Upon boarding through the forward door we were welcomed by Grant, who was the cabin manager. He addressed us by name immediately and directed us to our seats, 3D & 3F. Qantas' 737 business class cabin consists of a total of 12 seats, spread across three rows in a 2-2 configuration. The seats are definitely…
Continue reading: Review: Qantas Business Class 737 Melbourne To Sydney
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I'm flying Virgin Australia business class from Sydney to Queenstown in a few months. I know they're overhauling their biz seats, but the route is serviced by a 737 and I don't remember reading anything about their 737s getting new business class products.
@Reine Virgin Australia has similar business seats as qantas, leather upholstered. See here. http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/737business/
I flew Qantas domestic business class on the 737 between SYD-BNE and BNE-SYD last month. I had the same superb service. And since my BNE-SYD flight was a 7:30am departure, they served us a full breakfast (on a flight of about an hour). I had pre-ordered a fruit plate, and it was enormous. (I can e-mail you the picture if you'd like to post it). And I love that Qantas has a fantastic business class lounge available for domestic passengers in both Sydney and Brisbane with good and plentiful hot food and drinks. Our U.S. airlines could learn a lot from Qantas.
Lucky do you find silkair business class better then Qantas regional Business?
Lucky, slightly off topic, but close - flights from SYD to AKL have some interesting options, such as Emirates (especially first) and LAN - wondering if you had any tips on how to get a good price or via mileage to travel these premium products (LAN seems a bit easier through Avios, but AA never seems to show availability on this route.) Alaska miles can't be used for Emirates on this route, so I guy JAL can, but there's no way for me to gain enough JAL miles for this flight. Any other recommendations?
The picture that says "Taxiing at Sydney Airport" looks more like
"Landing at Sydney Airport". Jus sayin.
An interesting tidbit, considering your comment about boarding. Did you notice that the flight attendants perform the boarding duties at the gate for QF domestic flights (at least they used to)? Perhaps that helps with efficiency...
"there are overhead monitors with generic, non-interesting content."
Yeah, who needs football/soccer when they could have shown Gay Satan refereeing a RH catfight instead...;)
@Lucky - I'm visiting Australia in early March and will be using Avios for a MEL-SYD-MEL trip during my stay. Both flights would be morning flights. My gut tells me that on a 70 minute flight, a quick breakfast and coffee in J probably isn't worth the additional 4,500 avios per segment. Agree or disagree?
Compared to short haul business class is Asia, we have a pretty weak offering for short haul business down under. Imagine getting stuck on one of those planes for the flight from the east coast to Perth!
@ pointie -- LAN releases a ton of award space on the route, so is a great option. You have to call American to book, though, since they don't show space on aa.com.
As far as Emirates goes, I think unfortunately paying might just be the best option. The fares aren't that high, and I don't know of any lucrative programs for booking it.
@ Zach -- There's no right or wrong answer. I value 4,500 Avios at ~$60, so personally I find that to be worthwhile for priority boarding and deplaning, better service, lounge access, something to eat, etc. But can just as easily make the argument for it not being worthwhile. Sorry for not having a clear cut answer.
@ Miles Down Under -- I don't have to. I take longer domestic US flights on 737s with a similar product all the time. 😀
@ Abdel Rahim Abdallah -- Hah, because that seemed like a long way to go to get from Melbourne to Sydney, especially since we were already traveling rather circuitously.
Speaking of Australian habits: Flew MEL-CNS and CNS-BNE in C a couple weeks ago with QF and on the second flight, just before pushback there was a palm-sized Huntsman-spider hanging on the overhead bins, where two off-duty QF-pilots sat. The steward tried to catch her with a towel but she ran away and jumped down between two seats (geez, those spiders are FAST!). The two guys there just said "oops, that bugger sneaked away", but nobody showed any other reaction.
As my girlfriend and I were the only non-Australian in C and even the biggest spider in Switzerland does not grow as large as this Huntsman, our faces looked a little bit confused. So the one pilot turned to me and said with a smile: "you know, if we Aussies don't panic, it's safe for you guys from Europe. Otherwise you should run." Still, my girlfriend kept her feet on the footrest and observed the floor during the whole flight. She was the first passenger to disembark the plane ... 🙂
The whole story reminded me a little bit of the movie "Snakes on a plane"...
@pointie @Lucky Just to check, is it also necessary to call BA to redeem LAN seats using Avios? (In the same way it's necessary to call AA)
I seem to recall reading somewhere that not all LAN availability shows up online for Exec Club (I did a quick check on ba.com and couldn’t see any award space between SYD and AKL over multiple random dates in November)
@ Daftboy -- There are some routes on which they don't show space because the airport codes aren't recognized, but SYD-AKL isn't one of them. You should see space there if it's available. They release a lot of space last minute, if nothing else.
The new A330 business class product is good. Flew this just after New Year SYD-PER - offered orange juice or water pre taxi (in a glass, not plastic mind you!). A few years ago it was sparkling white on offer, no doubt recent losses have accounted for the change. Seats have a preset recline for taxi / take of with a cross-chest strap. Fully flat (and level) is good fot eh 4+ hours to Perth.
"While Qantas’ 737s don’t feature personal entertainment systems, there are overhead monitors with generic, non-interesting content."
Errrmmm.....I think you might have missed out on some Aussie Rules Football there by the looks of the screen. Further investigation will reveal it's definitely worth paying attention to, if for nothing else than their incredibly short-shorts!
Wow that's ancient business class. Qantas have a much nicer business class being installed in some planes now. I haven't seen that sort for ages.
For those playing at home:
(a) I'm assuming the "lemon juice" was actually a lemon soft drink, or rather an infused juice with lemon in it. Basically like a lemonade without the fizzy stuff. My guess.
(b) The "uncut Australian" wine is, I am guessing, actually referring to Gemtree Uncut Shiraz, i.e. a red wine made by Gemtree. Australians like to give their wines names, and unusual ones from time to time, e.g. in this case "Uncut". Other examples include "Squealing Pig", "Sweet Lips" and "Two Fat Ladies". Usually on board you can get away with just asking "red" or "white", and for those in the know, the grape type.
(c) Some of the 737s have now a refurbished Business product with red leather seats, in-flight entertainment screens stored in the armrest.
I’ve flown domestic J with QF several times & can verify that the lemon juice is actually incredibly nice, and very refreshing. It is not a soda or carbonated in any way. It is juice, but slightly sweetened to make it more palatable.
The A332 coast to coast flights are all being progressively upgraded to the new Business Suite; exactly the same as what the refurbished international A333 fleet is getting. All red-eye coast to coast flights now have this; the remainder of the flights/fleet is roughly almost half-way through the refurbishment programme.
This older-style of domestic J is almost totally gone and rarely seen now; all the seats are black & red leather and totally refurbed, as others have previously noted.
We skips down under certainly do like a lot of names for our good quality coffee. Our large Italian and Greek communities (Melbourne has the largest Greek population in the world other than Athens) owing to massive immigration from those countries in the fifties and after have had a lot to do with this 🙂