#32 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
176 reviews
I had to get to Sydney Kingford-Smith from the City Centre, I was expecting to grab a train over to SYD Airport like I'd done in the other direction a few days earlier, but as luck would have it, I turned up to find the trains to the Airport were not going due to work on the trainline!
Luckily I had left plenty of time to get to the Airport and quickly found signage telling me where to find the Rail Replacement Bus, which was complimentary to use, so it didn't cost me anything and I was quickly sorted out, a win out of a bad situation- I'll take that!
Getting to the International Terminal at Sydney Kingford-Smith was easy enough, and I made my way to the Qantas check in desks to drop off my bag, I opted to use the Business check in lane using my OneWorld Ruby tier status where I was able to save a bit of time.
After dropping my bag off going all the way through to London Heathrow and grabbing two paper boarding passes as a back up if my phone went flat or faulted. I went to security and it took me a good 45 minutes to get through the combined passport checkpoint and security lane, once that was done- it was off to the Qantas International Business Lounge which I paid extra to access before my trip began!
Qantas has two separate lounges for SYD International departures, Qantas First Class flyers and Qantas OneWorld Emerald flyers can access the Qantas First Lounge, but I was in the Business Lounge today which I was interested to experiencing as it is a "Flagship Lounge" being at a massive Qantas hub. Obviously it goes without saying that OneWorld Sapphire holders and Qantas Business Class passengers can access here free of charge.
First port of call was the shower facility. I had not showered at my accommodation that morning as it was a capsule hotel and getting into the shower in the morning ran the risk of having to wait, something I wasn't keen on with a flight to catch, also I knew the lounge shower facility would be nicer in quality.
After getting refreshed by my shower it was off to find a seat by the windows and enjoy a quick drink with some light bites to kill the hour I had before my flight was due to start boarding.
Luckily for me international departures were passing the Lounge on take off, giving me a really nice final chance to get some exotic traffic from Sydney Kingford-Smith that I wouldn't necessarily see back in the UK.
Seeing the Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330-300 in the 1970s Retro livery was a nice catch, as was the epic take off picture of the Singapore A380!
It was at this point I found out my flight was going to be delayed by a good 90 minutes getting out of Sydney as it was coming from the maintenance hangar and there was a delay in bringing the plane over… I knew I had a long enough connection in Singapore, but it would almost surely kill off any spotting plans I had whilst at Changi Airport, but I would still easily have little worries over my onward flight to London!
Opting to make the most of this Airport Lounge, I stuck around for a bit, grabbing some more snacking goods as well as trying out a different seating area in the now somewhat crowded facility as there hadn't been a boarding announcement due to the delay, however I did find out we'd be going from Gate 9… eventually.
I did manage to sneak a few snaps of the bar and food offerings to showcase here on this report. It was pretty much a "help yourself" arrangement. I had no complaints over what I ate in the lounge, but I didn't want too much as there would be two inflight meals on this flight.
A bit more plane spotting and a quick herbal tea later, it was time to "Go To Gate" and get ready for boarding.
I'll rarely complain too much about a delay when I have lounge access. I would recommend this lounge if someone was offered a chance to purchase it on a rare trip, but I wouldn't make buying access to regular a habit if I flew from Sydney on a regular basis.
On the way out I grabbed a quick snap of the Qantas First Lounge for the OneWorld Emerald and Qantas First passengers. The business lounge was quite nice itself, I can only imagine what this one is like. Would it be fair to compare it to the BA First Lounge at London Heathrow?
I know some of you might be wondering why I am "splitting" the SYD-LHR leg between QF81 and QF1 rather than just do QF1 on the A380 from Sydney to London, so I'll quickly address the potential "Elephant in the Room" for those wondering.
