Followed your advice and had the brisket which was really delicious!
Also snatched the last steak at the QR lounge which was equally good.
Menu on board was a bit more extensive at the 8:50pm departure with two more meals to chose from and a breakfast card for the early morning arrival which I found fairly decent for this duration of flight:
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Unfortunately, the Japanese sounding pork dish had to be- true Japan style- totally ruined by these awful fish flakes on top. I asked the otherwise lovely crew if those could be taken off and got told that “of course you can take them off!” which wasn’t really what I had been hoped for (like- you know- can you serve without?) My newly wed husband usually doesn’t mind a bit of fish and those flakes turned out to be REALLY fishy so taking them off after sipping through the entire dish would have certainly not worked for me (it was hard enough to handle the pungent smell around me to be honest, I indeed almost felt like flying JAL but at least the cabin temperature was not cracked up to the max!). My better half was generally not too happy with the entire meal which he described as bland and derive any flavour besides the very generous serve of fish skin on top:
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I was a bit more lucky as I pretty much got forced to select the “Hot and Sour soup” which was quite tasty, despite the total lack of anything hot and being a tiny portion. It tasted nice enough and after two mains in the lounges, was actually filling enough. Everything was served on one tray which I always find a bit off putting in Business but it worked for the late flight and we didn’t wait any longer than necessary- definitely not the excruciatingly slow service as described by many others here recently so must have been lucky indeed:
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We had purposely booked everything to arrive on a Sunday morning so we’d have the entire day to nap and prepare for the work week so we had no interest in an airplane nap. In the end we’ve made use of that rather weird and waste-of-space “lounge” area in the tip of the A380 for the first time ever (I think) and I had a Jacquart-filled good time with my new husband, chit chatting away on our holiday and wedding memories
While even the snack fridge was locked and unused and we saw a fair few guests from both Business and First coming over to just irritatedly stare at the odd empty space (most likely hoping for either an Emirates-style bar or simply a loo), we actually had a good time- and how could you not with free flowing champagne, sitting in what I think is one of the most amazing spaces existing- the top tip of an A380! The call button was quickly answered too (unlike at the seat where it seemed to be entirely ignored throughout the flight) and the crew was generally lovely and approachable. The flight was finished off with a quick breakfast that included yet more champagne and the Brioche role for me (“Neil’s” BBQ sauce was used as sparingly as salad leaves are used in his equally “famous” salad bowls…) and pancakes for my better half. Both fairly standard and neither amazing nor particularly bad and quite alright for this flight, providing enough energy to tackle the as per usual rather nasty early morning “welcome home” at Sydney’s international airport.
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Overall, a typical Qantas international J flight. Nothing outstandingly bad, great crew and aircraft and on time performance. We had two legs in Qatar’s Qsuite just the day before so were probably a bit spoilt but it’s really mostly food and drink which makes the big difference. As often, I found the Qantas crew more approachable and friendly than on Qatar (or SQ and so on, for that matter) which makes a huge difference in my mind. Would I pay 3k more for a return flight on Qantas over any One World competitor? Hell no, especially as long as the only direct option from Sydney is London in which I have zero interest in. Would it be competitive directly to Paris or Frankfurt? At the same price as others, sure- but we can only dream of that for the time being.
