Afternoon all,

Was lucky enough to be in Business class on QF 149 from Syd -> LAX and we were meant to land in LA at around 6am today (1/1/06) so imagine our surprise when the 747-400ER diverted to Las Vegas due to weather in LA. According to the captain we had to divert there due to minimum fuel requirements - any chance they just not fill here up enough in Sydney - I mean we did not even circle LA at all - we just went directly to Las Vegas.

Apparently that was the first time Qantas has landed there in a long time. It was a lot of fun to do a second takeoff and landing in the 400ER (VH-OEH). A lot of customers were annoyed due to missing there connecting flights but since LA was my final destination I really didn't care.

Wonder if the diversion was necessary ie. could we have pumped more gas in Sydney and would have been great to get a few photos of the 400ER landing and taking off in Las Vegas.

My understanding is SYD-LAX is about the limit of the 747-400ER, so I'm going to guess she went out full with fuel, for such a long trip. Pretty cool you got to go to Vegas!!! You will be one of the few people in the world that can say "I got to fly Qantas to Las Vegas"!! Lucky!

Odd... Weather was just fine at LAX this morning..
6am would be 1400z, basically 3miles visibility, broken clouds at 1300ft, overcast at 2000ft


KLAX 011450Z 06008KT 6SM BR BKN006 OVC018 14/13 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP155 T01390128 56009
KLAX 011437Z 06006KT 4SM BR BKN008 OVC014 13/13 A3001 RMK AO2 CIG 004V010
KLAX 011350Z 09006KT 3SM BR BKN013 OVC020 14/13 A3000 RMK AO2 SLP158 T01390128

rumour has it that QF in the guise of JQ will be flying to LAS regularly via HNL from BNE, SYD & MEL, initially using the 4 x A332's.

Not sure how they'll handle the HNL/LAS leg rights issues though.

Maybe 2 flights a week from BNE, SYD & MEL to HNL & then 2 a week continuing onto LAS & at other times pax use AA code shares, much the same as LAX/JFK operted by QF.

Quoting Simpilicity (Reply 3): rumour has it that QF in the guise of JQ will be flying to LAS regularly via HNL from BNE, SYD & MEL, initially using the 4 x A332's. Not sure how they'll handle the HNL/LAS leg rights issues though. Maybe 2 flights a week from BNE, SYD & MEL to HNL & then 2 a week continuing onto LAS & at other times pax use AA code shares, much the same as LAX/JFK operted by QF.

JQ will only fly as far as HNL. Why do they need to fly further? Also if they did, I presume it would be the same deal as their LAX-JFK flight which means they could only carrier onward pax.

Anyways....enough of your rumours!!!!

Now if you guys landed @ SAN, that would have been a different story...

are 747's even allowed in SAN?

Sure.... they just can't go far.

N

Quoting Jacobin777 (Reply 5): are 747's even allowed in SAN?

Of course they are, BA flew them into there part of the LHR-PHX-SAN route a few years ago. UA flew them to LAX as part of SAN-LAX-HNL. Just a couple that I remember.

JQ 789 could do LAS nonstop from SYD or MEL.

As for via HNL, if they did SYD/MEL to HNL then continued 1 of the flights on to LAS a few days a week with the 332s, they could easily keep the plane full enough of connecting Oz pax.

Not sure if they would start that way or just wait for the 787s and continue to connect people to vegas at LAX via AA until then.

Quoting ANstar (Reply 4): JQ will only fly as far as HNL. Why do they need to fly further?

In the past Qantas has flown the 747-400 on charters to LAS from SYD.

Quoting Simpilicity (Reply 3): rumour has it that QF in the guise of JQ will be flying to LAS regularly via HNL from BNE, SYD & MEL, initially using the 4 x A332's

It would make perfect sense, seeing as that O/D Las Vegas-Australia is very good. A 2 class product(JQ) would work well, or a 3 class product (QF) via Los Angeles.

KAHALA777

Quoting AirCop (Reply 7): Of course they are, BA flew them into there part of the LHR-PHX-SAN route a few years ago. UA flew them to LAX as part of SAN-LAX-HNL. Just a couple that I remember.

interesting....thanks for the info..weird I guess to see such a large plane at SAN..now maybe we can get an emergency WhaleJet landing there...now that would be a site to see!

Hi QFinSD,

How was the flight in anycase? What were the loads like and also did the aircraft have the upgarded AVOD.

Also how did you find the Skybed.

Thanks

I remember seeing a Flying Tigers 747 taking off at night from San Diego once... Now that was a site to see!!!

Does anyone have any photos of QF in LAS?

Ive done a search but come up short...

Rumor has it??????????????????? LAS???????????????????
Out of HNL???????


Where on earth did you hear this statement ?
Simply because a QF lane was diverted to LAS has nothing to do with any Jetstar International.
Why would JQ have any plans to fly to LAS especially out of HNL? With no rights and heavy competition from the US carriers, there would be no reason o operate this route.
Wouldn't Asian ports and HNL in itself be more profitable??
R u sure this was a rumor or had nothing else to post?

Quoting Simpilicity (Reply 3): Not sure how they'll handle the HNL/LAS leg rights issues though.

Nothing to handle. They won't have local traffic rights, simple as that.