Basically there were three reasons: Reason 1 was to cover another aircraft type in the Qantas fleet (i.e the Airbus A330), Reason 2 was to get two flights worth of Tier Points and Award Points on my Finnair Plus account which worked a treat, as for Reason 3 that was to allow a longer stop in Singapore Changi to get a small bit of afternoon/evening plane spotting done, but alas that was not to be due to the near 2 hour delay getting away from Sydney.
My flight that afternoon from Sydney Kingford-Smith to Singapore Changi was on an Airbus A330-300 registered VH-QPI. This aircraft was delivered brand new to Qantas in November 2005 and its flown its entire 18 year life with the airline to date. It wore the early 2000's Qantas livery with the gold band around its red tail until 2016 before receiving the mid-2010s redesign of the Qantas livery introducing a silver band around the red tail as well as the larger font.
Boarding eventually commenced and I was one of the first on after the priority customers (those needing extra assistance) and the business class flyers. I was in the rear cabin of the economy class, so I passed through toward my seat, quickly grabbing short of the wing/engine view from an unoccupied row during my walk back.
I took my place at the Emergency Exit row where I had reserved Seat 45A. Aside from the exit door, extra legroom and IFE Screen in the side of the seat, I also had a window next to me giving me somewhere to put my GoPro safely during the flight, though I would have to hold it manually during take off and landing for safety.
On most of the economy class fares these days Qantas do charge for seat selection especially on "extra legroom" seats including the exit rows, but as I booked this during my time as a OneWorld Sapphire flyer (I was OneWorld Ruby at the time of flight) I was able to bag an exit row seat for no extra-charge and the status also helped avoid seat fees on all my Qantas flights for this trip!
Once boarding was completed, the cabin crew played the safety video and performed the demonstration, I also had a quick read over the emergency exit door guide, I had a good feeling I wouldn't need to do anything that afternoon, but you never know in this day and age.
We eventually departed from Sydney Kingford-Smith. We were due originally to depart at 12:30pm local time, but our actual departure (according to FR24 as reference) would be 14:25pm local time… We had pushed back just after 14:00pm local time, but we had to wait our turn to depart as well as a five minute hold on the runway.
Whilst we took off to the South of Runway 16R, our departure route took us straight over Botany Bay and Towra Point Nature Reserve. After a steady climb out over the Tasman Sea, we turned back on ourselves heading North-West toward Helensburgh and Campbelltown before heading across Australia in the direction of Singapore.
There was various weather conditions on the route across Australia. We flew over New South Wales, South Australia, passed a corner of the Northern Territory before entering Western Australia. We would then fly over the town of Broome, WA before heading out over the Indian Ocean, leaving Australia behind us.
Our overall journey time would take us about 7hr 50min, so we had a bit of flight time shaved off during this flight.
The first inflight service began whilst I was settling into another session of watching HBO's The Last of US. We were just under an hour into the flight and I opted to enjoy an orange juice with the snack pack. I also had a bottle of water provided at my seat before we took off, alongside a blanket and pillow for the flight of nearly 8hrs.
A little while later the in-flight meals were distributed. I opted for the beef option alongside a cheeky can of beer (specifically an Ale). At this point as we flew over the Outback the ground was a bright and lush red colour, after the crew cleared away the trays once the meals were over, they then proceeded to provide desert/sweet treat in the form of a citrus ice-lolly.
I wasn't far from the lavatory, and didn't need to worry so much about getting in or out of my seat either, during one of my visits I opted to grab a "Loo Review" photo. The toilet had been used a bit at this time in the flight by various passengers, but I did notice the crew inspect the facilities a few times, the "not-so-glamourous" side of their job. Overall it was a good size with plenty of space, but nothing special.
I went to the back of the plane to give my legs a bit of movement, I grabbed a quick cabin shot showcasing the layout of the Qantas Airbus A330-300. If you notice to the right of this photo you can see the blocked off area used for crew rest breaks during the flight. Unlike the larger Boeing 787-9, Airbus A380-800 or now retired Boeing 747s- the Qantas A330 doesn't facilitate a crew rest bunk, but the A330s often do domestic flights and medium-haul routes within Asia/New Zealand, so this is probably a more appropriate way to give them a rest area far as the airline is concerned.
