Qantas seating changes! No more First on 747s! New A380s without F!

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aus_flyer

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Qantas has announced it will invest $400 million to upgrade seats and inflight entertainment on nine Boeing 747-400 aircraft, and reconfigure its Airbus A380 fleet to meet the changing demands of the airline’s international customers.

B747-400
  • nine B747-400 will be upgraded and fitted with Qantas’ A380 standard seats and inflight product, including a fully flat Skybed sleeper seat in Business, an award-winning Marc Newson designed and Recaro manufactured seat in Economy and state-of-the-art on-demand Panasonic inflight
  • entertainment in all classes
  • First class cabins will be removed and Business seats installed in their place
  • the three-class configuration will offer 359 seats (58 Business, 36 Premium Economy and 265 Economy), an increase of 52 seats overall

A380
  • 12 A380s will continue to fly with a four-class configuration, including First class, but be refitted to reduce Business seating and increase Premium Economy and Economy seating
  • the remaining eight aircraft will be delivered from 2012 in a three-class configuration and with no First cabin
  • A380 seat numbers are to be confirmed subject to discussions with Airbus and suppliers

The upgrade and reconfiguration program will commence at the end of 2011 and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.
 
While loosing F sucks, I am really pleased to see retrofitting the 747 Y seats... The A380 Y hard product is streets ahead of the 747
 
Also great that the SkyBed II is going into the 747 - makes the decision between CX/BA/QF a lot tougher to europe though...
 
This seems to confirm the elimination of F into HKG and BKK - wonder what will happen to those F lounges.

But what's going to happen to the other 18 744s QF has - surely they're going to have more than nine still operating? Will the lesser Skybed Mk I / Old Y product still be sold on some routes? Or will they retire all of the pre-1999 aircraft?
 
Suspect that the older B747's will be retired progressively as more A380's come online.
 
A bit disappointing that there will be less seats for upgrades.

Traditionally upgrades from Business to First freed up Business Seats for upgrades from Economy.

It is interesting that on this site some of us predicted the demise of First back when Premium Economy was introduced a few years ago.

It seems that some of those views have panned out - Premium has become the new Business Class and Business has become the new First Class.
 
MelUser said:
A bit disappointing that there will be less seats for upgrades.

Traditionally upgrades from Business to First freed up Business Seats for upgrades from Economy.

It is interesting that on this site some of us predicted the demise of First back when Premium Economy was introduced a few years ago.

It seems that some of those views have panned out - Premium has become the new Business Class and Business has become the new First Class.
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Well one thing is that a lot of airlines around the world are straying away from a First class and instead focussing on a 3-class model built around Y/Y+/J, such as NZ, LA and others which have decided to do so from the get-go, like VS and VA.

It isn't helped by the fact that so many J classes now have fully flat seats (even beds, e.g. duvets, good blankets and so on). This is one of the big advantages F had. And companies with F aren't doing enough to characterise the class properly so it is distinguishable from J, considering the premium required. Many will still fly F instead of J if they are given a choice free of charge; many others will still fly F because there are still small subtle comforts that you cannot get in J service, and unfortunately can never appreciate until you've experienced them (catch-22 situation).

If QF really want to be serious, perhaps they should revert to a 3-class model of J/Y+/Y only, because their current proposal on the future of F looks pretty bleak. In both cases, however, a subtle to dramatic increase in the quality of the offerings will be required, i.e. if they go to a 3-class model, they will lose face about removing F unless they can make J/Y+/Y significantly better than in the previous classic-3/4 class model; if they keep F to a few routes they need to polish or embellish F so that they can continue to promote that there is worth in flying F on these sectors in addition to the fact that it is rare but enjoyable to fly in F.

djfuzz said:
This seems to confirm the elimination of F into HKG and BKK - wonder what will happen to those F lounges.
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Well, BA still fly aircraft to SYD via BKK, and these will more than likely retain F (in fact, BA are rolling out a new F design on their fleet).

That F lounge is small enough not to be a huge bother (unlike, say, if it were the size and extensiveness of the F lounges we have in SYD and MEL).

More interesting is of course the recently opened and to-be-redesigned QF/BA F lounge in HKG. Yes BA will still fly F there whilst QF are almost certainly not to, but that is a much bigger lounge with (in the future) more services on offer.
 
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So if anyone wants to fly QF F on a 747-400, you had better do it soon!
 
Flying Fox said:
So if anyone wants to fly QF F on a 747-400, you had better do it soon!
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Bout the closest I'm going to get to being back in Zone A before it's gone is the upcoming cabin re-def for QF29 to HKG. 2A with J service. Still, I have been up there and it was nice (when it was full F).
 
What will this mean for Award flights in F?
Will you be able to redeem points for an F cabin on the A380 (which I don't think you're able to now)?
 
dede said:
What will this mean for Award flights in F?
Will you be able to redeem points for an F cabin on the A380 (which I don't think you're able to now)?
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Certainly can. It's not like SQ where there are no F redemptions on the A380. QF did not make that distinction. You can book on an A380 with an F award at present.
 
drewbles said:
Certainly can. It's not like SQ where there are no F redemptions on the A380. QF did not make that distinction. You can book on an A380 with an F award at present.
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oooooohhhhh! Must look. I'm sure they're rare as hen's teeth though.
 
Hmm. I was thinking about booking SYD-HKG in F in December on points in order to experience it before it goes. Given that I'd have to purchase a few hundred bucks worth of points, what's the perceived risk that F would disappear on SYD-HKG before December, and making that points purchase redundant? I'm guessing slim, as the refurbishment is not slated to commence until 2011?
 
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