Qantas Air?

[janetz]

Has anyone flown Qantas (sp?) How was it? Do they give you meals onboard. Thanks ahead. :)

[Globaliser]

Has anyone flown Qantas (sp?) How was it? Do they give you meals onboard.

One of the world's best flying experiences. I do more flying on Qantas than on any other airline other than British Airways.

 

My last flight with them offered this (transcribed from the printed menu):-

Sydney to Singapore

 

Dinner

 

Mesclun Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

 

Choice of

Chicken with Oyster Sauce, Jasmine Rice and Asian Greens

or

Mediterranean Style Braised Lamb with Potato Mash and Vegetables

 

Cheese and Crackers

 

Coffee Tea

 

Ice Cream

 

Fresh fruit will be served throughout your flight

 

Relax and Unwind

Cadbury Hot Chocolate or

Organic Peppermint Tea

 

Refreshment

 

Linguine Pasta with Puttanesca Sauce and Feta Cheese

 

Seasonal Melon Salad with Fruit Juice

 

Chocolate

 

Coffee Tea

 

Singapore to London

 

Supper

 

Thai Chicken Salad

 

Choice of

Tomato Braised Beef with Potato Mash

or

Fish in Black Bean Sauce, Kuay Teow Noodles and Asian Greens

 

Silky Tofu and Lychee Jelly

 

Coffee Tea

 

Cadbury Hot Chocolate

 

Organic Peppermint Tea

 

snack on Q

We are pleased to offer bottled water and snacks to enjoy at your leisure. Fresh fruit is available on your flight.

 

Breakfast

 

Choice of continental breakfast

 

Orange Juice

 

Fresh Fruit Salad

 

Cinnamon Danish

 

Cereal

 

or Hot Breakfast

 

Orange Juice

 

Fresh Fruit Salad

 

Cinnamon Danish

 

Cheese Omelette with Bacon, Mushrooms and Sauteed Spinach

 

Coffee Tea

[PennyAgain]

Qantas is an excellent airline, but there are really tough on carry on bags for both size and weight.

 

Checked baggage has restrictions as well.

 

There is the unique situation that you come to when landing in Australia. The Duty Free is right in front of you so you can shop first before clearing customs and agricultural inspection.

[nho9504]

Dont count on the menu posted by Global if you fly coach.

 

However, even at coach, QF has meals, snack baggie and bottled water for the overnight flight between Aussi and US.

 

I also like NZ (Air New Zealand) for their flatbed seats which are licensed from Virgin Atlantic. The foods on NZ are medicore, but the wine and champaign selections are excellent. We had the most sweet and beautify FA on our CHC/SYD route. My husband kept commenting on her long after our flight. :) QF owns NZ, fwiw.

[FlyerTalker]

There is the unique situation that you come to when landing in Australia. The Duty Free is right in front of you so you can shop first before clearing customs and agricultural inspection.

Not unique....many airports around the world have a duty-free shop in the customs area, so you can make your purchases there after arrival, but before entering the country (in effect). Examples include Gatwick and Rio (two cruise-applicable airports).

[janetz]

Thanks all. DD has an 18 hour flight to Auckland next week. :)

[nho9504]

Thanks all. DD has an 18 hour flight to Auckland next week. :)

 

Tell your DD to get up and walk the aisle every few hours if she is flying coach. Just walk a loop - cross to the other side thru the galley and then back - as an inflight exercise. Do this quietly and discretly. The FAs all are very understanding about people doing the walks on a very long flight.

[CruisenLexie]

Just for comparison sake here is the international menu from our flight on NWA

 

Appetizer

Smoked salmon canape and marinated feta with sun dried tomatoes

 

Dinner

Salad of mixed greens topped with summer pea pods, goat cheese medallion and toasted silvered almonds

 

Assorted breads

 

Choice of:

Beef tenderloin with horseradish crust, roasted corn and stuffed zucchini

Muchroom au gratin stuffed chicken with lemon orzo and steamed broccoli

Baked halibut with malaysian marinade, basmati rice and asparagus

 

Champagne supper - a light meal

Lemon peppered chicken, Mediterranean shrimp, peach slaw and asparagus tips served with a side salad of mixed greens and dessert plate with fruit, cheese and raspberry cream cup.

