Two QF flights Scheduled LAX-BNE the same night?

[Snowant]

I'm poking around looking to book a flight CBR-SLC via the Qantas site (and hoping to score points upgrades), and lamenting the demise of the 747s.

(Yes, I know there's still a Syd-Sfo 747 option but the connections to SLC are on United, no way).

And there appears to be two flights leaving LAX for Brisbane within a few hours of each other. Is demand that great? And, would the later flight (after 11pm) be likely to be less full than the mid evening departure do you reckon?

 

[serfty]

There's now QF16 and QF56 some nights (in June they'll both be 789 operated with QF56 operating Mo, We and Sa).

 

[Snowant]

Yes, it's QF16 and QF56, one leaves LAX mid evening, the other leaves after 11pm. Someone on another forum has suggested that the very late night flight is more popular. Counter-intuitive! I'm trying to get on a less-crowded flight, that eternal holy grail.

 

[serfty]

There's now QF16 and QF56 some nights (in June they'll both be 789 operated with QF56 operating Mo, We and Sa).

Just to note that in June QF55 BNE-LAX operates 8:35pm to 4:15pm Mo, We & Sa.

 

[Snowant]

I'm flying Feb and March, and just using the itineraries the Qantas site throws up for that route. Figure if I did a search using Tuesday departures, those dual flights wouldn't show up. Which means only one Dreamliner leaving LAX and I'm guessing those would be a lot fuller?

 

[Himeno]

I'm poking around looking to book a flight CBR-SLC via the Qantas site (and hoping to score points upgrades), and lamenting the demise of the 747s.

(Yes, I know there's still a Syd-Sfo 747 option but the connections to SLC are on United, no way).

And there appears to be two flights leaving LAX for Brisbane within a few hours of each other. Is demand that great? And, would the later flight (after 11pm) be likely to be less full than the mid evening departure do you reckon?

When the QF15/16 flight changed to 787, they increased to 10 flights per week with the addition of a 3 weekly afternoon BNE departure QF55/56. The second flight was a 747 for a period, but has now changed to a 787.

 

[Snowant]

I sure wish they were still flying the 747s. I'm terrified that if I don't get an upgrade, it'll be sardine time. Even PE on the 787 was quite squishy.

 

[Himeno]

I'm flying Feb and March, and just using the itineraries the Qantas site throws up for that route. Figure if I did a search using Tuesday departures, those dual flights wouldn't show up. Which means only one Dreamliner leaving LAX and I'm guessing those would be a lot fuller?

Qantas now has the following flights to AU from LAX

QF12 LAX-SYD A380 Daily
QF16 LAX-BNE 787 Daily
QF56 LAX-BNE 787 Mo, We, Sa
QF94 LAX-MEL A380 Daily
QF96 LAX-MEL B787 Tu Fr (aircraft 4 weekly from SFO We, Th, Sa, Sun as QF50)

They all depart between 9pm and midnight.
The aircraft arrive early morning (QF11, 15, 93) or late afternoon/early evening (QF55, 95). The aircraft from QF15 is used for the QF11/12 LAX-JFK return.

 

[therudies86]

I've found the loads on the earlier flight to be lower than the later flight - might be as the later one is a connection from from New York. Im looking at some travel to US in April and there are better fares/availability on QF56 vs QF16.

QF56 also (is supposed to) arrive around 445-5 am, which means no queues at immigration on arrival. It does make for a longer day in Brisbane though ....

 

[Snowant]

Thanks therudies86, I was all set to grab the later flight but more info had me rethinking that. So I've booked the outward trip on QF15 as there was no second option (not sure why), and the return trip is QF56. My connection to Cbr goes at 8-something am, so a limited amount of misery and it's good to have time as you have to catch a bus-thing, like at Sydney.

Qantas site was being particularly buggy though so I've ended up with a "saved" and a "booked" version of the same trip. gaaah! Did the Qantas Chat thing, and they said the saved one hadn't "charged through" whatever that means, but both are still showing up in my "bookings". Hopefully the dud one will vanish and I can start putting in upgrade requests.

 

[AIRwin]

Hopefully the dud one will vanish and I can start putting in upgrade requests.

You should be able to put in upgrade request for the paid booking in the meantime?

 

[Snowant]

You should be able to put in upgrade request for the paid booking in the meantime?

