Trans-Tasman J

[kermatu]

Red wines on the trans-Tasman flights of late have been excellent. Mostly ‘Handpicked’ Pinot noirs, Cab savs and Shiraz from both sides of the ditch. Lovely.

 

[kermatu]

Menu for overnight MEL-AKL 737 flight.

 

[kermatu]

Only 4 people in J, though understood Y was full. All 4 of us had the lamb:



It was ok but not great.

Had the cookie with a coffee later in the flight but no-one was offered the breakfast best I could tell.

 

[ShrinkWrapped]

I feel that breakfast ex-akl remains a bit of a weak point food wise

served blueberry panckes with lemon creme fraiche this morning on QF 140. The two pancakes were measly sized (probably 2 1/2 inches in diameter tops) and the creme fraiche had little flavour. Didn't get a photo because I was starving and just ate it anyways.

Rest of the QF morning menu as follows ex-AKL

Peach and Orange Energizer

--------------------
Greek style yoghurt with plum and dried fig compote
Banana Bread
Bacon and egg puff pastry tart
--------------------
Seasonal fruit plate
Brookfarm macadamia toasted museli with cranberries
Zucchini and corn frittata with slow roasted tomato
Blueberry pancakes with lemon creme fraiche
--------------------
lemon shortbread biscuit served with your choice of hot beverage

 

[Berlin]

SYD-AKL in late December (sorry for the late posting, was traveling followed by a battle against the South American bugs I was bringing home), Jetconnect crew on a 737-800, "lunch" service. As approximately every second Qantas trans-tasman flight, this Qantas service was delayed by over an hour. Given we only had a bit over an hour connection time to our LATAM flight in Auckland, we started to panic slightly when the extended delay became obvious. The lovely lady in the QF lounge didn't really help calm our nerves by telling us that "You might never know, obviously you won't receive your luggage but you might still be lucky and make it!".

Upon boarding, we were offered water or juice but unfortunately no champagne (even though Tattinger was available later on the actual flight). When we had originally booked this trip, we had been on the EK A380 and only got bumped down to Qantas when Emirates decided to cull this route. Gone our hope to start the long holiday in South America with a glass of champagne but luckily the meal itself would be on the nicer side. We asked the purser straight upon boarding if she could keep us updated about the flight connection and she assured us she'd "ask the pilot" straight away. I'm not sure if flight attendants ever bother the pilots with their pesky guests' connection issues but as expected, this didn't happen. Instead, the purser was full on busy for the rest of boarding with calming down the unruly screaming children from the cheaper seats in the back of the plane. When we politely asked mid flight if she had heard anything about our connection, we received a rather rude "Well, you need to give me some time" and we couldn't help wonder why in the world one and the same crew member would raise our expectations so strangely straight upon boarding when we then turn into nuisance when daring to follow up two hours later. Strange and an unnecessarily bad service experience.

Luckily, the meal service itself was rather lovely with the following menu:



I always love the soups on airplanes so decided for the tomato soup while my partner went for the prawns. They strangely didn't have any bowls for the soup so I was served it from a coffee cup and then refilled half way through. The crew was highly apologetic about this though I couldn't have cared less, especially as the soup itself was delicious. I myself am allergic to seafood so couldn't try the salad but my partner assured me it was excellent as well. As always on Qantas, I loved the little churned butter which seriously costs 10 bucks for 200g at my fancy local grocery store. As tempted as I always am to buy it, I find this price obscene for a block of butter and therefore just can't ever get myself to buy it- even more I enjoy it on my Qantas flights though!



For the main, I went for the roast pork while my partner opted for the pasta. The pork meat was definitely on the cheaper side but you get pork so rarely on flights these days so I didn't complain. The corn mash on the side was quite tasty, actually. The highlight though must have been the pasta dish which was the exact opposite of those dreadful 'chicken or pasta' choices that I vaguely remember in horror from my Economy days. Pasta fresh and perfectly cooked al dente, sauce delicious with lovely shaved Parmesan on top, yumm. A little bit of a small portion but definitely the better quality choice over the pork.



