QF9 J meals PER – LHR

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With ‘dine on demand’, does it work as an entire meal, or can you just order (say) an entree at any time?
 
Ive not been fortunate enough to fly J long haul, but i did do QF10 in economy LHR-PER last august in Y and then connected to a SYD flight and am surprised that people felt this caused worse jet lag than flying into LHR.

Whilst i would never do QF9 outbound, i think QF10 is prerable to QF2 due to arrival times.

I liked that QF departs London early arvo, i had a sleep in, a decent buffet breaky and apmle lounge time before take-off. I binged watch movies for the whole flight as beind a day flight (and natural night owl) i wasnt tired. Upon arrival in Perth, i was fading but i had a shower in the QC a light snack, a drink and boarded the last leg feeling refreshed, landing in Syd at 10pm meant, i was in my home by 11pm and could go straight to bed at a normal time, slept through and awoke with zero jet lag at a normal time the next day.

My advice is to not sleep for an extended period, the depature and arrivals time are such that you wouldnt be coming from the office or heading straight to the officem so work to the local time of final destination from the momentbyou board, so you asre sleepy and ready to bed when you get home.

Wrt meals i didnt have a huge gap, in economy they served dinner not long after takeoff, then icecreams about 90mins later for anyone who was awake, then came around for several times before breaky offering hot snacks (pizza pockets), then later apples and bananas, muesil bars, pretzels etc i certainly wasnt hungry. But then im happy to eat per destination, not per departure.
 
@Anna no wonder you were feeling s***
Turning the lights off travelling west tend to maintain you in the original time zone and then you wake up when it’s morning in MEL.

Darkness does not fix Desynchronosis. You need light at specific times of the day (using destination time)

So for QF9
MEL-PER the cabin should be bright the entire duration because time in LHR is 7am when MEL is 5pm

And PER-LHR should only be dark for the 9 hours prior to arrival. Otherwise it should be bright. When it departs PER it is midday in LHR. So leave the lights on.

Hey Project sunrise!. Light is key. Not just light as in weight but the stuff that shine!!!
With QF 9 travelling west, not sure you land when it's 0700 in MEL. Arrival time for QF9 would be mid afternoon in MEL I would have thought.
 
With QF 9 travelling west, not sure you land when it's 0700 in MEL. Arrival time for QF9 would be mid afternoon in MEL I would have thought.
You are correct, but I was referring to departure time of 5pm from MEL which is 7am in LHR:). Therefore MEL-PER is effectively a morning flight (based on LHR time) and the cabin activity and lighting should reflect that.
 
... in economy they served dinner not long after takeoff, then icecreams about 90mins later for anyone who was awake, then came around for several times before breaky offering hot snacks (pizza pockets), then later apples and bananas, muesil bars, pretzels etc i certainly wasnt hungry. But then im happy to eat per destination, not per departure.

You seemed to have had a better time in Y than some have experienced in J.
 
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I think the airlines try to force you to sleep as it means less work for cabin crew. However they need to leave the shades up and lights on for at least 3 hours post meal service on any flight over 10hours, as no one naturally sleeps immediately after dinner. Anyone who wants to sleep earlier can don an eye mask.

For me direction of travel makes no difference, jet lag is all to do with arrival time and not sleeping until a normal time per local arrival.
 
as no one naturally sleeps immediately after dinner.

I certainly do and know of lots of others that do! Perhaps not immediately but very soon after!

My experience over 100s of flights.
 
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I meant on the ground no one eats then goes to bed right away, so to enforce this on a plane is not natural, but more that the crew want you to. Great for you if you can sleep on a full stomach and for 13 hours straight on a 17 hour flight, i couldnt do this even if i had my actual queen sized bed on board. They need to adjust the timetable on the newer longer flights like lhr-per and dfw-syd.
 
we did QF9 MEL-PER-LHR in Feb
When flying west I try and stretch out time.
Had a late lunch in MEL lounge (as we have over 2 hours travel to get to MEL) so just a drink and snack (starter) MEL-PER, and then the full dinner service out of Perth. Anything to stretch out the time on a 17 hour sector.
Seemed to work pretty well I thought.
 
I meant on the ground no one eats then goes to bed right away,

I see your point. But airlines always turn down/off the lights after dinner on long hauls, And if you look around, a lot of the pax then seem to like to sleep.

