After spending several days in the Sydney suburbs with family, we escaped the mild Australian winter with a few days up in North Queensland. We would fly up to Cairns, about three hours North, and stay an hour’s drive away in Port Douglas, staying on points at the Sheraton Grand Mirage there on points. Though I’ve been to the Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef several times, it had been 8 years.

Flying up to Cairns there was no award space available, and flights were mostly full when I booked about a month out. Not only is it Australian winter, with Aussies heading North, it would be IRONMAN Cairns weekend.

I organized my plans to ensure I’d fly back to Sydney the day before the event, though, as Captain Cook Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas would be closed making it a three hour trip via back roads between the two cities instead of merely an hour if I’d returned the next day.

I’m a big fan of flying late morning or early afternoon if I can – no need to get up super early for the airport, we had a leisurely breakfast before packing up on a quiet Wednesday and headed to Sydney’s domestic terminal 2.

What surprised me was that it ultimately took 50 minutes for Priority Check-in. I didn’t check in online, and needed to see an agent to have my extra baggage allowance properly applied. Though I was flying economy, I’d be using United MileagePlus status. Unfortunately there just weren’t many staff working, and it seemed they struggled with each passenger.

I didn’t expect any difficulty. I had tickets and seat assignments, and just needed to check bags. However Virgin’s system didn’t recognize my United status, though I’d hoped they would. They re-entered my United number, but it didn’t update. And traveling with wife and daughter that meant paying for bags.

I had had enough travel on United planned to easily make Gold, maybe Platinum with a challenge. So I’d submitted a status match challenge back in late March.

Of course United doesn’t give you a choice what level you challenge to. I sent them my American Airlines status, and they gave me 120 days of 1K status, and a 1K challenge that would require me to stretch to keep. Still, I figured I’d shift some flying to United. However some disruptions happened in my plans and I had to abandon the challenge, giving up some of the trips I was going to take with United.

Still, at least I might get some use out of 1K status flying their partner Virgin Australia. There’s priority check-in, lounge access, and an extra baggage allowance. They don’t send you a card during a challenge and benefits with partners where a card is needed (like some Star Alliance lounges that might want to see one) aren’t guaranteed. But that is the only benefit they say ‘might’ be a problem, though in practice partners often won’t see challenge status.

I agreed to pay for bags so we’d make the flight. I did argue, though, that I should be charged the pre-paid bag price. Had I known their system wouldn’t recognize my status, so they wouldn’t honor the free bag allowance, I’d have certainly paid online. They agreed.

However they couldn’t process the payment. Their system wouldn’t take it. The agent went and got another card reader. But the card reader wouldn’t work, either. We waited and waited, and finally it processed.

Our bags checked, I was handed boarding passes… but not for the seats I’d reserved (and that had still been assigned a few hours earlier). We were moved from row 6 to row 25. A supervisor came over and explained that they had status passenger who wanted our seats, and so they’d been given there. The plane was full and there were no other options available.

There was only time at this point to head through security, maybe stop at a restroom and proceed to the gate. I would have had Priority Pass access to AU$36 per person dining credits at two restaurants or to the Rex lounge, which I’d have visited purely to have some photos, but I’d have to give those a miss.

We made it out to gate 41 a couple of minutes before scheduled boarding. Plane and crew were ready but we took a more than 35 minute delay for no apparent reason, other than confusion with a group of special needs teenagers. No announcement was ever made at the gate about a delay or an expected boarding time, just silence from airline staff.

Boarding finally commenced and we headed towards the back of the aircraft.

Virgin Australia’s coach seats are tight at 30 inches of pitch, though that’s standard for regular economy now in the states (except Jetblue and Southwest are a bit more generous).

There are no seat back entertainment screens. There is no WiFi. And while there’s supposed to be streaming entertainment on board, that system wasn’t working.

Cabin crew came through the cabin with buy on board options. I was a bit peckish so ordered a bag of chips, mostly because… soy chicken? Even soda is charged on Virgin Australia, but water is free.

I spent the flight watching re-runs of L.A. Law that I’d downloaded to my laptop as I looked forward towards the actual rope separating coach from business class.

After a little over 2 hours and 50 minutes in the air we touched down in Cairns and deplaned out of both the forward door and the rear door using air stairs.

We got to Cairns safely, only about 25 minutes late, so the trip was fine – just a lot more like Spirit before Spirit improved than the last time I flew Virgin Australia in economy (my flight last year with Virgin was in business).