Qatar Airways Dishonest Bait n Switch

Thus far Qatar has touted its "best aircraft experience" the A350-1000/900 for its Sydney and Brisbane routes only to sneakily switch to inferior 777 aircraft for that long 14+ hour trek. We all know the 777 is louder and much poorer atmospherics being old technology, so this is definitely a downgrade, especially when you consider the superb A380 was the mainstay of QR services into Australia. Qatar are notorious for last minute equipment changes; I know this occurs from time-to-time with most carriers but it seems there is a dedicated department at QR who go out of their way to make sure the aircraft assigned to your booked flight will change at least 7 times before departure! I'll be avoiding Qatar if the 777 is going to be their ac of choice out of Aus. I once had a booking intra middle east and the aircraft changed from 350-787-330 in 3 weeks then ended up a 777! I rest my case. Having to go in and change seats all the time was a pain.

I would assume Qatar are prioritizing their A350 to be deployed to markets where they don’t face capacity restrictions and border closures.

I would think this is because of the increase in freight capacity that the 777 enjoys. Qatar are still able to operate flights in to Aus profitably as they are absolutely crammed full of freight.

Makes sense. Put the freight aircraft to where it can make money. Put the passenger friendly aircraft to markets where you can actually fly passengers.

Anybody flying intl right now would only be doing it if it was really essential..i don't think the aircraft type is of high importance currently

Indeed. And it’s not as though any of Qatar’s hard product is poor. In the current world, where people are losing lives and livelihoods as a result of the virus, it would be no be if this was the biggest problem you had.