QF cuts back on flight to London

[Danger]

I agree, QF's service to Seattle is poor - it doesn't exist and never has. I fly to LAX or DFW on QF and then fly AA or UA to SEA.

I think in this context Aisle Dweller's reference to SEA was as South East Asia, not Seattle.

 

[MR N]

Personally if I had to fly to London I would choose Qantas to HK then the BA 380 to London both in premium. To me I like the flight in roughly equal halves and then HK for a few hours before the next leg. Not saying its the best option but its an option I prefer.

 

[Mr_Orange]

I agree, QF's service to Seattle is poor - it doesn't exist and never has. I fly to LAX or DFW on QF and then fly AA or UA to SEA.

I read SEA as South East Asia, not Seattle.

 

[Himeno]

QF2 x/ QF9 or QF10 x/ QF1 - as in...arrive in DXB and fly straight back to LHR or arrive in SYD/MEL and fly straight back to DXB?!

The mention of 'DONE3' should have answered that. Touching MEL/SYD would make it a DONE4
-LHR-xDXB-LHR-
I've had those 2 flights in each of my trips since 2010, mainly to use up all the sectors I'm allowed on the ticket, get some extra points and save on 1-2 nights hotel costs. The first time was out and back on the same aircraft. 2nd and 3rd was overnight each way with a stop in the city during the day.

4th was meant to be BA to DXB and QF back with 3hr between. BA was late and refused to check me in to the connecting flight. Transfer counters at DXB kept telling me to go somewhere else. I got to the EK lounge in concourse A who tried to sort it out, but by then the flight had closed and I got stuck in DXB for 24 hours (EK tried to call BA [cause of delay] in LON with no answer, then tried CX [ticket issuer] in HKG, no answer. Tried QF in SYD who sorted it out, but rebooked on the next days QF1 refusing the option of an EK op QF code. Ended up 20 hours late to PVG for my next stop.

If QF9/10 ends up with the times generally expected (lunch time LHR arrival/departure - with QF1 arriving around dawn, departing around midday as QF10, QF9 arriving an hour later and departing as QF2 after dinner), it should allow for a QF-QF LHR-DXB-LHR flight. Which would be useful, assuming I stay with QFF after I'm done going over all the numbers.

 

[BD1959]

They do it every year - all carriers do it, even SQ have made cuts. There are quiet times of the year - but why they waited until a month out to pull them out should be the story.

But this year it is newsworthy for some reason.

OK.

So, looking at QantasSource for May 2013 and I see ... no cancellations of QF9. At all.

I see 1 early termination of QF1 on the 11th, made it no further than DXB. Was reported as a Tech Issue.

What time every year do they do this??

Regards,

BD

 

[camperdown9]

Hi

Firstly hello, this is my first post on this forum.

I was a travel agent here in the UK for many years working for a company that specialised in trips to Australia and New Zealand. The biggest selling point that QF had at least to UK based leisure passengers was the routings you could have with their fares. Other airlines could only offer a stopover at their home base (SQ at SIN, CX at HKG, TG at BKK etc). With QF even on the lowest sale fares on a LON-SYD ticket you could have a stop at SIN in one direction and at BKK in the other. Higher fares let you have a stop at any point that QF and BA both served and even included some Australian domestic sectors. By routing the LON-MEL and SYD flights via DXB and ending the agreement with BA, they have lost the edge on some of the competition. Dubai is a great city but EK have been flying to it from a number of UK cities for years. Its not that far away at around 7 hrs flying time and been a popular short break destination for a long time. However it doesn't have the same appeal as BKK/SIN/HKG/KUL etc for a stopover on the way to or from Australia. Of course passengers just flying on the same day from LON to SYD/MEL are not going to care where the petrol stop is!

By going into partnership with Emirates, Qantas are able to offer a lot more one stop routings to Australia from Europe than they could of when they just flew to Heathrow and Frankfurt. However SQ/TG/MH/CX/EK etc have all been offering lots of one stop routings between Europe and Australia for years. QF are not really bring anything new to the market.

