Dinner time in business class is usually an airlines most elaborate meal, so one wouldn’t expect to be served raw meat. It is the first time I have ever flown and experienced something this bad.
I selected my flight specifically based on the fact it would have a full dinner service. I’m always curious to see what airlines offer on board which is why these things come into play.
QF553 – Brisbane to Sydney
19 April 2017
Boeing 737-838 – VH-VZS “Cairns”
Seat: Business Class 1A
Departure: 19:35 Arrival: 21:10
On this flight I was first on board which gave me the opportunity to take some cabin shots. The Boeing 737-800 is the mainstay of the Qantas domestic fleet.
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- Inside a Qantas Boeing 737
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- It’s all economy here
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- Note the adjustable head rests
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- First row of business class
I find the interior fit out of the Qantas aircraft to be quite nice. The charcoal grey seats in economy class look very comfortable and it is nice the seat colour is different up front.
Welcome Drink
Prior to departure, the Qantas crew come around offering a welcome drink. This is a great feature of domestic business class in Australia, something the European carriers could well learn from.
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- Qantas Kangaroo
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- Welcome on board!
Just about everyone chooses to have a welcome drink up the front so it is clearly a part of the service people enjoy. Not long after this, we left for Sydney.
Dinner Tales Featuring Raw Meat
There is a choice of meals on board at dinner time and I selected the lamb cutlets with potatoes and peas. When it arrived, it looked delicious!
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- A fine looking meal
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- Can’t wait to tuck in
Yarra Burn is quite a nice Australian sparkling wine and I was delighted to see it being served. My previous flight served Grant Burge sparkling wine which is not nearly as nice.
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- Uh oh…
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- Beautiful Sydney!
Tucking in to my cutlets, I noticed they were very difficult to cut. After a piece or two I thought it tasted strange too so I gave it a good look and my suspicious were confirmed – raw meat. Needless to say I didn’t eat any more of that.
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- Ta-dah! I’m a cake!
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- Deliciously sweet!
Dessert is a little hand made cake from Manna. I love a good cake and this one was delicious. For the main meal, I can also report the potatoes and peas were very good!
Service Recovery
Not one to make a fuss, I said nothing until the crew came to clear up my tray. I mentioned the meat did not appear to be cooked. The crew member frankly looked shocked and apologised for that. Immediately after this, she went to every other passenger who ordered the lamb cutlets to check if their meals were properly cooked.
Luckily they were all fine which I was informed about along with another apology. A minute or two later, another crew member came by to apologise as well and offered to see if they could give me a crew meal to make up for it. Of course, I declined.
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- What’s this?
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- It’s wine!
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- Bottles with medals are best in Australia
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- All about the wine
A little later on, the original crew member asked if they could get me a bottle of wine to take with me to apologise for the meal. I attempted to refuse when I was asked if I would like white or red.
The Qantas crew were having none of it – I was going to get wine to take with me whether I liked it or not. I selected the red and it was popped in a nice bag and put into the overhead locker.
Overall Thoughts
Clearly it was just bad luck that I had raw meat, especially as all the other passenger meals were okay. It impressed me that the crew checked the meals of everyone else, to the point of asking one person to cut their cutlet as they had not started that part of the meal yet.
Service recovery is vitally important and it was interesting to watch the professional Qantas crew swing into action. The airline has superb service training and it is evident how they make things right when something goes wrong. Well done, Qantas! Oh and the wine? Delicious! Absolutely made up for the raw meat.
Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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It’s nice that they provided a decent bottle of wine (around $20 AUD worth locally) for you – I’ve had a number of bad experiences with Qantas which resulted in them sending me wine where the courier cost would have been more than than the cost of the bottle. Qantas have also distributed Qantas Club entry vouchers and for QFF offered points (but not status points), in the past. BTW I think most airlines go for medium for any cooked meat as it’s the safest option both hygienically and for customer satisfaction. I prefer my lamb rare as well, but… Read more »
Yes, I thought the service recovery was very nice. Also, as I don’t live in Australia, giving this immediately makes much more sense than sending it. In the past, I have received Avios when British Airways did not load business class meals on one particularly flight. That’s the only other time I have had something like this happen.
I agree with your assessment on the airlines going medium for cooked meat. I have never ever come across rare meat on board in the past. Thanks for the comment!
That’s Pittsburgh rare. You didn’t want it well done with ketchup did you?
It’s much more rare than I have ever come across on board a flight. Haha – and no, not well done with ketchup! The least I go with meat is medium. I’m surprised they would serve it rare on board a flight. Thanks for the comment!
I also prefer my lamb to be more on the rare side.
I rather prefer mine to be a lot more cooked than that. I’ve never come across such rare meat on a flight. It was not great! Thanks for the comment!
Not to be mean. But they were just following the customer is always mantra. Maybe because of the Dr. Dao effect.
Well, quite possibly… she did look at my meal and agreed that it looked like it was not cooked correctly which is why she was so surprised. They didn’t just take my word for it. After seeing mine, that is what prompted her to check everyone else’s. Thanks for the comment!
That’s “rare” and exactly how we’d prepare it at home. (We’ve got to get you off that bread and water home diet!)
Haha – yes, anything to get away from the bread and water! 🙂 I always choose to have my meat done medium, so I am not used to it being as rare as on this flight. Thanks for the comment!
Is this your first time eating lamb? That piece of meat is cooked correctly,charred on the outside and pink in the middle.
Haha! It’s definitely not my first time eating lamb however if indeed it is correctly cooked, it looked and tasted different to any lamb I’ve ever had. Perhaps I am used it cooked a little more. Thanks for the comment!
Your lamb chop doesn’t look raw to me. It looks rare, and that’s the way like to eat it. In fact, I almost never order meat on an airline because it usually comes overcooked.
It looks like I am probably used to overcooked airline meat then, judging from the comments. It didn’t appear that anyone else had the meat as rare as mine. Thanks for the comment!