Qantas international ultra long haul from Melbourne: the Dallas and London patterns, the rest rotation on a 17 hour sector and the body after eight years

Qantas international, Melbourne, eight years, and Steve wrote the Qantas international overview from the Virgin side. This is the ultra long haul itself from someone who does it: the Dallas and the London, hour by hour, and what eight years of it has done.

The patterns

Melbourne to Dallas Fort Worth: around 16 hours out, a two to three day layover, 17 hours back. Perth to London: 17 hours each way with the Perth positioning. Melbourne to Los Angeles: 14 hours. These are augmented crew flights with the full rest rotation, on the 787-9s, with the FAAA enterprise agreement setting the crew complement, the rest and the layover.

The Dallas pattern, hour by hour

Sign on in Melbourne in the morning, briefing, the boarding of 236 passengers, the departure. First service (a full meal, two hours for the whole aircraft). Then the first rest rotation: a third of the crew to the bunks for three to four hours while the rest run the cabin. The quiet middle: water runs, the galley reset, the second rotation. The second service two hours before landing. The landing in Dallas in the afternoon local time with a body that thinks it is 4am. The layover: the hotel, the nap that must be short, the American dinner, the sleep, the second day, the flight home. Then Melbourne, and two days of recovery that the agreement provides and the body needs.

The rest rotation

Chris's crew rest thread has the rules; here is the practice. The purser sets the rotation at the briefing: three groups, the first rest after the meal service (the one nobody wants, because you are awake for the boarding and the service and then asked to sleep), the second in the middle, the third before the second service (the one everyone wants). A fair purser rotates the groups over the month so nobody always gets the first. The bunks on the 787 are class one: flat, dark, quiet, and after a two hour meal service in economy you sleep in them instantly.

The body after eight years

Paul's fourteen year thread is the honest version and I am halfway to it. Sleep at home is fragile. The two recovery days are used for sleep, not life. The Dallas pattern three times a month means the body is never in Melbourne time. The gut, the skin, the back from the 787 galley: all as Paul described. What keeps me: the FAAA agreement's rest rules, which make it survivable; the core strength I started at year three; the no alcohol on the Dallas layover rule I adopted at year five; and the Dallas crew who have become a small airline of their own, the route regulars Josh described.

Why the ultra long haul

The days off. The pay, which under the agreement is the top of the Australian scale. The London layover, which is the reason Perth to London exists in crew's minds. And the specific pride of doing the longest flights in the world for the airline that pioneered them. Steve is right that the agreement is why it lasts. Terry is right that it was fought for.

For Qantas domestic crew thinking about international

The application and the course, the seniority reset, the Asia and Pacific first, the ultra long haul at mid seniority. Do it at 28, not 38. The body has a budget and the ultra long haul spends it. I am spending mine and I know it.