American Airlines flies Boeing 777-300ER to Sydney on Nov 13
By David Flynn, October 22 2015
American Airlines will bring its flagship Boeing 777-300ER jet to Sydney on Friday November 13 as a prelude to the start of daily flights between Sydney and Los Angeles.
The Boeing 777-300ER will be flown down from Hong Kong overnight, after completing its daily AA137 flight from Dallas, to arrive at Sydney Airport in the early morning.
The airline and its local partner Qantas will conduct walk-through tours to showcase the Boeing's first class (above), business class (below) and economy seating to the media, premium customers, travel agents and corporate accounts on an invitation-only basis.
Exclusive AusBT reader contest: Take a tour of American Airlines' Boeing 777-300ER at Sydney Airport
American Airlines will begin Sydney-Los Angeles flights on December 19 with flight AA72 departing at noon each day to reach Los Angeles at 6.50am that same morning.
The return flight AA73 will be wheels-up from LAX at 9.50pm to arrive in Sydney at 7.55am two days later.
Also read: How to book American's Sydney-LAX flights with frequent flyer points
As part of the joint venture Qantas will trim its daily stateside Boeing 747 schedule to three Sydney-LAX flights per week, while also dropping one of the Melbourne-LAX services.
Those jumbo jets will allow Qantas to restart direct Sydney-San Francisco flights six days a week from December 18.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2011
Total posts 362
The 747 MEL-LAX service isn't daily, it's 3 times a week and the A380 schedule isn't being affected by the changes.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
David,
Have you been invited? Will you be writing about it if you are going?
On a side note, it is rediculous that the aircraft is left sitting overnight in HKG! I should imagine HKG/DFW operating as an overnight flight, touching down at DFW around 5am, in time for connecting flights. At the moment AA138 leaves too late to allow for decent connections.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2561
Of course we're going :)
27 Aug 2013
Total posts 30
I trust AA knows what does or doesn't work for its own network. Some points that I consider relevant:
> Adjusting the current service times (HKG departure at 1330 and DFW arrival at 1515) to allow for a 0500 DFW arrival, the aircraft would have to leave HKG at 0315 which is downright nasty.
> You can make afternoon / evening connections in DFW to lots of places including IAD, BOS, EWR, ORD and MIA (I'm not going to list every possible combination however).
> Codeshare partner CX offers so many other services including directs into many of the big cities and you can get onwards connections from there if required (the whole point of oneworld!)
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Mar 2014
Total posts 567
Agree with ausdt that it's a whole lot more than how long the aircraft sits on the deck.
They have to factor in crew rostering at an outpost and the time between shifts, line maintenance checks, airport curfes, and many more functional requirements as well as the aforementioned practical requirements that optimise the timing.
VA leave a 777 on the deck in Abu Dhabi for 3 days. The perils of operating to an outpost and not your own hub.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
Some good points ausdt. I agree though it seems wasteful. Omg! Maybe AA can operate another service to an Asia Pac destination rather than have the plane sit there for over 12h! Perhaps a HKG/SIN service?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Mar 2014
Total posts 567
HKG > SYD is underserviced by OW airlines.... Send it down here more often AA. The exhibition trip shows it's possible with timing.
Oh and I know there are 5-7 OW flights a day between Sydney and Hong Kong.
27 Aug 2013
Total posts 30
5th freedom rights to operate HKG-Australia could be an issue here but don't know enough about bilaterals, rights etc to provide an answer. Himeno knows the bilaterals very well, perhaps if you read this Himeno you can give an opinion?
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1031
The current US/HK bilateral provides American carriers with 49 weekly 5th freedom flights to Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Of those 49 flights, a max of 7 is allowed to any one country, except for Singapore where 14 are allowed and Japan where 21 are allowed (with a max of 7 to TYO and 4 to KIX).
How many are UA and/or DL using?
US carriers have no pax rights on HKG-AU.
