Review: Qantas domestic business class from Sydney to Adelaide

Qantas domestic business class is very expensive and the value for money is just not there. When I need to fly this airline in Australia, I use my stash of Avios points and book it as a reward flight. This makes the cost benefit work for me and is a great use of those points.

Leaving Australia from Adelaide – thanks to a competitive ticket price – meant I needed to get there from Sydney. Qantas had the right flight timing I needed, so they were my choice, plus I was interested to see what they were offering these days.

Sydney Airport

Everything is very efficient at Sydney Airport. I checked in at a self-service machine, tagged my bag and dropped it off, all without interacting with anyone. From there it was straight through security and to the very decent Qantas domestic business lounge. After some time relaxing there, it time to head to gate one.

QF731 – Sydney to Adelaide (SYD-ADL)
20 March 2026
Boeing 737-838 – VH-VYZ – Torquay
Seat: Business Class 1F
Departure: 06:40 Arrival: 08:15

Business class passengers were called and I ended up being the first person on the plane. That meant a quick stow of my cabin bag before sitting down and taking in my surroundings.

The Qantas Domestic Business Class Cabin

It seems the prison like austerity of the Qantas domestic business class cabin has not changed at all. The seat colour has always been hideous and there is no real impression of quality. While the visual appeal is lacking the seats are large and comfortable enough for a two hour flight.

During check-in I had managed to snag a front row seat, which meant plenty of leg room. Qantas appears to have removed the in-seat screens for all rows in favour of streaming to your device. The front row still has screens in the armrest, which I only discovered because it became warm during the safety demonstration.

Breakfast Time

After the safety demonstration we headed for the active runway and were quickly setting course for Adelaide. Friendly service from the crew began quite swiftly and soon I was offered breakfast. I decided to go for the egg white omelette with spinach and vegetables. This came with honey cinnamon Greek yoghurt, bread and jam. To drink I elected to have cold pressed apple juice and water.

Pleasingly the omelette was quite nice, particularly the Spinach, though I did leave some of it, prompting the crew to ask if it was okay. As I had three international flights to come, I was holding back to avoid over eating – plus I knew the food would be better quality on my next flights with Malaysia Airlines and Turkish Airlines. The yoghurt was also tasty, as was the juice, though the bread was pretty hard.

Overall Thoughts

Qantas domestic business class is perfectly fine, just horrendously over priced. The on board service on this sector was excellent, with the crew engaging in a friendly manner and the lady serving me seemed genuinely concerned when I didn’t finish all of my meal.

The food was good quality, though perhaps not particularly flavourful. It did the job though and for a two hour flight it was perfectly okay. It was good to see something relatively healthy on the menu, though if it were me I’d swap out the bread for something like a croissant or a pastry of some kind.

What do you think of Qantas domestic business class? Have you flown it before? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Bahnfrend via Wikimedia Commons.