I heard a while back that Jetstar were possibly going to be flying to the US.

I heard a while back that Jetstar were possibly going to be flying to the US. Does anyone have an update on this, or is this not something that is in the pipeline anymore?

They were apparently looking at putting the B787 on the San Francisco route and several European routes several years ago.  Nothing has been announced.

JQ3 SYD-HNL. 

Frankly anything longer in Jetstar would be absolutely painful. YMMV

Actually, I've flown in Jetstar Economy on this flight and found to be actually quite comfortable. Not quite Qantas or those other premium airlines but still quite good value for money.

I don't see how Jetstar serving the US would be good for the qantas group? They would be creaming profit from qantas on what is a busy route with not much competition.

No sure if I understand the economics of what makes a Jetstar route work, but right now United fly SFO - SYD, so maybe Jetstar could carve out a route there; a route that QF use to fly. 

Questions I can't answer are (1) is there enough demand for that route, and (2) would there be much cannibalisation from QF's LAX and DFW routes?

I would like that option for personal travel, as both LAX and DFW are not desirable holiday destinations in themselves. Agree that it would be painful to fly jetstar for 13 hours, but I see that as more of an economy class issue rather than a jetstar issue. 

I understand that the economics of LCC model struggles on long-haul routes. This was supported when Air Asia dumped its European routes.

I don't see Jetstar flying to mainland USA. There would be little if no feed and I suspect Jetstar will have a focus where the growth is -  Asia.

AirAsia X dumped Europe because they struggled with the equipment they had. They also discovered much better returns could be made by flying longer Asian routes and to Australia.

Tony Fernandes wants to try again with the A350, though.

Yep I understand a major issue was with Air Asia X fuel burning fleet and that may indeed change with next gen aircraft. But LCC model struggles long-haul when as you correctly point out, there is a massive amount of growth and revenue closer to home.

There is an ausbt article from Jan 11 titled Jetstar plans Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights for new routes to USA, Europe that discussed this.

Quite a few things have changed since that article; such as the cancellation of some of the B787 order and the Emirates partnership. Wonder if that partnership means the european destinations would be less likely, since you can effectively fly QF to Athens, Munich, Milan, Rome...

What about SYD - HKG for jetstar? To pick up the slack from cancelling qf87/88, and have a low cost option to compete with CX.

I agree that Jetstar flying to mainland Europe is now less likely... Apart from replacing the current A330 routes, the new 787 were to fly Singapore to onward European destinations... notably Athens was mentioned at the time. With the EK partnership and QF's relocation of European flights from Singapore, I just don't see this anymore.

Jetstar may use extra planes to fly into more secondary Chinese cities from Singapore (and hopefully HKG) or enhance flights between jetstar hubs. Not sure whether SYD-HKG should be high on the list though as HKG is a key premium market.

Airlines are struggling with long-haul and Jetstar should focus on Asia... but i'm only guessing and I'll be interested to see what happens.

I reckon that San Francisco will still be high on JQ's list for the 787. SFO is mainly leisure but with some business, although a lot of those businesses being startups and wanna-be startups would still be in economy (or some type of 'economy plus' if JQ goes that way). Also it's an "end-point" for travel, people just go to San Francisco and come straight back, they don't transfer, which is one reason QF pulled out of SFO in favour of DFW, as DFW is much better for feeing passengers on to QF-codeshared AA flights.

And the 787 really would do well on a route like this, doesn't need the high number of passengers as a 747 but is still super fuel efficient. Add the strong Aussie dollar and it's almost a no-brainer!

Asian cities? I can see that. They could do well out of Sydney-Singapore along with their current Melbourne-Singapore. Maybe to Hong Kong to feed into Jetstar HK flights into China, although this would riusk undercutting QF flights to HK. I think Shanghai might be possible, but again, there's the risk of eating into QF's ticket sales.

I wouln't be surprised if Jetstar Asia start flying SIN to a few key European holiday destinations. Add a few extra Aus flights (SYD and ADL). Coupled with existing SE Asia feeder flights you'd have the LCC version of Qantas' mooted "premium Asian based carrier"... With the lower cast base of SIN (?) and the 787 could this be feasible?

Some great insight, - thanks for your comments everyone.  (Glad to know that I wasn't imagining it).  I really miss the Qantas to SFO route.  I dislike LA with a passion, and frankly DFW does not interest me unless I'm looking to go to NY and want to stop over for a day or 2 to break the journey.  SFO is an awesome city and a good base for other quick trips (Seattle, Vegas etc).   I'd really like to see Jetstar pick that up again, but as some of you mentioned, it may be at Qantas expense.  Bit of a shame.  AirNZ fly to SFO however, I really dislike traveling via AKL, although AirNZ is a decent product and the crew are always great.  I think V Australia also used to fly to SFO, but no longer?  I'm not a fan of V Australia.  In my experience the food and service was poor and the seats are terribly hard on the back-side.  Anyway, thanks again for the contributions to the topic.

I think UA does SYD-SFO?