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Is Qantas Blaming Airports For Its New Exit Row Charge?

May 27, 2009 at 3:36 PM | 1 Comment

Charging extra for an exit row seat is, sadly, nothing new, although it's largely been the province of budget airlines or short domestic routes. This week Qantas announced it will introduce the system on its international routes, and with a much heftier charge than we're used to – up to A$160 ($125) just to get the extra few inches of leg room (and all that responsibility if there happens to be an emergency).

While passengers backlash against this new charge, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is busy complaining about how poor Qantas has to pay so much money to airports. He wants to negotiate with Qantas's frequently-used airports to reduce costs, but some airports just won't play ball – Joyce said:

Airports are very, very good at earning revenues out of everything you could imagine - if they could charge for oxygen at the airport they probably would.

Hmm. Sounds a bit like the way airlines think, doesn't it?

Related Stories:
· Joyce Defends Qantas Charge For Emergency Exit Seats [The Age]
· Airports Would Charge for Oxygen If They Could [The Age]
· Getting What You Pay For Travel: The Best Seats in Coach [Jaunted]

[Photo: eperales]

Qantas Parks Its First Class Seats (For Now)

May 26, 2009 at 11:47 AM | 0 Comments

It's a tragedy. We've been saving all our pennies to afford to travel somewhere in first class, and now first class is disappearing. If it wasn't enough to hear that British Airways isn't building first class in to its new planes, now Aussie airline Qantas is cutting first class from existing planes.

The Qantas news comes after demand for first and business classes dropped almost 20 per cent, and the Flying Kangaroo then decided to drop first on its San Francisco-Sydney, Melbourne-London and Sydney-Buenos Aires routes. Of course, the first class cabin will still be there, and if you book business class you might end up sitting there, but you'll just be getting treated like a business class passenger.

Unlike BA, though, Qantas isn't saying first is out forever – for now, they're not selling first class tickets for those routes between July 6 and October 31. If demand increases again, first class will make a comeback. So perhaps we can keep saving after all.

Related Stories:
· Qantas Scraps First Class on Long Haul Routes [SMH]
· BA Ejects First Class From Flights [Scotland on Sunday]
· First Class Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: x_jamesmorris]

Last Chance for Qantas' $530 Round-Trip from California to Oz

April 20, 2009 at 5:13 PM | 0 Comments

The Down Under War is not over yet but Qantas amazing sale fares for Oz travel from either Los Angeles or San Francisco are almost gone. You have until tomorrow to book this insanely low (in fact it's almost sickening) price of $530 round-trip for your travel to Oz from between August 2 and September 28 or from October 25 to December 6. Round-trips from JFK in New York are only $730.

Go here to book and do it fast as seats are selling out and most of the $265 rates are gone. And now let us say a few words in remembrance of the hard-earned dollars we spent on a Qantas flight to Sydney in early 2007--all 1,800 of them.

Related Stories:
· Down Under War coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: planegeezer]

Qantas Deals With Real-Life Snakes On A Plane

April 17, 2009 at 11:11 AM | 1 Comment

We wish every Friday began with a story like this: In a scene reminiscent of a not-too-distant Samuel L. Jackson movie, a Qantas plane had to be taken out of service after four baby pythons escaped from their secure location in the cargo hold.

Frighteningly, the carriers of these snakes didn't realize until two days after they landed in Melbourne from Alice Springs that one-third of the pythons were MIA. After making sure the Stinson's pythons, native to Australia, hadn't eaten their own kind, officials pulled the plane and fumigated it, causing delays and probably a number of nightmares.

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Delta and Virgin Australia Make Love While Qantas Watches Wistfully

March 23, 2009 at 10:35 AM | 1 Comment

The Down Under War of the Airlines continues. This morning Virgin Australia and Delta Airlines have announced an interline partnership that will enable travelers to "travel on a single ticket on the two airlines between Australia and the US." What we think this means (and correct us if we're wrong) is that you can fly Virgin from Oz to Los Angeles and then hop on a Delta flight from LA to anywhere else in the US. You get one ticket and your luggage is checked all the way through to your final destination.

