Qantas Business Class meals & menus

Eatable but (as is typically the case on any airline) well-done when I typically go medium-rare. The steak was my only option because I don't eat non-deep fried fish, eggplant or re-heated pasta (I like fresh pasta but paranoid against reheating after multiple bad experiences with food poisoning with re-heated pasta). If the chicken kiev was offered I would've tried that as it is one of my favourite dishes.

I was a big fan of having potato as a side to the steak and the cheesecake was great (albeit I'm uneducated about what makes most foods New York style etc - with the exemption of Chicago style deep dish pizza).
I’ve had good properly cooked beef on many airlines but never on QF. Always cooked until they are sure it’s very dead, and dry! :)
 
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12/06/23 | QF134 | CHC to BNE

Start of the return journey from Christchurch to Sydney. Travelling via Brisbane primarily because this was a DSC status run and I needed the credits, but also because the Brisbane flight has a much more palatable late afternoon departure time!

Started the journey in CHC's Manaia Lounge, which had an impressive range of drinks on offer and plenty of comforting party pies and sausage rolls! Once onboard I had a PDB Duval-Leroy champagne.

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Meal service started about 1hr 15mins into the flight with choices of spinach and ricotta pasta in a tomato sauce, chicken and quinoa salad or roasted carrot soup. I chose the pasta.

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All three options were served with a Greek salad topped with salmon, cheese and crackers, sourdough bread and a Whittaker's chocolate bar. To drink I had a merlot and sparkling water.

Overall a generous meal and the sides were particularly good but to be honest I was a bit disappointed with the main dish, it was bland, lacked texture and not particularly fresh. I also wasn't impressed that the only non-veg option was served cold, would have been nice to have a non-veg hot option.

It was a NZ-based crew on this flight and cabin manager Leah was excellent, coming by to welcome each passenger shortly after take-off and ask about our holidays in NZ or future travel plans in Aus. The business cabin was looked after by Janine who was also good however seemed to spend a lot of time focusing on Row 1 and less so on those in Rows 2 and 3.

After the meal service these cookies were brought around. They were excellent, as I find Kiwi cookies often are!

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Also couldn't say no to a couple of Bundy and Cokes on a flight to Queensland, which Janine served up with some snacks.

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Flight departed CHC about an hour late however we made up half an hour in the air, despite flying at what I thought was a pretty low altitude of just 30,000ft.

Will be back later to share my experience on the BNE-SYD flight but for now, here's a pic departing New Zealand over the mighty Southern Alps.

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QF142 AKL-SYD June 18, 738 sched dep 0800 actual pushback 0804 takeoff 0815 (05R)

Exemplary service by FA Kevin (NZ based), even stowing my bag on boarding. Jacquart was the Champagne du jour, served promptly as a PDB. A fairly full flight in Y including the disappointed Brumbies team, having lost the SF in Hamilton last night, though J was half empty.

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Cheese and spinach omelette with potatoes, tomatoes and capsicum, accompanied by a apricot Danish and fruit yogurt. All elements were unexpectedly good, and all in all one on the best inflight breakfasts I have had in recent times. Very happily accompanied by more Jacquart.
Can't remember the 2 other choices unfortunately.
 
Eatable but (as is typically the case on any airline) well-done when I typically go medium-rare. The steak was my only option because I don't eat non-deep fried fish, eggplant or re-heated pasta (I like fresh pasta but paranoid against reheating after multiple bad experiences with food poisoning with re-heated pasta). If the chicken kiev was offered I would've tried that as it is one of my favourite dishes.

I was a big fan of having potato as a side to the steak and the cheesecake was great (albeit I'm uneducated about what makes most foods New York style etc - with the exemption of Chicago style deep dish pizza).

Can't comment on the food quality, but presentation looks rather basic when I compare it against airlines such as Oman Air and Japan Air Lines.
 
12/06/23 | QF555 | BNE to SYD

Last flight of this trip. After an easy transfer from the Brisbane International to Domestic terminal I made my way up to the J lounge, unfortunately priority screening wasn't open but once inside I got to enjoy a Sofi Sky Spritz.

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This was the first of my three flights to board/depart more or less on time (33% on-time rating, how good!) however no PDB offered on this short domestic journey.

