Qantas Business Class meals & menus

[MEL_Traveller]

Coming back from BNE yesterday, the woman behind me in 3C asked the hostie "What's the cheese box?".

The hostie, very seriously, replied "It's a box with cheese in it".

lol. It reminds me of a friend who flew China Southern recently... the choice for dinner was 'beef with rice' or 'black pepper beef with rice'

'What's the difference?' my friend asked.

After a pause, and with similar serious face... 'errrr... one has black pepper'.

 

[Flying Fox]

QF are doing new J meals starting 5 NOV.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-to-l...&utm_medium=flipper&utm_campaign=home-flipper

 

[opusman]

QF are doing new J meals starting 5 NOV.

Qantas to launch new domestic business class meals this week - Australian Business Traveller

Still banging the "rockpool-inspired" drum I see. Rockpool is a nice restaurant but it's been around a long time now and definitely isn't the last word in cuisine.

 

[Princess Fiona]

QF are doing new J meals starting 5 NOV.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-to-l...&utm_medium=flipper&utm_campaign=home-flipper

3x J domestic sectors coming up next week for me so keen for any variety onboard

 

[Pushka]

Afternoon snack Adl-Syd last week.

Flight departed at 5.20pm and arrived at 7.15 and stuck on the tarmac for over an hour. A meal would have been better - arrived to Hotel at 9pm.

 

[RichardMEL]

Re the Tom Yum soup.

last weekend flew MEL-BNE and v.v. and it was offered both ways (other hot option the toasted sambo one way beef, the other way turkey IIRC). What I love about the TY soup is it is pretty spicy!!! It really has a decent kick to it and not a boring plain sort of thing they usually offer. Sure, I like variety, but as a fan of TY this is a decent effort imho. Sure nothing like a "real" TY soup with all the vegeies and meat or fish thrown in but it is a lovely meal for a couple of hours flight (specially with the right wine ).

Still the new meal options may see a break from this for a bit - and variety is the spice of life.

 

[moa999]

SMH article on the new meals.
Http://smh.com.au/business/aviation...ers-are-eating-on-qantas-20151105-gks6uj.html

Seems salads are a hit

 

[kermatu]

The meals in that article do look interesting.

And I have found the salads in Y to be really good.

But given the number of times the only option in J is soup or a cheese box - seems disingenuous to now cite the take-up of cheese boxes as evidence to support a downgrading of lunch meals.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

SMH article on the new meals.
Http://smh.com.au/business/aviation...ers-are-eating-on-qantas-20151105-gks6uj.html

Seems salads are a hit

As with almost all of Rockpool's dishes... I can hear Manu Feildel exclaiming 'where's the sauce?????'

Qantas head of national product and service delivery Helen Gray said there is a definite trend toward travellers eating less on board than they had in the past.

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"They are much more conscious of not eating necessarily a three-course meal in a three-hour flight," she said on Friday after introducing the latest Qantas domestic business class meal options that will rotate on aircraft over the next six months.

Oh please!! Again - the fundamental issue here is a company 'telling us' what our experience should be, instead of the passenger determining, for themselves, what it is.

Passengers should still have the option of a three course meal in three hours if that's what they want. As I've mentioned before, the same price as a MEL-SYD return in business class can get you Australia to London in economy, with at least 4 full meals and snacks.

To be honest, it is very rare to see business class passengers on intra-Asia flights of 1, 2 or 3 hours turn down the full multi-course offering. But for some reason, Australians are unique in rejecting a full meal?

 

[Flying Fox]

"At first, it loaded 80 per cent hot meals and 20 per cent salads, but the ratio has now changed to 60 per cent hot meals and 40 per cent salads."

I've selected the salads because the hot dish was very unappealing!

I still resent paying for J to have a salad vs a lousy hot meal offering. Provide better hot meals and that ratio will change.

 

[baggyred]

Select on Q would be brilliant for domestic travel as well - particularly in J

Worked well for a recent J flight i took on QF. Given they have the tech infrastructure in place - I wonder why they don't use it.

Surely it would result in both reduced wastage (ie less cost) and greater customer satisfaction?

 

[kermatu]

Select on Q would be brilliant for domestic travel as well - particularly in J

Worked well for a recent J flight i took on QF. Given they have the tech infrastructure in place - I wonder why they don't use it.

Surely it would result in both reduced wastage (ie less cost) and greater customer satisfaction?

AA does it with a far greater number of domestic flights - though the quality of food is far below that of QF. I agree, would be a good move.

Economy Trans-Tasman flights can now pre-select meals, but not J. Perhaps a gradual roll-out to eventually cover most sectors and classes?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

... though the quality of food is far below that of QF.

Subjective AA meals are laden with salt, fat and sugar. And taste absolutely delicious!! (And somewhat filling )

 

[kermatu]

Subjective AA meals are laden with salt, fat and sugar. And taste absolutely delicious!! (And somewhat filling )

Fair point - in my opinion, AA's nuts, entrée and salad are superior. But the main is inferior, in my opinion.

Just my opinion.

 

[eminere]

Economy Trans-Tasman flights can now pre-select meals, but not J. Perhaps a gradual roll-out to eventually cover most sectors and classes?

Was looking forward to it but the option never showed up for my recent SYD-ZQN flight.

 

[farstar]

Fair point - in my opinion, AA's nuts, entrée and salad are superior. But the main is inferior, in my opinion.

Just my opinion.

Just rememeber in the US and therefore AA entree means main course. It can be very confusing sometimes.

 

[kermatu]

Just rememeber in the US and therefore AA entree means main course. It can be very confusing sometimes.

Yes, I meant the starter, which - based on about a dozen flights in Nov/Dec 2014 - was always fresher and tastier than the entrée (main), and sometimes a very decent serve as well.

Back to QF though, I'd love to see starters / entrées more consistently on J flights. Perhaps there are certain routes/times where they are featured, but feels random to me - and more often than not it is only a good CSM who might offer the soup as a starter.

 

[kermatu]

Was looking forward to it but the option never showed up for my recent SYD-ZQN flight.

My next flight to AKL is this week, and the option is there to choose one of 3 mains (Y only).

Not all T-T flights have it. From the website now the following have the ability:
QF111, QF121, QF125, QF139, QF141, QF143, QF145, QF147, QF149, QF155, QF161, QF163, QF171

 

[eminere]

My next flight to AKL is this week, and the option is there to choose one of 3 mains (Y only).

Not all T-T flights have it. From the website now the following have the ability:
QF111, QF121, QF125, QF139, QF141, QF143, QF145, QF147, QF149, QF155, QF161, QF163, QF171

Yep, I was travelling on QF121 in Y but the option never appeared in MMB in the week leading up to my flight.

 

[RichardMEL]

I'm not a salad guy myself BUT on any number of recent (pre the latest announcement) domestic J flights during the day the hot meal option has been like a toasted sandwich (and sometimes soup, which I usually go for). They are all about eating healthier blah blah blah yet offering toasties with melted cheese and roast beef or whatever seem counter that idea - specially after most pax can make a toastie in the lounge prior. It seems a lazy meal and most of them (I've had my share) aren't that appealing anyway.

Dinner times have been better with fish and lasagna options in the past year or two but I mostly travel lunch/afternoon flights.

The cheese box thing seems to be part of QF's marketing spin of "all day dining" >9am which is fine in and of itself, but if you depart someplace at 1430 or 1540 and arrive later, it's not a whole lot specially if one doesn't want the salad or soup. When I've seen people have that option it's never looked very appealing to me either.