Qantas Airways

Gold Coast-Sydney-Darwin. 737-800 GC-Sydney nice plane fairly new full flight advertised as an hour and a half which it took due to bad weather. They serve lunch on this flight which consisted of a warm beef wrap and whatever drink you like non-alcoholic. Wrap very tasty and fine for such a short flight after food in GC Qantas Club. Purchased a bottle of wine for the usual six dollars. Pilot kept passengers up to date the entire flight overall good experience. Continued on to Darwin from Sydney after 4 hour stopover in Sydney Qantas Club as usual very nice food and drink selections in QC. 737-800 to Darwin plane seemed new plane was barely a third full so service was quick had a nice pasta dish for dinner. Crew were great both flights and scored exit row seats both sectors. Good trip.

Perth-Sydney. Flight was on an A330-200 but we had to change planes because of malfunctioning landing gear. So I went back to the lounge which was ok but had a very poor food selection. We then changed planes to a former Jetstar A330 and got upgraded to business there were no TVs but rather iPads which didn't bother me. We then heard because of the delay we have no catering because it would take too long to load the food on the plane and if we put the food on we wouldn't beat the Sydney airport curfew. Because there was no food they had to use leftover pretzels and drinks from the other flight. Then when we taxied to the runway we had to return again because someone dropped their headphones which stopped the door from closing then we finally took off and the flight attendants didn't want to be disturbed (which I don't blame them) but they where still quite responsive and they had a great sense of humour. Business class was bad but at least Qantas is upgrading them to a much better looking product. Overall the experience was bad but they where very responsive and happy to help. I'll fly with them again and hopefully it will be better.

Cairns-Darwin. Flew this route late December. Left Cairns early evening Cairns Qantas Club empty due to no flights. Dinner served on this 717 aircraft tasty beef stir-fry with noodles and prompt drink service. Plane not overly full great crew again quick efficient service and staff on hand to meet drink requests. Scored an exit row seat as I had on my trip into Cairns overall good flight and nothing to complain about. Flight on time always enjoy this trip both ways.

Flight was London Heathrow (LHR) to Sydney (SYD) on the A380 both ways. I have to say this was one of the most comfortable long haul trips I've ever had to Australia. I think the economy seats on the A380 are as good if not better than anything that has been offered in economy before. I thought the staff were very good overall although a couple of flight attendants were not very friendly. The food is now largely served without trays which is fine by me. I thought that the food was mostly good especially the chicken salads offered on several legs. However I was a bit annoyed to miss some of the food which was delivered while most people were sleeping. I think they should perhaps deliver some of these things while more people are awake. I ordered the meal in advance on my Sydney to Dubai leg and this was a bit ordinary but overall I thought the food was decent. My main gripe with the service is that they no longer offer a complimentary toothbrush on this (very) long haul flight. I think it is a bit mean to deprive people of something with which to clean their teeth on effectively a 24 hour journey and I hope they reintroduce this again at least for this very long haul flight.

SYD-MEL A333 and BNE-PER A332. I love flying Qantas and they never disappoint me. First flight was a short one of approx. 1 hour and still the magnificent crew managed to provide with a light meal soft drinks and good smiles. Departed and landed on time. Second flight was a long one from Brisbane to Perth on an old Airbus 330-200 domestic configuration. Again the crew was great they couldn't do more to assist us food very good great variety of drinks. The only negative comment was that we didn't have IFE however the day before the departure I received an email from Qantas apologising and providing extra frequent flyer points for future use. Can't wait to fly internationally once again.

Flew Emirates from Sydney to Heathrow and return Emirates (QF Codeshare) Birmingham to Dubai and QF 2 from Dubai to Sydney. First time and last time I would ever choose Qantas. Received lunch about an hour or so into the flight from Dubai and then nothing until 12 hrs later when dried scrambled eggs and "sausages" were offered for breakfast about an hour out of Sydney. Compared to food offered on Emirates Qantas are way behind the 8-ball. Coffee was offered twice in 14 hours and both times cold and undrinkable. Qantas A-380 had far less comfortable seats as opposed to Emirates could not get comfortable the entire flight. Inflight staff did not appear to be pleased if they were asked for anything more along the lines of we were putting them out. I am ashamed to call them our national airline.