Cabin manager was Steve, who was great and kept referring to the flight in the announcements as a CityFlyer service. I very much enjoyed the nostalgic blast from the past as an AvGeek! He was assisted by a newer FA who he was training on the J service.

I think all the QF J flights I've taken on B737s have had service in the standard 1AC/DF, 2AC/DF, 3AC/DF order however for whatever reason, on this flight 1DF was served first before returning to the usual order.

Supper options were a beef pie, chicken and corn soup or a cheese plate. Whilst I was impressed to hear that there were three choices, I was less impressed by how quickly the choices ran out! By the time they reached 2DF where I was seated the beef pie had run out and by the time they reached 3DF only the cheese plate was left. Understandable if everyone was ordering the same thing but this wasn't the case, they just seemed to have very few of the pies and not enough soup. I was fine with the soup so took that, for the passengers in 3DF one passenger took the cheese plate and for the other who didn't want a cheese plate, Steve was able to find a barramundi dish the pilots weren't having.

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All options were served with sourdough bread (two slices for the soup takers), Pepe Saya butter and a Koko Black chocolate bar. To drink I just had sparkling water.

I was pretty happy with the soup to be honest, it was thick and flavourful although no pieces of chicken to be found. After the meal service they passed through the cabin offering wine top-ups as well as bottles of water / cans of sparkling water.

Landed in Sydney on time and was treated to some great views of Vivid on approach.

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QF649 SYD-PER 332 June 18 sched dep 1225, pushback right on time, takeoff 1245. The winter winds were playing to form, so a long flight of around 4:30.

PDB of sparkling water or OJ offered promptly on sitting down, as was the jacket hanging. Good service from CSM Ross and FA Elise.

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Pre dinner drink offered 20-ish mins in, had a scotch (JW black) with the usual Santos nuts/pretzels. As far as blends go, actually prefer this to the usual dom J fare of Chivas Regal. The Lois Lane sparkling was being offered on this flight, but passed on this having had the real thing on AKL-SYD earlier today.

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Choices for lunch were a quinoa salad of some description, chicken and corn soup, or the same smoked pork pasta as we had had on SYD-AKL last Thursday. Opted for safety of the latter, as it was better than average and was in the mood for more protein. Would have liked a small bowl of the soup as an entree, but have to concede that those days are gone :(

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Happy to see a Forest Hill Shiraz among the wine choices, this is a winery in the Great Southern region of WA that I really rate. The Highbury Fields is not their top drop but still punches above its weight for its price point (around $23 at Dan’s). Only one glass of this today though after this morning's Champagne indulgences.

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A tub of Maggie's morello cherry and dark chocolate almond ice cream followed later in the flight.

All in all very good service by the crew, and if one can accept the enhanced catering as the new normal, this was a great flight, fitting for the one that slam dunked WP for me for another year…
 
QF995 SYD-HBA scheduled 1:20pm (departed 15 min late). Interestingly, mainline Qantas, not QantasLink. It was both FAs first trip to Hobart :)

No PDB. Very personable FA. Lunch options were pasta bolognaise, quinoa salad (may have had chicken?) or sweetcorn and chicken soup, which I chose.

Lois sparkling or a pinot grigio or shiraz; I chose pinot grigio and iced sparkling water. Nice crusty bread an a dark choccie to finish.

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No top-ups offered, but of course given when asked (the tide had long gone out :) ). Cleared both my and my neighbour's un-finished glasses away just after top of descent, a good 10 mins before seat belt sign came on. I was going to protest, but was driving afterwards and decided against. That was an odd one - as I said, FA very personable.
 
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09/06/23 | QF139 | SYD to CHC WLG!
10/06/23 | QF139 | WLG to CHC

What was meant to be a midnight arrival into Christchurch from Sydney turned into a 2am arrival into Wellington, followed by a 6am departure turning into a 7.30am departure from Wellington before finally arriving in Christchurch at just past 8am! Thankfully I had some the luxury of QF Business Class to make things a little easier. 😄

Bottled water was at our seats on arrival and a PDB of champagne or sparkling water was offered. Went with the Duval-Leroy champagne.

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Dinner service was about an hour after our two-hour delayed take-off. Options were chicken in cream sauce with polenta mash, green peas and beans, roast lamb salad with green beans and herbed potatoes or a green pea soup. I chose the chicken.

