A330-200 Business Class Qantas

[Ezekiel Tulagan]

Tostart off the meal service, I went with the salad of herbed lemon chicken with chickpea, balsamic onions, broccolini and saffron aioli. I will say, the starter tasted excellent, and the aioli especially accompanied it well.

As for the main dish, I went with the Jiangxi style Humpty doo barramundi with seasonal greens, sesame seeds and jasmine rice. The barramundi was tasty and had a lot of flavours, but I found the portion size to be a little small.

Zac has been obsessed with travel since the age of 2. Now flying 200,000+ miles per year and blogging about luxury travel. Points From The Pacific is a blog that posts about the latest airline news, insights, reviews and guides to help travellers use their points to travel in first and business class.

Hi I'm Zac George, the founder of Points From The Pacific. I started this blog to bring you the best travel and airline news, reviews and insights. Thanks for stopping by, and please make yourself at home.

Qantas lays out its A330 business class across two cabins. One larger cabin at the front of the aircraft, and a smaller mini-cabin behind it. The seats are laid out in a 1-2-1 layout, meaning every seat has direct aisle access. The seats alternate, meaning every second row has the seat closer to the window, and the console on the aisle side. If you are in one of these seats, it is extremely private (as seen in the image of my seat later). You almost feel as if you are in your own suite.

There is plenty of space for laptops/tablets, especially with the L-shaped shelf on your side. Another handy feature is that the space beside you is large enough to fit a laptop, meaning you can continue to work on a laptop/tablet while dining. There are also many other handy storage features, such as a small shelf for shoes, and a hook to hang headphones.

The seat specifically is very comfortable. It is able to be partially reclined during takeoff and landing. One downside to this is the requirement for a 3-point seatbelt to be worn, much like a car seatbelt. Although this is only required for takeoff and landing.

Sat in 7A on their Dreamliner from Brisbane to LA it was high up there on my favourite flights. The new business product is really stellar - good food, great IFE and amazing crew for 13 great hours. Hopefully next time you can try it on a longer flight!!

All our flights within Australia were operated on either a Boeing 737-800 or an Airbus A330-200, and the economy experience was fairly consistent throughout the flights. On the flights operated by a 737, there was a seat-back entertainment screen, which is always nice. For the flight on the A330, individual iPads were provided. I found the in-flight entertainment on both systems to be quite responsive, and the system had a good amount of content.

Speaking of meals, Qantas provided meals on all of our flights in coach, which is unheard of on domestic flights within the U.S. these days. The meal on our flight on the A330 from Cairns to Sydney was the blandest of the flights, as it was a chicken and cheese sandwich. On the international flights to New Zealand, Qantas stepped up their game, and provided a choice of delicious lamb curry or a salmon salad. I was surprised that on the domestic flights, Qantas only accepts cash for onboard purchases. Contrast that to the U.S., where all major airlines only accept credit or debit cards.

Another perk of the domestic flights was that Qantas provides free inflight Wi-Fi, which I found to be quite fast. On their homepage, Qantas also has an interactive map that shows you interesting points along your flight. For example, it would highlight areas of historical significance, tourist attractions, and towns along the way. It was a nice touch so that we could learn a little more about the areas we passed.

Across all our economy flights, we found the flight attendants to be quite personable, attentive, and they seemed to genuinely care about our experience. Surprisingly, the Qantas economy experience proved to be superior to our international Premium Economy flight.

The Premium Economy cabin is laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration, making the sides ideal for couples travelling together. As with our other Qantas flights, the seats had quite a bit of recline, and our space was limited if the person in front of you reclined. Even though we were in the last row of the Premium Economy cabin, our seats had a generous amount of recline. I found the seat to be somewhat comfortable, but certainly could have used more padding. It was difficult to get comfortable, and my tailbone was a little sore after the flight.

Unlike our previous Qantas flights, the flight attendants in our cabin did not live up to the Qantas standard that we had come to expect. The two attendants that served our cabin tended to be a little curt, did not come through the cabin often, and it almost seemed like we were a burden on them. When we needed something, they would oblige, but it was not the most welcoming experience.

One other aspect that surprised me in the Premium Economy cabin was that there was only one lavatory for the entire cabin, which seats 36 people. I would have thought there would be at least two lavatories, but no such luck. As a result, there was often a line of people waiting, which is a little subpar for this type of cabin. In addition, it did not appear that the lavatory was serviced at all, as it got dirtier throughout the flight.

