Do Qantas’ upgraded meals hit the spot?
For many flyers, inflight meals remain a lowlight rather than a highlight of the trip.
By Staff Writers, October 3 2024
When was the last time you got even a little bit excited over that plate plonked down in front of you on a domestic flight?
When, after tucking into a main meal or light snack, did you reflect on it being surprisingly delicious?
Qantas is hoping that’ll be the experience of passengers in both business and economy class as the airline rolls out revamped menus across domestic flights this month.
Domestic business class travellers can look forward to the likes of a cafe-inspired smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, capers and pickled onions, or a salad of miso glazed chicken breast, brown rice, sweet potato, green beans with sesame dressing.
Some of the new additions to Qantas' domestic business class menu.
Highlights of the fresh Qantas domestic economy menu include
- focaccia with chorizo, pesto, bell peppers and Meredith Goat’s Cheese
- cheese board with Australian saltbush chilli jam sandwich
- cottage cheese and spinach samosas
- triple choc brownie cookie
- macadamia granola slice
Some of the new additions to Qantas' domestic economy class menu.
Almost 70 new items are landing on the menus on rotation across Qantas’ six mealtimes of breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.
And if you’re a fan of those chocolate Lindor balls, they’re not going away: Qantas expects to hand out close to three million Lindt balls across the domestic network this year.
The domestic menu refresh comes after Qantas reintroduced more substantial hot snacks and meals for economy passengers on flights of more than two hours, from May this year.
That selection included scrambled egg brioche, Portuguese chicken ciabatta rolls, pumpkin fritters and classic beef sausage rolls, alongside “gourmet brekkie burgers” and slabs of Mediterranean pizza.
In addition, the airline extended its tea and coffee service into afternoon flights until 4pm, with Weiss ice cream bars handed out on flights above 3½ hours (which basically means transcon treks between the east and west coast capitals).
26 Jul 2015
Total posts 77
I'm sure there are people out there who will enjoy the offerings, just not me.
31 Mar 2014
Total posts 394
Nothing here is really standing out here or sounding impressive. All feels a bit... meh
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 379
Totally underwhelming. Just provide a tasty hot meal like you used to, Qantas.
14 Oct 2016
Total posts 110
All the economy meals look tiny. For 2 hour plus trips I'd like to be served a full sized meal container item, like international.
28 Mar 2018
Total posts 30
Transcontinental is also north-south in Australia.
I fly monthly to Darwin and the Weiss bars are back on those flights when it is a 737.
I'd be interesting to know if there is any difference with Qantas Link catering? You can end up on a transcontinental sector flown by E190s or A320s from Darwin. They may have less galley space than 737s or A330s.
25 Feb 2015
Total posts 65
Yep. Underwhelming. Until they actually offer more than one single dry item in economy (which looks to be pretty much still the plan) or offer the likes of Weiss bars on any domestic flight other than transcontinental sectors, I don’t see how they can expect passengers to really be “wowed”
25 Feb 2015
Total posts 65
The other thing is that when QF brought in their new international economy catering style, they talked about it being quicker to clear, allowing more options to be handed out bit by bit.
Now there’s no side salad and no replacement. Other elements (meal, bread roll placed on top of foil, ice cream on a stick maybe later) are just a few of the elements that were previously on an economy tray. It’s cost cutting really - simple as that.
The photograph of the “new economy offerings” there says enough - a heap of small cardboard boxes of fairly underwhelming offerings.
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