Review of Qantas flight from Sydney to Johannesburg in Economy

I had been trapped in my room for 2 days because it was cold and raining and now the sun was in full swing…
The next morning was a huge contrast from the two previous days… It was beautiful and sunny and I was leaving for Johannesburg ! What a load of crap… ! Any-who…
I went to the airport, got dropped off in front of the Qantas check in area and went to the Stand-By check in counters.
After check-in I went and got a couple of donuts at Krispy Kreme and sat not far from the check in counters.

Here are the boutiques after the security checks.
So who is operating our flight to Johannesbourg today ?

Boarding started and I noticed that we were going to travel with a South African sports team that was going home.

While I boarded I noticed that the boarding gate we were at was an A380 ready gate and it looked brand new compared to the others.
All passengers were greeted at the door by the cabin service manager or director… Can't remember how QF calls them. he was assisted in his task by a very nice older lady.
I really like the QF uniforms as they retain some very traditional patterns, unique to Australia.
Got to my seat which was originally 37H. I was seating next to a South African couple travelling with their older parents and asked if I wanted to swap seats with them and take the window. I of course replied with the affirmative as I didn't mind the window, in the contrary.
The cabin looked really full and there was only a couple of seats left in the economy class cabin, this due probably to the cancellation of the flight to JNB 2 days ago.
Cabin was clean and the colour scheme was nice and reminiscent of the australian outback with the red earth…
The cabin attendant seated at door 3L was always smiling and nice to the passengers.
Before we taxied he handed out menus with details of our meals for the flight.

View from my seat.

Not a lot of room for my legs…

Wunala Dreaming is getting ready for its transpacific journey to LAX and JFK.

The demos were done while we had our very very long taxi which had us cross the runway to get near the domestic terminals so we had to wait for a few planes that had to take off or land…

One of the numerous Qantas 747-400

Publicity for Qantas

A few minutes ago we were connected to the terminal via these jetways.

Traffic in Sydney

The cabin crew is now seated ready for take-off. Incrdibly enough this is the same cabin attendant I will have on a SIN-SYD on the A380. He had worked for Emirates before coming home and join the Qantas foarces.

A Qantas Boeing 747-300. In 1998 I did a JNB-HRE-PER-SYD and SYD-PER-JNB on one of these beasts !

The resting Virgin Atlantic A340-600, had arrived in the morning from London via Hong Kong and it is now waiting for its departure that same evening.

The LAN flight is ready to go home to Santiago de Chile via Auckland.

The Philippine Airlines A330 for Manila

A Vietnam Airlines Boeing 777

The Singapore Airlines A380 and 2 British Airways Boeings.

Departure for South Africa.

Qantas, The Spirit of Australia !

The cabin crew will shift in full action mode, handing out earphones etc… and then the first service, starting with drinks. A lemonade with pretzels and japanese otsumami.

The meal will follow soon after. Excellent !

Our route, a long way to go…

During the flight we will get Snack on Q. The crew will hand out a goodies bag just in case.

Then a couple of hours later we'll get a hot drinks service, choice of mint-verbena herbal tea or hot chocolate with pink marshmallows !

It is about that time that the whoe video system crashed and one by one the rows went down all the way to First Class.
The crew was really nice and apologetic and did their best.
After contacting SYD Qantas engineering they decided to reboot the whole system and everything went smoothly after that.
Before we arrived in JNB another meal was served which was also very nice and tasty

We are getting closer to Africa.

Our first sight of South Africa, the coast 80 km North of Durban.

Last picture of the door 3 Right jumpseat of our Boeing 747-400

We will soon arrive, we are well into our descent to O.R. Thambo Johannesburg International Airport.

Landing !

The Nationwide Airlines fleet, grounded. I flew that little airlines many moons ago when I lived in South Africa.

I also flew that Boeing 747-300 owned by SAA between Paris and Johannesburg via Zurich.

Thank You for flying on Qantas

A few aircraft that haven't seen the skies for quite a while…

Nationwide Airlines

The europeans had arrived in the early morning and will all fly home in the evening.

Emirates had arrived just before us.

Thank you very much Qantas !

Our Boeing, City of Perth is resting after having flown across the Indian Ocean.

Next stop, passport controls.

I than went thru passport control and got told off because it was a little too full for the womand stamping it and she was patronizing me about making space available for her before I get to the counter as I had a printout of my electronic visa stapled on the last 2 free pages…
Then had to way a while for the bags and when they came out I went out and got a taxi to go to my hotel in Sandton City.
I was staying at the Balalaika hotel, which is very convenient as it was a walking distance from Nelson Mandela Square and Sandton City.