Flight: Qantas QF 93 from Melbourne to Los Angeles
Duration: 14 hours 25 minutes
Aircraft: A388(Airbus 380-800)
Class: Business
Seat: 18 F (Not a true flat bed, Middle row with direct aisle access)
Seat Specification: True Flat Bed, Seat pitch: 78 “. Seat width: 21.5 ”
This was my first ever flight on Qantas as well as an Airbus 380 aircraft. I was very excited to fly on this behemoth of a plane. We made our way to the upper deck boarding bridge. The upper deck includes the business class in the front and premium economy and economy in the back. Karen boarded from the lower bridge as the lower deck includes the first class in the front and economy in the back.
The business class cabin is in 2 x 2 x 2 layout so only the middle row passengers have direct aisle access for both passengers. Since I was traveling my by myself I had chosen a middle row so as not to have to climb over a seatmate during the flight.
The seat for some reason felt really narrow and also there was very little privacy from your seatmate.
For pre-departure beverage, the flight attendant offered some champagne with cashews and pretzels.
Dinner service started soon after takeoff and first off was some bread and salad.
The mezze plate was quite good but the main entree of lamb was very ordinary and uninspiring.
After lunch, I used the seat controls to convert the seat to a bed. Much to my dismay even though a lot of websites including Seatguru list this business class seat as a flat bed, it is not a real flat bed. The lower part of the seat actually bends down and not horizontal to the floor. For a short flight it is ok, but for a 14 hour flight where you expect to be able to sleep for 6-8 hours, it is very uncomfortable. If you sleep on your back then it is even more uncomfortable as you feel like constantly slipping down. All this seems like nitpicking and #firstworldproblems but with these ultra longhaul flights so many airlines have true flatbeds on their business class that it feels like a subpar offering by Qantas.
After tossing and turning for a few hours I decided to watch a couple of movies instead. About a couple of hours before landing the flight attendant came by offering breakfast.
Bottomline:
Seat: ** 1/2
Service: ***
Food: ***
The service on this flight quite unmemorable. Felt like the flight attendants were pretty much going through the motions without any personalized attention. The one thing it did stand out was that the FA’s doing turndown service after meal. Qantas provides seat cushion even for Business class and it was quite remarkable to see flight attendants make bed in business class which I thought only happened First Class.
The seat was very uncomfortable. It is definitely not a true flat bed no matter how many websites list it as such. It is definitely far behind the curve when it comes to business class seats in the international market.
The dining options on the flight was ok, nothing exceptional, nothing terrible.