TRIP REVIEW: Qantas B787-9 Dreamliner, QF75 Sydney to Vancouver in Business Class. Oh Canada!

• TRIP REPORT: Oh Canada! Introduction
• LOUNGE REVIEW: Qantas First check-in and Lounge, Sydney
• TRIP REVIEW: Qantas B787-9 Dreamliner, QF75 Sydney to Vancouver in Business Class. Oh Canada!

---

This is the next post in my Oh Canada! Trip Report. I’ve covered the reason for this trip in the introductory post, as well as my check-in experience and the Qantas First Lounge pre-boarding experience. Now its time for the actual flight. This is my first time (I think) on a Qantas 787-9 on long haul, and definitely my first time flying to Vancouver, Canada.

I was scheduled to travel this same route in 2024, but had to abandon the trip because I contracted COVID. Qantas gave me a full refund, even though, according to the conditions, they didn’t have to.

Flight Details

Flight: QF75
Route: Sydney (SYD) – Vancouver, Canada (YVR)
Date: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
Depart: 20:30
Arrive: 17:30
Duration: 14 hrs
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 3K (Business Class)
Cost: AU$7,346 

Introduction

I was looking forward to this 14-hour flight. For someone who loves flying, the prospect of spending 14 hours on an aircraft, basically being waited on hand and foot, is appealing. From my point of view, 14 hours is enough time to get in a good amount of sleep, a movie or two, and to leisurely consume a couple of meals. It’s not like a six- or eight-hour overnight flight, where you struggle to eat and sleep, and even if you opt to sleep, there isn’t enough time to get enough sleep to avoid feeling groggy on arrival.

Boarding

By the time I had arrived at the gate, Boarding was called at the scheduled 19:45, and I was in the first group to head down the airbridge to the aircraft.

I headed to my seat, where the dinner menu, breakfast order, a pen, bedding and a blanket, a pillow, and an amenity kit were waiting. No sooner was I at my seat than water or champagne was offered. The flight attendant took my champagne order and said he would bring me the glass once I was settled.

I completed my breakfast order while consuming my champagne. My card was taken and pyjamas distributed. This whole pre-takeoff procedure was conducted with Qantas’ usual efficiency.

At 20:12, ‘prepare the aircraft for departure’ was announced. Soon after, at 20:17, the first officer announced that we would be leaving the gate in about 10 minutes and that conditions were expected to be good for most of our 13.35-hour trip, though we could expect a few bumps on our way out of Sydney. At 20:20, the aircraft doors were closed.

We were welcomed on board by the cabin supervisor along with the usual warning about power banks and so on. The announcement was also repeated in French.

At 20:29, the usual announcement of ‘arm doors and crosscheck’ was made, followed by the safety video. Four minutes later, the video froze, just after the bit about the evacuation slide. The video was abandoned, and the CSM completed the safety briefing verbally, with the usual warnings about smoking and electronic devices.

We left the gate at 20:37, heading to the runway in light rain. Taxi to the runway was very short, and we were in the air by 20:41.

Seat

These Business Suites on Qantas are now fairly standard across its international fleet. That includes the Airbus A330, Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-9. It’s the Dreamliner that’s my ride today.

I’m in a true window seat in 3K. These ‘true’ window seats occur in the A and K seats in odd rows on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in the Qantas fleet. I feel they give you greater privacy, as well as better views. I always choose these single seats when travelling alone. If I’m travelling with my husband, then it’s usually the middle pair that we occupy.

What I like about the seats is that storage shelf. I find that I can store all I need, barring my computer, in that walled shelf. It has power sources conveniently adjacent, suitable to plug in my multi-device charging station.

Amenity Kit

Qantas on this outward flight is distributing the relatively new R M Williams amenity kit. I got one back in May on a flight between Singapore and Sydney. The images are of that amenity kit, on a dry leased Finnair A330, which I am sure the more observant of you will have detected.

It’s a pretty standard amenity kit, with Grown Alechemist products. perfectly reasonable, but not as good as on Turkish where you get socks with a grip and slippers, and a fabulous moulded eye-mask. But then Turkish doesn’t do pyjamas, and Qantas does.

The Flight

The flight was pretty good; the only rough patches were just after take-off, where there was some turbulence as predicted. Later at about 21:21, they suspended service and confined us to our seats for another 15-odd minutes of turbulence. At about 20:40, when that bout of turbulence was over, I went to the bathrooms to change into my pyjamas. By the time I was back in my seat, another bout of turbulence occurred, again suspending bathroom use, and confining everyone to their seats. Fortunately, my champagne had arrived before that!

