Review of Qantas flight Brisbane → Sydney in Economy

overview

Hello everyone, welcome to another flight report!

I was on a school trip at Brisbane, Queensland back in August 2023. Today, I'll be flying back to Hong Kong, transferring at Sydney, as arranged by the school. This trip report features the domestic flight as I fly from Brisbane to Sydney.

Aircraft: VH-VYA (Boeing 737-800; "Narooma")
Age of aircraft as of flight: 19.1 years
Flight number: QF501
Scheduled flight time: 06:00 - 07:35 (+10) | 1h35m
Actual flight time: 06:14 - 07:28 (+10) | 1h14m
Seat: 21A (Economy)

Brisbane airport

The check-in counters were not too crowded at 4 in the morning. There is very little people at the Brisbane domestic terminal D, apart from the 50+ group that we are travelling with. 

The Qantas staff opened the group check-in room to check our luggage and process our check-in. I think that makes the whole process much more efficient without disturbing other passengers.

Then, security is done rapidly and we found ourselves at the departure area. The shops at the domestic terminal are mostly for domestic travelers, mainly selling snacks and books, therefore I think there is not much interesting to see around there.

Many of Qantas' turboprops and 737s can be spotted parking for the night. As I kept walking around the relatively empty terminal, the sun began to rise.

And here is my flight, QF501 operated by VH-VYA, waiting at gate 24.

boarding

Boarding started on time at 05:40 am from gate 24.

As usual, Qantas boards using the efficient approach - the front rows of passengers are encouraged to use the jet bridge, while the back rows of passengers are to board through stairs from the rear of the aircraft. This allows me to take a look at the aircraft from the outside.

The aircraft I'm flying on today is VH-VYA, a 19.1 year-old Boeing 737-800 named "Narooma" which was delivered back in July 2004. It features 12 Business seats in 2-2 configuration and 162 Economy seats in 3-3 configuration.

The apron view during sunrise:

My seat is 21A, a very standard Qantas domestic seat with a tray table and seat pocket. The seat pitch is said to be 30 inches, which is quite sufficient for a short haul flight in my opinion (I am 5'8"). The window is located on my left, giving me a nice view of the wingtip.

takeoff

Around 20 minutes later, we started pushing back on time and the sky was mostly bright.

We began to taxi towards runway 19L. On the way some Qantas aircraft can be spotted parking.

We took off from 19L at 06:14 am, 14 minutes behind our scheduled departure time. Downtown Brisbane can be seen from there.

We climbed and the sunrise view is stunning.

Here's another one without the window.

snack service

A complimentary quiche pie with beverage is offered alongside a beverage. Besides, a bottle of water is provided.
The quiche pie is surprisingly warm, something that I rarely see on a domestic flight. It is also quite tasty too. It is a nice breakfast for me, as I haven't eaten anything before the flight. I think Qantas did a great job on the domestic snack service.

mid-flight

As per usual, Qantas provides a magazine for passengers (please refer to above), which manages to keep passengers entertained on this one-hour flight.

As we fly closer to Sydney, the sun continues to rise and the sky became brighter. As I said, the best in-flight entertainment is outside of the window. I stayed awake and watched the scenery for the whole flight, while my travel mates are mostly asleep (that explains why I'm in heavy fatigue on my next flight haha)

landing

We then started our descend into Sydney. 

Then we landed at Sydney Kingsford Smith runway 34R, at 07:14, which is on time. The weather was a bit cloudy.

A Garuda Indonesia A330 in a mask livery can be seen landing as well.

We then proceeded to terminal 3, the Qantas domestic terminal. A view of the international T1 and international aircraft on the way:

disembarking

We ended up waiting on the taxiway, because a Boeing 717 departing for Canberra was occupying our gate. We finally managed to park at the gate after waiting for 30 minutes.

De-boarding was completed soon the aircraft was parked at gate 9.

We then hurried to the international terminal to catch our next flight to Hong Kong. We took the bus from gate 15 and conducted security checking, more on the transiting process in the upcoming flight report. Please reserve sufficient time for security checking since it is very time-consuming. We did not have to pick up our bags as they would be handled by the Qantas staff and sent to the next flight.

Stay tuned for the upcoming flight report of my remaining trip, where I would eventually fly back to Hong Kong.