Rhonda Bracey: At Random

In the past two days, I travelled on Qantas and American Airlines (AA) from Perth, Western Australia to Burlington, Vermont (via Sydney, Dallas, and an unexpected night in Washington DC owing to an AA flight cancellation). I wrote last year about the points of difference between Qantas and AA (https://rhondabracey.com/2016/10/14/comparing-qantas-and-american-airlines/). This time I’ll talk about the food on Qantas, both on their domestic and international flights, and in the Qantas lounge.

NOTE: I travelled Qantas Business Class domestically — AA call this class ‘First’, but there’s nothing ‘first’ about their meagre food and drink offerings compared to Qantas for similar length journeys! And as a Qantas Platinum Frequent Flyer, I had access to the Qantas International First Lounge at Sydney Airport.

Domestic flight Perth to Sydney, approximately 4 hours

On this afternoon flight, we were fed dinner — see the menu for the food options. I had the soup (with sourdough bread), the lamb chops (two of them!) and the citrus baba.

Qantas lounge

After staying overnight in Sydney, I forgo the breakfast at the hotel, instead choosing to eat at the Qantas lounge. My choices from that menu — eggs benedict with smoked salmon, bircher muesli with hazelnuts (?) and apple, an apple julep (delicious! [non-alcoholic]), and sourdough toast with Vegemite. All very yummy!

Flight from Sydney to Dallas, 16+ hours

Next was the flight from Sydney to Dallas. We get served dinner on that flight not long after taking off, and then breakfast some 12 or 13 hours later, about 2 hours before we land. Because I’d had such a big lunch, I opted for soup (cauliflower I think), the ‘light’ steak sandwich dinner offering, followed by the MOST AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS passionfruit tart with fresh cream. It was SOOO good, I asked if I could have another — and I’m NOT a dessert person. The sharpness and acidity of the passionfruit perfectly balanced the creamy sweetness of the tart. (I didn’t take any photos of my breakfast.)