Given this was an overnight flight, I planned to try and get the maximum sleep I could once the first meal service was over. I managed to get close to seven hours of sleep/dozing, in two shifts, which is pretty good for me.

I do have a problem with these business-class seats, in that it takes a little time to find the most comfortable sleeping position. If you are a back sleeper, then you probably wouldn’t have an issue. But, as a side sleeper, it’s fine to sleep on your right side, but more difficult on your left. That is because in this seat 3K, a true window seat, the seat in front of you is to the left, so when sleeping on your left, your knees hit the seat in front, unless you sit quite high in the seat. It’s not a deal-breaker; it just requires some trial-and-error maneuvering to find the comfort spot.

The pillow, mattress pad and blanket are adequate. Of course the pillow could be pluffier, and the mattress pad thicker, but these will do. At least the pillow wasn’t so thin that even doubled over it wasn’t enough. I’m looking at you BA.

Meal Service

Those bouts of turbulence unfortunately delayed the meal service. To be honest, there was nothing that stood out on the menu

I chose the Ginger and Soy Chicken with beahsprout noodles and fried Wombok. It was OK. It was gingery and filling.

I may or may not have been tempted by ice cream by the dessert-pushing flight attendant.

That was essentially it until the 2nd meal service of breakfast, which was served about an hour and 15 minutes prior to landing. That’s quite late, I thought given that this was a 14 hour overnight flight, we would have been served breakfast closer to 2.5 hours before landing. That would give all of us pyjamad flyers time to change post breakfast.

Fortunately realising how late it was getting, and being awake, I changed closer to two hours before landing before the breakfast service had commenced.

I received everything I ordered on my breakfast tray. And it was a lot! I kind of baulked at how much was on the plate, especially considering that it would be after 5 pm local time when I arrived in Vancouver.

I had ordered the homemade crumpet (not delicious in my view), Muesli (good but way too much), fruit (unripe pineapple), scrambled eggs and sides. The eggs were as good as you can get on a plane, and the juice and coffee were not bad. I made a valiant attempt, but was lucky if I even ate half of this.

Given the short window available to serve and clear this meal, given landing was a little more than an hour away, the staff were amazingly efficient, having to deal with the whole Business Class cabin trying to get to the bathrooms to change and brush teeth. That included me.

Entertainment

Qantas has a good entertainment selection. It’s not the best, nor are its screens the largest, but the choice and screen quality sit firmly in the better-than-average end of the spectrum.

I’m not a big movie watcher on aircraft. I’m more likely to work or read on a long flight, between sleeping and zoning out in a meditative state, while monitoring the flight-tracking map on the in-seat display.

Paragraph

I did start watching Hamnet, but was not in the mood for it. I reverted to my book, and episodes of the last season of Morning Wars, which I had with me on my own device. Although the new movie or ‘Premier’ section did in fact have a great selection of recent releases, there was nothing that took my fancy that I hadn’t already seen.

Anyhoo, these images should give you an idea of the movies that were available.

Landing

With the meal service largely over, the ‘prepare the cabin for landing’ instruction was given at 10:05 am Sydney time, which converted to 17:05 local Vancouver time, the day before.

We got some great views of Vancouver on the landing approach

Ten minutes later, at 10:15 Sydney time, or 17:15 Vancouver time, we were on the ground.

We were advised that our checked luggage would be available on Carousel 23, and we arrived at Gate 66 four minutes later, after an amazingly short taxi.

The first sign I see is a gentle reminder that you are entering a bilingual country that has a fair proportion of Chinese tourists.

Baggage arrived in a pretty timely fashion, and I was soon on my way to the Fairmont Airport Hotel for my sleepover before my onward trip to Ottawa the next day.

2PAXfly Takeout

This was a fairly standard international service with Qantas, and only my second experience on a Qantas 787-9 aircraft on long-haul.

The crew did a pretty good job; they were personable, approachable, and efficient, and I felt well looked after. They handled the service delay caused by turbulence very well and were helpful and courteous.

I was most impressed by my ability to sleep on this flight. I’m usually lucky if I get three or four hours. On this flight, I got closer to seven, although given how long I slept at the Fairmont overnight, I don’t think my sleep quality was that great.

Next up, a review of my experience at the Fairmont Airport Hotel in Vancouver, then the Maple Leaf Lounge, and my first flight with Air Canada, which would take my husband and me to Ottawa.