HKG-SYD-PER-SYD-HKG: Contrary to the previous comment left by J Rose. I got lucky and had the A380 on both international legs. The service and seat comfort are superb! The food portion tend to be a bit small because of budget cutting but asking for second helping is never a problem with them. Very good wine served on board and topped up frequently. The A380 flat bed is very comfortable and provided several hours of decent sleep. Entertainment system is fine too with a vast array of choices to keep me happy. They give out express card to speed up the process at the immigration I was able to drop the bags again and relax at the domestic lounge (huge!) and had a nice shower and freshened up for the domestic leg. For domestic sector they use the A330 but the seat is still comfortable food and service decent. Return leg is more or less the same story fabulous crew on all legs friendly pro-active and lively. Perhaps I was just lucky? I rated my trip very highly and will recommend.

So if you want to know what it would be like flying long haul on Ryanair just book Qantas! Now to be fair Ryanair do at least advertise themselves as a budget airline and the prices are cheap to reflect that. Qantas on the other hand are not! As a national carrier they should be ashamed of themselves - but to codeshare with the likes of Emirates is nothing short of farcical in this day and age. They are simply a world apart and do not deserve a 4-star rating. There were times past when BA were pretty abysmal but sadly Qantas have managed to take that a step further. So we booked Economy seats but spent an extra £100 each to get extra legroom by the exits. By the exits also means by the toilets so we suffered the inconvenience of people treading on our toes as they used the area to queue and perform their inflight stretching. But that is nothing really to moan about. What was really unacceptable was the general nonchalant and uncaring attitude of the staff - who freely admitted to being new to the long haul. It was New Years Eve and one might have thought that being Australian was a good enough reason to celebrate the occasion as we flew across the various timezones on our Melbourne-Dubai-London flight. But no - Qantas managed to sidestep that and the thought that just a few of the passengers might appreciate a small bottle of bubbly to see in the New Year. Fat chance! About half an hour into the flight we were offered their 'Welcome drink'. A scratched plastic jug was waved in front of us containing some lemon and elderflower cordial. The dinner service followed about an hour later (about 2am Melbourne time) - though I wondered why? The food was actually pretty good - so no complaint there. But the general lack of attendance by cabin crew was appalling. Friends had warned me not to book Qantas - and it really would be my last resort from now. Anyone heaping praise on them in their review clearly expects vary little in the way of customer service. It begs the question what airline they normally fly on. Sorry Qantas - get your act together your were shocking!

QF511 BNE-SYD on a Boeing 737-800. What an enjoyable flight! For only a very short flight I was pleasantly surprised that seat-back inflight entertainment was provided with an excellent range of movies television music etc. The interior of the cabin was sleek modern comfy and clean with plentiful legroom and seating space. The FA's were professional and friendly giving us extra bottles of water upon our request. Really cannot fault the service on board. Breakfast was simple - just muesli milk and apple slices adequate for such a short flight. Only negative was that my headphones snapped after opening the packet but this was easily forgiven when the lovely FA promptly fetched me a new one. Without a doubt this was the best domestic flight I had ever taken! Would definitely recommend.

Four QF sectors over Christmas/New Year AKL-MEL MEL-PER PER-SYD SYD-HNL. On all sectors the food and wine offerings were excellent although on our SYD-HNL flight the dinner service at three hours took far too long. First Lounge in SYD was chaotic but always is around the holidays. Cabin Crew service varied from outstanding to surly. Overall happy that we chose QF despite variable hard product and a couple of unpleasant crew who should probably reconsider their career in the service industry.