Qantas to expand Asia services and rejig US services from April 2016

[Aussie_flyer]

I can't imagine for a minute they will add PE to MEL-HKG. A massive logistical pain to plan for it only three days a week and makes it difficult to book for business people who would ideally need it daily.

A massive logistical pain? How so? Qantas have premium economy products ex Melbourne already (catering etc already covered), they sell premium economy fares MEL-SYD-HKG already. To be honest I don't think it's really aimed at business travellers, it's for the leisure traveller who has a bit of extra coin and wants a little more comfort. Anyway - if its offered 3 days a week instead of NONE it's got to be LESS difficult for everybody. The other 4 days a week you can fly via Sydney to get premium economy.

 

[madrooster]

Wait, aren't the A380s fully committed with the current MEL/SYD-DXB-LHR, MEL/SYD-LAX and SYD-DFW flights, with the only reason they are able to do summer SYD-HKG being that the 12th isn't under heavy maintenance?
What are they changing to get that last frame?

Confirmed that SYD/LAX QF11 will become a B744 and the A388 will go to SYD/DFW QF7 instead. QF have started loading the schedule change into the GDS today.

 

[QFflyermelbourne]

Confirmed that SYD/LAX QF11 will become a B744 and the A388 will go to SYD/DFW QF7 instead. QF have started loading the schedule change into the GDS today.

Only on Tuesdays....

 

[LA10]

I'm not too happy about this. I am booked on qf 29 and hoped to give the business suites a go.

 

[defurax]

I'm not too happy about this. I am booked on qf 29 and hoped to give the business suites a go.

Try to grab 5B or 5J if you can, that's the best alternative to the new J suite.

 

[LA10]

Try to grab 5B or 5J if you can, that's the best alternative to the new J suite.

That's what I did tonight when I realised the change of aircraft.

 

[soorox]

Lisa10, what day are you travelling? QF must be updating the schedule now.

 

[LA10]

QF hasn't released the schedule yet, how do you know that your flight has changed? The 744 will only replace the A330's x3 weekly, theres still x4 weekly flights operated with the A333's with the new suites.

My seat map on my qff login has changed.
According to Airline route, the 744 services will be on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

[defurax]

I can't imagine for a minute they will add PE to MEL-HKG. A massive logistical pain to plan for it only three days a week and makes it difficult to book for business people who would ideally need it daily.

Well, in the end QF has decided to sell PE on MEL-HKG. This will be great as less points are required to upgrade to J and PE to Asia is often very affordable.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Well, in the end QF has decided to sell PE on MEL-HKG. This will be great as less points are required to upgrade to J and PE to Asia is often very affordable.

View attachment 59756

Excellent and as i expected.

Clearly NOT a "massive logistical nightmare"

 

[Isochronous]

Is there a sale to promote direct MEL-HKG PE availability?

 

[defurax]

Is there a sale to promote direct MEL-HKG PE availability?

The current HKG PE sale from MEL (Premium Economy Apex Deal) indicates prices from $1,629, but when you select the direct MEL-HKG service you can find return fares as low as $1,595. Not bad, I think earlier this year I booked SYD-HKG for $1,399 in PE, this was the cheapest I had ever seen for PE on that route.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

My seat map on my qff login has changed.
According to Airline route, the 744 services will be on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

That's correct!

I logged into my QFF account today & both flights ( QF 29 & QF 30 ) for which I'm taking in June/July 2016, the seat allocation has changed as this is now a B747 on both legs departing MEL on a Sunday.

I'm pretty pleased as the A330 that often services this route from MEL is an old non- refurbished A330 and a ride on the Queen is a bit of step up IMHO.

 

[Isochronous]

Any word on where the spare A330 is going? PER-HKG would be nice!

 

[Awesom Andy]

Any word on where the spare A330 is going? PER-HKG would be nice!

That would be interesting, although it's not a route which I'll ever use. My personal favourite would be ADL-SIN but I doubt it would ever get enough demand, especially since there's virtually no connecting traffic in SIN apart from a few 3K destinations. If I have to make a guess though, I would place my money on SYD-PEK, or MEL-PVG.

 

[cmon0005]

My personal favourite would be ADL-SIN but I doubt it would ever get enough demand, especially since there's virtually no connecting traffic in SIN apart from a few 3K destinations.

There are quite a number of connecting flights out of SIN other than 3K. UL to Colombo, 9w to BOM/DEL, PG to BKK/USM, JL to Japan all of which have QF codeshares too, there are probably more that I haven't thought of as well so certainly not a lack of destinations to connect to.

 

[Himeno]

Any word on where the spare A330 is going? PER-HKG would be nice!

QF put in a request for 3 extra flights to HKG/week (for 28/week, up from 25) and to codeshare on these flights with BA, 9W and AY.

I expect the extra A330 flights created by making QF29/30 MEL-HKG 747 3xweekly will be used on SYD-HKG to make QF117/118 daily.

 

[hutch]

QF put in a request for 3 extra flights to HKG/week (for 28/week, up from 25) and to codeshare on these flights with BA, 9W and AY.

I expect the extra A330 flights created by making QF29/30 MEL-HKG 747 3xweekly will be used on SYD-HKG to make QF117/118 daily.

Yes. If the 747 is doing Mel-Hkg from Fri-Sun, then I suspect that A330 will do SYD-HKG on those days for a dbl daily service.

Fair increase I'm hkg capacity.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Yes. If the 747 is doing Mel-Hkg from Fri-Sun, then I suspect that A330 will do SYD-HKG on those days for a dbl daily service.

Fair increase I'm hkg capacity.

That makes sense too, I guess. QF117/118 has been getting reasonably good loads for the few dates I've looked at (although it could be a coincidence). And while I can't speak for J on this route, my mum's friends who frequent this route in Y (self funded) have all switched from CX to QF in the last year or so. Those who used to take VS have also gotten on board QF rather than CX. CX is going through its media bashings phase in HKG these days, and the effort of that is definitely showing.

 

[mannej]

The extra A330 could be nice for the pax on QF111/112 to ensure that they won't have to spend ~6 hours on EBN again!