eoinnz

I see your including the entire A380 fleet around the world.

I assumed that you were just referring to Qantas flights - as they are the only ones that have been grounded.

WrLdTrvLnIndian

did i hear this right? They are flying the A380 tonight from LAX to MEL?

deeruck

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That clears that up then. Why has the QF website not been updated then? Their latest release still says ops are suspended, although the timetable shows it as a 388, so I guess that's correct.

WrLdTrvLnIndian

i see flightstats shows it as a 388. Whereas, for flight 12 LAX-SYD indicates its a B747. I suppose thats correct. well, hope all goes well, get things back to normal. At least they will perform thorough preflight checks now, id feel safe getting on one.

EDIT:

deeruck: Since you are on your way to MEL forgot to mention SAFE TRAVELS keep us posted on how it goes.

Lonely Flyer

Are suggesting QF was using unleaded instead of super otherwise the engine is new and still under maintenance by RR

number_6

QF has some bitter first-hand experience with that (maintenance quality in certain countries) in the form of the 3 Ugly Sisters (744s purchased from near the equator from a source that shall be nameless). Massive corrosion problems which led to years of minor equipment failure (things like galleys losing electricity, lights going on and off by themselves, seats inop, etc.). Never was corrected despite massive maintenance spend by QF. I'm sure those 744s were maintained "to spec" and even inspected by QF prior to purchase, but the problems were not detected. Somehow all the other 744s in QF fleet (which were maintained by QF and not outsourced during this period) didn't have problems, while 100% of the "outsourced" 744s did (3 out of 3). Of course there are lots of other aspects to the story, but this happened to QF (and some of us suffered with the problems, as pax).

I hope the A380 does a lot better.

frankabagnale

Great to hear that the QF A380's are starting back! ...And I was worried about my A380 trip coming up on New Years Eve!
Like WrLdTrvLnIndian, I'd feel safe getting on QF A380.. I was impressed with the way QF handled it, pilots (and lots of them) calm, so passengers calm. And because its their flagship aircraft, I think they have their best pilots on them. I'd imagine though that the next few QF A380 flights, lots of PAX on board will be a bit nervous (they're not all FlyerTalk users or even FF'ers for that matter). My girlfriend would be a case in point.. I'll have a lot of convincing to do just to get her on the A380 on December 31st now.. even if there are no more problems in the interim (yeah, the second QF problem in 2 days, today - another engine failure from SIN hasn't helped.. we fly LHR->SIN->MEL).
So I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who goes on QF A380 in the next while as to what its like - whether passengers nervous, or extra delays, etc.

Yesterday's incident has cost Qantas a lot of money.. but if the fault turns out to be 100% RR problem (which it looks like now), they'll probably end up footing the bill.

dabears1020

The 2nd failure out of SIN was on a 747, if it helps her feel better about A380s at all.

Interlude

Flew QF31 SYD-SIN last night on VH-OEJ Wunala Dreaming...was going to be my first ever A380 flight, so disappointing to miss that, but nothing compared to what could have been for those on the actual flight. My flight had a few sporadic empty seats in Y, so wonder what the loading would have been on the bigger plane? Had been expecting some kind of chaos at SYD checkin, with offloaded pax etc. etc. but it was all very quiet. Did wonder what the 744 was supposed to have been doing otherwise if it hadn't been suddenly called into service...the logistics (besides pax issues) of dealing with having the 6 big aircraft on the ground must be a fascinating story in itself.

eoinnz

The A380 are not back in service yet. I have just been rolled another 24 hours.

You may see that they are scheduled on certain flights, but I would continue to expect constant changes for the coming weeks

payam81

There is a lot of confusion at QF. Earlier they said they'd lifted the suspension for a limited number of take off/landing cycles as I read it through my AP news terminal. Then they retracted, now they're saying maybe in 48 hrs.

Clearly there is a problem with the leadership of QF. They should either firmly say we will suspend the service until we know for sure we can resume it, or otherwise. This whole give/take neither builds nor inspires confidence in QF.

