Review of Qantas flight from Sydney to Cairns in Business

introduction

Hello and welcome to the 2nd review in this series. 

We usually try to take advantage of our son's breaks from preschool to take a trip. We hadn't been back to Australia for 8 years, so winter break in February was a perfect time to leave the northern hemisphere for summer down under!

After spending a few days in Sydney staying on Bondi, enjoying the beach, visiting with friends, and exploring kid-friendly activities around Sydney and the Blue Mountains, we were off to our next destination: the tropical north!

We'd never been to Queensland before, so I was really looking forward to it. I was especially excited to check off a major bucket list item—a visit to the Great Barrier Reef.

routing

Reviews in this series:

check-in & lounge

We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half before departure, which was plenty of time for a domestic flight. The landside part of the Domestic Terminal is quite nice with tons of light, modern design, and lofty ceilings. I like the architecture better than the International Terminal, which feels darker with lower ceilings. 

We'd checked in on the app ahead of time, but still needed to drop off baggage. This only took a few minutes as there was no wait at the Qantas Business class check-in. 

Security was also quick through the Business/Priority lanes. Once airside we headed to the lounge, which was coincidentally, and conveniently, located right across from our flight's gate.

Upstairs, the entrances to the Qantas Club and Business lounge are on opposite sides of the escalators. In Qantas hubs and larger stations, there are multiple levels of lounges. In Domestic terminals, like here in Sydney, there is usually a separate Qantas Club and Business lounge. The Qantas club is accessible to passengers with paid club memberships as well as those with oneworld Sapphire status flying in Economy. 

Access to the Business lounge is reserved for passengers with Business class tickets and those with top-tier oneworld Emerald status. From my understanding, there isn't much of a difference between domestic Qantas Clubs and Business lounges, except maybe that Business lounges tend to be a bit less crowded. 

The Business lounge is huge, with many different seating areas and plenty of light from large windows with great views of the hangars and tarmac.

It was not particularly busy that morning so there was plenty of choice for seating. 

We easily found a nice spot near the windows. 

I like the lounge's design with the aboriginal art-inspired accents throughout. 

Our aircraft to Cairns was parked right below us. 

Food options were decent, but nothing overly fancy. From what I remember seeing there were hard-boiled eggs, bacon, scrambled eggs, baked beans, salads, yoghurts, pastries and breads, cold meats, fruits and crudités. Definitely a step above US domestic lounges, but below international Business lounges.

Note that alcoholic drinks are not available in the lounge before noon—oh well, no morning mimosa for me I guess! I'll manage to survive. 

boarding

Boarding passes indicated boarding at 9:10AM for a 9:30 flight, which I found to be a bit tight. We headed down from the lounge just a few minutes before.

While Qantas are currently trialling boarding by Groups on certain domestic routes, there were no boarding groups or zones at the time of our flight. Boarding began with Business class, oneworld Emeralds, and oneworld Sapphires all at once through the Priority lane, which sounds like it would be chaotic, but in reality was perfectly fine. I think the main reason for this is that there are much less high-level frequent flyers outside of the US. If you boarded Business/First, Sapphires, and Emeralds, all at once in the US, it would be mass pandemonium as that would consist of at least half of the passengers on the aircraft. 

Though quite a few passengers boarded ahead of us, we were the first in the Business cabin. 

The Qantas domestic 737s have 12 cradle recliner Business class seats in a standard 2-2 layout. Seats are 20" wide between armrests, and have a 37" seat pitch. This is essentially the same type of cabin you'd find on domestic flights within North America–much more comfortable than European short-haul Business class. 

The 37" seat pitch gives plenty of legroom, but is on the low-end for cradle recliner seats, which are more typically pitched at 38" or more. 

As mentioned, these are cradle recliner, rather than standard recliners, as they have full legrests and footrests, allowing for a comfortable cradle position. 

Each seat has access to a universal 110v AC power outlet, as well as a USB port. 

An inflight magazine! These are super rare since the pandemic. 

I was impressed that Qantas provided noise-cancelling headphones for domestic flights. This is a nice amenity to have, especially as I've stopped travelling with bulky over-ear headphones due to the space they take up. The provided headset can be used for the overhead entertainment or with your own tablet as it's a standard 1-prong plug that comes with a 2-prong adapter for the aircraft's entertainment system. 

While there were no seatback screens on this aircraft, it was equipped with free high-speed Viasat Wi-Fi and a streaming entertainment system.

Both the Wi-Fi and streaming IFE are available from gate-to-gate. 

There's a good amount of content, including movies, TV series, documentaries, music, audio books, and children's programming. 

the flight

The flight looked to be close to 100% full, and boarding went on past departure time. I was not surprised as boarding only 20 minutes before departure is really tight. Qantas board using both the forward and rear doors out of some gates, but that was not the case on this flight. I assume when dual-door boarding happens, that starting only 20 minutes ahead of departure is more feasible. 

We ended up pushing back about 15 minutes late, not bad at all. 

It was a short taxi to the departure runway and we were off. 

The arrival time into Cairns was updated in the Qantas app shortly after we took off. 

Some information regarding the free Wi-Fi and streaming in-flight entertainment played on the overhead screens as we climbed. 

Meal service began about a half hour into the flight. The options were a mix of breakfast and lunch fare, which I found odd. There were 2 options of mains, served with a danish on the side. I don't remember what the options were, but I went for a sandwich with a side of salad. It seemed a bit light for a 3h flight, but was fresh and tasty.  

Funny enough—though it happens regularly—my 5-year-old son's pre-ordered child meal was larger than my lunch, haha. 

Cabin crew were very friendly and attentive and offered drink refills throughout the flight. 

It was great to have IFE on such a long domestic flight, though it would be nice to have a tablet holder at eye-level. 

The free Wi-Fi worked quite well throughout the flight and notably allowed me to geek out of Flightradar24 😁

Getting close!

The lush tropical landscapes of northern Queensland are very different from those of the more temperate climate in New South Wales. 

We began our descent near the mouth of the Russell River just south of Cairns. 

The beautiful green and mountainous coastline reminded me a bit of Costa Rica. 

Absolutely gorgeous approach into Cairns from the north. 

Looking towards Barron Gorge and the Kuranda rainforest, with the Barron river in the foreground.

We arrived at the gate in the domestic terminal about 10 minutes behind schedule. 

Last view of the seats on deplaning. 

Nice view of our bird from the terminal. 

Welcome to Cairns!

Baggage only took about 15 minutes to be delivered. 

Wow, I don't think I'd seen a Fokker 100 in over a decade! Such a rare aircraft these days, but apparently still common in Australia. 

As the airport is pretty close to the city centre, a taxi to our hotel was only about $20 and took about 10 minutes. 

Beautiful oceanfront view from our hotel room right on the Esplanade.