Surely if there is A inventory, it's bookable? If I tell my TA to nab me an A seat what part of the system will prevent her doing it? (I would try it right away but it would mean re-issuing my ticket first and I'm not ready to do that yet.)

If true then it is pathetic. From what I can tell off the web site nothing about the QF A380 seat makes it seem superior to CX's new F seat and CX hasn't created a new class or stopped allowing their use on RTW tickets. And it will be quite a while before QF can guarantee that you will fly an A380 on any single route. What happens if you have an R ticket and there's a substitution or you change your flight date and get a 747?

As I said: there is no A inventory. If it shows A, it is wrong. Probably a glitch because not all systems are fully adapted. QF, AA and BA all told me that QF A380 is all R and nothing but R. I would love to be wrong.

I believe all airlines will assign the first class on their A380 as R. Given the popularity of the plane, who can blame them?

Actually, the tariff for the A380 in R is higher than the same route on an 747 (about $2500) so that sort of tells you, doesnt it? Resistence is futile...

With an aircraft change the same happens as with SQ: nothing.

And no, its not fair.

Well I must be seeing things since there is (sometimes excellent) A inventory showing on all the GDS's I can see on KVS. This is for the SIN/SYD route; I believe there is no/very patchy availability trans pac.

When I asked on the QF forum the response was that A was bookable if shown.

My TA has now booked me into A on the A380 on the SIN/SYD route using the BA code share (since that is my preference for mileage earning purposes). I see that inventory on my flight has now reduced from A9 to A8. The booking shows on MMB on BA and I have even been able to change my seat. I now need to re-issue my AONE since this is a route change.

At what point do you think QF will intervene to prevent my flying the A380 in A class? When I re-issue? At the airport?

I take it that this is no more than a guess - or do you have information to back this up?

How about "never"?

Just the answer I was looking for!

There is also "A" class availability on the LHR-SIN on many other days as well according to EF on both the QF and BA codeshares ( for the A380)

When I look (KVS or ExpertFlyer) for LAX/SYD I get:
QF 12 LAX 22:30 SYD 08:10 +2 388 0 R9 F2 A0 J9 C0 D0 W9 T4 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

When I search using BA I don't even get the 388.

I called my TA (BA itself) and they still confirm that QF only books there 388 in R and F, not A.

So I guess it is only on that route. Bummer.

"A" class availability from LHR-SIN and SIN-SYD on the 380 is now COMPLETELY gone from EF... Seems like QF is watching......

I noticed but didn't want to say anything in case it was me wot broke it.

Guess you were wrong...

Are you saying they will prevent me from flying on my existing A booking?

Frankly I think QF is just going practise ordinary revenue management on the A380: i.e. wait and see how the R and F (there is still F) sells. If after the first flurry of curiosity the demand is weak we will see A seats return. A number of factors make me optimistic:

• the new product doesn't seem to be in a whole new class the way that the SQ (and CX, which aren't marketed as R) suites are; they have a significantly smaller footprint (it looks to be only 3/4 the size of the SQ suite)
• some people may prefer the alternative scheduling anyway
• people may not want to divvy up if they can't be guaranteed the new product
• there are other viable alternatives, especially on the routes to SE Asia, and folks might avoid QF entirely rather than pay for R

If I am wrong and QF finds that they can consistently sustain sufficient demand in R and F, then good on them and I would expect them to black out A availability despite our bleating. Time will tell.

Hopefully not you, but as I read here they now corrected their mistake so at least everyone after you.