So if you have read my previous post on my meals on the flight to Hong Kong, you will know that the first flight’s meal was appalling!

Leaving out of a Hong Kong, I was somewhat sceptical. For a start, we didn’t get off in a positive frame of mind as there was a “technical issue” with the aircraft and after some farting about for around 3 hours they offloaded us.

More dithering at the airport on a go/no go and they chucked us all in to a hotel for the night.  So instead of leaving Hong Kong at 8pm, we finally got to bed in a hotel at 4.15am.

So 24 hours after we should have left Hong Kong, we finally get airborne…

The first leg from Hong Kong to Sydney I was served two meals. They were both Indian vegetarian as I’d requested. They were ok – nothing special, edible… (photos at the end of this post – sorry about the quality, the lighting was dim).

The problem with the meal this time came with our second flight from Sydney to Christchurch. Now I know that this was a change of flight and we were in fact travelling 24 hours later than expected BUT I had an email confirmation before leaving Hong Kong that Qantas had rebooked us (as confirmed) onto the Sydney-Christchurch flight that we caught.

No special meal. Would I like chicken or beef? Ummmm – no thank you. So the flight attendant came back with a seafood meal – no thanks again.

She apologised – it wasn’t her fault, and I wasn’t grumpy with her. Luckily I had stashed snacks in my hand luggage.

A few minutes later another flight attendant arrived with a tray with some fresh whole fruit – apple & pear, some crackers, a bread roll and a small green salad with vinaigrette. I have no idea where they conjured it up from but it wasn’t a standard meal set.

I can’t see any reason why my meal request was “lost”. If we had turned up and caught a random flight that would be explainable but they knew we were coming on this flight and had rebooked us so the meal request should have stuck.

Meals this round 5/10.

Verdict – never again am I flying Qantas.

This isn’t the first time we have had major issues with them. The previous flight I booked a few years ago, they changed the timetable completely and had us rebooked on flights that would have taken an extra 8 hours to get to our destination. Not to mention, with the updated itinerary we received, it had us catching a connecting flight that left before we arrived to catch it.

We cancelled and got a full refund that time, but we’d booked cheap fares and were exceptionally lucky that Air New Zealand had seats still available for much the same price and a much more direct route.

I vowed then never to go Qantas, but when looking at the flights for this trip to Hong Kong it was about $200 less to go with Qantas than Air New Zealand. I thought ok, why not, and this is why…