Blackcloud

You may see a special QF charter flight to that destination. Of course PEK does not serve a city with the same name. Or do you live in the first half of the last century

cova

Flew back from MEL to LAX in F on QF93 a week ago. Asked the F concierge - who escorts you from the check in area to the lounge - when the A380 will be flying - and the answer is Oct. QF is still in the fit up phase. I would not expect A380 flights on the MEL-LAX route until October. Emirates is also all ready to go with its A380 with an F lounge just across from the QF F lounge.

DownUnderFlyer

In many languages this city is still refered to as Peking, not Beijing.

Blackcloud

Well I guess I do not use the offical Thai name for Bangkok, or I would still be typing. I also use FYRM instead of the full name....
It would be considered offensive though to a Central Party member if you still called it Peking.

AndDee

Still no offical news on the A380, except what is mentioned previously about the MEL-LAX route getting it first.

Everything else from Qantas still says "Australia to USA" will be the first A380 route

Wonder if QF will announce the A380 close to V Australia's launch on the 27th of March, this Thursday

thadocta

And still far too early for QF to release anything official. I would not expect anything at all from QF until they get the iron-clad "The first aircraft will be delivered on XX-MMM-2008" announcement from Airbus, and THEN we might start seeing stuff about first flight and so on. remember, it has to be bedded in, cabin crew need to be trained up (tech crew are already in France learning how to drive it, so no issues there).

Once the delivery dat ehas been confirmed, THEN we will start seeing dates from QF. Nothing before that, I would think.

Dave

ANstar

Well QF keep saying August delivery so they should be able to plan around that. Other bits I have heard is that it won;t start USA until October to coincide with the NS timetable. I presume by then they will also have 2 x 380's so can offer a daily service. I think if V Australia go on the SYD-LAX route, then we will see that as the frist A380 route. If not, then perhaps MEL-LAX will still be first....

AndDee

Well yes I thought that QF had a definate date but if they don't well I wouldn't trust Airbus on their timeframes

You would NOT want to go out and promote heavily (Which QF will) an A380 flight and then have to delay its launch. Imagine what V Australia would do with that.

On V Australia, yes that would be another reason why QF would want to delay the A380 promotion, to wait and see what V will do. Although I am sure that QF already knows what V is doing and where they are flying

simongr

So I am guessing that a mid to late Sep flight to the US on a DONE4 is going to be pushing it to get an A380 flight. Shame - I would even have routed via MEL to do it if I could

alect

Well if the cabin fitout is substantially different to the 747s (or maybe even if it isn't) there's a good chance there will be some sort of change to the xONEx and xCIRxx rules to either exclude A380 flights or impose a surcharge (a la SQ on *A RTWs). Or they just won't make D/A inventory available. Call me a cynic.

ozstamps

If QF had any PR brains they'd run it only SYD-USA-SYD.

It would kill UA's very profitable pointy end business stone dead due to the 'gee whizz' factor. (Which is near 100% SYD-USA-SYD)

UA's new Biz and F seats will not be in oz 747s by October.

No sane person would even think of paying $10,000+ to fly UA's 10+ year old seats and IFE, with 80 year old FA's - instead of an A380.

Anyone QF keen to fly it from MEL or BNE will do so via a 1 hour domestic connection.

Win - win for QF.

AndDee

No for the first point, but yes to everything else!

Aparently it will be MEL-LAX-MEL and then on the SYD-LAX-SYD routes early in 2009. The MEL-LAX-MEL flights are still weight restricted at times even with the 744ER operating it. The A380 will allow full loads and more passengers on this already very popular route. As you probably know MEL-LAX-MEL is a route that UA used to operate, then stopped, then started again and then stopped. QF killed UA on this route with the 744ER's which have far better range than UA's old birds!

However, V Australia (offset of Virgin Blue) launches today and will fly from SYD, MEL or BNE so that would be another factor in where QF puts the A380.

Mines bigger than yours A380 vs. 777-300ER

simongr

Fair point - but they don't distinguish between Dreamtime and Skybed at the moment.

DownUnderFlyer

The problem is: People do! Even now you could say people would not pay $10k for a UA cheese omelet when they could fly QF. But people do. Company travel policies, Star Alliance status, suicidal tendencies...there are many reasons why people do such things.

AndDee

Yes like the nice man I spoke to in the NZ lounge, was happy to pay full fare J on UA as he didn't really know any other airlines that were worth flying.

Hopefully got him onto NZ