AFF Review: Qantas A380 First Class (SYD-JNB)

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-a380-first-class-review/

Qantas A380 First Class Review is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Qantas A380 First Class Review

We review the Qantas First Class service on the Airbus A380 on QF63 from Sydney to Johannesburg. While the suite is very comfortable and the cabin crew are excellent, the soft product could probably use some small improvements.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[johnmpenney]

Qantas A380 First Class Review is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Qantas A380 First Class Review

We review the Qantas First Class service on the Airbus A380 on QF63 from Sydney to Johannesburg. While the suite is very comfortable and the cabin crew are excellent, the soft product could probably use some small improvements.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

I thought the wine list was very poor for a First Class flight!

 

[goldenhorn]

Great review, thank you. Running out of champagne mid-flight is unforgivable!

 

[bPeteb]

Good to see that Qantas is sourcing sustainable toothfish Glacier 51 Toothfish

 

[Lockyer Man]

Hi Matt, my partner and I did QF63 in May this year and I have to say the wine list was much much better than what you had on offer. For example, the champagne was the Pommery Louise which is far superior to what you had and the red wine was Penfolds RWT which retails for much more than $30. So it looks as though QF have raised the number of points required for the flight and lowered the wine offerings.

I would absolutely agree with the comments about the special team that work onboard in 1st Class as they are exceptional. Perry was our crew member and she was fantastic.

I note that because you were not travelling with much luggage but we were so we utilised the kerbside porter which was wonderful except for the fact that our taxi had to drop us at the very end of the departure road and the porter meets passengers next to the traffic lights in the central part of the drop off zone. This meant manhandling our luggage to get to where we had to meet the porter which was a bit of a hassle. However, that said, the porter took care of our luggage and all we had to do was sit in a lovely comfortable seat in the First Class check in lounge whilst our check in was processed which took no more than 5 minutes. This was a great aspect of the service.

Finally, you didn’t mention that the massage is a shoulder massage which was a wonderful way of relaxing the body in readiness for the flight.

 

[AIRwin]

inally, you didn’t mention that the massage is a shoulder massage which was a wonderful way of relaxing the body in readiness for the flight.

There are also other massage options?

 

[Paul720]

I question your first class flying experience, evidenced by your 4 star ranking. Qantas first deserves no more that 3.5 stars relative to the enormous cost of the fare. The catering is almost business class standard, in fact Qatar Airways business class menu and wines list is better than Qantas first. Once you've flown Lufthansa, Air France, Emirates and Singapore Airlines in first I'd welcome your re-ranking and thoughts of Qantas first.

 

[Rayesfeg]

"When Qantas gets it right, they really get it right " - I can agree with this. Conversely, when they get things wrong, they really get it wrong.

I wonder if there are any plans to upgrade the first class seats or if they will remain as they are until the A380s are retired.

 

[MJ Coliandris]

I have travelled in Qantas First around a dozen times between London & Singapore/Sydney.

However I think I’ve only paid for the privilege twice, the rest of the trips it’s been an upgrade through points, or once when I got a buckshee bump-up on a 747.

I believe the bulk of passengers in First are Platinum Frequent Flyers getting looked after & rewarded for their loyalty. My evidence for this is that on our last trip, my partner & I received our upgrade notification on Thursday morning for a Saturday evening flight & when going online to secure our seats, only two were currently occupied, yet on boarding the cabin was full.

I doubt there are many people who decide to buy First Class tickets on QF2 36 hours beforehand, particularly two days before Christmas, hence why I believe Qantas First is purely a Premium FF Reward these days. So if the service is not quite up to other First Class offerings, then I don’t really blame them.

For the record I have never been anything other than really impressed every time I’ve been lucky enough to take a First Class flight on QF.

 

[Chalkie]

I always enjoy flying in QF F. I do a lot less of it nowadays (retired and split time between Australia and Canada). For me, the most appealing thing about QF F is the bed. It is my favourite bed in the skies (OK, JL F in the 350-1000 is pretty good too). It is wide and long and the bedding offered is light so it means I am never too hot, particularly given that there are adjustable air nozzles.

