Qantas is switching up its A380 schedule on flagship route Sydney to Los Angeles, and the move will result in some challenging connections within the US while almost ruling out same-day onward flights to eastern hubs such as New York and Chicago.

Instead of the daily QF11 superjumbo making its leisurely mid-morning jaunt from Sydney to arrive into LAX around 7am, Qantas’ timetable from 31 March 2024 shows QF11 departing at 5.15pm, resulting in a 1pm landing at Los Angeles.

While that’s certainly a better time for checking into your LA hotel, the revised schedule is not as friendly for passengers with onward flights to many other US destinations.

New York is a case in point: flying from west to east means you already lose three hours in timezone-hopping alone, while the actual flight takes between five and six hours, so even if you scrambled for a 3pm flight from LAX to JFK you wouldn’t reach New York until almost midnight.

Of course, anyone flying with Qantas from Sydney to New York would be better off on the Sydney-Auckland-New York service.

So let’s say you are bound for Chicago: it’s a similar story to NY, with American’s 5.40pm from LAX touching down in The Windy City around midnight.

You’d be better off staying at LA for the night, enjoying some shopping and a nice dinner, resetting youir bodyclock to US time and then darting east to Chicago the following day.

Seattle is another popular add-on leg for QF11, but after a four-hour layover at LAX the next flight from Oneworld partner Alaska Airlines reaches Seattle at almost 8pm.

Qantas’ schedule also shows a Friday QF17 Boeing 787 service departing at 10.20am and arriving at LAX around 6am.

There’s no real change to the QF12 return flight, so Qantas’ move to a late afternoon departure of QF11 will reduce the time these superjumbos spend sitting around at LAX.

And if your eye is on the south-eastern cruise hub of Miami, Qantas woud probably steer you towards its Sydney-Dallas flight.

 

By David Flynn

Source ExecutiveTraveller.com