QantasLink A220 Business Class Review

It’s now been about a year since QantasLink retired its ageing Boeing 717 fleet. The aircraft with the honour of replacing those older regional jets has been the Airbus A220-300 – the modern, fuel-efficient regional jet that looks like it’s wearing sunglasses.

In addition to 127 Economy seats, QantasLink’s A220s have ten Business Class seats up the front of the plane. Those seats came with a brand new design that Qantas later went on to use as the basis for its Airbus A321XLR Business Class seats. The airline will eventually retrofit a similar seat onto its Boeing 737s as well.

I flew Economy Class on QantasLink’s Airbus A220 between Melbourne and Canberra last year, and loved it. Now, I’ve finally had a chance to try out the new A220 Business Class as well. (I originally tried to do this last year, but Qantas swapped that plane to a 717 at the last minute!)

This review covers my experience flying QantasLink’s Airbus A220 Business Class from Canberra to Melbourne.

Flight Details

Flight number	QF1281
Origin	Canberra (CBR)
Destination	Melbourne (MEL)
Aircraft type	Airbus A220-300
Class of travel	Business
Seat number	1F
On-time performance	We arrived 15 minutes late
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I paid $399 for a one-way Qantas Business Class sale fare from Canberra to Melbourne. (At peak times, Qantas often charges a similar amount for an Economy ticket on this route!)

You could also book a one-way Business Classic Reward seat on this route for 19,300 Qantas Points + $100 in taxes & charges.

Airport Experience

Flying out of Canberra Airport is usually a breeze, and this Sunday afternoon was no exception. I’d already checked in on the Qantas app, and there were plenty of self-service kiosks available where I could print my bag tag and drop off my suitcase.

As is often the case, there was no queue at all to clear security at Canberra Airport.

Lounge access

Within a few minutes, I was in the lovely Qantas Business Lounge at Canberra Airport.

Access to this lounge is included with a Qantas Business Class ticket, or if you have Qantas Platinum, Platinum One or Oneworld Emerald status. As it happens, a Qantas Club membership or Qantas Gold card would also have got you in on this particular Sunday afternoon as the neighbouring Qantas Club was closed for the weekend (due to low demand).

The domestic Business Lounge in Canberra has plenty of comfortable seating and natural light. Although, in contrast to the Qantas Club which has a great runway view, the view in this lounge is of the airport carpark.

There’s a decent selection of food available at the buffet including soup, salads, cakes and DIY toasted sandwiches. During my visit, there was also a plate of Vili’s beef pies (yum!).

There’s also a wide selection of drinks including barista coffee, spirits, beer on tap and a nice selection of self-pour wines.

If you need to get some work done, there are proper desks with power outlets at the end of the lounge.

The lounge also has clean toilets, and there are showers located just outside the entrance. The lounge receptionist has towels and other amenities on hand if you want to use one of the showers.

Overall, I think this is one of the better domestic airport lounges out there – not just in Qantas’ network, but anywhere in the world. In my opinion, it’s also clearly in a league above the Virgin Australia Lounge, which is perhaps one of the reasons Qantas can get away with charging more than Virgin for its domestic Business Class.

Boarding

Qantas started boarding for this flight quite early at gate 14. This doesn’t have an airbridge, so we walked across the tarmac to get to the plane.

Although my boarding pass had “Group 1” printed on it, the gate agent did not use group boarding on this occasion. They just announced when the flight was ready to start boarding, with everyone invited to join a single line at the same time.

The Hard Product

My Airbus A220 looked and felt almost brand new. The plane itself has a modern design with nice mood lighting, large windows and individual air vents.

On QantasLink’s Airbus A220-300, Business Class is laid out in a 2-2 configuration with three rows on the right and two on the left. The rows are staggered a bit, meaning the seat pairs in each row are not directly across the aisle from one another. This also means the back half of the seats 3D/F are directly across the aisle from the front row of Economy (seats 4A/C).

QantasLink A220 Business Class seats

While you won’t find any lie-flat beds on this plane, the wide leather seats offer ample legroom and a decent amount of recline. They’re effectively an evolution of Qantas’ existing Boeing 737-800 Business Class seats.

There’s a small cocktail table between each seat pair and a small storage space beside each seat, underneath the armrest. Here, you’ll also find USB and USB-C charging outlets, as well as wireless phone charging (which worked when I tested it).

A legrest and footrest folds out from under the seat. The front part of the seat also raises when you extend the legrest, which I found to be a bit unusual.

I found the legroom in the first row to be quite decent. One advantage of sitting in row 1 is that you could get out of the window seat without the person in the aisle seat needing to stand up. However, as with most seats behind a bulkhead, the downside is that you can’t fully stretch your legs out under the seat in front.

Business Class was less than half full, so I was also able to sit in row 2 for a little while. I found the legroom to be decent in row 2 as well. In this row, the footrest folds out from underneath the seat in front. You can also take advantage of the device holder on the back of the seat in front.

In-flight entertainment

One obvious thing that’s missing is seat-back TV screens. Instead of offering personal entertainment screens, Qantas assumes everyone will bring their own device on board and offers streaming entertainment.

On the plus side, QantasLink’s A220 does offer fast, free Wi-Fi for everyone on board. This works really well.

The Soft Product

Unlike on Virgin Australia, Qantas doesn’t offer a glass of sparkling wine or water before take-off in Business Class. Instead, you’ll sometimes (but not always) get a small plastic bottle of water.

On this particular flight, there was a bit of delay to our departure because a thunderstorm was passing right over the top of Canberra Airport. The ground staff had to wait for the weather to clear up before they could finish loading the cargo hold, so a flight attendant handed out some snacks while we waited. On a side note, I do really like the Santos nut mixes that Qantas gives out in Business!

Eventually the weather improved and we were able to depart for Melbourne.

I’m always impressed when airlines manage to serve a hot meal on a short flight like Melbourne-Canberra. In this case, though, I’m sorry to say that the meal wasn’t that great.

The only meal offered was a slice of quattro formaggi (four cheese) pizza. This had pesto, sun-dried tomato and mushrooms on it, but lacked any kind of tomato-based sauce below the toppings.

If you like a bit of comfort food, this kind of food does the job. But I don’t think this meal could have possibly cost more than a few dollars to make. Personally, I would have preferred a healthier, less greasy option.

This came with a Lindt chocolate ball and a choice of drinks. Qantas normally also serves sourdough bread on the side in Business, but not on this short route. (I didn’t really need any more carbs to go with the pizza, anyway.)

One little thing I liked about the design of the Business Class meal tray is that it slides directly onto a metal strip at the top of the tray table, “locking” it into place. It’s a minor detail, but a nice feature!

The flight attendant looking after Business Class, Marius, was lovely and provided great service. He was very proactive with drink top-ups and was actively visible in the cabin during the flight.

Unfortunately, while I was eating my slice of pizza, I found a small piece of blue plastic in it. Luckily I spotted it and didn’t eat it, but it was a bit concerning.

I reported this to the cabin supervisor and he took it very seriously. He apologised, photographed the food and promised to report the catering failure internally.

When I disembarked, I was shocked to discover that Marius had prepared a small “goodie bag” with a hand-written note and some wine and chocolates for me to take away, as an apology for the catering issue. This was a totally unexpected but thoughtful touch – full marks for service recovery!