I can't say I've ever had a bad meal in QF F. I enjoy well-prepared, relatively straightforward food. For me, altitude-appropriate catering is the most important thing - stuff that is very flavoursome and reheats well. I very rarely eat hot seafood at altitude for this reason - although I've had some excellently-prepared fish in QF F (always on the recommendation of the cabin crew if they've flown with whoever is running the galley and can vouch for their fish preparation skills).

My wine palate is getting poorer as I age. The Grosset Polish Hill Riesling is a favourite of mine. I always enjoy the Art Series chardonnay (and memorably drank all of the stocks on board once with an old friend who I'd not seen for years and we found ourselves together in QF F!). In reds now all I ask is for dry, tannin-rich and very full-bodied so I can actually taste something (so I go for whatever Australian cab sav or shiraz is being offered). Price point is less relevant to me than whether I enjoy what I am drinking and it pairs OK with what I am eating.

That said, I miss the days of Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill on LHR-SYD in F.

When I get a ripper crew in QF F the flight goes by so quickly and I don't want it to end. The mix of professionalism and down-to-earth friendliness can't be beat and when it is in sync it makes such a difference.

 

[Daver6]

The Tolpuddle Pinot Noir is easily the pick of the wines. Quality wine that's now over the $100 mark. I would have been happy seeing that on a wine list.

 

[Berlin]

So much to say… First off, congrats on scoring that seat! I was lucky enough to score an F seat on QF8 from Dallas in two weeks time so I enjoyed reading the review. My two cents after having been lucky a few times before:

That seat is fine. I’m yet to try that hilarious language hick up on the massage settings but will be sure to try it out! I remember back when the A380 was flying to Dubai, that same system never managed to actually have DXB as a destination so you always ended up in “Unknown” or something along those lines…

Potentially controversial but service wise, I often found Qantas First better than Emirates and I’ve been lucky to do both back to back a few times in the last. If you get a good crew on Qantas International, it easily beats a “meh” crew on Qatar or SQ. Hands down. But then…

The food is usually not the most exciting and serving this silly excuse mini tartlet of caviar instead of full First class caviar service is outright shameful in my eyes. As are many of the wine choices and you seem to even have been unlucky with the Champagne. There’s much better ones on rotation like the excellent Pommery that I enjoyed last year out of LAX. And running out mid flight is to typical Qantas, I don’t even want to go there. Also truly shameful, that’s all I gotta say to that.

Finally- that weird lounge in the front of the upper deck. Many years ago touring the Airbus factory in Toulouse while they still made the A380, I had asked about this and our guide was very confident that the original intention was always for this to be space for showers. Unfortunately only Emirates took up that offer and all other customers were to stingy (sure, dubbed “environmentally conscious” by most, as per usual…). Not sure if that was true but I remember Thai First class used to have the most useless gigantic toilets in that space which clearly had originally meant to have these showers. The Qantas waste of space is just sad, especially if they don’t even stock the snack space and fridge available, as seems to be the standard these days.

 

[blackcat20]

Great review, thank you. Running out of champagne mid-flight is unforgivable!

Last time we flew QF F, they ran out of the champagne before the first meal service

 

[Berlin]

Last time we flew QF F, they ran out of the champagne before the first meal service

This has happened to me before once as well. Some technical issue delaying the flight out of Singapore while the bar was still open and the F champagne had run out before we even got into the air! And that was all the way to London even…

Yes, First world problems truly. But this is a review thread on Qantas First and those prices are eye watering.

 

[jamesatfish]

I've commented a few times across the various threads here, especially the F menu one, but I agree that the food and wine service is what lets down QF F more than anything else.

