they won my vote, after having possibly one of the best flights ever, from Singapore to Perth, back in 2003. See, the flight we were on, was a British Airways one, which was okay, but not the greatest flight ever. For 12 hours, I'd have expected better in-flight entertainment, and indeed, from Singapore onwards, when we switched to a Brand New Qantas Plane, things were on the up.
Games!!! TV Programmes whenever you wanted to watch them!!!! Comfortable seats!!!!!!! Yep, I was sold.
Fast forward to December 2005, my most recent there-and-back-flight-experience. Firstly, I'm a little miffed to find that on a flight with Qantas, you are unable to change your seat. You get your seat, that's it. So my online preference of a window seat (with my husband on the aisle, hoping we'd get the good seats on the side where there's only two people, right at the back) didn't happen. Despite it being the only thing I seemed to be able to do online. Disappointing. We were stuck in the middle of a row, next to a three year old (who was surprisingly well behaved, apart from when he fell asleep and kept kicking me in the ribs, but do you wake up a cranky three year old on a 12 hour flight, or just put up and shut up?), who got some great goodies, including a Wiggles Etch A Sketch. Qantas look after kids - this is good. He was kept occupied for large chunks of the journey.
Unfortunately, being in the middle of a row, there was nothing for me to lean on, so a little sleep was completely out of the question (add to that small child and my ribs), good job we've got the In-Flight Entertainment, eh? Looking online, Qantas have won awards for their In-Flight stuff. Marvellous. Except the film choice was a bit rubbish really. There were good films - oh, but only if you have the new In-Flight system, which this plane didn't have. Bah. Lucky they have games then, eh?
Except their version of Tetris, was one where you get rows in multiples of five, as the bottom of the screen moves upwards. The game name may have had the word "Magma" in it. I wanted to cry! I wanted 30 minute Tetris games, where I didn't have to think. Add to that my control was a little on the stiff side, and well, after 4 hours of playing games, I had a huge great big blister on my thumb. Not good.
Meals-wise, the vegetarian meals were dished out quickly, which was good. They were tasty too - although I would like to point out in BIG CAPITAL LETTERS
NOT ALL VEGETARIANS LIKE MUSHROOMS. WHEN YOU'RE STARVING, AND YOU GET A MUSHROOM LASAGNE, IT CAN MAKE YOU WANT TO CRY.
There. I just swigged wine, and took mouthfuls of the lasagne, pretending it was an Aubergine (eggplant). Seemed to do the trick.
To be fair, cause I've probably been really unfair so far, the flight wasn't bad - indeed, the return flight, which was the same plane all the way back, wasn't at all bad. Well, apart from the fact 'Just Like Heaven' s sound kept cutting out for 10 seconds at a time (apparently corrected from Singapore onwards), my overhead light didn't work, and as previously mentioned, the attendants completely forgot our row, when handing out the in-flight snacks (nice touch though, doing these - I've never had this with other airlines), and with the coffee after a meal. Now, I know stewards and stewardesses are probably overworked on flights, trying to please everyone, so it's no criticism. Just a little communication between the two of you, would have resolved this. Yep. That's all.
So, the good stuff. On the way out, from Singapore to Perth, we got a really good Qantas plane! With the new In-Flight system! Sadly, because of lack of sleep on the way out though, I wasn't able to really play with it. Apart from Tetris - YES! They had normal Tetris!! Tetris and Solitaire were all back to normal, with a newer controller, which didn't hurt my already heavily blistered thumb. Plus the meal was really nice!
So, big smiles for Qantas, from Perth to Singapore, and previous flights. Big frowns for Qantas, on the same flight all the way.
I'd give Qantas a 7/10 for both journeys - and it was only upped to a 7 because of the new plane. Please roll out the new In-Flight to all your planes. I think you'd see a lot more happy travellers.