This wasn’t my first time with Qantas. I flew from Sydney to L.A. in 2008 but my recent trip with them from London to Bangkok and from Bangkok to Auckland gave me a chance to look at them with fresh eyes. Qantas maintains a good reputation around the world among fliers. They have never crashed (though parts of their planes have exploded in mid air), they have above average food, and their entrainment system has more choices than you will ever need.
If I had to rank Qantas, I’d put them in the middle. As an American, I suffer from having to deal with companies like American Airlines, United, and Delta. These airlines rank at the bottom of my list in terms of well, everything. The top of my list are the Asian airlines like JAL, Cathay, and Singapore.
Qantas fits in the middle. I have nothing great to say about them but neither anything really bad. The service on all my flights was excellent. The staff was always friendly, they came quickly when I rang the bell, and served the food promptly. I hate having to wait for dinner.
Speaking of dinner, I find the food on Qantas to be better than normal but nothing that blows my mind away. In fact, I’m rarely ever blown away by food on an airplane. I’m sure it’s better in business or first class but, in steerage, it’s a bit above microwaved food quality. Qantas serves food a little better than the rest though. It wasn’t amazing but it certainly good enough to finish completely and leave you full.
But what sets Qantas apart in my book is their in-flight entertainment system. I was impressed with it back in 2008 and I am still impressed by it. They have an amazing selection of movies. And not old, I saw it last year movies. Even recent hits as well as some independent films. I watched 500 days of summer, the Hurt locker, and the hangover on my flight over from Bangkok. They have lots of old movies, good TV shows, and you can even listen to full albums of the most popular artists on the charts.
The bottom line here is that Qantas is a good airline to fly. It may not be the best but it is certainly not the worst. Moreover, if you are a member of the Oneworld alliance, you’ll find them one of the better carriers to fly in the alliance. If you aren’t, Qantas always has amazing deals and inexpensive flight tickets when compared to other major carriers. Moreover, if you go to their Australia website, you can purchase your ticket in Australian dollars, which if you are coming from a country with a better currency, can save you even more money.
“I have nothing great to say about them but … the service on all my flights was excellent. The staff was always friendly, they came quickly when I rang the bell, and served the food promptly … and they have an amazing selection of movies.”
Your blog’s OK Matt. Oh sure, it’s well written, amusing, entertaining, I read it everyday and laugh and smile and wish I were traveling too, but you know, I couldn’t really recommend it to anyone.
Cheers.
that is the strangest comment anyone has ever written. You love my site but can’t recommend it to anyone huh?
I believe he was trying to make a point about your article:)
you mean about how I have nothing great to say but I said good things? I got that. None of that stuff is really special. It’s standard.
haha. Just saw this. I guess you didn’t get my humor. Few do, don’t worry about it. I suppose I have to explain now eh? Your post had the rough outline: “I have nothing great to say” followed by a number of things that sounded really great. So I posted: can’t say anything great about Matt’s blog … (now here’s the funny part) … followed by saying a number of great things.
Have fun traveling Matt.
Although I don’t have any experience with Asian airlines, I agree that Qantas is several notches above any U.S. carrier. I’ve done 3 round-trips from NY – Sydney over the past 7 years – one on Qantas and two on Air New Zealand. Although nothing was wrong with my Qantas experience, Air NZ was a great experience both times. They have larger seats, better food, and better wine. If you have to pick between the two, price being equal, I would go for Air NZ over Qantas any day.
I’ve heard the same thing. Air New Zealand is on my list of airlines I need to check out sooner rather than later.
I second the Air New Zealand recommendation. While the entertainment system might not be as great as Qantas’s being the lardarse that I am the larger seats, more leg room and better food win it for me anytime. That and for some reason their flights always seem to have lots of empty seats on them. The last few times I’ve flown them I got all 3 seats near the window to myself, so that could be biasing me completely.
I know what you mean about Qantas though, I never mind flying them, and the not falling out of the sky is a big selling point, but its not in the league of the Asian airlines.
You won’t regret it. I’ve flown the Honolulu – Auckland route several times on them. Great airline. Qantas, I’ve ruled out unless absolutely necessary; it’s too expensive and too restrictive. Hawaiian is a much better airline, IMO.
