Qantas to begin non-stop Chicago flights on April 20, 2020

There is probably not enough demand from business travellers to justify a direct ULH flight to Miami with it being a predominantly leisure market and hence more price sensitive but according to Great Circle Mapper, the distance might not be a problem being around 240km further then the current Perth to London flight. It would possibly be load restricted coming back to Australia at the Dallas-Sydney flight sometimes is due to headwinds.

BNE-ORD 14,326km

Yes , but Syd./Rio non stop would be evev better.

Newscorp reporting SanFran as the second destination.

What does Charleston have to do with not getting 787-10? Shouldn't the plane come out in the same condition, no matter which factory?

Curious to know why they don’t want 787’s from there?

Multiple quality, manufacturing and safety issues with aircraft coming out of the Charleston 787 line which haven't happened with the Everatt 787 line.

I hope they make the economy seats more comfortable than the 171/2 hour Perth to London. They definitely need more padding for that length of time. Won’t do again

It’s the same aircraft so it won’t be any different.

Would sure beat going through LA - of course, a SYD/MEL direct to Chicago would be even better, but for now - 100% would connect in BNE vs LAX

See: Qantas hits pause on planned non-stop flights to Paris

They’ve got to sort out the Perth landing fee and terminal dispute first. And I believe it’s now Frankfurt not Berlin now.

It was never going to be Berlin. Berlin can't even get its new terminal open and sustain its own hub carrier, let alone support ULH flights... Aside from a few bearded hipsters working for startups, there is zero business demand.

Even then - and it's all moot now - why hub through BER (with zero O&D business traffic) when they've got LHR as a European hub and Frankfurt with massive O&D business demand and connections with LH to anywhere you can imagine?

Agree. Not unusual to have a small checkin crowd at FRA but full aircraft, with all the Brits coming across from UK.

Perth airport happened.

QF hasn't confirmed anything yet. They have heavily suggested ORD with SEA, SFO and DFW as next likely contenders.

How bad is ORD T5 compared to LAX TBIT?

For the 14 weekly AU-SFO (10 currently) and 14 weekly BNE-US (10 currently) mentioned in the QF press release, they'll need to drop BNE-LAX from 10 to 7, then have 4 to SFO and 3 to ORD.

Not to mention that I'd much rather take a QF service from my home port to Brisbane than fly to LAX and spend 3 hours on AA to Chicago!

Can’t see Lima being done, Rio (most likely), Buenos Aires and I think São Paulo were mentioned as candidate cities for Project Sunrise.

In short, no. To quote Alan Joyce from another AusBT article, "Brisbane has an advantage: it’s closer to a lot more (US) destinations than Sydney or Melbourne, so that gives us the ability to do things like Dallas, or to do other cities in the States that we can’t do from any other state in Australia”. Presumably Chicago is one of these cities he refers to which is beyond the range of a SYD/MEL flight for the 787-9.

After LHR and JFK, ORD would be one of the candidates for the next Project Sunrise route one would think, but that’ll be years away.

Hopefully the ORD-BNE flights will arrive BNE early morning (like DFW/LAX back to SYD / MEL etc) So hopefully a quick turn-around and departure from BNE-ORD will be departing late-morning to Midday, to allow for connecting flights from ADL/MEL/SYD etc and arrive into Chicago around midday/early afternoon, to facilitate connections within the Mid-west.

Indeed they do but they need to order more 787s first

Very true. Nice to get some exercise and fresh air doing the transfer.

It's been many years since Qantas has offered first class out of Brisbane on its own metal. Only 'Qantas' option for Brisbane first class flyers is to book Qantas codeshare flights in Emirates first class, which are available from Brisbane to Singapore, and from Brisbane to Dubai (and vice versa), as well as onward legs like Dubai-London.

Couldn't agree more. The promise of something "revolutionary" certainly didn't apply to the majority of seats on Qantas' 787's.

Qantas AU to LAX it's definitely not "a nightmare" in Boeing 787 business class. Maybe you're talking about economy class? And if you say it's a nightmare "to go so far without a stop" then your solution is, what, that Qantas flights to the USA stop over in Hawaii??

RJ and QR use the AF lounge. The other oneworld members flying from ORD use T3 for departures (T5 for arrivals) and use the AA lounges in T3.

I was in ORD week before last, the flagship lounge in T3 was empty when we arrived (9:45am) but was overflowing by 11:30am. Maybe all the international departures using the lounge are the reason, either way it was surprising.

Benefit is you don’t need to do an I get international to domestic transfer in the US which can be risky if you don’t allow enough time and you don’t need to fly domestic on a US airline like American.

The reality is that if you’re going to Dallas or Chicago you’ll mostly be connecting to a domestic AA flight. Both are hubs, yes Chicago is a large city but a destination? Not really in my experience. I travel through O’Hare several times a year and have never left the airport.

You are missing one of the great US cities - friendly people, great architecture, clean air, wonderful food (especially steak!). Do yourself a favour and stop off for a weekend sometime.

You are missing or ignoring my point. O’Hare is a transit port. Just look out the window next time you’re there and look at the number of regional flights coming and going. Most travelers go there on the way to somewhere else, just stating facts.

That is true. It may be worth mentioning that for Qantas Club members and Gold status holders, the Brisbane international business lounge is a big upgrade, arguably the best intl J lounge in the country.

Agree, the best QF lounge in the country by far. (Obviously the first lounge is a step up again).

380 seats are much better. Well, as a bed it’s the killer. Plus room, for larger folks the 787 business seats are a little cramped.

Agreed, that’s pretty common at O’Hare throughout the day. I’ve been in lines of similar size more than once. Having said that the airlines know this and generally allow for it in scheduling. Plus ATC at O’Hare do a great job of moving traffic. Lots and lots of puddle jumpers amongst those larger aircraft.

Even on a short flight like DFW to MHK they timetable one hour thirty for a one hour flight. Very often it comes in 20 mins early. They will do the same for Chicago.

Presumably the with the JSA approved and Qantas starting flights to ORD one would start to see some codeshares on flights like this.

I am sure a whole raft of codeshares ex Chicago will be announced in the next couple of months.

I’m wondering how long that Qantas flight to JFK will last now. I mean, they fly or will soon fly into three major AA hubs so.... Maybe others who understand the scheduling aspect of this (aircraft idle at LAX for the day etc.) can add to this.

Thanks, makes sense.

Maybe in my working years (8 to go) but in retirement definitely not! Will enjoy the stopovers.