QF A388's out of action - who is inconvenienced? [Merged Thread]

[markis10]

What are the regos of the two from LAX? Are they the most recently delivered? What about the ones stuck in LHR and SYD? Are they the oldest after Nancy Bird?

OQF came back this morning, the second youngest OQE is the other bird in LAX besides OQD which is also in LAX.

Last flights were:

03/11/2010 VH-OQE A380-800 QF11 Sydney Los Angeles

22/11/2010 VH-OQF A380-800 QF6002 Los Angeles Sydney

3/11/2010 VH-OQD A380-800 QF93 Melbourne Los Angeles

For some reason I thought there was one at LHR, OQC is in SYD, and B in FRA with A in SIN

 

[oz_mark]

Maybe it is OQD in LHR then?

 

[docjames]

Will be an amazing nonews day the next time a A380 has a minor techincal issue causing delay........

 

[jb747]

None were in London......

 

[JetLagged]

Had a very nasty email today - my QF31 flight to LHR next Thursday is now officially a 747 rather than A380 flight - DAMN! Unless I get my requested upgrade to F, then I'm not going to be sleeping much: I can't sleep on my back, and on my side end up with a nasty steel bar digging into my hip in the Mk1s - grrrr.......

 

[Jos888]

Had a very nasty email today - my QF31 flight to LHR next Thursday is now officially a 747 rather than A380 flight - DAMN! Unless I get my requested upgrade to F, then I'm not going to be sleeping much: I can't sleep on my back, and on my side end up with a nasty steel bar digging into my hip in the Mk1s - grrrr.......

Are you able to choose your seat? We flew from LHR to SIN last Sunday on a packed 747. The flight was originally an A380 on which we had chosen our seats. But all of J on the 747 was blocked out right up to the flight, we couldn't choose our seats and we found ourselves in the lower deck next to the galley. Not pleasant. Especially sharing 2 toilets with 40 other people! :evil: Hope you get your upgrade.

 

[Postcode]

I just checked the QF website and it says on the flight information popup that the flight is operated by Cathay Pacific for Qantas and I have seat allocation. Last night it just said seat not specified.

I emailed QF but have heard nothing, as I would expect, but at least I now know.

Akk I just had a thought. Will this affect my extra SG 10kg luggage allowance on top of the 30kg J class allowance as the flight will not be on QF metal?

Received my answer from QF customer care today. What's a week or so?

Checked in at Central rail station today in HKG. It's so convenient and saves storing things at hotels then going back.

First bag 28kg, second 12kg. Luckily my back pack type cabin luggage was on my back. I had already thrown out a good deal of stuff. Looks like the QF allowance for SG is being honoured on CX operated flights or maybe I just got a nice checkin agent.

This really is a good time for CX to show off their product to QF travellers.

 

[dfcatch]

None were in London......

Thanks jb, that's where I was confused too, I thought there was one in London, hence surprised to see one in Syd.

There were still two birds on the ground at LAX yesterday afternoon.

 

[serfty]

Had a very nasty email today - my QF31 flight to LHR next Thursday is now officially a 747 rather than A380 flight - DAMN! Unless I get my requested upgrade to F, then I'm not going to be sleeping much: I can't sleep on my back, and on my side end up with a nasty steel bar digging into my hip in the Mk1s - grrrr.......

It could be worse; there were many J booked PAX Transpacific in the last week or three who had to travel in WHY on 2 Class 744. Why 2 Class? Because no other QF aircraft has the range AND total PAX capacity to come close to matching 388 transpacific.

 

[NM]

Maybe it is OQD in LHR then?

OQF came back this morning, the second youngest OQE is the other bird in LAX besides OQD which is also in LAX.

Last flights were:

03/11/2010 VH-OQE A380-800 QF11 Sydney Los Angeles

22/11/2010 VH-OQF A380-800 QF6002 Los Angeles Sydney

3/11/2010 VH-OQD A380-800 QF93 Melbourne Los Angeles

For some reason I thought there was one at LHR, OQC is in SYD, and B in FRA with A in SIN

None were in London......

my bad. Not sure where I read about London. So now we have 1:
VH-OQA in SIN for an extended "break"
VH-OQB still in FRA for scheduled maintenance
VH-OQC still in SYD
VH-OQD still in LAX
VH-OQE returning to service to operate some SYD-SIN-LHR-SIN-SYD services
VH-OQF returning to service to operate some SYD-SIN-LHR-SIN-SYD services
VH-OQG to be delivered before the end of 2010
VH-OQH to be delivered before the end of 2010

 

[markis10]

Qantas source have put up quite a detailed sitrep:

The QANTAS Source - the independent, impartial guide to all things QANTAS.

It would appear E & F have modded engines all along much like the new deliveries!

