QF A380 - 20 mins longer ?

[Aray]

Hey guys ..

Got some flights booked to LAX in May on the new bird .. and I just got a booking change notification - seems they've extended the expected flying time by 20 mins as its now boarding by that much earlier on both legs ..

Anyone know why ? Saving fuel ? Longer than expected handling times at LAX ?

This is ex SYD but I presume ex MEL has had the same thing happen ?

[serfty]

The A380 has a slightly slower efficient cruise speed than the 744's.

These specified at Mach 0.85 for the 388 as against 0.86 for the 744.

This is about a 10 km per hour difference, so on a flight spending 12 hours at cruising speed, a 744 will travel ~120 km further. In raw terms this represents about 8 minutes difference in elapsed time for the same distance; however there are other speed factor involved which extend this.

Also, having a capacity for 450 passengers in 4 classes against the 744's 4 class pacific route capacity of 307 give more need to ensure realistic schedules are published.

[docjames]

A cynic (=docjames!) would say it also allows a better chance of "ontime" arrival with their new baby.

[serfty]

Maybe ... I today confirmed a change to a 388 flight I have in June that is now departing 10 minutes earlier with same scheduled arrival time.

The same booking also has an AKL-LAX 744 flight; this is now scheduled to arrive 5 minutes later - that I confirmed as well.

[Aray]

LOL .. like they extended the expected flying time from MEL-SYD to 1hr 25 min some years back - I remember it used to be quoted as only 1 hour or so ?

If it has a lower efficient cruising speed they would have known & scheduled this up front surely ?

I'm voting for the money saving slower cruise

[oz_mark]

ISTR that the first flights when scheduled were slightly longer than the 744 flights. Maybe they didn't update the times when they changed the plane.

[serfty]

With a flight in Nov, I had booked a 744 but ended up on the third QF94 operation.

Originally the time of arrival was extended by about 25 mins; then contracted somewhat with the departure brought forward, then it was changed again.

Initially, with each change I printed a copy of the ticket and filed it, discarding the old one ... in the end I waited until the day before and printed version xx off.

FWIW, they called boarding for that flight 50 minutes before scheduled departure - 20 minutes before advertised boarding.

I guess Qantas are still fine tuning their schedules with this nouvelle bête ...