New Zealand is the most common destination for international travellers out of Australia, and Qantas has the most trans-Tasman flights of any airline.
But Qantas doesn’t carry the most passengers across the Tasman. That prize goes to Air New Zealand, which operates a mixture of narrow-body and larger wide-body jets to Australia. By comparison, over 90% of Qantas’ flights between Australia and New Zealand are on narrow-body Boeing 737-800 jets.
For years, the Boeing 737 has been the backbone of Qantas’ short-haul fleet. Designed primarily for short and medium-length journeys, you won’t find lie-flat suites up the front in Business Class. But Qantas does offer a dedicated Business Class cabin with three rows of wide, comfortable leather seats.
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed Qantas Boeing 737-800 Business Class. How does Qantas’ trans-Tasman Business Class service on the Boeing 737 stack up in 2025?
To find out, I flew Qantas Business Class from Wellington to Melbourne.
Contents
Flight Details
| Flight number | QF172 |
| Route | Wellington (WLG) to Melbourne (MEL) |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-800 |
| Class of travel | Business |
| Seat number | 2D |
| On-time performance | We arrived 35 minutes early |
| Star rating |  |
The route
Flight Cost
I took this flight as the first leg of a ticket that I bought from Wellington to Edinburgh. However, if I have a look on the Qantas website, I can see that there are currently Business Sale fares available from Wellington to Melbourne starting from NZD559 (~AU$512) one-way.
Return tickets cost a bit more than double that amount, due to the higher departure tax applicable to tickets out of Australia.
Airport Experience
Checking in at Wellington International Airport was a breeze. Although there was a bit of a hold-up at the single Business Class check-in counter, a friendly staff member noticed that I was waiting and invited me to his computer, where he manually checked me in and took my suitcase.
Checking in was so quick, in fact, that I had to wait a little while for Wellington’s international departures area to open. Wellington Airport only staffs its immigration and international security checkpoint, located in a separate wing of the terminal, a couple of hours before each international departure. With QF172 scheduled to depart at 2.35pm, this meant waiting until 12.30pm to head through.
The Qantas Business Lounge in Wellington
Qantas has its own Business Lounge in Wellington, located in the international part of the terminal. You can access this lounge with a Qantas Business Class ticket. Eligible frequent flyers and Qantas Club members can also get in with a Qantas Economy Class ticket.
Look, this isn’t Qantas’ biggest or best international airport lounge. It’s also clear that this lounge hasn’t had a refurbishment for a while, as it still sports the classic Qantas airport lounge design of the 1990s – back when access to a fax machine was a genuine feature!
Nonetheless, for what it is, this certainly isn’t a bad lounge! And to be honest, given Qantas never has more than four daily 737 flights departing Wellington, I’m impressed it even still has its own lounge at this airport at all.
The lounge features plenty of comfortable seating, as well as clean toilets and showers. The lounge Wi-Fi worked well and there was a good amount of natural light, with a view of our plane right outside the window as an added bonus.
There are also six work stations in a separate section of the lounge.
The lounge has a buffet with food and a good selection of drinks, including coffee, tea, beer, spirits, and red, white, rosé and sparkling wine. I didn’t think the food options were particularly exciting, so I skipped the food to save room for what was to come on board the flight.
For me, the highlight of this lounge was actually Graeme on the front desk. He would have to be one of the most engaged airport lounge receptionists I’ve ever come across on my travels. He was incredibly enthusiastic, kept us updated with detailed announcements about the status of the flight, and even stood outside the exit after calling boarding to personally say goodbye to every passenger and direct them to the gate. What a legend!
In fact, Graeme was so good that I even wrote to Qantas afterwards to compliment his service.
Boarding
Boarding ended up starting almost an hour before departure, as the plane had arrived early from its previous flight and the airport staff were quick to turn it around.
Qantas has now rolled out boarding groups to international flights, so boarding was done in six groups. Business Class is called with the first group.
In Wellington, Qantas had a separate priority boarding lane with a staff member checking the group number on everyone’s boarding pass before you got to the front of the queue. Full marks for enforcing priority boarding!
The Hard Product
The plane operating today’s Wellington-Melbourne service was one of Qantas’ newer “BSI” Boeing 737-800s with nice mood lighting and larger overhead lockers. When I got on board, the plane was clean and seemed to be in good condition.
Qantas Boeing 737-800 Business seats
The Qantas 737-800 has three rows of reclining Business Class seats in a standard 2-2 layout.
These well-padded leather seats are wider and offer more legroom than Economy. That said, if you’re in a window seat that’s not in the first row, there isn’t quite enough room to get out without disturbing the passenger in the aisle seat.
These seats also offer power outlets and an adjustable headrest. There’s a fold-out leg rest too, but I don’t find it useful as I’m not five feet tall.
