Review: Qantas Sydney-Auckland-New York QF3 business class
There’s a new way to get to the Big Apple, and it eliminates the big transit headaches at LAX.
By David Flynn, June 15 2023
Route
Sydney-Auckland-New York
Aircraft Type
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Airline
Qantas
Flight
QF3
Cabin Class
Business
Seat
7A
Notes
The Good
- Comfortable well-appointed business class seat
- Boeing 787 takes the edge off jetlag
The Bad
- No WiFi
X-Factor
- Skip that LAX transit for hassle-free flight from Sydney to New York
Introduction
“Transiting at Los Angeles on the way to New York is so much fun”, said nobody ever – at least no-one in their right mind.
Lining up to clear immigration, collecting your checked luggage and then re-checking it for your onwards flight to New York while you schlep between terminals and potentially face another snaking queue for domestic security, then waiting hours to catch your NY-bound flight… that’s a punishment we can all do without.
Now there’s a better way to get to the Big Apple, with Qantas launching a Sydney-New York flight which makes a pit-stop at Auckland rather than LAX, before heading straight through to NY.
New York's perennial tourist favourite, Times Square.
It’s made possible by the same Boeing 787 which serves up Perth-London in a single continent-striding leap.
Qantas isn’t the first to take this approach – Air New Zealand commenced direct flights between Auckland and New York in September 2022.
But for Qantas, the Sydney-Auckland-New York route is a prelude to true non-stop flights from Sydney and Melbourne to New York from late 2025 on the ultra-long range Airbus A350 – which unlike today’s Boeing 787 adds first class to the mix, along with all-new business class and premium economy seats.
For at least the next few years, an Auckland stopover is Qantas’ solution to skipping the headaches and hassles of LAX.
And make no mistake, it’s a long journey, clocking in at just over 21 hours from take-off to touchdown – with around 16 of those hours ticking slowly away on the Auckland-New York leg.
This means business class is clearly the place to be, and the 787’s familiar flagship Business Suites deliver in style with ample comfort, plenty of personal space, a 16” screen and of course a fully lie-flat bed.
The 787 business class features a darker colour palette than its A330 counterpart.
QF3, Sydney-Auckland
For most travellers, this marathon will begin at Sydney – although Qantas expects morning flights from Melbourne and Brisbane will carry connecting passengers to join QF3 at Auckland.
Ahead of QF3’s scheduled 9.30am departure, most business class passengers, Qantas Gold frequent flyers and Qantas Club members will head to the international Qantas Business lounge.
Upright seating and lounges at the heart of Sydney Qantas Business Lounge.
I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: this is a sadly pedestrian effort for what is Qantas’ flagship business class lounge.
And Qantas knows this, which is why the this lounge is slated for a massive makeover across 2024-2025 to deliver more space, more seats and “a new signature dining experience.”
For now, you’ll have to make do with furniture that’s seen better days and a buffet which on the morning of our Sydney-New York flight offered a ‘breakfast snacking’ menu of staples such as bircher muesli, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and baked beans, porridge and yoghurt.
There's a fairly standard hot buffet for those unable to wait for the 'plate of the day'.
From 8am a plate of the day is served at the raised ‘island dining’ benches – ahead of our flight this was a disappointingly dry ‘corned beef sweet potato hash’ with baby spinach, a poached egg and red pepper relish.
High-flying Platinum and Platinum One frequent flyers (and elite invitation-only Chairman’s Lounge members) can while away the pre-flight hours at the far superior Qantas First lounge, enjoying a restaurant-style à la carte menu with a choice of cocktails and Champagnes.
Sydney Qantas First Lounge - definitely worth visiting if you can.
In the morning, I always find it hard to go past the corn fritters…
… although the healthy breakfast bowl combines fewer calories with less guilt.
And in a nod to QF3, the Qantas First lounge’s breakfast menu also featured these sweet ‘dollar pancakes’ with blueberries.
Before long it was time to head to the boarding gate, where one of Qantas’ newest Boeing 787s was waiting.
I settled into my business class seat on the Boeing 787, having selected 7A because the aisle-facing bench offers a little more privacy and less distraction, especially when it’s time to sleep.
A private pew for the 21 or so hour journey ahead.
But if you want maximum legroom, shoot for a seat in the front row of each business class cabin, where there’s more distance between the seat and the bulkhead wall plus a much larger ‘cubby’ for your feet.
Legroom for seat 2E on the left, and 7A on the right.
These specific seats are 1A and 1K (at the window), 2E and 2F (in the middle) plus 10A, 10E, 10F and 10K.
