Sydney to New York via Dallas in the refurbished QF 3 class 747

[Tooner]

I haven’t written many trip reports of late, as there wasn’t much to talk about in my recent trips. Mostly bus trips to Melbourne, with some trips in the new VA after the status match, but others covered that very well.
Given the interest in the new seating options the refurbished 3 class 747 offers, I thought a quick trip report would be a good idea. This will also have pictures (once I get home and add them from icloud).
This trip was for a week of work in NY City, which has been mooted for some time and recent regulatory changes made necessary. Plan was to arrive in NY on Saturday night 24 March, spend the Sunday adjusting and then kick into a week of meetings and discussions before leaving on Saturday 31 March.
QF7 to DFW was booked, together with the QF version of AA738 to LGA. Return is (as I write) QF108 through to SYD via LAX. QF108 is, currently, an A330 to LAX, then 747 (4-class) to SYD.
While I could have left on Friday, with traffic from midtown to JFK, making the 6:45 departure would have meant leaving the city around lunchtime. An extra few hours for final discussions would be worth it. I wasn’t sorry to not fly back via DFW, as the flight has to make the extra stop in BNE, and there is something nice about waking up on approach to Sydney knowing you only need to get in a cab and you’re home.
With a bit of help from Serfty and others, I selected 3F in Zone A for the flight to DFW. Both of the 5 seats were free at that stage (not much upstairs though), and I did consider them, but the promised privacy of the row 3 seats did appeal. I’ll cover that soon!
For the AA flight, an MD80 plan was available and I selected 3F (again) hoping I would be able to get the carry-on loaded.
The transfer time was interesting. With QF7 arriving at 13:50 scheduled, and the LGA flight leaving at 15:25, there wasn’t much time for customs, luggage reclaim, re-loading and then the skytrain around to the other terminal. At that stage I didn’t realise just how long it was!
With family commitments, I was going to be saying goodbye to the family around 10:30am, which left a fair amount of time in the F lounge. With the new menu on offer, that meant lunch!
More to come

 

[Sprucegoose]

Look forward to it!

 

[Paddy55]

Yes, and very interested in DFW connecting experience.

 

[serfty]

I do hope 3F went well for you - I am looking forward to the report. (I have two upcoming bookings, one with 3E and the other 5J to make an objective comparison).

 

[cove]

We have always been big fans of the 747 and Mrscove remains a Qantas first thinker. Naturally we are a bit disappointed that First on the 747 is finishing and sometimes the AVOD has to be totally reset after a couple of hours.
We are looking forward to see how QF go with their makeovers on the 747s.
Trip reports are a top way of knowing about these changes so keep it coming.

 

[Tooner]

I should be able to keep everyone happy on the points raised so far. There is a story to connections at DFW, but there is the important details of seating to get through next.

I'm currently sitting in the QF F Lounge in LAX as we're an hour early so the shower queue isn't too much of a bother. We also witnessed what looked to be a riot over a cancelled flight right next to where our bus came in!

I will try to get the next instalment done tomorrow once I'm home. There will be pictures too.

I was also corrected on the timing of QF107/8 being 747 thorughout; a nice QFer based in AKL told me the changeover is in May, not August. That makes it around 2 years after they changed from 747 to A330!

 

[Tooner]

This could take a little time, as I'm only able to write this at night, and I'm cactus at 8pm at the moment!

It's been a while since I've been in the F Lounge at SYD, but it was all very familiar and comfortable like an old coat!

I have to say the restaurant is fantastic, and worth the price of admission . The main menu is pretty special, but the specials were pretty good to. In fact, like all good restaurants, there were at least a half dozen things on the menu I would have liked, but having only had a light breakfast and after a bike ride in the morning before the flight, I felt a good lunch was in order. This would leave the meal on the plane as dinner, to be followed by sleep and then breakfast before landing at DFW.

In the end, the regular menu won, with salt & pepper calamari followed by minute steak with harrissa and chips, washed down by a nice glass of red and then coffee and pavlova. It was all fantastic, and left me feeling pretty full!

As I'm not likely to get back to the F Lounge before the menu changes again, it was good to have had a sample. It really is an incentive to fly QF internationally!

Next, QF7 to DFW and my review of 3F.

Meanwhile, a teaser courtesy of DoodleCam

 

[Tooner]

QF7 to DFW
Seat 3F


When the call came, off we went to gate 8. Avoided the secondary screening and headed to the gate. I wouldn't say the priority boarding was working well. The whY scrum blocked off the lane, so the enterprising J passengers ducked under the tape for the A380 gates and headed to the lane. Before long we were on board and turning left, but not for an F seat!

Zone A is just as cosy as the original F cabin, and the Mark II J seats are well spaced out except for row 1. The view from 3F and the overall cabin on boarding:

Note obligatory foot shot! The gap between 1B and 1J is tight. And the cupboard at the front is a little larger than the original F cupboards and is the area where clothes go once pyjamas are donned. This means everyone in Zone A will pass by you if you are in 1B or 1J. Tip for young players: the latch on the door has to be clicked to close the door as well as open it!

