First flight with QANTAS since 2016

[moffat39]

Friend and I decided on a last minute trip to Melbourne on Friday night to Melbourne to watch day 4 of the cricket on Sunday. We both live in Brisbane. I am Platinum with Virgin and friend is Platinum with QANTAS.

We booked our flights Friday night. QANTAS had a 6.00am departure and Virgin's first departure was 7.00am. RedeDeal for one way was $269 and Virgin choice fare was around $330 from memory. No brainer to book the QANTAS flight as cheaper and got me to Melbourne to watch the start of play. Friend and I booked our own tickets.

Did on line check in Saturday and was suprised to see I had an exit row seat at no cost given I am only a bronze member. Last time I flew QANTAS was mid 2016 on a Malayisan Airlines J redemption from KL to Brisbane. As MH had stopped flying to Brisbane after I booked flew into Sydney with a connecting flight to Brisbane in J. Prior to that last QANTAS flight was around 2011.

On boarding there was an announcement about cabin baggage as the flight was nearly full. The exit rows had the middle seat empty so a very comfortable flight. Enjoyed the breakfast of sweet potato, spinach and goats cheese quiche. Free wi fi was quick compared to Virgin.

Friend was in row 7 with no spare seat. Suprised to see drop down video screen for the saftey briefing. Did not know that there were still planes in Australia with drop down video screens.

Still shaking my head as to how I got an exit row seat with no status and first time flying with QANTAS for over 8 years!

Retunr flight on Sunday night was on Virgin. Wish I stayed Sunday night so could go to the cricket today.

 

[Lynda2475]

Glad your experience was positive.

Re exit row: Likely because you were travelling solo and no one who booked earlier wanted to pay to sit there.

Exit row on 737 is not super popular due to need to have all your belongings in overhead bins. I was moved to exit row on my last flight despite not selecting it for free at T-24; and i asked to be moved out of it, prefer to sit further forward and have ready access to my stuff.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Friend was in row 7 with no spare seat. Suprised to see drop down video screen for the saftey briefing. Did not know that there were still planes in Australia with drop down video screens.

I got one of those aircraft a few weeks ago MEL-CHC in paid J. Did get an extra 2000 QF points as "COMPLIMENTS OF CUSTOMER CONTACT".

 

[moffat39]

Re exit row: Likely because you were travelling solo and no one who booked earlier wanted to pay to sit there.

Lynda - that makes sense. My good luck! As I was only going down for the day I had a very small back pack which was fine in the overhead bin.

Another observation I forget to make was the age of the flight attendants. I could see in economy two males and one female and all were in their 50s. Whilst nothing wrong with their service none had a friendly manner or were enagaging. Probably unedrerstandable on a 6.00am flight between Christmas and New Year on a Sunday.

 

[moa999]

Did not know that there were still planes in Australia with drop down video screens.

About half the Qantas 737s don't feature seatback IFE so have dropdown screens.

Indeed the brand new 321XLRs to be delivered from mid-2025 won't have seatback IFE so may well have dropdown screens as well (rather than crew based emergency demos)

 

[SYD]

About half the Qantas 737s don't feature seatback IFE so have dropdown screens.

Indeed the brand new 321XLRs to be delivered from mid-2025 won't have seatback IFE so may well have dropdown screens as well (rather than crew based emergency demos)

The first time I ever saw a setback screen was about 30 years ago on USAir.

It wasn’t IFE, just in flight shopping(?) and ads and I don’t recall being able to turn it off!

One redeye LAS-CLT, the entire plane was lit up by the things…

A couple of drop down screens would have been better!

 

[moa999]

Checking back. Qantas started with Rockwell Collins on 332s in 2000.




For the youngsters, remember this is 10yrs before the first iPad, and 7 yrs before the first iPhone.

 

[DC3]

2016? Long time no fly. You just needed a reason to get back in the air?

 

[AIRwin]

2016? Long time no fly.

Long time no QFly.

 

[kpro]

Checking back. Qantas started with Rockwell Collins on 332s in 2000.

Sorry, going a bit off topic.

However, wasn't the first A332 (VH-EBA) delivered in 2002? It would've been one of the ones that eventually went to Jetstar and had no IFE.

If we're talking about when personal IFE screens appeared on QF planes, it'd probably be a Matsushita channel/loop system on the 767's or 743's, starting in J (Dreamtime seats) and F. Then eventually a Rockwell Collins channel system which also made its way to Y and the earlier A330's. They then upgraded the Rockwell system to AVOD.

I still have memories of the days you'd have to wait an hour after takeoff for the IFE to become active, and flipping through the in-flight magazine to find the TV guide for what shows to watch on what channel.

 

[rjmit8]

Checking back. Qantas started with Rockwell Collins on 332s in 2000.

View attachment 422406


For the youngsters, remember this is 10yrs before the first iPad, and 7 yrs before the first iPhone.

I remember flying on one of these (albeit the seats were red not blue) as late as 2016 on a Domestic leg. I also remember absolutely hating it compared to the newer recaro-equipped A330s with the "iQ" entertainment system, as it was called back then