Excited to be flying on an A380-800 again, our youngest daughter drove us to the airport for our 7:20 am flight to Sydney where we would board our next plane to New York via Los Angeles.  I felt a mix of excitement and trepidation as it was the first time leaving the Girls at home on their own with our youngest only just getting her licence the month before.

Airline and Flight #

Qantas QF11

Aircraft

Airbus Industrie A380-800 Jet

Airport and Terminal

Kingsford Smith Airport Sydney | Terminal 1

Scheduled Departure Date and Time

Saturday 9th September 2017 | 09:50 am

Flying Time

13 hours 50 minutes

Luggage Allowance

Carry-on: 1 x 185cm (45in) bag or 1 x 185cm (73in) non rigid garment bag up to 7kg

Checked baggage: 2 pieces up to 23kg (50lbs) each

If you are a Qantas club member or have silver or gold frequent flyer membership you are allowed an extra piece of checked baggage.  Business and First Class passengers are also allowed 3 to 4 pieces.

Fun Facts

• Qantas is the third oldest airline in the world and Australia’s largest airline
• Qantas is an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
• Qantas is the founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance
• Qantas’ main hub is in Sydney, Australia

Website

The Qantas website is easy to use and provides plenty of details when booking flights including type of aircraft, flight duration, any meals and snacks, stopovers and even how many frequent flyer points and status credits you will accrue on your chosen flight.  If you pay by BPay there are no extra costs incurred.  Unfortunately for international flights, you can’t book seats without incurring a fee of $35 if you’re travelling on a sale fare unless you wait up to 48 hours before departure.  Extra legroom seats cost an extra $20 per person on top of the $35.

Check-in 

If arriving at the domestic terminal, you need to catch a shuttle bus to the International terminal. There is no cost for Qantas connecting flights and I believe they have recently waived the cost now for passengers travelling on other airlines too.  We were unable to check in on-line or print our boarding passes due to the connecting flight from LA to NYC.  The staff at the check-in counter were friendly but I was sad to have my small jar of Vegemite confiscated as we passed through Security.

Seating

• We were in row 71 of 88 behind the wing.  The Qantas A380-800 is a wide bodied jet with a 3-4-3 configuration in Economy.  The aircraft has 484 seats divided into 14 first class seats, 64 business class seats, 35 premium economy seats and 371 economy seats.
• Each seat had foot rest nets under the seat in front of them and winged head rests that you could adjust to support your neck better whilst sleeping.
• On our seats was a blanket sealed in plastic, a set of headphones also sealed in plastic and a pillow.
• Seat pitch 31 inches (78.7 cm), seat width 17.5 inches (44.5 cm), seat recline 6 inches (15.2 cm)

Cabin Comfort

• The A380-800 is very quiet inside the cabin whilst the ambient LED lighting can reduce the effects of jet lag by simulating sunrise and sunset with it’s range of colours.
• The slightly wider seats provide a more comfortable flight as do the foot nets.

In-flight Entertainment

Electronic devices

• Electronic devices can be used whilst boarding using the aerobridge but not if you’re using the tarmac to board.
• Once doors on the plane have closed you need to then switch your device to flight mode
• The in-flight telecommunication service will allow you to send and receive texts and calls.  Prices are $1.90 USD for texts up to 160 characters and $5 USD per minute for calls.  Texts and calls are made from the plane’s own inflight entertainment phone handset.

Power

• Shared PC power is available in Economy class
• Power is provided at a maximum of 75 watts which if exceeded needs to be reset on the ground

Reading material

• Qantas Spirit of Australia is the inflight magazine found in the pocket of your seat
• Also in the seat pocket is a duty free magazine, safety card and air sickness bag

WiFi

• WiFi is not available on this flight.  Qantas has decided not to offer inflight internet as a result of a trial it conducted back in 2012 where less than five percent of passengers took up the service.  The demand for internet on international flights is a lot lower than domestic flights given the majority of international flights are overnight and most passengers prefer to sleep.