QF9 currently departs PER at 18:45 which is not a bad time to schedule dinner. Starting ca an hour after take-off lasting ca an hour for the process and it's 21:00 in PER (23:00 in MEL) by the time it finishes?
 
we did QF9 MEL-PER-LHR in Feb
When flying west I try and stretch out time.
Had a late lunch in MEL lounge (as we have over 2 hours travel to get to MEL) so just a drink and snack (starter) MEL-PER, and then the full dinner service out of Perth. Anything to stretch out the time on a 17 hour sector.
Seemed to work pretty well I thought.
This !!!
I have done this flight to LHR a few times ex-MEL.
I have lunch in the Flounge, cheese plate and a glass of wine to PER. Nothing during the transit and then dinner ex-PER.
Works for me, I sleep like a baby until over Eastern Europe and have a quick brekky prior to landing.
I absolutely love this flight and would choose it over any other to get to LHR.
 
I liked that QF departs London early arvo, i had a sleep in, a decent buffet breaky and apmle lounge time before take-off. I binged watch movies for the whole flight as beind a day flight (and natural night owl) i wasnt tired. Upon arrival in Perth, i was fading but i had a shower in the QC a light snack, a drink and boarded the last leg feeling refreshed, landing in Syd at 10pm meant, i was in my home by 11pm and could go straight to bed at a normal time, slept through and awoke with zero jet lag at a normal time the next day.

That was my plan for QF ten too. Didn't sleep much on the flight. Went to bed at home at 11pm absolutely knackered. Woke up at 2am. Managed to go back to sleep about 4am. Next thing I knew it was 11am so I forced myself out of bed, felt awful the whole of the rest of that day. Went to bed at 9pm, woke up at 6.30am, had to get up for work but felt so awful that when I got to work I nearly turned round and went home again but stuck it out, felt awful till about mid afternoon. Then was awake until midnight, luckily didn't have to get up at any particular time. But it was six days before I felt I was back to my normal sleep pattern and normally it only takes me two to three days.

I have done this flight to LHR a few times ex-MEL.
I have lunch in the Flounge, cheese plate and a glass of wine to PER. Nothing during the transit and then dinner ex-PER.
Works for me, I sleep like a baby until over Eastern Europe and have a quick brekky prior to landing.
I absolutely love this flight and would choose it over any other to get to LHR.

Do you recall what any of the hot snacks were on any of your flights?

The eat dinner ex PER strategy wouldn't work for me. I just can't digest a meal at what my body thinks is late evening. Even on the ground, if I miss dinner for some reason there's no point me eating a late dinner cos I'll just have indigestion all night, so I'll just have a late snack and then eat breakfast in the morning.
 
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Interest
In March I flew on QF9 in J from MEL – PER – LHR. It was my first time on that flight so I’m interested in whether the food served is usually like what I experienced.

I booked QF9/10 by accident. I had in mind that QF9/10 was MEL – LHR via SIN. My mistake to be out of date. When I realised my error I couldn’t be bothered fighting with the QF website to change the flights and thought to myself ‘oh well, at least it will be interesting to experience the direct Australia to UK flight’.

My flight was while most of Australia, except WA, was still on summer daylight saving time. I know that the departure times get adjusted when daylight saving ends but I don’t think they change too radically from what I had.

We departed MEL on schedule at 17.05pm. As far as I was concerned this was excellent timing to enjoy a QF J dinner which I duly did. I’m not sure exactly what time we landed in PER or exactly what time we departed PER en route for LHR but departure was around about 18.45pm PER time. In other words for those who boarded QF9 in MEL it was by now about 21.45pm by their body clocks. I’d also done a relaxing stretch session with the lovely yoga instructor in the ‘spa room’ in the QF transit lounge at PER so I was feeling ready to wind down for the night.

Just to remind everyone, PER – LHR is a 17 hour sector. Another dinner was served after take-off from PER. Allowing for the drinks service and the heating-up time it was by now at least 23.00pm as far as my stomach was concerned, and I’d already had dinner. I don’t know about anyone else but I can’t digest another big meal when my stomach thinks it’s had dinner and it’s about time to go to sleep.

I told the crew I wasn’t really that hungry. They advised me to ‘try to eat something because the next meal is not till breakfast before we land at Heathrow’. Landing at Heathrow was by now about 15 hours away. I managed to eat some bread and an icecream sandwich. I really couldn’t face eating more than that and certainly not any of Neil’s spicy/heavy options that were on the dinner menu. (I like spicy food, just not when I’m sleepy).

I went to sleep and woke up about 5-6 hours later. It was still 9-10 hours away from landing at Heathrow. I was a bit hungry because my stomach thought it was breakfast time by now. I went to explore the snacks on offer in the galley. There were some fruit salads in bowls on a tray next to the chocolate bars etc – ‘fruit salad, perfect’, I thought. When I took one a crew member snapped at me that the bowls were ‘for breakfast’ and I wasn’t allowed to have one. So instead I took an apple and a biscuit and went back to my seat.

