight.

Those of us half a world away from Australia often forget just how large the country/continent is.  For comparison purposes, the distance from Sydney to Uluru is almost exactly the same as the distance from Washington DC to Amarillo, Texas - just over 1360 miles.

The rock formation the indigenous people call Uluru (OO-LOO-roo) is also known as Ayers Rock.  The Ayers Rock airport (AYQ) is quite small and so the majority of traffic from the east coast routes via Alice Springs, where passengers then fly smaller aircraft into AYQ.  Since there were only two award seats available from Sydney, I let my friends have those and I got up a bit earlier to route via Melbourne, where I would then fly to Alice Springs and we'd all fly into AYQ together.

My ground transfer picked me up right on time and I had no issues.  My friends were not so lucky.  Their pre-paid shuttle never showed but the staff at the Park Hyatt helped them to get a taxi.  Unfortunately that meant they were so rushed for time at the airport that they did not get to enjoy the business class lounge before their flight.  Fortunately Viator refunded their shuttle fees promptly.

I did stop in the lounges in both Sydney and Melbourne.  Both were quite busy but had pretty good food spreads.  But we were fed so well on the plane that I wasn't even hungry!  Quite a change from US-based airlines.

Our flight paths to the Ayers Rock airport (AYQ)
(map made on gcmap.com)

Fortunately our planes were on time and we met up at the cute little airport in Alice Springs (ASP).  At this point we were starting to see desert-like conditions around and it was quite warm.  As we flew toward AYQ, the ground definitely took on a reddish tint and it was easy to see why the area is known as The Red Centre of the continent.

Since there are limited flights to and from AYQ each day, we all had to fly out at the same time and we wanted to land together in Melbourne (our next stop).  Since there were only two award seats available, C purchased an economy ticket while D and I enjoyed our award seats in business class.  She said it was fine for a relatively short flight and fortunately, it was a very reasonably-priced ticket.

Our flight path to Melbourne

Next up: so what's the big deal about a rock?