I find it hard to think what advantages this would provide to anybody outside Sydney. Melbourne and Brisbane already have one-stop flights to London, and this is just another one-stop flight from those cities. I would much rather have a stop to stretch my legs in Singapore, Dubai or Qatar, than a...

Does it matter? Nobody in their right mind would take these Qantas services in economy. And if you travel from any capital city other than Sydney it's a one-stop trip, not direct. A flight to London in any class will take appreciably longer than existing services.

A perfect summation of the Qantas modus operandi. Overpromising and undelivering. 

Agree, and as for charging a premium over 1 stop options, for anybody outside Sydney this is actually a 1 stop option. So if you're outside the Botany Bay centre of the QF universe, as a decreasing but significant number of still loyal Qantas customers are, your 22 hour flight from Sydney to Lond...

I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall that the press release-driven media that cited official Qantas sources mentioned both Sydney and Melbourne from the get-go. Not sure that it was just media join-the-dots.