Qantas begins Airbus A380 flights to Dallas

Noooooooooo! It is going to be sad to lose QF 8 from BNE. We had a very close working relationship her and I, those early mornings in the lounge before it got busy, the perfect timing for a business day in Sydney with well times onward connections and not forgetting those cheeky attempts at buying duty free booze. Take care dear seat 3F, or your new A380 equivalent, I will miss you.

It was also, oddly enough, cheaper than the regular domestic flights in Economy.

Exactly, take that GST! $89 + 8,000 points (10,000 now) for a fully flat bed....Bliss!

Indeed!

Will seats still have to be blocked off in economy to make the diret flight???

I'm curious too if they do have to block seats, but considering that there's a 1000km distance between the two A/C types, load issues wouldn't be as drastic?

I read, albeit on a pilot's rumour network, that 100 seats would need to be blocked off on the return leg.

i think the amount of 'cargo' underneath may also influence the outcome as well.. im guessing there's lots of planning/balance involved on 'where' the total weight is distributed.. in cabin v under cabin!! eg..high cargo flights may lead to more 'empty' seats and vv..it could change from flight to fllight... just my opinion

Good photo op for EK/QF big birds next to each other (if there at the same time?)

On AA's home turf no less. The humanity!

QF has joint ventures with both AA and EK. EK has been trying to get codeshares with AA for a while. Maybe there could be a joint photo op with EK and QF A380s and an AA 77W with an announcement of bringing AA into the EK/QF deal.

Or maybe an announcement with up to 5 aircraft (depending on timings, QF A380, EK A380, AA 77W, BA 747, QR 77L) to bring EK into oneworld.

The PR opportunities! The mind boggles.

Does Dallas/Fort Worth have any landmark suitable for a double-A380 flyover as was seen over Sydney Harbour in March 2013?

Cowboys Stadium perhaps.

Grassy Knoll? George W Presidential Library? :)

One word answer to "fly over landmarks"

NO

Why would they want to do that?

DFW/LHR is one of the prime sectors for AA and BA. It would be a bit silly to muscle in.

In the process you torture your passengers by putting them on one of the loungest routes to London. Unless your passengers were all points-hungry frequent flyer masochist :p

If a good connection at DFW was scheduled, it would only be two hours longer than QF1. Two legs of 15hrs 25mins and 9hrs 10mins with a two hour stopover. But agreed, leave that sector to BA/AA. It's a good business model to dominate the route into a partner hub and utilise their network capacities for onward connections in a bigger market.

Which begs the question why Qantas doesn't fly all Australian sectors to Dubai and leave it to Emirates to provide the onward connections. Both airlines win. As it is, Emirates flies a lot of metal into and out of Australia and exclusively for QF customers in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane heading to Europe/ME. Shouldn't that be Qantas? Or do they lack the a/c? I can understand EK flying into Sydney and Melbourne and providing greater scheduling choice, but why has QF ceded home markets to them in other state capitals? The demand is obviously there.

Having to go through US customs when not going to the US is something I will avoid.

You use to be able to avoid US Customs if not going to the US quite a long time ago.In fact for those of us who remember the days of Panam's 747SP out of Sydney and Melbourne to LA then continuing onto London with a change of planes and flight numbers It was exactly that and do take into account this dated back to when Qantas stopped in Bahrain enroute to London plus the time of the Iran and Iraq war so anything to avoid the Middle East was most welcomed.I do wish that such an option these days though via United through the USA still existed.

nope nope nope

QF is far more likely to send 747s to VCV then back to SFO.

QF returning to SFO would likely have to wait until they get some 787-9's (if they ever do).

Yep, the DFW planes will take over a non-refurb 747 route and hence allow those birds to fly off to heaven.

I'd prefer to get off QF8 in BNE then SYD...

Me to.

Me three! :)

Oh wow I didn't notice that!!

I'll agree It would be nice if they would lower the fares to DFW, considering in the most recent sale it was $1300 to LAX and $1600 to DFW. But, the times I have flown it the 747 has not had a seat free, i'm one of those people who would rather do customs in DFW and then only tough it for an hour or two to most east coast cities.

Considering the alternative is landing in LAX, then taking either a 5-6 hour flight on AA to the east coast, or taking that 5-6 hour flight and then another connection **shudders**.

Y'all know full well that if QFi can charge $1600 to DFW and leave almost completely full, they will continue to do so. It's a monopoly route with excellent connecting feed at both ends, and from the business perspective it is a godsend.

It ain't getting cheaper.

Yes as Qantas does not operate their own lounge,and has no future plans to do so.

Seats still blocked on DFW-SYD leg.

Why would they?? the flight is 13,804km and the max (meaning full fuel , passengers and cargo) range of the a380 is 14,800km that's 1,004km to spare 

Don't have all the technical aspects of A380 in front of me, but I've previously been made aware that QF needed to get the newer/different A380 to do DFW full load both ways.  Was also advised by A380 CSM last week that the DFW to SYD leg would have blocked seats.

Because west bound it is flying into trade winds and with the required minimums factors for a remote flight (ie factor in diversions based on full decompression/engine out situtations) it is a close call.

qantas should do what singapore airlines did and turn a small part of the econamy cabin into business class so that they dont need to block seets.

Is this in reference to SQ long haul A340 LAX and JFK routes? QF refitted and reduced J seats and Increased Y on the A380 as they didn't have the demand.