We’re always looking for new routes between London and Sydney and often use India as a great stop over partway. However, we normally think of the hubs being Mumbai and Delhi so it was quite a surprise to find that Qantas have a direct flight from Bengaluru (Bangalore) to Sydney.
With it not being a premier route to fly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the experience, and while not perfect it turned out to be considerably better than our Singapore Airlines business class flight between Mumbai and Sydney via Singapore.
Here’s the full low down on what to expect from the flight.
The route and ticket price
The route
Our flight was from Bengaluru (Bangalore) to Sydney on an Airbus A330-200. The flight was a night flight scheduled to leave Bangalore at 18.35 and arrive in Sydney at 10.15am, a flight time of just over eleven hours.
This is probably the perfect departure time, allowing you to have dinner, watch a few movies and get some sleep while still arriving into Sydney at a decent time.
We find the flights landing very early in the morning a struggle as you have so long to try and stay awake to avoid jet lag.
The ticket price
We were fortunate enough to get this flight on points at a cost of 94,900 points and just over $200 AUD in taxes and fees.
We were lucky as we managed to snag this flight just before there was a big devaluation of their frequent flyer points and at time of writing the cost for this flight is now 113,900 points and $338 AUD in taxes and fees.
The flight generally costs around $2,950 AUD per person if you don’t have points and I will be bearing that in mind when making this review.
In context, this is generally a few hundred dollars more than if you were to fly from India with Singapore Airlines indirect via Singapore.
What’s included in the ticket
The first thing to note about Qantas is that they currently don’t add on sneaky charges like some other carriers do when it comes to seat selection, for the timing being it’s still free of charge.
Qantas are pretty good with their inclusions as the ticket included seat selection, two pieces of checked baggage that weigh up to 32kg each (64kg total - it’s higher if you have a frequent flyer status above bronze), two cabin bags of up to 7kg each, onboard wifi for the entire journey and a lounge pass.
All luggage is also designated as priority, so it’s first on the belt in Sydney.
The ticket didn’t come with a security fast pass but the airport lines were nonexistent so that was no biggie.
Our experience flying business class on the A330 with Qantas
Cabin layout & space
The Airbus A330 is a medium sized plane, so the business class cabin doesn’t feel as big or expansive as an A380 or a Boeing 777. However, the 1-2-1 layout compensates for this, giving the feeling of space in a relatively small cabin that only has 28 business class seats.
The major quirk is that the A330 has a split cabin layout, with 8 business class seats in a section behind the gangway and next to economy class, with the remaining 20 up front. You can see the layout in the image below.
Normally we’d think a smaller cabin space would reduce the chance of snorers and noise, but on this flight if in the latter section it was quite the opposite. Rows 7 and 8 on this route are next to the bulkhead in economy class - an area designated for families with babies…
It also had fold down windows in the divides and we can attest that until the middle of the flight, if you were unlucky and sat in this section of the cabin it would have probably been one of the the noisiest business class experiences you could ever have.
If you can, we recommend picking a seat in the first 6 rows. I chose seat 4A which had the benefit of being a window seat and was within the quieter part of the business class cabin. There was no trouble with noise and the small number of passengers in this area made it much quieter than larger planes like the A380.
There were only two toilets for the business class cabin so I did find there was always a queue, sometimes quite long, more like economy than business class. The toilet itself was nothing special, it felt as small as you get in economy so the only thing that was probably different is getting a bit of face mist or something….
The seat
This is obviously the most important factor to consider when splurging on a long haul business class flight and generally speaking the seat was pretty good. It has an older look and feel, but it’s comfy enough.
When not fully reclined you can stretch your legs right the way out under the screen and still not reach the end (unless you are super tall, for reference I am 5’8”) and had room to spare.
When in lie flat mode I could still stretch out all the way and the seat is not on angle meaning there’s no awkward position when it comes to sleeping (and that’s not the case for certain planes on several other 5 star airlines). In fact you can have your shoes stored there when in lie flat mode which goes to show how long the space is.
In lie flat mode the seat is not overly wide, but as you aren’t slanted it is one of the better lie flat seats we’ve had in recent years.
You will get a mattress pad (which again not all airline provide anymore) and a good pillow and weighty duvet style blanket. You make up the bed yourself whenever you’re ready.
When not in recline the seat is fairly comfy with a good amount of space around your hips. The seat belt goes across your chest but you can take the top bit off to just have a lap belt aside from during take off and landing.
The seat is quite private as the the opening into the aisle is very narrow. In fact it’s so narrow as to be quite awkward if you need to get up in the night when the bed is in lie flat mode, some contortion is definitely required.
There’s a good amount of storage in the armrest compartment and room at the end of the seat too.
Food, drink and service
Service begins with the obligatory glass of champagne or juice and a hot towel, followed shortly after take off with mixed nuts and another drink of your choice.
The menu is put together by Neil Perry and was generally very good.
The soup and sourdough was a lovely starter and the snapper, while not especially pretty on the plate, was really tasty.
The panna cotta was only ok, but overall the food was of a really good standard. The wine was also quality and I was happy to see one of my favourites from Brokenwood in the Hunter Valley available.
You order your breakfast choice the evening before so they don’t need to wake you too early. Personally I find breakfast on planes is always the worst meal and after many times ordering soggy eggs I decided to change tact and order the pancakes.