Entertainment System

• Each seat has a Panasonic eX2 inflight entertainment system with a large personal touch screen.  There are over 100 on demand movies to watch and over 500 TV shows.  There is up 1500 audio CD’s as well as a selection of audio books, language tutorials, destination information, business education and radio channels.
• The screen also has a Flight Path allowing you to see details including where you are, the time and distance to your destination, air temperature and speed you are travelling at.  A camera situated outside the aircraft enables live views from outside the plane.

Catering

Menus

Not long after being seated cabin crew began handing out menus.  It’s always exciting seeing what food is on offer and deciding what you’re going to have.  Qantas now offers three meal choices for lunch or dinner with one of them being a vegetarian option.  The menu contained three choices for lunch, followed by a snack later on and then breakfast about two hours before we landed.  There was also a list of complimentary beverages including alcohol.  The menus were a one sided A5 sheet of card with food down one side and drinks down the other.  There was a red and white geometric pattern across the top with the route listed below – in this case it was Australia to North America.  I’m sure Qantas could come up with a more attractive looking menu in terms of its presentation.

Food/Drinks

Shortly after boarding, bottles of water were handed out.  It’s nice to receive a drink early on to keep well hydrated.  It was not long after this that jugs of orange and hibiscus juice came around.  I really liked this juice and it was refreshing to have something other than the usual drinks on offer.

Lunch was served at about 12pm and by then we were starving as it had been a while since our breakfast on our early morning flight to Sydney.  I chose the Vegetable Lasagne with spinach and bechamel whilst hubby had the Southern Style Chicken with polenta, kale, broccoli and onion gravy.  The meals came with a garlic butter roll and a rich chocolate pudding.  We both really enjoyed our meals.  This was followed by tea, coffee or hot chocolate served with marshmallows and a Lindt chocolate ball.

Less than an hour later Weis mango ice creams were handed around and a few hours after that we were given a chilli cheese dog.  It wasn’t very big and was meant only as a snack but it was very tasty.  The plane had a couple of self service snack bars offering pear and raspberry bread, cheese and crackers, soy rice crackers, fruit and juices that you could help yourself to.  We both enjoyed the pear and raspberry bread.

Two hours before we were due to land, cabin crew began serving breakfast.  We both had the Feta and Spinach Omelette with pork and apple sausage, bacon, hash brown and braised beans.  This was served with a danish pastry and a tub of traditional Greek yoghurt with mango compote and granola.  Once again we enjoyed the meal.

Drinks were served fairly regularly throughout the flight and Qantas have recently changed how they present their meals, replacing the larger trays for plates on smaller trays and instead of rolls and butter, ciabatta containing garlic butter in the middle were substituted.  The meals were a decent enough size but there seemed to be less items than there used to be.  For instance there was no separate tub of salad or cheese and crackers, although cheese and crackers were available from the self service bar.

Restroom

The restrooms on board the Qantas A380-800 are large compared to other aircraft.  There is hand wash and hand cream by the wash basin and the crew did a pretty good job with making sure it all remained clean.

Service

I found the service to be professional and the airline staff friendly.  In saying that though, I felt they were going around doing their job without the extra friendliness and enthusiasm I have experienced on some other airlines.  I thought the drinks trolley could have come around more often than it did as it’s not always convenient to get up out of your seat to help yourself to a drink at the self service snack bar.  The staff did a good job keeping the toilets clean throughout the flight.

Pros

• The A380-800 is a very quiet plane making the long flight more comfortable
• The self-service snack bar is a great idea for when you are hungry between meals
• Nice clean toilets for most of the flight
• The food was tasty
• I liked the idea of the camera outside the aircraft so you had a good view of the runway when taking off and landing
• Having a spare seat next to us was a bonus for a bit of extra room and convenience when getting out of our seats.

Cons

• The meals seem to contain less items on the trays compared with some other airlines
• The drinks trolley could have come around more regularly

Conclusion

The Qantas A380-800 flight from Sydney to Los Angeles was an enjoyable flight.  The service was decent, the food tasty and the toilets were cleaned regularly.  I would happily fly Qantas on the A380-800 again.