hello my name is Paul Stewart and I'm in Sydney, which for my international
subscribers is just north of Wollongong and later today I'm traveling to Hong
Kong with Qantas in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in business class. As you can
see behind me the sun is coming up, as is my appetite so let's head over to the
terminal and grab some breakfast.
Here we are inside the terminal where Qantas have set up this self check-in
thing which actually gave us a preview of what our aircraft looked like
Although I hadn't had any coffee yet and figured it would be easier to visit the
traditional check-in counters. Then it was through the Express Path which
actually has just been refurbished and reopened only last week. Once you clear
customs it's up the escalators and turn left. Straight in there is the
first-class lounge and there's a separate video on my channel showing you
there. On this trip, I kept walking around to the business lounge. Here we are
inside the lounge and to be frank, it's one of Qantas' weaker business
class lounges. It was meant to be refurbished this year though that has
since been delayed, which is a pity as it's absolutely nothing like the
brilliant lounges in Brisbane, Hong Kong, London and others. Having said that
there is barista coffee and this long table where drinks are available to pour
yourself as well as breakfast of the day which started at 8:00 a.m.
Other than that, there is a self-serve buffet which are on par with
most international business lounges. I had a quick bite and a coffee and then
went to explore the showers. They provide running water and will be brilliant for a
long layover after a long-haul flight although there's no hiding the fact that
the decor was clearly inspired by a 1960s nursing home.
It was now 8 a.m. so I managed to snag the breakfast which, well, can be best
described as very healthy. My aircraft was due to arrive shortly from Hong Kong
so I found out which gate that was coming to and I went for a walk
Qantas only recently, well two years ago, introduced the 787 Dreamliner with the
apparent plan being to replace their aging fleet of 747s. Obviously it has a
lot less seats so the idea is to have more of them flying routes more
regularly which is great if you're less flexible with timings. As well as
introducing new seating the 787's biggest selling point in my mind
is a higher relative cabin pressure and humidity. As much as I love the 747 and
the 777, after 12 hours my nose and throat are incredibly dry and that's
because they're made of metal which will rust with too much moisture in the air.
The 787, on the other hand, is made of clever composites so you don't have to
worry about rust. There's still a few Qantas 747s
remaining although they'll all be retired by the end of 2020. Boeing offer Rolls Royce or General Electric engine options on the 787 and
luckily for Qantas, they've selected the latter as Rolls have been having huge
issues with their engines. By the way, they're not actually running yet and the
fans are just being blown by the wind. Here's a shot of three Qantas jets next
to each other which really highlights the new livery. The most distant two are
the newest and you'll note the new text on the side and the tail includes some
silver and the kangaroo looks a little cleaner and no longer has any paws. As
you can imagine the internet was furious, as it usually is about most things, that
the Roos paws have been chopped off but I must admit I don't mind. Comment below
if you're a fan or not. This is the internet. Before I forget, if you enjoy
travelling and aviation, please check out my channel for many more similar videos
feel free to subscribe and click the notification bell as I have many more
videos coming soon. And of course being the Millennial that I am,
I'm also on Instagram and Facebook so please validate me by checking those out
as well. Boarding began and my seat 6K was in the
first of two business cabins where all the seats are in a 1-2-1 layout.
Here's a quick shot of the second slightly smaller business cabin.
If you're traveling as a couple, there is this divider which you can lower if you
have to. The a330 has a very similar seat but it has a fixed larger barrier which
may or may not be a good thing. The window seats all alternate between being
closer to the window and closer to the aisle. My seat was one of the ones that's
closer to the aisle. As you can see in this comparison, it's more exposed
although it's still much more private than the older 2-2-2 layouts. I'll show
you around the seat in more detail and you'll notice that there's a lap sash
seat belt which means that you can recline the seat a little during takeoff
or landing. To your side is reading-lamp, somewhere for your noise cancelling
headphones and a bottle holder. You've also got this storage space which is
fairly secure and well sized for the amenity guest, passport, small tablets
and phones. There's also the usual powerpoints and below that is a TV
screen remote and a mirror. Here's the seat adjustments which work really well
allowing you to select a few pre-set shapes or adjust however you want to.
There's a fold-out table, which is fairly solid and if you drop your
armrests, you'll be able to sneak out even during the meal service.