 

Dessert

Fresh fruit

Blue cheese and a traditional style Spanish white cheese

Ben & Jerry's ice cream in a chocolate dipped waffle cup

Gourmet cookies

Port wine

Liquers

Coffee or Stash tea

 

Light Breakfast:

Fresh fruit and warm breads

Coffe or Stach tea

[Globaliser]

Dont count on the menu posted by Global if you fly coach.

 

However, even at coach, QF has meals, snack baggie and bottled water for the overnight flight between Aussi and US.

That was the economy/coach class menu!

[CruisenLexie]

That was the economy/coach class menu!

 

I can't imagine what the first class menu looks like. I can't imagine what their airfare looks like either but I know I will be checking if we go to Australia :) If there flights aren't much different than the air carriers here maybe they can give our companies some ideas on how to run a profitable airline. That is assuming they are profitable but looking at that menu I would think they must be unless they do not cut back in the same ways we do here.

[Globaliser]

I can't imagine what the first class menu looks like. I can't imagine what their airfare looks like either ...

Between London and Sydney, the routine position is that they're exactly the same as British Airways (with whom they run a joint operation to Australia) and just fractionally more than Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. However, on that route, if you get the chance to spend your money with any of those four airlines (in the sense that the cheapest tickets, with that pricing differential, are available), frankly you'd be pretty nuts to go on anyone else for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.

 

And before you get to the first class menu, you have to work your way through the premium economy menu and the business class menu first ... :D

That is assuming they are profitable ...

Immensely so. And one of the reasons is precisely that they are one of the world's top airlines and well-known for providing good service, so that passengers willingly spend more money to fly with them. The virtuous circle; the exact opposite of what US airlines have been used to doing for so many years.

[nho9504]

I can't imagine what the first class menu looks like. I can't imagine what their airfare looks like either but I know I will be checking if we go to Australia :) If there flights aren't much different than the air carriers here maybe they can give our companies some ideas on how to run a profitable airline. That is assuming they are profitable but looking at that menu I would think they must be unless they do not cut back in the same ways we do here.

 

BA, SQ, CX routinely occupy the top 3 MOST Profitable airlines in the world. QF is not too far behind. EK (Emirates) is trying to place itself among this elite group but they have all the money they can burn - so it is a totally different story.

 

Like Global said, they go for the services to attract top drawer customers instead of cutting prices to get the bottom-feeders.

 

Singapore Airlines shamelessly promote the "Singapore Girl" image around the world, especially in the lavish magazine Ads. Years ago this was being attacked by the Feminist movement activists here in the US, saying how the airline exploited the "sex image" or whatever. I believe they pulled the TV Ads after that. The fact is, "Singapore Girl" marketing ploy tries to bring back a highly sought-after pleasure of air travel in the by-gone era.

[sailingkiwi]

 

My husband kept commenting on her long after our flight. :) QF owns NZ, fwiw.

 

Qantas doesn't own Air NZ, they wanted to merge but the Commerce Commissions in both countries would allow the merge as it would reduce competition on the trans tasman routes.

 

Who owns Air NZ? Mostly the NZ tax payer (ie the government).

[Globaliser]

Not unique....many airports around the world have a duty-free shop in the customs area, so you can make your purchases there after arrival, but before entering the country (in effect). Examples include Gatwick and Rio (two cruise-applicable airports).

And Auckland, relevantly for the OP.

 

Technically, the arrivals shops at Gatwick, Heathrow and other UK airports are not duty-free. All the sales they make are duty-paid and tax-paid. This is also why they are located after Customs, although they are only open to passengers. One advantage is that there is therefore no limit on the amount that you can buy in this shop. Although my maximum purchase at one time was only a measly 7 dozen bottles of champagne, I had been preceded (according to the shop manager) by someone who had bought over 20 dozen to cater his wedding.

[nho9504]

Qantas doesn't own Air NZ, they wanted to merge but the Commerce Commissions in both countries would allow the merge as it would reduce competition on the trans tasman routes.

 

Who owns Air NZ? Mostly the NZ tax payer (ie the government).

 

So the merger in 2003 never finalized? I thought that was the rescue effort by Qantas to save Air NZ, thru that 2003 proposal.

 

I just looked it up, so now it is 76.5% owned by NZ Government. I suppose the rest is by private investments.

