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LOUNGE REVIEW: Adelaide Qantas Club, December 2024
The Qantas at Adelaide Airport is rebuilding its entire Qantas Club precinct. Formerly a combined Business and Club and a separate Chairman’s lounge. When the building work is complete, it will become a Qantas Club, Business Lounge, and Chairman’s Lounge, all led by resident Qantas design lead David Caon. The...
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QANTAS: Illegally sacked workers get AU$120 million compensation payout
1800 illegally sacked workers will be paid AU$120 million to settle a compensation claim over the illegal sacking of ground staff in 2020. Qantas resisted right up to the High Court before it agreed to the payments under new CEO Vanessa Hudson. The amount of compensation was negotiated between Qantas...
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JUNEYAO AIR: Inaugural flight arrival to Sydney from Shanghai
The inaugural flight HO1669 by Juneyao Air between Shanghai and Sydney on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner arrived yesterday, 17 December 2024. This is the first of four direct services per week between Sydney and Shanghai. During the Lunar New Year period, 2025 will see this number rise to daily flights....
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CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES: Return to Adelaide / Guangzhou route
China Southern Airlines has returned to flying its Adelaide to Guangzhou route three times a week as a seasonal route until 1 March 2025. Discussions are underway to extend the arrangement beyond that date. This route commenced in 2016 but was abandoned during the height of the pandemic in 2020....
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QATAR AIRWAYS: Q-Suite Guarantee – free flight change if not available
Some people believe this guarantee is mythical, but it seems real if you book a Q-Suites flight and an aircraft change leaves you on a flight without the renowned Business Class seats. You won’t find this guarantee on the Qatar Airways website, but you will find evidence of it in...
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QATAR AIRWAYS: Back to daily flights from Canberra
I think this is weird, but it’s welcome. Qatar Airways will resume daily flights to Canberra, Australia’s capital city. The flights will not be non-stop, but they will head to Doha via Melbourne. You may remember that in 2023, the Department of Transport refused Qatar’s application for additional slots at...
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QANTAS: Classic Plus rewards now available for domestic flights.
From Monday, 16 December 2024, you can book domestic airfares by redeeming points at Classic Plus rates. These are usually more expensive than redeeming for Classic reward rates, but not always. Qantas argues that these Classic Plus awards boost the ‘effective’ value of Qantas Points by making more seats available...
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VIRGIN AUSTRALIA: Discounted long-haul international airfares via Doha announced
Pending final approval from regulators, we now know what the cost of long-haul international routes will be travelling on Virgin Australia, and their wet-leased aircraft via Doha. And, you can book them from today. If you remember, Virgin Australia has masterfully parlayed a proposed 25% stake by Qatar Airways, and...
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REX AIRLINES: ASIC alleges misleading and deceptive conduct by airline
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has initiated legal proceedings against Regional Express (REX), the beleaguered airline in administration, alleging that it deceived the market. Misleading announcements The controversy centres on an Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) announcement made by REX in February 2023. The airline declared optimism about achieving...
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VIRGIN AUSTRALIA: Makes big promises for smooth running Christmas holiday season
Virgin Australia is making some big commitments to passengers during this holiday season. Over the months of December 2024 and January 2025, Virgin will run up to 3,000 flights each week domestically and on short-haul international routes. Airlines’ recent history over the Christmas holiday period has not been good. With...
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EMIRATES: Melbourne to Singapore ends—replaced by third non-stop Melbourne to Dubai daily flight
Emirates will end its direct, one-stop flights EK404/EK405 between Melbourne and Dubai via Singapore on Sunday, 30 March 2025. This means one less option to travel the eight-hour trek between Singapore and Melbourne. These flights to Dubai via Singapore allowed Emirates to pick up guests from Singapore. They gave guests...
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HOTELS: Hyatt-us
The story below was originally posted in 2011. Re-edited, I think it still stands as an opinion about how quickly a guest’s opinion of their hotel stay experience can be influenced by one bad step. I’m quite a fan of Hyatt Hotels—or at least they are the international chain hotel...
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AIR NEW ZEALAND: Likes it both ways—Qantas and Virgin Australia
From today, Thursday, 5 December, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia are back together with a new codeshare agreement. Thursday, 5 December: The long-awaited reunion of Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand is now officially “official”, bringing enhanced travel options and seamless experiences for Virgin Australia passengers crossing the Tasman....
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QANTAS: Double points and Christmas treats. Bah Humbug!
Oh joy, here is Qantas, jumping on the festive bandwagon with their flashy Christmas livery and yultide themed gimmicks. It’s not enough that we have to endure the chaos of holiday travel; now we have to put up with planes named ‘Dasher-8’ and ‘Roo-dolph’ cluttering the skies. Whoopee. Festive double...
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NON-STOP ULTRA-LONG-HAUL FLIGHTS: British Airways and Turkish Airlines flagged to join Qantas in this quest
It looks like Qantas ‘Project Sunrise‘ ultra-long-haul project is not alone in the non-stop stakes. Project Sunrise will take travellers from the east coast of Australia to almost any capital city in the world without stopping. That includes trips from Sydney to London, New York, and Paris. At least two...
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VIRGIN AUSTRALIA: New international flights to Doha released
The ACCC’s interim approval of the tie-up between Virgin Australia (VA) wet-leasing Qatar Airways jets to recommence long-haul international flying allows VA to release its new flights to Doha. These Virgin Australia flights using crew and aircraft from Qatar Airways will commence in June 2025. They will be included in...