Back From Australia
Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2000 12:06 pm
I just got back from a trip from Richmond, Virginia, to Australia. My US domestic flights were on Delta and my international and Australian domestic flights were on Qantas. I guess it is no secret that Qantas domestic flights are far superior to Delta domestic flights. On Qantas, I got a hot meal on every flight. On Delta, from CVG to LAX I had ordered a special meal, the cold seafood one. When they got to my seat, they tried to give me the ham and cheese sandwich that was the scheduled meal. I told the flight attendant that I had ordered a special meal that had been confirmed and was indicated on my boarding pass. He went to the back and got on the phone, then came back and told me that they gave my seafood meal away. He was sorry. So I had to have the dry ham and cheese sandwich. I reordered the seafood meal on my return Delta flight, and this time I got it. In fact, before takeoff, the flight attendant put a sticker on my seatback so they would know I had ordered a special meal.
On one of my Qantas 737s, when the flight attendant served me my hot meal, I told her that in the US, we would be lucky to get a bag of pretzels and a drink on a flight of that length. She asked me how many flight attendants there were on 737s in the US. I told her there were three on the Delta 737 I had. She couldn't believe it. She said she thought they needed one for each emergency door, and the 737 has four. I told her that in the US I thought the requirement was one flight attendant for every 50 seats. She said in Australia it is one per 36 seats. She said they used to have six on a 737, but they cut back to four to save money.
On all my Qantas flights, legroom was very generous. There were no seatback screens or phones on any of my Qantas flights. Flight crews were very friendly and seemed to enjoy their work. On my Delta 737-200, the seat pitch was so tight I thought I was on PeoplExpress.
Here are the planes I was on:
RIC-CVG Delta 737-232 N323DL
CVG-LAX Delta 757-232 N673DL
LAX-SYD Qantas 747-438 VH-OJQ
SYD-ASP Qantas 737-476 VH-TJF
MEL-PER Qantas 737-376 VH-TAY
PER-SYD Qantas 737-476 VH-TJH
SYD-AKL Qantas 747-238B VH-ECB
AKL-LAX Qantas 747-438 VH-OJT
LAX-CVG Delta 767-232 N113DA
CVG-RIC Delta 737-832 N381DN
Bob Bradley
Richmond, VA
On one of my Qantas 737s, when the flight attendant served me my hot meal, I told her that in the US, we would be lucky to get a bag of pretzels and a drink on a flight of that length. She asked me how many flight attendants there were on 737s in the US. I told her there were three on the Delta 737 I had. She couldn't believe it. She said she thought they needed one for each emergency door, and the 737 has four. I told her that in the US I thought the requirement was one flight attendant for every 50 seats. She said in Australia it is one per 36 seats. She said they used to have six on a 737, but they cut back to four to save money.
On all my Qantas flights, legroom was very generous. There were no seatback screens or phones on any of my Qantas flights. Flight crews were very friendly and seemed to enjoy their work. On my Delta 737-200, the seat pitch was so tight I thought I was on PeoplExpress.
Here are the planes I was on:
RIC-CVG Delta 737-232 N323DL
CVG-LAX Delta 757-232 N673DL
LAX-SYD Qantas 747-438 VH-OJQ
SYD-ASP Qantas 737-476 VH-TJF
MEL-PER Qantas 737-376 VH-TAY
PER-SYD Qantas 737-476 VH-TJH
SYD-AKL Qantas 747-238B VH-ECB
AKL-LAX Qantas 747-438 VH-OJT
LAX-CVG Delta 767-232 N113DA
CVG-RIC Delta 737-832 N381DN
Bob Bradley
Richmond, VA