Well this sure piques my curiosity. As reported by @airlineroute, Qantas has filed a one-time A380 charter service to Orlando in January 2020. Qantas will operate the following flights from Sydney to Orlando on January 19, 2020: QF17 Sydney to Los Angeles departing 10:25AM arriving 5:15AM QF17 Los Angeles to Orlando departing 7:30AM arriving 2:55PM
Continue reading: Qantas’ Mysterious A380 Charter To Orlando
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Very much off-topic, but Moscow Sheremetyevo airport and Aeroflot have been having an incredible luggage collapse for the last week or so, and it does not seem to get better. The authorities have confirmed that there is at least a tonne (!) of unsorted luggage that is just lying around. People lose their luggage in transit, on arrival, everywhere. Keep your bags with you.
Once the aircraft returns to LAX empty, what then? Is there an additional bookable commercial flight from LAX to Australia that brings the equipment back to Australia during that week? And one to get it back to LAX from Australia?
Flight Centre Global Gathering is in Las Vegas this year, in July as usual. It might be an incentive trip or something but it's strange timing for sure.
@Lucky, can I just say thanks for being genuine with the headline and reporting? That's nothing new for you, but it is drawn into sharp relief by a headline on ThePointsGuy.com reading "Qantas Will Fly Its A380 to Orlando’s Disney World in January 2020" - although, when one reads the article they'll find that there is zero evidence to support that the flight is going to Disney World and that TPG has done even less to investigate the purpose of the flight than you have - basically, they've just had someone go to the airline's website to try to book the flight.
I guess that reminds me that I don't get my travel news from ThePointsGuy for the same reason that I don't drink my milkshakes from the toilet.
I’m marking my calendar for January 19th. Hopefully I’ll be in town that week and will able to catch it. Not often we get an a380 in Orlando.
My money is on some kind of corporate incentive trip. When we hit $250 million in sales I'm taking you all to Disney World...or some such.
I'm thinking the Disney connection may be the most solid:
Sydney is the nearest airport that can handle that size a jet. I've never looked, but common sense says one A380 is way cheaper to charter than a bunch of smaller (-ish) jets. That said, ~868 people is a lot... does it take that many to kick off a new theme park if that is the case?
Perhaps an Australian version of this: https://www.dreamflight.org/index.php/what-is-dreamflight
John.
Count me in.
Can I take Dan with me?
Seems a funny guy too.
Taking off as we speak AUH to SIN
John.
Count me in.
Can I take Bill with me?
Seems a funny guy too.
Taking off as we speak AUH to SIN
@Vanya Hmm, I'm flying to SVO in 3 weeks, with checked luggage. I hope it's fixed by then. What's the cause of the problem?
I searched the dates on Eventbrite. There's a leadership conference happening on Jan 21-23 called Creativity: Orlando 2020. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creativity-orlando-2020-tickets-61992223409?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
@Jack TPG has been click-bait trash like that for a while now. Even worse on social media where they recycle posts and use even more click-baity headlines like "The Cruise Industry is Dead" in response to Cuba's ports being closed.
Every January the Australian government does a series of large “G’Day USA” outreach events...it usually covers a number of cities...perhaps they are doing a demonstration sporting event or something similar.
We have three charters booked for our Flight Centre Vegas trip in July from Australia. QF, VA and NZ. All from BNE/SYD/MEL. VS is bringing the UK and Europe team members over. The Orlando one isn’t Flight Centre as far as I’ve heard!
Should be an exciting day at MCO. Wonder how fast an empty A380 climbs heading back to LAX?
I remember many years back when BA and AF each flew a Concorde to MCO and set up a simultaneous landing on parallel runways. Not a Mickey Mouse feat!
Maybe QF is testing out a new route with flight to MCO via LAX? Say fly once a week? All the result of the code shares with AA?
We all know TPG is the tabloids of miles points and travel.
That's why readers here are a bit upset that OMAAT is having clickbait post or gossip news from time to time. It's like Kardashians getting WSJ headlines.
At least OMAAT has decent info and interesting reviews from time to time, enough for me to use referral links here to support this site. TPG never got referrals from me.
But hey a little TPG from time to time is entertaining. Always fun to see a near 7 ft guy trying to sit in coach. Hell, I might even use his links next time if he flies middle seat on a 5hr Spirit flight.
Auspointer says:
June 10, 2019 at 6:07 pm
Probably the annual happy clapper (excl. brethren) charter…
I'm with Auspointer. Wouldn't be the first time the brethren's have chartered a Qantas A380
You can sometimes find a Qantas plane just an hour north of Orlando in Ocala! Guess who is flying it? I’ll give you a hint: a celebrity is flying it.
I saw a Qantas plane in Delhi about a week ago. Likely an A330. What was that?
That happy crappy event seems likely. There are enough mega churches in Oz to fill a 380. Alternatively, maybe something at Disney World for kids. I vaguely recall Air NZ used to do something at Disneyland.
Wonder if it is Disney and Star Wars related in some form - SW has already opened in LAX and the Orlando one is due to open in August.
Who is to say it is not a Los Angeles based company who is chartering the plane to MCO.
I just saw an ad on TV from Woolworths Supermarkets in Australia advertising that they are giving away for 116 groups of 4 people a holiday to Disney World on a chartered Qantas flight. It's a promotion to do with the Lion King, This would be the charter.
Try for a Woolworths competition with over 100 prizes of four people each flying to mco & wdw. Nothing I can see on when it will happen online but the time in mco lines up perfectly. This is to do with the release of the new lion king movie.
Bon Voyage to all the lucky Aussie Ooshies flying to Orlando today. Have a great time at Animal Kingdom Lodge and safe travels on your Qantas A380 Charter Jet.