Qantas starts international wifi

[justinbrett]

Good news - but it’s only A332 & B738 and only while over Australia

International Qantas flights get fast, free WiFi

The international fleet is getting an early upgrade for worldwide Internet coverage.

www.executivetraveller.com

 

[sudoer]

only A332

737 also according to the article - great for those flying to Bali.. they should have internet for 80% of the trip!

Hopefully my SYD-SIN A333 flight in 10 days gets swapped for an A332.

 

[Foreigner]

Better late than never for QF

 

[serfty]

Presumably complimentary....

 

[Foreigner]

Perhaps for premium class / ff members. Many variables to contend with: limits on speed, bandwidth, time …

 

[pauly7]

It’s good to have but I do like the excuse of not having internet now and then

 

[justinbrett]

Presumably complimentary....

Yes. It's in the article.

 

[AIRwin]

A332 operated QF25 to HND and QF80 from HND on one of the days this week (last minute after swap?) so wonder if WiFi will be available in such instances?

 

[sudoer]

A332 operated QF25 to HND and QF80 from HND on one of the days this week (last minute after swap?) so wonder if WiFi will be available in such instances?

Given neither is listed as a selected route I guess the answer is no, but it would make a lot more sense to offer it on MEL-HND which would have about 3h45m coverage compared with just 1h50m on SYD-HND.



MEL-DEL and SYD-BLR are interesting omissions given they're practically always operated by an A332, and get about as much coverage as flights to SIN.

 

[MelbFlyer]

It's good that Qantas will have this for some international flights, but sometimes it's good to switch off for a bit.

I have a QF29 flight to HK in business in October which is on an A330, wonder if they'll also introduce it on that route too. My partner asked me if there was the option for Wi-Fi on our QF flight, I told her not yet, she was like, "ohh... okay".

Of course, if CX had a better flight time (the option at the time of booking was 3pm, compared to QF's 11am (which has now been annoyingly re-scheduled to 1:45pm - as we wanted a better landing time in HK to have dinner etc)), we would have gone with CX as their business class product looks better than QF's.

I was on CX890 in business (HK to Newark (NY) back in 2019 and it was a very enjoyable flight.

Just having the reverse herringbone seating position is automatically better (ie. more privacy, and IMO) than the staggered and straight facing config of Qantas.

I've never been on QF business before, but I'm sure it should still be a good experience.

Food wise though, not holding my breath.

 

[SYD]

Flying SYD-CGK in 2 wks but alas, an A333 but at least I just snagged some unicorn U CR seats (originally booked in X). The article prompted me to check reward seat availability…!

 

[AIRwin]

Looks like QF51 with a scheduled departure of 10:30 from BNE will be the first?

 

[wenglock.mok]

I believe this would only be on flights that are operated by the domestic configured A330-200s, which would then exclude places like ICN, HKG or HND. None of the international configuration A330-200s or the -300s have got wifi Internet installed.

However, these A330-200s come with a somewhat poorer cabin experience (1x toilet in J, no personal screens in Y) compared to the international configuration birds.

 

[Foreigner]

I guess with QF (and other carriers, too) one accepts warts and all

 

[AIRwin]

Looks like QF51 with a scheduled departure of 10:30 from BNE will be the first?

VH-EBV

 

[jase05]

Flying SYD-CGK in 2 wks but alas, an A333 but at least I just snagged some unicorn U CR seats (originally booked in X). The article prompted me to check reward seat availability…!

I’ve flown QF41/42 a number of times and seem to always get the A332.
Is there a pattern as to what days they swap between the A332 and A333?

 

[wenglock.mok]

They tend to send the international configuration A330-200s on the international flights as those have two bathrooms in J and personal TVs in Y.

However, they clearly don't have enough of those as they are needed on the longer international flights so the domestic configuration -200s will sometimes appear on the shorter international routes (i.e. CGK, DPS, SIN, MNL), which is where wifi will be offered when flying over Australia.

 

[kpc]

Sq have unlimited free Wifi for J and F pax, and I think PPS members as well. It was great having WiFi from Syd to Europe and back recently. So a little way to go for Qf to catch up with its competitors!

 

[kpro]

Do QF really not have WiFi installed on any A332 that has in-seat IFE monitors? At least pre-COVID they sometimes appeared on domestic routes.

I tried to look for an updated list of plane rego's with WiFi installed but couldn't find one.

 

[SYD]

Sq have unlimited free Wifi for J and F pax, and I think PPS members as well. It was great having WiFi from Syd to Europe and back recently. So a little way to go for Qf to catch up with its competitors!

They didn’t have “unlimited” wifi last year flying SQ J SYD-SIN-LHR (return). Is that new?