Flight: QF10
Carrier: Qantas
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Departure time: 20:15 pm
Duration: 7h 15m
Arrival time: 06:30 am (local)
Routing: Singapore (SIN) T1 – Melbourne (MEL)
Class: Premium Economy (Op-Up)
Seat: 37A
I took a taxi from the hotel at about 5pm, giving me plenty of time to get to the airport and check in. Upon arrival, I started looking for the Qantas Business desks to check in only to first come across a desk labelled ‘British Airways Silver Card Holders’. This seemed a bit weird but it was the most appropriate place for me to check in. Anyway, there was no-one waiting at the desk so I placed my overweight bag on the scales, again, no eyelids batted and after the usual security questions, I received my boarding pass. On inspection I realised that I had been upgraded to premium economy, excellent! I texted my mother who admitted to being somewhat envious, as she never gets to fly in anything but economy. I’d heard a lot about the Qantas premium economy product, reports of it being a J- rather than a Y+ product and also so very different to BA premium economy which I’d flown a few times before. I was glad of the opportunity to try it out. Immigration was quick (security takes place at the gate) and I was on the hunt for the Qantas/BA lounge. This was to be found up an escalator and after having my boarding pass checked I was welcomed into the lounge by name. Wow, first impressions were really good. The lounge was very spacious and decorated to a very high standard. The reception was adorned with white marble and everything had a very high class feel to it. This was certainly worlds apart from the lounge at T3, well, it felt like that on first impression.
The reception area
The food bar
Main seating area
Computer work area
View from my seat in the main seating area
The bar, with service, if the staff are around
I found myself an excellent spot, a set of four chairs, facing each other, with a large table in the middle and crucially, power sockets to charge up my laptop and iPhone. I wanted to use the free wifi but couldn’t see any details about it so I popped back to reception to enquire. The lady at the front desk remembered my name, which I thought was impressive and handed me a piece of paper with the wifi key. I returned to my seat and felt like a drink. I only needed to walk a short distance to the bar behind me where two staff were waiting to serve. I asked for a glass of champagne (Tattinger) and then helped myself to some water also. After a bit of skyping, a bit of watching 24 on my iPhone I took a bit of a stroll to get some photos. The lounge was indeed huge. It was then time to make my way to the gate, as boarding was announced. It was quite a long trek to get to the gate where I found the usual sight at Singapore airport, long queues for security at the gate. It took a little while to get through security, which was very thorough. Once in the gate seating area it was clear that boarding was already underway so I boarded immediately. I was greeted at the door and directed to the premium economy cabin (just in front of the economy cabin, behind door 2. My seat was 37A which is the last row of the section, just before the curtains for economy. As I settled in I was greeted by the male crew member serving my side and offered champagne, water or orange juice, I obliged by relieving him of a glass of champagne. I felt a little sorry for him as it was difficult to serve with people moving through the cabin to reach economy behind. This made boarding a little hectic for those seated in premium economy.
Legroom
My first impressions of the seat were very good. The configuration was 2-4-2 meaning that at worst you only had to step over one person to get the aisle, wherever you sat in the cabin. The space between the seats was good, offering very decent leg room and the width of the seat was very generous compared with economy.
The premium economy cabin
On the seat were a pair of noise cancelling headphones, an amenity kit (the same as the ones in economy), a large cotton pillow and a thicker quilted style blanket.
