What a day to fly! Friday 19 July 2024 was a blustery wintery day in Adelaide, with a severe weather warning issued. Flight delays seemed inevitable. Add to this the global Crowdstrike IT outage, causing chaos for airlines and airports worldwide, and I had one question…

‘Will my flight to Perth depart Adelaide today?’

Pre-flight: As with most airports globally, on 19 July Adelaide Airport was hit by the Crowdstrike outage. At first this was evident when numerous digital signage screens throughout the terminal started to display Windows’ infamous ‘blue screen of death’.

The outage escalated throughout the day, leading to several flight cancellations. While Virgin Australia seemed to be mildly impacted, rival Jetstar cancelled all flights during the crisis. Luckily for me, Qantas seemed unaffected by the issue.

Adelaide Airport handled the outage well, and though there were lengthy queues for check in (particularly for the outbound Qatar Airways service and cancelled Jetstar flights) I managed to bypass the queues, as I was travelling with hand-luggage only.

My aircraft arrived late from Perth at 19:08, though I was impressed at how fast the Qantas team turned it around, with the first boarding call made at 19:37. Despite the days’ technical issues, boarding went off without a hitch – though I did notice the retro buzz of the dot-matrix printers working away, so perhaps some old-school paperwork was being managed behind the scenes.

On Board

I was among the first passengers to board the aircraft, and was greeted by Customer Service Manager Rachel, who I have flown with numerous times. She offered a genuine and warm welcome back, asking how I had been since last I flew.

Dating from 2008, this aircraft features a classic business class recliner, coupled with a retro interior fit out. Business class consists of 12 seats, in a 2-2 configuration. Each seat is clad in dark-red-leather covering, though the dark blue trim around the buttons on the armrest hints of its original colour palate.

I may be in the minority here, but this older generation seat is my preferred Qantas 737 business class seat. I find the back-padding softer, and there’s an option to adjust lumbar support that is lacking on the newer 737 seat.

While the 93.9cm seat pitch doesn’t offer a ton of legroom, the seats are quite wide, at 55.8cm. They come with an adjustable headrest, a large in-arm tray table, and seat-recline options, as well as a button to deploy a leg rest and footrest. My long legs mean the latter isn’t useable, but this tall-person-issue is not unique to this seat. Despite the seat’s age there are universal power and USB-A charging ports below the centre console.

Sadly, there was no pre-departure drinks offered by the crew, however, there was a small bottle of water waiting for me at my seat which was appreciated.

Inflight:

Once the seatbelt sign was turned off, Rachel commenced the business class service. First on the agenda: drinks. A range of beverages were offered, from water to beer, soft drinks to wine as well as spirits. These are paired with Santos-brand roasted almonds and pretzels, served in a pre-packaged plastic bag.

Meal choices included a chicken salad, and a pasta dish with chorizo. Neither of these were of much interest to me, so Rachel offered me a prawn and vegetable curry with rice. Though usually wary of eating prawns on a plane, I opted for this.

It was served hot, with peas, broccolini and rice. It was tasty, albeit quite spicy. The meal was complemented by a pasta and pesto side salad which was very flavoursome, warm sourdough bread, as well as a Koko Black chocolate block.

After dinner, I relaxed into my large recliner with a cup of hot coffee, declining the Maggie Beer burnt fig ice cream (by far my least favourite of the Maggie Beer flavours, it seems to follow me around on Qantas, though again I may be in the minority here).

A member of the cabin crew came past offering dessert wine, but I opted instead for water. As I reclined and tested out the leg rest options, two used plastic cups and dirty napkins popped out from under my seat. I put this cleaning oversight down to the speedy turnaround at Adelaide.

While I like this seat, the downside is it does not come with inbuilt inflight entertainment. Rather, this plane still features the retro drop down screens which were used to play ABC News and then a movie which is a nice touch for those who didn’t bring their own device to watch.

Qantas also offers a streaming service via the Qantas Entertainment app. Seats in rows 2 and 3 can utilise the seatback device holder, though the bumpy flight meant that my iPad was wobbling about too much for this to be comfortable, so I used the sturdier tray table instead.

The inflight entertainment offering is reasonable for the short flight. I like how Qantas has partnered with Paramount + and HBO to offer some great shows from their respective streaming services.

There is one small bathroom for business class passengers, situated at the front of the cabin. The curved forward fuselage makes this bathroom a bit restrictive given the wall curves up towards the ceiling, however it was kept clean.

Final Thoughts:

The service offered from Rachel was of a very high standard, while the other cabin crew seemed engaged, energetic, and happy to be there.

Despite the challenges the day presented (with IT issues and bad weather) both Qantas and Adelaide Airport handled the situation well.

The fact that my Qantas flight flew, albeit late, with barely any noticeable impact – while so many airlines worldwide experienced major issues – is a great outcome for both the airline, the airport, and passengers.

The flight in detail

Flight: QF891

Route: ADL-PER

Date: 19/07/24

Cabin: Business

Seat: 3C

Aircraft: Boeing 737-838 VH-VZC

Ticket Class: Red-E-Deal Upgraded to Business Class using Bid Upgrade*

*I booked this flight as an economy class red-e-deal on qantas.com. I am very tall, so during the booking process I paid $45 extra to secure an exit row. The booking process was easy. Given I fly Qantas often, I am familiar and comfortable with all steps of the process.

A few days before departure Qantas emailed, inviting me to make an upgrade offer bid. I wanted to get some good rest on the flight to Perth after a long day of meetings, so I made an offer. The maximum bid was a lofty $700 while the minimum was a far more reasonable $350. I opted for the minimum bid. 20 hours before departure, the upgrade came through.

The Lounge:

Adelaide Airport has long been home to a large Qantas Club. The lounge is currently undergoing major works, as part of Qantas’ investment in the precinct that includes developing a new business lounge offering.

With the Qantas Club currently occupying a smaller footprint, as a Qantas Platinum member I was invited into a ‘private’ lounge area. This turned out to be the Chairmans’ Lounge. This was my first visit to a Chairman’s Lounge. I had long wondered what it was like behind the discrete ‘members only’ door, and what I found surprised me.

The relatively small lounge featured several seating areas, a variety of meeting rooms, some limited apron views, and a help-yourself meal and drinks area.

While the Adelaide Qantas Club features an in-lounge Barista, the Chairman’s Lounge had a DIY coffee machine. Food options were rather unimaginative, with a buffet offering soup, curry, salads, and DIY toasted sandwiches. There is also a DIY bar, rather than the full-scale bar service offered at other Qantas premium lounges.

This certainly wasn’t the luxurious sanctuary that I’d read about. It fell far short of the luxury of Qantas’ excellent lounge in London, or the memorable Qantas First lounge in Sydney and Melbourne. I can only surmise the offering has been scaled back during the renovation.

READ: Qantas Premium Economy Review

Editorial Reviews