I was excited to be flying Qantas again and back on the A380. I like the food and entertainment on board Qantas and the leg room is definitely an improvement over the B787 Dreamliner.
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
Sunday 7th October 2018| 10:35am
Flying Time
13 hours 50 minutes
Luggage Allowance
Carry-on: 1 personal item/garment bag and 2 bags up to 7kg. 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 and up to 158 linear centimetres (62 inches)
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, 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 or have Qantas frequent flyer status of silver or above. Extra legroom seats cost an extra $20 per person on top of the $35.
Check-in
Check-in for Qantas international flights opens from 24 hours up until 90 minutes prior to departure. This can be done on-line or at the airport using the self-service kiosk or at the check-in counter. You can check-in three ways:
- Mobile check-in – by downloading the Qantas app you can check-in and access your digital boarding pass without the need to print it out. Other benefits of this method include being alerted to when check-in first opens, access to real time flight data in case of delays and the ability to view any entertainment options prior to your flight. You can also choose your seats.
- Desktop check-in – by logging on to the Qantas website http://Qantas.com and entering your booking reference and last name to bring up your booking. Select the Checkin/Print Boarding Pass button and remember to take your boarding pass with you to the airport.
- At the airport – via the self-service kiosks or at the desk in the Departures area prior to passing through security. Here you can also select your seat, enter your frequent flyer number, upgrade your flight using Qantas points and print out your boarding pass and bag tags so you can drop off any bags at the bag drop. Otherwise you can check in at the counter.
If arriving at the domestic terminal, you need to catch a shuttle bus (complimentary) to the International terminal. The bus leaves regularly and doesn’t take very long. You get a good look at some of the different airlines and aircraft along the way.
Seating
- We were in row 57 of 88 right over 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 newly designed good quality 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.
- The high ceilings make the aircraft appear larger and feel more spacious
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.
Communication
- On the Qantas A380, you’re able to send and receive texts, make inflight calls and perform seat to seat calls with the inflight telecommunication service. Using the airline’s phone handset, you can send messages of up to 160 characters to any SMS compatable mobile phone or email address. The cost to send and receive each messages is $1.90 USD per message. On the other side of the handset is a satellite phone for making phone calls at a charge of $5 USD per minute. You can make and receive calls to passengers on the same flight for free.
Power
- Shared PC power is available in Economy class at 110V AC (60Hz)
- Most household power plugs are accepted
- Power is provided at a maximum of 75 watts which if exceeded needs to be reset on the ground.
In the Seat Pocket
As well as the air sickness bag and safety card, Qantas has its own magazine “Spirit of Australia” filled with information about their aircraft and routes. There are also articles on travel destinations, interviews and of course plenty of advertising. There is no duty free shopping to the US.
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 use the in-flight entertainment system.
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.
Safety Demonstration
The safety demo is done by cabin crew whilst the safety video plays on your screen in front of you. The video is quite long at seven minutes but I think they have done a really good job with it. Some can be quite tacky and over the top but this isn’t one of them. The video jumps to some of the various locations which Qantas flies to and someone there will relate something in that location to one of the safety do’s or don’ts on the aircraft . For example a man in Kruger National park puts out his campfire before talking about smoking in the aircraft and a woman on safari drops her phone out of the jeep beside an elephant and the tour guide tells not to retrieve it as he will. She then talks about not retrieving mobile phones if they fall between the seats in the aircraft and to call a crew member to retrieve it as there’s less chance of it getting damaged. The video is quite clever and there’s even some humour too. Throughout the video they sing parts of the song “I still call Australia Home” which would bring out the patriotism in any Aussie.
Catering
Menus
Qantas recently changed their menus and although they’re an improvement on the old ones, they still lack the quality and presentation of those on other airlines. The paper is thin and opens up to a food menu on the right hand side with beverages on the back. There is a choice of three mains, a mid-flight snack and a choice of two breakfasts. On the back is a list of alcoholic beer, wines and spirits, and non-alcoholic drinks including tea and coffee. The selection of juices and soft drinks aren’t listed so you need to ask. The front cover was a photo of palm trees taken at Queensland’s Thala Beach Nature Reserve. I’m guessing the photos will vary from time to time and depict other Australian locations as the food changes. The concept is a good however I found the current photo quite unattractive and uninspiring.
Food/Drinks
Unfortunately Qantas has done away with the bottled water on the seat as you board the plane. And the delicious orange and hibiscus juice they poured from a jug as a welcome drink was no longer a thing either. So as the flight departed 40 minutes after its scheduled departure time, it was not until 11:40 when the seat-belt lights were turned off, that bottles of water were handed out.
About an hour later, lunch was served. I chose the roast chicken with Parmesan cream, roasted potato, sugar snaps and carrot. It ended up being a good choice as the meal was delicious. Especially the creamy sauce. Hubby had the southern style beef with wild, rice, corn, capsicum, zucchini and red onion. He agreed mine tasted better. The other option was a vegetarian salad of hot smoked salmon with potato, peas, olives, green beans and vinaigrette. The meals were served with garlic ciabatta and Eton mess for dessert. Both tasted good. With the smaller serving trays Qantas now uses, there aren’t as many accompaniments such as salads, cheese and biscuits etc. I also had a Bloody Mary’s which was so heavily laced with vodka I couldn’t finish it.
An hour later at 1:45pm crew came around offering hot chocolate with a marshmallow and chocolate Lindt ball or peppermint tea.
At 5:45pm the mid flight snack was served which was a beef, mushroom & Saskia beer Berkshire bacon pie. Unfortunately, this didn’t taste as good as it sounded. Between meals you could help yourself to the self service snack bar where there were apples, cheese and biscuits, Weis ice cream bars and Kez lamington biscuits.
At 11pm or 6:35 local time, the last meal of the flight was served. Breakfast was a choice between spinach herb frittata with pork sausage, tomato relish, bacon, kale and feta or a fruit plate. I went with the hot breakfast which was tasty but was kind of wishing I had picked the fruit as I pretty full already and I wasn’t used to eating a big meal so late. Both choices came with banana and raspberry loaf and a traditional Greek yoghurt with mango compote and granola. I enjoyed the yoghurt and hubby told me the raspberry loaf was good too.
Restroom
The restrooms on board the Qantas A380-800 are large compared to other aircraft but still not that big. 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 throughout the flight. You could see the plane was showing its age from the rust present on some of the surfaces.
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 do 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 throughout the flight
- The food was enjoyable except for the mid-flight snack
- I liked the idea of the camera outside the aircraft so you had a good view of the runway when taking off and landing
- The leg room is much better than on the 787-9 we flew in with American Airlines
Cons
- The meals seemed to contain less items on the trays compared with some other airlines
- Not as wide a choice of drinks as some airlines
- Internet is not available on this flight
- No towelettes are supplied to passengers prior to meal times
Conclusion
I would recommend the Qantas A380 over American Airlines’ Dreamliner B787 on this flight from Sydney to Los Angeles for comfort reasons. Extra leg room, a foot net and less cramped conditions make for a more pleasurable long haul flight. The food overall was tasty, service was friendly and I liked the new plush pillows Qantas recently introduced. The range of movies I thought could be better although there is enough content to keep you satisfied. It was a shame Qantas no longer leave bottled water on the seats when you board and that they have stopped the orange and hibiscus welcome drink which I used to enjoy.