Qantas’ Hidden Standby

[elanshin]

View attachment 417150

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.

 

[elanshin]

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).

Doable in theory right now but only theory. QF25 is perpetually much fuller than QF59. Also this route is about to get rescheduled (in QF's IASC application for VA's HND slot they're changing their schedules and SYD will go back to single daily to HND).

I'd rather push QF to get you on NH's evening service if they can't get you onto QF25.

Also similarly with a lot of the other, you can try to push QF to get you on alternative carriers. Like SQ to SIN.

 

[CaptJCool]

They also had mystery flights. Similar to standby but deeply discounted nominal fare. You would rock up to the airport before the appointed time (8am?) and they would put you on the first plane to anywhere that had a spare seat with a guarantee they would get you back same day with x hours for you to enjoy at the destination. For example you could rock up at ADL and end up variously in ASP, OOL, MEL, SYD, DWN etc etc for the day and be home in your own bed for a fraction of the usual cost. People would often buy mystery flights as birthday presents etc. IIRC they wouldn't offer PER because it was too hard to get you back same day.

AH Got the mystery flight to Perth definitely once, and yes, it was a long day but you could still be back by 11pm~!

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Doable in theory right now but only theory. QF25 is perpetually much fuller than QF59. Also this route is about to get rescheduled (in QF's IASC application for VA's HND slot they're changing their schedules and SYD will go back to single daily to HND).

Speaking of rescheduled, I see today's QF25 has been delayed by 15 hours and 20 minutes, highlighting that IRROPS do indeed occur on international flights:

In which case, one may very well want to get on an earlier flight.

I'd rather push QF to get you on NH's evening service if they can't get you onto QF25.

Also similarly with a lot of the other, you can try to push QF to get you on alternative carriers. Like SQ to SIN.

Which is fine, again supposing there is availability. One of the nice things about international routes is that you have more carriers to choose from and more routings to choose from too! But even then, flights can still be packed. The other challenge to keep in mind is people's nationalities may prohibit certain routings or carriers. For instance, as a Canadian there are certain flights I cannot take with some Asian airlines even if I'm just connecting at their hub to a third country (due to Visa requirements). The point I'm trying to make is depending on destination, your routing options can be limited and availability on those limited carriers can also be limited too.

To provide you with another example: suppose you are flying to Vancouver(VanCity) or San Francisco(SF) on Qantas (both offer nonstop service from Sydney on certain days). Both of these flights take off late in the evening hours (8:30 PM to 9:30 PM range) well past the time most flights to the Americas take off (which are predominantly in the morning hours). However, Qantas also has a 8:35 PM service to Honolulu. Now you could imagine a situation where you get to the airport at 5 PM to check in for your flight, go through emmigration and security only to find out at say 8 PM that the flight to SF/VanCity is cancelled. Qantas rebooks you on the non-stop United/Air Canada service the following day but you need to get into SF/VanCity the day before a critical meeting. Meanwhile the 8:35 PM Qantas service to Honolulu, the only remaining service to North America remains hasn't yet boarded (albeit it's fully booked), and you decide to head to that gate to see if you can get put on that flight. That's a potential example of how this approach could save your bacon. For those wondering, yes there are a decent number of flights between Honolulu and SF and Honolulu and VanCity, and since you would be arriving into Honolulu at 9:15 AM, you'd also have time to make connections that day. And yes, I know these are completely contrived examples, but often times during irregular operations, these types of scenarios can appear.

-RooFlyer88