We recently flew Business Class with Qantas on their A330-300 from Sydney to Tokyo, after an extended visit to the Qantas International Business Class Lounge due to our flight being delayed from an 8:20pm departure to 9:53pm.

Qantas Business Class Cabin Layout

Once boarding began it was a quick process thanks to priority boarding for all business class passengers. The Qantas Business Class cabin is a 1-2-1 layout, with alternating seats to accommodate the footwell for the fully flat bed. We are seeing the 1-2-1 become a very regular configuration for long-haul international flights, with regular business class passengers becoming accustom to having direct aisle access for all seats.

Qantas Business Class Storage And Amenities

We were seated in 3A, a middle seat towards the front of the cabin. Our seat had the table located on the outside, closest to the aisle. This gave us, what felt like, a touch more privacy compared to those that had the arm rest located on the aisle side. When we arrived at our seat there was a amenity kit, mattress, blanket, and pillow along with a water bottle, and headphones. The seat was wide and comfortable and there was a large privacy divider between our seat and the one located next to us, giving good privacy throughout the flight.

The Qantas Business Class seat provided good options for storage including long shelves where you can store books, magazines and personal items. This is where our headphones and a water bottle were located when arriving at our seat. There was also a larger storage space to the left of the seat for bedding, clothing of in-flight essentials. This extra space made it easy to store smaller items, meaning we could keep all flat surfaces free of objects. There were also charging ports located under the shelves. We liked the location of these charging ports as it allowed you to tuck your charging electronics and cables into the shelves and not have them across your seat. The seat itself was very spacious and comfortable, with the deep footwell being perfect to stretch out our legs, and also store our mattress topper and blanket during takeoff.

The amenity kit was in a small red and blue pouch with the Qantas logo. Inside were socks, an eye mask, Polama hand cream, Mirri face cream, Lowanna lip balm, along with ear plugs and a toothbrush and toothpaste. These are items that we would expect to get on a long-haul flight. We liked the addition of a lip balm as air in the cabin can be very drying.

To the right of the seat there was also a remote stored within the table, with a mirror also located here. The remote was easy to remove and use, however the cord took some wrestling to retract back into place.

Qantas Business Class In Flight Dining

While the rest of the plane was boarding, we were offered a glass of champagne and an inflight menu that included both dinner and breakfast options. Shortly after take off the cabin crew came to take our orders. Due to the delayed departure, many other guests chose to skip meal service and go straight to sleep. There was also an option on the menu for an express breakfast that allows guests to sleep more before arrival, or the option not to be disturbed if they are still asleep. This is a nice touch, especially on long-haul night flights.

With such a large portion of the guest electing to skip meal service due to our late departure, the cabin crew came round and offered to put everyone’s mattress on their seat. This was a nice touch for those that wanted help, but it was easy to slip over the seat and secured with the elastic.

For dinner, we selected the Seared Grasslands beef fillet with thyme-roasted carrots, silverbeet and Cafe de Paris butter. Before we were served this, we were given a piece of focaccia with butter on the side, along with a side salad. The salad was just lettuce with no dressing provided, making it very bland. The bread was soft and fresh, yet the butter was so cold we couldn't even spread it. For our main meal, the meat was tender and the butter added a rich salty flavour which was complimented by the carrots and silverbeet. Overall it was a reasonable meal while flying.

After the main dinner service, there was a selection of cheese served with accompaniments to finish including Tarwin Blue, Woombye Ash Brie and Pyengaga, along with dark chocolate cream with hazelnut cake, poached pear and caramel, Pat and Stick’s ice cream sandwich and seasonal fruits and chocolates. As it was well past midnight at this point, we opted to skip the remaining meal service and get some sleep before landing in Tokyo.

The controls on the Qantas Business Class seat were easy to use, being in a diagram formation. The footwell was wide, which allowed us to move around during the flight and not feel too constricted while the seat was reasonably comfortable. The mattress topper increased the padding, making it a comfortable sleep.

As the dinner service was served late due to departing late, we opted for the express breakfast services of a simple black coffee and yoghurt for breakfast to maximise rest before landing. Although we selected these options, we were surprised to see that the yoghurt did not come with any accompanying items such as some fruit or nuts like on other airlines. We would have liked to have some sides for this to fill out the meal more. When it came to getting a top up of coffee we had to call the cabin crew a number of times before getting served, which was slightly disappointing.

Overall, the flight was good with direct aisle access from our seat, a comfortable mattress to sleep along with a big footwell that allowed us to move around during the night. There could be some room for improvement with meal service and their offering, but overall the Business Class cabins provided a comfortable seat on our flight from Sydney to Tokyo.

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