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Qantas Strikes Back Against Virgin and Delta in Down Under War

March 17, 2009 at 11:01 AM | 1 Comment

The Down Under War has well and truly started. We're talking the war on flights from the United States down to Australia, a market that's got boiling hot since V Australia threw its hat in the ring. And Delta is just a few months away from starting their own cheap flights to Sydney.

Likely-to-lose airline Qantas, which has happily served these routes at jacked-up regular prices for decades, has really thrown down the gauntlet this week.

They're now offering $299 one-way flights between Los Angeles and various Australian and New Zealand destinations, and with taxes that means you can get a return flight for as low as $676 with nearly all departure dates through to October 24 eligible for the special--if you book by March 20.

For these prices, we'd be going back to Qantas--after all, V Australia usually makes you pay for extras like movies, and Qantas offers all those great Aussie wines Actually, VAustralia not only offers free in-flight entertainment, but during the inaugural, movies were free. Yup, we watched Slumdog Millionaire for free. Furthermore, VA is offering a bunch of Australian wines. So who will win us over in the end? We'd be tempted by anyone offering sub-$500 round-trips from the US to Oz.

Related Stories:
· The Eagerly Anticipated V Australia Inaugural Flight Review [Jaunted]
· Qantas Coverage [Jaunted]
· V Australia Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: planegeezer]

Jetstar Wants to Conquer the Kiwis

February 20, 2009 at 9:21 AM | 0 Comments

Obviously it wasn't just a rumor that Qantas low-cost spin-off Jetstar was thinking of crashing into the New Zealand domestic flight market.

Now it's official. Starting from June 10, Jetstar will be making domestic flights between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown, while big bro Qantas will completely pull out of the market.

To kick off their Kiwi entry, Jetstar offered NZ$1 fares for two hours earlier this week; but regular flights will start from NZ$29 ($15). This means more competition for Pacific Blue and Air New Zealand; it looks like Jetstar will work out to be cheaper for flights most of the time, but without any comfortable extras.

Looks like Australia really does want to reach out to the Kiwis, contrary to what Bret and Jemaine think.

Related Stories:
· Jetstar Launches New Zealand Flights For $1 [The Age]
· New Zealand Travel: Jetstar Wants Its Piece of the Pie [Jaunted]
· Jetstar Coverage [Jaunted]

With V Australia at Its Heels, Qantas Steps Up With Cairns Deal

February 5, 2009 at 9:17 AM | 0 Comments

As we get closer and closer to the launch date for V Australia's virgin flight from the U.S. to Sydney, it's no surprise that flying kangaroo Qantas is coming out with some extra-special deals. And we're loving it.

This month's deal is not bad at all: Qantas is offering a free stopover if you fly from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York and end up in the northern Queensland town of Cairns, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. For your stopover you can choose from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne, and even Auckland in New Zealand. Given that distances are truly vast Down Under, this is a great way to see two completely different parts of the country.

Airfares with the free stopover start from $898 (plus taxes) from the west coast which makes it comparable to V Australia's. The fares are valid for May through September (if you book by February 27) which might not seem the best time to visit Australia--remember, they're going through their summer heat wave right now--but if you're going to tropical Cairns, then you'll hit the dry season which is a great time to visit.

Related Stories:
· Five Airfare Sales We Like Right Now [news.com.au]
· V Australia Fares Make Us V Happy [Jaunted]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo of Cairns beach: Chad Dunbar]

Getting Out To The Aussie Outback

January 16, 2009 at 12:30 PM | 4 Comments

The Australian outback is a strange beast: Part desert, part simple empty land, it covers most of the country. But it's also, some say, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and we want to tell you how to get there.