IT is a little hard to see with my jacked lying on the top, but the unit in front of the seats is quite large and flat with cupboards at the front (containing newspapers), while 3D and 3E have their own cupboard which is quite spacious:

It may look like a fridge, but it is a good slot for a small bag. I didn't try to get my wheelie in, but I reckon you could give it a go! This wouldn't be a bad idea, as there are no bins above you, so you need to place anything else in side bins. You can also see how useful the top of the cupboard is for putting stuff somewhere. I would say the cupboard and top are slightly better than the bins in the upstairs cabin.


As this is a night flight, the lighting looks quite spectacular, and 3e and 3f have a great view.

The MArk II seats are quite comfortable, and all of them have screens in the arms. The IFE worked well, and I like the way the banner at the top tells you how long before landing. I found sleeping in them OK, and managed to rest / sleep for nearly 8 hours of the 15 or so, even after watching a couple of movies. One thing to be wary of: there is not a great deal of room between the seats in row 3, so the carts do tend to crash into the side of the seat. It is a good idea to keep your arms within the seat!

As these are new aircraft, essentially, not everything was smooth. At one stage they lost the individual water bottles. These are also fairly stripped down aircraft. No duty free, no extra magazines, no TV guides! Everything done to reduce weight and ensure we get to DFW!

All-in-all, a comfortable flight, and 3E and F are great seats. You almost pick up the feeling of privacy from the photographs. You are essentially looking a the back of the seats in front, so you're essentially in your own world.

I did have a good look at 5J, and think it is pretty good too, with the bin next to it sizeable and probably very useful. I would have taken a photograph, but the occupant wasn't looking all that friendly!

So after my boring breakfast, change out of the pyjamas and landing at DFW, it was time to play connection lottery, with a not so surprising result!

 

[Tooner]

Sorry for the delay, not enough time in the day and night!

Arrival at DFW is, I would have to say, a pleasure compared to LAX. In fact, it felt a little like SIN! Although we were 10 mins late, DFW was easy to work through.

On leaving the aircraft (not the first, but not the last as people were still coming downstairs as I left), there was little direction, but little required as things were well signposted. I did my bit for Karma: 5B left their passport sitting on the armrest, so I handed it to an FA who located a very grateful passenger!

After a walk around the outside of the terminal, we were in the Border Protection hall. It is enormous! The non-US citizen, non-global entry queue was short, and I was #2 in line. A few pleasantries with the agent, fingerprints and a couple of questions and I was on my way. The bags were quite quickly out soon after arrival and within about 25 mins I was handing my bag to the attendants at the transfer and went back to the security lines.

There were a few of us heading to various flights, though some for flights departing around 4pm, whereas mine was 3:25pm. Fortunately there were few people waiting in the queues for security and after setting up my little train of trays and carry-on, and a trip through the big scanner, I was able to put myself and bags back together and get on my way.

At this stage, there was still about 20 mins before the flight would start boarding; I figured this would be enough time.

We arrived in Terminal D, and I needed to get to Terminal C. Should be easy, you'd think. They'd be next to eachother. Not quite! If you look at this map (dfwairport.com - Terminal Guide) there is a bit of distance between D & E. There is also the time it takes to get to the Skytrain itself (at the top of the terminal). Once on the platform you are advised to take the train from D to C via E (not A&B), which will stop at The other half of D, the 2 halves of E and then move on to C. The big space between D and E is a giant car park and has no stops. All easy and comfortable, but takes some time.

Once off the sky train, I headed for C17 (my gate), which happens to be almost opposite the Admirals Club. I felt I had to visit, so popped in, and up the lift to the counter, handed my boarding pass and was presented with chit for a drink and then headed into the lounge, having been told I had about 5 mins to boarding. Although the thought of a drink was tempting, water and coffee were all I really wanted as I had just had breakfast (although it was mid-afternoon!). After a FaceTime chat to the family, I headed to the AA flight, and after my boarding pass was scanned by the gate agent (there was no-one else around), I headed on to the flight.

Next, the AA flight in all its glory, and my lesson about luggage through DFW.

 

[Sprucegoose]

good so far...looking forward to the AA précis

did you find that AA work the FEBO system, front (flight #) even back odd of meal service? I thought it was a bit over the place.

 

[Tooner]

good so far...looking forward to the AA précis

did you find that AA work the FEBO system, front (flight #) even back odd of meal service? I thought it was a bit over the place.

Sorry it has taken a while to get to. I will make a few observations about AA, though I didn't notice FEBO in operation. I'll try to finish the next leg this week (as I'm not mining DSCs this week)!

 

[Tooner]

AA738 to LGA
Seat 3F

After a short break, back for the AA report, and no, that is not a typo, I was in the same seat on the new aircraft. I did do a little research on seating in AA, and checked on Seatguru and the various TRs here. After getting my head around the F/J thing on AA, I figured a front row seat would at least have some room, even if the luggage may be an issue. The RHS of the plane is also considered to have more room too. Besides, there was a nice symmetry to it (like when you select the same seat on the way to MEL as on the way back to SYD). Anyway....

