Last week’s trip report featured “the business”, Virgin Australia’s highest class of travel across the Pacific. This week, our member Berlin reviews Qantas’ trans-Pacific First class.
Berlin had booked a Business class ticket, flying from Sydney to Los Angeles and returning from Dallas. Thanks to some frequent flyer points and a little bit of luck, they were able to upgrade both flights to the ultimate luxury of First class. For the outbound flight, the upgrade was even confirmed more than a day in advance. Then, the day before the flight, a call from the Qantas First host secured a First Lounge spa booking and kerbside pickup.
The txt message from Qantas came in the middle of the night about 30 hours before my departure and hey, could there be any more happy text massages than that? A few hours later, I received the call from Qantas first, gladly booking in a time for a spa treatment at the Flounge and giving me a mobile number to call upon approach to Mascot so that someone could come and take care of my luggage before check in.
The flight from Sydney to Los Angeles began with some pre-takeoff champagne and canapes featuring caviar. Three varieties of champagne are offered in Qantas First on a rotating menu, with Veuve Grand Dame 2006 served on this flight. Unfortunately, the champagne ran out shortly after take-off!
Our member enjoyed an excellent meal before the seat was made up into a bed. The Qantas First class seat is very comfortable, with each passenger enjoying a private “suite”. The A380 First cabin contains five rows of seats in a 1-1-1 layout for maximum privacy.
Unfortunately, a crying baby in the row behind made sleep almost impossible on this flight. Without a single empty seat in First class, there was little the crew could do to remedy this. Thankfully, breakfast came around soon enough and exceeded expectations.
Breakfast time was about 3 hours prior to landing and the choice was almost overwhelming: I decided to indulge on both the pancakes which were served with fresh blueberries (on an airplane, it never ceases to amaze me!) and maple syrup as well as the big hot breakfast with scrambled egg, mushroom and bacon. If you think that breakfast can’t be done properly on an airplane, you must fly Qantas in First (or Business for that matter) as they surely know how to do it properly!
The return flight from Dallas to Sydney was much better. The cabin was not full, and our member managed 10 full hours of sleep on one of the world’s longest flights. The cabin crew were also exemplary.
The staff on this flight was also extremely professional, the typical Qantas mixture of still being not super formal and chit chatty but still doing a great job. This is probably the reason for me to enjoy Qantas over most other airlines and I can’t praise their staff more.
Despite a noisy passenger on the first flight, Berlin was happy with the Qantas First class service. The food is great, the bed is comfortable and the service is friendly yet professional. It’s certainly a stylish way to fly across the Pacific.
Qantas and its oneworld partner American Airlines are the only airlines to offer First class between Australia and the United States. Qantas’ First class product is widely considered to be better than American Airlines, although it’s a much closer call in Business class.
Read the full trip report HERE.