And here's the infamous Dreamliner windows which I'll comment on later, and
something I really really appreciate are the overhead air vents. It seems that a lot
of modern airliners seem to run with very warm cabins so the option of
the extra airflow is a really, really good thing. There's a magazine holder on
your right and straight ahead is your in-flight entertainment touch screen
which I'll also comment on later. And below that, is the foot recess. Some
people do find they are a little narrow and if you're one of those, try and
select the bulkhead seats so row 1 and 10 as the recess is wider as you can
see here. And I always forget one thing on the seta tour and here it is, there's
more storage down near your knees and finishing off with a fantastic view of
the wing and engine. Drinks were offered and I went with the champagne followed
by a look at the amenity kit. As always I'll be running a giveaway where you can
choose either this or a pair of Qantas pajamas. Unfortunately this was a day
flight so they weren't actually offered but I do have a pair sitting around.
Anyway details of the competition later although I must admit I'm a little
disappointed that they're no longer proactively offering them as the flight is
still pretty long and being able to arrive fresh, including in clean clothes, and
being ready to go is kind of the whole point of business class. I suspect its
cost-cutting which I'll comment on later. The wind was playing havoc today
with wind gusts up to 65 kilometres an hour so the airport was using its single
runway 25 which was a novelty for me as I'd never taken off from it, although it
meant that we had to join a pretty long queue as you can see in this footage and
on my phone. It was eventually our turn to take off and unfortunately and
annoyingly, the reflection wasn't great so I'll speed up through the takeoff and
upload the full footage on my second channel Paul Stewart EXTRA
and a link to that will be in the video description below.
Almost immediately after takeoff, the windows will automatically darkened
which I thought was pretty odd for a flight leaving at 10 in the morning.
Thankfully they weren't locked and a few of us opened them up to enjoy the view.
I can understand people wanting to darken the cabin to allow sleep on
flights crossing time zones but this was a morning flight to Hong Kong where we
arrived in the evening so you won't you want to sleep during the day anyway. aA round
of room temperature nuts were offered and a drink. I was offered two, in fact,
which was a Chardonnay and a cocktail called lychee ginger sunset which
tasted great. The lunch service shortly began and my starters were prawn and
corn fritters with tomato and cucumber salsa served with some bread and greens.
For the main I had a Shaanxi, which I'm sure I pronounced wrong, style Humpty do
barramundi with seasonal greens, sesame seeds and jasmine rice which all tasted
really good. For dessert I went with the chocolate bread and butter pudding with
mascarpone washed down with dessert wine.
After lunch I settled down to watch one of the most iconic TV series of our time
and again was disappointed by the bizarre non-ending ending. I can't for the life
of me understand what they were thinking by generating these amazing rich
storylines only to just end it all in a rush, but anyway seeing the
beautiful Australian coastline turned my frown upside down and entering foreign
airspace made this flight start to feel international. There are three toilets
for the 42 business passengers so I never had to wait long. In fact I don't
recall having to queue at all. Apologies for autofocus issues as I'm
increasingly suspecting I'm going to have to sack my Fujifilm and go back to Sony
as their autofocus and stabilization seemed considerably superior.
The views over the Indonesian archipelagos were impressive and I
really enjoy seeing new places and countries from 40,000 feet with a
particular highlight being Antarctica a few years ago on a flight to
Johannesburg. Now if you look closely, and I admit that this isn't going to become
a Windows wallpaper, but there's actually an active volcano in the distance. Please
comment below if you can identify which one it is as I think it was just east of
Monado in Indonesia. As I had a bit of work to do, an expresso was delivered and
a few biscuits, or cookies for those watching in America because you guys
call scones biscuits as I discovered earlier this year when I visited DC and
was thoroughly confused. This was followed by a dessert snack and then I
settled down to watch a movie. Here's a look at the in-flight entertainment
which was pretty good the touchscreen worked most of the time except for now
when I was going to show you a tour of my seat. It's a great option if this is
the first time you're using it, unless of course you've seen the tour in these
videos.
There was a decent selection of movies and as you can see the screen quality
was pretty good.
