Twenty hours on a Qantas plane: future of aviation or hell in economy? | Hacker News Reader

Twenty hours on a Qantas plane: future of aviation or hell in economy?

theguardian.com

15 pointsnl12 comments

Previously Qantas’s offerings for Europe were flights where you’d do Sydney to Dubai (15hrs) then Dubai to London (8 hours). Sometimes it was Singapore instead of Dubai. Their offerings for America were Sydney to Texas (17 hours) then Texas to New York (4 hours).

I’ve taken dozens of their previous Sydney to New York offerings. The 17-hour flight seemed okay for most people. I think they would handle 20 or 21 hours equally well. Not having to change flights is definitely a draw, the article worries that only businesspeople will pay the premium but I think most travelers will want to pay as well.

I feel there's a massive underserved in NZ/AU - there's simply more Europeans than brits here. There are planes that can directly fly to hubs like Copenhagen, Helsinki, Riga, Warsaw or Istanbul. Not having to deal with London and fly backwards sounds like a dream.

Worth noting that these are pretty much the standard AU-EU routes for most airlines.

The flight change point varies by airline: SG, Hk, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Doha are the most common.

I think Qantas has flights through SF for the US now too?

Yeah, I’ve done a few Sydney -> SF as well, that’s been around for a while I think.

I was wondering whether we’ll get to the point where we can go any airport to any other airport direct. That means figuring out what are the longest theoretical flights. After a bit of thinking I realized that is equivalent to the distance between two points opposite each other on the surface of a sphere, which is just half the circumference of the sphere. Earth’s circumference is roughly 25,000 miles, so there you go: a 12,500 mile range gives you the ability to fly from any airport to any other airport direct. Qantas’s research flights for this project clocked 11,060 miles so we’re pretty close to this being possible.

In geography, the term for a point opposite another on the Earth’s surface is antipode.

Oh, so that’s where “Antipodean” to refer to Aussies comes from! Neat!

Fresh hell? I used to fly QF1 which in the 70s was a 36-hour slog in a 747 (SYD, SIN, BOM, BAH, FRA, LHR). Usually we never left the aircraft.

20 hours doesn’t sound so bad, though being in Perth does, so I can understand why they might experiment with service from there.

My last flight LGW-DXB-SYD-ADL was delayed 2 hours in DXB, which meant I couldn't make my SYD-ADL flight. We had to fly SYD-MEL-ADL, with layovers in between, adding an extra 8 hours to our already very long flight.

I would definitely prefer to cut out one stop by taking LHR-DOH-ADL, LHR-PER-ADL, or this proposed LHR-SYD-ADL because of this. (Also because Emirates had disappointing service.)

Google flights says LHR-PER-ADL has 14% lower emissions than LHR-DOH-ADL. No data for LHR-SYD-ADL given it doesn't exist yet.

Originally from Houston, but have lived in Singapore for 14 years and a year in Sydney. I've done SYD-DFW-IAH, SIN-LAX-IAH, SIN-NRT-IAH, SIN-SFO-IAH, SIN-DME-IAH (RIP), SIN-TPE-IAH, SIN-MAN-IAH. The most punishing was IAH-SEA-NRT-HND-SIN after engine trouble leaving IAH.

I'd very happily suffer through a longer flight rather than connect in the US. MAN is nearly on par with the level of US suck due to their security setup.

Bunk beds would instantly remove 66.6% of aviation emissions, but no plane manufacturer is interested in selling 66.6% less planes.

p.s. and don't get started with safety when Boeing managed to release 737max.

I don't understand people who go through 8h+ economy flights and then say - I want to do that again! After just a few of those I swore: never again. Since then it's all been a giant puzzle: how to avoid the long distance economy seat.

10-15 years ago, buying US Airways Dividend Miles during their repeating sales and then using them to redeem business/first class award tickets on Star Alliance flights was the way to go.

Since then it became more complicated (and more expensive).

I recently did 2x12h with small children and can confidently say I would do it again. I feel like a pro now. I can't justify spending 20k just to visit grandparents.

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