A380 To Fly Special MEL > SYD Flight 23feb24 (QF7168)

[jakeseven7]

A couple of 737 cancellations Melbourne to Sydney tonight have resulted in an A380 on the 5pm QF7168 from Melbourne.

Need to get those Taylor fans to Sydney!

Awwww nice hope they all make it!

Just saw it on the news!

Wonder how F is being allocated

Any AFFers on the service?

 

[MooTime]

Awwww nice hope they all make it!

No doubt they'll all make it, QF have some of the best pilots on the planet.

Very safe plane that A380.

 

[Tannin]

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-a380-to-fly-special-melbourne-to-sydney-flight

Is this a first? Due to poor weather today, Qantas to merge 3 MEL > SYD flights into 1 MEL > SYD A380 flight. and nope, not directly Taylor Swift related. Imagine the fun in boarding at the international terminal, reseating from 3 flights, and appeasing those pesky premium flyers.

 

[dajop]

[land appeasing those pesky premium flyers.

F lounge access might help some

 

[Himeno]

No. There have been times where they have used A380s domestically before to recover from service disruptions.
This might be the first time they've decided to do it before the disruption in question has happened.

 

[elanshin]

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-a380-to-fly-special-melbourne-to-sydney-flight

Is this a first? Due to poor weather today, Qantas to merge 3 MEL > SYD flights into 1 MEL > SYD A380 flight. and nope, not directly Taylor Swift related. Imagine the fun in boarding at the international terminal, reseating from 3 flights, and appeasing those pesky premium flyers.

It is Taylor related. She's even mentioned in the announcement. Just trying to get ahead of the curve by saying it won't affect anyone going to tonight's concert, but theres 3 more days after Tonight. This is their attempt to proactively say hey we pulled all the stops to prevent any potential media backlash.

As for actual frequent flyers, I'd say you'd be pretty happy having to deal with a bit more hassle at Int'l terminal, but get given Int'l F / J lounge access. Also good chance you're upgraded to at least PE on the a380. I'd expect status J pax to ve upgraded to F seats, then status Pax to be upgraded to J and W to fit everyone in.

Also interesting that they happened to have an a380 spare.

 

[RealtimeY]

bit more hassle at Int'l terminal

Only if I had no plans in the evening! A full A380 going through manual immigration on the other end won't be much fun.

 

[RichardMEL]

A pity the domestic gates can't handle the 380 like they could park a 744 at some back in the day. Made the dom subs much easier (plus antartic charters etc)

 

[Himeno]

A pity the domestic gates can't handle the 380 like they could park a 744 at some back in the day. Made the dom subs much easier (plus antartic charters etc)

The domestic gates that could take 747s can take A380s. Airlines just chose not to use them because having access to that 3rd air bridge makes boarding an A380 much faster.
Nothing prevents an A380 being boarded via 1 door and using the internal stairs besides time.

 

[DC3]

OQD is yet to even leave Sydney for collection duties …

All things in the fullness of time

 

[TheDefenestrator]

OQD is yet to even leave Sydney for collection duties, so this is a massive f-up in the making!

Looks like it's on its way now. Definitely interested in what the cause was for the delay though (I think I found an ATC stream but darn it's tricky to listen).

 

[RichardMEL]

VH-OQD delayed out of SYD, so the ex MEL flight probably won't leave til 1830ish I bet.

Also, thanks @Himeno

 

[TheDefenestrator]

VH-OQD delayed out of SYD, so the ex MEL flight probably won't leave til 1830ish I bet.

OQD currently passing over the ACT now, estimated departure from MEL currently reporting as 1845 (via Qantas).

 

[RichardMEL]

OQD currently passing over the ACT now, estimated departure from MEL currently reporting as 1845 (via Qantas).

I was close nut let's go 1930 just in case!

 

[jakeseven7]

What gates are they using?

 

[AIRwin]

What gates are they using?

 

[TY24]

Just shuffling the decks for whatever reason.

Because CASA has limited the number of slots into SYD due to the weather, so they are using 1 slot to move the same amount of pax as 3-4 738 slots.

 

[Himeno]

Using the gates normally used for US flights.
I wonder if the ground staff will get confused and have the US security check people there.

 

[TY24]

Is this a first? Due to poor weather today, Qantas to merge 3 MEL > SYD flights into 1 MEL > SYD A380 flight.

Possibly the first time an A380 has been used domestically, I had a similar experience about 10 years ago.

I was flying PER-SYD and SYD ended up being closed due to extreme weather about an hour out from us landing, so my flight (as well as many other SYD bound flights) was diverted to MEL and we had to stay overnight in a hotel. The next morning we were flown back up to SYD on a 747 which was pretty surreal for a 1hr flight! There was a handful of 747's used that day to reposition all the diverted pax back to SYD.

Granted, the 744's did used to operate trans-con so it's not quite the same, but it was still a nice surprise for an avgeek like me

 

[ayebee]

I hope the Swifties weren't going to tonight's concert. OQD just arrived in MEL at 1745.