Hello everyone, it's been a long time coming but at last the Tim84 family is travelling again! This trip report will cover our recent holiday from Melbourne down to Hobart (and back), and is special for me as a) it covers the brand new Qantaslink A220-300 (as of time of publication there are only 2 of these planes in service although Qantas has ordered up to 29 of them for the fleet renewal program) and more importantly b) we will be flying with baby Tim84 for his very first ever plane ride!
Pre departure
We checked in at the newly refurbished Qantas terminal at Melbourne airport and oh my god - I absolutely love what they've done with it! I've always felt that the terminal was super dated and not a great representation of Melbourne as a whole - but the airside area has been completely refreshed and most importantly there are THREE amazing places to get your coffee fix (Veneziano, St Ali's and Rustica). I mean, if you've ever visited Melbourne you'll know we are all obsessed with coffee - but until now the airport has had a dearth of small batch roasters until now. Bravo, Qantas - this trip is off to a great start already.
As you can tell, baby Tim84 was loving the terminal ambience and food and beverage options too and tucked into a fresh tuna handroll (he's going through a sushi phase currently). Mrs Tim84 and I grabbed bacon and egg rolls from St Ali as well as two fantastic flat whites. Pretty soon it was time to board, and the Tim84 clan went to Gate 22 to board our flight. Because baby Tim84 was so excited to see all the planes (definitely a budding plane spotter), we were actually the last to board but the lovely gate agent helped us get everything organised and notified the flight crew that we were just running late because we had a very excited little boy.
Flight
We boarded the plane and were greeted by the super cheerful flight crew, who immediately assisted us with our hand luggage, came around with the baby seatbelt and reassured us that they were on call if we had any needs during the short 1 hour flight.
First impressions of the cabin? WOW. What a complete contrast to the dated B737-800s! I loved the large storage bins and huge windows, and the super fast (and free) Wi Fi. Seat pitch was acceptable at 30 inches but the seats themselves were so roomy and comfortable that baby Tim 84 fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the flight!
Take off was smooth and on time, and pretty soon the cabin crew came around with light refreshments and non alcoholic beverages. There were cookies on offer and I had a Coke No Sugar as well!
As we began our descent into Hobart the crew came around to tidy up and check on us. There were stunning views as the plane began its approach - gawd how I have missed Tassie!
We touched down right on time at 11.20am and waited for everyone else to disembark before we lugged ourselves off the plane. I grabbed a couple of quick snaps of the now empty cabin as well. The crew were super patient with us and helped us get all our stuff off the plane.
Arrival
Hobart airport… isn't great. But they're spending a ton of money to upgrade it by late 2025 so hopefully the passenger experience will be a lot better!
We all milled around the baggage reclaim area and finally our luggage came out.
Then off we went to pick up our rental car and away we went, to start our Tassie holiday with the bub!
Lucky you were able to ride the new A220, it’s on my bucket list for a while now! The cabin definitely looks much more fresh and new compared to the already outdated seats on the 737’s.
Cheers! Absolutely, I'd take the A220s over the B717s or the 738s any day! Curious to see what the new A321XLRs will be like when they finally enter service in the next year or so. Looks like Qantas is transitioning to an (almost) all Airbus fleet
Nice to see a review on the QF A220. A beautiful and spacious cabin--I really nice the A220's 2-3 config in Economy. I always thought it was weird when it was originally reported that the A220s would have in-seat IFE, especially when it was going to fly for Qantaslink, so I was not surprised when it turned out to be streaming IFE, which is perfectly good for the short flights the A220s operate. What is weird, is that they'll have similar short-haul cabins and streaming IFE on the A321XLRs...not sure how I'd feel with that on a 7-8h flight to SE Asia.
Love that there as USB-C ports...a must have these days!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Yep, completely agree with your comments around the streaming/ entertainment for both the A220s and A321s. What's also interesting is that there's talk of utilising the A220s on short haul international routes e.g. Brisbane to Port Moresby, or Darwin to Singapore. I think I'd still be pretty comfortable and entertained on a QF A220 on a 3-4 hour flight (as long as I had my personal devices on me) - it really is such a delightful aircraft to fly.