Sydney-Melbourne in Qantas Business Class: 737 or A330?

When flying from Sydney to Melbourne with Qantas, you’ll often have the choice to fly on a narrow-body Boeing 737 or a wide-body Airbus A330.

The Airbus A330 is a more popular aircraft with most passengers because it has a better Business Class product and is more spacious. On the Qantas A330, all Business Class seats have direct aisle access and can be reclined to become a lie-flat bed…

As the Airbus A330 has two aisles instead of one, it’s easier to access the bathrooms and there’s more space to walk around and stretch your legs. There’s also a real curtain behind the Business cabin, so there’s more privacy and it’s less likely that people will try to enter the Business cabin from Economy.

On the other hand, Business Class on the Qantas Boeing 737-800 consists of three rows of reclining seats in a 2-2 configuration…

For these reasons, the Airbus A330 is an obvious choice for longer flights such as trans-Tasman services to New Zealand or trans-continental treks over to Perth.

But I recently flew from Sydney to Melbourne in Business Class twice in the space of a week – once on an A330-200 and once on a Boeing 737-800. I actually preferred the latter flight! Here’s why…

Flight #1: QF479 on an Airbus A330-200

Being an Airbus A330, the physical seat on this flight was much nicer. There’s a lot more privacy, a larger TV screen with noise-cancelling headphones provided, you don’t have a seat neighbour when sitting by the window, and I could recline my seat a lot further.

However, with a flight time of only an hour, there isn’t enough time on a Sydney-Melbourne flight to take full advantage of the lie-flat bed. You need to be sitting in an upright position for take-off and landing, and there’s only around half an hour available after take-off to nap before the cabin crew need to prepare for landing. All of that time is taken up by the meal service.

Speaking of the meal service, this felt very rushed on the A330 flight. Because there are 28 passengers in Business and it’s a short flight, the crew were scrambling to hand out meals as quickly as possible. They didn’t have time to have a chat and I’d describe the service on this flight as abrupt. It also felt a bit like I was on an assembly line because you’re served by different crew members at different stages of the flight.

On Melbourne-Sydney services, passengers sitting towards the back of Business on the A330 often don’t receive their meals until it’s almost time to land.

The meal itself was quite nice. There was a choice of butter chicken or a chickpea salad, and this was served with warm bread, a chocolate and wine. But I was not offered any drink top-ups on this flight.

Flight #2: QF485 on a Boeing 737-800

The Qantas Business Class cabin on the Boeing 737 is a lot more intimate, with just 12 seats. This can have its disadvantages, but it can also be a good thing on a short flight like Sydney-Melbourne.

On this particular flight, there were only 8 passengers in Business (and I was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me). The Customer Service Manager was therefore able to spend a lot more time providing a personalised service to each passenger and offering things like drink top-ups.

The same two meal choices were offered on this flight, so this time I tried the salad which was also delicious.

Sure, I didn’t get a lie-flat bed. But I wouldn’t have used it anyway when flying from Sydney to Melbourne. What I did receive instead was great service from a flight attendant who was warm and engaging, rather than feeling like part of an assembly line.

Some things were the same for both flights

In-flight wifi was available on both flights, and there was very little difference in the airport experience. I was able to access the Qantas Business Lounge in Sydney on both occasions, and the same Business Class benefits like priority baggage applied.

Unfortunately, priority boarding didn’t work on either flight and, if anything, boarding for the A330 flight took longer because there are more passengers on the plane.

I also ended up waiting around half an hour for my checked bag (which was tagged as “priority”) on both occasions after arriving in Melbourne.

Other frequent flyers may have different opinions about whether to choose a Boeing 737 or Airbus A330 flight on the Sydney-Melbourne route. You can read what they have to say and join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: SYD to MEL 737 or A330 in J?

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.