Chasing the Qantas 787

[hb13]

Even though it is different to what we are used to, according to Boeing, and as listed on the Qantas website, it is officially the 787-9.

 

[justinbrett]

Even though it is different to what we are used to, according to Boeing, and as listed on the Qantas website, it is officially the 787-9.

All new Boeing aircraft are going to use this format.

The new B737 Max are 737-7, 737-8, 737-9 and 737-10.

Also the new 787 will be 787-10. It’s not 787-100 or 787-1000.

 

[ellen10]

Just catching up on this thread.
I was disappointed to not see side bins in Premium economy.
Love those storage bins!

 

[eric2011]

and isn't the new 747 designated 747-8

 

[moa999]

I was disappointed to not see side bins in Premium economy.

They only exist due to the greater curve on the upper deck of the A380 and B747. Don't exist on any single deck aircraft

 

[moa999]

From Qantas Instagram.
First commercial flight of the QF 787 is now Wed 1 Nov

Operating QF481 Wed depart MEL 5.40pm arriving PER 7pm,
And QF762 Thu departing PER 8am and arriving MEL 2.30pm

 

[Himeno]

and isn't the new 747 designated 747-8

Everything designed and built by Boeing since the start of the 787 project in 2003 has dropped the customer code.
777-8 and 777-9 (rather then the older 777-200 and 777-300)
737 MAX 8 and 737 MAX 9 (instead of 737-800)
747-8
and the 787-8, 787-9 and 787-10

Whereas Airbus still has 3 digit subtype codes (eg A330-300) the 'extra' digits are used for engine types rather then customer IDs

 

[Pleb Status]

ZNA just did a lap of the Perth CBD. A good view from the office....

 

[Blackswan]

ZNA just did a lap of the Perth CBD. A good view from the office....

Yep, just saw it do a lap from my office window on SGT. More impressive flyover than the SQ350 disappointment a few months back . . .

 

[Franky]

So that's what was going on. I was driving my wife to work in the general direction of the city and said to her that there appeared to be an aircraft having to do a go around at a fairly low altitude...

 

[Basalt]

We flew on it yesterday - QF439. Funnily I had know idea before hand, thought we were flying A330 but when I was selecting seats was a little confused that I couldn't select a seat row lower than low-40s but once on-board saw the Y+ and the bigger windows and thought ah-hah! The plane we were on is going into MEL-LAX service from early December.

First thoughts were leg room is pretty good for Y, screen size excellent (pic below) though seat width was the usual QF Y stingy width. Liked the little nook with the USB port to park your smart phone. If the seat was 18" instead of 17" it would actually be alright for a shmedium length international flight. Oh, seat was a bit too hard though. Maybe I'm getting too old!

 

[Drpopper]

Booked on it in J tomorrow.... will report back.

 

[Drpopper]

Flew on QF497 earlier tonight in J ... seats seem roomier but incredibly the cabin shows signs of wear ( scratches etc). The front J cabin isn’t that much larger then the a330 but it feels much bigger. The crew were running about learning everything and quite excited having never flown it before. Currently claiming the seats cannot be reclined at all for take off and no bags permitted in cubby due to plane not being “ certified “ yet whatever that means. The new colour scene in the J class seats looks much better. All up a great addition but I’m afraid 14+ hours to LAX is going to be tough in those seats they certainly don’t make up for the lack of a F Cabin.

 

[RichardMEL]

So flew 460/497 last night.

There was a 45 minute delay due to a faulty radio (really?) - and the a/c was also delayed ex-PER for some reason. Some punters were not happy at MEL and a lot jumped ship (and more than one were quite rude to the poor sole gate agent who we happened to be standing near and could observer). A real "Ready for Takeoff" type scene....

but that's not really about the plane (apart from the radio).

So once on board it was very nice (as expected). The crew were all excited about the aircraft and wanted to show it off to a certain extent.. a definite effort to do some positive PR (which was needed for some of the disgrunted souls who just wanted to get to SYD !!). Pilot flying was none other than the TV commercial star, Andrew Stead, was flying. Captan Simpson gave a very gushing commentary (and someone else put this up on youtube!!

) The anouncement is around 14:30 in.

I was in 10K and the engine noise was very very quiet. I was surprised how good it was for the position I was in (which I picked on purpose). In the youtube above the sound on TO behind the wing is impressive too and it was just like this by the engine.

