Pack your bags for Vancouver!

[Gold Member]

How about perth- singapore-----------

That's now referred to as a Denied flight.

 

[nonpop]

More notice would have been nice. For some of us that like to plan ahead it now seems the further ahead you book the less benefit it can become. I thought the idea was to 'reward' the advanced planning behavior by the airline thereby securing cash flow and certainty around aircraft utalisation / resources.

So what we now do is book the 'other' airlines flights early then wait for a QF sale or LCC connection to come up closer to the date as this ensures we get the accommodation we want which is usually at peak times.

Having said that I hope they make this a regular occurrence with ongoing predictably and comfort.

 

[Mari]

I agree, more notice would have helped me with my planning as I've just booked my flight from YVR to SYD around that time!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Well done QF, I think this is great news. Hopefully testing the water.
Bring on the Award Seats

 

[Mumfreqflyer]

Not sure about others but I always book my Xmas flights around February/March....

I wonder how full the planes will be as I would assume most people would have already booked their Xmas flights by now 3 months out from Xmas!

 

[Flying Fox]

Bravo QFi

Nice to see expansion vs contraction of services.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Not sure about others but I always book my Xmas flights around February/March....

I wonder how full the planes will be as I would assume most people would have already booked their Xmas flights by now 3 months out from Xmas!

The flights are not at Christmas

 

[RooFlyer]

Really, really good effort QF

As I've noted before, Air Canada usually turn their daily SYD/YVR service into twice daily during our summer (they didn't last summer, oddly). I swap between AC direct to YVR, onwards to YYC and QF to LAX then AC or AS onwards to YYC. For the latter the J cabin of the AC flight always has pax I recognise from the QF flight.

Interesting. Good money in ski market, but one suspects turning this into a profitable year round operation may be more challenging. SQ doing similar thing in Dec/Jan to Sapporo ex-SIN to get people to ski-fields.

Agree, its not going to be straightforward, but lets hope the initial trial leads somewhere. One downside and limitation to growth is that onwards connections from YVR on OneWorld are poor - nothing within Canada at all. EDIT: I see that they have recently announced codeshares with Westjet. This is excellent news too, as the OneWorld network within Canada is non existent and very limited coming up from the USA on AA. Only Y on Westjet, but timings out of LAX coming to Canada should be much better.

This weekend I'm doing YYC-YVR on AC (meetings in YVR), YVR-LAX on AS (codeshare QF) and LAX-MEL on QF, a general PITA

 

[JessicaTam]

Nice to see QF stretching her wings.

$1400 each way in Y. I am not sure how that compares to other airlines

There would be enough time to run a tag flight to YYZ. You heard it here first.

 

[RooFlyer]

Nice to see QF stretching her wings.

$1400 each way in Y. I am not sure how that compares to other airlines

There would be enough time to run a tag flight to YYZ. You heard it here first.

Current prices for Air Canada Economy in mid January range between $1,307 one way (half of the quoted return fare) and $1,680 (ditto).

 

[Cossie]

SWMBO (former Vancouverite) flies AC from Sydney as it's non stop and you avoid the issues with going via the LOTFAP. She has a Qantas credit that must be used by May15th, so next time she has to go via LA, which she is not happy about!

Pity these direct flights don't cover mid April and early May, I suggested she go earlier but unfortunately that time period is unsuitable.

 

[Isochronous]

Unexpected but encouraging news. Hopefully the beginning of a plan to grow the YVR market and over time turn it into a more permanent service. A YVR-YVZ tag would also be terrific as JessicaTam suggests!

 

[RooFlyer]

Unexpected but encouraging news. Hopefully the beginning of a plan to grow the YVR market and over time turn it into a more permanent service. A YVR-YVZ tag would also be terrific as JessicaTam suggests!

I agree re YVR-YYZ (I assume you mean) tag would be great, but in view of the Westjet code-share arrangement, un-necessary from QF's point of view. And in winter, the snow/ice/storm delays and traumas in Toronto could throw the return leg into chaos.

 

[RooFlyer]

Looking into this some more (obviously it interests me a lot )

RedRoo, assuming you are following this thread, could you please ask your colleagues & advise (if you don't know already )

* What lounge access will there be in YVR for QF flights to SYD in January? For Qantas Club members; WPs and J pax? <Highly predictable question!>

* Westjet lounge access. Westjet pax have paid ("from C$18.90 per guest") access to a range of lounges . What will be the rules for Qantas code share passengers wishing to access those lounges?

* Westjet travel conditions (paying for first checked bag on some fares etc). eg here Will QF code share pax be subject to the same rules as 'ordinary' Westjet pax? Or will, say WP entitlements apply?

 

[Pushka]

How about a direct flight for the Alaskan cruise season - that's what we need. This would be June - July - August at peak.

 

[docjames]

Nice to see QF stretching her wings.

$1400 each way in Y. I am not sure how that compares to other airlines

There would be enough time to run a tag flight to YYZ. You heard it here first.

But no crew positioned in YVR to operate the a/c,

 

[medhead]

The press release is somewhat confusing.

First it mentions 'direct' services - which imply there is a stop enroute. Then it says they are non-stop. Then it mentions the tie-in with Westjet offering 'connections' (which brings us back to the 'direct' rather than 'non-stop' concept).

Only at the very end are the flight details SYD-YVR.

I disagree. Direct = Non-stop. There is no implication of a stop.

A routing with a stop, would be indirect. For example, SYD-LHR is indirect as it routes through DXB. SYD-HKG, on the other hand, is direct and therefore non-stop.

In the industry, Direct does not mean non-stop. SYD-DXB-LHR is classified as Direct

I disagree. In aviation parlance a direct flight is any flight between two points with no change in flight numbers; however this may include a stop at an intermediate point. An example of such a flight would be the QF1 service from SYD to LHR via DXB, assuming your final destination was LHR. Non-stop flights are flights involving no intermediate stops, so if your final destination was DXB instead your QF1 flight would be a non-stop (and also direct) flight.

The point remains direct does not imply a stop. Direct may or may not include a stop. For example SYD-MEL, SYD-LHR.

A stop is communicated by the use of the term non-stop.

If we look at the press release there is a route map that shows routes that are both non-stop and with a stop.

 

[jb747]

It's a -400ER. Distance is less than MEL-LAX. Why would it need to stop anywhere?

 

[jb747]

I agree. If they wanted to do an immediate turn couldnt they either deadhead more crew up (say, in Y+) or take some LAX crew to operate the return? QF have up to 6 flights a day from LAX during this period - there would be plenty of crew around.

It isn't that simple. You can't pax a crew in, and then expect them to operate out. The normal crew rest rules would apply, whether they operated or not. There aren't spare crew lounging around in LA. The slips there are run at the minimum viable time, so you would need to put extra crew in, and then move them to YVR.

Charters have the same crew issue. They have to come from somewhere...and if you have crew for a charter, then you also have a crew for a return flight.

 

[medhead]

It's a -400ER. Distance is less than MEL-LAX. Why would it need to stop anywhere?

Not suggesting it needs to stop just the press release shows all options to get from Australia to Vancouver including the 6 seasonal direct nonstop flights. For example SYD-hnl- Vancouver on QF and westjet.