I feel sorry as QF is an iconic airline serving an amazing part of the world but under management which has repeatedly shown their lack of common sense.

WrLdTrvLnIndian

do we know if they have secured enough 747's to run the LAX-SYD route. I am flying SFO-SYD on Wed, but friends flying the LAX-SYD on Thursday Nov 11th. Our vacation has long been planned and expensive, would suck for them to be stuck. At this point it doesn't matter if they fly or don't fly the 388. I just hope they get off the ground on Thursday.

babs

Good to see everyone was safe and that Qantas from a safety perspective is playing it well.

I am flying QF9 on Monday night supposed to be my first A380 on Qantas I doubt it though, more interesting is that business is full so 72 seats taken according to Qantas, assuming a couple of no shows still leaves a small problem for Qantas, not sure of the load in first. Also it would be interesting to see if they can spare a pacific configured 744 as the kangaroo route ones only have 50 seats. Anyone have any insight into pacific loads in business at the moment for the four class configurations I am going to guess full due to the A380's being down.

I imagine that the first time Qantas will attempt to proactively re-book passengers is at the airport on Monday.

One would guess that Qantas would know by now which flights it could possibly operate with regard the A380 being out of position so for example if three are still in LAX and one is in SYD, one in Frankfurt I assume is undergoing its C check? one out of action.

You can work out that say if the suspension was lifted now then the three A380 in lax could operate to Sydney and Melbourne and arrive by Monday so you would have 3 planes capable of operating some services from Australia to LAX/LHR on Monday, the plane in Sydney could operate this afternoon's QF31.

Obviously rolling forward one day to Sunday pushes out the date etc.

On a side note why are there three A380's in LAX?

eoinnz

QF 11 and QF 93 arrived into LAX prior to this incident. As the aircraft were still here when the incident happened, they were therefore grounded up here.

The QF 11 the day after departed just prior to the grounding of the A380 and arrived into LAX.

That is why there are 3 aircraft here. There is also one in Sydney, one in Singapore (the aircraft in question) and one completing a C check in Germany

HW

I'm sitting here in LAX waiting for the Fri night BNE flight in a not-too-happy mood. While my post is somewhat clouded because I'm personally peeved at my situation I'll try to objectively explain my gripe: Two work colleagues and I were confirmed in J on QF16 tonight (Fri), however as early as last night QF started calling us - in ascending FF Pri order - to see if we would take alternate routes. My first colleague (no FF status) was asked if he wanted to route via MEL or SYD to accommodate A380 pax. My second colleague (SG status) was called asking whether he would mind being bumped to Economy to accommodate A380 pax. Several hours later I (WP status) was called 'as a courtesy' to advise that I had been involuntarily bumped to Economy, with the reason being an "operational" event, that all business pax were being downgraded and that we should ask for refund paperwork at check-in. When we checked in at the airport and asked for refund paperwork, we were told the reason for the downgrade was "oversold aircraft" and that we could call the customer service number to arrange a refund.

So while I'm full of empathy for the people that suffered a 24hr delay to their flights last night (having been in their situation earlier in the year), I find it a strange business decision to not only 'upset' them by delaying their flights, but then also 'upset' an entire cabin of business class passengers on the following night by downgrading another set of passengers so that the delayed pax could be accommodated. At the risk of sounding NIMBY I thought it would make more sense to have the delayed pax ride in economy so that fewer people's flights were disrupted - if only from an economic sense since now they'll be paying out a massive amount of refunds on my flight from pax that they really didn't need to.

My unhappiness is compounded not only by the fact that they're doing this to WP passengers, which in my mind shows a stunning mis-appreciation for how valuable we are, but that we're being told different stories throughout the customer team.

So I'll probably wind up writing a grizzly letter to QF expressing my unhappiness, I hope it's taken in the spirit of dealing with this weird business decision more than just a grumpy passenger with a DYKWIA attitude.... here's hoping!