This trip report covers the first legs of a 6 legs trip from Sydney to Madrid that I took recently. It is the first leg of a two stages flight SYD/DXB/LHR
A380-842 VH-OQB QF1 25 -Apr -15 SYD/DXB 24F PremEco QANTAS AIRWAYS : You are here
A380-842 VH-OQB QF1 26 -Apr -15 DXB/LHR 52C Economy QANTAS AIRWAYS: http://flight-report.com/en/report-10233.html
A320-216 EC-LVD IB3175 26 -Apr -15 LHR/MAD 14F Economy IBERIA; Coming soon
A340-642X EC-LFS IB3164 30 -Apr -15 MAD/LHR 36D Economy IBERIA: Coming soon
A380-842 VH-OQK QF2 30 -Apr -15 LHR/DXB 22B BUS QANTAS AIRWAYS: Coming Soon
A380-842 VH-OQK QF2 30 -Apr -15 DXB/SYD 83G Economy QANTAS AIRWAYS: Coming Soon
It's been a very long while since I flew Qantas long haul. My airlines of choice for travel to Europe are usually the Middle East carriers which offer a smooth one stop only options to most European major airports. Flying with Qantas means that I will have to take a 3rd flight to get to Madrid which is obviously not my preferred option as it represents a much longer transit time and forces the daunting and not always pleasant experience of having to go through LHR upon me.
This is just about my 350th sector on a Qantas service, but only the 3rd time I am flying on a Qantas A380. I am quite excited about this.
The first leg of my long journey is from Sydney to Dubai. QF1 is the flagship flight of Qantas and is dubbed The Kangaroo Route. It used to be routed via Singapore but since Qantas entered in partnership with Emirates, the flight naturally goes via Dubai. QF1 is in fact technically returning to the Middle East as the flight used to make an intermediary stop in Bahrain between Singapore and London before the 747-400 came into service.
I am riding on VH-OQB today, the second A380 delivered to Qantas seven years ago (already!), named after Australia aviator and co-founder of Qantas Hudson Fish
The city is visible in the background, as the airport is very close to the center of Sydney.
As covered in previous reports, Sydney Airport is under redevelopment.
Close up of the iconic Qantas livery (evolutionary designed specially created to be suited to the A380 painting requirements)
Virgin Austraila A330 in the background.
Traditional FR photo of the departures board
Plane spotting: A Jetstar 787 reading to taxi out
The sky is getting darker and darker
Ready to board. One aerobridge is dedicated to the upper deck of the aircraft, where the Premium Economy is located (back of the plane), Between Sydney and Dubai I will be seated in Premium Economy. This is my first ever Premium Economy experience
Unique seat configuration of the Qantas A380 fleet
We are ready to go, however a monster storm holds us at the end of the runway. We finally departs 45 min later.
A gorgeous view from the tail mounted IFE camera as our aircraft leaves the Sydney storm behind
it is a long flight to Dubai
To my surprise the seat is very comfortable. There is enough room not to touch my neighbour's elbow nor shoulder, which is luxury for me.
Only drawback is that I am seating in the first row at the bulkhead thus no possibly to stretch my legs entirelly. On a positive note I have no one in front of me.
The cabin is small and confined which gives a sense of privacy.
The IFE system is stored in the armrest (for every seat, not just front row seats), which I find quite disappointing as the monitor must be stored for take off and landing.
As you know, these are the most interesting phases of the flight and always fun to monitor on the airshow (more so that there is a tail mounted camera!), Sadly I will not enjoy watching the take off in this powerful storm nor the interesting landing in Dubai… On a positive note the headseat is the same as those used in Business Class which is a bonus.
Soon dinner is served
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and I must say my grilled barramundi filet is delicous.
The toilet is spacious and clean
The IFE is the same as the one found on Qantas short haul, however the choice of programme is much broader. The interface is quite intuitive and both screen touch and remote control can be used. I find the screen touch not always very responsive. Only one French movie amongst the selection, which is a little disappointing.
Long way to go…
Flying just over the 3 states border (New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland) which is called Cameron Corner.
After a good sleep a nice and tasty breakfast is served.
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we are getting close to reaching destination
Well this is what I thought, but UAE Air Traffic Control has decided otherwise…
We spend approximately 30 min in holding pattern, and have to abort our landing due to aircraft in front of us too slow to exist the runway…
Finally arrived, with a much longer flying time than anticipated (nealry 15 hours vs 14 hours scheduled). Seems that Dubai skies are very congested these days. The old rhetoric where infrastructures cannot cope with fast growing demand.
VH-OQB docked at Gate 24 in Dubai
To be continued with FR QF1 DXB/LHR
Wow, I can't believe it's been 7 years since QF received it's 1st A380s. 14 hours is a long flight, but still 3 hours shorter than my DFW-HKG from January :-)
The catering looks good. Table linens gives it a nice Premium feel. Most Premium Economy offerings on other airlines don't do table linens.
The poor on-time performance of the ME3 has been in the news quite a bit lately. Seems like the ME hubs are going through growing pains and are having a difficult time dealing with congestion with all the extra traffic.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks you very much for sharing with us this report. I think Qantas is doing a very good job and as Kevin mentioned the catering looks good and real china and linen are not so common in Premium economy !
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this series with us.
There is enough room not to touch my neighbour's elbow nor shoulder
- That's disappointing to hear...
I agree with the above comments on catering, it looks visually very good for Y+. Three options for dinner is a nice touch. These meals are starting to look on par with what you would get on a short regional route in J with real glasses, real cutlery, and tablecloths.
I like your holding pattern outside of the DXB, lol, it's like children's artwork.
@Kevin: I didn't see this problem at AUH, but they are considerably much smaller than the older EK.
@Kevin: Don't remember hearing about this. Everything looked very smooth when I was there with no delays on the FIDS.
@Flywunala: the airport is clearly overrun with >50% of the planes sitting at remote stands, and I remember a 30 minute taxi out to the runway, but by the time we got there, it was short wait to depart.
AUH is getting very congested too. I have experienced it first hand in Feb this year. Lots of aircraft are parked on remote stand and passengers are bused around the airport. There were a lot of time wasted waiting for our turn to take off, as just one runway was operating. Oman Air Space is also very restricted. Our SYD bound plane had to wait for 45 min before being pushed back....
@NGO85 - AUH actually had a highly publicized delay meltdown over the winter when for caused 48 hours+ of delays and backlog
And I should also follow that up by saying that I typically have very good luck. I've also never experienced a delay in China either, so maybe I'm just abnormal.