4Greens - Where did you get this information? Todays QF11, QF93 and QF107 are all still airborne and operating as B744's today. Will one tomorrows QF11/93 operate as A388?
411A - Doing this would increase the total flight time by around 2-3hrs and result in lost traffic to those who can operate the direct services, as QF can with their 744ER. I think the point Qantas will be making is that they were sold an aircraft which would fit their requirements albeit at close to it limits at MTOW. That aircraft is now unfit for purpose through no fault of their own. RR could find themselves with a very hefty compensation bill if they don't get this sorted.
It has been interesting to note that since restarting services to LHR with A388, QF have consistently been climbing to lower initial altitude on the LHR-SIN leg than SQ's A380's. IIRC even at MTOW the A380 was supposed to be able to reach initial cruise altitude of FL350, QF been going to FL330 recently from LHR.