When I needed to fly from Melbourne to Sydney with a checked bag this week, I’ll be honest – Qantas was not my first choice. Given all the delays, cancellations and lost bags of late – combined with Qantas’ woeful customer service on the ground when things go wrong – I would have preferred to fly with Virgin.

Booking at short notice, however, there were no seats available for sale at all on any Virgin Australia flight from Melbourne to Sydney within two hours of the time I needed to fly. I couldn’t even buy a full-priced Business Class fare – all of Virgin’s flights were already sold out!

So, when I found a Qantas Classic Reward seat available in Economy on an A330 flight at the exact time I wanted to fly, I reluctantly booked it. My expectations of Qantas were low, but I figured: how bad could it possibly be?

Given the huge crowds at Melbourne Airport when I passed through the Qantas terminal a couple of weeks ago, I was bracing for the worst when I arrived at the airport for my flight on Thursday morning. I’m pleased to say that my fears were unfounded! The Qantas domestic terminal was calm and quiet.

I had checked in online and got to experience first-hand the new Qantas airport kiosks for the first time on this trip. I think Qantas’ claims that these kiosks will save customers significant amounts of time are overblown, but the whole process was very easy. After scanning my boarding pass, it took the kiosk around 30 seconds to spit out a baggage tag.

Within a minute I had dropped my bag at the self-service bag drop and was on my way through the priority security line, which had no queue at all.

The Qantas Club (which I’m entitled to use as a Gold frequent flyer) wasn’t crowded and it was a pleasant place to wait for my flight – exactly as an airport lounge should be. The food options were fine, the barista coffee was good and everything you would need including showers was available.

Boarding had already commenced when I arrived at the gate, but there was a priority boarding line available. To my amazement (given Qantas’ history with this), priority boarding worked well.

While Qantas’ service can be lacklustre on the ground, I’ve found the on-board service generally pretty good – and this flight was no exception. I was greeted on board the aircraft by a very friendly and dedicated cabin crew who were doing their absolute best. One of the flight attendants in particular was cracking jokes and really quite entertaining.

I’ve always found it a bit of a novelty flying on a widebody aircraft between Melbourne and Sydney. It’s significantly more comfortable than flying on a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, and an experience that Qantas’ competitors simply can’t offer.

I was also pleased to see that Qantas has re-introduced iPads for all passengers flying in Economy on its domestic A330-200 aircraft. (These were removed during the pandemic.)

While Qantas’ competitors offer the ability to stream in-flight entertainment content to your own device (as does Qantas on many of its planes), I much prefer the convenience of a seat-back entertainment screen. In the absence of this, an iPad provided by the airline that you can place in a tablet holder is the next-best thing.

High-speed wifi was also available for free to everyone on board.

A complimentary lunch and cold drinks were served after take-off.

Before I knew it, we were landing on a beautiful afternoon in Sydney.

The flight arrived four minutes late, but that’s not an issue at all, and my checked bag arrived on the carousel promptly.

Qantas has justifiably copped a lot of criticism lately, but my flight this week was absolutely fine. In fact, it was a great experience! The flight was pleasant and comfortable, the cabin crew were great, and everything worked exactly as it should. This was Qantas at its best.

Now, if I was on one of the several other Melbourne-Sydney flights that day that got cancelled at the last minute, or if there would have been any issues with my booking that required me to contact the Qantas call centre, I’m sure my experience would have been drastically different. That’s a real problem.

But when Qantas gets it right, they are very good indeed!

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

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.