Miles & points collectors in Australia should rejoice, as Qatar Airways has just announced that they’re adding a daily flight between Sydney and Doha in 2016.
Continue reading: Qatar Airways Launching Flights To Sydney In 2016
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Wish they would have made it an A380 route, flight is long enough to enjoy F cabin and Bar. But yes definitely a nice addition.
They have avoided services to SYD for so long because of SYDs annoying curfew. They want to depart as late as possible at night to allow easy connections onto Europe.
@Ben That curfew is not so annoying if you live near the flight path in Sydney as I do. Still, the news of the new flights out of Sydney is exciting. Pricing is pretty average at this stage.
Quite surprised they don't fly an A380 to SYD, as it still puts them behind EK and EY. Not sure how His Excellency tolerated that 😉
Ben,
Would 400,000 AA points be enough to get 2 people from Boston to Sydney on Qatar in business?
@2pax: Unless you bought your place before they opened the public airfield in 1923, you don't have anything to complain about. Proximity to the flight path is built into the price you paid. Considering aircraft are quieter today than ever before, you're also putting up with less noise than you did 10 or 20 years ago.
Still, I think they should turn Kingsford Smith into a domestic/regional airport for businesses in the CBD like LaGuardia or Toronto Billy Bishop and shift all the international traffic to a 24/7 field at Badgerys Creek. Proximity to the airport is important if you're trying to make a quick day trip to Melbourne or Brisbane, but if you're flying to London or New York it's less critical.
Ben, just to clarify -- we can route from Australia to Europe via the Middle East on both Qantas and Qatar, but not Etihad? Seems perverse.
@Josh, you can, it just requires two seperate awards, so 75k miles for business and 100k for first. If you're flying EY's A380 in F the whole way SYD-LHR, the miles premium is probably worth it.
@Frump: Has anyone managed to find F availability from AUH-SYD? I can only find seats on the 77W.
CAPA wrote a great article about this and provided some in depth analysis.
The SYD departure time is surprising. Curfew is 11pm so there is very little buffer for delays before there is a long delay until next morning.
Is it my imagination or has transatlantic QR premium class partner award availability dried up? I thought I remembered lots of J seats being available in the past.
Boeing 777 3-4-3 seats for economy ? no thanks.
they used to be 3-3-3... I guess I will stick with Cathay and Singapore to Europe.
how much did they pay for the rewards ?
@ Jason However it seems Qr doesn't play on the Sydney to Europe flights. I have search for a few monts and every time there is a Business awards seat on either Cathay or Singapore the run to HKG or SIN is on QR economy