1. South African Airways is correct! Here's the sched....

SA 281: Perth (PER) 3:50p - 7:25p Mauritius (MRU) 8:25p - 10:55p Johannesburg (JNB)
Op: Tuesdays and Saturdays only
Equip: 747

2. Yep, it was Viacao Aerea Rio-Grandense (VARIG).....however, the aircraft type was not a Boeing 747-200.

jrl767 beat you to the punch on the IPC bonus quiz item - please see above.

6. Continental is correct! Here's the sched....

CO 1: Auckland (AKL) 8:00a - 9:15a Sydney (SYD)
Op: Tuesdays and Fridays only
Equip: DC-10-30
Note: CO 1 also operated on Saturdays only, AKL 8:50a - 10:05a SYD

BTW, Continental's international first class service on the DC-10-30 back in the day was superb...... :cool:

RG did like DC-10s so let's go with DC-10-30 unless that was too big for the route

2. Correct! Here's the VARIG sched...

RG 791: Johannesburg (JNB) 2:30p - 4:30p Cape Town (CPT) 5:30p - 8:40p Rio de Janeiro (GIG)
Op: Fridays only
Equip: DC-10-30

No. 3 is going to be more challenging. The number of stops would indicate a non-Latin American airline, mostly likely European, operating a milk run not having a large enough market share to run more direct services to SCL or the intermediate stops, so let's go with

Sabena flying BRU-GIG-MVD-EZE-SCL operating a DC-10-30 (again!)

3- Rio de Janeiro - XXX - YYY - Santiago
we already have one of the two narrow-body jets (leg 4), so this would seem to be a good candidate for the other ... we already have LAN Chile and VARIG, so we're looking for either a a third-country operator (not improbable, but doubtful) or smaller Brazilian carrier ... I'll posit Transbrasil, operating a 727-100 via Sao Paulo Congonhas (CGH) and Porto Alegre (POA)

3. Nope, it was not Sabena....however, you did correctly guess one of the stops. But which one?

3. An excellent guess! However, Transbrasil was not operating flights between Rio de Janeiro and Santiago at this time.....although there was 727 service from Rio Galeao Airport to SCL operated twice a week by Ladeco. But this flight only made one intermediate stop and the service we are looking for made two, of course.

3- based on the above discussion, I'll concede the point that this was probably a European carrier; the routing was probably GIG - Sao Paulo Guarulhos (GRU) - Buenos Aires (EZE) - SCL

as to the equipment, YVR Cockroach's guess of a DC-10-30 wasn't acknowledged as correct, so I suspect we're actually looking for a 747 ... which means there are about five candidate airlines ... I'm going to go for the oddball and say this was Swissair with a -300

7- that leaves the cross-Oz leg as a narrow-body flight, and that suggests an Ansett 727-277

3. Well, I stayed silent concerning the equipment on this leg, didn't I? Perhaps it was a DC-10-30....and I can say that Swissair is not the airline we are looking for here and the B747-300 (or any other 747 model) is incorrect as well. As far as the two stops, the flight in question did not stop at either GRU or EZE....but one of the stops was correctly guessed by YVR Cockroach: MVD

7. Ansett was indeed operating a B727-200 on this leg. Here's the sched....

AN 220: Sydney (SYD) 6:45p - 9:20p Perth (PER)
Op: Daily except Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays
Equip: 72S

However, our intrepid traveler wanted to fly on a Sunday evening from Sydney to Perth.....so he booked a flight on another airline. Care to guess again?

Meantime, we have some interesting weather headed our way this morning with a tornado watch now in effect just to the west of us. If you were trying to fly either out of or through IAH this morning, you probably know what I mean. The squall line with this weather system stretches from east of Brownsville out in the Gulf of Mexico to east of Houston to near Shreveport. The thunderstorms associated with it appear to be intensifying.

Looks like we'll get a bit wet here in southern Louisiana later this afternoon.

Rereading the question and looking back at the timing (AM departure from GIG), I am now going to say that my original guess of an European carrier is probably incorrect (flight timing just doesn't work? - it'll be 5 1/2-7 hrs of flight and ground time each way between GIG and SCL which doesn't leave much time for the TATL portion). Your guess of a Brazilian carrier is much better. I don't think Varig or VASP would have flown such a routing and I don't know an other Brazilian carriers of the time.

Going to guess PLUNA (though a thru flight via its home port would be odd) with the next stop at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP). Guessing the equipment to be a 737-200.*

* Assuming jlemon's guess of No. 7 being AN operating an 727 is incorrect. If it is incorrect, I will submit Qantas with a 747-238B

7- well, mates, how about Trans Australia Airlines (TN) running a 727-276 on SYD-PER

3. Excellent guesses all! And I will now say that your original statement concerning this leg being flown by a European airline was spot on! So that effectively eliminates a South American air carrier operating this two stop leg. We also know the flight in question stopped at MVD....but it did not stop at AEP.

7. Another great and logical guess! And QF was indeed operating two flights a week from SYD to PER at this time. Here they are.....

QF 22: Sydney (SYD) 8:30a - 11:10a Perth (PER)
Op: Wednesdays only
Equip: 747

QF 23: Sydney (SYD) 9:30a - 12:10p Perth (PER)
Op: Sundays only
Equip: 74L

Of course, our man desired to fly on a Sunday evening and that's what he did. And I see that jrl767 has responded once again concerning this leg.....

7. Trans-Australia (TAA) operating a Boeing 727-200 is correct! Here's the sched....

TN 16: Sydney (SYD) 6:40p - 9:15p Perth (PER)
Op: Daily except Mondays and Saturdays
Equip: 72S

As you can see from my prior response, TAA and Ansett were operating their SYD to PER evening flights virtually "wingtip to wingtip" four days a week.

apparently this is what I get for being too specific about Sao Paulo airports, as I have just remembered the third -- Viracopos (VCP) ... that said, I have to suspect that jlemon would have immediately requested clarification had I just said "Sao Paulo" :D

six other European DC-10 operators come to mind ... let's start with Lufthansa