Qantas Power,

Happy new Year all. I had rung up Qantas on the 31st to see if Business class was full (I was upgrading on points and also could not get on the upper deck) and they had mentioned that there were about 20 seats open, however, when I checked into business class the agent said it was full - and it was!

I guess others upgraded too - although there were a lot of kids in business - kind of a waste if you ask me for a kid to upgrade but cool for them. As far as economy I walked back there and it was about 90% full, which is pretty good considering we left on the 1st of January - there appeared to be a lot of people with hangovers - including myself!

I heard that the flights from Sydney to LAX on the 2nd were oversold and jampacked in all classes.

As far as AVOD - it did not appear we had this - we just had a personal television with 17 channels which showed the same programs every 180 minutes. To be honest - I didn't really watch anything other than 40 year old virgin as i read most of the way and kept it on the inflight map.

The skybeds are awesome - they don't go completely horizontally flat - only flat on a slight angle but they are very comfortable - a lot of legroom and space for all your belongings - one thing though - it never ceases to amaze me how messy and disgusting some people are - the row in front of us was a complete war zone on the floor.

One final note to the flight - I guess because we got into LAX late - our gate slot had been taken by a QF flight which left a few hours after us in SYD so we had to taxi to the bus bay terminal and all the passengers got bussed to customs. It was pretty neat riding the bus across the airport and being so close to the runway on a bus - the planes look so much bigger!

I would also love to get some photos of the VH-OEH in Vegas so hopefully someone was spotting around 7am yesterday at LAS. Would have been great to see the flying kangaroo landing and taking off with the strip in the background.

Finally - was also upgraded to business on the 23rd to Sydney from LAX on QF 12. That night business class was completely empty and economy was about 90%. Because business was empty we got to ride on the upper deck (my first time there) and it so much better than business class downstairs. I especially like to compartments next to the window to put all your belongings in. Service was excellent on QF on both flights and the food was good!

Why divert to LAS ?
Isn´t ONT a designated alternative for LAX ?
And ONT is well able to handle B744´s.
-HT

EDIT: Oh, I was thinking of QF doing a slash-and-dash (i.e. refuelling with pax on board). In case you deplaned for refuelling, LAS´ seperate international Terminal of course is a good option to keep pax under control w/o any immigration procedures.
-HT

[Edited 2006-01-02 22:48:16]

It was a slash and dash ie. passengers stayed on baord for about an hour

hmmm.. I wonder what they would have done before they got the 744ER..?

Quoting AirPacific747 (Reply 20): hmmm.. I wonder what they would have done before they got the 744ER..?

Turned back to HNL when they realized they couldn't get to LAX.

The funny thing was that all the FA's appeared genuinely shocked that we were being diverted to LAS. As I said in my earlier post we did not even hold over LA - we went straight to LAS - and one of the FA's told me that this was the first time in his 20 odd year experience that he has ever missed a landing into LAX. So, I think maybe the flight crew miscalculated the amount of fuel they needed and took on in SYD because I don't think we are the first QF plane to ever get to LA and not be able to land due to bad weather. So the fact that we are one of the only QF flights to ever get diverted to LAS suggests to me that something else was going on with the fuel situation otherwise this occurrence would be a lot more common.

Quoting HT (Reply 18): Why divert to LAS ? Isn´t ONT a designated alternative for LAX ? And ONT is well able to handle B744´s. -HT EDIT: Oh, I was thinking of QF doing a slash-and-dash (i.e. refuelling with pax on board). In case you deplaned for refuelling, LAS´ seperate international Terminal of course is a good option to keep pax under control w/o any immigration procedures. -HT

ONT has a seperate International Terminal. I think now it is only Aero Mexico who uses it.

Quoting Kahala777 (Reply 9): In the past Qantas has flown the 747-400 on charters to LAS from SYD.

Not sure where you get your info but I worked at McCarran for twenty years and only saw one or two QF flights there and neither were charters. Both diverted from LAX.

I do have a photo of QF and El Al at McCarran. In 2003? Both diverted to LAS when SoCal Approach was evacuated due to brush fires.

Ruby

Sure BA used to fly to San Diego with 747s every day. Check it out:

View Large View Medium Photo © Larry Wolff

View Large View Medium Photo © Leonardo Oliveira

View Large View Medium Photo © Larry Wolff

View Large View Medium Photo © Larry Wolff

Nice huh.

The weather here in Southern California has been absolutely monstrous ever since news year eve...torrential rain!

Quoting S12PPL (Reply 1): My understanding is SYD-LAX is about the limit of the 747-400ER, so I'm going to guess she went out full with fuel,

I don't think so. The regular 744 can do LAX-SYD just fine, it struggles to do LAX-MEL, and that is what the 744ERs were bought for IIRC.

You know,I could have sworn I read that QF ordered the -ER for SYD-DFW service,but I guess not  

Quoting Cedarjet (Reply 25): Sure BA used to fly to San Diego with 747s every day.

Wasn´t the BA service with B744´s into SAN only the extension of its PHX-service ?
So, upon departure from SAN they only had fuel for PHX onboard.
-HT

Quoting HT (Reply 28): Wasn�t the BA service with B744�s into SAN only the extension of its PHX-service ? So, upon departure from SAN they only had fuel for PHX onboard. -HT

Correct. It only went nonstop to London after the arrival of 777s, and even then they had to be weight restricted.

Aaron G.