QF A380 ops changes

[Andrew RC]

UPDATE - I spoke to QF earlier today and enquired about the A380 changes as I noticed when trying to make a booking SYD-HKG that there was no First availability from early Oct onwards.

The phone agent was very helpful and suspected what I did; that A380 will no longer be going to HKG, but no announcement yet. She rang the scheduling analysts to check, and after a long hold said: "the scheduling analysts have not formally announced any changes yet, but did say that First Class will no longer be offered on the SYD-HKG sector"...... Read into that what you want, but fairly clear that it will soon be announced as A330 or B747.

Not sure what the yields were for QF on the A380, but was also on the same sector 6 months ago paying full fare in First, and the cabin was full - unless they have a lot of upgrades using points on the route?

Have booked on SQ via SIN instead (in A380 First Suites which are arguably better anyway), and saved about $1,300 one way.......

[Alex T]

Looks like the reconfigured 747's are set to operate the QF127/128 services and the A380's being operated on a seasonal demand basis...

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-to-st...n=home-flipper

[Erik H. Bakke]

Could Qantas have a different A380 configuration in the works, perhaps?

[Andrew RC]

Have already received my call from Qantas advising downgrade from First (mid-Oct flight SYD-HKG), and offering to change to business with differential refunded, or full refund without penalty. Opted for a full refund, and gave feedback that in anticipation of their call I had already rebooked with SQ with a much cheaper first class fare than I had paid via QF in the first instance.

They are also looking into a possible refund for airport hotel I had booked via QF website as I was going to be staying the night before the flight (not needed now with change to SQ). The airport hotel was a non-refundable pre-paid when I booked, so very reasonable if they give consideration for that – FF status might help.

An inconvenience for me to change things around but not a huge issue; and I hope other first class pax don’t give the QF staff a hard time for what is an unenviable task of making those calls for existing bookings. I’m taking a bigger picture view that the A380 to DFW is a good outcome, and still other options to Asia.

Also, somebody posted on another forum about the EK 77W first class option SYD-BKK, and how it doesn’t synch in with viable layover timings to the BKK-HKG A380 service. Just bear in mind that on their B77W first cabins (8 seats), EK only allocate half of those (4) to the QF codeshare, so may be limited seats. Although I flew the inbound CHC-SYD tag of that B77W flight a few weeks ago and was the only one in the first cabin. Getting people onto QF metal in business is understandably their preferred fix though.

[Alex T]

QF127/128's A380 services confirmed to be axed -
http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-axes-...n=home-flipper

[Rowan McKeever]

Still no sign of the timing adjustments for QF93/94, still showing 0820 arrival and 0910 departure at MEL for a series of random (and some not-so-random) weeks through to this time next year...???

[Andrew M]

50 min turnaround for an A380.........

[Jason H]

Would QF swap aircraft in DXB? Such that QF9 from MEL would then depart as QF2 to SYD and QF1 from SYD then depart as QF10 to MEL. If you have a look it seems to work with the DXB-LHR rotation too

[Rowan McKeever]

There's not much reason why they couldn't I guess. The aircraft are cleaned etc and crews changed. The only thing I can think of is that the ULDs for through pax would have to be offloaded and reloaded which isn't overly efficient.

[David C]

What about brake temps ?
Q