TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
With Emirates flying direct flights between Dubai and Sydney (in conjunction with Qantas) and with Etihad flying direct from Abu Dhabi, Qatar Airways was the only one of the big 3 Middle Eastern carriers not to have service between its home airport and the most visited city in Australia (sorry Melbourne!).
Although it has flights to Perth and Melbourne, the absence of Sydney from Qatar Airways’ route network was noticeable and, apparently, they’ve gone and done something about it:
The Australian Business Review reported Australian Trade Minister, Andrew Robb, suggesting that a renegotiated air services agreement will see Qatar finally add Sydney to its list of non-stop destinations. The minister is quoted as saying:
Qatar Airways is likely to commence a daily service between Sydney and Doha, which will allow businesses to quickly and efficiently move produce to global markets.
As well as seeing non-stop service commence between Doha and Sydney, the new agreement signed between the Australian and Qatari governments is also expected to increase flights to Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. The Australian Deputy Prime Minster was quoted saying:
It [the renegotiated air services agreement] will allow for up to 21 flights each week, each way, for airlines of both countries to the major gateways, catering for growth in the Australia-Qatar and Australia-Europe routes
Qatar Airways is a fully-paid-up member of the OneWorld alliance which means AAdvantage Miles and Avios can both be redeemed for travel on the airline. With the ridiculous fuel surcharges that accompany anything to do with British Airways I wouldn’t recommend using Avios for travel on Qatar Airways but AAdvantage miles are a different story.
Travel between Doha and Australia in First Class costs just 60,000 miles one-way while Business Class costs just 45,000 miles. Taxes and fees for anyone using AAdvantage miles are pretty inconsequential when traveling on Qatar Airways (another reason to avoid using Avios) so that makes award travel great value.
While it’s true that Qatar Airways’ premium cabins don’t yet quite match up to their Middle Eastern cousins (Emirates and Etihad) they’re still far from being poor and they’re making significant strides across their fleet.
Qatar Airways First Class Cabin – image courtesy of Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways Business Class Seat – image courtesy of Qatar Airways
Unfortunately, Australia is a notoriously difficult place to get to comfortably and cheaply. Business class flights to Australia are rarely ever seen at great prices and award availability has never been easy to find. A quick search on the British Airways website (the best site to search awards to Australia) will show you just how scarce award inventory is.
Perhaps the addition of more service from Qatar will see that change?
The new arrangement between Australia and Qatar will see a 50% increase in Qatar’s capacity to Australia’s major airports and, with Qatar Airways not being shy of discounting fares in premium cabins, we can only hope that this bodes well for those of use who enjoy the finer things in air travel but aren’t so keen to pay full-price!
