AA2MM

And the UA 747SP on UA after they got the aircrafts from PA...the bathroom wall trims still had the Braniff orange. Funny anecdote : the FC FA offered me a Chinese WSJ...I went huh ? She then come out with the HKG printed issue of the paper. Totally friendly matron from domestic lines...Even pinched me on the cheek, joking with me. ( no, I did not take offense...I was way older than I looked )

docbert

Of course not - they connect via the AA hub in LAX. Those headed to/from the center/east of the US can connect at the AA hub in LAX, or the AA mega-hub in DFW.

Flying long-haul to locations where you have sufficient connecting flights is core to the hub-spoke model. QF flying into SFO never gave them that, so it's not surprising that they pulled out of the market.

Kacee

Spoken by someone who has clearly never been in the Copa Club.

Always Flyin

QF had stopped service to SFO for 11-years. They restarted it, loads and yields weren't where they wanted them, so they pulled out.

Even UA announced its SFO-SYD service on a 744 wasn't performing well.

Bottom line is that SFO is not as attractive a destination for Australia traffic as LAX is.

Kacee

The Brits and Aussies have always had a predilection for LA over SF.

cesco.g

At least the BF (48 seats) > coach ratio holds up reasonably well.

I'll take LAX connections anyday over the SFO-weather-delayed nailbiters resulting in missed flights, lost u/gs etc.

Like those from the West Coast who have to make it TATL thru the East Coast hubs .... safe for a couple of LHR and FRA n/s.

Kacee

Yeah, and connecting through SFO or LAX, New Yorkers can still get an international quality seat on ps, with excellent flight frequency. Much better than what we get connecting through ORD/EWR/IAD or even IAH.

cesco.g

Absolutely: try to get on a UA TATL flight out of JFK ....

Slightly OT: currently there are a couple of sCO 757 BF flights EWR-LAX and for you Kacee indeed one sCO 764 IAD-SFO. Given the small 16 seat BF cabins on the 757 lower fare business and upgradeable coach seats are hard to come by. Worse case for RPUs and worst for CPUs.

briank1973

Agreed. I once did SYD-OAK-SFO. Yep, that's right. We got diverted to Oakland, and then we sat there for an hour or 90 minutes, then flew from Oakland to SFO.

As for what someone else said above. I found loads lower on the SYD-SFO route than SYD-LAX (in agreement with QF's experience). I average 2.7 AU-US roundtrips per year so I've seen a decent sample size. In E+, I had more empty seats next to me going to/from SFO than with LAX. No doubt!

Looking forward to MEL-LAX and hopefully same or lower prices to what MEL-SYD-SFO/LAX are now.

Kremmen

Not necessarily. If the spoke city is, say, Seattle, you have MEL-LAX-SFO-spoke vs MEL-SYD-SFO-spoke and the latter is a vastly better option. (oh, yes, LAX-SEA is sometimes available, either a crappy "express" flight with no first class or wait until the 4pm mainline departure, a mere 9 hours after you arrive!)

Appalling suggestion. UA/UA at SYD is easy and all international. UA/QF at SYD is a circus, requiring catching a bus to the domestic terminal.

This is, sadly, probably the important point!

There are times when it gets near full. Try the week before the Australian Open for example. (No, not common, just saying it can happen.)

Much as we might think so, no, most people who notice FF programmes at all at the Aussie side are tied into QF's (lousy) programme. That's probably not "most people". There are an amazing number who don't know or care about such things and simply buy whatever is cheapest or whatever their travel agent gives them or whatever their company books for them. Siphoning off those folks is really easy.

Yes, a nice way to use US Airways miles. US could see them but not book them in the first day, but can book them now.

I've seldom had any problems and always tried to travel via SFO when possible. Nicer airport. Most important reason why 3/4 of my UA trips have been via SFO and not LAX -- and I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it -- Showers. Arrivals Lounge. LAX, dirty crap hole that it is, doesn't have one.

Kacee

If your final destination is SFO, and you're on a long-haul, you may not have noticed the weather delays. But if you are connecting into or out of SFO domestic, it is far more prone to weather delays than LAX. In the foggy summer months, or rainy winter months, the rolling delays can be really bad. SFO is consistently ranked as one of the worst US airports for delays.

Kremmen

I've heard these stories, but not experienced them. To compared just one destination: 11% (2 of 19) of my SFO-SEA flights have arrived more than 30 mins late. For LAX-SEA, it's 38%!

Even if the supposedly common delays did happen to me, we're talking about a roughly 24 hour trip overall. When I have been forced to fly into LAX, I've flown LAX-DEN-SEA a couple of times just to spend less time in LAX. I don't actually care about a delay, so long as I'm comfortable. An arrivals lounge and a shower is more valuable to me than a delay of several hours.

docbert

Changes have been made at SFO regarding fog, and they are now able to use both parallel runways during (most) foggy conditions. Capacity is still reduced, but not to the approx half that it was previously. Bad rain can still cause issues, but we've had like 1 days rain in the Bay Area in the past year or so, so that hasn't been a problem recently...

However with two runways closed due to construction from May to September this year, SFO could be a great place to avoid for a few months...

sinoflyer

Between November and April, whenever I fly transpac through SFO, I take the first 6 am flight from LAX and deal with the 5 hour layover in the SQ lounge . I am old enough to remember the SJC bus back around 2000 -- been on that one too many times before I decided that one less hour of sleep is worth more than half a day of "flow control."

I think you are right about the current changes -- they have been effective in improving SFO capacity during "bad" weather, but SFO really hasn't been tested to the fullest since those changes went into effect. We haven't had an El Ni�o winter or a string of Pineapple Express storms in several years, but I'm sure we'll get one of those sooner or later (hopefully soon, for obvious reasons).

HkCaGu

I guess you still don't understand the nature of SFO delay. It's inbound domestic making you miss your transoceanic connection. The struggle is either allow 3-5 hours for a sure long-haul out or the "traditional" 1-2 hours and face a 20% chance of misconnect, after which you're on your own finding a hotel and subject to "luck" even having a seat on the next day.