The incoming plane was a bit late so there were some very sleepy people wandering around by the time we got to board at midnight. Because the plane was late, they changed gates on us, and we were stuck in an old gate right at the far end of the concourse with no P.A., so boarding was a bit of a circus.
About half the flight (a Boeing 747) was taken up by a track and field team from the U.S., who had been assembled from all corners of the U.S. and were travelling to Brisbane to compete against Australian and New Zealand teams. They were all college students, and travelling under the banner of Downunder Sports. They had arrived from all parts of the U.S. during the day, so many of them were dead tired by the time midnight rolled around, having sat in the airport all day.
The fun and games of not having a P.A. system was compounded by having such a small gate lounge that only half the plane could fit in it (and the rest around the corner couldn't hear the yelled instructions), many of the kids were travelling overseas for the first time and their passports weren't in the U.S. online system, and their coaches had never met them, so didn't know their names (or even who was on their teams) to find them and get their passports sorted. Even heard one coach wondering if one of his team has arrived - "Maybe they dropped him from the team", he said shaking his head. Talking with him later, he said that day one was just trying to work out who was on the team, and what events they were expecting to compete in.
Anyway, we eventually boarded, and took off for the wonderful Oz. That's when the advantage of travelling with half a plane of zonked college students really showed. They all just immediately fell asleep, didn't need to continuously queue up at the toilets, and didn't cry when they needed to be fed. It was one of the quietest flights we've been on, and we managed 4 or 5 hours sleep which was lovely.
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