Qantas PER - LHR

[tcr2]

A couple of quick question for those of you who know this sort of thing:

1) I am flying from PER - LHR on Christmas day this year with Qantas. The Qantas website says A330 PER - SIN, followed by 747-400 to LHR, the travel agent says this will shortly be changed to a direct 747-400 PER - LHR (no change of plane, but still stopping in SIN). Who is correct?

2) As a QF frequent flyer, is it possible to book specific seats online? We are travelling as a group of 4, and I would like to book the 'pairs' of window seats towards the back of the aircraft.

3) People meeting us in the UK say the only flight info. for flights arriving from Oz is the SYD flight. Assuming A330 out of PER, do we then join up with this SYD - LHR flight in SIN?

4) What are the usual load factors for Chrismas day long haul flights?

I know Christmas is a long way off, but any info. on the above greatly appreciated.:ok:

[Globaliser]

1) I am flying from PER - LHR on Christmas day this year with Qantas. The Qantas website says A330 PER - SIN, followed by 747-400 to LHR, the travel agent says this will shortly be changed to a direct 747-400 PER - LHR (no change of plane, but still stopping in SIN). Who is correct?
2) As a QF frequent flyer, is it possible to book specific seats online? We are travelling as a group of 4, and I would like to book the 'pairs' of window seats towards the back of the aircraft.
3) People meeting us in the UK say the only flight info. for flights arriving from Oz is the SYD flight. Assuming A330 out of PER, do we then join up with this SYD - LHR flight in SIN?The ones I think I can help with:-

1. I believe that the change has recently been in the opposite direction. There is currently a direct PER-LHR flight, but this is only a LHR slot-sitting exercise. It's now 3x a week. QF's own HKG-LHR flight is now 4x a week but is going to daily from the beginning of the northern summer, and the slot-sitting for the other three frequencies is no longer needed. So the direct PER-LHR is being withdrawn at the same time. I would therefore be surprised if a change were being made back to having a direct PER-LHR service so soon, although it's not impossible.

2. QF will pre-allocate specific seats, but have a pretty low limit IIRC before remaining allocation is done at check-in. Call QF res and ask whether they can sort this out for you.

3. The QF flight SIN-LHR that the timetable shows a connection to is QF9, which originates in MEL. The BA SIN-LHR flight that the timetable shows as QF319 is the BA16 originating in SYD.

Hope this helps.