The direct flights from Melbourne to Perth were pretty expensive back in June 2022. We played around a with different flight times and stop-over combinations to either find a flight on points or a flight at a cheaper price.
Alas, we managed to find 2 Qantas Classic Rewards points seat to fly back to Perth from Melbourne via a brief transit Sydney. Given the price of tickets, we thought it was a good use of 20,300 Qantas frequent flyer points to fly economy class back to Perth (economy ticket prices at the time were pretty close to $800+).
If you’re interested, I previously wrote about my experience in the Qantas business lounge in Melbourne and Qantas business lounge in Perth. As a bit of a treat for ourselves, we also decided try our luck and request for an upgrade from economy to business class for the Sydney to Perth leg of our journey as the Qantas Airbus A330 is suppose to offer a pretty good business cabin. We were pleased to find out a couple of days before that we got the upgrade for 28,300 Qantas frequent flyer points! While you can probably get the flight on points cheaper than that at times, given how last minute we booked and how expensive the actual economy flights were, we were pretty happy with it.
Sydney Qantas Domestic Business Lounge
As we only had a 1 hour transit in Sydney, we didn’t spend that much time at the airport. We got into Sydney around 6.30pm and the lounge was surprisingly quiet. Given it’s the airport of one of the most populous cities in Australia, the lounge was quite large with plenty of seating. We grabbed decided to grab a drink from the bar and chill near the window for 30 minutes before heading to the gate.
I loved the modern marble look of the lounge’s bar and food buffet area. We didn’t have any of the food at the lounge (as we knew we’ll be having some dinner on the flight) so I can’t speak to it’s offerings.
We did a quick whirl around lounge to check it out just before heading out to our boarding gate for our flight back to Perth.
Cabin
Excuse the contrasty images below. As it was a night flight with limited light in the cabin, it was difficult to get particularly well exposed images.
Qantas’ Airbus A330 is known for it’s business class cabin. I think it’s a great way to spend your well earned FF points for a 5 hour flight across the the country.
The seats were well maintained all-leather with a comfortable headrest. The seats were arranged in a staggered 1-2-1 layout. As we were travelling as a couple we decided to pick the middle 2 seats in the first row as it theoretically had more foot space to stretch out. Great for much tall people that myself I think.
If you’re travelling by yourself and in the middle 2 seats, there is a privacy divider that keeps you both pretty separate. But if you’re travelling with someone and would like to have a chat, you do really have to lean forward and around to see your travelling companion to chat.
I love the black leather seats and wooden look and bronze/light brown colour combination. I think it gives the cabin a modern and luxurious look that is very Australian. Simple, understated but still luxurious.
The seat controls found on the site panel was easy and intuitive to use. The best thing about it of course is being able to lay flat fully. Great for a long flight like Sydney to Perth if you’re want to nap. There is even a feature for a back massage and lumbar support.
The curved seats while not fully enclosed does give you a reasonable level of privacy where you don’t tend to see anyone around you while you’re cocooned in your own seat.
In-Flight Entertainment, Service & Amenities
In flight entertainment was great on the flight. It was a pretty large HD touchscreen that was easy to use and sufficiently touch sensitive. I finished watched the 6 past series called Superpumped. I don’t have my own noise cancelling headphones and I found the ones offered by Qantas in business class was pretty great at isolating the general noise of the plane and allowed me to hear my show quite clearly when I was watching Superpumped.
There were plenty of movies, TV shows and documentaries to enjoy in air. Quite a few new release options too along side old favourites.
The Qantas crew who I dealt with in the business cabin, was friendly, professional but also down to earth. I though they encapsulated the Aussie culture and manner quite nicely. Very different to your Asian airlines like Cathy Pacific or Singapore Airlines.
As it’s a relatively short flight, Qantas doesn’t offer any extra comforts like blankets and pillows nor any amenity kits.
Food & Drink
A bonus of being in the first row seat is of course being served food and drink first. Upon getting comfortable in our seats, the steward immediately appeared to offer us some sparkling pinot noir chardonnay while we waited for the rest of the plane to board. There are other offers as well of course if you prefer juice or water.
Dinner was served shortly after take off. The fold out food tray is of course significantly larger than that found in economy class. Just the right size to fit the large food tray that the flight attendants serve your meal on. We have a warm slice of sourdough bread and butter, as well as a Lindt chocolate ball (very popular in Australia) to start. Then the main offering I selected (which came recommended to me) was the creamy chicken, mash potato and broccoli. And I concur that it was actually very delicious.
The dessert was a rather sweet, filling and decadent cake/muffin. I thought the Maggie Beer icecream was a lovely way to finish up the meal. Along with a hot cup of tea.
This is the first time I’m flying in the business cabin so I can’t say how this compares to pre-COVID and whether there has been any cutbacks.
Conclusion
Being located in Australia, Qantas and Virgin Frequent Flyer programs dominate the market. Frequent flyer members of other OneWorld airlines can also redeem this particular flight as Qantas is part of OneWorld. All in all, the Sydney to Perth Business class cabin of the Qantas Airbus A330 was a joy to fly in. The cabin, seats, entertainment, food and service was all pretty good. Cash fares can go at $2500 or more in business class so using points was well worth it we thought.
Thanks for stopping by today. Happy shooting & travelling.
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