I eventually after a good 45 minutes returned to my seat with some snacks from the snack bar at the rear of the plane. I recognised the cookies from my QantasLink Dash 8 flight from Brisbane to Longreach, but I took them back to my seat with a fresh cup of tea whilst I returned to following the inflight map and tuning into a 1990s film I hadn't watched in a while- Saving Private Ryan!
As I mentioned earlier, we flew over Broome, WA and left Australia behind. This was likely around half way through the flight and we crossed into the vast unknown that is the Indian Ocean. The afternoon slowly began to subside toward the evening.
Just before we started to come upon Indonesia and Malaysia the crew began the second meal service by offering a hot snack, as someone who didn't pre-order a special meal I had two options a meal lattice pastry (which I had similar on QF10) or a vegetarian pizza… It goes without saying that the pizza won!
As I enjoyed my pizza (with a freshly filled hot tea) I noticed a beautiful sunset had began leading to an amazing "Golden Hour" from the skies over Southeast Asia!
As we approached Singapore Changi, the night entirely fell, making it very difficult to get any further photos and much filming done.
What I do know is we landed at Singapore coming in over the South China Sea, passing through various islands that make up Indonesia. We landed into Singapore Changi from the South flying over the island of Batam, Indonesia before making the final turn into Changi Airport for Runway 02L.
I waited for most the passengers to leave the plane, I proceeded to ask for a flight deck visit before I left and that was granted which I was very appreciative of! It was cool to have a quick look around the Airbus A330 flight deck!
I also bagged a shot of the Economy Class seats and the Business Class seats to showcase the difference between the two on the International Airbus A330-300 cabin!
Overall I was very happy with the Qantas Airbus A330, I would happily fly with one of them again if the option was there on a flight into Asia from Australia (or vice-versa). The delay was a bit of a stinger on the experience, but my access to the Qantas Lounge (even though I paid in advance) made for a nice cushion when it came to the delay!
A good experience with Qantas on the service and seat comfort, the delay was the only negative aspect. The lounge was worth the investment and I found it to be a good space for 2-3 hours ahead of a flight, it ticked all the right boxes for me ahead of a long-haul flight.
Grabbing an exit row for free during the booking was a huge bonus as well as it set my legs up before my onward flight a few hours after this one.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 46 avis concernant 4 compagnies sur la ligne Sydney (SYD) → Singapore (SIN).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Singapore Airlines avec 8.7/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 8 heures et 23 minutes.
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6 Comments
QF is really unstable when it comes to operational reliability -- my flight was delayed by 21 hours because of a mechanical failure, with delays on their A330 flights being very common (Taking the recent stats for QF30 as an example, 6 of its 7 recent flights have been late). 24-hour delays on the A380 have also not been unheard of especially post-covid, so I would call the 2-hour delay a win!
Otherwise, I really appreciate QF's offering on these refurbished A333s, especially the service! The crew are always charming & wonderful to interact with, and the pilots have also been very welcome to cockpit visits (compared with other Asian carriers like Cathay)
Thanks for sharing once again & safe travels!
The exit row seats can be hit or miss depending on how far the door protrudes into your legroom, you didn’t find it difficult to stretch your legs?
QF catering is always strong, I’ve always appreciated how they provide large mains in place of industrial salads. It’s also nice that offer an option for the snack service versus just offering a neutral vegetarian option to cover all non-special dietary restrictions.
Thanks again for sharing and the GA retro is definitely a nice sighting.
I rarely have issues with legroom as I am under 6ft tall myself, QF on their Asian routes might not have to deal with Virgin anymore, but they have strong product competition from the likes of Cathay, JAL, Garuda, Singapore, etc. Food service on this flight was better than what I had on Finnair when I flew on a HEL-JFK flight back in 2018.
Thanks for sharing!
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