QF3’s 9.30am departure means the meal en route to Auckland is categorised as a lunch, and business class passengers were presented with four options:
- parsnip soup with pancetta, hazelnuts and Greek yoghurt
- a 'plant-based dining' variation on the same soup, accompanied only by sourdough croutons
- Thai beef noodle salad with chilli & lime nam jim dressing
- Bannockburn chicken Kyiv with lettuce, peas, bacon and potato puree
These all came with a side of kale and sweet potato salad with Tasmanian smoked salmon and a ‘Green Goddess’ dressing, and were followed by Maggie Beer ice cream.
The cabin crew were happy to serve me both the hearty parsnip soup with pancetta, hazelnuts and Greek yoghurt…
… and the tongue-tingling Thai beef noodle salad.
With the Qantas Boeing 787s lacking WiFi, there’s not much else to be done than to watch a movie or a few episodes of a TV boxed set on the inflight entertainment system or start reading the book you wisely packed for the long flight to come.
(And in case you’re wondering: yes, you can book just the trans-Tasman leg of QF3 and QF4 and enjoy the Dreamliner’s modern business class and premium economy on a quick trip across the ditch between Sydney and Auckland.)
QF3, Auckland stopover
After the quick three-hour dash from Sydney to Auckland comes a two-hour stopover as the Boeing 787 is readied for its marathon trek across the Pacific and all the way through to New York.
My flight touched down at Auckland on schedule at 2.30pm, and despite dreading a long and painful transfer, the airport had all three transit lanes open and fully staffed.
Being at the pointy end of the plane helped, of course, and being among the first off the plane we were headed to the Qantas lounge by 2.40pm.
Qantas maintains seperate business class and first class lounges at Auckland, although the later is essentially a haven for Platinum and Platinum One frequent flyers.
Both lounges are showing their age and look more like Qantas Clubs, although there are plans to transform them into a single, larger and decidedly upmarket Auckland premium lounge by late 2024.
Concept images of the new Qantas Auckland lounge.
While usually offering only a buffet, a ‘plate of the day’ has been introduced at both lounges during the stopover period for QF3 and QF4.
From 3pm, loungeworthy flyers on QF3 can look forward to the likes of pastrami on rye with Russian dressing and sauerkraut, Moroccan lamb pot pie and pork & fennel sausage rolls.
The 5am arrival of QF4 from New York sees breakfast fare such as bacon & scrambled egg bagels, baked eggs, quiche and frittatas.
Qantas says these tray-around menus will be the same at both the business and first class lounges, and there’ll always be a choice between a meat-based and vegetarian dish.
By 4.30pm we were back at the departure gate and soon winging our way out of the City of Sails to the City That Never Sleeps, which lay some 14,200km and 16 hours away... and now the long haul really begins.
QF3, Auckland to New York
The upside is that these 16 hours are yours to spend as you wish, and even allowing for an optimistic eight hours of sound sleep – something few people can reliably achieve at 30,000 feet – that’ll be just half the journey.
Crew are available to set up your bed when required.
Thankfully the inflight entertainment system is heavily loaded with boxed sets that are perfect for a bit of binge-viewing, from hits like Succession and The White Lotus to the Perry Mason reboot, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
However, the lack of inflight Internet remains a drawback. Qantas will thankfully install fast and free WiFi across its Airbus A350 Project Sunrise fleet, and expects the Boeing 787s will also be retrofitted with the same high-speed satellite tech.
The slide-out table is easily large enough for a laptop.
Despite the sheer length of this flight, Qantas sticks to its conventional business class dining format of a main meal – in this case a four-course dinner served 90 minutes into the flight – a selection of ‘mid-flight' snacks and, perhaps oddly, considering for the 5pm arrival at New York, breakfast (although to be fair, most passengers spent the second half of the flight to New York sleeping).
The gap between take-off from Auckland and the start of dinner is the perfect time to slip into the supplied pyjamas.
Limited edition PJs created by Australian designer Rebecca Vallance.
Qantas is among the handful of airlines to carry business class PJs, and for the first few months of QF3/QF4 this sleepwear is a stylish ‘limited edition’ outfit from Aussie designer Rebecca Vallance in a soft French navy marle cotton (although only carried in sizes M/L and L/XL).
The amenity kit's design incorporates a subtle Qantas roo.
Vallance also styled the amenity kit case and eyeshade with the same art-deco pattern; the rest of the kit includes Li’Tya skincare products plus the obligatory dental kit, earplugs and socks.
When dinner rolls around, the menu leans heavily into QF3’s New York destination, and regular Qantas business class travellers will find no surprises in the Neil Perry menu, and certainly nothing with a solid ‘wow’ factor.
First up was an ‘aperitivo’ of a Manhattan Mary cocktail – basically a Bloody Mary with a celery stick – and a solitary blini with caviar and crème fraîche.
A bite-size blini and Manhattan Mary to fire up the taste buds.
