girlingreen,

has anyone flown to Australia via Singapore - is it a very turbulent route?

It all depends on the weather conditions on the day. The flight crew will do all they can to ensure the flight is as smooth as possible. The further away from the centre of gravity you are, ie the front and back, the more you'll feel the aircraft move. It's not only during turbulance, it's general aircraft movements as well. You'll probably be flying the long sectors on a Boeing 747-400 which are noted for their smooth performance so you should be fine at the back. I've flown up front on the 744, in the upper deck and must say it was one of the smoothest flights ever, even during patches of turbulance. At upwards of 400 tonnes, it takes a lot to move one around!

should I pre-book seats at the back of the plane and then hope that at check in we can change these to sit in the emergency exit seats (if possible)?

Seating is always personaly preference. You sound like you've thought it through so if you think those seats will work for you, then go for it. For airline reviews, have a look at carsurvey.org (flights) and airline quality. For seat information, refer to seatguru.com. You may find that as extra-legroom seating becomes available, providing there are no passengers who need those seats, frequent flyer members will get priority. You can only ask though.

our flight is 11.15am from Heathrow, what time would you recommend checking in to try and get the sacred emergency exit seats?

You'll be departing from Terminal 4. It's recommended to check in 3 hours prior to your departure for long haul flights. Given the chaos of LHR, I wouldn't leave it any less than that. It may sound a long time, but by the time you've checked-in, got through security and walked down to the gate, it all adds up.

There's a thread on flights to Austrailia here. There's lots of helpful people who've posted on their with similar questions to you, and those who have been.

Darren

Thanks Dazbo 5. I have joined the Qantas frequent flyer scheme as it is free to do so in the UK and we are using them a lot during our holiday, and plan to next year also. Our holiday is not until December but just wanted to try and get a feel for the seating as our travel agent told us our flight is fully booked now, as he was trying to get someone else on it, and they had to go on the later flight. I think I am going to go trying to book the seats at the back!

Am flying with Qantas later in the year. Would really like to book seats online, but there is nowhere on their website which allows you to do this - all you can do is put a preference in for aisle or window. Does anyone know whether you can book specific seats if you ring them? Or am I just going to have to check in early enough to get where I want on the plane?

Qantas drops routes as fuel crisis mounts

The soaring cost of fuel has prompted Qantas to ground some of its domestic flights from July and rethink its international schedule.

In the wake of Silverjet suspending shares and relying on a £12.6m bail out to continue flying thanks to oil prices rocketing, the Australian flag carrier's chief executive officer Geoff Dixon has said it will come out of some of its lowest performing routes including the Sydney-Gold Coast route. The equivalent of six jets will be grounded.

Dixon added that job cuts and executive pay freezes will also follow as the airline's fuel bill is set to increase by more than $2 billion in 2008/9 - that's about 35% of the carrier's total expenditure.

In a statement, Dixon said: "The fact is that fuel prices are something we have no control over, so we have to look harder at areas where we do have control. Despite our fuel hedging strategy, fuel surcharges, two separate across-the-board fare increases and a recruitment freeze, we are not bridging the widening gap between the actual increase in the cost of fuel and the amount we offset."

The carrier plans to retire one B737 aircraft, ground two B767 aircraft and one Jetstar A320 aircraft, cancel the delivery of one Jetstar A321 aircraft, accelerate the retirement of its four B747-300 aircraft, currently operating trans-continental services to Perth, by December and adjust the flying patterns of other aircraft, including reducing the use of the B747-400 fleet.

Dixon said: "This will enable us to make significant changes to domestic and international flying for both Qantas and Jetstar. In some cases, this will involve pulling off routes entirely. In other cases, we will scale back frequencies and capacity."

He added: "Wherever possible, we have tried to minimise the overall impact of the changes. For example, Jetstar will continue to offer more than 140 return services to the Gold Coast each week, including up to 10 services a day on the Sydney-Gold Coast route.

Dixon said Qantas was putting the finishing touches to its international network restructure, including capacity adjustments and market exits, and would announce these within the next week, adding that "the magnitude of the changes would require a reduction in staff numbers".

Qantas pays only around US$72 a barrel for its oil at the moment thanks to a fuel hedging policy [where prices are locked at the start of the financial year] but this agreement ends on July 1 when it will have to pay the going rate of US$130 a barrel.

With permission from Travelmole

I am very excited - just found out that my Qantas flight from Sydney back to London in January has been changed from a 747 to the new Airbus A380 on its first Qantas flight from Sydney!!!

I would have **** my pants had i been sat next to this:

Quantas 747 Story - Sky News

Fair play to the captain and his crew for getting the plane on the ground in one piece it has to be said

Looks quite a scary incident. As usual though, the media have played on the wording. I heard on the radio this morning 'jumbo makes 20,000ft death plunge'. Even the Sky News article makes it sound like the aircraft plunged 20,000ft because of the damage. This was simply an emergency descent due to depresurisation. Still a scary and unusual situation though. Great job by the flight deck and crew.

