QF75/QF76 to Vancouver Going Year-Round?

[V1213]

After Canada was name-dropped by Qantas as a "COVID-safe destination" in this morning's press release, I did some digging into the flight schedules...

Lo and behold, QF75/QF76 is back, with the first flight currently on sale for 18/12/21.

It appears to be following its familiar schedule of Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, except that it is continuing beyond the school holidays. In fact, you can find (and book) seats on QF75 and QF76 right from December through until the current end of the schedule in August.

With Canada having a higher vaccination rate than most countries, including the USA and UK, it seems logical that QF have included YVR flights in their optimistic restart offering. As someone who has a regular need to fly between Canada and Australia, I hope this sticks (whenever QF actually resumes international flying) and it stays as a year-round flight - the highly-seasonal flights of recent years were fairly useless.

 

[Mattg]

If Qantas does run SYD-YVR year-round, it would make sense. There will be a market for non-stop flights that avoid transits via third countries (USA in this instance) for the foreseeable future.

 

[justinbrett]

After Canada was name-dropped by Qantas as a "COVID-safe destination" in this morning's press release, I did some digging into the flight schedules...

Lo and behold, QF75/QF76 is back, with the first flight currently on sale for 18/12/21.

It appears to be following its familiar schedule of Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, except that it is continuing beyond the school holidays. In fact, you can find (and book) seats on QF75 and QF76 right from December through until the current end of the schedule in August.

With Canada having a higher vaccination rate than most countries, including the USA and UK, it seems logical that QF have included YVR flights in their optimistic restart offering. As someone who has a regular need to fly between Canada and Australia, I hope this sticks (whenever QF actually resumes international flying) and it stays as a year-round flight - the highly-seasonal flights of recent years were fairly useless.

There was talk of YVR going year round even before Covid. The reduced capacity on 787 helps.

I just had a look and it seems Australia has fifth freedom rights with Canada to continue to the UK. Might be an alternative stop perhaps? Probably not, but interesting idea.

 

[HS-TQE]

Whilst AU-Canada-UK would be a novel idea, I can't see it happening. Would require 4 aircraft and not many enter the 5th freedom market those days, which the 5th freedom market was on the decline before COVID hit.

 

[justinbrett]

Whilst AU-Canada-UK would be a novel idea, I can't see it happening. Would require 4 aircraft and not many enter the 5th freedom market those days, which the 5th freedom market was on the decline before COVID hit.

In a particular situation when covid is everywhere in Asia and the US but UK, Canada and Australia have it under control it could work. But no, I think we'll be looking for more Australia - UK direct flights.

 

[henrus]

It would make for a very cool route map (or round the world trip). No airline currently operates around the world with all flights on their own metal. Air New Zealand was the last with AKL-LAX-LHR-HKG-AKL but they stopped in 2013.

 

[jakeseven7]

After Canada was name-dropped by Qantas as a "COVID-safe destination" in this morning's press release, I did some digging into the flight schedules...

Lo and behold, QF75/QF76 is back, with the first flight currently on sale for 18/12/21.

It appears to be following its familiar schedule of Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, except that it is continuing beyond the school holidays. In fact, you can find (and book) seats on QF75 and QF76 right from December through until the current end of the schedule in August.

With Canada having a higher vaccination rate than most countries, including the USA and UK, it seems logical that QF have included YVR flights in their optimistic restart offering. As someone who has a regular need to fly between Canada and Australia, I hope this sticks (whenever QF actually resumes international flying) and it stays as a year-round flight - the highly-seasonal flights of recent years were fairly useless.

We used them like most others for one particular reason (guess ) so they weren’t useless at all.

QF gouged a nice premium for them too with the only competition being an insipid Air Canada so I’m sure they will make money on them.

 

[Seat0B]

shout out for @mhouse165 - might be of interest to you?

 

[Mattg]

We used them like most others for one particular reason (guess ) so they weren’t useless at all.

Award availability? Status credits?

 

[V1213]

We used them like most others for one particular reason (guess ) so they weren’t useless at all.

QF gouged a nice premium for them too with the only competition being an insipid Air Canada so I’m sure they will make money on them.

From the Australian market perspective, you're right.

Sadly, from the Canadian perspective, Air Canada isn't necessarily viewed as insipid and QF brand recognition isn't high. Hopefully WS reactivates their codeshare and gets more Canadians onboard.

If Qantas does run SYD-YVR year-round, it would make sense. There will be a market for non-stop flights that avoid transits via third countries (USA in this instance) for the foreseeable future.

I've resorted to European and Asian routings to avoid Air Canada (even though they're direct), and terrible US infrastructure pre-pandemic. COVID makes direct flights far more important than before, so I agree - avoiding the US and Air Canada is a winning formula for my $.

 

[jakeseven7]

From the Australian market perspective, you're right.

