#28 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
176 reviews
Hello and welcome to the 4th review in this new series of Flight-Reports.
We usually try to take advantage of our son's breaks from preschool to take a trip. We hadn't been back to Australia for 8 years, so winter break in February was a perfect time to leave the northern hemisphere winter for summer down under!
After spending several amazing days in the Cairns area, it was time to head back down to Sydney for the weekend before flying back to the US. We'd never been to Queensland before, and the tropical north did not disappoint! Between the lush rainforests, majestic green mountains, picturesque beaches, and of course the Great Barrier Reef—one of the great natural wonders of the world—our time spent in Cairns was the highlight of the trip.
For this return to Sydney from Cairns, we transited via Brisbane, giving the opportunity to discover a new airport for me.
Reviews in this series:
As we were transiting between domestic destinations, we were able to stay airside without going through security checks again.
Brisbane being one of Qantas' hubs, there is a "Lounge Precinct" with a separate Qantas Club and Business Lounge in the domestic terminal.
After the entrance is a large hall with the Qantas Club on the left and Business Lounge all the way in the back.
Taking a peek into the Qantas Club as we walk by, the space looks nice and open. The concept is different than most lounges as it's a lot of shared spaces with communal tables and large bench seating.
There are customer service desks at the end of the hallway next to the Business Lounge. There is also a Qantas agent by the entrance to the Business Lounge to verify eligibility. Domestic Business Lounges are reserved for passengers flying in Business class or those with top-tier oneworld Emerald status. Passengers with Qantas Club memberships and oneworld Sapphire status have access to the Qantas Club.
The Business Lounge is large with lots of seating areas.
It was very busy on this Friday afternoon—a peak time for business travel with everyone heading home for the weekend.
It was busy, but not overly crowded and we easily found a table with a nice tarmac view.
There was a pretty decent spread of fresh food items including some hot options of chicken curry and rice.
There was also a station where cooks prepared baked ziti with beed.
While in the lounge I received a notification on the app that our flight would be delayed. Only 15 minutes…no big deal! I usually expect a little bit of a delay on afternoon flights, as it's easy for small delays to accumulate throughout an aircraft's day of flying.
A check of the FIDS in the lounge confirmed the short delay, as we would be boarding at the normal departure time. In a way, we were lucky with just a small delay as the flight to SYD right before ours had been cancelled.
We left the lounge about 10 minutes before the new boarding time to find our gate. Back down the long hallway we go. I checked out the food in the Qantas Club on the way out and found that it was essentially the same except there was no baked ziti station.
The walk to the gate wasn't very long as it turned out the gate was just around the corner from the lounge.
Passengers were already queued up for the Priority and Economy lanes.
I wish Qantas had actual priority boarding for Business class instead of throwing all Business class passengers in with oneworld Emeralds and Sapphires. The priority boarding order on most other oneworld airlines goes Business first (either with Emeralds or Emeralds in a separate 2nd group), and then Sapphires.
Despite mixing all these groups together, boarding was orderly and smooth once it began.
Qantas' 737 cabins are very consistent throughout the fleet with 12 Cradle Recliner seats in Business class laid out in a standard 2-2 configuration over 3 rows. The only major difference is whether or not they have seatback IFE—about half of the 737 fleet have in-seat entertainment screens, while the other half have streaming entertainment to personal devices.
Seat pitch is 37", very similar to US domestic First class, which normally ranges from 36-38" of seat pitch.
All seats feature adjustable headrests, extendable legrests, and footrests.
Each seat has access to a 110v universal power outlet and a USB-A port.
A nice premium amenity that I really on domestic Qantas flights is noise-cancelling headphones. The headphones can be used with the overhead entertainment or with personal devices thanks to one-prong and three-prong adaptors. Qantas are one of the few airlines that provide headphones on short-haul flights.
Another amenity that I love is the free and fast Viasat Wi-Fi, which is available from gate-to-gate.
Once connected to the Wi-Fi, the streaming entertainment is available through the portal in the Qantas Entertainment app.
Boarding wrapped up quickly, doors were closed, and we pushed back from the gate shortly after.
Taxi time was very short as there was no wait for takeoff.
Takeoff was beautiful with the warm glow of sunset colours bathing the landscapes.
A short video with instructions for logging on the free Wi-Fi and streaming entertainment played on the overhead screens shortly after takeoff.
Nice scenery outside as we followed the coast down to Sydney.
As it was a short flight, cabin crew were out in the cabin taking drink and food orders as we were still climbing. Our son's child meal was confirmed and brought out first.
It was described as a lasagne this time. It looked exactly like the cottage pie on the previous flights, but in was indeed a lasagne with tomato sauce. Again, something kids will easily eat.
