Originally Posted by NM
Its nothing to do with revenue. It is a US Dept of Transport ruling that QF can only carry passengers on the domestic sectors of QF107/108 if they have arrived into the USA or will depart from the USA on a Qantas flight on the same itinerary.
Not true. There is a finding published on the DOT web site from a US Attorney that addresses cabotage. A secondary point in the finding is that carriage to/from the US can be on any carrier, not restricted to the carrier of the domestic leg, to avoid cabotage. The only requirement is that it must be on the same ticket (doesn't even have to be the same PNR, since that isn't a legal contract of carriage). I really hate it when an airline follows the law for several years, then decides to change things and makes up a fictitious law change to cover their own policy, done strictly for commercial competitive reasons. They should have the guts or the pride in their policy to say that it is their idea, they are doing it because they can, and if you don't like it, tough. Not that the government forced them to do it, when it simply isn't true and in this case the evidence is in the public domain. So QF just comes off looking incompetent at best and devious and usury at worst. I guess they figure it affects so few people that it just doesn't matter and they can get away with it. In any case QF has the legal right to refuse to sell you a ticket, for any reason that they want (of course you have the legal right to sue them for discrimination, if they are in violation of any US laws), so when push comes to shove it is QF that is deciding to whom those tickets are sold. In any case for me it is academic, I've been rerouting my QF108 flights JFK-SYD to be on CX JFK-YVR-HKG-MEL and that makes for a much nicer flight. Cost QF a bit of revenue, but CX has been treating me well.