Jon the Hat

As reflected in the present Qantas plans to not restart the London to Perth direct until March I think.

Good to hear! We also made it and have been very lucky to land a suite at the Hyatt with a view over the River. Currently watching Targa rally cars coming and going, and all kinds of classic cars parking up for the car show. Sorry to hear about your AirBnb - at least if you booked that for 3 months I know it is not the one we are heading to on the 30th,but we might need one after that month as out stuff is not going to arrive until December now due to container shortages. If you wouldn't mind pinging me a message of the details of the dodgy AirBnB I would appreciate it a lot! We are also going to be looking SOR - aiming to get the kids into Applecross SHS catchment.

Thanks! We have been very lucky, smooth flights with space to stretch out, maybe 60 people in Economy on the London - Singapore leg, and 20 on Singapore-Perth, including the entertainment of one guy in a CSI style full body suit Arrival in Perth was slow but smooth, with sanitiser & mask change / passport control / Navy checking you had a G2G pass / G2G details check with police (no mention of Australian Travel Dec, so I guess they check that at passport control via your passport number) / baggage collection / customs checks / Hotel bus check / wait for bus / bus escorted by 2 police cars to the hotel / Carries our own bags onto a trolley / hotel check in / escort by secutiry to lift / from lift / into room. And breathe. Very lucky with the hotel as well. the Hyatt with a river view suite. Kids beds are in the lounge but plenty of room generally. My lovely cousin brought us a goody box. Got some room service wine, and the dinner was pleasant. Only 13 days to go!

I can’t quite believe it but we’re at Heathrow having breakfast. Bags dropped, all checked in, through security. I’m starting to believe we are going to make it! Can I get excited now?

They told us on the Friday before packing started on the Monday, so within 24 working of packing. they’ve had our stuff for a week and we’ve now been told the 14th October is the next date to load, and eta Fremantle 3rd December. And we need a 40ft HC container. So much for the quote!

To be fair they are a company which arranges packing and shipping and unpacking, so it is not really reasonable to expect them to cover a significant increase in costs. Margins are not great I think, and all the companies are struggling to get containers and space on ships.

Not good. We had to have our stuff moved into their warehouse as they couldn't get a container last week, but covered by the £100 insurance thing.

This shit happens in every city everywhere, just in Perth (Australia more widely) it is covered a lot more in the media. Australia does doom and gloom media like nowhere else I have lived.

I’ve used True Traveller, they were very helpful.

Unfortunately Paul it’s also money!

Oh no that is a nightmare. No idea why they are fucking around with flights less than 3 weeks out but assume it is to do with Govt moving numbers around. I have spoke to SIA today and they tell me that all necessary cancellations for next week have been sent, but honestly I won't believe it until I am on the plane taking off.

Yes you can do it earlier, but then you need to update your health and travel declarations within 7 days anyway, so not much point to be honest.

Thanks @Gothnet - fingers are well and truly crossed. All our stuff went yesterday, travel declarations all done, G2G pass updated. Just got to find some one way travel insurance as my annual one doesn't cover migration. Just to scare the shit out of us, I saw the first cancellation from SQ223 on facebook earlier. 30th September. We fly next week so hopefully they are working on date order and we are ok. There is no plan B now.

Thanks, I have raised a refund request with them so fingers crossed!

Thanks yes I saw this - sadly I’d booked with express test who don’t guarantee under 48 hours, so we’ve had to book with Collinson at Heathrow. Another £240 down the drain.