This was to be a long journey.  After a two hour train ride from New York State to New York City, we had to negotiate the subways and Airtrain to the airport where we had a five and a half hour flight to Los Angeles followed by a nearly sixteen hour flight to Melbourne, Australia before yet another flight to Canberra.

We caught the subway train to Penn Station and from there to Jamaica where we bought our Airtrain tickets to the airport hopping off at Terminal 7 which is where Qantas was located.

Airline and Flight #

Qantas QF12

Aircraft

Boeing 747-400 (747-438) ER

Airport and Terminal

JFK, Queens New York | Terminal 7

Scheduled Departure Date and Time

22nd September 2017 | 10:10 pm

Flying Time

5 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 and Security

When checking in, if you are going right through to Australia with Qantas then you will be given boarding passes for JFK to LAX as well as LAX to your destination in Australia.  Your luggage will also be checked right through to your Australian destination so you don’t have to collect and recheck it at LAX in Los Angeles. It took a while to check in and pass through security due to the volume of passengers.

Seating

• We were seated in row 48 of 75.  The Qantas B747-400 is a wide bodied jet with a 3-4-3 configuration in Economy.  The aircraft has 371 seats divided into 58 Business class seats, 36 Premium Economy seats and 270 Economy seats.
• Each seat had foot rest and winged head rests that you could adjust to support your neck better whilst sleeping.
• On our seats were 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

As with the flight from LA to NY, this plane was quite old (first flown in 2003) but had been updated to have the look and feel of the A380.  So the seats were relatively new with the winged head rests and netted foot rests for added comfort.

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.

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 or watch a movie or television program.

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

The menus on Qantas are printed on an A5 piece of card with food down the left hand column and drinks down the right hand side.  Just below the red and white geometric pattern at the top of the page is the route.  In this case Los Angeles to New York.  In small writing on the bottom right hand side is the month so I’m guessing the menus are rewritten monthly.  They aren’t the fanciest looking menus but they’re easy to read, include three choices of meals and are handed out nice and early on in the flight giving you plenty of time to choose what you’re having before the trolley comes around.

Food/Drinks

Shortly after take-off we were given a bottle of water and a menu.  About half an hour later dinner was served.  I had the Chicken Cacciatore with buttered orzo and seasoned vegetables whilst hubby had the Coconut Beef Curry with steamed rice and gobi matar.  The meals also came with ciabatta roll with garlic butter inside and a baked cheesecake.  The meal was OK with the cheesecake being the highlight. Drinks as usual accompanied the meal with tea and coffee to follow.

Toilets

As I didn’t use the toilets on this flight I wasn’t able to review them.

Service

The service on board our Qantas flight from New York to Los Angeles was friendly and professional.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Customs

As we were leaving the country and flying from one US state to another, we were not required to pass through customs.

Pros

• Proper meals served on a domestic flight in the US is always a bonus
• The 747-400 is a larger wide bodied jet which is nice to get on a domestic leg
• Seats were comfortable and had been refurbished

Cons

• Flight was about an hour delayed taking off
• Meal wasn’t as tasty as it could have been

Conclusion

Apart from the delay which allowed us to watch a beautiful sunset, the flight was enjoyable with a good selection of movies, documentaries and TV shows to watch.  We appreciated the choice of three meals on the US domestic flight and Qantas seems to do a good job with not running out of first preferences.  I would recommend this flight.  For my flight review from Los Angeles to New York see http://roomreviews.net/2017/09/10/qantas-los-angeles-to-new-york-b747-400-flight-review-september-2017/.