Another feature I really like is these moving maps where you can see your
aircraft and the terrain you're flying over. Years ago they were pretty rubbish
although in modern times the view is really quite high-definition and it can
really make out the places out of the window. There's also a fair few TV series
to watch including this rather disappointing one including a final
season that really should have gone for more than six episodes. Another thing I
really like about these seats that I forgot to mention before is they're
raised footrests . I'll mention these windows which on one hand are really
good because they're massive and provide a really good view. Unfortunately they
don't have the traditional plastic window shades which means that they can
be controlled centrally and locked closed by the crew. As I've mentioned before, these
were closed shortly after takeoff although fortunately they weren't locked
as I've had on previous flights so a few of us could open them again. Considering
the fact that was a day flight, I just can't understand why they were darkened
and then cynic in me suspects that it was with the hope of passengers sleeping
because they're easy to look after. Having just returned from London and
struggling with jetlag as I edit this video, I can't understand why anyone
would want to sleep during the day only to then try and sleep again that same
evening. Anyway here's the seat in a few different positions. First up it's fully
upright followed by a slight relaxation which you're allowed to use during takeoff and
landing in conjunction with the lap-sash seatbelts. I find this particularly
useful if you're stuck taxiing for 30 minutes like we were during this flight
as it's far more relaxing than bolt upright. Then, of course, it folds fully
flat and there's this thin mattress cover also provided although I'm not
sure it provides any noticeable difference. The foot recesses is fairly
average in width and there's not much room to flex your knees if you sleep on your
side. Before we arrived into Hong Kong there was a very light meal service
consisting of this beef kofta with chickpea mint parsley salad and cucumber
yogurt it tasted fine although I can't but help think that for an eight-hour
flight in business class from mid morning until the evening it really
should have had a two decent meals. As you can see by my British Airways
concorde watch, it was after 7:00 p.m. Sydney time so surely a full dinner
service would have been reasonable. I must admit that i did arrive feeling
fairly hungry especially after i was unable to stomach that healthy breakfast
bowl of greens in the lounge beforehand. I briefly mentioned the wifi which
didn't exist. This was followed up by a wet towel, the only one for the flight
which I'm sure is less than I've had in the past and a Qantas theme fantail
chocolate which are objectively the best tasting lollies or candies known to
humanity. The trivia question was who designed some of the crockery in this
Qantas 787 which was exciting... Presumably it's the guy who decided that these dark
stains on the nuts bowl look good and yes that's actually intentional. They
had been washed although I wonder how many passengers have suspected otherwise.
Anyway our descent into Hong Kong began with some awesome views of this General
Electric GEnx engine. Before I conclude a reminder about my giveaway. You can
select either the amenity kit or a pair of Qantas business PJs and simply comment
below including the text giveaway in brackets and after a month I'll select a
winner and put them in the mail. Don't forget to click the thumbs up button and
subscribe as well also make sure you keep an eye out on my channel and
Instagram pages as some of the previous giveaways have gone unclaimed.
So to summarize everything, it's a perfectly good business class product
The crew were really good and I really enjoyed the down-to-earth interactions I
have with Qantas crews. I find some crews on other Airlines quite
subservience. it's like they're terrified of premium
passengers that may be unhappy so I really liked at the Qantas interactions
where they come to you from the same level. I suspect this is a reflection of
Australian society in general where we are much less hierarchical than others which
i think is a really good thing. The food was fine although there just wasn't
enough of it. They do offer snacks between meals although they're just
packets of chips and fruit and things. Qatar Airways, on the other hand, offer
impressive snacks like burgers and chips as snacks between meals. Like I said
before an 8hr business flight over lunch and dinner time really should
include two decent meals. Remember that once you include transiting through
immigration and getting to your hotel it's going to be 8 or 9 p.m. before
you're able to start finding somewhere to eat. The seat itself is really good and it
offers good privacy, space and storage although I'm only 180 centimeters and I
can imagine a larger and longer frame feeling quite tight. I flew with Cathy Pacific
last weekend on board their 777 in their business suite which offers a
fantastic amount of space in comparison and the review of that will be at my
channel soon. The 787 itself is a great aircraft and I certainly noticed the
increased humidity and some of the crew also mentioned that they find it more
comfortable than the older 747s. Anyway overall it was a great
flight and I'll happily fly Qantas again, in fact I am as I've just booked flights
to Santiago and I'm sure that will make for some interesting videos in the
future. If you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up and check out my
channel for more similar aviation content. Thanks for watching and I'll see
you another time.