@TDRacer:-
Are you referring to the QF Golf Buggy? I don't think economics came into that decision; it was Rainman & QANTAS corporate reputation by accounts. Never lost a hull...
The short answer is NO, it wasn't QANTAS (and yes I'm familiar with that story as well).
It's been about 30 years (and I didn't find it on a quick Google), but memory says it was Air India, or at least somewhere in India. I mainly remember it because it was such a big deal to the Boeing AOG team - the biggest job they'd ever done - and they were justifiably proud (err, unlike a certain JAL 747 they'd repaired
).