14 Aug 2014
Total posts 17
UA already flies a 777-200ER from HKG to SIN, not sure if AA would be able to fill its spare 77W intra-asia from HKG.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
Perhaps KUL. Given that MH has pulled out of the US. Or BKK?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 125
Would fly that over those awful A380 Marc Newsom biz seats. Just came up last night on QF93 and was thinking how nice it was flying on the new 330 product back from BKK recently. QF will need to up their game or we'll all be on AA metal
30 Aug 2013
Total posts 437
Its interesting that AA are continuing with intl F class. When you have a fantastic J hard product (as AA do) the only thing you can really offer above that in F is a better soft product and with AA's soft product in all classes being dreadful there's very little differentiation between J and F. I had to double check that the F photo above was F and not J - they are so similar. DL and UA have already realised this - I wonder why AA havent. SQ has a similar problem - their J product is so good that its hard to differentiate F. The difference between SQ and AA is that the soft product in both classes is excellent.
11 Jul 2012
Total posts 4
It's very interesting that AA now have a much better product business class than Qantas to LA.
The A380/747 seat is 8 years old now. This AA one just 2 years old.
Of course Qantas wins hands down on lounges, food and service. But AA has the much better hard product.
Does the Qantas 747 or A380 have mood lighting?
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
Transatlantic AA is on par with the competition. E.g The LHR/JFK service between AA and BA is indistinguishable.
I think there needs to be a little more flair on AA's part if it wants to compete effectively on the transpacific sectors. You can't win this on hard product alone. For a start, all those unionised lemons within their pool of cabin crew must not be allowed to be rostered on transpacific flights. They create a very caustic environment for the rest of the crew who do try.
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 149
Nope, AA biz is streets ahead of Club World. TA I would fly on AA metal over BA metal in F or J.
07 Feb 2013
Total posts 13
You have to wonder, given QF's solid FY'15 profit, if El Joyceo will be brave & refurb the A380's with the A330 new business suite... would give them arguably the best biz (when you factor both hard & soft product) to the US, & much needed product consistency (bar the (on their way out) 747s). Possibly an opportunity to re - think the layout of the '380 cabin & put first where it SHOULD be... at the front of the upper deck. Maybye take some inspiration from Etihad & introduce a suite? Move PE to where first now is, & put in a bar? THAT would be something, & combined with lounges & soft product, highly competitive to both US & Europe...
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 149
First on the main deck takes advantage of the width of that deck and is the natural place to situate a spacious first-class cabin. The three-abreast setup in F on the main deck is fantastic. If anything, they should remove row 5 and increase the pitch of the other 4 rows.
Installing the business suite on the upper deck would be fantastic; passengers win with four-abreast, and QF wins by releasing fewer award and upgrade seats, thus preserving yield.
07 Feb 2013
Total posts 13
... or you could go TWO abreast in F on the upper deck, a la Etihad's appartments... flying it next year to London, & from all accounts the new benchmark for F hard product...
Qantas
13 Jun 2015
Total posts 139
Really good news for Sydney travellers! Sydney-LAX has five airlines that fly to both of these destinations - QF, VA, DL, UA & now AA. Wowee!
07 Mar 2014
Total posts 11
I would not be so quick to jump in on this. Yes, the plane is new and looks nice. It is noisier and dryer than a 380 though. As for the seats, wait till you have tried them. US airlines are notorious for not so good seats which are behind the times. Having travelled hundreds of times on AA both domestically in the US and internationally to Canada and S America I can say confidently that the service is typically American and below par with most other carriers. They may try a bit harder at first on this run but see how it ends up later. Hopefully they will be better than Delta (not too bad on 777 business) and United (very bad on the 747 service in business). I have not done SYD LAX on the new United plane yet.
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 149
The J seats are the same as QR, CX, etc. The soft product may not be as good, but compared to, say, Club World, it's still miles ahead. The F hard product is not up to the standard of QF or SQ, but it's still better than United, who are dumping F to AU anyway.
I have it on good authority, from a former BA passenger who now commutes weekly between JFK and LHR on AA, that the 77W is very comfortable in F and J, and streets ahead of BA between the USA and London.
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