This is my first review so everyone be nice please
Photos are all at the bottom.
Monday 5pm - Melbourne to Brisbane - Business
I had the 5pm flight out of Melbourne which seems to be one of the infamous 'snack' flights despite it being scheduled to land in Brisbane at 7:10pm. In this case, we ended up circling the gold coast for about 40 minutes and not landing until 8pm, so I personally think that this flight should have been a dinner flight.
Luckily, I had a decent dinner in the lounge. I think the Melbourne lounge is fantastic, it’s a good size and there are always plenty of drinks and food to eat. Monday’s dinner was a choice of soup and chicken curry, which was delicious.
Upon entering the plane we were offered coat service and shortly after a drink. I chose the mocktail and thought it was a great drink. The cabin only had 5 people and I luckily ended up with 2 seats to myself.
The seats themselves are quite comfy and a far superior to Qantas’ current grey business seats, however it will be interesting to see how they match up with the new Qantas leather seats that are currently being rolled out. My only complaints are the lack of footrest and the flimsy tray table, but I guess these are relatively minor.
The ‘snack’ service was served about 15 minutes into the flight. The snack was the risotto and raspberry panna-cotta along with the standard drinks service. The risotto wasn’t exactly outstanding, but the panna-cotta was fantastic. The main problem is the size of the meal, as many people have mentioned. I would expect a bigger meal for a 2+ hour business class flight that lands after 7pm.
After dinner the trays we promptly collected and more drinks we offered. This continued throughout the flight where the flight attendant when around every 15 minutes topping up glasses and offering new drinks.
Overall, I thought it was a good flight and the cabin crew are certainly starting to understand how to deliver a real business class service. The only downside is the small serving sizes, however we can’t blame the crew for this.
Friday 7:55pm - Brisbane to Melbourne - Business
The trip home, thankfully, just make the cut as a dinner service flight which I was hoping would be a nice change from the snack flight. Overall, the service was on-par with my first flight and the business cabin flight attendant was very attentive to her passengers - which was fairly easy as there were only two. The only difference I noted that this time we were offered The Australian newspaper after boarding which I gladly accepted.
Again, Dinner was served about 15 minutes into the flight as well as drinks. We were offer a choice between the the pasta bake and the tofu green curry - I chose the pasta bake as I am not a huge fan of tofu. Personally, I think a green chicken curry would be a big hit. The pasta bake tasted pretty decent and despite it looking small was actually just the right size. I would only suggest that they dial down the amount of breadcrumbs and add a little more sauce. The roll was excellent and I do like a good roll with a smattering of butter. The rest of the meal, however, is rather disappointing. The salad is, well... dismal at best and the chocolate nuts for desert is simple not enough. I would suggest scraping both and including a proper dessert like we see on the snack service.
Again, the trays were promptly collected and our drinks were refilled throughout the flight. Another minor differ, I was offered more snacks (from the economy menu) towards the end of the flight. I asked for the cheese and crackers and was presently surprised when they were delivered as a cheese plate instead of in the packet (photo included).
Overall, I think this was also a good flight and was very happy with the service.
