Review: Qantas A380 first class suite, Sydney-Hong Kong

With most Qantas A380s now upgraded or in the process of that make-over, there’s just one superjumbo still flying in its original form, complete with circa-2008 suites and seats.

And it’s making regular appearances on the Sydney-Hong Kong route (QF127/QF128) in the lead-up to the peak travel season spanning from Australian summer through to Chinese New Year and beyond.

After all, compared to the smaller Airbus A330 which usually plies the 9+ hour route, the A380 has over twice as many business class seats and a hundred more economy seats (quite bearable for at least the Sydney-Hong Kong daytime leg) while also adding 35 premium economy recliners to the mix.

But unlike its refurbished siblings, which have been upgraded with the same business class and premium economy as the Boeing 787s plus a vastly better inflight lounge space, this HK-bound A380 remains in its original configuration until it too goes under the knife sometime in 2024.

The bad news: in business class, that means the old Marc Newson-designed Skybed berths in a 2-2-2 layout.

About the only positive thing to be said today of the Skybeds is their generous legroom – beyond that, the seats themselves have almost no privacy or storage space, and will droop and sag when extended into a lie-flat bed.

The good news, at least for 14 business class passengers, is the opportunity to escape into the A380’s calmer, less crowded and more refined first class cabin.

Nestled downstairs at the front the superjumbo, these spacious semi-private suites are being sold as business class seats on these A380 Sydney-Hong Kong flights.

Passengers get the same meals, wine and service as the business class cabin upstairs, and at the same price as any other business class ticket.

However, this all takes place in the A380’s high-walled first class suites.

In fact, while Hong Kong tourism continues to rebuild towards 2018-2019 levels, these red-tailed A380s are showing a decent amount of availability for points-based Classic Flight Reward booking across all cabins – including business class at a bargain 64,000 Qantas Points.

So I jumped at the chance for a quick visit to Hong Kong, which remains one of my favourite cities, and what might well be one last ride in the original Qantas A380 first suite.

Not that the spruced-up superjumbos deliver any major change to these ‘flagship’ first class suites.

There’s new upholstery (to cover more than a decade of wear and tear), a higher-res 18” screen compared to the clunky old 17” panel, better options on the seat control panel and, well, not much else.

(The next big thing in Qantas first class will of course arrive in late 2025, with six room-like Qantas A350 First suites at the pointy end of the ultra-long range ‘Project Sunrise’ Airbus A350 jets which will set out on non-stop flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York.)

That said, there’s still plenty to enjoy by plonking yourself in these original A380 First suites compared to the being stuck in a sad old Skybed business class seat.

Foremost would be the privacy – not just from the seat and how it’s wrapped in a tall, deep cocoon-like shell, but that there are only 14 suites in this cosy cabin, further enhancing the feeling that you’re in a world of your own (doubly so if you get a front row suite like 1A).

The suite’s large footprint also includes a generous shelf at one side, with two drawers for your travel knick-knacks.

We still love the creative way this deep, wide comfortable seat swivels around to face the corner of the suite.

This not only boosts your privacy even more but lets the ottoman be used as a companion seat for sharing a meal, a drink or even a game of cards with a fellow traveller in first class (or in the case of this particular A380, a friend stuck in Ye Olde Skybeds upstairs).

And who couldn’t get a kick from the tall windows with two sets of concertina blinds – one to simply reduce the glare, the other to block out the light itself –  which rise and fall at the touch of a button?

Perhaps best of all, though, is how the Qantas A380 First seat transforms into a superbly soft bed.

It’ll give you as good a sleep as possible on the QF128 overnight leg from Hong Kong, and it’s a bonus if the 10.30am departure of QF127 from Sydney means an early morning start and a mid-flight nap.

I’ll pause here to note that Sydney-Hong Kong is not exclusively getting this original Qantas A380. November has seen several refurbished A380s (with a much better business class seat, although few would argue with a free bump to a first class suite) and a handful of A330s.

But the Qantas website shows the A380 running almost daily from mid-December through to February 23, 2024 – although I stress these schedules can change.

What to expect on the Qantas A380 to Hong Kong

And as mentioned before, even in these first class suites you’ll be served the same food and wine as everyone in business class.

On my flight, this began with a roast pumpkin and mozzarella arancini, followed by a choice of three starters:

• Potato and leek soup (in regular and ‘plant-based’ versions)
• Salad of prawn with fioretto, farro, snow peas, confit chilli and orange dressing
• Pork and shiitake mushroom dumplings with pickled cucumber and sesame chilli dressing

The crew happily served me both the prawn salad and pork and shiitake mushroom dumplings, and both were delicious.

