I am a United Partisan, so I have never flown Qantas. Just Ansett in Australia.

My return flight was yesterday, Sunday 24/10. These are the last few weeks of Melbourne to Aukland Service on United, at which point Melbourne will be served directly (nonstop) from Los Angeles. I stopped in the Melbourne RCC, which is really useful only as a place to store bags... the club has not nearly the capacity required for business class and RCC membership passengers. Almost every seat was taken. The light snacks (sandwiches, cheese, etc.) were fine, however. Nice selection of Aussie beer and liquor as well.

The flight boarded well, and left a few minutes early. It was about 2/3 full on this leg. Lunch was the best meal I had on any flight this trip. Char Siu Lamb over cold marinated noodles, with a salad, Australian butter and rolls, etc. It was perfectly prepared and just superb, especially with the French Red Wine (same maker as the flight out... E. Giugal, but a 95 instead of a 94. It was not quite as good). Flight arrived in Auckland 20 minutes early, at which point we all deplaned for shopping. Regrettably, for security reasons the plane must be utterly emptied in the cabin at AKL, so we had to remove all of our belongings.. carry-ons, etc. Since I had one full suitcase of nothing but wine in a roller bag, as well as another with personal items, this is a hassle.

Shopping complete, the flight boarded promptly, and we were off to Los Angeles with an on-time departure. Every seat was full on this leg. The FAs on this flight dont break out the amenity kits for MEL-LAX until after leaving AKL, so we finally received the newspapers, and bags of cosmetics and other semi-worthless paraphenalia (look for me to run an Auctions.com auction on all of my amenity kits soon.. I dont even open them anymore).

Dinner was not as good as on past South Pacific flights... the UA caterers in the States have taught their New Zealand counterparts how to make that hideous brown sauce they like to smother steaks in over here, and it was true to form in being, well, brown, thick, and bad tasting. Others had a Chicken Saltimbocca, or a Corn and Crab Chowder. None looked good. The New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was quite nice, however.

My seat was already breaking down in several aspects.. the leg rest kept wanting to slide back up into the seat, and the noise cancelling feature in the headphones wasn't working at my seat. Appearantly, this is not uncommon with the new seats in business. This plane did not have the new first suites either.

One interesting event mid-flight. An economy passenger passed out on the floor, and the gentleman next to me, being a doctor, was called to treat him. I believe this consisted of putting him back in his seat, assessing him, and giving him a glass of water. At the conclusion of the flight, the purser came by to thank him with a positive space international one-way upgrade, which appearantly she has on all of the flights to mollify angered passengers.

Entertainment was quite nice on this 12 hour flight... 9 video channels. I watched all 4 hours of Gandhi, which is still an amazing movie, and Analyze This.. which was quite funny. Two hours before landing, hot breakfast, including an omelet with real eggs, not the terraformed variety United serves on domestic flights. We arrived right on time.

Immigration and customs was really quick, since United has its own facility at LAX, and the Asian flights get in a couple of hours before the Auckland flight. I was standing at the curb waiting for my car shuttle no more than 25 minutes after they opened the door of the plane. That encompasses the long walk to immigration, clearing passport control, getting my bag from the conveyor, clearing customs (including an inspector who asked how I knew I had exactly $400 in goods bought overseas ), and out the door. Best time ever. The Sydney flight, arriving at the same time as many of the Asian flights, often goes much, much slower.

Overall, the air travel on this trip about met my expectations.. I was never delighted, but only minorly disappointed by any shortcomings. These days, that is good enough for me.