QF5 question

[David W]

Hi all,

My girlfriend got a call yesterday advising her that she will now need to fly with Cathay this Sunday 28th Nov, instead of QF5 which orginally we booked.
After about 3 hours on the phone with Qantas yesterday i was able to get more information. Amongst a lot of other things they advised that a smaller aircraft was being used and that 100 people had been dropped from that flight. I have checked Acars records over the last few days and QF5 and 6 are still using 747's not A330's. So is this just crap that i have been told or will it be possible that on Sunday an A330 will fly that route? It couldnt make the distance from SIN-FRA so this seems strange, i did mention this fact and was told that 747 wouldnt be flying that leg either, so what would they be using?

Thanks,

[Kieran Wells]

David,
What Qantas are telling you may be correct. Not sure what they would be using. Unless the person you were speaking too just saw A330 and thought that would fly through. I would have thought the A330 would go SYD-SIN-SYD and the 744 might have gone SIN-FRA-SIN..
This is my guess. All of the equipment changes are happening due to the grounding of the A380 fleet. Check the QF operational page and info as there may be something on there.

Kieran.

[Dave Parer]

David,

Just for interest, I checked the timetable in qantas.com and QF5 SYD-SIN and QF5 SIN-FRA both show as B744 equipment being used on the day you specified.

Interesting to also see on the timetable an extra SYD-SIN-FRA service departing Sydney on the 30th Nov at 1940 with a B744.

QF105 Dep SYD 1940, Arr SIN 0030 next day.
QF105 Dep SIN 0150, Arr FRA 0800

There is no return sector showing for QF105.

Cheers,
Dave.

[Mark B]

It might be due to using a different config 747 than what they were originally planning to use. There is a variation of 100 or so between the configs. Normally it is the 2 class config, but if they are using something else, lots of seats go...

[David W]

Thanks for the info guys, Interesting that there still running a 747 on that day. I wouldnt of thought a different config would affect 100 customers.

Like you said Kieran i thought that they may be running an A330 to SIN and a 747 the rest of the way i mentioned that to them as they had offered to fly her on QF31. So i said she could swap to QF5 in Singapore but they said it wouldnt be possible because of the aircraft.

They offered to fly her the whole way on QF31 then fly her with British airways from LHR-FRA as apparently they own seats on that flight. The problem was if she took that flight she misses her connection to Vilnius.

They also offered QF31 to Singapore then LH779 (lutfthansa) to frankfurt which we finally accepted. I will be keeping an eye on the acars records that day to see if they fly a 747 for QF5 and if they do there will be another call to Qantas as lufthansa doesnt even have PTV on there 747's so its a bit of a downgrade with no compensation. Im guessing they could of overbooked the flight.

Does anyone know if theres any sort of procedure of who they choose to drop of the flight?

[Geoff W]

Further to Dave's post maybe QF105 is going to stay for a touch up? Nee maintenance.

Kind regards,

Geoff

[Stuart Trevena]

Hi All,

QF105, could be the Wet Lease Cathay Pacific A330's QF are using to fill the Gap, since the A380's are all U/S and the B747's are all Used.

This started to happen 18th November.
See this topic http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=6071&page=18

Stuart

[Jason H]

There is a variation of 100 or so between the configs.

Yep, in fact between the usual 2 class 744s on this route and the Pacific 744ERs, there are 105 seats difference.

I would not be surprised if an ER is used as the QF5 on this day as QF are obviously re arranging a lot of a/c. Wunala has been sent to London a few times, and other ERs taken off the USA route and put on to JNB and London.

However, I'm not sure why they operate the QF93/94 with a Kangaroo config 744 which can't take full capacity due fuel restrictions LAX-MEL, but have ERs operate MEL-LHR departing a few hours after the QF93. Can't they swap those two around?

[Kieran Wells]

Hi All,

QF105, could be the Wet Lease Cathay Pacific A330's QF are using to fill the Gap, since the A380's are all U/S and the B747's are all Used.

This started to happen 18th November.



Now that explains why we had 3 Cathays in at one stage on Saturday when normally we have 2.. And i was thinking Sydney was turning into a Cathay hub!

[Dave Parer]

Hi All,

QF105, could be the Wet Lease Cathay Pacific A330's QF are using to fill the Gap, since the A380's are all U/S and the B747's are all Used.

This started to happen 18th November.
See this topic http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=6071&page=18

Stuart

But the Qantas website shows the aircraft operating QF105 is a B744. It will be interesting to see what aircraft types QF operate on that particular day.

[Alex Lui]

No No... Cathay during the summer season are operating 4 a day flights to Hong Kong.
CX110,CX162,CX100 and CX138. The extra flights seems to be the Qantas flights, however some of the flights QF127 operated on the same dates.

Alex.

[Ricky T]

Hi All,

QF105, could be the Wet Lease Cathay Pacific A330's QF are using to fill the Gap, since the A380's are all U/S and the B747's are all Used.

This started to happen 18th November.
See this topic http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=6071&page=18

Stuart

The wet leased CX A333 only operates between SYD-HKG and carries a CX flight number (CX8100 ex-SYD and CX8101 ex-HKG) in addition to the QF flight number.

IIRC, this arrangement is scheduled to before the end of this week.

[Michael Cleary]

Just as an aside to this, I was originally booked to fly on QF127 SYD-HKG on 16 November, which was due to be operated by a 744. I received a phone call from Qantas on the Saturday before, advising that as a result of rescheduling due to the A380 problems, that the aircraft had been changed to a 333 and would I mind being moved to a Cathay flight - CX162 being the end result.

I could have pushed it to remain on QF I guess, and one of the results could well have been getting bumped (and travel plans disrupted) when I showed up for an obviously overbooked flight, so I took the offer.

Apart from the Cathay Seats (mentioned in another thread recently - backs dont recline - cushion slides forward), I had no problems at all.

I think that buried within the T&C will be the fact that the Airline concerned can substitute the aircraft etc etc at any time.