Ultimately, Qantas’ Boeing 737-800 Business Class seats are designed for short-haul flights. If you’re expecting a lie-flat bed, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Nonetheless, I find them very comfortable and totally adequate for a four-hour daytime flight where I mainly just want to get a bit of work done and watch a movie.
In-flight entertainment & Wi-Fi
Speaking of movies, there’s a TV screen on the back of the seat in front. The in-flight entertainment library has a selection of movies, a limited range of TV shows, two audio books, some kids content and a moving map. Which, honestly, isn’t a great offering in 2025.
There were lots more TV shows listed than actually available to watch on the seat-back system, with most only available to stream to your own device.
Making up for this, however, Qantas now offers fast, free Wi-Fi on its trans-Tasman flights. This worked really well, including while we were still on the ground in Wellington.
Finally, Qantas has caught up with Air New Zealand’s in-flight internet offering! (For what it’s worth, Air New Zealand doesn’t offer Business Class on any of its flights to/from Wellington.)
The Soft Product
Looking after me in Business Class were two lovely Kiwi flight attendants, Poppy and Briar. Before take-off, they offered the usual pre-departure beverage choice of still water, sparkling water or champagne.
There was a pair of “premium” headphones in the seat pocket, although they don’t cancel out the background noise and I didn’t find the audio quality that great. I stuck with my own Bose headphones.
No amenity kits were provided. While there were no pillows or blankets on the seat, these were available on request. (I still remember back when Qantas gave a pillow and blanket to everyone, by default, in Economy on trans-Tasman flights!)
Meals and drinks
Qantas no longer hands out printed menus in trans-Tasman Business Class, but I was pleasantly gobsmacked when Poppy told me there were five – yes, five – Business Class meal options on this flight.
The five lunch options on this flight were:
- Pork loin with vegetables
- Mushroom linguine
- Beef pie with mashed potato
- Beef and potato pesto salad
- Vegetarian curry with rice
As tempted as I was by the beef pie, I chose the mushroom linguine which was quite tasty.
This came on a single tray with a salmon and coleslaw side salad that would have been much nicer with some kind of dressing to add a bit of flavour and make the salad less, well, dry. At least it was something other than Neil Perry’s garden clippings green leaf salad!
Other sides included sourdough bread, cheese & crackers and a lovely Whittakers chocolate bar.
Qantas offers a comprehensive range of drinks in Business including beer, wine and spirits. Real champagne is available on trans-Tasman flights, as well as some good red and white options – a riesling and a shiraz, in this case.
The friend who I was flying with opted for the pork loin, which also looked good:
I was still slightly peckish after lunch, and I was curious if the beef pie was actually any good, so I asked the flight attendant if she had any leftover pies. She said that she did and was more than happy to bring me one. However, it turns out that there was a catering malfunction and the final meal that had been labelled as a pie was actually a vegetarian curry.
Sensing that I was a bit hungry, Poppy asked if I wanted it anyway. She also loaded up my second meal tray with some of the extra snacks that are available on request in Qantas Business Class.
You can see what meals Qantas serves in Business Class on other routes, and share your own food snaps, on AFF’s Qantas Business Class meals & menus thread.
After lunch, the crew offered tea and coffee. As a small treat to end the flight, they also handed out tubs of Kāpiti ice cream an hour before landing.
Qantas Business Class service
The service on this flight was very attentive and friendly. The cabin crew did a seriously great job and were active in the cabin throughout the journey, proactively offering drink top-ups and clearing used items.
Towards the end of the flight, a passenger from Economy tried to sneak into the Business Class toilet. The customer service manager not only turned her away, but then followed this up with an announcement reminding everyone that the front toilet is only for passengers who are either in Business Class or require wheelchair assistance.
This reminded me a bit of a Melbourne-Darwin flight I took a few years ago where the cabin crew very effectively kept the Business toilet exclusively for the use of Business passengers.
Arrival experience
Miraculously, I was out of Melbourne Airport before the flight was even scheduled to arrive!
The plane landed 35 minutes early, priority baggage actually worked, and the crew had armed everyone in Business Class with an express card for customs. Isn’t it nice when the stars align and everything just works?
Qantas Boeing 737-800 Business Class
-
Airport Experience
-
Hard Product
-
Soft Product
Final thoughts
When Qantas is good, it’s great – and this was one of those days. Every single Qantas staff member I interacted with during this journey was extremely friendly and could not have been more helpful. The food was good, my seat was comfortable and the flight even landed early!
Sure, Qantas doesn’t offer luxurious lie-flat Business Class seats on its Boeing 737s. But for an afternoon flight across the Tasman, this was more than adequate. I was comfortable and had plenty of space to work and relax.
The in-flight entertainment is probably due for an overhaul, but the fast Wi-Fi is a welcome addition to Qantas’ trans-Tasman routes.
You can leave a comment on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.
Community Comments
Loading new replies...
Join the full discussion at the Australian Frequent Flyer →