Australians flying to Singapore are spoilt for choice.

Singapore Airlines has by far the highest number of flights between Australia and the Lion City. But Qantas also offers six daily flights with service from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. British Airways, Emirates, Scoot, Jetstar serve the Australia-Singapore market as well.

On a recent trip to Singapore, I decided to fly Qantas outbound from Australia and then return on Singapore Airlines. Both flights were in Economy. So, how did the two airlines compare on the popular Sydney-Singapore route?

This review covers my Qantas A330 Economy Class experience on QF81 from Sydney to Singapore…

Flight Details

Flight number	QF81
Route	Sydney (SYD) to Singapore (SIN)
Aircraft type	Airbus A330-200 (short-haul configuration)
Class of travel	Economy
Seat number	24K
On-time performance	We arrived 2 hours & 40 minutes late
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I paid 25,200 Qantas Frequent Flyer points + $181.32 in taxes & carrier charges for a one-way Economy ticket from Brisbane to Singapore via Sydney. (I had flown in from Brisbane to Sydney on the morning of the Sydney-Singapore flight.)

For a one-way Qantas Economy flight just from Sydney to Singapore, you could expect to pay around 25,200 Qantas points + $138 for a Classic Reward or around $697 for an Economy Saver airfare.

A Last-Minute Aircraft Swap

My Qantas flight from Sydney to Singapore was originally supposed to be on an Airbus A380. I was looking forward to flying on the double-decker super-jumbo.

Unfortunately, on the morning of the flight, Qantas changed the aircraft to a much smaller Airbus A330-200. As a result, the flight was suddenly very full and Qantas had to downgrade quite a few passengers booked in First, Business or Premium Economy. This included the passenger sitting next to me in Economy, who had originally booked Business and had not yet been told how he would be compensated.

Airport Experience

I had already checked in for this flight in Brisbane. So, on arrival in Sydney, I got onto the terminal transfer bus and headed directly to the international terminal.

A Qantas Economy Class ticket doesn’t automatically get you lounge access. However, thanks to my Qantas Platinum (Oneworld Emerald) status, I was able to grab a bite to eat in the Qantas First Lounge before boarding.

It’s always a treat to visit this lounge. The staff are fantastic and the food wouldn’t be out of place in a fine-dining restaurant.

It would be nice if the lounge staff were able to make cocktails not listed on the menu (such as an espresso martini), but the options on the menu are still very good.

If you’re a Qantas Club member, a Qantas Gold or Oneworld Sapphire frequent flyer, or have a Qantas lounge invitation, you could access the neighbouring Qantas international Business Lounge. There are also several other lounges in the Sydney international terminal that you could access via Priority Pass.

As lounge access is not a standard inclusion with a Qantas Economy ticket, the First Lounge is not a factor contributing to my rating of this flight. But I’ve included this information as it may be of interest to some readers.

The boarding process began with priority boarding, which worked very well.

The Hard Product

Having expected to be flying on an Airbus A380, it was a little bit disappointing to board a much smaller Airbus A330-200 without seatback in-flight entertainment screens.

This was one of the A330-200s configured for short-haul flying. In-flight entertainment was available via an iPad in the seat pocket that you could attach to the back of the seat in front after take-off. The Qantas iPad was loaded with some movies, TV shows and audio books. But there was no music, and no moving map to find out where you were or how much longer the flight would take.

On the plus side, I like the 2-4-2 Economy Class layout on the Airbus A330. The seat was also fairly comfortable. It’s about as wide as it gets in Economy, has an adjustable headrest and is well padded, with plenty of support. (The AFF forum has a discussion thread about the Qantas A330 Economy seat comfort.)

Being one of the A330s normally used for short-haul flying, free Wi-Fi was also available for the first half of the flight while we were still over Australia. That was a nice surprise as you wouldn’t normally get this when flying on Qantas’ A380.

The legroom was fine but there was no net for your feet, as you would find on Qantas A330-300s.

Although I took this flight in August 2023, the Qantas Magazine in the seat pocket was from June 2023 and had clearly had liquid spilt on it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cabin wasn’t in the greatest condition either. The plane was clean on a superficial level, but was probably due for a deep clean. For example, there were a lot of crumbs and dirt between the seats. For what it’s worth, this plane had been parked in Sydney for over 14 hours before operating this flight.

The Soft Product

The Qantas cabin crew were cheerful and made everyone feel welcome. Unfortunately for them, they had to deal with a lot of unhappy passengers whose aisle or window seats had been changed into middle seats at the last minute, due to the aircraft swap.

We boarded on time but then sat on the ground for quite a while. Eventually, the captain announced that they had found a problem with one of the plane’s engines. They needed to fix this before we could depart.

Now, that’s absolutely fair enough and I fully support the safety-first approach. Maintenance issues can happen at any time on any airline. Unfortunately, the pilots didn’t initially know how long it would take to fix the problem – other than that it would take at least an hour for the engineers to get approval to start their work.

We didn’t get any further updates for more than two hours, which was when they finally got approval to start the repair. I found the lack of communication throughout the delay – even if it was just to say that they were still waiting for approval – a tad disappointing.

In the meantime, although the plane was still parked at the gate, nobody was allowed off. We ended up sitting on the plane for three hours before eventually being able to depart.

The cabin crew made the best of a bad situation, handing out snacks and orange juice during the delay. The Customer Service Manager also came to personally welcome me on board as a Platinum member and offer me a soft drink or water while we were still on the ground.

The Customer Service Supervisor was also really good, addressing me by name and regularly checking in on me during the flight.

There was a blanket, pillow and a bottle of water on every Economy seat during boarding.

After take-off, there were three hot meal choices available for lunch:

• Garlic chicken with rice and vegetables
• Beef casserole with mashed potato
• Cauliflower curry

I asked for the vegetarian curry, but they had already run out of this option upon reaching the third row of Economy. So, I opted for the chicken instead. It was quite nice and came with a warm garlic focaccia slice and unlimited drinks from the bar including soft drinks, beer, wine and spirits. I enjoyed a Bloody Mary with lunch.

Afterwards, the crew offered tea, coffee and a Splice ice cream for dessert – an Australian classic that takes me back to my childhood!

Around three hours into the flight, the crew requested for everyone to lower their window shades, creating a dark cabin environment. Throughout the rest of the flight, crew members would regularly came through the aisle to offer water (and at one point, soy crisps).

The pre-landing snack was a choice between a chicken, cheese and caramelised onion panini or vegetable samosas.

Due to the late arrival, many passengers had missed their connecting flights and were rebooked onto new flights – most of which were the next day. Around 50 passengers connecting to Dubai and Helsinki would still make their connections, but had to run to their next boarding gates.

After landing, the Customer Service Manager requested that anyone not connecting to Dubai or Helsinki remained seated to allow those who needed to hurry to disembark first. I’d already missed my planned dinner in Singapore, so wasn’t really in a rush by this point.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.