Key Details

Date: 27th August 2022

Flight No: QF90

Route: Noumea to Brisbane

Aircraft: Boeing 737

Cabin: Business

The Route

The route between New Caledonia’s La Tontouta International Airport and Brisbane is perhaps one of the more unique and certainly less frequented international flights out of Brisbane and indeed Australia. Nonetheless, two airlines service the route, namely New Caledonia’s home based AirCalin and of course the Australian flagship Qantas. The two airlines combine as codeshare partners and offer just 3 return services per week between the two airlines whom you can book each others flights on. AirCalin operate a return service departing Noumea on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 8.30am whilst Qantas operate a once weekly return service departing Brisbane at noon on Saturdays. Both airlines generally use narrowbodys on the route with Qantas operating their workhorse Boeing 737 and Air Calin their newer A320 Neos. Both offer a small business class section offering 8 recliner style seats.

The flight time from Noumea to Brisbane takes only around 2 and half hours heading in a west- south westerly direction through to the sub-tropical Queensland capital. The inbound flight from Brisbane is even quicker, a leisurely 2 hours and 5 minutes. Given the rather small frequency of services between New Zealand and New Caledonia don’t expect fierce competition on the route nor any bargain basement fares. That being said, this route presents good opportunities for a Qantas Classic Flight Award which can be redeemed on both carrier’s flights. For this flight I initially booked a discounted Classic Economy Reward Seat for just 8,400 points (usually 12,000) during a Qantas promotion plus 9,685 XPF tax ($118).

Having booked several months in advance the opportunity to request an upgrade to business class was available the whole time for 19,600 QFF points. After quite some time sitting on the fence whether to upgrade i finally decided to put in the request just a few days before departure which was accepted. In retrospect on this occasion upgrading meant I essentially forfeited the points discount i had already had on the extremely good value economy redemption but considering a business classic reward redemption wasn’t available outright when booking it turned out to be an acceptable go around to booking business.

Checking in at Noumea

Checking in at Noumea was an absolute breeze even despite a last minute mishap with my pre arranged shuttle transfer failing to pick me up on time meaning i got to the airport an hour later than expected and mere 90 minutes before takeoff. La Tontouta International Airport Is a very small international airport servicing primarily only international flights into the territory which at most is only a handful of flights a each day. Despite only a handful of weekly flights to Australia, Qantas are the second largest carrier operating out of Noumea.

Despite this, checking in and bag drop at Noumea is all done purely the old fashioned way so i proceeded straight to the Qantas check in counter with my flight the only flight open for check in. Flying business I was able to check in with the priority lane which only took a few minutes. The wait for economy passengers was hardly any bigger however. If handled efficiently like in today’s case there is still something quite enjoyable to be had about more human interaction at check in. Well done to Qantas and their local ground crew handling the check in here at Noumea.

Clearing security and immigration at Noumea was super easy and far from stressful even despite my very last minute arrival at the airport. La Tontouta International Airport is probably the most easy going airport i have ever been to and it was easy to forget that I was indeed flying internationally with all the extra security and customs formalities in place. With our Qantas plane being the only plane flying out that afternoon, the airport almost had a regional airport Qantas Link vibe to it!

AirCalin Hibiscus Lounge

With so few flights operating to New Caledonia from Australia, it is no surprise hat Qantas do not operate a Lounge at La Tontouta International Airport. Fear not however as AirCalin Open their HIbiscus Lounge to business class and other eligible Qantas passengers departing out of Noumea on Qantas operated flights. The AirCalin Lounge here at Noumea is one of the most unique lounges i have visited. It is very small and likely could only comfortably accommodate less than 50 people however it is unlikely to be ever more than one or two outgoing flights at anytime. On this occasion there was less than 10 passengers in the lounge and probably less than 50 in the terminal itself! You can read more about the lounge with our dedicated review here

AirCalin’s lounge offers a strange juxtaposition with very limited food options mainly consisting of snacks such as crisps and cup noodles but with real French Champagne on offer. So expect food options to be similar to a regional airport Qantas Club or a Regional Express Lounge yet having champagne is something you’d only expect in the best of First Class International Lounges!

AirCalin’s lounge otherwise offers a comfortable yet small assortment of various seating arrangements whilst the lounges affords great elevated views of the tarmac and also the small passengers departures area below. Free wifi is available in the lounge and whilst the speed is not blazing it was more than adequate for general use and very much welcome as New Caledonia does not have affordable roaming options for Australia. Overall this lounge was very much enjoyable and is great place to sample French Champagne whilst waiting for your flight but don’t expect any substantial food options here so either eat ahead of arriving at the airport or wait for the meal on the plane. .

Seating in Business Class

Today’s flight was on a typical Boeing 737-800, the same workhorse behind most of Qantas jet services between Australia’s capital cities. Qantas does not offer any wide body services between Australia and Noumea however AirCalin do service some of their flights between Sydney and Noumea with the A330-Neo. Qantas’s Boeing 737 has a 3-3 economy layout with a small 3 row 2-2 Business Cabin at the pointy end of the plane. Today I was seated in a Business in seat 3F which was one of the few remaining seats left that I selected online free of charge prior to checking in. Unlike with the first row in Business where due to safety considerations all carry on must be stored in the overhead compartments for take-off and landing carryon can be stored under the seat in front. Row 3 in business class has no bulkhead from the economy cabin behind. The seat offers generous recline, albeit be mindful that it may slightly intrude on the space of the passenger seated behind.

