10 hours overnight on Qantas J, but first stop is McDonalds - why is this so.

10 hours overnight on Qantas J, but first stop is McDonalds - why is this so.

Recently I returned from Japan on QF22 in J. it is roughly a 10 hour trip, departs 8.30pm arrives a little after 7am the next day. Now I expected dinner and breakfast. Silly me. What I received was a light supper, then a cafe breakfast. I was so enhanced that my first stop was not to work, but to McDonalds to mitigate my hunger. Sorry to say Qantas but given the fares you charge on this route, this is in my opinion nothing but truly pathetic penny pinching that is at the heart of the ongoing decline of this airline internationally. How do they seriously expect passengers to choose them over their competitors. Now I know there will be the argument put forward that this was to allow maximum sleep. I say hogwash, this was 10 hours from Tokyo, not 7 hours from Singapore - plenty of time for at the very least 1 proper meal. And if this argument is to be used for the cut down breakfasts, at their fare levels they must provide an arrivals lounge.

I believe Qantas International is being 'enhanced' out of business, and given it's higher cost base than competitors, can only survive on a strategy of equal or better service, never lower, and accepting that they will always have a lower margin.

Your thoughts folks?

I thought Qantas had returned to offering a full breakfast offering... Certainly the last few overnight flights from Asia that I have been on in the last few months (mainly Singapore and Hong Kong) I have had a proper breakfast  offered...

Totally agreed and I have experienced the same. My experience was on the Hong Kong to Sydney flight, though. Was still on an A380, lounge in HK was super full, so that no seat, let alone food was to be had. I could not believe the sheer number of passengers in their new lounge - it was standing room only.

Only because I am Platinum, did I manage to get into the CX First lounge to at least have a decent dinner. The cafe breakfast was extremely unorganized (I heard one of QF's excuses for serving cafe style was to allow passengers to sleep longer than with the competition - hogwash!! They took longer than the competition takes to serve an entire hot breakfast). Had my partner in Premium Economy and strangely enough they served a full, hot breakfast there. Left the flight hungry and dismayed.

I don't care how short the overnight flights are, even those from Singapore. In business class, I would expect airlines to cater enough to fill up any passenger. If 80% of pax want to sleep and not eat at all, fine, cater only 20-30% of meals. But don't leave with nothing onboard and tell hungry passengers that they can't eat, or have to eat less, just because the rest want to sleep.

By the way, my recommendation for airline with most food and most nibbles on board : MH.

There are a number of CX lounges at Hong Kong you can get into as well as Qantas.If you have enough time you can check out a few, and should find substantial food to suit you, as well as liquid refreshments. I usually board not hungry, and am not bothered if the food cart is slow off the mark, or the meals not matching the menu description (as it inevitably doesn't). On a 10+ hour flight I would expect 2 decent meals to be offered; whether you eat or use the time to sleep is your choice.

I believe arrival lounge is an answer – you do not like it, so do not use it. IMHO lounge on arrival option should be given all business passengers, as least as voucher in exchange on meat rejection on the plane.

I actually was in opposite situation when I was flying from Europe via Bangkok. It is night flight and coming from Europe I naturally like to battle jet lag by going to sleep ASAP. I said that to attendant (mind you – they start preparing to serve dinner after whole hour in sky!) and asked him to take my dishes and give me desert as soon as I finish. He said “OK”. But when I finished and pressed few times on button no-one came and I finished up bringing my plates to kitchen and ask him again that I like to finish ASAP. “Sure” he said, but my desert never came for another 15 min and all my button pressing was ignored. I finished to go to sleep without it.

So “maximizing sleep time” is really lame argument – they definitely were not care about it on BKK-SYD flight!

Can you ask them for more on the flight? I gave up on QFi earlier this year and much happier flying SQ these days. On a recent red eye from Melbourne to Singapore, I managed to get a decent sized supper and breakfast on a 7 hr flight in First class, then sampled some more delights in The Private Room before a short hop to HK. Where QF gets it right with food though is domestically. VA business class food just doesn't compare on the non transcontinental flights. I had a very simple chicken salad sandwich on a Sydney to Melbourne hop, and a sad looking meat plate on a late Sydney to Adelaide flight. Had to order more food from the economy class menu!

paa, why in the world did you not fly Cathay?

TRB, to avoid connection. Regretful decision. Have to admit I love Cathay J hard and soft product in the air, and lounges (The Cabin excepted - too crowded). Easy to see why they have decimated Qantas on the Aus to HKG routes.

Earlier this year I had to fly to Tokyo. I just could not rationalise the purchase of Qantas tickets. JL was sub-standard. Cathay was the obvious choice given the pricing and frequency of flights from NRT and HND. I'm based in MEL. Either way I had to make a stopover. I'd rather stopover in HKG and not have to take a bus and transit through SYD (who was the moron who designed the airport?)

The NRT/HKG vv sectors was one of the most pleasant CX service I've had even if it was their older 747 coffin class.

On the HKG/MEL leg, I informed the crew I was sleeping through the dinner service (had noodles at the Pier lounge!). Was woken 1 h before landing and served a lovely breakfast, with multiple serves of espresso. Couldn't ask for more.

On a recent trip to BKK, routed my trip via SIN so that I could watch the Scottish Referrendum results live on Sky News UK - shame Foxtel doesn't offer that). It's amazing what CX offers on its 2h BKK/SIN service. A full meal, pudding, coffee and pralines.  

Last time I was on a QF 2h Business Class flight (MEL/BNE) the crew ran out of the first choice meal after the 1st row (soup - 1 thermo flask for a full business class cabin??) . I was lumped with a cold pork pie, which I avoided.

Chalk and Cheese!

This is Qantas all over.If you wish to charge a fare over and above all competitors just provide a better P,J service not to menchion premium economy/economy.No early bar cart service just wait one hour and if your lucky a drink with your reduced portion meal,and thats providing your meal choise is available.

Hate to be "that guy", but in what world is "menchion" easier to spell/write than "mention"? 

Oh, that's just Robert, Lionel!  He misses the SpellCheck facility available elsewhere. ;)

Along with all the spaces after punctuation marks.

This is quite standard on those length flights now nothing to do with qantas

I guess other quality airlines didn't get the memo! LOL