Qantas A330 Domestic Business Class

Lounge:

The Sydney domestic business class lounge is not dissimilar to the Qantas Club.  Sometimes I wonder why Qantas even have the 2 lounges.  I had a glass of red wine, some DIY pasta and played around on my laptop in a fairly dark lounge before boarding.  The lounge was very busy, and it certainly didn’t give me a calm and luxurious feeling before boarding. 

Seat:

This is the first plane in Australia to be fitted with this new type of business class seat. it’s in a 1-2-1 configuration, so everyone get direct aisle access. This is a welcome change from the old seats found on the A380 and 747 still have a 2-3-2 configuration, which means that you have to climb over your seat mate to get out.  

The design is staggered, and all seats face forward straight. You have a footwell in front of you which forms a part of the bed when you flatten your seat.  There is a little flat table surface next to you, which is actually above where the footwell of the seat behind you is.  This provides a very private experience, but can be isolating if you’re travelling with a partner. This is especially true giving the middle partition between the central 2 seats are high and you can’t lower it to speak to you partner. I saw that the new 787 seats fixed this problem with mobile partitions. 

The seat itself it very plush, and covered in leather. You can actually recline the seat a little during take off and landing, which is pretty neat if you’re really in need of a nap. One thing that’s just a little disconcerting about the seat is that when it’s in bed mode, the bed is very low and close to the ground, it just needs getting use to. 

Storage:

There is a few little nooks and crannies to put your stuff.  I like the magazine holder with a little viewing window at the bottom, just incase you forgot you left something small in there.  

There is a little water bottle holder adjacent to your leg. and a hook for your headphones and another hook for your coat. 

All the electrical plugs and USB inputs are next to you. easy peasy for charging and connectivity. 

Service:

I find Qantas service to be haphazard.  Sometimes they are great and attentive, but other times they are short and generally aloof. This was one of the bad ones.  

No welcome drink, and when I asked for a water, the lady was very annoyed with me. No one introduced themselves, and we only saw them once during the entire flight and that was the serve the food.  When I asked what options I had, she just said meat or nothing, and gave me the ‘take it or leave it’ attitude. I’ve never had this sort of problem on Virgin Australia, but seems to be more common on Qantas. 

I had one glass of wine and then I never saw anyone again until the end of the flight, when they finally cleared my table after 30 minutes of an empty plate.  

It’s service without a smile at Qantas today.

Entertainment:

The screen is clear and bright an responsive. This is only an one hour flight so I didn’t get to play around with the entertainment module too much. I did enjoy the home screen, which was designed to look like a magazine, and shows you all the new and exciting stuff. 

Food and Drink:

I had room temperature meatball that was as dry as dehydrated cardboard, doused with cold canned tomato sauce and served with square omelettes for some reason. What a joke.

Qantas domestic business class food and Virgin Domestic business class food are night and day.  Qantas is essentially economy food in a ceramic bowl, and virgin is a proper restaurant meal. Even in the 1 hours short haul, I get a properly plated dish, and a dessert and cheese to finish with Virgin.  Even international business class food is subpar for Qantas, I’ve never had a good Neil Perry dish on the ground and the experience certainly doesn’t improve in the air. It’s bullshit. 

Style and Character:

The cabin feels spacious and modern. Qantas is definitely going for a more modern luxury approach, with clean lines, grey undertones and woodgrain accents.  I like it. It’s the polar opposite of it’s partner emirates.