After another couple of hours, 7-8 hours away from landing, my stomach was definitely wanting breakfast so I consulted the menu to find out what the hot snacks were. For what felt to me like breakfast, these were the choices:

Stir fried vegetables with sweet potato noodles, soy and sesame
Beef kofta with Moroccan eggplant, pearl couscous and coriander yogurt
Prawn and celery brioche roll with smoked paprika and tarragon mayonnaise


I don’t like noodles much and I don’t like celery and I certainly don’t like either of them for breakfast. I mean, I’d eat either of them or even both of them if I was lost in the desert for 3 days without food and they were the only options other than starvation. But when my stomach thinks it’s breakfast time on a J flight I’ve paid $8K for, no. And at dinner time I would be very happy with beef kofta, but again – I’d been asleep 5-6 hours and then dozing and beef kofta for breakfast was not what I felt like eating. So I went back to the galley and took a lamington and another biscuit and asked for a cup of tea and some OJ which were brought to me.

That kept my stomach (but not my inner nutritionist) happy until we were about 3 hours out of LHR. I decided that by now that I was awake enough and hungry enough to manage some beef kofta. I went to the galley and found the crew were busily setting out breakfast trays. I asked the CSM how long it would be before breakfast was served. Remember by now it was about 12 hours since the dinner service ex PER. She told me that breakfast would be served ‘in about 20 minutes’. Her answer and her tone of voice made it clear to me that the crew would not appreciate it if I was to ask for beef kofta now when they were busy prepping breakfast.

I was happy to wait 20 minutes for breakfast so I went back to my seat and waited. And waited. And waited. And went and got changed out of my PJs in the hope that me being away from my seat in the bathroom would immediately trigger the arrival of the crew with breakfast. Nope, still no breakfast.

Eventually, when I was beginning to think that the other pax would be able to hear my stomach rumbling even through their headphones, movement started in the other aisle with breakfast trays being distributed. But it was still another 20 minutes before an FA arrived at my seat with my breakfast. It was at least 2 hours since the CSM informed me that breakfast would be ‘in 20 minutes’ and by now only about 1 hour 20 minutes away from landing at LHR – so about 13 or 14 hours between proper meals being served.

My reason for posting is to ask whether the mid-flight hot snack choices on QF9 are usually so unbreakfast-like? On QF10 one of the hot snack choices was a bacon sandwich which would have been perfect on QF9 when my stomach thought it was breakfast time. And also, on a 17 hour flight do people really think it’s ok that there’s a dinner service soon after take-off and a breakfast service just before landing but no proper meal service in the 13-14 hours in between?
Interestingly the mid flight hot snack in Y on QF9 is a bacon sandwich.
 
Jet lag or Desynchronosis is worse travelling east
Is there any credible research that actually supports this. Sure I have read the 'west is best' type web articles however everyone is different. I personally find no difference in jet lag travelling east or west. I know I struggle to sleep on aircraft so will book flights based on arrival time, time to get to hotels etc. and how long I have to stay awake at the destination to get me back to my standard eating and sleeping routines. My +1 and daughter are different they can sleep from take off to landing at almost any time of the day or flight duration.
 
I agree everyone is different, I got zero jet lag following QF10, because I didn't sleep at all on the 2 flights and went to bed when I got home after 11pm, and woke at 9am the next day, then got straight back into my normal routine.

Outward bound I think napping on arrival insteading of waiting up until a proper bed time is what leads to jet lag. As done not being properly hydrated.

I also have a theory (strictly from observation nothing very scientific), that night people like myself cope better than morning people when their sleep patterns are altered by travel. Night people who hate early mornings, are constantly having to work outside their natural sleep rhythm to conform to a world run by morning people. So they just have better coping mechanisms after a lifetime of practice.
 
That was my plan for QF ten too. Didn't sleep much on the flight. Went to bed at home at 11pm absolutely knackered. Woke up at 2am. Managed to go back to sleep about 4am. Next thing I knew it was 11am so I forced myself out of bed, felt awful the whole of the rest of that day. Went to bed at 9pm, woke up at 6.30am, had to get up for work but felt so awful that when I got to work I nearly turned round and went home again but stuck it out, felt awful till about mid afternoon. Then was awake until midnight, luckily didn't have to get up at any particular time. But it was six days before I felt I was back to my normal sleep pattern and normally it only takes me two to three days.



Do you recall what any of the hot snacks were on any of your flights?

The eat dinner ex PER strategy wouldn't work for me. I just can't digest a meal at what my body thinks is late evening. Even on the ground, if I miss dinner for some reason there's no point me eating a late dinner cos I'll just have indigestion all night, so I'll just have a late snack and then eat breakfast in the morning.
I don’t eat anything at all mid-flight but this is the menu from 2 weeks ago. C5659E44-FF68-491A-B6B6-42D69ADC875A.jpeg
 
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