Trip Report: QF2 Qantas London-Darwin-Sydney Business Class

A trip report like no other: what is it like to be flying on one of the first flights to Australia after the borders Down Under opened up, and it started permitting its own citizens into the country again, without tight caps on the numbers. Certainly this flight would be very different to my flight out of Australia on Emirates a couple of weeks previously, when I had had to seek special permission to leave Sydney, which at the time was under tight lockdown, and was one of only about 40 people on the aircraft. Read the Trip Report: Sydney to Dubai, Emirates Business Class on Australia's last day of the travel ban.

Even better, this flight was to be on the delight of one of Qantas' brand new Boeing 787s, which briefly operated the direct flights from London to Perth. Alas, Western Australia's borders are still closed; hence, this flight would take a highly unusual route direct from London to Darwin, in the Northern Territory.

I booked this flight on Frequent Flyer miles within minutes of the announcement by Qantas that it was going to bring forward flights from the UK to Australia from December to November. That was back in October, when I had already had a booking on the inaugural December flight to Sydney. Within an hour of the announcement in September that November was the date, all seats were gone. It cost 144,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer miles; a real bargain for Business Class to Australia, when for the past two years there have simply been no seats available at all.

When I first looked at booking the flight, there was a grand total of one seat available left to book: thankfully a window seat, on the left side of the plane.

But exactly 80 hours before the flight's scheduled departure time, Qantas removes the block on most remaining up-front seats, so I went straight through to book the remaining vacant seats through "Manage Booking" on the Qantas website. Alas only one other seat opened up. It was clear this was going to be a very busy flight.

Qantas QF2 Checkin

Qantas asked me check in no less than 4 hours before the scheduled departure time, which with a 9.50am departure, was six in the morning. That's a lovely time to be at Terminal 3 in cold dawn of November.

There was a small queue already just to enter the check in area. To get as far as the desk there was a separate checkpoint, where you had to show (paper) copies of a Covid test, double vaccination certificate, and an Australian Travel Declaration.

They were very comprehensively checked, details filled out on another slip of paper, and I was told not to loose that slip, on the ten step walk to the empty Business Class checkin.

Precisely 2 minutes later, I walked back to the Hilton Garden Inn at Terminal 2, which I had thoughtfully not checked out of, so I could get another 2 hours sleep.

The LHR Garden Inn is great: for decades there was no hotel in the central area of Heathrow.

It's built on a tiny sliver of land, but with a great rooftop bar, that overlooks both runways.

Two hours later, and I went back to Terminal 3, which was packed. I mean, seriously rammed.

Every cafe and bar had a queue out of the door, and table service only.

Thankfully being in Business Class I had lounge access. Alas, as Qantas restarted flights in such a hurry, the Qantas Lounge at London Heathrow, which I've already extensively reviewed, wouldn't be open for a few weeks.

The alternatives were the Emirates lounge (a Qantas Gold card gives access) American, or the British Airways lounge (Cathay Pacific also being shut). I should have gone to Emirates, but the Business Class British Airways Galleries Club Lounge Terminal 3 was closer.

British Airways Galleries Club Lounge Terminal 3

It's down a rather dingy corridor, and through the blue door. Before you get to the lounge, it looks as if you are heading into the bowels of the airport, and it gives no hints of the delights within. You pass the (closed) access to the First lounge on the left, and then get scanned at the supermarket style desks, before heading down another long wide corridor with large armchairs separated by tall class screens. The British Airways Terminal 3 lounge has three large rooms; and dining room, wine bar, and silver bar at the far end.

It's fine, but still has the kind of 'pop up' feel it had when it opened, over a decade ago, when it was designed as a short term facility until all flights moved to Terminal 5. That never happened.

However, there is breakfast, with hot bacon rolls ordered using a QR code on the tables, as a result of Covid rules.

Oddly, you queue up to serve yourself coffee, and there was a small buffet with serve yourself croissants, and fruit bowls. Which rather seemed to defeat the point of keeping social distancing with QR codes.