Finally we had the choice between ice cream and cheese so my partner went for the former while I went for the latter. The pseudo-artisinal Maggie Beer ice cream came with no less than 5 E numbers while my cheese came with a lovely sticky wine instead



Upon landing, we dared to carefully ask the purser again about our connection and she "had it totally forgotten". She then really spoke to the flight crew and shortly after announced that someone will wait outside the plane for the people connecting to LATAM 800 as apparently there were ten more parties with the same issue down the back. Turned out that the guy from Auckland airport waiting outside was not there to rush us through the terminal so that we get out flight but rather told us to "rush as you might not get it!". Thank you very much, that was all very well done with this connection! Hint: We managed to get the connection after running like crazy through half the terminal, only to then wait around at the gate for a almost 45 minutes delayed international flight to Santiago

 

[Deleted member]

I don’t fly with connections this tight (anymore). Rushing for me is when they supply a golf buggy.

 

[Berlin]

I don’t fly with connections this tight (anymore). Rushing for me is when they supply a golf buggy.

Yep- that was American Express travel in all their useless glory. Changed my original flight on EK to this super tight connection and dead set refused to change it to a flight earlier (there was one about an hour before) claiming this will be super sure enough time. And of course, it wasn't. Amex travel= the very worst (I know there's a separate thread on this topic so I'll leave it at that).

 

[AV8]

QF have sale J fare from SYD to & from AKL for the next few days - I have booked with a voucher from recent double S/C offer - time will tell if double S/C's post.

 

[kermatu]

Time to revive an old thread.

Took my first QF151 on an A330 (the overnight MEL-AKL flight). Seemed to be pretty empty according to EF but upon checking again in the lounge a couple of hours before departure Y had almost entirely filled up. There were 11 of us in J.

Here is the menu. Service was terrific. Quick, everything available, plus lights dimmed but never switched off entirely, crew walking through quietly on a regular basis.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What is artisan bakery?? Do they mean artisan bakery items? Artisan bread?

 

[sudoer]

What is artisan bakery?? Do they mean artisan bakery items? Artisan bread?

They're being fancy.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They're being fancy.

View attachment 127638

hmmmm... is that even a word!??

 

[Berlin]

What is artisan bakery?? Do they mean artisan bakery items? Artisan bread?

They are talking about an industrially produced bakery item that has run off a conveyor belt about 5 weeks ago and will be reheated in the galley to a perfect chewy consistency

 

[kermatu]

Less of an issue this menu, but I’m now somehow able to exclude the Neil Perry spin on these menus and focus on the only words that mean anything, like ‘soup’ or ‘juice’. Nothing else makes sense.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Less of an issue this menu, but I’m now somehow able to exclude the Neil Perry spin on these menus and focus on the only words that mean anything, like ‘soup’ or ‘juice’. Nothing else makes sense.

If you tried that approach on the initial LAX F menus then they would have been blank pieces of paper.

 

[kermatu]

If you tried that approach on the initial LAX F menus then they would have been blank pieces of paper.

I’d just grab a J menu. Exactly the same.

Oh shoot, they’d be blank too.

Edit: whoops, misread the previous post - thought the reference was to F class menus.

 

[kermatu]

Indicative of the quality service, anyone who had requested or were (like me) simply awake about 40 minutes out were offered breakfast. And not just one of the options but all 3. I only had the cheese on departure so I had some of all three items and they were all good.



Crumbs on the cheese plate mark the remnants of the mushroom tartlet which was excellent too.

 

[NZ_Flyer]

QF142 AKL-SYD 2 June Dep: 0835

Had the egg dish which was an excellent meal. Eggs weren’t runny as you’d expect. J FA was pretty good as expected for Jetconnect crew but the CSM was sour.

 

[kermatu]

Great you enjoyed it - which is all that matters in the end - but strange to offer fried eggs which presumably were fried several hours before actual consumption.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Fried eggs? That's a rarity.