Introduction

It’s so nice to be back in Australia! Yesterday evening I had a lovely early dinner at the Bennelong restaurant in the Sydney Opera House, followed by an impressive production of Puccini’s Tosca. And now today, I’m on my way to Brisbane.

Getting to the Airport

In Sydney I stayed at the Mantra on Bond Street, mainly due to its excellent location. I leave the hotel just after 11h in the morning and walk the short distance to Wynyard station. From here it’s only a short journey of thirty minutes to the Sydney Airport Domestic Terminal.

Check-in

QANTAS and its partners operate out of Terminal 3. I’ve already checked in online, which is about as painless as it gets. You literally can check in with just two clicks.

There is a separate queue for security for Business Class passenger. I think the queue for Economy is probably shorter when I get there, but I’m in no hurry anyway, so it makes no difference.

QANTAS Domestic Business Class Lounge

Security ejects me airside opposite gate 4. From here it’s just a short walk to the entrance to the Business Class lounge, which is located between gates 4 and 5.

The lounge has a good selection of hot and cold food and drinks. There’s a bar that makes excellent cappuccinos, and they even serve scones with cream.

By far the lounge’s best feature is the view of the domestic ramp. Admittedly, the traffic is kind of monotonous, but I will never complain about a ramp view.

Boarding

Boarding for the flight starts at 14h40, twenty minutes before departure, from gate 3. There are signs everywhere advising passengers to that the airline has newly introduced boarding by groups, and there is a separate queue for group 1 passengers, which is Business Class and frequent flyers.

The Cabin

Unlike the European carriers, QANTAS has a proper, dedicated Business Class cabin with twelve seats arranged in a two by two configuration in three rows. The seat is comfortable and features a small video screen in the back of the seat in front, an adjustable headrest with ears, and USB and electricity power plugs. There’s also complimentary wifi which works very well, even on the ground. I would also like to take this opportunity to showcase my funky socks, inspired by a Swiss ice lolli known as a Rackete.

We push off stand more or less on time. The crew inform us that the flight time to Brisbane will be under one hour and that we should expect a bumpy ride. We take off from runway 34R and make a sharp right turn that takes us right over the city and the CBD and then across the harbour to Manly.

The Service & Crew

There are two middle aged gentlemen serving the Business Class cabin. They’re professional and interact easily with the passengers. The service begins with the crew handing out small bottles of still water. Just as they’re about to start the service, the fasten seatbelt sign comes on and the cockpit advises all passengers and crew to be seated. To be honest, I don’t think the turbulence is all that severe. It’s certainly nothing like what I experienced on the way from Zürich to Singapore. In any case, by the time the fasten seatbelt sign is turned off, we only have another 35 minutes to run to Brisbane, so the crew inform us that they will only be serving drinks and snacks.

The snack turns out to be a piece of white chocolate with pink salted vanilla. It sounds rather pretentious. I have no idea why they have to make a point of it being pink salt. There’s also a packet of pretzels with almonds. All in all, it’s a rather frugal offering. Luckily, I had a fairly big lunch in the lounge.

Arrival

Our arrival into Brisbane is so nice and brings us in over the sea, which just looks so beautiful in the low afternoon sun.

We land and taxi to our stand at the QANTAS precinct of the domestic terminal. There’s a short delay for us to enter our stand, as apparently, there’s been a short notice gate change. The airport seems rather quiet.

Conclusion

This was a nice short flight with QANTAS. As I mentioned above, I don’t think the turbulence was severe enough to warrant halting the service. But I guess QANTAS is a bit overly cautious of its immaculate safety record.

I like that the aircraft has a dedicated Business Class cabin. I also find the crews on QANTAS are very professional and well trained, and this crew was no exception. The lounge is Sydney is great. It has a good selection of food, and the views are very good!