A winebar with champagne on tap, and a spirit bar completes the setup. It's not a patch on Qantas' own gin bar, and hopefully that will be open soon. Despite Covid rules, you can just walk up and serve yourself Champers at 7 in the morning, if you choose. At the back of the bar is the spirits selection: it's the usual BA selection of 18 different bottles of free pour Cointreau, Tia Maria, Campari, Martin (x3), 5 whiskeys, six vodkas, and Gordon's gin. There are three types of brandy in the middle of the bar, behind the pile of crisps. Beer is in the fridge below, with four types including Guinness and Cornish Tribute larger.

Again, we have extensively reviewed the British Airways Terminal 3 Lounge.

It's rare, indeed, has pretty much never been seen before at Heathrow, to see direct flights to Darwin on the Flight Information Screens. Rather alarmingly, with 50 minutes to go, the screens already showed my Last Flight to Darwin was already boarding.

I ran around to the gate, to find it was the usual device to get everyone around to the gate on time: after 20 minutes, the flight finally started to board. I was on the 787-9 named Great Barrier Reef and registered VH-ZNH.

Qantas QF2 Boarding

When boarding was finally called for Business Class - by this time it was 20 minutes to go before the scheduled departure time - I walked straight up to the gate, with about 50 other people ahead of me, and social distancing clearly went out of the window. I assumed that most of them were Platinums on priority boarding, but no. Pretty much every person was in Business, and the cabin was indeed full.

I settled into my window seat, which was to be my home for the next 22 hours on currently the world's longest Boeing 787 flight, the direct Qantas Dreamliner business class London to Darwin.

Immediately after boarding the crew took my jacket and offered a pre-departure glass of champagne. Then the crew wandered down the cabin introducing themselves. Everyone was in quite a jolly mood, with an equal mix of passengers who had been trying to get back to Australia for two years, and others who had just been out of Australia for a couple of weeks. The number of passengers taking photos, and video of the aircraft was the highest I've seen short of special flights just with aircraft enthusiast.

It was quite a jolly flight, with all of the crew on their first 'rotation' for 2 years now we're post-Covid, and very much learning the ropes again. Even the Cabin Service Director said she'd spent the Covid years working in a supermarket, and it was her first time back on a plane. She apologised that many of the crew were pretty raw, and some part of the service hadn't arrived in the UK yet as it was such a rush starting flights again, but no apologies were needed. All of us were so grateful to be getting on a Qantas aircraft after the past couple of years, without arrival caps.

I was surprised that amenity kits and pyjamas were loaded, and they were all brought around before takeoff. However, when I joked with the crew they were all dated 2020, they laughed and explained they were ones for the Qantas 100 years celebrations - and they'd spent 18 months sitting at Heathrow. And sure enough they were.

However, the amenity kit did the job, in a lovely baby blue case, somewhat classier than the ones from 2019, and they contain the usual Qantas dental kit with toothbrush and paste, ear plugs, Litya hand cream, face cream, and lip balm, plus face mask and socks.

Alas, departure from the gate was delayed by half an hour, as two passengers had decided not to travel at the last moment. As a result the Business Class cabin was two down on full, while Premium Economy was almost empty, and there were 140 in economy. You can watch the takeoff on BigJetTV

Before we left, the captain explained we'd be taking a quite unusual route, to take advantage of some very strong winds. Instead of heading south through the gulf, as Qantas usually does, we'd be heading firmly north west, and briefly hitting the artic circle near Archangel, having flown North East out of the UK, close to Lowestoft, then via Copenhagen, Helsinki, way north of Moscow, before going north over the Urals, turning right at Peking, before dropping south to Wuhan, Hong Kong, and directly south to Darwin. It must be first time I've seen the snowy wastes of Siberia, on a flight to the Northern Territory.

Qantas Boeing 787 Business Class Seat

I've reviewed the Qantas Boeing 787 Business Class seats before, most recently in the trip report of Qantas Business Class London to Perth, and they remain some of the best in class.

The Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner has a brand new, state of the art, all-aisle-access Business Class cabin with a very good 1-2-1 layout. And trust me, on the first initial leg to Australia of pretty much a whole day and a night, and another day again, you need it. Qantas' latest generation business class seats converts into a fully flatbed 80 inches long, which is just over 2 metres.

Seats are arranged in what is fast becoming a normal 1-2-1 configuration, with one seat by a window, and the opposite staggered, so your feet fit into the hole created by the following cocktail table. This is great if you are on your own, as it gives one-step access to the aisle, however beware that all seats are not created equally! This is because even numbered rows have their fixed table positioned between the seat and the window, while the solo seats in the odd-numbered rows have the same table position between the seat and the aisle. Aisle side seats have an armrest which retracts to effectively add an extra 5cm to the total seat width.

Hence, the seats in the odd-numbered rows a lot more private and ideal for solo travellers. Beware though seat 5A on the Qantas 787, which is missing one window. You can still see out - there is a window quite some way ahead of you - but it's not ideal. On the plus side it is one of the most private seats. Equally, it is halfway towards the back so you get served drinks and meals much later in the flight. Although with 22 hours to go, that's not really much of a problem.

The centre seats are pretty much the same with all 7 rows of the 42-seat Business Class cabin. The Business Class cabin is split into two, with a much smaller business class cabin of just three rows at the back. This tends to be less popular, as it's right infront of Premium Economy, and the bassinette seats are fixed directly behind the last business class row. On such a flight, you'll need your sleep!

Every seat has a large L-shaped shelf with a water bottle holder, and a side bar for stowing magazines, menus, and indeed the noise-reducing headphones which are on a hook next to the seat, along with an LED reading light, complemented by another light under the shelf. On the outside of the shelf are sockets for the headphones, USB and AC power.

Every Business Class seat has a 16 inch video screen, with AV on demand. Pressing the airplane button at the bottom of the screen brings up the usual moving map. The screens are touchscreens, but also work with the older controller under the flap.

The Boeing 787 Qantas Business class seat slide out tray is large - very large - and rotates out from under the side table.

Qantas Boeing 787 IFE

The Qantas 787 is also not fitted with wifi, almost certainly to reduce weight on the ultra long flights it services. Now, this may seem like a minor point, but being off the net for pretty much a complete day is both a rare luxury, and also one of those unusual times where you wonder what is going on in the world while you are uncontactable.

Qantas' 787 Inflight entertainment system was one of the few parts of the service to have been loaded completely from scratch with this month's latest films, although I've got to say, there were not that many of them. However, in the recurrent selection, the selection seemed to be most up to date for March 2020, which is when it was probably last refreshed. Qantas have also increased the number of boxed sets on board but are still somewhat lacking when it comes to the latest blockbusters.

Of note are the very good quality noise cancelling headphones, and the chunky 16 inch video screen. I really couldn't fault the HD video quality, which was as good as watching on a decent laptop at home.

Qantas QF2 Meal Service

About an hour into the flight, when we were past Copenhagen, the meal service began, with a trolley of drinks from the front.

The crew apologised there wasn't a wine list on the flight, and there wine selection was limited as they had had supply issues in their Middlesex warehouse. However, I was happy to take the first item on the menu, which was a 'signature cocktail and canape'. This was a vegetable samosa.

The crew discussed what it could be, and someone remembered how to make the signature cocktail on this flight, which was Qantas' classic 'Aperitivo', a tequila with an apple and raspberry mix, which is very bitter.

Menu options on the Qantas Dreamliner business class London to Darwin flight included:

Aperitivo: cocktail and canape

To Start

• Roast carrot and ginger soup with croutons

• Salad of roast chicken with Spiced cauliflower, lentils and lemons

• Grilled prawns with chorizo chickpeas and herb salad

Main

• Polenta with capsicum, onions broccolini and thyme

• Tagliatelle with beef ragu and parmesan

• Grilled salmon with orzo, creme fraiche and lemon

• Lamb loin with carrots, brussels sprouts, leek fondue and balsamic sauce

• Neil's vinaigrette over green leaf salad.