Our lone flight in Business Class was operated by an older 737-800, having been delivered in 2004 (registration VH-VYC). The plane was a little worse for wear on the inside, but that was more than made up by the fantastic flight attendant. The FA was very attentive, and my glass of wine was never empty during the three-hour flight.

As with the other Qantas flights, your personal space gets a little tight when the person in front of you leans back. The seats were similar to ones you would find on a domestic first class flight here in the U.S. and made for a comfortable flight overall. One aspect I would like to see U.S. airlines adopt from Qantas is the footrest that extends from the front of the seat. The only downside here is that the seat controls were a little tough to operate, as you had to push the buttons hard and lean on the seat in order to get it to work.

The Business Class experience on Qantas was as expected for our domestic flight, and on-par for what we see in the typical U.S. domestic first class cabin. It was easily an upgrade over economy and helped us arrive feeling great after a pleasant flight.

The majority of the five flights taken were all enjoyable, each with their ups and downs. Overall, the hard and soft product on Qantas was great, and most of the flight attendants were polite and helpful.

CORRESPONDENT - SEATTLE, WA. Colin is an avid AvGeek who works in finance and is based in the Seattle area. He has an immense passion for aviation and loves to travel as much as possible. Email: co...@airlinereporter.com

Cabin service between Australia and New Zealand will depend on the type of aircraft you fly. Qantas now uses A330s (200s and 300s) between AKL and SYD, BNE and MEL (after EK exited trans-Tasman services) and these are staffed by Australian-based mainline crew but still uses its 737-800s with mostly New Zealand based crew from WLG, CHC and ZQN. The A330s have the new suite business class product and are good.

Boarding the aircraft first (perks of sitting in 1A) I was impressed with the old design. It was big, with 73 inches of pitch and 23 inches width. I had so much legroom that I could sit with my butt on the floor and still struggle to touch my feed to the bulkhead.

The business class cabin is in a 1-2-1 configuration, but noticeably there were fewer seat rows throughout as the legroom was so big. The seats and cabin were a bit tired and dirty, with dust on the lesser-used surfaces (such as on top of the TV screens).

Now we get to the meat of the matter (pun fully intended). Upon arriving at my seat, a flight attendant joined me (not a rookie at all, but a well-trained man who actually seemed to really take care) to take my breakfast order. He did offer to let me sleep (as it was only a five-hour flight) but it was unlikely that I would want to miss anything.

Now that Emirates has withdrawn flights from Auckland to Melbourne and Brisbane, Qantas has taken over with their flagship A330 product. Last leg of our trip involved testing the A330-200 in business class.

Before our descent, the CSM approached me to wish us a pleasant stay in Melbourne and mentioned that they had given my mum a pair of Qantas wings so that they consider travelling with them in the future. Both of my parents were very impressed with the level of service of the crew.

What a pleasant flight! I forgot about the delay and a slightly later arrival thanks to one of the most amazing (if not the best) Qantas crew ever! The crew really went the extra mile to make our flight even more special which showed the Melbourne hospitality and the true Australian service that makes you feel at home. The hard and soft product were great.

In saying that, make sure you are not stuck on a 737, which are more frequently utilised on Trans-Tasman routes. As you may see in our previous review of the 737 Business class, the differences are quite significant, so it pays to have a look on the aircraft they are using prior booking!

The Melbourne (MEL) to Sydney (SYD) route is the busiest domestic route in the world, connecting two major Australian cities that are centers of commerce, culture, and tourism. On average, Qantas operates an impressive 37 daily and 258 weekly flights between the two cities. I had the opportunity to fly on this route a couple of months ago from Melbourne to Sydney in Qantas business class;

Qantas predominantly operates the Boeing 737 (narrowbody) on this route, with a few exceptions in its daily service, which are served on the Airbus 330 (widebody) aircraft. I chose the A330 to experience the widebody aircraft service on this route. Given the relatively short distance of 439 miles between the two cities, I booked our tickets with British Airways (BA) Avios. I paid 12,500 points + CAD 37 for the business class flight from Melbourne to Sydney. With a high frequency of daily flights, it was easy to find standard award availability directly on the BA Avios website.

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