Review of Qantas flight from Sydney to Ayers Rock in Economy

There is more background for this trip in the New York-Auckland report. This was the only day that would work and there were only two flights available, both in the morning, one Jetstar and one Qantas. They were both ridiculously expensive but the difference was small enough that it was worth taking Qantas. It was booked on expedia for AU$299, or US$195.
Flight-Report automatically names this airport Ayers Rock if I put in the AYQ code, but it's a little more complicated than that. Ayers Rock itself is actually called Uluru. The airport is called Ayers Rock Airport but also Conellan Airport. And the locality is Yulara, though on expedia.com.au where I booked it, they claimed it was in Petermann (which is a few hours away). But calling it Uluru/Ayers Rock/Conellan/Yulara/Petermann Airport does get a bit complicated.

One thing about this flight was that I had no idea what to expect onboard. Qantas offers special meals on flights over 3.5 hours, according to their website, with this flight having a scheduled time of 3h 40m (because flying westbound takes so much longer than eastbound, it's actually longer than Perth to Melbourne). But special meals weren't available for selection on their website. After calling Qantas they said that the special meal request had been put in but it wouldn't show in my booking or anything - which it didn't. Around half of the Qantas fleet has seatback screens and half doesn't, but there wasn't an aircraft assigned so I couldn't try and find a review of a specific plane to check if it did have screens or not. And finally wi-fi, which is meant to be available across the 737 fleet, but the Qantas website said to check the onboard experience section for the specific flight, and it didn't show there. So lots of suspense!
This part of T3 is the Qantas domestic terminal.

Check-in is at the kiosk, as is the norm in the major Australian airports. There were scales for weighing baggage but most of them didn't work.

And self bag drop as well.

There was pretty much no line in security and everything stayed in the bag, so the process took maybe 5 minutes and the gate hadn't even been announced yet by the time I got through. It was only around an hour till departure, but scheduled boarding time was only 25 minutes before departure so there was still some time.

It was time for a bit of planespotting, though there wasn't anything interesting to see. Lots of Qantas 737s.

One of the new QantasLink A220-300s, pushing off for Hobart. That was the other place I'd almost gone to instead of Uluru.

Still no gate, but the aircraft had been assigned: VH-VYK, a 19.5 year old 737-800 named Moree after a small town in northern New South Wales, near the Queensland border. I checked to see if I could find a review of it online and I thought I did before realizing that was actually VH-VYL. So still no idea what I could expect onboard!
Finally the gate was assigned and I made my way there. Airport signage all used Ayers Rock.

Boarding started about on time, maybe a couple of minutes late and I was very doubtful about a punctual departure.
There were boarding groups but since row 17 and onward boarded from the rear, it was staggered and Group 3 (my group) was after not just the premium 1 and 2, but also 4 and 5.

I got a picture of our plane while waiting.

And here are the departures from the other airlines here in T3.

Ok, finally time for Group 3 to board.

There was a big box of headphones next to the queing area. Does this mean there will be screens?
Headphones were also handed out on the plane.

Completely different seat design to the 787s - and no screens!

I'm not really sure what the purpose of this strap was.

Magazine, sickness bag and safety card in the seatback pocket.

USB-A charging ports. Two pairs for each row.

Adjustable and very comfortable headrest.

I guess this was for the drop-down screens, I didn't use it.

Same headphones as the last flight(s). They could be used in the double headphone jacks but also phones.

And finally, personal lights and air vents.

A fellow Qantas 737 next door.

I connected to the wi-fi on the ground…

…but pasting that link into the browser just took me to a site with a bunch of articles from different sites.

 I think they're usually paywalled so there was free access with this. No internet access (messaging did work though), but the sites the articles were published on did open.

(The Australian is generally a pro-Opposition site)
I was wondering if that was all they had as entertainment - thankfully not, the Qantas Entertainment App was working.

There was a excellent selection of entertainment, possibly even more options than on the 787 screens (no games though). I struggled quite a bit to choose since there was so much to pick from. The only problem was that it was a little difficult to use, there was no way to search for anything and if I opened a movie to read the description, to then go to something else I had to close it, after which it would take me back to the top of the page. Then I had to scroll down to the category (and there were a lot of categories) and across the movies to go to the next one. Very minor issue though.

What I discovered a little while later was that watching didn't actually work on the app since nothing opened. I had to use the website for that.
There were dropdown screens for the safety video, not something you see everyday! 

The announcements used both Uluru and Ayers Rock - "Welcome onboard this flight to Uluru. Flying time to Ayers Rock today…"
For the actual monolith, it was always Uluru.
And as I expected, we pushed back late.

A decent-sized fleet of foreign aircraft that we passed on the way out.

A United Dreamliner was heading out.

Of course, Qantas 737s too.

American and Asiana (plus some more behind them) also started leaving before we took off.

There goes Sydney! Very short stay for me.

Internet started working after take-off, and they played ABC news on the drop down screens. The internet was free and worked very well, a great extra service.

They announced that they'd be serving a chicken sandwich. Service began, no special meals. The lady giving out the sandwiches offered me the vegetarian corn and cheese fritters instead, but those had eggs (which really doesn't make sense, there are probably more vegans than vegetarians flying with them anyway and lots of vegetarians don't eat eggs either…). I just got a packet of snacks and a Lindt ball (which they gave everyone).

The crackers weren't very good, the rasberry chocolate ball was, though. Better than nothing.
Beverage service was a little while later and I got lemonade.

On the overhead screens, ABC news was replaced with a movie.
Desert out of the window.

Cabin view: not a very full flight.

I asked for a bottle of water from the back. Just a few minutes later, there was a water bottle service so I got another one.

Interesting how much variety there is in the desert landscapes.

The captain pointed out Lake Eyre on my side. A lot of people got up to look and I took a few pictures, it was much bigger than I'd been expecting.

Getting closer to our destination and the ground turned deep red.

And suddenly, there it was! Uluru!

Really in the middle of nowhere.

That little strip is the airport.

Kata Tjuta, much less famous than Uluru. I'd never heard of it before this trip.

We turned around, heading back towards the airport.

Incredibly good view of Uluru.

It really is a desert.

Look slightly away and you'd never guess that there's a monolith taller than the Eiffel Tower right there.

And finally, coming in for landing. The ground looking so much redder than it did from the sky.

Welcome to the Northern Territory!

Both Kata Tjuta and Uluru were visible from the airport.

The little terminal backed by Kata Tjuta.

There's a reason it's called the red centre.

Uluru's still there.

It took a few minutes to deplane, during which I got some more photos of the seats.

And business class.

Only airstairs in AYQ, which meant a short walk over to the terminal and great views of the plane.

This photo looks almost exactly the same as the cover of the last SYD-AYQ report on the French site.

There was a sign welcoming us not to Yulara, but to Ayers Rock Resort. The resort manages just about everything around here and has multiple hotels (there's no competition to them).

And of course, Uluru, still visible.

Tiny little airport with only one baggage claim.

The departures were right next door.

Virgin wasn't flying that day so their section was emtpy. All Qantas and Jetstar passengers.

It took around 15 minutes for bags to start arriving. Not that long but it felt like a while since it only took a minute or two to get to baggage claim.
There were buses from the resort waiting outside to take everyone to their accomodation.
This part of the flight report ends here, though there is a tourism bonus with some pictures from Uluru.

Thanks for reading.