Finish

• Cheese with accomplishment

• Cinnamon choux pastry with chocolate cream and hazelnut praline

• Ice cream

Mid Flight

• Dip with crudeaties

• Chips

• Crisps

• Biscuits

Breakfast

• Salmon with scrambled eggs roast tomatoes and spinach

• Haloumi, kale and turmeric zucchini breakfast bowl with poached egg

• French toast with yoghurt

• Fruit salad with yoghurt

• Macadamia toasted muesli with cranberries

I went for the cold salad of roast chicken with spiced cauliflower, lentils and lemons. I've got to say flavour was a little lacking, and while I admire the creativity that went into it, it wasn't the best.

However, brilliant was the lamb loin with carrots, brussels sprouts, leek fondue and balsamic sauce. I haven't had sprouts on the plane before so that sealed the deal for me, and I was impressed it was done so well, with tender lamb, and very subtle flavours in the sauce.

To finish, the crew were happy for me to try both the cheese and the pastry.

The cheese was a little bland - the crew apologised again, unnecessarily, as there were only two cheeses available due to 'supply issues in the UK' but it was great, and went well with the port, but the standout was the pastry.

Rather like a doughnut, it was great, and after the crew said they'd have a root around the galley for some dessert wine - as they had no idea what had been loaded - found a wonderful light sweet dessert wine.

Qantas QF2 Drinks Service

If the meal service was jolly, the bar service was wonderfully welcoming. Not only on the ground, where the welcome glass of champagne turned into an immediate offer of a second, and I had to refuse a third, but in the air, where it was almost party time in the cabin, with passengers and crew humming along to 'I call Australia Home', and the merry clink of glasses.

There was no cocktail list, but the crew offered that if I could remember it, they would mix it.

Equally, wine was a bit random with no wine list, and only a few bottles of each loaded. The standout was the Shaw & Smith Sauvignon Blanc, which retails for about $40 in Liquorland. Despite being shipped over in bulk to the UK, and then ironically flown back, it has lost none of it's flavour, being a Delightfully fresh vintage with ripe tropical characters with restrained grassy notes and crisp dry acidity.

The other white was a Bethany Chardonnay First Village 2021 Chardonnay. It had tight acid and aromatic floral notes with stone and orchard fruits. There is a tight citrus pith and stony minerality.

For reds there was a Margaret River Credaro Kinship Shiraz, with elegant fine tannins and hints of violets and herbs. Alas, the passengers in the foremost cabin completely drained the wine cellar of the half dozen bottles that were loaded within the first hour of the meal service, and after some scrambling around the crew came up with some miniature bottles loaded for economy, with a Ferngrove Merlot. Not a bad drop though either.

A highlight was the port, with Grahams Six Grapes Reserve Port on offer to go with the cheese. Alas, only one bottle of this was loaded.

Then, for a sweet wine, the crew found a Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon. It is rightfully considered Australia's premier dessert wine. Lifted apricot marmalade with hints of toffee and fig on the nose lay a path for a palate full of dried apricot and orange blossom honey. An outstanding expression of Botrytis affected wine, and a must have for any cellar!

Qantas Boeing 787 Mid flight snacks and breakfast

I managed to get about 5 hours sleep, largely thanks to there being a flat bed, with a wonderful mattress topper, duvet (dooner) and fluffy pillow.

After waking, the crew brought me a cup of tea, and I asked if there were any hot snacks loaded.

The crew asked if they could look at my menu, as they were not sure (after all the crew were definitely on their first leg out after a couple of years). No hot snacks were listed on the menu, so eventually they came back with the galley inventory, and showed me they had 4 bacon rolls, 4 chicken rolls, and a dozen cheese toasties.

I tried the Bacon Butty which was brilliant, and just what I needed.

