Unhappy Experience on Qantas Business Class Flight Sparks Controversy

A passenger who was extremely unimpressed with his recent Qantas business class flight has recounted his experience, calling the Australian flag carrier a “third world airline.”

In a letter to the Financial Review, retiree John Brizee of Camp Hill, Queensland said that he paid AU 20,000 ($ 13,600) for business class flights to Europe with Qantas and Finnair.

Brizee said that he and his wife travel only once every three or four years, so this was their first “luxury trip” after COVID-19.

An absolute disaster
Though Brizee described the 13-hour Finnair leg of their trip to be “clean, welcome and efficient,” he called his Qantas business class experience an “absolute disaster.”

For his outbound leg to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), Brizee said that his cubicle had not been cleaned, the seats and floor were unvacuumed and left with food spills.

But it was his return leg from Singapore’s Changi Airport (SIN) to Brisbane Airport (BNE) that left him the most disappointed. Brizee described the Airbus A330 as “ancient and rattling”, comparing the aircraft to what Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has done to the brand: “ a shaking old aircraft that should have been retired years ago.”

Brizee said that the business class cubicle’s USB charging ports did not work. And he found the entertainment system to have limited choice and no song lists.

He also said that the aircraft needed new shock absorbers because the entire front section of the aircraft “shook and wobbled” during taxiing and takeoff.

The most atrocious meal
Brizee continued to rant even about his business class meal, which he said was probably “the most atrocious meal” he has seen anywhere, even outside of a plane.

For breakfast, he said that Qantas served him a bowl of fruit chunks that were too hard to eat, a stale bread bun with a “tasteless blob of egg”, and a Danish pastry that he believes had been microwaved too long.

Brizee said that he and his wife did not consume most of the meal, because even the coffee tasted like “putrid dishwater.”

The retiree ended his tirade as a Dear John letter, saying “never again” to flying with Qantas, calling it a “third world airline”, and attributing the brand demise to outgoing CEO Joyce. aerotime.com