Qantas’ Hidden Standby

[elanshin]

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83 is not a regular. The third flight happens once a week to cover the 291 finnair maintenance schedule.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

83 is not a regular. The third flight happens once a week to cover the 291 finnair maintenance schedule.

Not true. Qantas operates SYD > SIN three times per week (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not true. Qantas operates SYD > SIN three times per week (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays).

I stand corrected!

I’ve never seen that extra flight before!

 

[SYD]

Not true. Qantas operates SYD > SIN three times per week (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays).

Yet, U rewards across three flights on some days (including an A380) are as rare as rocking horse poo!…

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I stand corrected!

I’ve never seen that extra flight before!

Not just that, there are other international destinations beside NZ and SIN where QF operates multiple daily services out of SYD. For instance: SYD > HND operates twice daily (e.g., QF59 departing at 12:00 PM and QF25 departing at 21:55). Now yes, I will grant everyone that there is a nearly 10 hour gap between these flights, absolutely. But there is always the possibility that you are booked on QF59, it gets delayed by 4 hours before getting cancelled out (i.e. your cancellation occurs at 4 PM), at which point you need to wait, what 4 hours to see if you can get onto the next QF flight? I don't know the extent to which AFP and ABF patrol the international terminal, but hanging around for a couple extra hours is unlikely to raise eyebrows. And if you are unsuccessful and have to head back land side, you could always tell the ABF officer, "look I tried to get on the next QF flight, and I wasn't successful," I hardly doubt they're going to penalize you for making good on your intent to fly out that day. (Contrast this with people who abuse boarding passes to access First class lounges with no intention of flying).

Yet, U rewards across three flights on some days (including an A380) are as rare as rocking horse poo!…

Well that's business class, and I think that takes away from the thrust of my argument, if you are in a pinch and are facing the potential of an overnight, it might make sense to take any seat (including a downgrade to economy or premium economy) if it means getting you out that day. I completely understand that if you are on vacation and really want to enjoy the business class product, then by all means. However, I can think of some examples where that was the case such as you being a speaker scheduled to give a talk at an important conference or attending the funeral of a loved one. The whole point of this thread was again, giving travellers options when Qantas simply wouldn't give them any. As others have pointed out, most people would simply take the departure the following day as given and assume that was all there is. I sincerely hope more travellers realize that there is this other option and hopefully it can save their bacon.

 

[henrus]

VA on the other hand… once boarding starts they refuse to accept any additional passengers The flight may have empty seats but they won’t even entertain helping you out.

VA's system powered by Sabre operates very different to QFs in this regard. Until a few months ago VA had to cancel a passengers check in just to move them between flights, I believe the system now does this automatically but it's not possible to add someone to a flight once boarding has started (even standby need to be "booked" on that flight and checked in to be considered for a seat).

QFs system on the hand allows a passenger to be listed onto a flight regardless of what stage it's in and provided there is a valid ticket the system will allow the switch.