Tag Archives for qantas.
Indian airline Spicejet is defending its decision to strip search flight attendants whom they believed were stealing money from inflight sales.
Flight attendants were forced to get naked and no – no money was found.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Two years ago American Airlines and Qantas announced an expanded joint venture. American was launching Sydney and Auckland service, Qantas Sydney – San Francisco. And they indicated there would be more new routes in the offing as a result of the partnership.
The Obama administration’s Department of Transportation indicated they were going to reject anti-trust immunity for the revenue-sharing partnership. They said they didn’t believe there would be greater growth in service compared to what they expected to happen anyway which was a novel approach. Qantas and American withdrew their application rather than having it rejected.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Qantas is launching a new route on September 1, 2018: San Francisco – Melbourne on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, operated by a Boeing 787-9.
Qantas rarely makes business class award space available, however on this new flight awards are wide open on the days of the week it operates. Some flights have as many as 6 business class award seats available.
Joe Turner got food poisoning on a JAL flight. Not fun, and I can relate — I picked up salmonella last month on Qantas (in first, flying Melbourne to Los Angeles). Doesn’t discourage me from flying, though, I’m just not sure how to ‘be more careful’ and avoid such things in the future. Thoughts?
Back in November I reported that Qantas had gutted its frequent flyer award chart, with awards increasing in price as much as 92% (Sydney to New York-JFK in First class was going up to 392,000 points)! It should come as no surprise that Qantas frequent flyer members reacted to this news by booking as many international awards as they possibly could before the new point requirements went into effect, and as a result there are reports of very limited award availability — that most of the international awards on Qantas have simply been snatched up. It’s difficult to know the real numbers without a systematic award search, but the theory itself seems plausible.
When I read the headline in the Phoenix Business Journal, “America West adds Australia to frequent flyer program,” I assumed that America West must have inked a deal with Qantas. Nope. They’ve expanded their partnership with Hawaiian Airlines to include Hawaiian’s service to Sydney via Honolulu. Oh well, any new award redemption option is a good thing.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Qantas has gutted its frequent flyer program. First, the minor positives: some short-haul awards, such as Sydney-Melbourne in Coach, will become less expensive (20,000 points down to 16,000 points). They’re also introducing one-way awards and the ability to transfer points to eligible family members. Alas, those are the limits of the positives. Upgrades can no longer be confirmed at booking — they’re day of departure only — and they’re no longer available on discount fares, either. Elimination of upgrade credits. Instead members will receive 5000 points for every 450 Status credits earned. An increased cost for many premium class awards. Business class from Sydney to Los Angeles and Sydney to Singapore each went up 20%. First class from Sydney to Heathrow went up 28%. First class from Sydney…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