This was a much better choice and the pancakes plus a delicious macadamia museli made it one of the best brekkies (maybe the best) I’ve had on a plane. I didn’t try the coffee because after months away from Aussie coffee I was saving myself for my favourite cafe, but the tea was nice (Dilmah).
When it comes to the service, this is Qantas, so you know it’s going to be friendly. Perhaps not as friendly as the last time I flew business class with them to Hawaii but that was 9 years ago now and I do think service has changed across the board since then. Perhaps there are less staff and they have a little less time, but it was still very good service.
A woman behind me was clearly visiting Australia under difficult circumstances and they were wonderful with her. Having been that woman the year before also flying Qantas I can vouch that if you have a problem, they are going to be outstanding in supporting you.
Otherwise, it’s service with a smile and offering you more drinks etc at regular intervals.
My one criticism with the service was the sheer length of time it took for the dinner service to finish. For reference I got my starter 2 hours after take off and my dessert an hour later. That might not sound too long if you’re in a restaurant, but it felt pretty lengthy with the tray on my lap for well over an hour!
The amenity kit
Before we get into the amenity kit, I want to mention that Qantas are one of the few airlines that still give you pyjamas, of which I am a big fan! It’s much nicer to sleep in something different to what you’ve been wearing all day and they’re pretty soft and comfy.
The amenity kit is also good with an eye mask, socks (two things Singapore Airlines didn’t give you and make trying to sleep a whole lot easier), ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, hand cream, face cream and lip balm by Li’tya.
Wi-Fi
The wifi on Qantas is pretty decent, but connectivity can be patchy. It wasn’t too bad, but we’ve heard that many other airlines using Starlink and other services provide wifi comparable to being on the ground.
Wifi wasn’t a biggie for me as this was a night flight, with the aim to get some sleep before arriving in Sydney.
In-flight entertainment
The in-flight entertainment is as you might expect with Qantas, very good, it has an extensive library with plenty of new movies, foreign language movies and TV shows.
The screen is a good size and the headphones are decent too. If you own really good headphones then bring them because they will undoubtedly be better, but otherwise I found them good enough.
The lounge
The Zero Eight Zero lounge at Bengaluru airport is a little strange in the way it’s set up, but pretty decent overall, with bright inviting spaces to sit. The strange part is that one of the bars (the main one) is for paying customers only and instead of just saying that the staff made the whole thing really complicated and for a while I thought I could only go in the tiny bar and no where else.
As it turns out it’s only the cocktail bar that charges you extra, everything else is free and you can go where you want. When it comes to alcoholic drinks the range is poor and quite low quality, so if you’re like me and you don’t drink much, definitely save yourself for the plane where everything is of a really high standard.
The food as you might expect from India is excellent - that is as long as you eat the Indian food! Most of it was pretty spicy, but delicious with some good veggie options as well as plenty of meat options. Dessert and coffee were not good, so again, I would save yourself for the plane!
There are nice toilets which looked a bit like a 5 star hotel, but slightly less nice showers. Still perfectly useable but they’re showing a lot of wear and tear and the toiletries aren’t great (there’s shower gel and shampoo but nothing else). You didn’t have to book or queue though so that’s a win.
The lounge is very small so there are no beds or anything like that, but there was plenty of seating and a paid massage service if you feel like a last treat before the flight.
There are no flight announcements in the lounge so you need to keep an eye on the boards. And as this is India the security lines at the boarding gates were chaotic and required a bit of time.
I think if you’re in business class you are meant to be able to walk through to the front of the line without queuing, but this only happened for the men on our flight, all the woman has to queue, however, being a Brit queue jumping would have felt a bit uncomfortable for me anyway : )
Is it worth it?
Evaluating whether a business class flight is worth it is always difficult and it depends greatly on what you’re looking for, why you want to fly business and how much it costs.
If you have frequent flyer points, then it’s a bargain. We felt just under 100,000 points plus $200AUD in fees for an overnight 11 hour flight directly to Sydney with Qantas was one of the best value flights we’ve bought. It’s more than that now, but still what I would consider a good use of points.
If you don’t have points and have to pay around $3,000 AUD for the flight, then it will feel quite expensive. Especially as an economy ticket for this route is about $550 - $750 AUD (about 4.5 - 6 times less). This is on the higher end for the difference in price between economy and business class.
How does it compare to others?
We’ve been fortunate to fly to and from Sydney in business class quite a few times over the years, and we’d say that Qantas isn’t top of the list with this particular plane, but it’s up there. In our opinion: Qatar and Cathay are the top of the top, and Qantas are at the top of the next tier, nudging out Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Etihad. We haven’t flown with Thai (who are meant to be decent) or British Airways (which is seen by many to be below these airlines).
If you’re travelling between India and Sydney, then the only direct routes are from New Delhi with Air India or Bangalore with Qantas. Between these two options there is no contest.
An indirect flight will be cheaper, and we flew with Singapore Airlines for $300 AUD less when going from Mumbai to Sydney via Singapore. However, this flight involved the faff of getting off the plane and waiting for 5-6 hours for the second flight. So I would say it’s worth paying $300 AUD extra to simply get on the plane and wake up at your destination, even though the lounge at Singapore is pretty special.
Here’s a league table of the business class flights we’ve experienced first-hand:
1. Qatar
2. Cathay Pacific
3. Qantas
4. Singapore Airlines (as long as it’s not an A380)
5. Emirates
6. Etihad
7. Garuda
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