Darren

As per the FC emergency landing thread, quite surprised Sky havent taken a picture of a Quantas 737 and labelled it "Quantas Jumbo Like This"

Nor does the Sky report make it absolutely clear that the passenger cabin remained physically intact. The BBC radio news reports this morning specifically stated that the hole in the fuselage was in the baggage hold. Still scary for passengers of course - any rapid descent is - but this isn't a case of a people being in danger of being sucked out of the plane etc. Luggage probably, people no.

SM

There is some video footage on the BBC website of the Qantas jet in flight.

everybody appears calm, I'd like to think I could be this calm but I sure would be bricking it!!

This isn't trying to take away what was no doubt very scary for all concerned, but the so called journalists who write these stories need to do something called research before they put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard!). The plunge they report probably saved the lives of the passengers onboard because of the effects of hypoxia and hypothermia. There's very little oxygen and it's mightly cold at that altitude so an emergency descent is designed to get the aircraft to an altitude of approx. 10,000ft where it's safe to breath. Emergency oxygen supplies onboard are limited (refer to the Helios crash in 2006). The reports that say 'the aircraft plunged 20,000ft for 5 minutes then stabilised' are trying to make out it was uncontrolled and the aircraft was out of control. It was simply the flight crew carrying out procedure to safeguard everyone onboard:duh

Darren

Excellent job by the flight crew.

I saw on another website that as part of the safety demonstration they should mention that when oxygen masks are deployed it will be necessary to decend rapidly to breathable atmosphere and this is normal standard operating procedure, it would reduce any panick on board as people would know why they are apparantly "plunging" downwards.

Typically press though hyping up the story to sell more copy.

Dave

Could be a silly question but does this rapid decent increase the risk of have a collision with another aircraft on the way down??
I am assuming there would not be enough time for air traffic control to rearrange the flying pattern of all the aircraft within the airspace?? Or is this just my brain working overtime

The pilots have many instruments available to them, they would know what was around them and would act accordingly, the decent is performed in a controlled manner so no real issues for them.

Dave

Mark757,

Mark757 wrote:

Could be a silly question but does this rapid decent increase the risk of have a collision with another aircraft on the way down??

No. They would declare an emergency with ATC who would then create a sterile area for them and aid diversion to the appropriate airport, ie any aircraft that are likely to conflict with their routing will be directed around them. Most commercial aircraft are fitted with TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) and aircraft in the vacinity will be monitoring the same radio frequency so will hear whats going on (ie situation awareness). Aircraft have to maintain a minimum seperation of 1,000ft vertical or a set distance / time apart (varies depending on location) horizontal unless on approach / take off for an airport. In which case, they are under direction from ATC. There is very little risk.

Darren

Thanks for the info.

Darren thanks for that explanation. I flew Qantas some years ago and we had to make stop in Amsterdam and had Engineers all over the Aircraft. We had flown Business Class and my husband was talking to the Stewardess who said that Qantas have a fantastic safety record. She said they won't fly if even a light is out. Their work today in getting this aircraft down safely is to be commended.

Sue

keela1eva2,

Mark757 wrote:

She said they won't fly if even a light is out.

That's not strictly true, but I know where the cabin crew is coming from. That's not unique to Qantas, all airlines have the same procedures to follow in their respective countries. Aircraft can operate with minor defects providing it's not listed on the Minimum Equipment List (MEL) for that aircraft type. I'll not expand on that because it's quite technical, but it's a list of problems an aircraft can have and still operate, ie as long as the minimum equipment is operational and present. If a fault is found that is listed on the MEL, the aircraft cannot operate until it's rectified.

keela1eva2 wrote:

Qantas have a fantastic safety record.

They have the highest safety record of all the major airlines. Althought they've had incidents and hull losses, they've never had a fatal accident since taking to the sky. I can't actually think of any other airline that can boast that record.

Darren

I can't actually think of any other airline that can boast that record.

There are a few UK charter airlines around - but not of the longevity of Quantas.

The pictures are fantastic, looks to be a pallet (??) of bags adrift subsequent to the peeling of the fusilage - may be a few bags lurking in the South China Sea somewhere - will make an interesting insurance claim!! I actually thought the BBc coverage yesterday was pretty balanced and less sensationalist than normal - in the video footage in the cabin in-flight you actually see a passenger playing a seat back IFE game despite all that is going on, and the cabin crew look very much in control - so hats off to them bearing in mind they would off course be no less rattled than the passengers.

Talk this morning is of corrosion from the galley or a possibility that the aircraft has been previously "bumped" by a catering truck or similar that has stressed the "skin" - certainly reassuring however that such a big piece of tin is able to remain airbourne despite all that damage