NFL Charters Two Qantas A380 for Melbourne Game

[moa999]

Obviously Charters are planned a long time in advance, but still surprising when the fleet is stretched.

QF-OQD flew LAX - SFO as QF6001 on Wed night, and is now flying SFO - MEL as QF336 with 53 footballers and a bunch of coach and staff (NFL Team San Francisco 49ers for Fri weeks game at the MCG)

 

[RooFlyer]

Obviously Charters are planned a long time in advance, but still surprising when the fleet is stretched.

QF-OQD flew LAX - SFO as QF6001 on Wed night, and is now flying SFO - MEL as QF336 with 53 footballers and a bunch of coach and staff (NFL Team San Francisco 49ers for Fri weeks game at the MCG)

They need an A380? . I guess that way they all get a J or F seat ...

 

[AuSammy]

They need an A380? . I guess that way they all get a J or F seat ...

My presumption only plane type in the fleet with the requested number of J seats

 

[elanshin]

They need an A380? . I guess that way they all get a J or F seat ...

A lot of equipment/ cargo is also needed. Plus NFL team is 53 man roster without including support staff.

 

[TheRealTMA]

My presumption only plane type in the fleet with the requested number of J seats

Was amused that one NFL player who earns US$51mil a year, complained about the excessive cost of the air fares to Australia.

Edit: ref ‘Those flights are way too expensive’: Even NFL stars are flinching at the cost of getting to Australia

 

[elanshin]

They need an A380? . I guess that way they all get a J or F seat ...

Seeing some of the stuff they brought over, they probably had 2 or 3 other cargo flights on top of the a380 belly being full.

NFL brought over 60 Tonnes of equipment.
49ers themselves brought over 13 pallets of water for example.

There seems to be a lot of other 49er staff and media coverage entourage with them to promote things.

Funnily the complete opposite strategy is being taken by the Rams (their opponent) who are literally flying in, playing in less then 24h after landing then flying back out on the same night.

 

[DC3]

.. 13 pallets of water ..

 

[moa999]

LA Rams also on an A380 charter QF338 on VH-OQH.
Aircraft had arrived as a normal QF11.

 

[DC3]

.. 13 pallets of water ..

From a trusted water source in Hawaii it seems?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A question was asked in one of the threads as to why QF would charter our their a380s given the reliability issues.

One of the reasons aside from those already given is this:

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-stories/crazy-la-rams-player-loses-it-over-qantas-plane/news-story/b6df2bfbe2be49cb6445235196936e52

That’s valuable PR, and apparently is boosting general QF sales ex USA.

 

[fletty]

Supposedly 2000 'meals' were loaded.

 

[transpactraveller]

VH-OQL and VH-OQA did the charters back on Friday, QF337 and QF339 to LAX and SFO

Are these spare A380's or did some flights get cancelled for this?

 

[moa999]

Believe flights were removed from schedule some 6 months ago.

 

[SeatBackForward]

The airline has seen bookings from the US to Australia rise 50 per cent year on year in the fortnight leading into the game.

wow.

 

[moa999]

That's good to see.
Albeit the actual game only attracted 10k visitors from the US (30k interstate, 60k Vic).

Compare to NRL Vegas which last year was estimated to have 20k Aussies, 10k English and 5k NZ/Pacific attending.

 

[elanshin]

That's good to see.
Albeit the actual game only attracted 10k visitors from the US (30k interstate, 60k Vic).

Compare to NRL Vegas which last year was estimated to have 20k Aussies, 10k English and 5k NZ/Pacific attending.

Its also generated huge amount of interest in Australia from US NFL fan base, many if whom would've never even looked to travel to Australia.

Like you have US fans who now understand Melbourne has good coffee because CMC said it has unbelievably good coffee (and hes known for liking coffee among the 49er fans).

 

[DC3]

Like you have US fans who now understand Melbourne has good coffee because CMC said it has unbelievably good coffee (and hes known for liking coffee among the 49er fans).

I hadn’t realised that yanks knew anything about good coffee. Thanks for the insight.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I hadn’t realised that yanks knew anything about good coffee. Thanks for the insight.

Even a small amount of knowledge would benefit Americans, when it comes to coffee.

 

[AuSammy]

I hadn’t realised that yanks knew anything about good coffee. Thanks for the insight.

Its certainly news to me.

Visited US many times and rare to find anything even close to decent even in 5* resorts. I don’t call thick black treacle
-like almost room temperature gunk poured from a thermos flask “coffee”.

Starbucks

 

[TheRealTMA]

San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan on how the time in Australia is different: “We’re a little confused with — when I look at my clock and it says a time and then I try to see my family’s time and then it says the time, but it says yesterday. I don’t even get how that’s possible.” The mind boggles.
From The Age.
Maybe should be in humour thread.