We could choose between four starters:
- potato and leek soup with chives and crème fraîche
- a ‘plant-based’ version of the same soup, accompanied only by sourdough croutons (the same approach as taken on the Sydney-Auckland leg)
- salad of prawns with fioretto, farro, snow peas, confit chilli and orange dressing
- pork and shiitake mushroom dumplings with pickled cucumber and sesame chilli dressing
While the dumplings seemed the most popular dish in the business class cabin, I opted for the light and zingy prawn salad.
Likewise, there were four choices of main course on our business class flight from Auckland to New York:
- Korean-style sesame baked eggplant with stir fried green beans, jasmine rice and pickled vegetables
- New York-style spaghetti meatballs with tomato ragu and parmesan
- Seared snapper with roasted sweet potato, spiced onion, green beans and sumac yoghurt
- Beef fillet with creamed spinach and baked potato with sour cream and chives
The spaghetti meatballs seemed an obviously NY go-to, however the baked eggplant was filling without sitting heavy on the stomach (something more and more frequent flyers are becoming aware of).
Another New York touch appeared on the dessert menu in the form of a baked cheesecake with Blueberry compote, alongside the reliable ice cream sandwich, although I opted for a simple cheese platter paired with a glass of sweet Lillypilly dessert wine.
It’s almost a given that you’ll get peckish in the later half of the Auckland-New York leg.
Self-service snacks include fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, chips and chocolate.
In addition to the usual self-serve snacks of chips, biscuits, chocolate and dips, the cabin crew can on request rustle up a pumpkin and goat’s cheese quiche, a crumbed snapper roll and a Reuben sandwich of pastrami on rye bread with Russian dressing and sauerkraut topped by a skyscraper stack of pickles.
There's a chance you may get a little peckish between main meals.
After most of the flight taking place in the cocoon of darkness, the sun rose as we approached the US west coast, with breakfast served at 90 minutes before landing as we steadily tracked north-east towards New York.
Again, the breakfast menu is along the same lines as other long-range Qantas flights, with the selection spanning from muesli, toast and muffins to scrambled eggs with bacon, roast tomato and kale; a bacon, egg and cheddar roll with BBQ sauce; and a leek and mushroom egg white omelette with asparagus.
A light afternoon breakfast prior to descent.
By the time breakfast was done we were closing rapidly on New York, with the bulk of this long flight behind us and the excitement of The City That Never Sleeps ahead.
Although touchdown at New York’s JFK Terminal 8 was scheduled for 4.50pm, our flight benefited from strong tailwinds to land almost an hour early at 4pm – with an added bonus of there being almost no queue for immigration.
In summary: while there’s no getting around the fact that it’s a long way from Sydney to New York, the brief Auckland stopover of Qantas’ flight QF3 is so much better than struggling through LAX.
Making this flight work for you relies on maximing your sleep: provided you get a properly deep and restorative sleep en route, you’ll arrive into New York well-rested and ready to tackle business or begin your holiday.
Until those non-stop Project Sunrise flights take wing, this stands as the best way to get from Sydney to New York.
David Flynn travelled as a guest of Qantas
08 Feb 2018
Total posts 165
What's it like reviewing a flight when every single other passenger is probably reviewing it for one blog or another? I bet the crew were on their best behaviour!
You should add the lounge to "the bad" column in the summary I reckon, particularly as you can't sneak into the Emirates lounge for this flight.
03 Aug 2020
Total posts 20
Shame on the crew if they were on their best behaviour. It shouldn’t be tolerated
Delta Air Lines - SkyMiles
16 Oct 2017
Total posts 156
So dinner is served at 4pm Australian time, 2am New York time. Really?
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1204
It's a pity both Qantas and Air NZ are choosing to charge extortionate fares on these new flights. For a MEL-JFK return on either in J, both are currently charging around $24K.
You can do MEL-EWR via SFO on United with Polaris Business Class all the way for $18K and it only takes 45 minutes longer and you have the added benefit of arriving into New York as a domestic passenger.
American Airlines - AAdvantage
12 Jun 2023
Total posts 6
You said $18K as though that is a deal. It isn't. I am fascinated that anyone would pay $18K for any flight much less $24K.
26 Sep 2020
Total posts 13
There are still people out there who book and pay for whatever price is put in front of them. They are either too busy to find a better deal or push back on a $24k fare or too rich to care. For those people, they enjoy the idea that they (or their company) are rich enough not to care about saving a few thousand dollars.
American Airlines - AAdvantage
12 Jun 2023
Total posts 6
@Greg E,
Corporations don't pay the standard fares. They usually get massive discounts. When I worked for an airline years ago, corporations were getting 35%-55% discounts depending on the deal struck.
At $24K, I would expect better quality meals, chauffer pick up and drop off, better lounge offering at a minimum. But hey, if people are purchasing these, good for the airline.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Aug 2015
Total posts 56
If you had money you would understand...
