who agrees that the qantas a380 needs a refurb on its seats to compete against virgins new seat on its B777?

Thinking about product longevity, you'd want your plane to be competitive for 10 years plus.

Assuming QF went down the track of pulling an A380 out of service, it would make sense to do the whole plane. This doesn't mean ripping up all the seats... some cabins may just need a refresh/touch up. 

The market has shifted too dramatically in that 10 years. The design life would've expected 7-10 years before refurb but when the class standard now stipulates direct aisle access and as stated above, their domestic A330 has it, the update is imminent.

They'll continue to say it's a great product but when VA and AA come on line and start hitting their P&L, you can bet your bottom dollar there'll be an upgrade. They're probably already working on it so it's swift and in line with maintenance.

Hasn't El Joyco already said that he didn't want to install the Business Suite on the 380's? Or has he changed his mind :)!

Pretty sure Qantas are aware that there is now an appreciable product gap between the A330 and 380. And also a gap with key competitors wherever the A380 flies. When they decide to plug that gap and with what is an interesting question. It may not be with the current A330 business suite. They may refine/adjust it according to what they have learned from staff and customers who are using it. Or they may come up with another answer to suit the dimensions of the larger plane and what the market competition is offering on long haul (rather than Asian/domestic medium haul). It'll probably align with the introduction of the 787 and what they install on those.

They are just starting the refresh of the 737s and have still to complete all the A330s, which I imagine will keep their engineering crew busy for some time yet (end of 2016?). By then the 787s are due for arrival and I'm sure the design team is well advanced in planning for the next generation of business product.

When the A330 refurb programme is complete I'd rather fly that than an A380. Direct aisle access is crucial.

I absolutely agree that the A380 needs an upgrade. Like others have said, it will not happen until after the A330s are refurbished.

J will clearly be upgraded to the Business Suite. This is essential to compete with Virgin and provide a superior product to AA... hell, Air New Zealand's Business Premier suites are better than Skybed 2. I'd also expect that they'd be able to fit more Business Suites into the same space (going by Thompson's LOPA), so that will improve the A380s capacity and profitability

I also think Qantas will upgrade/refesh their First Class product. Frankly this is necessary to compete with Emirates and Etihad (and the Asian carriers). They'll probably keep the same basic design, but fix the privacy partitions in place and also providing some sort of door/screen for each suite.

Will QF upgrade Economy and Premium Economy somewhat? Recaro (who make the seats for both classes) have introduced new models of the seats used on the A380, so QF may consider it.

If QF upgrade First and Business, they'll be able to get back a lot of premium traffic from Emirates (Qantas Business Suite is a better hard product to Emirates BC, although Emirates does have the bar). Qantas may consider putting a bar in their A380s (where the lounge is) and perhaps a First Class shower as well in order to compete, but I'm not sure if they will.

The bar sound realistic but the shower doesn't!

Really don't need a shower imo. YMMV

It probably isn't... even SQ don't see much of a need for an onboard shower.

Is the new Recaro economy seat the new economy seats on the refurbished A330-300s? What model is the new seat?

Qantas will seriouslly need to replace the skybeds with the new business class suites as well as upgrading the entertaiment system to ex3.