My 2c worth...
Flew on SQ Sydney to Singapore just last Saturday in business on the A380.
Reasonable business product, but quite frankly, a bit disappointing. I'll go through it.
Check-in: slooooooow to get the bags dropped off, despite having checked in online. BA FBD desks at Heathrow take about 1/10 the time this did.
J-class lounge in Sydney: dark, dingy & poky. Should've gone to the AirNZ one. It's a stretch to call it a 'lounge' - 'holding pen' might be more descriptive. The Ethiopian Airlines offering in Addis is better. 2/10 (and they only get that because they had Cascade in the fridge.)
Crew: I can look on the net (or even walk down the street on a warm day) for honeys, so I expect business class crew to be professional rather than cute. These guys were... ok. Nothing great, but ok and everything done pretty much by the book. 6/10
Seat: Comfy, but that width is truly silly. Watching the TV, I was so far from each armrest that I had to sit there with my arms crossed. Every time the bloke behind me (who slept from the go) rolled over, his feet would bump the little tunnel and I'd get vibrated. And having to get up to pull the bed out - just power-recline the thing like everyone else!
Then there was the fact that the ceiling lights were so glary, I could not actually see the action on the TV until I took my RM's off and squatted on the seat. Try that for 2 x 2hr movies, not so comfy. Total 2/10
Food: no choice of entrees - 1/10 by itself - but then consider that the 2 monster prawns on top of the single offering would've killed me by way of anaphylactic shock - 0/10. Barramundi was ok (not outstanding) - 7/10 but the dessert was nothing to write home about - 3/10. At no point during the online booking or check-in process was Book the Cook offered so I didn't get to have that - 0/10. Wine and beer selection disappointing - 3/10 although the espresso machine is a good idea (which they got from the Rat) - 6/10. Total 3/10
Oh yes then during a leg-stretch downstairs, I saw some triple-choc Cornettos being munched and I was given the third degree when I had the temerity to ask for one.
Self-serve bar & snacks: having recently experienced the EK A380 J-class bar, no comparison. Hopeless. Better off just not bothering. 1/10
Amentities: no kits to L/H business pax
. You can't get away with that sort of caper on one of your major routes. -10/10
Bed: disappointing. They say it's wide, which it is in parts, but given the constrictive width of the foot 'tunnel' it's not like you can starfish as on the queen-size at home. Indeed effective width is only about 45cm or so. And the palaver to open the thing out... 4/10
So - generally, I'm glad the company was paying because it certainly didn't live up to the hype and I'd have felt very short-changed if I'd been paying. A reasonable product, yes, but other full-service carriers would have to actually be wilfully bad to undercook my experience by much. Frankly for a 7-hour trip, I would not have felt hard done by if the boss had put me in cattle. The main benefit for me was the baggage allowance. They're not that great.
White Pointer,
Just FYI mate, on Rat domestic there are lots of F/As who have come back from L/H because they've got kids and want to be home with the kids more often. So I don't know where you get the idea it's full of youngsters.
They may be 'boilers', but they are experienced enough to be able to do you a full hot service between Sydney and Melbourne and when I'm on the 06.15, that's what I need - not ditzy eye candy which I am realistic enough to know I'll never be able to touch anyway, which then proceeds to spill hot coffee over me at the first hint of turb.
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