As a reminder, this is a quote from AAB so the timeline should clearly be taken with a pinch of salt! I would think the priority should be retiring the A340s which make absolutely no sense from an economic perspective.

The issue with the QR A380s seems to be QR isn't able to fill the Y cabin and especially so since the blockade, so QR should take out the Upper Deck Y and possibly F too to create a more J-heavy configuration and then refit them with Qsuites. The whole point of the connector model that QR and EK use is to bunch up departures in connecting banks in the morning and evening to make sure there are as many short layovers as possible, which is exactly why the A380 is a good aircraft for that model. Instead, QR e.g. currently operates 2 LHR flights and 1 LGW flight within 55 minutes of each other in an afternoon, then another 2 LHR flights plus an LGW in a 25 minute window in an evening, with a similar story for early morning departures too. This isn't LHR-NYC, most of those are connecting passengers so it really doesn't make sense for QR to offer more frequency rather than being all A380 to LHR. I also really don't get CAN (there must be some seriously valuable cargo on that route or the local Chinese government is paying QR / some sort of dodgy deal is going on) as I haven't been on an A380 to CAN with enough passengers to even fill a 787 yet. I get the impression QR could make much better use of the A380s they have if they wanted to.