lokijuh

QF used to up to about 10 years ago, or even later perhaps.

A oneworld timetable from 2005 shows QF8 leaving LAX at around 1pm. OK over the northern summer, with arrival into SYD at 20:30, but in northern winter arrival time of around 22:30 is more problematic.

Back then (before the A380's, DL and VA services on SYD-LAX) QF had four services from LAX to SYD on Wed, Fri & Sun, and three on other days, but of course no DFW then.

Aspen

I caught the United daytime flight SFO-SYD once, IIRC it was one of the first international non smoking flights in United's network.

Without being too condescending, some of the kiddies on this forum might not remember the no smoking light used to go out before the seat belts must be fastened light.

thadocta

But the later flight is a 744, so no F cabin.

Dave

soorox

I think it was part of the reason, QF won't just add more flights on MEL-LAX if it didn't see fit or the demand is not there, its very rare for QF to add extra flights anywhere outside of SYD so it looks like MEL-LAX does make quite a lot for them. UA did however chased off VA, but at the same prompted QF to react.

docbert

Daytime departures from the US are hard, especially for half of the year.

An 11am departure out of LAX means an approx 7pm arrival at the moment, but a 9pm arrival for half of the year after daylight savings swaps.

11am is already early enough to make inbound connections in the US difficult, but going later makes the arrival time very late - and most importantly makes it almost impossible to turn the plane around same-day (for the US airlines, turn back to the US. For QF/VA, turn it to any other destination)

9pm arrival is risky for a scheduled arrival to Sydney. Anything more than a slight delay and you hit curfew and end up having delay the flight 12 hours or divert somewhere else. For BNE/MEL it's OK, but only if you're not expecting many connections.

UA is also re-timing it's AU->US flights once they start MEL-LAX. During Australian summer SYD-LAX moves to 11:40am, and SYD-SFO to 2:30. In winter, it's 9:50am and 12 midday. This is mainly due to the elimination of their SYD-MEL-SYD tag flight.

martin33

well, one could connect as far as the bigger places in the Central time zone basically, same-day. The AA/US last nonstop before the redeyes is at 1745 to ORD, 1855 to DFW. plus both of those places have quite convenient intra-airport hotel options as compared to LAX.

happy to have the option added, for those trips when I don't need the East Coast in the US.

CDKing

I'm on QF18 JFK-LAX connecting to QF94 LAX-MEL. I don't like the new 1hr 10min connection time. I head that LAX-MEL will leave passengers behind if JFK-LAX is delayed? I was checking google and some reports that is the case. Any experiences? I'm on an AS award so i cannot do the AA flights

serfty

It's a TBIT->TBIT airside transit - you don't even have to re-clear security.

1:10 minutes is generally fine - there is a lot of padding in the JFK-LAX schedule.

Himeno

However, a lot of that padding is likely to be eaten up by the very short scheduled JFK turn around time.

deeruck

All true - except not 110mins, it's 1hr10mins. That's right on the MCT, specifically identified for that connection (although, the same as other QF-QF connections identified in the MCT table).

lokijuh

If QF 18 is running late into LAX, would they proactively try and move LAX originating passengers from it onto other flights to make room for misconnects to continue on to Australia and then put of them on domestic sector to their final destination?

TPJ

OMG - the morning flight is too early, the afternoon is too late for me

More United or CX TPAC flights for me

og

CX via HKG is quite a detour and would add many extra hours. The morning QF SYD-LAX is certainly early (as is UA SYD-LAX) - your body clock will be saying "its now time for sleep" as you are arriving in LAX at the start of the day .

I quite like the idea of the afternoon QF SYD-LAX as sleep should be good. But onward connections may be problematic.

The UA SYD-SFO around the middle of the day may be the only answer?

CDKing

If they get me there late can the rebook me the next day. Id hate to get dropped from A380 F to 747J. Only reason I booked QF instead of spending some time in HKG on CX is to fly QF A380 F. I lost the last reservation I had due to the A380 engine issues a few years back.

Himeno

Is it really that hard to adjust to the new timezone during the flight?
I have not gotten jetlag for 7 years (I do round the world trips every year).

The 0950 departure out of SYD is 1450 in LA. It's a 14 hour flight. Stay awake for ~7 hours, then go to sleep "early" at around 10pm LA time. Get 5-6 hours sleep, and then wake up at around 5am for breakfast and landing.