moa999, QF may be 'only one aircraft down on plan' as you say, but the difficulty is that the normal A388 rotations require 10 of the 12 nominally available aircraft of that class, so if two are inoperable as is currently the case, there are no spares.
From memory the previous B744 rosters also required 10 of the 12 of that model, but QF then added extra MEL - LAX or SYD - LAX journeys on some days of the week hence passengers are now experiencing aircraft substitutions (typically A388 downgraded to a B744), late running (due to tight turnarounds) and some flights suddenly being cancelled (such as some SYD - JNB - SYD flights.)
Travellers are entitled to ask why when QF is now again profitable (unlike not so long ago when it was bleeding masses of red ink) can it not have sufficient aircraft to operate flights for which it has accepted many bookings. Many passengers will care little than QF 'lost' one of its A388s due to a maintenance accident, an event that no one could foresee.
