Trying to find 787/Dreamliner routes

[alexy23]

It does appear they’ve been positioning these planes quite a lot lately.

Has anyone been able to systematically find the routes that the 787 will be on? Or is this something that just pops up in a lucky dip style.

 

[jb747]

They've been doing cargo flights. And the occasional repatriation flight. I don't think that there's anything around at the moment that's publicly available.

 

[ameno]

Morning all, just bumping this thread as I was recently checking a return leg for my wife and kids from PER to BNE and noticed an unfamiliar seat map, with further investigation showing it belonged to the 787 (which for whatever reason) had replaced the traditional 737 on this leg.

After reading up a bit, it seems the Dreamliners are now on the domestic routes across the country and I was hoping to utilise them (even via Syd) for the long trips out west.

Does anyone happen to have any confirmed schedules yet?

 

[alexy23]

Haven’t been able to find the schedule apart from the Sydney flights.

And also haven’t seen any redemption seats available on these flights. Would love to know if anyone has managed to score a seat on reward business class booking.

I flew this plane back in 2019 on a positioning flight from Sydney to Brisbane, loved it.

 

[DMar86]

Haven’t been able to find the schedule apart from the Sydney flights.

And also haven’t seen any redemption seats available on these flights. Would love to know if anyone has managed to score a seat on reward business class booking.

I flew this plane back in 2019 on a positioning flight from Sydney to Brisbane, loved it.

Scored 2 x business class reward seats on QF645 SYD-PER for a Sunday morning in October. Even better, booked during the recent 30% off classic rewards promotion.

Now to hold our breath for the next 4 months and see whether QF swap it out for a 737.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Wryly, I would not be surprised if they did do a swappy.
My paws are crossed for you in hope.
If you are semi lucky, you might still get a 330.

 

[henrus]

As others have mentioned aircraft changes are possible all the time however it is possible to use the ITA matrix to search a whole month using a specific route and aicraft.

Matrix - ITA Software by Google

Matrix, ITA's original airfare shopping engine, has yielded years of traveler insights and been the origin for many of our innovative flight shopping features.

matrix.itasoftware.com

Start with a one way search entering in a to/from, click the "Advanced controls" button and put in c:qf in the routing code box, in the extension codes box put aircraft t:787

It's possible to search other aircraft using its IATA code (a full list of IATA aircraft codes can be found here : List of aircraft type designators - Wikipedia )

Finally, select "see a calendar of lowest fares" and enter in a date (it searches that date and a month after). A search will result in a calendar view like this and clicking on the date brings up the flights for that day.


Right now from Brisbane to Perth the 787's appear to be scheduled daily except Tuesday from 23 June through to 18 July. This is the QF941 12:55pm departure from BNE, the return is the same dates but is the 5:20pm QF940 from PER.

 

[ameno]

As others have mentioned aircraft changes are possible all the time however it is possible to use the ITA matrix to search a whole month using a specific route and aicraft.

Brilliant info mate, thanks very much.

It appears the PER-BNE 787 run may be short lived as I can only see availability until mid July as you pointed out.

After several years of being jammed into 737's weekly for this route, would have been nice to see the Dreamliners continue to make an appearance.

Will definitely use this tool to keep an eye on things

 

[jb747]

The other spanner in these particular works are the ongoing changes to the border rules. No point sending a medium sized aircraft if you've only got a small load.

 

[henrus]

The other spanner in these particular works are the ongoing changes to the border rules. No point sending a medium sized aircraft if you've only got a small load.

Doesn't explain the JQ 787s from MEL-CNS and MEL-OOL recently?

I guess if it's been scheduled and smaller aircraft are being used elsewhere it's hard to switch back?

 

[justinbrett]

Haven’t been able to find the schedule apart from the Sydney flights.

And also haven’t seen any redemption seats available on these flights. Would love to know if anyone has managed to score a seat on reward business class booking.

I flew this plane back in 2019 on a positioning flight from Sydney to Brisbane, loved it.

My theory is they don't have enough of demand for J on these routes (lots of J in a 787) so if they sell the seats great but they don't want to have to reaccommodate people if they downgrade. If they've got 10 spare seats on the day and people have upgrade requests in then win/win. There's really no benefit for QF to pre-clear these upgrades.

I'm booked SYD-PER return in the week after next, there was never any U availability, but stacks of I. At very least I've got a Y+ seat on both legs.