Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Typical meal times on long flights?(to Australia)

We are finally going DOWN UNDER ^ I am trying to get a general idea of meal times to plan a) my before flight meals and b) my inflight sleeping :p

Our flights to/from Sydney are 14-15 hours. BOTH say "breakfast/dinner (economy)". The outbound is at 11 pm local time, arriving @ 9 am. The return departs about 8:30 pm, arriving to LAX about 4:30 pm.

So, how far into the 15 hours will breakfast be and how much later will dinner be? Approximately....

Thanks :)

I believe that this question is best suited for the Australia Forum.
Please follow there...
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Pretty sure all my Transpacs have been "Dinner/Breakfast"..

So... a late dinner soon after departure.. b/fast a few hours before arrival....

Been a while since I did a LAX-SYD (or vv) as I went over to NZ... :D

Flying SYD-AKL-LAX vv the pattern is however the same... Dinner.. then Breakfast...

We are finally going DOWN UNDER ^ I am trying to get a general idea of meal times to plan a) my before flight meals and b) my inflight sleeping :p

Our flights to/from Sydney are 14-15 hours. BOTH say "breakfast/dinner (economy)". The outbound is at 11 pm local time, arriving @ 9 am. The return departs about 8:30 pm, arriving to LAX about 4:30 pm.

So, how far into the 15 hours will breakfast be and how much later will dinner be? Approximately....

Thanks :)
In my experience, the meal after take-off (whatever it is) is served pretty much as soon as possible. In particular on the flight leaving at 11.00pm they won't be hanging around. Having said that, the economy cabin is large, and it can take the best part of an hour for the whole cabin to have been served.

Before arrival, I suppose that they start serving the meal about three hours before the plane is due to land. Again, they need time to serve everyone in the cabin and then clear the detritus afterwards before the descent begins in earnest.

My own advice re: sleep is just to sleep when you can and when you feel like it. I used to try to time my sleep to the arrival time, but it's not worth it: grab it when you can and, if you can't, don't worry about it — read or listen to music, or just relax.

If the OP is flying QF then expect the full service to run to 90 minutes, it's one of the great mysteries but they don't seem able to do a normal paced meal service. They should start by serving a drink while they heat up the food and some crackers, this will normally be shortly after take-off. Expect breakfast to be served about 90 mins before arrival.

My own preference on long-haul flights to Oz (and I have done more in Y than I care to remember) is to eat something in the lounge before if you have access or grab something in the airport. TGI Friday's (In the US) have these enormous sandwiches you can buy to take away and they are pretty good, at least a lot better than airline food. That way when you get on board you can put your eye-shades on and sleep right through to breakfast.

If you are travelling on QF you will also get a "Snack on Q" bag that has a piece of fruit, bottle of water, some mints, and some biscuits or chocolate. I usually buy my own water post-security on a typical LHR-SYD (about 19-20 hrs) flight I will go through about 3 litres of my own water in addition to what I can get on board, I do request an aisle seat ;)

Make no mistake when you arrive in Sydney you will have that seedy feeling that you just pulled an all nighter, but if you keep your fluids up you might just feel a bit better:).

That is surprising... Dinner after take off? That would be around midnite to 1 am :(

No, not QF -- VAustralia :)

Evening meal? Perhaps that's how they look at it?;)

NZ departures from LAX are 9:30 and 10:30 pm.... on both of those one gets the "Full whack" dinner service in Business class.... (I'm using Biz as the point of comparison as those meals run longer so would be likely MORE affected by departure times)

I have seen folks refuse the meal on those flights and go straight off to sleep......

Only other experience I've had was on FJ (AIr Pacific) LAX-NAN (Fiji).. That departure was pretty much midnight... and they served a quick "abbreviated" dinner in Business.... ^^

However you get here (and however they feed you).. Have a great time Down Under!!!!!

Going off what trooper said, I have alot of good memories from my time in your country and I know you will have a good time in mine, regardless of flights:)