Qantas Airways

SYD-Shanghai PuDong and back in 12/2013-1/2014. 1st leg was the worst flight due to inconsiderate exit-row woman reclining seat. Even when eating. Asked staff for her not to do that totally ignored. The best part of Qantas (which no other airlines can match) is the safety and smoothness of the flight: the 2nd leg for example had no turbulence not a single minute where the seat-belt sign was switched on.

Melbourne / Perth / Melbourne A330 service on 23 August 2014. Very difficult to find fault. On time departure early arrival in both directions. Aircraft immaculate two meal choices for both breakfast and dinner crew friendly and efficient on near to full flights. Flight over had touch screen video whereas flight back had a slightly older video system with a smaller screen. All this for $250 each way really impressed.

SYD-BKK return. Flight attendants continued to serve alcohol to an obviously already intoxicated man disturbing other passengers. Police called on landing. Also passenger caught several times smoking in toilet despite warnings. Food adequate. IFE very poor and not up too standard of other airlines. Return flight better but departed and arrived late into Sydney. Bag collection very quick. First time I've flown Qantas International and would not do so again.

I flew Qantas before from NZ to OZ - frequently actually and no issues there but never before long haul - Dubai - Auckland. That's where it started - I booked Qantas - but only the Dubai - Auckland leg was actually operated by Qantas (A380) - must have been the oldest and dare I say it largest crew I had on any international flight ever - however they where friendly and very efficient. The plane was half empty so many people managed to get 3 or 4 seats for themselves (sadly not me) and sleep. The food was great - even for Economy and the selection of inflight movies was ok. The problems started when I had to catch my connecting flight to Auckland - operated by JetStar - and what a difference! Middle of the night flight and no pillow or blanket no seats where one could even attempt to sleep on as they do not have head rests that would keep the head where it is - no food either (unless one pays for it and then it's only sandwiches or crisps) - On my online tickets it says by meals (Qantas) - "we offer a wide variety of food" - nothing! The least they could have done is tell their customers. If they do a codeshare that is fine but at least offer the same service.

Qantas really needs to lift their game if they want to compete with the other airlines who are miles ahead in almost every way! The trouble started when they tried to charge me around $150 to book our seat numbers - have never heard of international airlines doing that? I regularly travel to USA and have never encountered that. Travelled to Phuket with the kids and shunned Jetstar (who fly direct) and paid extra to fly Qantas via Bangkok. The kids really had their hearts set on in-seat entertainment and games so we decided the extra money wasn't too much and the extra 4 hours it added to the trip wasn't a big deal if it kept them quiet. Well what a mistake that was! Qantas in-flight entertainment was poor on the way over and non-existent on the way home. Said there was a "Technical Fault" on the return and apologised at the end but really? The planes are just too old. I tried to watch a movie but the "buffering" and jumping made that impossible - I gave up after the 2nd attempt and just went to sleep. Ordered Duty free when the hostess came around approx 40 mins into the trip (6.25pm departure from BKK) and tried my best to stay awake but was woken at 3.30am when she finally arrived with it (but had the order wrong anyway). My daughter opted for the pork for dinner - the hostess had run out and only had chicken and said she'd be straight back with it but forgot - so she was never fed.

I flew on QF1 Sydney to Heathrow mid July 2014 Business class. This flight was fantastic all aspects were up to Qantas's usual standard including the inflight entertainment choices. Being able to watch the Kerry O'Brien interviews with Paul Keating again was a very pleasant way to pass the time. Food and wine were fantastic and the crew personalised the service by using my name this is a nice touch and not all airlines do this. Qantas has the A380 configured as 2x2x2 which is not as good as the 1x2x1 of Singapore airlines but the mattress topper made a difference and the seat became quite comfy for sleeping. All in all a good experience.

QF 1 29 July 2014. QF 10 11 Aug 2014. Was very happy with this airline. I flew from LHR to Dubai and must say it was one of the nicer inflight experiences in quite a while. The crew were friendly and warm. The food served was quite nice and were regularly served refreshments and snacks. The leg room was great compared to a few other airlines. Inflight entertainment other than an annoying radio was good as well.

Flew Brisbane - Hong Kong on August 16. Due to a mix up in online check-in I had been allocated seat 60B nearly the worst seat on the aircraft and impossible to change. At the airport (a 55 minute wait for the 'bag drop') the check-in attendant initially said there was no hope of getting a better seat but eventually managed to find me 27A a window seat in the 'quiet' zone just behind Business. Also an express pass through security. Lunch was served promptly and bottles of water distributed although it was a day flight the window shades were all pulled down. Crew very helpful - endless pot noodles for those who wanted snacks plenty of water and soft drinks passed around and - ice cream. Just before landing was served a very awkward slice of hot pizza - a simple sandwich would have been fine. Overall was just fine.

Flew LAX-SYD on Qantas QF12. An extremely enjoyable flight which I can't say I've ever said about a long haul economy flight! I was lucky enough to score a seat in the upper decks small economy section even luckier I had an entire row to myself allowing me to stretch out and even get 5 hours of sleep! The flight had an entire economy section empty on the lower deck so it was a quiet flight. Staff were great very attentive we had 2 flight attendants looking after our section of just 24 guests! The food as always was economy airline food edible but nothing special. The wine however was great the flight attendant was even giving me a Pinot Gris from the premium section as it was open. The IFE was okay the new releases a were quite limited but the Oscar classics as always were a winner! All in all it was a great flight even managed to clear customs in 15 minutes in sydney! If you can score a seat on the upper deck especially one with extra legroom its almost as good as paying the extra $2000 for premium!

Flew on QF2 from Dubai to Sydney in Economy class. I had the option to get on Emirates EK417 too for the same price (departs after an hour QF2 departs) but took QF2 to reduce the transit time at Dubai and in the end regretted my decision. After making the booking Qantas changed the flight time which reduces the gap between the two flights just to 30 minutes. This was not a big issue however simply put the seat pitch and width made it one of the most uncomfortable long haul journey with my wife and two kids. EK417 seat pitch is 32-34 in with 18in width whereas QF2 seats were 17.5in wide with only 31in pitch hard to move in and out very painful with the front seats reclined. Besides that the service was better than Emirates (flew on Emirates Sydney-Dubai on the same trip). Emirates served meals thrice whereas on QF2 it was twice. Emirates had also an edge with onboard wifi. But in the end the seat pitch mattered the most.