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  1. Mattg

    Melbourne Qantas First Lounge Closed most October 2025

    🤦‍♂️ if true
  2. Mattg

    Article: Is Qantas or Velocity Status Harder to Earn?

    Absolutely - Gold on both is a perfectly legit strategy and I'd personally much rather have both Velocity Gold and Qantas Gold than just Velocity Platinum!
  3. Mattg

    No China Eastern reward availability on the Qantas website

    Just tested this, and you're right. Well that's annoying!
  4. Mattg

    Virgin Economy X pricing depends on number of days until departure

    You may have read recently that Virgin Australia systematically increases its "D" class Business fares 28 days before departure: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-virgin-increase-fares-closer-departure/ Did you know that VA also systematically adjusts its Economy X pricing...
  5. Mattg

    Qantas Club membership price increase (and removal of 4 year renewals) - 11th December 2025.

    Is free Qantas Club membership through Points Club Plus a reasonable long-term option for you once your current membership runs out? You’d need to earn 350,000 points in a year to get Points Club Plus, which is quite a lot but a few credit card sign-up bonuses could really help with that.
  6. Mattg

    Qantas Economy Plus Launching Feb 2026

    I also can't help making the observation that this change comes after Doug Parker joined the Qantas board. Economy Plus looks quite a bit like Main Cabin Extra on AA.
  7. Mattg

    Qantas Economy Plus Launching Feb 2026

    Reading between the lines, it looks to me like the 737-800s might be getting a fourth row of Business. If you add an extra row of Business, make rows 5-10 and the exit rows Economy Plus, and have one less row of seats forward of the exit rows, everything fits neatly like a perfect game of...
  8. Mattg

    Skytrans to Operate Lord Howe Island Route from March 2026 - Take over from Qantaslink

    Looks like the start date for SmartLynx to officially take over the Lord Howe Island services has been brought forward to 1 December 2025. I'm not seeing a single Classic Reward seat on the SYD-LDH route after this date.
  9. Mattg

    Solomon Airlines launching Brisbane-Auckland route

    Looks like the Solomon Airlines load factors on the AKL-BNE route have been pretty abysmal. Around 28% in August 2025. Given it's still running, and only once per week, I assume this flight mainly serves to position the aircraft or something.
  10. Mattg

    Emirates load factors on SYD-CHC route

    As many AFFers would know, Emirates flies an Airbus A380 every day between Sydney and Christchurch. According to the most recent BITRE stats, Emirates filled only ~41% of seats between Sydney and Christchurch in August 2025. It was around 53% in July 2025, 39% in June 2025 and 44% in May 2025...
  11. Mattg

    You can now use SmartGates when arriving in Australia from a yellow fever risk country

    In the past, if you were arriving from a yellow fever risk area such as Africa or South/Central America, you would be ineligible to use the SmartGates on arrival as you'd need to show your yellow fever certificate to a Border Force officer. This would inevitably result in long lines if you were...
  12. Mattg

    Qatar charging seat selection fees for Business (U) award bookings

    Do Velocity Gold/Plat members get free seat selection on Qatar Airways?
  13. Mattg

    Article: Strategies for Cheap Business Class Flights to Europe

    Sounds like you're looking at paid fares with Qatar Airways or Oman Air. You just book with the operating airline on their website. You can enter your QFF number during the booking process on the Qatar or Oman Air website.
  14. Mattg

    Melbourne Qantas First Lounge Closed most October 2025

    I believe this is what the maintenance work was for.
  15. Mattg

    Virgin Money Go Account - earn points on a debit card

    Worth noting that this bank account earns Virgin Money points, not Velocity points. They aren't the same thing.
  16. Mattg

    Article: Where to Find Accurate Airline Seat Maps in 2023

    SeatGuru is now officially closed down. If you go to the SeatGuru website, you'll now get a redirection notice to Tripadvisor (SeatGuru's owner). Luckily AeroLOPA has become a great alternative resource!
  17. Mattg

    Eurostan

    This is probably better discussed in another thread, but all the different LH subsidiaries never cease to amaze me. Many of them serve different countries and/or market segments, but then there's subsidiaries like Lufthansa City Airlines, which exists pretty much for no other reason than for LH...
  18. Mattg

    LRE (Longreach) weekend - 26-27 Sep 2026

    Looks like we did write a trip report of our 2020 road trip: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/threads/road-trip-to-outback-queensland.99907/ I thought so too, when I first visited Longreach in 2015. But I ended up really liking the place - as well as Winton and the...
  19. Mattg

    LRE (Longreach) weekend - 26-27 Sep 2026

    I'm interested but no idea yet whether I'll be able to make it. I suspect the bigger problem will be seats on the flights in/out of LRE! It's usually a single Dash 8 per day. I guess there's also the option of taking a train from Emerald or Rockhampton, which I did once.
  20. Mattg

    Virgin Atlantic to fly to coughet

    Virgin Atlantic will commence HKT-LHR flights 3x weekly from 18 October 2026. A seasonal route running during the northern winter period. https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/media/press-releases/virgin-atlantic-launches-flights-to-coughet.html A bit of a way off yet, but what's...
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