The first thing to remember is that you can't just take a day trip to the outback, like many tourists plan. It'll take a day just to get there. The easiest way is to fly into Alice Springs, pretty much smack bang in the middle of the country. Aussie airline Qantas flies in from all major Australian cities and curiously, Tiger Airways has started up a Melbourne to Alice Springs route.

A great way to get into the Outback without flying is to take the Ghan Railway from Adelaide to Darwin via Alice Springs--a great way, but not a cheap way.

And for stubborn travelers who insist on driving into the outback themselves, the motto is to be prepared. Stock up on extra fuel, a lot of extra water, make sure your car's reliable and basically get a ton of advice or you'll risk frying up in the middle of nowhere. No matter how beautiful it is, you don't want it to be the last place you see.

Related Stories:
· And Now, An Even More Expensive Way to See the Desert [Jaunted]
· Won't Get Fooled Again [Jaunted]
· Australia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: anniemullinsuk]

Qantas Gets More Seats, Just When They Don't Need Them

December 17, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

Back when Qantas first put an order in for some super-sized A380s, they probably saw the grand new planes arriving at the height of a boom in travel to Australia.

Oops. These days Qantas is doing half-price deals to get passengers to fill up its long haul routes--and might be secretly wishing the new A380 they just received in France didn't exist. The airline's second A380 will fly the Melbourne to Los Angeles route starting from December 22.

A third A380 should join the Qantas ranks just after Christmas to fly the Melbourne-Singapore-London route. Qantas should have had a dozen A380s by now if production had run according to schedule, but that would probably just mean even more empty seats. Maybe Qantas has flown into one of those clouds with a silver lining after all.

Related Stories:
· Qantas Receives Second A380 Superjumbo [Jaunted]
· Qantas A380 Takes Off, Flies Just Like the Other Ones [Jaunted]
· Emirates Superjumbos Aim For Down Under [Jaunted]

[Photo: awmolloy]

The Day Airlines Began Rationing Toilet Paper

November 17, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 1 Comment

Mid-air nose dives and delays galore have already tested the "any publicity is good publicity" adage for Qantas, the Aussie airline with a plummeting reputation. Now they're in the news for being tight with the toilet paper.

A flight into Sydney from Singapore had to be diverted over the weekend thanks to storms, and everything soon fell apart: The plane landed in Canberra for a while, then missed Sydney's curfew, then when it was finally able to take off, the crew had been on shift too long and had to be changed. Because Canberra's not equipped to deal with 747s, they couldn't restock anything, so rationing began, and that's when passengers had to ask for toilet paper when they visited the bathroom--and were given just four sheets each.

After spending the night on the plane, Qantas finally sent passengers to a hotel at 6 am and then got them back on the plane late morning and on to Sydney. But there's an idea in this story for budget airlines: If passengers are bringing their own food, they could easily bring their own toilet paper too.

Related Stories:
· Loo Paper Rationed on Bummer of a Diversion [The Age]
· Qantas coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: whizchickenonabun]

Qantas A380 Takes Off, Flies Just Like the Other Ones

October 21, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

In the ongoing saga of the big A380 super-jumbos, another historical milestone has just occurred with Aussie airline Qantas making its first A380 flight.

The Qantas A380 flew from Melbourne to Los Angeles where it was greeted with plenty of excitement--along with was-an-Aussie Olivia Newton-John and sometime pilot, sometime actor John Travolta.

Heaps of people were keen to be on that first flight, and one of them was Perth travel agent Luke Chittock who also wrangled a seat on the first Singapore Airlines A380 flight and the first Emirates one, too. But reports say that when journos asked him how the flight was, he wasn't too impressed: "It's all about the same now."

We're still waiting for our first A380 flight but now we're going to try to be as cool as Luke Chittock when we get there. It's just another plane.

Related Stories:
· Qantas A380's First Commercial Flight Takes Off [SMH]
· A380 Planes: Flying Kangaroo is Next in Line [Jaunted]
· Qantas coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Joits]