qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf … 01003/0316
Qantas making some equipment changes effective July 5th. QFA 107/108 between KJFK and KLAX will no longer operate daily on a 4 class 747-400, instead service will take place 5 days/week on a 2 class A330-200. The LAX-SYD portion of QFA 107/108 will remain daily 747-400 service.
Other routes affected will be Sydney-Auckland-LAX which will be operated on a 2 class A330-200 instead of a 4 class 747-400. QFA 25/26, I think…
Do you know why they are doing that? Is the 747-400 just not needed for the number of passengers?
They are obviously not getting the yield they need operating a 747-400 7 days a week between Australia and JFK. (Don’t forget: the LAX/JFK route is not a route that QF can sell seats on. Passengers on this route need to be originating/terminating their journey outside of the USA.)
Is Auckland-LAX/LAX-Auckland pushing it for an A330-200 in terms of range?
AKL-LAX (5650nm) is about 1000nm under the max range (~6700nm), so it can make it even with winds.
Man.
I just realized the -200 has a longer range than the F or the -300… 
If you look at the “Passenger Reaccomodation Policy” on the Qantas link above, they are offering refunds of $200 each way for those who booked 1st class and will apparently be moved to business class in the 2-class A330. I just checked online and the difference in price between first and business on JFK-SYD can be as much as $10K each way. That works out great for those that paid for those first class seats that will no longer exist.
They’re still in F on the LAX-SYD leg, it’s just the JFK-LAX leg downgraded.
I understand that the downgrade applies only to the JFK-LAX leg, but scheduled flight time from JFK-LAX is 5 hours 5 mins and and LAX-SYD is is 14 hours 32 mins, for a total journey of 19 hours 37 mins making the JFK-LAX leg about 25% of the journey. Using the example of a $10K difference between the fares, that would equate to a difference of $2500. I understand that $10K is the exception, and the average difference in fare is probably closer to $5K, that still would leave a difference of $1250 each way of which Qantas is only refunding $200. .
…just saying
Your mistake is that you are thinking logically, this is the airline business you are talking about 
I wonder what the economics are behind them continuing the flight on from LAX to JFK if you cannot add passengers for the JFK/LAX segment, why not code share with someone… unless they make money flying freight between the two cities.
I read on another site, and I’m going to paraphrase a bit, but it has to do with having a single continuous flight number between SYD and JFK that appears at the top of flight searches.
No, they don’t fly domestic freight on the route, either.
The reason they do it is because it is one flight with a stop between SYD and JFK. This use to happen a lot in days gone by. There were many foreign airline flights that included a domestic USA portion. They couldn’t pick up local passengers or freight on the domestic portion due to the law stating they can’t do that.
QFA 107 passed directly over the ol’ ranch Saturday night 6/19 at 20:24 - even at 38,000 feet, the red tail and size of the aircraft was easy to spot in the perfect low-angle light. With variances in routing, the local weather conditions, and my own obligations, this is likely the last time I’ll catch a 747 on this route. 
I’m going to miss them - sitting on the deck or in the hot tub after dinner while keeping an eye out for 107 was always a pleasant way to wrap up the day.
Guess we in Greater Columbus will limited to the comings and goings of the freight-dog 747 on the more-or-less weekly PANC-KLCK-KJFK run.
I thought they did it to enter the NYC market plus the plane would just sit at LAX when they could just fly it to and from JFK. Kinda like what Air France is doing with their A380 they use on the CDG-JNB. It sits in CDG so they just send it up to LHR.
I guess I’m not the only one!
I’m just east of Columbus and also like to watch for this one. Amazing how BIG it looks compared to all the routine traffic passing over us. The 7’s out of LCK like to go north of us so they’re hard to catch.
The last of QFA 107/108 KLAX-KJFK-KLAX as B744’s:
flightaware.com/live/flight/QFA1 … /KLAX/KJFK
flightaware.com/live/flight/QFA1 … /KJFK/KLAX
En route now, QFA107 as a A332:
flightaware.com/live/flight/QFA1 … /KLAX/KJFK
Outbound QFA108 still showing as a B744, but I’m sure that will update:
QFA 107/108 is once again operating a daily 747 between LAX and JFK. This is a result of discontinuing A332 service between LAX and Auckland as of May 6th.