Not a LONG haul with these guys... (Qantas)

Member Name: rachels_ratty

Product:	Qantas
Date:	04/01/03 (3801 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Freindly and helpful, Edible food, Safety

Disadvantages: Pricy

~ A little Background info ~

In 1920 a company was formed called Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Services Ltd. It was with Qantas aircraft that the flying doctors service was launched in 1928 and basically the company has gone from precariously flying one or two passengers around in flimsy bi-planes to a huge airline with numerous worldwide routes. They own more than 130 aircraft and fly around 15 million passengers globally per year.

Flights with Qantas available from London Heathrow head out to Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. If those three Australian destinations arent suitable you can of course transfer planes in either Singapore or Bangkok and from there flights are available to all major airports in both Aussie and New Zealand.

There are three flights I shall be referring to during this review?

QF 10 ? Heathrow to Singapore (747-338 Longreach)
QF 82 ? Singapore to Adelaide (767-438)
QF 484 ? Adelaide to Melbourne (737) (domestic flight)

For the purposes of clarity I shall first write about the International flights!

~ The Planes ~

Despite my journey being on two different aeroplanes, luckily (from a writing this down point of view) the in flight basics were all the same so no ones going to get confused here.

Both planes were what I would call roomy. Not over-spacious of course, this is economy flighing Im referring to! What I mean is that the aisles were wide enough to stroll down without tripping over my fellow passengers and the stewards/esses certainly didnt seem to have any trouble with their trolleys when moving up and down the plane. The overhead lockers were also located at a height where all but the shortest of people could access them easily but not so low down as I (at only just 5 foot tall) couldnt stand upright in my window seat.

Seat pitch on a Qantas international aircraft is 32?. Now I know Im only a shorty, but the se
at pitch was fine for me, I could even stand up with ease and get past my row mate without waking them up. The seats I have to admit arent the widest but they have lumbar support and they were very comfortable. The headrests also have adjustable wings which stops you falling onto your neighbours shoulder when you fall into a stupor or worse still having someone else slobbering all over you when they go to sleep! The seats of course recline and you can actually do so without the feeling that youre going to be looking up the person sat behind you?s nose if you do! What this means, is that yes I did get to sleep on both flights, although granted I did most of my snoring on the Singapore to Adelaide leg because the plane was half empty and I could lay down. Incidentally on both flights we all got a pillow, blanket, (neither were huge but hey they did the trick), eye mask, socks and a toothbrush/toothpaste set. Piece of useless information?my eye masks are still going strong?!

The loos (sorry but got to go there..) were plentiful and spotless.

~ In-flight Entertainment ~

Now on both flights there were no back-of-seat built in television screens, which was a bit of a pain but not on the scale of things detrimental to the Qantas experience. The movies were shown on big screens at the front of each seating block and on small television screens suspended from the cabin ceiling at intervals down the aisles. The down side to this of course you have no choice as to what film youre watching; but as most airline in-flight movies are dire?! We were treated (and I mean that in the loosest sense of the word) to two films on the Heathrow ? Singapore leg, both of which were so memorable I cant remember a thing about either! I do however remember falling asleep during Crocodile Dundee III on the Adelaide leg.

Headsets were given out at the beginning of each flight free of charge and were very well soundproofed. With these you could hear the soundtr
ack to the film being shown and access the 15 or so radio channels. These werent that bad; endlessly looping of course but each loop did last around an hour. Examples of these channels I can remember include a rock station, one for classical music and by far the best?the comedy station.

There was of course the obligatory in-flight magazine, which was of a fairly high standard. The articles were interesting; it was well laid out and did give details of what entertainment was available and the menus etc.

I believe that now Qantas are installing back-of-seat entertainment units so things should be very different to what I have described here. According to their website they hope to have all of these changes implemented across the whole network by the end of 2003 and that these consoles will include movie channels, games and a telephone facility.

~ The Crew ~

The people who work for Qantas have to be the friendliest people in the whole world. Absolutely every little task they did was accompanied by a smile and nothing was too much trouble for them. Customer satisfaction is clearly very important to them and they will come running if you hit your in-seat call button although in my experience you didnt need to because they were all just so available and visible.

Water was brought round roughly each and every hour and we were all encouraged to keep hydrated and to do our in-flight exercises (which were demonstrated on a pre-flight video). All in all they were just a very chatty bunch, and this IS both flights to which I am referring. They regularly went around the cabin with torches after lights out (these were both night flights) and if they saw you awake they would ensure you had everything you needed or theyd just stop for a natter!

The pilots were different, the one we had from Singapore to Adelaide was a quiet sort of guy, but the one from London to Singapore did like to communicate with us mere mortals and did
give updates when needed (for example when we diverted somewhere over Russia due to bad weather).

~ The Food ~

Now this may shock a lot of you. Not only were all four meals I was served edible, they were actually quite good and in one case delicious. Most unusual for airline food I have to admit. On each flight we were greeted on board with a glass of wine and breadsticks and the main meal was served as soon as we got to cruising altitude.

The meal that stands out for me was a tomato and mushroom tagliatele followed by tiramisu. I could have eaten seconds and I did ask a passing stewardess if there were any spare meals! Now how many of you in cattle class can say you could even say what you had been given was edible, let alone want more?!?!?! A big well done from me to the Qantas chefs; they clearly paid attention in chef school!

~ Qantas Domestic ~

The brief (around 45 minutes) flight between Adelaide and Melbourne was on an aging 737. Seat pitch on here was slightly less than on their international aircraft but not enough to make things uncomfortable. Despite this clearly being an older aircraft the seating was well padded and comfortable, and there was enough room under the seat in front to stow my hand luggage without having to use the overhead locker.

With this being such a short flight there obviously no in-flight meal provided, but we did all get breadsticks and a drink of fruit juice each. The entertainment was an episode of Seinfeld shown on the 2 televisions hung from the cabin ceiling. Of course we all got the complimentary headsets. Again the crew were a friendly bunch, and despite this being the briefest of flights they still took time to make sure everyone was ok and to chat to passengers.

~ Summing Up ~

Would I fly Qantas again is, I suppose the obvious question here and the answer is a resounding YES PLEASE! The international aircraft standard is excellent, they are clean, co
mfortable and the staff really do help make your flight an enjoyable one.

Qantas are at the upper end of the ticket-price scale but in this case you really do get what you pay for. Incidentally I paid £740 for my return flights during Australian off-season, which was a discounted price because I only booked a few weeks in advance of travel. My advice would be to shop around to get the best deal, or check out their website for the best deals available?

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