[nho9504]

And Auckland, relevantly for the OP.

 

Technically, the arrivals shops at Gatwick, Heathrow and other UK airports are not duty-free. All the sales they make are duty-paid and tax-paid. This is also why they are located after Customs, although they are only open to passengers. One advantage is that there is therefore no limit on the amount that you can buy in this shop. Although my maximum purchase at one time was only a measly 7 dozen bottles of champagne, I had been preceded (according to the shop manager) by someone who had bought over 20 dozen to cater his wedding.

 

Does the majority of passengers realize the arrival shops at UK airports are not duty-free?

 

Or they are under the impression that is duty-free, hence the gentleman bought 20 doz to cater his wedding... Unless the prices are more favorable than shops in town...

[janetz]

Tell your DD to get up and walk the aisle every few hours if she is flying coach. Just walk a loop - cross to the other side thru the galley and then back - as an inflight exercise. Do this quietly and discretly. The FAs all are very understanding about people doing the walks on a very long flight.

 

 

Thank you...She will do that. Not a flight I would want to take, thats for sure. Thats her last flight. She has to go from Ma to LA first...34 hour total travel time, including layovers...ugh :)

[Globaliser]

Does the majority of passengers realize the arrival shops at UK airports are not duty-free?

 

Or they are under the impression that is duty-free, hence the gentleman bought 20 doz to cater his wedding... Unless the prices are more favorable than shops in town...

I think that most people don't understand the technical status of these shops.

 

But that does not matter. What matters is whether the price is a good price, not whether the sale is technically duty-free or not.

 

So if someone buys 20 dozen bottles of champagne and ends up paying more than they would have paid in the outside world, simply because they assumed that the shop was duty-free and they also assumed that that automatically meant that the prices were lower than in the outside world - well, there's one born every minute and I don't think anyone would shed any tears for such a fool.

 

As it happens, the way that the arrivals shops work at Heathrow and Gatwick is that the prices on the products that they sell there are the same as the prices for the same products in the departures shops. In the departures shops, some sales are duty-free and some are not: If you are travelling to another EU destination from the UK, there is no such thing as a duty-free sale and the shop must pay the duty and tax on the goods that you buy. But they obviously still make some sort of profit on the goods that they will sell you if you're travelling within the EU. And if you're buying the same goods and travelling to a destination outside the EU, the shop will just pocket the duty and tax element instead as extra profit.

[PennyAgain]

If my memory serves, the pre-customs shops in Australia were duty free. On my first arrival I didn't understand this and hurried past. Lesson learned.

 

I am very lucky. When I fly to Australia I get to fly business class on Qantas! WOW! Love it! The food is outstanding. I have no idea how they can serve steak that really tastes so good. Also the desserts!

 

The best part, however, was that the service is very good but not stuck up. Am I clear? The people are so nice!

[shazzie44]

Yes!!!!!! flying Qantas to London in 2 weeks. It is the way to go. Have requested a upgrade to business. Well hope I'm lucky. Then it is home for 2 weeks and off again but this time AirNZ to USA. Usually take Qantas but ANZ is cheaper.

[M&A]

We used FF miles to fly my daughter to Aus and my wife to Aus in November. Unfortunately if you use Air Canada FF they usually have to use their partner United - the aircraft are tired with the old pull down TV screens with no choice of video, bland food and service.

We have a friend that just came back on Air New Zealand and said the service, amenities etc were excellent.

 

We are going back to Sydney in April for our cruise and undecided on how we are going to get there. Looks like Virgin Austalia will be up and running by that time may be a good option.

[nho9504]

We used FF miles to fly my daughter to Aus and my wife to Aus in November. Unfortunately if you use Air Canada FF they usually have to use their partner United - the aircraft are tired with the old pull down TV screens with no choice of video, bland food and service.

We have a friend that just came back on Air New Zealand and said the service, amenities etc were excellent.

 

We are going back to Sydney in April for our cruise and undecided on how we are going to get there. Looks like Virgin Austalia will be up and running by that time may be a good option.

 

Air NZ is excellent from our experiences last Spring. Though we flew the business premier class, on United miles. Your AC miles definitely can be used to book NZ as NZ is member of *A.