American Airlines - AAdvantage
12 Jun 2023
Total posts 6
I do have money and having worked in several departments of an airline for many years, one of which was route P&L and another revenue management, I believe I have a little knowledge to state that $24K for an average J class experience is ridiculous. But ultimately, it does depend on what a consumer thinks is value. Good for the airline if it can get people to purchase at these price points.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 991
I once did Sydney-New York with QF many years ago, 4 of us in the economy with the middle seat blocked on the 747 both ways for $1200.00 per person return.
Jetstar Airways - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 May 2018
Total posts 20
I noticed yesterday that QF151 (MEL-AKL) departed an hour and 45 minutes late, and landed in Auckland about 20 minutes before the scheduled departure of QF3. QF3 pushed back on time, so obviously no time to be able to make the connection. I would have thought that QF3 would have waited. Qantas usually adds enough slack in their timetables to make this possible.
01 Mar 2012
Total posts 5
And QF143 from Sydney landed 10 mins before QF3 departure from AKL - must have upset a few connecting passengers as well
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 123
If only QF did dine on demand. I think especially for these long fights that would be a welcome choice, but the (usually tired and grumpy) crew would have another opinion I'm sure.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
21 Jul 2013
Total posts 65
I note that among your "GOOD" list is the claim that the Boeing 787 takes the edge off jetlag. Having recently flown return to Europe twice, Dreamliners all the way, I wonder if this is just a repeat of Boeing's noisy PR efforts with this aircraft. I was in Business, and unable to use earplugs for medical reasons I found the roaring noise of the plane no different to an A330, and significantly louder than the relatively quiet A380. For me the inability to sleep is the prime cause of jetlag and noise is the major factor. The subsequent jetlag was as bad as ever, except after A380 flights.
16 Jun 2023
Total posts 5
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Aug 2015
Total posts 56
Good review, cheers mate :)
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
20 Nov 2017
Total posts 113
Really needs a proper comparison with NZ equivalent, before you can conclude that this s the best way to go SYD to NY.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Aug 2015
Total posts 56
Air New Zealand's "business" class is outdated...
25 Jun 2018
Total posts 49
Best way to NYC? I’ll tell you in September when I’ve experienced JAL at a price considerably less than QF.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
20 Nov 2017
Total posts 113
Yeah, that sounds like a superior option (only slightly longer, better service, superior food and lounges, fraction of the price).
26 Sep 2020
Total posts 13
I just got back from SYD-LHR-SYD on ANA with "The Room" on HND-LHR-HND. QF simply can't compete on a heap of metrics which includes price at just A$6,500 return. With some flexibility, you can get a similar price for the same product to JFK
26 Sep 2020
Total posts 13
I just got back from SYD-LHR-SYD on ANA with "The Room" on HND-LHR-HND. QF simply can't compete on a heap of metrics which includes price at just A$6,500 return. With some flexibility, you can get a similar price for the same product to JFK.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Aug 2015
Total posts 56
This is SYD to NYC your comparing Big Apples to Oranges.... ( Japan to London)
26 Sep 2020
Total posts 13
Not really. Fly to HND and you can change to a B777 with The Room and head to London or change to a B777 with The Room and head to New York for a similar price. The point is that QF has some way to go to catch up with what is already on offer.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
Transiting at LAX to anywhere (LHR, JFK/EWR or IAD) is far from fun at any time of the day or year, we all know that and its been that way for years. But a 20 hour flight to save a few hours from AUS just doesn't make sense. Why couldn't Qantas do a transit-hop at, say, DFW or IAH? Even PHX would make sense, given its near perfect dry weather all year round. I'd have thought these suggested locations would also have been a lot less costly to base exchange crews than LAX or NYC. Keen to read what others think.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Aug 2015
Total posts 56
Because Texas sux lol, I agree on the Phoenix stop or even Chicago...
11 Sep 2015
Total posts 223
I don't think you get it. The whole idea is NOT to do a stopover in the USA at all because then you have to go through immigration, wait around to pick up your luggage, then recheck your luggage etc. This will happen in LAX, DFW, Honolulu, you name it. That's why Auckland is the stop-over for QF3. Plus Qantas wouldn't be allowed to see the lef from say DFW to JFK just like it couldn't sell LAX-JFK in the old days. But it can sell AKL-JFK and JFK-AKL on their own, and a lot of US travellers will want to combine visits to Auckland & Sydney or even NZ and Australia in the one trip, because the travel time and distance from the USA to 'down under' is so much and of course airfares are so high.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
Thank-you.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 May 2018
Total posts 12
How do you manage jet lag when travelling across so many time zones David? I’m about to fly MEL-SIN-CGK-DOH-JFK (in J on QF and QR) and I’m going to try out Timeshifter app, which is designed to beat jet lag as I want to make the most of our few days in NYC. Any tips?
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