Can totally vouch for the AirNZ thing, have flown with them NZ – Shanghai route a few times, as well as LAX – Auckland. Totally recommend them as the best I have flown and will actually pay slightly more to ensure I am on one of their flights. I have wonderful experiences with service as well, for example a flight attendant bringing me magazines, drinks and snacks, unprompted, when she saw I wasn’t sleeping.
On an interesting note, I flew Qantas from Chch – Manila in Dec, returning late Jan, and can honestly say I was not terribly impressed. The food was ok, the seats seemed fairly small, and the entertainment was comparatively poor (shared screen front of cabin, 2 movies shown on the Manila – Sydney leg, and a show advertising Sydney). At one point there was around 4? hours with no entertainment. They also put me on JetStar for one Chch – Sydney leg, which I would prefer not to have flown, considering I paid for a full priced international ticket.
I flew Air NZ around NZ and I was impressed with them.
Qantas is actually one of my favorite airlines. I used them when I was in Australia. Cheap, good service and on time.
KLM on the other hand is a totally different story. On my 13 hour trip from paris to Buenos Aires we were served dry crackers as the only lunch, and both of my chair-neighbours had disfunctional tv’s during the whole trip.
I’ve flown on dozens of airlines over the years and the differences between pretty much all of them is minimal. Granted, I’ve never flown in first class, but on average they are all pretty much the same. Sure, I’ve had some delayed flights and some airplanes were equipped with TV monitors in the seat in front of me. But in the end, they did their job – getting me from one point to the next. To me, that’s all I really care about. The truth is, I’d prefer a cheap seat over better food, added leg room, in-air movies, a smiling staff, etc. With the differences between airlines being so minimal, I’d rather just save money. An in flight movie or a fancy dinner isn’t worth paying hundreds of dollars more for. Frankly, I don’t mind suffering for a few hours.
I think it’s luck of the draw with inflight entertainment. I imagine (hope) Qantas probably does it with all flights.
But I took Air France to Brazil and had the same excellent system you described with a host of movies and TV shows (for once, not being able to sleep on a long flight was a pleasure), but then again on the same airline and same route the other way back home, it was a normal stupid TV in the ceiling several rows ahead of you with no choice and no way to pause.
I’m going to have to do some googling to see if there is some description or airplane category shown on the possible flight to see if it includes this “new” system.
I say luck of the draw because I’ve gotten a personal screen on other airlines very randomly and then not on their other flights. I got one on Aer Lingus to the states several years back! Of course, flying cheap in Europe for quick flights means you’ll never get them.
I agree with VagaBen – I took KLM for the first time here to Bangkok (I’ve earned enough miles with their partner Air France to be elite status) and I was hugely disappointed. My food was served really late (it’s the first time especially requested vegetarian food has been served LAST instead of first) and they never answered my button calls so I had to shout for them. And of course no personal TV despite it being an 11 hour flight. I was glad to get off that plane. Every other nighttime flight I’ve ever taken has given me an eyemask and earplugs but they didn’t. I’m only begrudgingly fly KLM again if I really really have to.
I dislike KLM. I’ve never had a good experience with them.
I havent flown any of the US airlines but flown Qantas and Singapore and they are pretty good..how do u find the european airlines and emirates ?
Hi Matt! Sorry for the delay, but a new year always brings new troubles…
Fully agree with you with regard to American airlines: at the bottom!!!
I haven’t been to Quantas for a while, but when I used it transcontinental the reason was that the BA flight was fully booked…
Meanwhile a new blog is born: Blogtrotter Two! Hope you enjoy at least as much as the previous version and look forward to reading your comments!
Have a great week ahead!!! Gil
Qantas may be ok (talking about tickets price) to fly to Asia/Europe, but their local flights are overpriced and I never used it. For flights between Australia and New Zealand my preference is to Emirates, Air New Zealand and Virgin.
I enjoyed Qantas but as you said its not great but not bad. I will say that I really enjoyed SwissAir. I have managed to find a few cheap fligths with them and they were great (they even gave us lowely sterage passengers chocolate) and i enjoyed being able to play trivia with other people through the entertainment system. I’m on Middle Eastern Airlines next week we’ll see how that one goes.
I quit flying Qantas several years ago, unless absolutely necessary. It isn’t a bad airline, it’s just that their carry-on luggage allowance is too restrictive (7kg). I’ve found Hawaiian a much superior airline for traveling to Sydney.