Am I correct in saying you flew aboard VH-OJT which arrived into Brisbane today as QF176?
This is what I believe has happened. VH-OJT flew up from SYD on WED as QF6181. Then flew QF175 BNE-LAX (landing LAX on WED). It then has operated QF26 LAX-AKL-MEL (departing LAX WED night) arriving into Melbourne on the Friday just gone. It then has operated QF25 MEL-AKL-LAX back to Los Angeles (landing on Friday) before departing as QF176 to Brisbane later on Friday night. As a result of time changes, VH-OJT should have landed into Brisbane this morning as QF176 from LAX. And as a result, you've been lucky enough to fly on a 3-Class 747 from Los Angeles to Brisbane.
Did you manage to sit in a Skybed seat? Did they close off F class or only use it for dead-heading staff? I'd be interested to know what they did!
Over the past few Wednesdays, Qantas has operated the following 3-class 747s on QF175 Brisbane-Los Angeles:
WED 14: VH-OEJ
WED 21: VH-OJH
WED 28: VH-OJT
What's happening is that Qantas is flying a 744 from SYD to BNE every WED as QF6181, before flying it onto Los Angeles as QF175. On WED also, QF176 lands in BNE from LAX as positioned as QF6182 to Sydney. I believe this is due to maintenance requirements. A 3-Class 744 has been flying QF175 for the past few WEDs - I have noticed on the BNE Arrivals board, QF6181 is due from SYD on WED 7 March - so it will be interesting to see if a 3-Class 747 is being used again.
Unfortunately, this does not signal the introduction of F to Brisbane, it's only saying that Qantas is rotating 3-Class 747s through Brisbane due to maintenance, technical and repositioning requirements.
I hope I haven't bored you (have a big interest in aircraft movements) and I hope that this post has explained a few things to you.
With regards to the 747 being parked at a standoff bay and pax being transferred by bus, I could only guess (never been to LAX) that this may be due to there not being enough gates (extra flights, u/s aircraft, weather requiring aircraft to stay at gate etc) at the terminal.
Cheers