At T-50, we headed out for what turned out to be the furthest gate away from the lounge.
And Gate 87, apparently selected as it is the end of the world here and the easiest gate to manage stupid TSA pre-flight screening. As bad as the TSA mandates are, the process here was more like the Gong Show or chickens running around with their heads cut off.
Brisbane BNE to Los Angeles LAX
Qantas QF 55
787-900
5:25p-12:00p
January 2, 2019
Seats 4EF
With no apparent organization at the gate and the only agent announcements for those who had not already answered security questions at check in, we parked ourselves near the front of the Qantas "Priority" Lane. Or rather the Qantas Fake Priority lane, which once again became meaningless when the security folks opened the Economy lane first.
We waited near the gate podium and then the agent began scanning boarding passes without any announcement and certainly no invitation for Business Class to board first. A left turn from 2L into a rather pleasant looking Business Class cabin. Since we were one of the few Business Class passengers to board, I had lots of time to take pics of the cabin.
It's certainly not First Class but seems comfortable enough for 12 hours. Indeed, Mrs. SFO777 opined that this was much better than she expected and in fact, looked pretty nice.
Tonight's menu with a familiar looking cover.
And the breakfast menu, which we filled out and handed back to one of our FAs.
The Qantas Business Class amenity kit...
... with a bunch of meh.
Pre departure choice of champagne or water.
The 789 IFE is much better than the A380 IFE, but once again, NO WIFI. On a new plane?? Yeah, who cares about Wifi and keeping in touch on a 12 hour flight?
After take-off, my usual G&T and a mostly pastry empanada canapé.
Dinner started with a salad and bread. The salad was basic but the bread was delicious. With a pleasant glass of shiraz.
My starter was the Tasting plate with sweet potato hummus, dukkah spiced labne, butter bean and chickpea salsa, roast capsicum, marinated zucchini and pita. It was quite tasty.
For my main, the Chicken biriyani with roasted pumpkin and raita was really good.
But the summer berry pudding with creme fraiche was dry and disappointing.
After a movie, I asked one our FAs to make my bed and went to change.
Now that's a pretty cool idea, although a little freaky looking... a mattress pad that wraps around the seat.
While not overly thick or cushiony. the resulting bed was pretty comfortable as I slept for a solid 6 hours.
The snack counter in the forward galley.
Breakfast... the largest croissant I've ever seen, and a delicious bacon, egg and cheddar on Turkish with Neil (Perry)'s barbecue sauce.
OK, now this was really good.
We landed at LAX on time, but were banished to the Gate 200+ bus gates where all the unimportant flights go, aka flights from those airlines unwilling to pay for a TBIT gate.
Huge lines inside CBP but with Global Entry we were in and out in less than 5 minutes. Today with Qantas was a much better day than our Hobart to Hamilton Island day. OK so Qantas isn't one of the worst airlines in the free world, at least today. Just don't plan on staying in touch with the rest of the world while you are in the air.
What a wonderful but all too short visit to Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef. Thanks for following along.
And a post script. After we relaxed and unpacked, we headed for groceries at our local Gelson's where we found carrots worthy of the Qantas Business Lounge in SYD.
Oh yeah, and one last vacation dinner... at our brand new IN-N-OUT. LOL.
