QF8, DFW-SYD, Business Class | Dining Decadence

Posted December 16th, 2015

Due to an unfortunate family emergency I re-scheduled my previously planned departure and managed to get a business class redemption seat on the direct flight from Dallas to Sydney. Mum would also be travelling on this flight on a full fare economy flight *eek*

We were connecting from Houston Hobby Airport, which appears to be a base mainly for Southwest. After some initial difficulties at check-in (read Qantas hadn’t ticketed my seat, possibly due to the multiple changes) we headed through an enormous security line and had an equally enormous burger at Pappas Burgers.

Soon enough it was time to board our CRJ900 for the short flight to Dallas. A couple of Tito’s vodka and cranberry juice and it was time to explore DFW.

We took the sky train to travel from Terminal C to Terminal D and had a quick look through the lounge on offer for Qantas business passengers. Very ordinary looking, and full. If we had more time I would’ve headed around to the Admirals Club, however the pick of the 3 is probably the Centurion Lounge, conveniently located opposite Gate D15, where the Qantas flight departs from.

Frankly the less said about this lounge the better, however, briefly:

There was a small room allocated for each airline (and in some cases separate rooms for the different cabin class) in which chairs were tightly packed.

The extremely satisfying part of the visit to the lounge was the friendly agent at the desk within the Qantas section, who happily blocked off a row of 3 seats for mum down in economy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Boarding was the usual chaos with people not waiting until called, and with the 46 person business cabin full (some lucky sods had in fact been upgraded to First due to overbooking) I guess I shouldn’t have expected too much.

I had decided on a seat in the middle, meaning i’d miss out on the fantastic views coming into Sydney in the morning, but i figured the direct aisle access with no one stepping over me was far more important.

Unfortunately it was similar to the experience heading over in First Class with the service painfully slow.

Amenity kits and PJs were handed out – and these female Kate Spade ones have been recycled in the household since our return.

(photo of the bag the lady beside me received)

The menus for today’s flight read as follows:

From take off it took 2 hours for the table to be set, and besides the pre-departure beverage, no pre-dinner drinks were offered.

Interestingly the meal options were very similar as to what is served on first class on this flight (as you can read over at this blog – insert SFO777 link)

I had a Jameson’s & ginger beer to begin proceedings however it appeared the flight attendants weren’t as generous as those on the earlier connecting flight from Houston.

The pork belly main was OK – the pork belly itself surprisingly satisfyingly crunchy for a re-heated meal, whilst the noodles were nothing more than those you’d find in a 2 minute bowl on the shelves at your local supermarket.

To finish off the meal, ~~for you my dear readers~~ because i’m a lard ass – i had both the cereal flavoured custard, and the cheese plate.

With dinner done I got stuck into a season and a half of Silicon Valley (http://www.hbo.com/silicon-valley), which i’d highly recommend, and had a prosciutto wrapped chicken roll somewhere in between.

Whilst the flight over was a relatively short 14 hours and 30 minutes, this trip back took more than 16 (and Leslie’s flight, a few days later, even longer at 17 hours!). I managed to grab a couple of hours sleep on separate occasions but unfortunately the ‘fully flat’ beds had developed a sorry sag in the lower portion and i didn’t have a suitable carryon on which to prop it up.

Nevermind, as this ‘french toast’ with smoked salmon woke me up very nicely for breakfast.

And that folks, was a wrap on 2015 travel.

I’ve been lucky enough to have some great trips during 2015, and with a wedding just around the corner 2016 is looking like it will continue on the up and up.

Thanks to all those that have taken the time to read the blog throughout the year. Already booked for 2016 there will be blog posts forthcoming with:-
Qantas First Class
New York City
Singapore Airlines Suites
Conrad Maldives
Singapore
Singapore Airlines First Class

Happy holidays, and Happy New Year!

Andrew

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