Qantas First Class HKG-MEL

QF 30
HKG-MEL
747-400
February 21, 2012
7:50P-7:50A (sked)
7:50P-7:45A (actual)
Seats 1AK

With no direct elevator access to Level 6, we had to walk all the way back to the central shopping area to use the escalator and then walk back to Gate 19 at the end of the terminal. Once at the gate, the good news was that there was indeed priority boarding, to the left of podium. The bad news is that it was nearly pointless, as with secondary security the GAs were letting Y pax go down the left lane so that there was a 5 minute wait for secondary security. Priority boarding my a--.

We were warmly welcomed on board by a great crew, but we entered the oldest, ugliest and most disgraceful excuse for a First Class cabin I have seen in ages. No wonder UA can survive and make money on LAX/SFO-SYD. What an absolute crap hard product. It looked like it hadn't been freshened in decades. How anyone would pay for this type of hard product is beyond me. And then there was the constant flow of pre-boarding traffic to the closet between our 1A and 1K. Yeah, I just love your butt in my face when you bend over to adjust something in the closet. And let's put a magazine rack in the closet door to encourage even more traffic.

Comfortable PJs...

Amenity kit...

PDB open bar including nuts and olives. Nice idea but... yo Qantas, how do I pick up the olives without using my fingers, and since I used my fingers, how do I wipe the oil off my fingers when you didn't give me another napkin??

Prior to push-back, our friendly crew offered hot towels and menus. As PETER01 noted, the menu was quite impressive with a very nice selection of options, and a lovely cover...

With a celebrity consulting chef...

Interesting hand written note...

But only a continental breakfast prior to arrival??

Both the Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc were horrendous, but the 2004 Penfolds RTW Shiraz was sensational.

IFE was only slightly better than the old LH IFE, although not very user friendly. Mine would only play one movie even when I tried to make an alternate selection.

Amuse-bouche of Tarlet of Chicken Mayonnaise with Parmesan and Seared Tuna was very good.

Dinner service began with proper linen table cloth and setting.

But the salad with king prawns was awful with no Serrano ham I could find and absolutely no dressing on the greens.

The lamb was quite good.

Nicely prepared.

But pretty fatty inside.

While not in the same category at LH or CX, the cheese course was adequate.

The pear and vanilla cake was good but a little dry.

Better with extra creme anglais.

For a crappy old F hard product, I actually slept pretty well for about 4 hours.

I was still full from dinner so I passed on any breakfast.

Our first views of MEL.

L

All in all, a disappointing introduction to Qantas. With CX no longer offering First on their HKG-Australia routes and crappy competitors to LAX, perhaps the incentive to improve First is simple not there. If I was flying to Europe from SYD/MEL though, I would certainly go with SQ, BA or EK.