Sadly, from the Canadian perspective, Air Canada isn't necessarily viewed as insipid

Oh I meant from a quality perspective. I have had the foulest service on Air Canada, consistently bad, I used to have to fly them a lot. I don’t rate their hard product either.

Award availability? Status credits?

No we paid revenue every time actually. I do know some people who got award seats unsure what class though.

 

[luxury-lizard]

As a pre-Covid yearly traveller to Canada - year-round QF flights to YVR would be most welcome - the competition would hopefully make prices on the route more competitive. While AC is not the best airline I found it superior to QF on the SYD-YVR route (old 747 with slopy sky beds - indifferent service - very much a leisure route while AC has flat beds and the service far superior (but no SQ of course). AC pricing on the route has been consistently 20-30% higher than other non-direct options.

 

[ozmouse]

I assumed my first international destination would be SIN - both from my preference for SE asia and covid-safe reasons.

But looking at pricing in January..... round trip pricing is less than a $1000 more to fly to YVR.

Now i have to decide if i want to go to canada in winter?!

 

[tomlee1986]

I really hope this can be converted to year round flights as Canada is a great destination for Australians

 

[Chalkie]

I'm doing some research, purely for personal edification, into the history of the SYD-YVR route on QF. I found some good historical information (1955 to 1968) about this route, but I am curious about the post 1970s history. I flew SYD-HNL-YVR in the late 1990s or early 2000s on a 767, and I flew SYD-YVR on a 747 more recently (in the "before times").

Does anyone have any historical information to share about this route (maybe someone like @serfty) such as flight numbers, operating aircraft, when it switched from regular to seasonal only, etc?

 

[serfty]

I'm doing some research, purely for personal edification, into the history of the SYD-YVR route on QF. I found some good historical information (1955 to 1968) about this route, but I am curious about the post 1970s history. I flew SYD-HNL-YVR in the late 1990s or early 2000s on a 767, and I flew SYD-YVR on a 747 more recently (in the "before times").

Does anyone have any historical information to share about this route (maybe someone like @serfty) such as flight numbers, operating aircraft, when it switched from regular to seasonal only, etc?

I have some timetable info from the mid-late 90's I'll check it out.

 

[Mattg]

I'm doing some research, purely for personal edification, into the history of the SYD-YVR route on QF. I found some good historical information (1955 to 1968) about this route, but I am curious about the post 1970s history. I flew SYD-HNL-YVR in the late 1990s or early 2000s on a 767, and I flew SYD-YVR on a 747 more recently (in the "before times").

I'd be interested to know about the history of the route up to 1968 if you don't mind sharing

 

[Chalkie]

I'd be interested to know about the history of the route up to 1968 if you don't mind sharing

This is what I've learned:

1955 & 1956 - EM736 - SYD-YVR (via AKL, NAN, CIS, HNL, SFO) on a Super Constellation

1959 - EM778 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNL, SFO) on a 707 (weekly)

1963 - QF586 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNL, SFO) on a 707 (weekly)

1965 - QF586 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNl, SFO) on a 707 V-Jet (weekly)

1968 - QF586 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNl, SFO) on a 707 V-Jet (weekly)

 

[justinbrett]

This is what I've learned:

1955 & 1956 - EM736 - SYD-YVR (via AKL, NAN, CIS, HNL, SFO) on a Super Constellation

1959 - EM778 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNL, SFO) on a 707 (weekly)

1963 - QF586 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNL, SFO) on a 707 (weekly)

1965 - QF586 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNl, SFO) on a 707 V-Jet (weekly)

1968 - QF586 - SYD-YVR (via NAN, HNl, SFO) on a 707 V-Jet (weekly)

As you can see in this post:

Qantas SYD-HNL route to become QF103/104

Qantas' SYD-HNL flight has always been QF3 (and HNL-SYD QF4) for as long as I can remember. It's a throwback to the time when Honolulu was a necessary stopover on Qantas' flagship QF3/4 service to/from mainland USA. But having a look at the planned schedule for December 2021 and beyond, this...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Historically there seems to be a difference between route numbers and flight numbers. The Southern Cross route was 3/4 (and until just now was still used on SYD-HNL), but as you can see in the timetable above there are individual flight numbers to mark which ones went to YVR.

At some point they started using the route number as the flight number.

 

[bernardblack]

People with interest in this route might like to keep eyes out for award availability. A couple of days ago I managed to find 4x business Classic award YVR-SYD-MEL for a Thursday in early June next year, and got it ticketed a couple of hours ago after calling to follow-up. I hadn't expected to find one Qantas J award North America <> Australia, much less four! There was even some availability on another day in the same week, although I don't see any now.

Interestingly, although it showed as a Classic award and priced out at the classic rate (108400pp one-way), it wasn't visible through AAdvantage or ExpertFlyer.