Qantas Airways

AKL-SYD. Business. Excellent TransTasman early morning flight. A short 3 hours with good personable service good fresh breakfast and actually very good coffee. What singled Qantas out was their help with getting me to a connecting flight in 60 mins. There was a medical emergency on the flight and I thought I would not make the connecting flight. The crew got me off and had someone escort me to my other flight. That was amazing considering this was not a Oneworld partner. Qantas really stood out from the pack!

Flew business New Zealand to Brisbane 25th May. Used points and I am glad we did. If I had paid for this poor excuse for business class I would be more annoyed than I am already. Old scruffy dirty seats that obviously are or were Premium. Food slop (get rid of Perry!) Only two choices of wine? Never would I fly short haul business international ever again with Qantas. So very overpriced and certainly not what you would expect in (supposedly) Business Class. Flew Emirates BNE/Auckland. Chalk and cheese. What business should be! After almost 40 years with Qantas I now give up. I am at the age to want to enjoy comfort when travelling but will be looking at other airlines as if this is business on Qantas - forget it.

SYD/DXB on the A380. Was upgraded using frequent flyer points. A very acceptable product. Very cute little lounge area at the nose of the cabin to chat to passengers over a glass of wine and watch a large TV monitor. Configuration of 2+2+2 is a little more cramped than SIA (see earlier review) but still relatively acceptable. Although seat width is smaller by far the flat bed is very comfortable. Good food and wine. Altogether a great experience if one's upgrade application to use points has been successful. Would definitely choose another off peak flying date and repeat the journey to DXB on the flagship A380.

Same day Brisbane to Sydney (return). Flew down on QF8 (which departs/arrives international terminal) which is a 744 with new interiors. Flight great and a wide selection of IFE. The staff were friendly and even made a mandarin announcement for a Chinese tour group on board while we were delayed at SYD on the tarmac due to a late departing aircraft at our gate. Return trip was QF524 on Boeing 763 with ipads available. Again staff excellent and friendly. Only comment on both flights is that the cost cutting is quite evident with shrinking portions and less options (even at meal times). Overall though the QF domestic experience is outstanding.

Brisbane-Los Angelesand Dallas Brisbane in Premium Economy. Worth the extra price. Great service attentive staff who go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. The extra space gives you more room to stretch. These may be challenging times behind the scenes but I didn't feel it as a passenger.

QF3 and QF4 Sydney/ Honolulu return. Having read the dire reports of this particular route we went equipped with an extra inflatable cushion each plus a neck roll. The seats were not as bad as we expected although as cramped as you would expect in Economy. The price for travelling Business on this route is outrageous. Boarding at Sydney was a complete shambles. All the departure boards announced that the gate was open. However when you arrived at the gate there was a surly security man ordering everyone to sit in a holding bay next to the gate. Countless people turned up at the gate and explained that the boards said it was open to be given no explanation but ordered to sit elsewhere. The problem was that there was a JetStar flight to Honolulu that was late leaving and all their passengers were also in the holding bay. There was not one announcement as to what was going on. Occasionally a passenger would be called by name and allowed through but the rest of us had to stand and endure the glare from the security man. Eventually a woman security person turned up and was much more amenable but was muttering about 'security' procedures. Eventually they opened the gate and all the passengers went through. By this time the Qantas and Jet Star passengers were all mixed up and of course after the Jetstar flight had been called and was about to close there was one poor passenger who was still mingling in with the Qantas passengers and almost missed his flight! It was then announced that it was the 'late arrival of the cleaners' that had caused the problem. Total shambles. Onboard the cabin crew were cheerful and willing to help. The service of drinks is a bit bizarre they don't serve a drink before the meal so if you don't want wine (which was vile) you end up having a gin and tonic or other aperitif with your meal. Or not as the case may be. On the return leg I asked for a G & T they said they would bring one back but never did. I couldn't be bothered to ask again. The food was fairly awful. My husband had something described as pearl cous cous it looked like spider's eggs and tasted of nothing! The ice cream after dinner was the best part of the meal service. The Ipads are a complete waste of time the sound is terrible and after trying to get two or three to work we gave up. The staff must hate them as they seem to spend a lot of time sorting them out! On the way back boarding at Honolulu was very well organised. The plane was full but the cabin staff again were very good. Two of the call buttons got stuck and kept pinging every few seconds for about two hours but eventually they managed to stop the noise. Again the food was forgettable. All flights were on time and we arrived safely so that's what counts but 10 hours was quite long enough!

SYD-SCL (Santiago)-SYD on QF27/28 again in Premium Economy. This almost feels like a 'flagship route' for Qantas these days. These flights are excellent and interesting and offer (if one is lucky) unbelievable views of the Antarctic Ice Shelf especially at this time of the year as the aircraft follows the necessary 'Great Circle Route' to and from Australia. Top professional service and a sense of a quality product on these 747 flights .I only wonder why Qantas doesn't offer Premium Economy Seating on its A330 flights into Asia as does Cathay Pacific. I'm sure it would be a winner.

Melbourne to Sydney and onto Hawaii and back on QF3 and QF4. After boarding found that the aircraft was older than others however we did not have an issue with the seating or leg room the service and meals were more than satisfactory and the crew were fantastic on both flights. If you would like to be critical the iPads take a while to get working if they don't work all together the cabin crew are very quick to replace it with another most of the time it was just a matter of turning it off and re booting. Both the domestic flights were also good as we travelled with a family of four we also found the baggage allowance of two check ins per person by 23 kg fantastic. When booking the flights our travel agent got Qantas as the cheapest out of Virgin Hawaiian and Jetstar.

Attendants will ply you with excellent Aussie wine and very good food. Snacks galore. Unlimited choices on your TV. They provided plenty of blankets and pillows and the first leg was not crowded and they had no problem that I stretched out across 3 seats and slept a few hours.

QF28 from Santiago to Sydney on 12th May was a dream trip. Staff very attentive personalized service and great seat comfort. Cabin staff even suggested I try to get on an earlier flight from Sydney to Melbourne after clearing customs and immigration which got me home 1 hour before schedule.