Most of the contributors to this thread seem to be unaware that American Airlines also operate the route (via a code share with QF) and it's their considerable marketing resources that contributes greatly to the load factors on the QF aircraft. Also Air NZ operate the route via AKL (they used to operate SYD-LAX direct but not at present) and they attract a significant number of holiday & VFR pax because of their fare discounting. When you add the new Delta operation in addition to the incumbent United Airlines, then V Oz is definitely going to struggle getting any significant yield. They may get bums on seats through heavy discounting but no airline will survive if they can't cover costs.