Qantas’ new, direct Melbourne-San Francisco flights are now on sale. There is plenty of award availability in Premium Economy and Business class!
Qantas’ new, direct Melbourne-San Francisco flights are now on sale. The service will begin on 1 September, 2018 and run 4x weekly on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
QF49 will depart Melbourne at 9.40pm, arriving at 7pm on the same day in San Francisco. The return QF50 will depart at 10pm and operate overnight back to Melbourne. The flights will be operated by Qantas’ new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
It’s always nice to see Qantas launch a new international route. But perhaps the most exciting thing about this new route launch is the amount of premium cabin award availability. It’s rare to find Business class reward seats available to the United States. Yet, many flights on the new Melbourne-San Francisco route have between 2 and 4 classic reward seats available in both Premium Economy and Business class. Many flights also have up to 9 award seats available in Economy, but this is not so unusual for a trans-Pacific flight.
A one-way Classic Reward seat on the Melbourne-San Francisco flight costs…
- 45,000 Qantas points + $249.04 in Economy
- 72,000 Qantas points + $389.04 in Premium Economy
- 96,000 Qantas points + $464.04 in Business
These flights can be booked on the Qantas website.
It’s generally better value to use American Airlines AAdvantage or Alaskan Mileage Plan miles to book Qantas trans-Pacific flights. Not only do these frequent flyer programs charge fewer points, but they don’t pass on Qantas’ hefty fuel surcharges. On a one-way Business award ticket to the United States, Qantas adds $335 in “carrier charges”!
Having said that, the new Melbourne-San Francisco route was not yet appearing on the American Airlines or Alaska Airlines websites at the time of writing.
We don’t expect this amount of award space to last forever, so book as soon as possible!
Qantas currently operates its Boeing 787-9 on the Melbourne-Los Angeles route. The Dreamliner will also eventually fly daily from Brisbane to New York, via Los Angeles. It is believed that Qantas plans to launch another Dreamliner route from Brisbane to the United States in the near future. The exact route is not yet known but Seattle, Dallas and Chicago are possible new destinations.
Join the discussion about Qantas’ new route on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas to fly MEL-SFO with 787
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