While not my first 789 ride in the least (I've been on 787's of JQ UA NZ AC and now QF) this was very impressive still. Probably not requiring a full power takeoff with the relative light load of bags, fuel etc.

Anyway it was a good light. The J suite has had a couple of changes from the A330 and seems a tad improved, but it's pretty similar.

10K is one of the "sesat by the window" more private suites by the bulkhead at Door 2R. Pretty nice and wouldn't be horrible for a long hail flight for sure.

On 497 I was given a P1 courtesy upgrade to 2A (I'd kind of hoped to stay in 22K to try PE tbh) but this gave me a chance to try the opposite config, and like the 330 these ones with the seat on the aisle are not as good. I found my elbow into the aisle a little bit on occasions and felt far more exposed to people, carts etc going past. Would definitely not pick on a long haul (and have row 3 on the LAX inaug).

Cabin seems roomier above the head due to the design of the suites I think being not that high though the whole aircraft still somehow feels more narrow than the 77W.

I would like to make a shout out to the tech crew as well as the inflight team who were fantastic and specially to me when I noted I was flying back with them and was there for the 789 they were really excited to show it off and talk about it. Tech crew were gracious to invite a few people (not just me) to the front office, let people sit in the left seat (I declined ) and talk about the aircraft even despite the late arrival and job they had to do.

Specially impressed when on the 497 the Captain (Andrew Simpson I think) came back and spent about 5-10 minutes talking with me about it.. talking about the pilot rest areas (he offered to show me on the ground but I had to sadly decline as I needed to get home!! ) and we talked about it compared to the 380, 747 etc. I was really touched by this special effort and acknowledgement.

Some extra things I learned...

On long hauls they will do "Service 1" (so start of flight) from the forward galley at door 1 and then 2nd service will be from mid cabin galley. This also assists pilots rest as their rest area is above that galley area, so FA's will hang out in the mid cabin galley rather than up fwd. The tip was "Book front of the plane and you will find it more quiet due to this"

That mid cabin galley is REALLY NARROW!! I wanted to walk through to get to my friend in the front J cabin and you could barely fit 2 staff working back to back in that space let alone people getting by. I've seen this too on UA and NZ of course, but it really struck me how small the space was compared to things like the 380. I don't envy them their task in there tbh.

Disabled lav is on the A side too for those interested, though I did not use it.

I still do not think I would want to take this aircraft from PER-LHR but it will be an improvement for QF I think

 

[coriander]

10K is one of the "seat by the window" more private suites by the bulkhead
<snip> 2A <snip> the opposite config, and like the 330 these ones with the seat on the aisle are not as good.

So if I read this right, "seat-on-the-window" is odd row on A and even row on K?

 

[RichardMEL]

So if I read this right, "seat-on-the-window" is odd row on A and even row on K?

not quite. Per Seat Guru: SeatGuru Seat Map Qantas Boeing 787-9 (789)

Rows 1-8 1,3,5,7A and K are the more private suites, then 11A plus 10 and 12K (so 11K is a non private one).

yeah it's a bit weird - so just be careful (specially as it's more or less exact opposite to the 330's config where the evens are the rows to go for)

 

[coriander]

Rows 1-8 1,3,5,7A and K are the more private suites, then 11A plus 10 and 12K (so 11K is a non private one).

Aah, thanks for that (face palms - I should have looked up SGuru myself!). Quickly scrambled into seat selection and changed our seats for LHR-MEL to 3A,5A (was 3K 4K but all other odd seats on K were already taken).
As an aside, we're not flying QF10 by choice - when we booked during last DSC offer, QF2 was full in J on our preferred return date (late 05/2018) and 5 days either side whereas QF10 was wide open on our return date and two either side.

 

[RichardMEL]

Be aware row 5 has one window slightly fwd of the seat - if that's important

 

[coriander]

Be aware row 5 has one window slightly fwd of the seat - if that's important

That's ok, that's Mrs C's seat..............
EDIT: on second thoughts, I've gone for 3A 3K as one of us is left-handed, the other right-handed, so desk will be on each person's dominant hand.

 

[Mattg]

I notice that the 787 will be doing a Canberra run on 30 November.

The following flights will be operated by the 787-9 on 30 Nov:
QF814 MEL 09:00 - CBR 10:05 (this flight still has Y & J reward seats available)
QF833 CBR 18:35 - MEL 19:45 (cheapest Y fare is currently $540)