The inflight cheese toasty less so, thanks in part to the rather dry tasteless cheese. It made me wish for the Welsh Rarebit with Worcestershire sauce sprinkled on top I used to know so well on the Perth flights.

It is also worthwhile noting that in Business Class there is a fully stocked snack bar, with bottles of wine, crisps, biscuits, chocolate, and juice, on the left hand side by door two.

A further three hours on, and two hours before landing, all the window blinds are automatically raised, and the cabin fills with light, as the breakfast service begins.

The crew came around with a tray of miniature expresso cups, which certainly did the business of waking me up.

Breakfast is a step down from dinner, as it all comes on one tray, but thanks to ordering on the form beforehand, you can pretty much define what you get. Alas, the crew apologised that certain items weren't loaded, like Vegemite, as the catering crew in London had found it impossible to source any.

Even though offered as a separate item on the main menu, rather than the breakfast one, the pastry, a croissant, and muesli all arrive together in one go, and the hot item appears next.

I ordered the egg and salmon breakfast, which was lovely, light and delicate, along with the Fruit salad with yoghurt, and Macadamia muesli with cranberries.

By now, Australia was dead ahead, and only an hour away. Fully light, there were already thunderstorms bubbling up. The sense of anticipation for many passengers of getting back to Australia after many years away was quite clear in the cabin, and there was a tinkle of champagne glasses around Business Class.

While breakfast is being served the crew gather up the blankets and mattress toppers, and then we began our decent, with a straight in approach over Bathurst Island. After leaving late Autumn in the UK just a day ago, the dazzling white beaches of the Tiwi islands were a delight to see.

Thanks to a significant tail wind, we were exactly on time, and in the last ten minutes before landing the crew give very complex instructions for the Darwin transit, as we were technically still on an International flight, and no one was allowed to leave the airport. There was a short taxi around Darwin airport, which also plays host to a large number of military aircraft.

After landing I walked up the jetway feeling quite refreshed; the better air in the cabin of the Qantas Boeing 787 has a part to play, as does the higher humidity, so I don't feel as dried out as on the A380.

Qantas Darwin international transit lounge

Amazingly Qantas has taken over a lounge at Darwin airport which is now operating in full Qantas colours, just for the one and a half hour transit stop. It's the old Catalina lounge, having a fully staffed bar, and catering.

The Darwin Qantas international Transit Lounge was a wonderful pitstop.

A smallish lounge, there are only seats for around 100 passengers, with one large room, and then a smaller room at the far end, with a view out of the window and over the runway. Four TVs are in the four corners of the lounge, showing rolling news and sport.

Beside the entrance there is a staffed bar, and next to this the food service area, where you can see the food being served for you, and order from the menu on top of the fridge.

Bathrooms are behind the bar, with a couple of showers. There is OK, if not very fast, wifi, and best of all, air conditioning that kept out the heat of Darwin.

As you enter, you are also offered a signature welcome mocktail dubbed 'Top End Lemonade': in effect lemon and lime juice. Indeed, the bar is remarkably good, with three good whites, a sparkling wine, in the fridge behind the bar. Five reds are on the counter tops. Cocktails are mixed on demand, and also on offer is 5 seeds cider, Boags, 50 lashes, and Hanh beer, plus Heineken and Iron Jack.

The food is great too, with a menu on top of the fridge. I had the Tom Yum soup, which comes with hot rolls and butter. There were some lovely hot rolls with chicken and salad, plus hot meat pies, and a fetta salad, plus crudites with dips, and biscuits, brownies and fruit salad for dessert.

The most surprising thing about the Qantas Darwin International Transit lounge? For many on the plane, who had spent years unable to return to Australia, was being able to watch Australian TV. Some stood, glass in hand, watching it for the full 90 minutes.

QF2 Qantas 787 Darwin to Sydney

Soon it was time to board again, past the banners from the launch of this route just a few days back.

