QF11 Changes

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I'm going to be the lone voice of disagreement here and say that, for me, this evening departure timing is quite handy. The context is that when I'm going to LA it's for leisure and I'm stopping there for at least a few days. So with this timing I could finish up work a bit early on the Friday and head to SYD, arriving into LAX on Friday afternoon. I'll be able to check into my hotel straight away, push through my jet lag for the afternoon and then head to bed a bit early to sort out my jet lag. Saturday morning I find a good coffee and I'm good to go and have the full day to enjoy.

Contrast this with the alternative, a Saturday morning departure and arrival. I won't get much of any sleep on the plane, because it's daytime on my body clock, I'll arrive into LA too early to check in to the hotel and I'll have to push through all of Saturday like a jet lagged zombie.

I know most people are just using LAX as a connection point for flights onwards into North America, so this doesn't work so well for them, but previously the only evening departure option really was Hawaiian Airlines with a connection in Honolulu, so it's nice to have this option. The missing piece is going the other way, it'd be useful for me to have a service departing LAX in the morning so that it arrives into SYD in the evening. That way I can stay awake through the flight then have a late dinner in Sydney and head to bed, ready to go back to work in the morning. It's kind of possible to do this at the moment with Hawaiian but it's a 7am departure from LAX which would probably mean leaving the hotel at 4am.
 
QF11 is a 787 today. It seems to be changed to a 787 from an A380 at least 2-3 times a week nowadays.

I wonder if they are changing it when they have low load factors or ability to rebook onto AA and using the extra time on the ground to do maintenance on the A380.
 
I'm going to be the lone voice of disagreement here and say that, for me, this evening departure timing is quite handy. The context is that when I'm going to LA it's for leisure and I'm stopping there for at least a few days. So with this timing I could finish up work a bit early on the Friday and head to SYD, arriving into LAX on Friday afternoon. I'll be able to check into my hotel straight away, push through my jet lag for the afternoon and then head to bed a bit early to sort out my jet lag. Saturday morning I find a good coffee and I'm good to go and have the full day to enjoy.

Contrast this with the alternative, a Saturday morning departure and arrival. I won't get much of any sleep on the plane, because it's daytime on my body clock, I'll arrive into LA too early to check in to the hotel and I'll have to push through all of Saturday like a jet lagged zombie.

I know most people are just using LAX as a connection point for flights onwards into North America, so this doesn't work so well for them, but previously the only evening departure option really was Hawaiian Airlines with a connection in Honolulu, so it's nice to have this option. The missing piece is going the other way, it'd be useful for me to have a service departing LAX in the morning so that it arrives into SYD in the evening. That way I can stay awake through the flight then have a late dinner in Sydney and head to bed, ready to go back to work in the morning. It's kind of possible to do this at the moment with Hawaiian but it's a 7am departure from LAX which would probably mean leaving the hotel at 4am.
Way back when (mid 1990's), QF 108 commenced operating arriving SYD 2030hrs. Come summer the arrival time behave 2230, inevitably a few delays
occurred meaning missing of curfew. It was moved to a morning arrival within 12 months. Obviously there is more to it than missing curfew, like fleet utilisation, but I with you re beating her lag.

The UA flight ex SFO, started out as a night arrival in SYD too.
 
I wonder if they are changing it when they have low load factors or ability to rebook onto AA and using the extra time on the ground to do maintenance on the A380.
First it was because OQB was out of action, now OQA is out of action until tomorrow at this stage. Nothing to do with load factors.
 
I was going to make funny comment, but may be considered inappropriate in mixed company 😉


They will obviously lose their F seats if they don't wait for an A380 flight or transfer to a different carrier.
I believe some had been rebooked on AA. I assume revenue F and high tier - but others likely would have had to be downgraded.
 

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