Arriving on SQ from a week in Jakarta, we parked at one of the more distant gates. Doors were open at midday. After walking to Customs, with a stop at Duty Free, collecting my suitcase, clearing MAF, re-checking my bag to Wellington and following the Green Line for 10 minutes to the Domestic terminal, I was in the lounge 35 minutes later.
By my count, five organisations contributed to that - after I'd left SQ's care. Each of them had only to complete a small routine task, and the combination of all five made for a very good experience of arriving home. So often quality is a matter of getting lots of little things right, rather than one big thing, isn't it? Yet how often is the entire experience spoiled by one of those links failing to get it right first time?
As an afterthought, when I arrived at the domestic lounge, I was told that Wellington's weather was marginal and "We're sending the flights off one by one," which made me wonder if a bunch of former fighter jockeys has taken over the airline while I was away, and if they're now operating formation departures to solve peak hour congestion??