Once boarding had finished one of the crew members came and introduced herself and welcomed each passenger onboard personally and explained the flight time and crucially, that the toilets were located at the rear. I thought that the greeting was a nice touch, something usually reserved for business and first (if you are lucky). As we were ready to push back the captain came on the PA to explain that he’d received a brake warning fault in the cockpit and this needed to be investigated. He elaborated by saying that if it was a faulty sensor then it could be replaced relatively easily, however, if in fact there was a fault with the braking system we’d have bigger issues. I was getting increasingly concerned as I had a 2 hour connection time in Melbourne and I knew that this was going to be tight with the immigration and quarantine process. It took about an hour to replace the sensor during which people from economy kept wandering around and even into the galley area at door 2, this was very annoying. Finally we were underway, the safety demo took place during which the FA demonstrating at the front of economy commented on how lucky I was to have no-one next to me. She said that there were a few “wingers” in economy. I laughed at this and told her that I’d been upgraded at check in and asked her not to tell anyone, with a wink all in good spirit. Menus were handed out and the dinner service commenced reasonably quickly. Dinner was served from a cart with a choice of two mains which both sounded good. For each passenger, the table was laid with a linen table cloth and metal cutlery. With one crew member serving each side and with the all of the preparation necessary it did take a little while to reach me. By the time the FA got to me I was under the impression that he may have run out of my first choice, the pork. I saw him check the cart and noticed that he did have a couple of both choices left, however he told me that only the fish was available. Perhaps this was to ensure that fare paying passengers (not op-ups) were able to receive their first choice. I didn’t mind this, but he could have done a better job of lying to me. Anyway, the fish it was. Warm bread rolls were offered as well as a drink. All of the wines, including the champagne were the same as those offered in business class. Having had enough champagne I decided to stick with water.
Asian fish main with noodles
The food was all served on china, with metal cutlery and I was always addressed by name. The quality of the food was excellent and matched the quality of the food that I have had in business class in the past. Desert was ice cream, which was mostly melted so it made for a rather messy affair. After a Baileys I tried to get some sleep. The seat reclines quite a way back and I was able to get comfortable easily. This was the only downside of the premium economy seat. The service and food up to now had somehow convinced me subliminally that I was in fact flying in business class, however, the seat brought me back to the fact that I wasn’t. Don’t get the wrong impression though, the seat is excellent and many times better than the BA offering. I tried to sleep but didn’t really manage it and dozed for a couple of hours. I tried out the IFE. The 8” screen is stored in the arm rest and is the older style AVOD IFE system. While still good, it does not really compare to the impressive high quality widescreen system in economy on the A380. A good selection of films and TV programmes were still available. I decided to watch ‘Up’, which was ok, but wasn’t too clear on the screen.
Watching 'Up' on the IFE
It was then time for breakfast, and despite eating most of the main meal, I was still quite hungry. Breakfast was a huge disappointment and I was quite surprised by how limited it was.
Breakfast
Breakfast consisted of a couple of pastries and a small bowl of fruit, plus drinks. This really wasn’t enough for me and I was left feeling hungry. After breakfast was cleared away we started our descent into Melbourne. The captain made an announcement warning of air traffic delays and that we may have to circle for a few minutes before landing, great, more delays, less and less chance that I’d make my connection. I believe that we circled for around 20 minutes and then made a smooth landing into Melbourne. After taxiing to the gate we were then informed that a passenger had been taken ill during the flight and quarantine would have to come on-board to confirm that the passenger was ok to leave the aircraft. This meant that we were not able to disembark until the all clear was given, more delays! I was getting pretty frantic at this point but had started to resign myself to the fact that I was going to miss my connection to Alice Springs. I texted Mum and she informed me that there was only one flight a day to Alice Springs from Melbourne, so if I didn’t make this one, I’d be stuck and our plans of driving to Uluru that day would be somewhat scuppered. Announcements were made about what to do regarding the various connections that passengers had, including mine. I was told to meet the Qantas rep at the gate. After about a 15 minute delay we were allowed to disembark and I was off the plane quickly due to being close to the front of the aircraft.
Overall Impressions
The Qantas premium economy experience beats the pants off of the tired BA product in terms of the seat, the amenities and business class quality service. The service was the same as business class, the wines were the same and the food was close (breakfast was limited however). Even the little touches like high quality lined blankets mean that the BA offering just cannot be compared. In short, and here’s the real test, I would pay for it with my own money if travelling to Australia again.