A nostalgic link to a Qantas advert for the airline's very first 747 (VH-EBA 'City of Canberra') which was delivered to Qantas in August 1971.
First Class passengers could use the 'Captain Cook Lounge' up the spiral staircase.
In 1971, a return ticket from London to Sydney in first class would cost approximately £1,300 with economy selling for about £300.
In today's money the equivalent of £1,300 in 1971 is approximately £20,000 today and the equivalent of £300 in 1971 is approximately £4,600.
I have just looked on the Qantas website. A first class return ticket on QF2/QF1 can be had for £10,260, almost half the price (adjusted for inflation) as that charged by Qantas in 1971.
A return economy ticket booked today on the same QF2/QF1 flights can be purchased for £1,100, less than a quarter of the cost of the equivalent 1971 ticket.
Air travel is so much cheaper than it used to be and the 'hard product' has improved immeasurably, particularly in first class and business class (which didn't even exist in 1971).
The 1971 first class catering looks elaborate for its day. Cooked crayfish, slices of rare roast beef freshly carved by your seat (vegetarians please look away).
The dessert, large servings of strawberry pavlova, is like something straight out of the 1936 Australian Country Women's Association (CWA) cookbook! All that was missing were the Lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits.
Drinking a 'flat white', nibling a 'Tim Tam', ordering a 'smashed avo', trying a passionfruit pav, tasting Vegemite or even flying on Qantas, are all things you might try while visiting Australia.
Qantas flies non-stop from London to Perth which takes between 15 and 16 hours.
It is not a bad way to get to Australia particularly if you're flying at the front of the plane.
As you're already visiting Australia, you might prefer another airline to bring you here.
Only 16.5% of all international arrivals to Australia fly on Qantas. More than 80% of visitors to Australia arrive on other airlines.
Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qatar are the 'big three' if you are flying to Australia from Europe for both frequency of flights and Australian cities flown to.
Qantas also codeshares with Emirates to over 100 destinations, largely between Europe and Australia.
I find the service on all these airlines (including Qantas) to be excellent.
Whatever you decide, I wish you a pleasant trip!