Qantas Airways

Flew on the newer Qantas A330 buisness suite and I must say, I am extremely impressed. Seat had a generous sized tray table, lots of inflight entertainment and was really comfortable, didnt have as much legroom as I thought but you could hardly notice it, the takeoff recline was a nice touch, the food was standard and the staff were extremely helpful. Very impressed Qantas, certainly better than the old buisness class.

Qantas have 29 rows of seats in economy along with 3 rows of business class onboard their new Boeing 737's. The seats are extremely narrow. Whilst the flight was only 2hr 25min, I was so uncomfortable. Cabin crew were quite surly and unfriendly. I always thought you pay a premium to fly Qantas for the comfort and service, but their new aircraft have the most uncomfortable seats.

Check in was smooth with the option of mobile check in available. After recently flying in the newly refurbished 737 fleet I was disappointed to step into a cabin that was outdated by some 10 years. Uncomfortable seats, no personal IFE and in general a cabin that was well due for a makeover. In flight meals were quite good for a one hour flight and an alcoholic beverage and chocolate made a pleasant surprise as well. Arrived early to Sydney and baggage was awaiting pickup.

QF 703 - return flight from last review (one week later). Typically excellent Qantas product. Aircraft very clean, cabin crew very good at making you feel welcome. Food was terrific (quinois salad that would do a restaurant proud). Individual IFE, with a very good selection of films/TV/documentary/etc.

Melbourne to Cairns. Excellent flight. Service impeccable, food very good. Only downside was that the aircraft was older and no individual IFE - drop down screens.

BNE-SYD checked in to final destination, very friendly customer service. Flight good, seamless transit to international at Sydney bags checked through to Dallas. SYD-DFW allocated requested seats special Handling and customer service arranged this.very helpful. Gluten free meals and snacks given as requested. Cabin crew worked professionally, plenty of water available. Cleared customs Dallas before continuing on codeshare American Airlines to Philadelphia - flight was good, drink served but have to purchase meal or snacks.

WLG-SYD went smoothly enough. Boarding in Sydney was shambolic. Staff announced that boarding would be by row number but didn’t enforce that, so people mucking around with luggage in the forward rows really held up boarding. Departure was somewhat delayed as a result. They also didn’t have arrival cards for Japan available during the flight but handed them to us as we disembarked at Narita, which wasn’t particularly helpful. When I went to online check-in, it offered the option to pre-order the meal for the SYD-NRT leg, so I opted for the No meal – I don’t want to be disturbed option, as this was an overnight flight leaving at 21.30. A flight attendant duly came up to me to ask me what my “special meal request” was. Something is not working with the pre-order option, as I had a similar thing happen on the return journey. As I got a really good promotional fare, the inconveniences outlined above were bearable, but they're not what I expect of a full-service airline.

On boarding the plane at Tokyo, it was stiflingly hot. I was towards the back in row 60 something and tried adjusting the air conditioning but it was already on full blast. After take-off when the flight attendant came around with water, I asked if there was a problem with the air-conditioning and was told that it was due to the plane sitting on the ground all day in the sun. The flight attendant moved me to a seat further forward which was cooler. On SYD-WLG leg, I’d pre-ordered my meal, as the option was offered when I went to online check-in. As on the outward journey, this option didn’t seem to get the message to the cabin crew. I’m not sure why Qantas offers this option when they don’t actually action it.

Retun flight QF28 on 10/6/15 from SCL to Melbourne. I occupied an extra charged emergency exit window seat. Contrary to previous flight (SYD-SCL) in Premium Economy, the cabin crew (CC) offered no help to store hand luggage in overhead locker despite seeing my difficulty in doing so. Despite ample space in front of my seat to move around, staff disturbed passengers next to me by passing and collecting from them my food trays, until I politely asked them to step around to my seat to do so - which they did but offering no apology for their carelessness. Food was the worst consisting of fish or meat, a hard bun and a dry dessert - no salad, butter or cheese. Snack was an ice cream almost thrown at you whether you liked it or not in the middle of sleeping time. Drinks however were readily available. Very cheap and poor entertainment and poor quality headphones.

Great flight. Midnight departure caters for people like me wanting to go to sleep ASAP after takeoff. Seat liner on the seat while I changed. Slept for 7 hours. Entertainment system and food were excellent. The crew were the ones who made the flight so good.