QF did have some of the market between LON and SIN/BKK & vv. However LON-DXB is totally different because you have BA with a couple of flights a day, VS with a daily service and multiple EK services to LHR, LGW plus EK flights direct to MAN/BHX/NCL/GLA etc.

In a few weeks time I am flying on a QF ticket to CHC. Most of the sectors are on EK operated flights simply due to schedule and the fact that I live 104kms from LGW were as LHR is 145kms away. However a few days ago I received an email from QF offering me the chance to change my outbound to the direct LHR-SYD services operated by them. It was worded well but it did make me feel that they were trying their best to get as many pax as poss onto their own metal rather than the EK operated codeshare.

They have only cancelled a few flights and its not that big a deal. I just hope they manage to continue to fly to LHR.

Alex

 

[Himeno]

OK.

So, looking at QantasSource for May 2013 and I see ... no cancellations of QF9. At all.

Qantassource only reports cancellations if they aren't planned. If QFxx is meant to operate on xx/xx but doesn't, they report.

 

[dajop]

They do it every year - all carriers do it, even SQ have made cuts. There are quiet times of the year - but why they waited until a month out to pull them out should be the story.

But this year it is newsworthy for some reason.

Yep SQ are cutting 3 services PER WEEK during a five week period, not three services IN TOTAL. Admittedly they have twice as many services to LHR than QF, but OMG it must be the beginning of the end for SQ and proof that their strategy is not working ;-)

Happens often on SQ routes with multiple daily frequencies to match services to demand.

 

[BD1959]

Qantassource only reports cancellations if they aren't planned. If QFxx is meant to operate on xx/xx but doesn't, they report.

Qantassource also reports the aircraft which operated the flight. I'm thinking is Qantassource reports a certain aircraft operated QF1 and QF9, then they did - were certainly planned to do so.

QF planning cancellations to meet demand is being reported here as a regular occurrence, I'm asking for the evidence of this as I don't see it in what is being reported as factual occurrences elsewhere.

If it is on the non-LHR routes, fine. But those who are saying it happens all the time: please where and when has this happened previously??

The actual quote was:

Stephen Thompson, Qantas' head of international sales, told the Sydney Morning Herald: "What the market will notice is Qantas international becoming more commercially nimble, which is a reflection of the ultra-competitive environment we're in."

May and June tend to be slack months for travel, falling as they do between Easter and the summer peak, nevertheless this cancelling of flights is a relatively new trend and is not being undertaken by every carrier.

It appears that this is NOT something which has occurred previously, it could be that loads were light, but they were never actually cancelled.

However, the general response here seems to be that this IS a regular (though unreported) occurrence. Fine - when and where??

Regards,

BD

 

[Melburnian1]

The actual quote was:

Stephen Thompson, Qantas' head of international sales, told the Sydney Morning Herald: "What the market will notice is Qantas international becoming more commercially nimble, which is a reflection of the ultra-competitive environment we're in."

May and June tend to be slack months for travel, falling as they do between Easter and the summer peak, nevertheless this cancelling of flights is a relatively new trend and is not being undertaken by every carrier.

It appears that this is NOT something which has occurred previously, it could be that loads were light, but they were never actually cancelled./QUOTE]

I had always thought February, May and November were the slackest months for travel for both airline and surface travel such as interstate rail operators.

However northbound from Oz to London and Europe I am surprised that June could be considered a slack month. It's when some Australians go to Europe for the summer.

 

[dajop]

If it is on the non-LHR routes, fine. But those who are saying it happens all the time: please where and when has this happened previously??

Airlineroute.net indicates a quite few service cuts over extended periods during late 2009 early 2010. So it is not unprecedented.

 

[BD1959]

Airlineroute.net indicates a quite few service cuts over extended periods during late 2009 early 2010. So it is not unprecedented.

Excellent!! Thanks dajop!!

Regards,

BD

 

[Mattg]

I also previously flew the QF5/6...a lot and was very sad when it disappeared. I'm over it now though...

I don't have a problem with the EK tie-up but I miss the Asian stopover option and I really, really miss the flight to Germany on QF metal. It's been almost exactly a year since the last QF5/6 service to Frankfurt and I'm still not quite over that yet!