On most of the other premium airlines the food and beverage offering is what makes F so special. Krug or Cristal on SQ, Dom Perignon on EK, even Veuve Grand Dame on BA are all special drops. Back in the 747 days QF offered Dom Perignon (I know that's now an EK exclusive), then went to the Taittinger Comptes de Champagne which I didn't like as much but was still very nice bottle. The Pommery Louise on current rotation is nice but not in the same league as the better known drops, and I'm just not a fan of the Piper Rare as it's too much like the Piper NV I can buy for $40 at the local bottlo.

The food side is the same - compared to the full caviar service on SQ (with the vodka accompaniment), having a dried out pastry tartlet with a sprinkle of caviar as an appetiser on QF is pretty disappointing. And on one of my QF1 flights earlier this year I chose a dessert that was literally served in the plastic wrapper as if I'd bought it from the servo.

But I also agree on the service - I've had some great flights in QF F, with crew who seem genuinely happy to be there and who make the whole trip memorable. I've had great service on other airlines - SQ and CX particularly - but it always seems professional and polished and therefore a little sterile. A good crew on QF will joke around, make you feel at home and make enough of an impression that I'll want to leave them positive feedback when I get home. Both my kids have been proactively invited into the coughpit at the end of a flight by QF crew who were happy to spend time talking to them during the flight.

I quite enjoy the mini lounge upstairs, especially when our kids were younger and we could take them there to chat and move about a bit more without disturbing everyone else in the cabin, or when you've got friends or family flying in J and you want to sit together for a chat. That said, I do prefer the SQ upper deck F layout with 6 suites and the lounge space used for the more spacious right-hand bathroom.

And as for the quirks of the seat control screen, my avatar here is still from one of the first QF A380 flights where the seat controls ran Macromedia Flash and they hadn't fully worked out all the bugs...

 

[SeatBackForward]

I've done QF F Trans-Pac a few times on the A380 - all upgrades, and to be honest, compared to J I find it a little under-whelming (even despite the time they thought I was staff and ignored me for the first two hours). DEFINTELY not something I would pay for, and as I have not much use for points other than upgrade attempts, this is the only reason why I might end up in the F cabin.

 

[levelnine]

As others have suggested, it is okay value when you're redeeming points acquired very cheaply (or completely freely). But it's a complete rip-off if paying cash.

It's an inferior product to what's on offer from many others carriers to Europe, so I don't bother with it when headed west.

But it's the best product to the US (unless stopping over in Asia), so I seek it out when headed east.

 

[poopiepoo]

QF First needs higher value ingredient eg. Lobster, Wagyu, etc. when I flew them the menu was almost the same as business except + one additional main choice.

There was one wine I had in QF First, 2018 Phi from Heathcote VIC I thought was particularly bad. I tried it again towards the end of my flight hoping that some oxidation would improve the young wine but it didn't. The rest were ok to good.

Vintage Ayala Blanc de blanc was good, so was the Pommery Louise. I would be happy with the Piper Rare if not for the poor 2013 vintage. Some years ago, I recall the SQ first lounge at the lesser T2 had this as self serve pour. Sadly, I could only manage 1 flute at early morning hours.

Once flying QF Business, all the red wines were shockingly bad. I could only manage 1 sip and decided if I was going to poison my liver it better be good. Shame, you could throw $20 at nearly any bottle at Dan Murphy and it would at least be ok.

 

[serfty]

Over the years, I have experienced Qantas A380 First a few times on LAX and HKG routes. I generally agree with the article.

At the turn of the century I flew QF1 to SIN in a 744 .. back then First IFE media was in the form of Hi-8 tapes. While service in all was terrific, the in flight food and beverages were much better 25 years ago.

I am flying in QF1 next month, booked in Business, SYD to LHR, and have submitted a points upgrade request to First (at pre October rates).

I have been considering cancelling the request. As a Qantas Platinum flyer I don't percieve that much additional value. My bucket list has already been ticked for Qantas First and I am struggling to associate amy other tangible benefit being worth the cost.

I believe the Sydney QantascFirst lounge has a special First/P1/CL menu. Ttlraditionally it has a minute steak option. It's an expensive piece of meat.