Last year, in August 2023 we made the big move from Perth, Australia to Houston, USA.

It was a long journey hopping across multiple time zones and taking three medium-to-long haul flights to get to the literal opposite side of the world.

Around 21 hours of flight time and 5.5 hours of airport layovers.

In a previous blog post, I shared my flight experience in United Airline’s Polaris business class from Sydney to Las Angeles.

Today, I want to dive into our bittersweet moment of leaving our hometown of Perth, albeit temporarily, to have a once in a lifetime experience of living and working in another country.

We were fortunate to be flying in business class on my husband’s company dime for the all segments of our journey to the USA.

We flew in the Qantas Airbus A330 business class cabin for our 4 hour flight from Perth to Sydney.

So lets dive into how it went.

Related Post: Reflections on 12 Months in the USA: The Highs and Lows as an Aussie Expat Living and Travelling Around the USA

Check-in and Baggage

My parents, brother and sister-in-law dropped us off at Perth’s Qantas domestic airport terminal.

Our flight was on a Wednesday night was scheduled to depart close to midnight.

When we arrived around 2 hours before our departure time, the airport was relatively quiet. Checking in and dropping off our four 32kg giant suit cases was subsequently pretty quick.

Luckily we were able to check in all the way through to USA since we had a travel itinerary that covered all three flights, all the way to USA, even though it was on two different airlines (Qantas for Perth to Sydney, and United Airlines for Sydney to Las Angeles to Houston).

We made our way to the Qantas domestic business class lounge after saying our goodbyes to my family.

Visiting Qantas Business Lounge Before Takeoff

Flying Qantas business class meant we had access to the Qantas Business Lounge at Perth’s Qantas terminal.

The Perth Qantas terminal is pretty small, so you’ll get to the lounge quite quickly after going through security.

The benefits of a small city airport!

We’ve been in the Perth’s Qantas Business Lounge a few times in the past when travelling to places like Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, Broome and Singapore since my husband had Qantas Platinum status through flying for work at the time.

It’s always a treat to be able to relax at the Qantas Business Lounge before flying off.

The lounge is modern and spacious, with plenty of seating.

If there is one down side to the lounge is that it’s always so busy! Despite how crowded it gets, we can usually find a spot to sit quickly.

There’s a modern and nice looking bar towards the back of the lounge. Service is always prompt and friendly here.

We kicked off our long journey to the USA with a gin and tonic and a rum and coke.

The food at the lounge is always great. The freshly baked pizzas is the highlight as it’s always a delicious treat.

The lounge has the usual food offerings: salad bar, cheese and deli meats and hot food options all day.

And if you’re looking to satisfy that sweet tooth of yours, they also have a selection of desserts.

The design of the lounge blends a contemporary Australia interior design style, while making the vibe of the lounge comfortable and relaxing.

I love the use of natural materials like wood and stone throughout this lounge. That’s quite a signature style of the newer or upgraded Qantas lounges.

I think it’s a classically Australian design style that aims for an understated luxury feel.

Boarding and Cabin on the Qantas Airbus 330

Come boarding time, we headed towards the gate to get ready for boarding.

The Airbus 330 business class seat is one of the better domestic flight seats in Australia.

Why? Because you get a complete all-leather lie-flat seat!

That was really important for this flight since we were flying at midnight to Sydney and we intended to sleep the majority of the 4 hour journey across the country.

The business cabin seats were laid out in the 1-2-1 format. We opted for the 2 middle seats since we were flying as a couple.

On arrival at our seat, we had a pillow and blanket waiting for us.

The seat had plenty of leg room to stretch out.

There was a storage cubby on the side to store bulkier items like noise cancelling headphones or a camera.

The seat controls were easily accessible next to you side table. It includes quick options like take off and landing position, or a lay-flat position. The lighting controls were also part of the seat control panel.

Qantas also provided over-ear noise cancelling headphones for passengers to use. They’re conveniently stored on a hook right above your power outlets and USB charging points.

Once thing I liked about the layout of the business class seat is that all of that has been designed for the passenger to have quick access to everything they need.

Service and Entertainment on the Qantas Airbus 330

I’ve flown on Qantas multiple times in the past. Either across to Sydney or Melbourne, or overseas to places like Singapore.

So I was familiar with the Australian style of airline hospitality—friendly, casual yet professional but to-the-point.

I’ve only flown twice in business class in the Airbus 330 with this particular type of seat in the past, using points on both occasions. Once from Perth to Singapore. Another time from Sydney to Perth.

I did flick through the entertainment system briefly out of interest and the flight had a good selection of movies and TV shows.

The screens were large, bringt and modern. The touch screen was responsive.

The entertainment menu was very intuitive and user friendly.

Qantas’ contemporary design aesthetics that you saw in the Qantas Business Lounge carried through to the business class cabin. Or should I say the other way round?

Food, Beverage and Amenity Kit on the Qantas Airbus 330

Both of us skipped the meals and slept all the way through our flight, so I can’t comment on what the food was like on this particular flight.

My past experience of flying a similar Qantas A330 business class flight tells me that the food is always a decent feed.

As it was only a 4 hour flight across to Sydney, Qantas didn’t provide an amenity kit. But the pillow and blanket made my sleep in the sky plenty comfortable.

Making Travel Planning Easier (Free Template in Notion)

One of our goals of moving to the US from Australia is to take the opportunity to travel and explore more of the US. That means being organised and intentional about locking in travel dates ahead of time so the trips actually happens.

There is a lot to juggling when travel planning—itinerary, accommodation, flight options, things to do, recommended food and drink places etc.

It’s just not possible to track all of that in my head!

I’m a big Notion fan and I use that to plan and track all our trips. I also use it for other things like meal planning, tracking my tasks and projects, and keeping track of my camera gear etc.

Notion is free to use, hyper customisable and saves you time by giving you the ability to templatise things you do often.

So you’re not reinventing the wheel each time you want to plan a new trip in Notion.

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Final Thoughts on Qantas Airbus A330 Business Class

If you have Qantas frequent flyer points to use, you can book this Qantas Airbus A330 Business Class from Perth to Melbourne. It can be tricky to find an award space seat given how popular this seat is.

The goal of this particular flight was to get as much sleep as possible. The lay-flat seats made that possible!

Until next time, happy travelling!

Janice.

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