Qantas Business Class seats on the 737 come equipped with comfortable leather recliner seats with a generous 94cm (37in) seat pitch and up to 56cm (22in) width between arms. Whilst they are more than adequate and perfectly comfortable for daytime trips across Qantas domestic, Trans-Tasman and short-haul international network they are far inferior to Qantas’s A330 1-2-1 Domestic Business class Cabin. These flights come equipped with The Vantage XL seat, manufactured by Thompson Aero Seating which go lie-flat and offer far more personal space and storage capability in what some would say are their mini ‘suite’ like design.

Whilst certainly a step up from economy, the seat itself is nothing mind-blowing and may only be worth it on reward redemptions as opposed to paying a full cash fare worth many times the cost of economy. Paying anything more than twice the price over economy for this business class seat we wouldn’t consider good value.

Inflight Service and Food and Beverage

Unlike previous prior flights with Qantas in Business this flight was operating far from capacity which naturally meant the crew had far more time to focus on providing excellent service to each passenger. Today’s business class cabin was less than half full meaning i also had the seat next to me free which was a great bonus. Today’s flight was operated by a Brisbane based crew who seemed to be genuinely enjoying there unique Saturday afternoon flying schedule which would technically take them all the way to France and back within the course of an afternoon!

Unlike a prior domestic flight between Perth and Sydney several weeks earlier, pre departure service got off to a better and frankly more expected start. Pre departure drinks were offered with a choice of either sparkling water or the non-descript ‘champagne’. With the drinks coming out already poured on a tray and with no bottle in sight there was no way to confirm whether it was actually the real McCoy or just the usual Australian sparkling used on domestic business class flights. Whilst i was sure it certainly wasn’t as good as the $50 a pop champagne in the AirCalin Lounge, it was nonetheless a pleasant drop and always a pleasant way to start the journey!

In today flight as I the last row of business class did mean I had some concerns as i would be the last to be offered food and drinks but on this occasion luckily they still had the full choice of meal options available although I suspect there was no certainty that those in the last row would have got their preferred choice should it had been a full flight.

Service began approximately half an hour after take-off with crew coming around to personally take post departure drink orders. I asked for a beer of which Little Creates Pacific Ale and James Squire 150 Lashes were on offer . I chose the Stir Fry with Pepper Oyster Sauce for the meal service which was somewhere between a late lunch or earlier dinner which was tasty and came accompanied by sour dough bread and desert which was helped washed down by another tasty Little Creatures Pacific Ale and a subsequent James Squire 150 Lashes Pale Ale. All in all, the meal served was reasonably tasty and well portioned and in line with what I would expect although I would be inclined to compare Qantas Trans-Tasman catering to be more in common with domestic business class than its long haul international services. During the remaining few hours of the flight, the crew did several rounds offering the several red and white wines on offer although for anything else passengers had to largely ask the crew who were happy to oblige and do well to remember the customer’s preferred drink. Overall, the cabin crew were professional and service was really good and exceed that of past Qantas flights I had taken in business.

Entertainment

Unlike several previous domestic flights on Qantas, this Boeing 737 did come equipped with seat back or in arm-rest IFE for Business class passengers. I was not able to confirm whether economy seats also came equipped. Like the flights I took on Qantas several weeks prior, unfortunately I found the screens to be old and small, with a poor responsiveness and the reflectiveness from sunlight making it hard to use or easily view content. For this reason, I didn’t bother using the IFE aside from viewing the moving map and focused on enjoying the business class service instead. Unfortunately, this flight did not come equipped with or activated with the usual free Wi-Fi for browsing the web which is available on a large amount of Qantas’s domestic fleet. As far as we are aware in flight wifi even if installed on the aircraft is not available on Qantas International services. For those reliant on a good entrainment to get through a longer flight I would recommend bringing your own device loaded with content just in case you don’t fancy Qantas’s limited offering.

Arriving in Brisbane

In little after 2 hours after take-off and winding the clock back 1 hour we finally started our descent into Brisbane as the sun set over Moreton bay on a balmy winter’s evening . We landed slightly early around 5.30pm into the much busier Brisbane International Airport. Despite quite a busy incoming passenger volume after a few international flights landing in quick succession including those from the USA immigration and customs processed the relatively big queues quite quickly and efficiently. All up it took around 45 minutes to clear customs and immigration. This was inclusive of extra checks in place over Australia’s concerns about Foot and Mouth Disease meaning. I played it safe declaring shoes and other objects that had been in contact with farms or wilderness areas in New Zealand and New Caledonia which were inspected and given a quick clean up by customs.

With my bag coming out around ‘middle of the pack’ I couldn’t observe any real priority that had been tagged to my luggage so there were no real perks to flying business class in this regard on this occasion – this is a trend i have now noticed across several Qantas Business Class flights .

Summing Up

Overall the merits and advantages of flying Business Class on a short international must be weighed up against a variety of factors – most notably cost, flight duration and possibly most importantly aircraft type. In most cases when flying on a narrow body aircraft such as in this case on a Qantas 737, passengers should expect something more accustomed to premium economy on an international flag carrier which is certainly a comfortable step up from economy but neither comparable to long haul international business class operated by widebody aircraft. This expectation turned out to very much in line with the experience on this flight.

For us this flight offered the benefit of premium lounge access, more personalized service and improved dining and drinks selection than economy and a more comfortable seat with greater leg room. Sure, it was a pleasant upgrade than flying economy, but would it be worth the cash price sometimes upwards of $1,000 and many times the cost of coach which is already all inclusive on Qantas? We’d say absolutely not! However if redeemed as a Qantas Classic Flight Reward for around 28,000 points plus tax which is just over double the points of an economy redemption than this is definitely a reasonable investment to outlay some points on although the high tax charged on this route may not make it as lucrative redemption compared to some other routes of similar or even longer durations.