Clearly a direct flight to London is a big deal for Darwin. Alas, we were herded out of the lounge, and then stood at the gate for 20 minutes, and then had another 10 minutes standing on the airbridge, because again, Qantas knack of announcing the aircraft was boarding half an hour before it actually was, came to the fore.

The second leg was similar to the first, except for the fresh crew who were used to operating domestic flights, and who were visibly less excited to be on a plane than the crew from London.

The aircraft had been cleaned. There was a fresh pillow and blanket, but no mattress topper this time. The water bottle, which was from Harrogate from the UK, had been replaced with Australian water.

Naturally, a welcome glass of champagne was offered, and menus, which were decidedly spartan. As the crew explained, they were operating this flight as if it was a domestic hop, even though we hadn't passed through immigration yet.

Menu options on the Qantas QF2 Darwin to Sydney hop were

Main

• Roast capsicum soup with baguette

• Cornish pastie with tomato relish

• Salad of prosciutto edamame and Dijon mustard
• Tomato baked chicken with risoni, pancetta and parmesan

• Neil's vinaigrette over green leaf salad.

Finish

• Cheese with accomplishment

• Ice cream

Now, I know that Qantas did say they were going to offer a traditional British dish on the flights, but a Pasty? Despite the spelling mistake, I was determined to try it, and I wasn't disappointed. The Northern Territory Cornish pastie (SIC) with tomato relish went down a treat.

The flight passed pretty quickly. The crew came around with cocktails, but this time the signature cocktail was a Bloody Mary. Wine was the same Sauvignon Blanc that had flown in from London, but there was a full selection of Australian beer, with Boags, in cans, on offer.

Very quickly, well about four hours later, we were approaching New South Wales, landing on time, in the middle of low cloud and driving rain.

I expected quite considerable health controls as we stepped out of the airbridge, but other than a couple of people in full PPE handing out leaflets, there was nothing. Indeed, even the leaflets were well out of date, and explained what would happen 'if' we went into quarantine, which of course ended last week.

Hence, I went through the automatic passport control gates without speaking to a soul, and within a couple of minutes had handed my inbound passenger card to customs, who just waved me though, and I was out of the airport. No checks, no quarantine, nothing. Ten minutes after stepping off the aircraft, I was heading home.

Qantas 787 Business Class review

It is a true wonder that Australia will now allow its own citizens to return to their country, without having to wait years for a space to become available under the tight arrival caps of a few hundred a day, and without locking them up for a fortnight in quarantine either. No wonder Qantas rushed though the introduction of the direct flights from London. It's a shame these flights can't go via Perth as usual, which would make for a slightly easier flight, but with WA refusing to allow them in, it's great that Darwin has stepped into the breach.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this flight - but it wasn't a lot. Remember only a few weeks ago Qantas were still running emergency evacuation flights from London, as they have done once a month from the start of the pandemic, for Australians desperate to escape the trauma of Covid in the UK. These pared down flights operated with little catering, no bar, no IFE, and very limited service.

Therefore, it's surprising that Qantas can get up and running so fast, even if it is with a rather rushed implementation, gaps in supplies, some two year old stock, a crew on their first flight learning the ropes, and a mismatch between the menus and the onboard offering. These are niggles, the flight was actually really very good indeed, and in the 'beforetimes' would still have rated very well.

One further surprise greeted me on landing. This was a redemption flight, and so no points would normally be earned. However, Qantas Points Club members can earn status credits on classic reward bookings made with Qantas Points. And sure enough, the maximum possible 112 status credits were in my account by the time I landed. I was amazed this worked without having to chase them.

A rare and unusual perk, on an unusual flight, in unusual times.

See the full Trip Report: QF2 Qantas London-Darwin-Sydney Business Class video:

Trip Report: QF2 Qantas London-Darwin-Sydney Business Class
Lux-traveller.com rating:8 out of10
Seats:	9 - Some of the best Business Class seats in the market
Food:	8 - Great wines
Service:	8 - Crew a little green, but keen to help
IFE:	8 - Great