Probably, just looking at that double lot of flights on the QF site is doing my head in! They've sent me one itinerary/receipt thing, for the correct bookings number, so I'm probably just being paranoid but it's annoying.

 

[Himeno]

Thanks therudies86, I was all set to grab the later flight but more info had me rethinking that. So I've booked the outward trip on QF15 as there was no second option (not sure why), and the return trip is QF56. My connection to Cbr goes at 8-something am, so a limited amount of misery and it's good to have time as you have to catch a bus-thing, like at Sydney.

Qantas site was being particularly buggy though so I've ended up with a "saved" and a "booked" version of the same trip. gaaah! Did the Qantas Chat thing, and they said the saved one hadn't "charged through" whatever that means, but both are still showing up in my "bookings". Hopefully the dud one will vanish and I can start putting in upgrade requests.

The website booking tool is extremely annoying. It doesn't offer all available flight options and tries to send you through connections that the airline prefers over what might be more desirable for the passenger. Often trying to force connections that are near impossible to make in reality.
Most of the time, where connections are required, you have to play around with the multi city booking option to even see what you might want.

I had the issue with the 'saved' booking for a short trip last Oct. I was looking up flight options and checking prices. After getting the info I wanted, I closed out of the site. A few hours later, I got an email saying they had 'saved' the booking, but when attempting to adjust said booking to get what I actually wanted, it refused to let me while also preventing me from starting over and booking what I had wanted.

 

[Snowant]

Oh, how awful Himeno!!! I had a few "strange" experiences this time actually. I chose "saver" fares that can be upgraded, and clicked through the pages to pay, only I noticed the cost and timings suddenly changed, and realised with horror that the outward trip had now become "sale", which can't be upgraded. Very annoyed. Went back and re-did it. And then I could click on "no thanks" for carbon (I'm single and child free, I'm saving coughloads of carbon!), or "save this card", and when I tried to pay, it would go back to error messages about the carbon option. So hence the "save" thing.

And yeah, the site gives crazy routings, like Cbr-Adl-Syd and nonsense like that. Or Lax - DFW - SLC. Why?! And I have long suspected it doesn't show all available flights. But I used to book via travel.com and similar sites, and sometimes they got tangled even worse. If I knew a good travel agent locally, I'd jolly-well go back to using them.

 

[serfty]

There is the 'same day' online booking confidence policy.

You can call on the same calendar day as booking and make changes at no charge. Best done early AM.

 

[Himeno]

There is the 'same day' online booking confidence policy.

You can call on the same calendar day as booking and make changes at no charge. Best done early AM.

and if the only time you're able to use the website is late evening?

 

[serfty]

and if the only time you're able to use the website is late evening?

It makes it fare more complicated ...

 

[Lynda2475]

Qantas now has the following flights to AU from LAX

Seems strange to me there is only ever one SYD flight, im sure there used to be 2 (and sometimes 3 in holiday periods, pre A380) even so I wouldn't think Qld population would have demand for 2 flights, whereas SYD has to cater for much bigger population more domestic connecting flights.

Then again I guess SYD had a direct SFO flight (and if not traveling directly onto JFK, Id always choose SFO over LAX) and we have the DFW flight too - anything to avoid LAX.

 

[Himeno]

Seems strange to me there is only ever one SYD flight, im sure there used to be 2 (and sometimes 3 in holiday periods, pre A380) even so I wouldn't think Qld population would have demand for 2 flights, whereas SYD has to cater for much bigger population more domestic connecting flights.

Then again I guess SYD had a direct SFO flight (and if not traveling directly onto JFK, Id always choose SFO over LAX) and we have the DFW flight too - anything to avoid LAX.

SYD has the 6 weekly DFW A380 (QF7/8) and 6 weekly SFO 747 (QF73/74) as well as 5 weekly to HNL (QF3/4) and seasonal 3 weekly flights to YVR (QF75/76).
They also add seasonal 2-3 weekly flights on SYD-LAX during peak season (QF17/18).

SYD used to have 2 daily LAX flights on QF, but one was dropped a few years back when AA reentered the SYD market and QF returned to SFO.

 

[justinbrett]

It will be interesting to see what happens with the second BNE-LAX flight when the next round of 787s are delivered.

I think AJ has all but confirmed a new NA port will be on the cards from BNE. If there’s a daily BNE-ORD flight that might kill off one of the LAX flights.