Author: Matt Graham
How Qantas Plans to Fly Airbus A330s to the USA
Update: Qantas has delayed the resumption of flights between Brisbane and the United States, but still plans to use Airbus A330s when these routes resume in 2022. Qantas plans to gradually resume international flights from 18 December 2021. But with Qantas’ Airbus A380s not returning to the skies until mid-2022, the Boeing 747s retired and the delivery … Continued
Airlines Still Selling “Ghost Flights” to Australia
If you’ve tried searching for flights to Australia over the next two months, you’ve probably noticed there are very few seats available. There are a very small number of flights with expensive Business or First Class seats available that might get you home before December. But most of the “affordable” flights on sale are sadly … Continued
NSW Commits to Regional Travel Resumption
Update (15 October 2021): Regional travel within NSW has been delayed by a week until 1 November 2021. The NSW government has confirmed that regional travel within NSW will be able to resume in late October 2021 for people who are fully vaccinated, and early December for everyone else. Under the NSW government’s 3-stage reopening … Continued
NSW to Quadruple International Arrival Cap in Late October
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian today confirmed that the state will reinstate the higher international arrival caps that had been in place until July in around a month. As part of the NSW government’s 3-stage reopening plan announced today, vaccinated NSW residents will gain a little more freedom once 70% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated against … Continued
Should You Pay Reward Flight Taxes with Points?
When booking a reward flight using Qantas or Velocity points, you’ll also need to pay any applicable taxes & carrier charges in addition to the points. This extra co-payment includes Virgin’s $11 carrier charge or Qantas’ $14 carrier charge per domestic flight (it’s higher for most international flights), plus any third-party airport fees, security charges … Continued
BA Executive Club Welcomes Australian Members
British Airways has removed a bizarre rule which prevented Australian and New Zealand residents from joining its Executive Club frequent flyer program. For many years, Australian and New Zealand residents have been technically excluded from joining the British Airways Executive Club program. The rule was a hangover from the time when Qantas and British Airways … Continued
When Will Velocity Reinstate Partner Airline Redemptions?
Velocity Frequent Flyer is finally preparing to bring back reward seat redemptions on Virgin Australia international flights, as well as flights operated by partner airlines. These redemption options have been unavailable since April 2020. While this is welcome news, it’s still unclear when exactly Velocity will reopen international redemption bookings and which partner airlines will … Continued
NSW Trials 7-Day Home Quarantine
The NSW government will next month commence a trial of 7-day home quarantine for a small number of travellers returning from overseas, instead of the current 14 days of hotel quarantine. The NSW pilot program will operate for four weeks. NSW Health will choose around 175 people to participate in its home quarantine trial. All … Continued
Podcast #69: Singapore Airlines on Operating to Australia in the Pandemic
Flying internationally to or from Australia over the past 18 months has been extremely challenging for passengers. This is especially so for the tens of thousands of Australians who remain stuck overseas in September 2021. Previous episodes of the AFF on Air podcast have investigated the challenge of returning to Australia from a passenger’s perspective. But … Continued