For those without special pre-ordered meals, there were two options, one hot and one cold: A Salade Niçoise or Salmon in a creamy sauce.
As I'd eaten on the previous flight and in the lounge, I went for the lighter option. It was fresh and tasty.
Here's a look at the salmon in a cream sauce with spinach, broccoli, and potatoes.
For dessert, the Belgian chocolate bar looked deceivingly small. It was actually very rich and filling.
Before we knew it, we were making our descent into SYD.
We only landed a few minutes behind schedule. and it was a short taxi to our gate in the domestic terminal.
Baggage was delivered impressively fast…bags were already coming up when we arrived at the baggage belts!
We then headed downstairs to the train station.
We caught the train to Circle Quay, where we would be staying in the Rocks neighbourhood for a few days.
Thanks for reading!
While I found Qantas' catering to be a bit light on the longer 3h flight between SYD and CNS, it was the opposite on this short 1h flight, where the same amount of food is impressive. A fresh and/or hot meal of a 1h flight is unheard of in North America. The cabin is very comfortable and I like that with Qantas, you know what you're going to get as their cabins are very consistent. Cabin crew were friendly and very efficient, delivering good service for such a short flight. The streaming IFE had a good amount of content to chose from, and free Wi-Fi that actually works were always scored high for me!
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 15 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Brisbane (BNE) → Sydney (SYD).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Virgin Australia avec 7.8/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 30 minutes.
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6 Comments
This is my biggest pet peeve when flying. It’s something so small to do yet it can make such a big difference in getting settled etc
I sort of really enjoy the vibe of the seats. The buttons feel very classic and not sterile like a lot of domestic configs feel.
For a flight of an hour and a half and going to the lounge, this seems like the perfect “light meal”. Impressed with Qantas apart from the box for the chocolate, a plate would have been nice.
I’m secretly hoping for a Sydney Tourism Bonus next report😉. Thanks so much for sharing this report, would love to give Qantas a try on their shorthauls after reading your three reports.
Absolutely, and when you pay a higher fare, you expect to have actual priority boarding (often MUCH MUCH higher fares these days)
Exactly, it feels warm and welcoming. And as I've said before Burgundy (or Bordeaux as we would say in France) is a surprisingly good colour for seats because it immediately makes me think of delicious wine haha...and it's a fancy colour without being pretentious.
Exactly...the definition of a light meal in my opinion...fresh food, but no sides...that's my definition. Anything less is a snack, and once you add sides, it's a full meal. Really perfect for a flight of this length.
Thanks for your comments!
I love lounges with a view.
It's a very decent flight with a very good light meal.
Seats look confortable (from a European perspective)
Definitely! Intra-European Business class seats are really bad in comparison. European Biz catering tends to be better thank Australian and North American Business class.
Thanks!
How unlucky of you to get the old configuration 3 times in a row! Though I assume with wifi on their whole fleet the lack of IFE wouldn't be that problematic anyways -- I'm choosing the free and fast wifi each time over the the unresponsive screen with a poor selection! The seats are the same anyway and they look very well-padded and comfortable! (wish I could fly them in the near future!) I did notice how they usually send the 737s with IFE on international/longer domestic flights, but it's sort of random at times too.
Cancellations are pretty much a norm on domestic flights in Australia (same to be said for frequent international flights/domestic flights around the world) as they would often have trouble filling every single flight during the less busy months (seeing it was March though, it was a little abnormal!). Usually when they do that they would have already done their calculations beforehand and would be sure that they have enough empty seats for the affected passengers. Of course Qantas is on another level with delays and cancellations, but I've found it pretty common for carriers around the globe (e.g. CX/KA's HKG-PVG/TPE/SIN services) in the less busy months.
Indeed, I think it may have to do with the departure of the SYD-CNS not being at a normal meal time, but it is odd.
Yes, they have better catering in Economy on more premium short routes and all flights over 3.5h. On all of my flights they were offering vegetarian wraps in Economy.
I wasn't worried about it. The only difference is the PTVs and I'm happy as long as there's streaming IFE...and I was very happy with the free Wi-Fi
Yes, they tend to do Trans-Tasman flights and trancons---I've had 737s with PTVs on Trans-Tasman before.
That's a shame. I did see a few cancellations on the boards despite being perfectly good weather days. I thought it was bad in the US, but usually cancellations here are due to weather. Cancellations because of empty flights don't usually happen anymore, as least not in North American or Europe...it hasn't been common practice in a long time, especially as fleets are tightly scheduled and an aircraft is needed at its destination to operate another flight. Cancellations for low loads, if they do happen, usually are done well ahead of time.
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