Flight Review: Qantas A380 Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) Business Class
Onboard lounge aboard the Qantas Airbus a380
NOTEWORTHY DETAILS
Qantas Airways flight QF12
Los Angeles to sydney
Airbus A380-800 business class
Recently refurbished aircraft, with current best-in-class business class seat Qantas offers
Large on-board lounge at front of aircraft to relax
Excellent food quality
Recently I travelled from LAX to SYD on the Qantas Airbus A380, which, whenever I fly on this aircraft, am continually amazed that a plane so massive can actually make it off the ground!. In good news for me, it certainly did make it off the ground, albeit after a bit of a delay out of LAX due to a technical issue.
Read on for a detailed review of this flight, beginning with perhaps the most important factor on a 14+ hour flight, the seat itself!.
THE SEAT
After an extensive refurbishment that began prior to the pandemic starting, and is now almost complete for all 12 of Qantas’ A380 fleet, the Qantas A380 features the newest and at time of writing, best business class seat Qantas has to offer, matching the dreamliner seat.
The seat is manufactured by Thompson Aero and is the Vantage XL suite. Unlike its predecessor, and still used seat on the ageing Qantas A330-200 fleet, the seats feature darker wooden paneling and are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, typical of most long haul business class cabins these days.
The seat as presented upon boarding at LAX, with thin mattress, blanket, menus, headphones, water and amenity kit.
This seat is quite generous in its sizing, with a length of 203cm and reasonable width of 61cm. Each seat provides direct and easy aisle access, however, you may wish to carefully choose which seat you opt for, as the seats are staggered, unlike the Cathay Pacific herringbone configuration for example.
The upper deck of the Qantas A380 - note the staggered seating in business, which alternates between having your seat away from the aisle, or very close to the aisle. My seat was 20k, which as you can see places the seat away from the aisle.
Why does seat selection matter here?, well, to some people it may not. However, the seats away from the aisle do provide slightly more privacy with a larger privacy screen as you can see in the above photo. The second, and for me more important reason is that if you are in a seat on the aisle, you can really feel the impact of people as they walk past, cabin crew or other passengers. The floor slightly dips and springs back as this happens. When you’re awake this probably doesn’t matter much but, if like me, you are a light sleeper this really gets irritating when you’re trying to sleep.
Though this seat is the same as used on the Qantas dreamliner, the one big advantage the A380 has is storage. Much like the old Qantas 747 business class, the A380 features storage bins that run continually the interior walls of the business class cabins. It’s very convenient to be able to store additional items in these floor level bins without having to get up during the flight. Of course, this is only useful to those in window seats, however, the middle seats do feature a significantly larger overhead bin.
The seat features an updated 24 inch touchscreen (remote also) playing HD content, of which there is a tremendous amount of movies, shows, games, music and even meditation guides. You can play games against your travelling partner on their screen, or message them seat to seat also.
18 inch IFE system, clear image, and although not capable of 4k content, is still a very good system.
The seats of course are full flat beds, but when using the additional sash belt which straps across like a car seatbelt, you may slightly recline on take-off and landing which makes things more comfortable. A massage function is at your fingertips, as well as fully adjustable lumbar support. In the reclined position there is an abundance of leg room, even the tallest people would be able to stretch out very comfortably.
The seat controls are shown in the image above and are very self-explanatory, featuring a do not disturb option also which turns your seat number red on the outside, alerting cabin crew that you do not want to be woken. There is also a reading light, as well as soft dimmable lighting you can see above which is a lovely touch. Note this can of course be turned off altogether. Charging ports are available, and a small mirror is located under the arm rest in the above picture, which is also where the remote is located.
All in all, this seat is a high quality offering. With the storage bins on the window seats, storage is more than enough, however it may be slightly lacking without them. Of course, there is no overall storage issue with the overhead bins above you.
THE FLIGHT
QF12 initially pushed back from the gate on schedule, however 15 minutes later were told by the captain that a technical issue had occurred and we would be heading back to the gate for an engineer to investigate. All in all, once the issue was fixed, a new take-off slot provided, and a long taxi, it delayed our departure 2 hours. We arrived only 1 hour late into Sydney after making up time in the air, not too bad.
The captain repeatedly stated that Qantas put safety before schedule, and though no one likes delays, I feel safety on board can be taken for granted sometimes.
Once we eventually did get off the ground, naturally people were keen to get to sleep. Drinks were served upon boarding with champagne and water brought through, however pre-dinner drinks and snacks were not provided. I assume this was to save time getting meals out, so people could get to sleep after the delay.
Menu options along with pre-departure champagne, always hard to resist.
Meals were served quite promptly, the cabin crew had most of the meal service done, and lights dimmed within approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes after the seat belt light was turned off. I ordered the halibut curry, which tasted fantastic. The portion of fish was very generous, and accompanied with a Riesling was a lovely start to the journey home.
With the meal service done, I manage a few hours sleep before some prolonged turbulence hits, and after 30 minutes things settle down and I manage four hours more before hitting another patch of turbulence. I rarely sleep much on flights so I was thrilled with the amount I managed anyway.
Awake now and still with 5+ hours to go, I head to the on-board lounge at the front of the upper deck and enjoy a few sneaky champagnes and a famous schnitzel roll.
The lounge is a fantastic space to spend some time socialising with others, or with your travel partners and though it is not the same as the Emirates on-board bar, I think its the next best thing. There is a self-serve area for snacks, and drinks and service buttons are located throughout so you can order food, and any drink from the menu and enjoy it in the lounge.
Seat belts are available for every seat, so even during times of light turbulence you can stay put. I really love being able to sit somewhere like this on a long flight, its great to mix things up and walk around a little.
As you can see there is also a huge flat screen TV which simply shows flight information. It would be great if somehow news, or live sport were able to be shown instead in my opinion.
BOTTOM LINE
Flying on the flagship aircraft in business class is a lovely experience. Despite the somewhat lengthy delay, communication was consistent, and my connecting flight had been changed by the Qantas team by the time I’d landed in Sydney meaning no confusion or work was required sorting a new flight.
The delay is probably the only negative on this flight that comes to mind. The flight attendants were polite, attentive and efficient. Additionally, the bumpy ride was frustrating, but obviously that’s always a possibility when flying long haul in particular.
Thanks very much for reading!, I hope you have found this honest and personal review helpful for your future travel plans.
