I was in a dive club based at Fort Meade (NSA), and at a charity quarry dive we hosted, there were a couple cave divers who had extremely extensive equipment. They too didn't need a weight belt as the battery packs for the multiple U/W spotlights were plenty. Of course they had large double tanks, on seperate regulators (with a valved connecting pipe), a small steel tank for back-up air (what normal divers would consider a smaller sized regular diving tank), and yet another tank of Argon (for inflating the dry suit--less bouyant and better heat retention).

Watching those guys suit up was a pretty good lesson in itself on diving safety, and how it's best to be "sphincter relaxation challenged" (--that's as Politicallty Correct as I get! ) about that.

Steve

I was a bit surprized to learn that HKG is within 200 miles of the same distance from WAS in either direction. Thus, w/ BA via LHR-NRT was shorter than CX via LAX-HKG-NRT, and BA's J product is supposed to be even a bit better than CX's. I guess we will have to "suffer" through the short YYZ-LHR J flight and look forward to a better J on LHR-NRT.

As for my parents' routing back, unfortunate but there was nothing available in J in any other routing (I tried via Canada, India, S. Africa, S. America, and routing through NRT then onto a direct AA flight over the top--nothing shook loose J except for what I already had [as a reminder: AKL-(QF)-BNE-(CX)-HKG-(BA)-LHR-(AA)-JFK-(AA/Am. Eagle)-BWI ] It's already ticketed, so the routing is in stone now.

Steve

BTW, is there a record for the most number of flights in a "leg" (between a single pair of stopovers) in which each flight is on a different oneworld carrier? Does "American Eagle" count as a "different" carrier than "American Airlines" (like "Jet Connect" and "Qantas")? Should I start another thread on this quirky subject?

I think AKL-BNE recently converted to being a Jetconnect route from QF mainline (so quite a step down in J quality), and BNE-HKG is often served by CX regional J (seats like AA F seats, not the normal CX J bed used on long-haul; CX is severely short of planes, so using their short-haul config on the less important routes). HKG-LHR should get the new J on BA, which helps. Quite an achievement to get this booked, in any case.

Sounds like a sensible set up. Other than the lights ( since I don't do cave diving yet ) and the drysuit/argon ( water in sydney is warm) it sounds like a pretty typical setup .

Dave

Looking at the timetable the morning QF flight seems to be a normal Qantas flight operated with a 763. The evening flight , on days it runs, seems to be Qantas with a 73H. The morning flight hopefully will have dreamtime seats

Dave

This is to change in March with the morning Flight to be operated by a 73H (instead of a 763) and the jetconnect flight frequency increased to daily.

I found out via ExpertFlyer when checking the seat maps for one of my bookings. More here:
Qantas are replacing 763's ....

The one aircraft generally operates (on a daily basis) AKL-BNE(QF116), BNE-AKL(QF115),AKL-MEL(QF134) & MEL-AKL(QF39).

Also since QF25/QF26 changed routing from BNE to MEL, the 763's running that routing have normally been of a domestic configuration with the 'Millenium' seating in J.

I didn't check through till march since the comment was that it had already changed but checking Expert Flyer for late April, it does indeed show QF116 operated by a 73H.

For those wanting to stick to a 767, the AA codeshare (AA7376) is still apparantly operated with a 763. Wonder how you merge 2 aircraft like that

For J trans tasman, definately an incentive these days to use an airline such as EK or LA to get a real international cabin

Dave

or NZ (but make sure to get a 747 or 777 flight rather than A320 or 767)

LA doesnt fly AKL-BNE but EK does (with 77W).

All you guys are a true wealth of information.

Thank you very much!

Steve