Qantas Economy Plus Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

Saw on another travel page - QF is introducing the economy plus to the A330 fleet - hope not QPA-QPD because these aircraft do not have wifi - why should we have to pay more for a product other QF A330 has, and these 4 aircraft don't have?

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qantas-a330-economy-plus

The extra room - if that’s important - far outweighs any wifi!

As mentioned upthread I flew a domestic sector sitting in what’s normally the crew rest seat… it was amazingly comfortable with the extra 3 inches. Much better than the 737 seats which are still quite narrow.

 

[tomlee1986]

Given the cabin crew have told me those 4 are never getting wifi because they're being retired first and guesstimating by timing of required maintenance, I cant see them being reconfigured. They're probably getting retired within the next 18months.

I wonder when will they approximately retire

 

[moa999]

I wonder when will they approximately retire

Age wise QPA is approx 12 months older than EBA/ EBB which have just undergone 7-8wk (so likely C8/D checks) at Paya Lebar (QPG), but who knows how the Covid shutdowns have impacted maintenance timings.

I suspect we might get more info at the FY26 results presentation in mid-Aug (and my prediction would be 4 333s retired and 4 789s delivered in FY28 (so July 2027- June 2028)

 

[Chrizztofa]

Age wise QPA is approx 12 months older than EBA/ EBB which have just undergone 7-8wk (so likely C8/D checks) at Paya Lebar (QPG), but who knows how the Covid shutdowns have impacted maintenance timings.

I suspect we might get more info at the FY26 results presentation in mid-Aug (and my prediction would be 4 333s retired and 4 789s delivered in FY28 (so July 2027- June 2028)

A cursory look at Flightera suggests that the A333s continued to operate through the Covid shutdowns from 2020 while almost all of the A332s were parked for at least 12 months from March 2020 onwards (EBD was parked for nearly four years).

However, it does seem that the A333s did rotate through maintenance during this period:
QPA was out of service from Oct - Dec 2020
QPB was out of service from Jan - Mar 2021
QPC was out of service from Jan - Feb 2021
QPD was out of service from Apr - Jul 2021

If it's six years between D checks then you could see the first four A333s being retired later this year (with the arrival of QPM and the A350s to offset the loss in capacity until the new 787s arrive in FY28)?

 

[encryptededdy]

The evening Trans-Tasmans have been pretty empty these last few months in the Economy Plus section, I'm getting an empty seat next to, in front of, and behind me almost every trip at this point. Meanwhile, everything behind Row 13 is full on almost every flight.

From this perspective this has actually been a great enhancement from Qantas for my travel, not for the legroom per se but just the empty section in the forward part of the 737 and works better than "shadows" ever did without Economy+.