I have flown to Melbourne more than 100 times for work over the years. I’m betting those that think business travel is totally glamorous haven’t done much of it. It’s not all swanning around in 5 star hotels and ordering French Champagne from room service you know! In fact, it’s mostly early morning alarms, full days of back to back meetings and numerous transportation failures. And then there is the worst thing of all … the dreaded cab queue. I have spent more time than I care to tally standing out the front of both Sydney and Melbourne airports waiting for a taxi. On a bad day I spend more time in the queue than I do in the air. I have seen the Melbourne SkyBus out of the corner of my eye many times yet I have always shunned it as an option for the business traveller. In my mind SkyBus was reserved for backpackers on a budget, so almost on autopilot I stagger out of the terminal to the designated rank where I wait for up to an hour for the privilege of being transported into the city in a mostly grubby car with an often difficult driver. On a recent flight to Melbourne the cab queue was particularly diabolical. It snaked past the barriers, beyond the terminal door and almost to the SkyBus ticket booth. I realised I was in for a very long wait and after touching down late I didn’t fancy spending another hour cooling my heels in line before ‘starting’ my working day. I say starting in inverted commas because at this stage it had already been 3 1/2 hours since I pulled my front door shut. I think it was fate that my placement at the back of that very long queue put me withing striking distance of Melbourne SkyBus. I could see there was only three people in line with two open windows and a bus waiting to go. That was all the motivation I needed to take the plunge and try Melbourne SkyBus for the very first time. Read on for all the details …