For mains, we had four choices:

• Korean-style sesame baked eggplant with stir fried green beans, jasmine rice and pickled vegetable
• Bannockburn chicken Kyiv with lettuce, peas, bacon and potato purée
• Seared snapper with black bean sauce, seasonal greens, jasmine rice and salted chilli
• Seared Grasslands beef fillet with thyme roasted carrots, silverbeet and Cafe de Paris butter

I opted for the beef fillet – not my usual choice when flying, but I was keen to see how well done (no pun intended) this turned out to be.

The answer: pretty decent for a slab of meat cooked in a galley oven some 38,000 feet above sea level.

To finish off, I declined the ice cream and dark chocolate cake in favour of the cheese platter with matured cheddar, ash brie and blue vein.

The wines accompanying the main and dessert courses were a well-rounded 2019 Penfolds Bin 82 Shiraz Mataro and a Nugan Estate Cookoothama Botrytis Semillon with surprisingly fruity undertones.

Midday hunger pangs at bay, I took the opportunity to focus on some work.

The massive and solid dinner table, designed with ‘dinner for two’ in mind, makes a stable base for your laptop, with AC and USB-A power outlets down at the base of the seat.

Alas, there’s no WiFi to stay connected above the clouds – and this remains missing from the upgraded A380s, as Qantas is waiting on the new ViaSat-3 satellite network to be in place before making the inflight Internet investment.

A few hours’ of work was followed by a light snooze, and before long the ‘moving map’ showed we were getting close to Hong Kong.

That was the cue for the cabin crew to offer a pre-arrival dish of

• Crumbed snapper roll with pickled cabbage and tartare sauce
• Stir fried noodles with wombok, cucumber, sesame and chilli oil

I’d heard the snapper roll was the go-to, but this small dish seemed more like a mere ‘fish burger’ which proved an underwhelming finish to the inflight dining.

QF127 reaches Hong Kong around 4.35pm, and across recent weeks it’s been generally on time (within around 30 minutes).

With no checked luggage to slow me down, and my Australian passport being registered for use at the airport’s automated e-Channel lanes, I tapped onto the Airport Express train with my Octopus card and in little more than 30 minutes was back in the thick of this buzzing Asian metropolis.

Getting your A380 ‘business to first’ upgrade

If you’re travelling in business class on the Qantas A380 between Sydney and Hong Kong, how can you land yourself in the first class cabin?

As has been the case with previous A380 ‘first-sold-as-business’ ventures, the first class cabin actually shows up on the seat selection chart for business class, so it’s just a matter of choosing a seat between row 1 and row 5.

Executive Traveller understands that Qantas Platinum One frequent flyers, along with Chairman’s Lounge members, are the first to see the primo cabin exposed when choosing their business class seat.

For everyone else, use the Qantas T-80 rule as your departure date nears, where the seats usually kept aside for top-tier frequent flyers are unlocked 80 hours before a flight departs.

For example, for the 10.15am departure of QF127, the ’80 hours prior’ dictated by T-80 is 2.15am (Sydney time) three days prior: just go back three days (72 hours) and then turn the clock back an extra eight hours.

Any A380 First suites remaining unoccupied in the days prior to the flight can be assigned by Qantas to selected frequent flyers, or they may even appear on the business class seating chart if you use the Manage My Booking page to check or change your seat.

You can even ask at the check-in desk or the lounge if there’s a vacant suite still up for grabs; on the day of the flight, Qantas will likely offer any unallocated First seats to top-tier frequent flyers.

As to which suite to choose: suites 1A and 1K generally give you that ‘private jet’ feeling, while 2F – also known as the Harry Potter suite – delivers a cosy nest, and 5A and 5K amp up the privacy.

For the best view on the daytime flight to Hong Kong, opt for 4A and 4K, while on the overnight return leg, light sleepers should avoid 5F.

If you’re not in business class, Qantas is selling premium economy on the Hong Kong-bound A380s – and if you’re on the classic config A380, there’s also that delightful economy mini-cabin tucked away at the very back of the upper deck, from rows 32 to 36.

Headed to Hong Kong? Here’s how your Australian passport can be used to skip the immigration queues at Hong Kong Airport via the automated e-Channel lanes, plus a complete guide to Hong Kong’s Oneworld (Cathay and Qantas) lounges.