MEL-SFO loads
 

I recently flew MEL-SFO on QF49. Flight was excellent, particularly the scheduling. We arrived in SFO at 6:30pm with just enough energy to get to our hotel, have dinner and go to sleep, woke up the next day synced with local time. It's far better than the day flight to LAX.

One thing that did stand out was how empty the flight was. Economy was less than half full, premium economy and business looked about a third full. Is this typical on this route? By contrast, our return SFO-SYD was almost totally full. I know the route is new and I have only one data point to judge by, but I wonder whether it will last long if these loadings are typical.

Yup, SFO is a tough route for QF and SYD is much more popular than MEL for both business and tourist travel. QF used to be based at SFO and not LAX and even owned an office building on Union Square, there's a reason they moved to LAX circa 30 years ago now. But cargo was so lucrative they kept their airport hangars and ran trucks up I-5 from LAX. Periodically QF tries to make SFO work again, but it is a tough route for them. Making it a great route for pax, with empty planes :) Enjoy while it lasts (which it will as long as Apple has cargo to send to Oz :) ).

QF cabin crew rotating through SFO need a kick up their rear. Much below expectations for cabin service (in Biz). Makes me look forward to UA trans Pacific flights.

I was on QF73 (SYD - SFO) last week and J was aprox 80% full and Y less than 50% with most of the middle 4 seats used as a bed.

Remember that the USA is heading into winter and it is a little early for for anybody to be heading off on xmas holidays, especially for Americans who typically only get 2 weeks paid leave a year. My own personal view is that Qantas treats SFO as a destination in its own right for both J and Y passengers rather than a point of entry like DFW and, to a lesser extent, LAX. These may be factors.

Plus, the bean counters at Qantas initially put the 789 on the MEL-LAX route 6 times per week but changed this to 2 per week to LAX and 4 per week to SFO as a lot of passengers were catching a codeshare flight betwee LAX and SFO.

How could you figure out beforehand which Qantas flights from West Coast to Australia and back had historically lightest load aka most likelihood to have four across poor man;s biz class?

I guess what I am trying to figure out is if I want to do an economy seat semi-mileage run LAX or SFO to SYD or MEL on Qantas, and am very flexible, are there any routes/times that are highly likely to have economy half full and 4 seats for sleeping pretty open? Is LAX- SYD worse than SFO-SYD for example. Or is LAX-SYD worse than LAX-MEL? There have been some LAX-SYD RT Qantas flights for under $600 pop up for example

That extremely low price would be a good indicator of low loads and the airline trying to fill seats based on the fare.
But as above, seat reservations can change day to day, even in times of low demand.
Trying to pick a flight so hoping to get 4 economy seats to yourself is a gamble.
However many people think Australia=Sydney & USA=Los Angeles. And so there are more LAX SYD aircraft/seats

Things can rapidly change if there's a cancel.

My SFO-MEL flight in early October looked wide open, even a few days before. Then the flight canceled the day prior... That put my flight completely packed.

@og is posting from experience.


I have had over 1200 Qantas flights and have experienced all forms of service levels.Qantas staff when they are good can be great.


When they are hung over from their West coast USA layover, they can be shocking.

I flew SFO-MEL last Saturday (11/17). I would say economy was about 9/10 full (if not more).

Now, my return flight SYD-HNL on a 747 was about 1/5 full in economy.

United Airlines start SFO-MEL non stop Oct 29 2019
 

Loads must be good enough for UAL to start a thrice weekly SFO-MEL flight Tue Thur and Sat (ex SFO)

Commences Oct 29, 2019

UAL MEL - SFO Departures Mon, Thur and Sat
QF MEL - SFO departures Wed Thur Sat & Sun