After Lufthansa, is Qantas one of the worst legacy airlines in the western world?
Qantas A330 Business Bangkok to Sydney 9h. Overnight flight leaving at 6.10pm. Delayed til 7pm. Bought with Qantas points. (Would never pay cash for Qantas Biz)
Seats are 1-2-1 config and private enough. Though a bit aged now with the overall feel and wear and tear of the cabin. Still comfy. Bedding provided on seat with a small pillow (small), duvet and a simple topper. Amenity kit and bottle of water at seat.
Let's start with the good things. Arrived fairly on time in Sydney even though delayed at Bangkok.
Crew were nice and smiling as one can expect.
IFE is a bit sluggish and shows it's age but has a good amount of entertainment!
Pre departure beverage served while boarding, champagne, water or juice.
Now to the negative aspects. And of course this is totally subjective and will not matter to everyone. But boy do Qantas really put a damper on their biz class and people paying usually A$5K-10K.
No towel service provided. Not even a cheap one time throwaway napkin.
Head phones are extremely basic and the noice cancelling is non existent. Turkish airlines uses nice Denon branded ones for instance and this shows that the airline cares a bit more of their premium product. Many other legacy carriers use Bose or other premium brands.
Menu is limited. No idea why. I can't for my life understand why Qantas markets their catering signed off by a Michelin star chef and then has a menu so limited and enforced it is ridiculous. Of course no chance for dine on demand of any sort. But hear me out, Qantas can't even find a way to offer a simple fast menu for people that want to optimise sleep.
The menu is two simple pages and wines aren't even listed on it….I mean come on. Instead Qantas signs it off on the menu as "selection from Neill Perry sommeliers". It must be fun for every second passenger to have to ask all the available wines and take time to figure out on the spot what to have with the FA's. Why do you brand it as a "sommelier selection" and then not label the wines? Maybe because Qantas just loads whatever $10 bottles they usually have in their "cellar".
Anyways. Food continues to be subpar. Michelin signed off, I think not. I understand after nearly 100 business flights that in air there are limitations with food.
I selected just the main as I wanted to catch some fast sleep on the flight instead. Here's what's really bizarre with Qantas. FA confirms my request and understands I just prefer to sleep mostly. After nearly one hour in the air nothing has happened……absolutely nothing. I can't for my life understand how Qantas trains it's cabin crew and their procedures but I am rarely on airlines where crew take one hour to get out even a beverage cart.
I stayed kind and asked the FA again if it would be very long until the meals were served as the first sign of service was 1h in to the flight. Meals would be another 30-40 mins. She understood my look when I just looked at her and wondered why it is so hard to get food to a few customers that would prefer to sleep on an overnight flight especially after confirming it. I mean this is logics in 2023, it is a 9h overnight flight. You can't take 1h and 30-40 mins to start meals. That leaves 7h of the flight left. Maybe 5h or actual sleep time until lights are back on and Breakfest starts. This happens on every Qantas long haul flight I've taken in past year and it baffles me how poorly their cabin logistics are. My 3 other long haul flights in past month with other airlines, crew began with beverages and nuts 5 mins after seat belt sign was off….oh and those were daytime flights.
Anyway rant goes on🤣 no nuts served. Instead an economy bag snack pack. Great way to create a cheap feeling on a $5-8K ticket. Forget any kind of pre dinner starters….after all it is only Michelin signed off and should follow no expectations.
When food finally came out, I'm still baffled what Qantas are doing with their catering. The side salad is laughable with a few tiny salad leaves. Not even a single sad tomato added🤣 no additional dressing on side as most airlines do in baby bottles. Bread basket, two breads, not very tasty at all and a bit tough already. Main course tasted yummy but the doll house size plates just don't work. The food is running over the sides and it is difficult to eat and there is no space on the plate. I only complain of this because Qantas enforces so the idea of Michelin star signed food. I know in the air you can't expect much and I don't. But it becomes quite sad how lost Qantas are in what they want to serve and what they are actually serving.
After the meal I slept and turned around for the 5h until Breakfest time. Food was okay but very bland and uninspiring. It's sad that coffee continues to be same Nescafé slop as in economy. Even small airlines like SAS have figured out Illy machines a decade ago.
I didn't get my ordered juice either and decided not to ask further.
I know what to expect on Qantas and expect really nothing. As my past reviews have shown, food can be inedible at times. I just want to heads up anyone that consider paying $7K for a ticket and expect anything.
At the very least they arrive safely at your destination.
Side note.
Some People in biz really need to discover the comforts of socks 🤣
