Qantas is bringing back its Airbus A380 with First Class from next March, with 6x weekly A380 flights between Sydney and Los Angeles now on sale from 27 March 2022 (previously 1 July 2022).
The Qantas A380 has 14 First Class seats, so the reintroduction of the A380 also means the reintroduction of Qantas First Class service! First Class seats are now available to book on the Qantas A380 flights between Sydney and Los Angeles, with First Saver fares starting from $14,873 for a return ticket.
Perhaps more exciting to Qantas Frequent Flyer members, however, is that there are also now a few First Class Classic Flight Reward seats available to book using Qantas points on these flights! These are available to book on the Qantas website.
A Qantas First Classic Reward from Sydney to Los Angeles costs 162,800 Qantas points + $350 in taxes & carrier charges. Here’s the full price breakdown:
All Qantas A380s will be refurbished with upgraded cabin interiors when they return to service.
At this stage, these seats only seem to be available on Sydney-Los Angeles flights departing on Tuesdays & Thursdays. In the other direction, from Los Angeles to Sydney, First Class rewards are available on some Sundays & Tuesdays. The Airbus A380 is not currently scheduled to operate Sydney-Los Angeles flights on Wednesdays.
Keep in mind that Qantas only releases Business & First Class reward seats on its long-haul international flights to Gold & above frequent flyers when seats are initially released 353 days (around 11.5 months) in advance. So if you’d like to book a seat for September or October 2022, you’d probably need to have Qantas Gold, Platinum or Platinum One status.
Qantas releases remaining seats to Silver frequent flyers 323 days ahead of departure, and everyone else with 297 days to go.
Award availability is limited and these seats are likely to get snapped up quickly, so get in now if you would like to book a seat!
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas A380 F on sale on SYD-LAX from 27/3/22
Millions of other Qantas Classic Flight Reward seats were released this morning
Qantas Frequent Flyer also released “millions” of other additional Classic Flight Reward seats on Tuesday morning across domestic and international routes, for travel in 2022. Qantas is calling it the “largest single release of additional Classic Flight Reward seats in the airline’s history”.
At 7am on Tuesday, additional Classic Flight Reward seats were made available on a variety of Qantas routes in Economy, Premium Economy and Business. These include flights to London, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Nadi and destinations across Australia.
From what we’ve found, Classic Flight Reward seats to popular destinations like London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Bangkok are still very limited in Business Class. But some lucky AFF members have been able to book seats.
Just booked a trip to LHR in J for end May return beginning June next year. There wasn’t availability last week but there was today so jumped on it. Taxes kill me though…
– Fergo747, 19 October 2021
Success! Secured SYD > YVR J and the famously very difficult QF2 LHR > SYD J.
– banana0692, 19 October 2021
Qantas also says it will release more “Points Planes” – flights where every seat is available to book as a Classic Flight Reward – as COVID-19 travel restrictions ease. It will also continue to release 50% more Classic Flight Reward seats on its flights until the end of 2022.
When redeeming Qantas points for Classic Flight Reward seats, you’ll still need to pay any taxes, fees and Qantas-imposed carrier charges in addition to the points required.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: “Massive” Qantas 2022 award seat release