 

I am still not clear if V Australia would be just the long haul version of Virgin Blue or like Virgin Atlantic - a major difference between the 2 - Virgin Blue vs Virgin Atlantic. You pay for every single amenity on Virgin Blue, fwiw. It is the Virgin's version of EasyJet in UK.

[nho9504]

Yes!!!!!! flying Qantas to London in 2 weeks. It is the way to go. Have requested a upgrade to business. Well hope I'm lucky. Then it is home for 2 weeks and off again but this time AirNZ to USA. Usually take Qantas but ANZ is cheaper.

 

NZ business premier beat QF biz in my opinion. NZ seats are the true Flatbed seats licensed from Virgin Atlantic.

 

BA's Kangaroo route between Oz and London is not shabby either.

[bobsydney]

I am still not clear if V Australia would be just the long haul version of Virgin Blue or like Virgin Atlantic - a major difference between the 2 - Virgin Blue vs Virgin Atlantic. You pay for every single amenity on Virgin Blue, fwiw. It is the Virgin's version of EasyJet in UK.

 

From viewing V Australia's website and promo material. V Australia's service will be more like Virgin Atlantic ... for example,"all-inclusive in-flight meal options ... complemented by a beverage of your choice with your meal" and an "Audio and Video on Demand (AVOD) in-flight entertainment system with a 22.9 cm (9 inch) screen in your seatback" ... and that is just in economy ... they also have premium economy and business class seats.

 

Prices offered are very competitive (about US$1750 return) and much cheaper than Qantas and UA, which are the only other airlines that fly nonstop to/from LA. . There is a special on at the moment (but may already be sold out) for travel in March or May 2009 - $999.

 

All in all, a welcome addition to the market that I will likely be my first choice for trips to the US. Funnily enough though, we have opted for Ait Tahiti Nui for our next trip but only because we want a break on the way home since we are flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Sydney.

 

Also, I think it is a little unfair comparing Virgin Blue to Easy Jet ... in fact, I liken it more to US operators like Jet Blue and Virgin America. Virgin Blue might be a low cost operator (and yes, you therefore pay for food inflight) but its service levels are far from basic and many Australians choose to fly with them in preference to Qantas ... I know I do.

 

Cheers

Bob

[nho9504]

From viewing V Australia's website and promo material. V Australia's service will be more like Virgin Atlantic ... for example,"all-inclusive in-flight meal options ... complemented by a beverage of your choice with your meal" and an "Audio and Video on Demand (AVOD) in-flight entertainment system with a 22.9 cm (9 inch) screen in your seatback" ... and that is just in economy ... they also have premium economy and business class seats.

 

Prices offered are very competitive (about US$1750 return) and much cheaper than Qantas and UA, which are the only other airlines that fly nonstop to/from LA. . There is a special on at the moment (but may already be sold out) for travel in March or May 2009 - $999.

 

All in all, a welcome addition to the market that I will likely be my first choice for trips to the US. Funnily enough though, we have opted for Ait Tahiti Nui for our next trip but only because we want a break on the way home since we are flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Sydney.

 

Also, I think it is a little unfair comparing Virgin Blue to Easy Jet ... in fact, I liken it more to US operators like Jet Blue and Virgin America. Virgin Blue might be a low cost operator (and yes, you therefore pay for food inflight) but its service levels are far from basic and many Australians choose to fly with them in preference to Qantas ... I know I do.

 

Cheers

Bob

 

I hope V Australia would grab some business from QF, so there would be some award availability from QF. Currently it is near impossible to claim award for QF premium cabins using AA Miles. (Using AS miles are much easier). Hopefully we would see some improvement in the future with V Australia's presence.

 

We flew Virgin Blue often when we flew domestic Australia - we did 3 trips to Australia in 5 years, each trip involving a few domestic flying. Virgin Blue is always cheaper than QF's Redtail sale. Is it called Redtail?

 

Compare to QF, Virgin Blue service is basic. For example, if you fly QF domestic, you have QF transfer between the International and Domestic terminal in SYD. You fly Virgin Blue you have to pay your way to get between the International and Domestic terminals. I know in the past there is a free bus but that has been terminated. We always use the train - the easiest and most on time, though certainly is not cheap consider the very short distance it travels. QF offers its own transfer to its passengers free.