In general, I'd been moderately impressed with the AA service, and the lounge dragons were friendly, and the facilities passable. But then, DFW is HQ, so you'd hope it would be good. Once on the aircraft (I wasn't the last to board), there was no-one at the door checking BPs, and I actually got a good afternoon out of the Captain, from his seat in the coughpit of the MD-80. Yep, the door was open, and no-one to prevent entry. Weird.

I found the seat easy enough, and shortly had a juice in front of me, and the jolly FA was enquiring whether I would like the quesadilla? With no special meals, I felt this wasn't going to be too bad, so said sure, though no idea if I had any further choices or not.

After a few final adjustments to the cabin (I think someone scored an upgrade at the last minute), we took off and in the reasonably clear skies got a good view of the surrounding industry and suburbs (including a nearby airport/field on the route to NY).

Our flight had the Wi-Fi on board so I thought I'd give that a crack on the iPhone, and paid the massive charge (about $7 IIRC) for some surfing and checking up on news from back home, temperature in Ny etc). Neat, but a must have; probably not.

After a nice red wine and the excellent warm nuts, the meal was served. Now, at this stage, we'd just had a breakfast on QF just before landing, so I rationalised this as lunch. Nevertheless, I would challenge anyone to eat the volume on the tray. Salad + quesadilla + pita chip and hommus + was a lot to take on. Nevertheless, it wasn't too bad. 3E had a Cobb-looking salad which didn't look to bad either. This was all topped off with the warm cookie you'd expect on an AA flight (according to the web-site anyway).

After the meal was cleared (+ some more wine), I got down to reading more American Tabloid and after a while, we were emerged from the cloud on approach to LGA. We left on time, and we were going to arrive a little early - not bad!

This was surely the best bit. Flying up the Hudson River at dusk, with NYC outside my window was pretty good. By this stage I was chatting to my neighbour and we eventually established that not only were we both on the same flight from Sydney originally, we both worked for the same company (I would say nearly half the F cabin were QF7 passengers).

After we had looped around we landed from the north and quickly were out of the plane and into the baggage area. Thew company office in NY had organised a car to pick me up, so an offer of a lift was accepted and then we found the driver. Our luggage, however, did not emerge. After waiting a while, it was clear no more bags were coming out, and both of ours were not coming out so we joined the queue at the baggage counter and both got told the same thing. Our bags had not made it on to our flight, and were on the following flight. As this was only 20 mins away, we waited and chatted to the driver about March madness (college basketball) and I made an attempt to describe rugby and rugby league to him. Eventually the next flight did arrive, and sure enough our bags were there, so before long we were on our way. By this time, it was near 9pm on a Saturday, so traffic was a non-event and we were soon at the Intercontinental, where I was staying.

So the big lesson here Serfty was right, but for the wrong reasons. He had warned my connection was tight (true, as any significant delay beyond the 10 or so minutes we incurred, or a busy passport control would have stopped me getting the flight. I certainly wouldn't cut it that fine in whY. Nevertheless I did make it OK. The reason it is too fine is clearly the luggage. Although the luggage actually had a head start on me after I loaded it on the belt (I had to go through security again), It never made it across the airport to my flight in time. In future, I'll be insisting on taking the flight a half hour later; the one my bags eventually came in on.

After all that, and a room service Cobb salad (the only time I ate at the IC), I hit the pillow and slept for a good six hours, ready for a rainy, grey day in Manhattan.

 

[aus_flyer]

I've heard people complain about a lack of toilets in downstairs J on the refurbed aircraft. How did you find it?

 

[Tooner]

I've heard people complain about a lack of toilets in downstairs J on the refurbed aircraft. How did you find it?

You certainly notice there are fewer toilets. To be honest, there were times in the old F where the 2 toilets were very busy, but to have 2 toilets for the 2 downstairs zones is pretty parsimonious. I think a lot depends on the length of flight. To DFW is so loooooong that you do get plenty of time to wake-up and breakfast and get changed etc. I only had to wait once and it wasn't for long, and we were pretty full downstairs. If it was a shorter flight where people try to sleep until the last possible moment I can see things get pretty tense.

I think another factor to consider is the weight a toilet or two adds to the aircraft, which is a big consideration on the DFW route. After all, they have no duty free on that flight to keep the weight down, so imagine what else they'd need to eject if there was another toilet or two on board!

 

[Mgjdubs]

Thanks for the TR, Tooner! This config. of 747 is on QF107/108 when my mum and I head to JFK next year. We'd selected 3E/F on all sectors, and on the basis of this review I do believe we've made the right choice!

Hope your trip was an enjoyable one!

 

[Tooner]

It was a good trip, thanks. I should add that I've since sampled the upper deck on the refurbished 747 (on a trip to PER funnily enough) and would say 16J&K would be good for travelling together. Every seat is spacious, there aren't many people up there sharing the one toilet, and the storage bins ear the window are very useful.