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All three options were served with a pumpkin, feta and haloumi salad, cheese and crackers, sourdough bread, Pepe Saya butter and a Koko Black chocolate bar. I was happy with my meal choice, it was a generous portion with large pieces of chicken. To drink I had sparkling water and a glass of Shiraz.

About an hour after the dinner service ice creams were brought around. I'm a bit "anti-fruit-in-ice-cream" but it was nice nonetheless!
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Business was looked after by Kevin and cabin manager Amit, both friendly, helpful and in good spirits despite the late departure from Sydney.

Unfortunately fog at Christchurch and two aircraft ahead of us unable to make the landing meant we had to divert, intending first to go to Auckland but then going to Wellington instead due to runway works being done overnight at Auckland. Given it was the only airport functioning in the country the 1-6am curfew at Wellington was suspended and we landed after 2am. Thankfully customs/quarantine had stayed open so we were able to complete formalities and then sit around in the departures area until the curfew ended and we could continue on our trip to Christchurch.

Overall I have to give credit to Qantas for handling the diversion about as well as a diversion could be handled. Although comms in the air were poor (was also quite weird having the crew continue with the formalities and usual generic announcements on landing despite the diversion), once we were on the ground there were updates sent through via text message and pushed to the Qantas app, as well as announcements in the arrivals area. They were able to source a crew in the middle of the night and eventually we were again on our way. No meal service on the short hop to Christchurch however a drinks run with water, juice, coffee and tea was offered. Not sure if all passengers were offered this but when picking up the boarding pass in WLG at 4am for the second leg the agent issued me with a $20 meal voucher which I used to pick up breakfast from a café in the terminal.

I'll leave you with a pic of the low-level fog on arrival at Christchurch. I can understand why they had to divert given we were told this was a significant improvement on the situation from earlier!

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Sorry to hear that your flight was one of the unlucky ones to be diverted that day. Do wonder if they treated you all as domestic passengers on the WLG-CHC flight? I thought they would allow business and high-tier flyers to use QF Lounge in WLG's international pier before departure since there is daily early morning QF flight from WLG to SYD. And also, they could have served their pretzel and almonds on the WLG-CHC flight instead of just drinks only. :/
 
Sorry to hear that your flight was one of the unlucky ones to be diverted that day. Do wonder if they treated you all as domestic passengers on the WLG-CHC flight? I thought they would allow business and high-tier flyers to use QF Lounge in WLG's international pier before departure since there is daily early morning QF flight from WLG to SYD. And also, they could have served their pretzel and almonds on the WLG-CHC flight instead of just drinks only. :/

Yes we were all treated as domestic passengers for the WLG-CHC flight, all border formalities completed on landing in Wellington so the second leg was a domestic flight leaving from a domestic gate. The WLG QF Lounge in the international section was open but inaccessible given it was beyond passport control, hence why the vouchers were offered.

In a way having a 6am WLG-SYD departure was beneficial because it meant the check-in desks were open anyway for us to pick up our second leg boarding passes and drop off luggage, but it also meant that they were effectively having to check in double the number of guests they usually would, which was unfortunate for those waiting in the non-priority queue!

As for snack/drink service on the flight, certainly would have been nice to have some snacks but I think most of us were too tired to care by this point 😄
 
All four items are to be eaten together, adding the amount of condiment as you prefer and adding rice as you prefer, so presented together on a tray. FAs can hardly bring the four dishes along individually or it would take ages.
Correct. I asked today LHRHND JL44 in F. Seems naff to us Westerners. I asked the FA if it would be normal in a top Japanese restaurant. Pretty much she seemed to say.
 
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QF94 LAX-MEL
June 2023

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Fairly good food and service. Don’t recommend the green juice, and I don’t know why they bother with the breakfast card if they don’t read it …

I sleep so much better on the 787 so was a very good flight.
 
QF94 LAX-MEL
June 2023

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Fairly good food and service. Don’t recommend the green juice, and I don’t know why they bother with the breakfast card if they don’t read it …

I sleep so much better on the 787 so was a very good flight.

I was on QF8 yesterday, I tick where it says Orange Juice and draw an arrow and write "Mimosa".

I think I've done that on my last three USA-AU J flights and never had a problem getting it.

I did get some daggers from other pax when I ordered a G&T at 10am on my connecting flight to OOL 🤣- FA didn't have a problem with it though.
 
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