 

[straitman]

my bad. Not sure where I read about London. So now we have 1:
VH-OQA in SIN for an extended "break"
VH-OQB still in FRA for scheduled maintenance
VH-OQC still in SYD
VH-OQD still in LAX
VH-OQE returning to service to operate some SYD-SIN-LHR-SIN-SYD services
VH-OQF returning to service to operate some SYD-SIN-LHR-SIN-SYD services
VH-OQG to be delivered before the end of 2010
VH-OQH to be delivered before the end of 2010

There were two (with engines) obvious in the SYD hangers yesterday at 1845.

 

[oz_mark]

There were two (with engines) obvious in the SYD hangers yesterday at 1845.

OQF was ferried to SYD yesterday, so you would have seen OQC and OQF.

I believe OQE was due back in SYD this morning (if thats what QF6003 was!).

 

[NM]

It would appear E & F have modded engines all along much like the new deliveries!

That makes sense is what I was speculating due to these two being the ones put back into service.

This certainly makes interesting reading:

The engine modifications to the Trent 900 engines were already in production before the QF32 incident which indicates that Rolls-Royce may have been aware of potential issues with the original design. The engines on VH-OQE, VH-OQF and the new build aircraft appear to have minor differences to the engines on the first four aircraft making them suitable for the component modifications. The QANTAS A380 engines are owned by a Hong Kong bank and maintained by Rolls-Royce with QANTAS paying on a “power by the hour” basis. It is unclear whether QANTAS were aware of the differences to the engines on VH-OQE/F. The engines on VH-OQA/B/C/D may need to be replaced with new engines, possibly from the A380 production line, with the original engines returning to Rolls-Royce for rebuild.

Of course this is not official published information from Qantas, but the source is generally reliable.

 

[Kennycbr]

Just when I thought i was safely on an A380 flight, QF32 on Tuesday 7 December has been changed to B747 this morning. Had pretty good seat selection this morning and selected 40C. Have also put in a upgrade request with the latest promotion but I guess there wouldn't be much chance of that being successful.

 

[CoolHand]

I wonder if Qantas maintenace has a top-down, or bottom-up maintenance strategy.
There is no suggestion of an impact on the grounding of the a380.

 

[Hawkeye]

Having had an F-->J downgrade on a classic award segment, I've now been similarly downgraded on a paid SIN-MEL QF10 sector in a couple of weeks. I had been falsely optimistic that the return of the A380's to the kangaroo route would avoid this, but there you go.

Oh well ... I still have a JFK-HKG leg in CX F to cheer me up, and Qantas did call to say they would refund the F to J points difference.

 

[CoolHand]

But to directly relate to the topic at hand, yes i also received the message from alan joyce.
And a call from QF a week ago; re assigned onto 747 lax service into syd rather than a380 lax-mel.
Exit row refunded, after check of availability i re-purchased exit row as was available.

ps also had upgrade today sfo-lax to first on aa.

catchya

Luke

 

[MatF]

Just when I thought i was safely on an A380 flight, QF32 on Tuesday 7 December has been changed to B747 this morning. Had pretty good seat selection this morning and selected 40C. Have also put in a upgrade request with the latest promotion but I guess there wouldn't be much chance of that being successful.

Bugger. Our QF31 SIN-LHR leg on 7/12 has been subbed to a 744 as well.

We had 34 A/B (front row of Y+) on the 388. It looks like we've been assigned the same seats now on the 744 according to the QF website.

I was really looking forward to the 380
We booked MEL-SIN on QF9 then SIN-LHR on QF31 specifically to go on the 380, so I'm a bit deflated.

Quick Q - are the Y+ seats different on the 4-class 744's and the 380?

Fingers crossed for an op-up I guess (though I imagine that's even less likely than it was before).

 

[ab156]

QF11 2/12 seating has turned into a comedy...

Travelling Y+
Appears to be overbooked, I have been called asking if I would "like" to move flights
It seems when seating was released the system allocated WP seats in the forward cabin (23/24). Great, except it ignored other PAX on same booking. When I checked I had a seat, partner had nothing. Seat beside me taken.

Called the helpdesk to get it sorted, told there was another WP who had been assigned their aisle seat and they couldn't move. Only two seats left in entire cabin were middle. As the flight is overbooked I was strongly advised to grab one of the 2 available seats for partner.

Suggested seating need to look at the WP allocations and look for accompanying PAX otherwise it will be chaos at check-in. Suggestion rejected... then pointed out that by selecting one of the pair (D, E) of available seats I would created a "checkmate" situation for seating. It is now impossible for any pairs (other than us) to be moved without moving most of the cabin. Funny.

So now I am looking forward to check-in and potentially meeting a new WP friend on the way over and dealing with a very annoyed partner...

With all the changed flights I am surprised that this is still happening.