QR flights ? available DOH-BNE oct/nov 2021

[ozflier]

I've been looking at reward flights on QR later next year.
I've noticed, in expertflyer, that QR flies DOH-BNE 3 days a week then .
I know there are issues with traffic rights to BNE but currently or at least recently , QR have been allowed to transit BNE thru to AKL.
The flights I found ( QR 912) do not continue onto AKL and fly M,W,F.
They however do not appear on EXpedia for sale .
I wonder if this is an error on EF or is QR awaiting approval for this sector from Canberra.
Any thoughts?

 

[henrus]

Qatar Airways is currently selling flights to 27 March 2021. Whilst Qatar has said that they want to extend this and make BNE-DOH a year-round service it'll all depend on them getting approval from the Australian government to operate more flights because currently, the limit is 21 weekly return flights into SYD/MEL/PER/BNE.

At the moment I'd say it's anyone's guess if this will happen as Australian/Qatar relations aren't great given the incident at Doha airport earlier in the year.

Apparently, Cargo in/out of Brisbane is quite good so perhaps I assume they'll try and continue the route regardless of if they get approval or not.

Pure speculation, but if they don't get this approval they want then as you mentioned they could operate something like DOH-BNE-CBR or even DOH-BNE-CNS. Not sure how well it would work but even something like DOH-BNE-OOL would be possible and wouldn't count towards the 21 weekly flights.

As for the BNE-AKL add on, Qatar doesn't have the approval to carry passengers or cargo between AU-NZ and I doubt they'd get this approval or even apply for it, before the pandemic the DOH-AKL direct was quite popular so I imagine in the long run we'll see the nonstop service reinstated.

 

[ozflier]

Qatar Airways is currently selling flights to 27 March 2021. Whilst Qatar has said that they want to extend this and make BNE-DOH a year-round service it'll all depend on them getting approval from the Australian government to operate more flights because currently, the limit is 21 weekly return flights into SYD/MEL/PER/BNE.

At the moment I'd say it's anyone's guess if this will happen as Australian/Qatar relations aren't great given the incident at Doha airport earlier in the year.

Apparently, Cargo in/out of Brisbane is quite good so perhaps I assume they'll try and continue the route regardless of if they get approval or not.

Pure speculation, but if they don't get this approval they want then as you mentioned they could operate something like DOH-BNE-CBR or even DOH-BNE-CNS. Not sure how well it would work but even something like DOH-BNE-OOL would be possible and wouldn't count towards the 21 weekly flights.

As for the BNE-AKL add on, Qatar doesn't have the approval to carry passengers or cargo between AU-NZ and I doubt they'd get this approval or even apply for it, before the pandemic the DOH-AKL direct was quite popular so I imagine in the long run we'll see the nonstop service reinstated.

Ta for that - They would be my thoughts as well .
Interesting though that QFF is offering award flights in october/november 2021!

 

[bernardblack]

Anyone know if it's going to be possible to book BNE-AKL or AKL-BNE on this service once the bubble actually opens? I'd like to burn some expiring Asia Miles on trying QSuites.

 

[henrus]

Anyone know if it's going to be possible to book BNE-AKL or AKL-BNE on this service once the bubble actually opens? I'd like to burn some expiring Asia Miles on trying QSuites.

Not at all. Two reasons, firstly these flights are operated as tag flights for the DOH-BNE flights and therefore have passengers from outside the bubble will be onboard. Also, Qatar doesn't have traffic rights for flights between AU-NZ so they'd need to apply for it first.

In order to be a bubble flight, both the crew and passengers will need to have spent 14 days in either Australia or New Zealand (14 days spent in hotel quarantine doesn't count).

You could use them on Qantas' business as it's likely that they'll be operating A330's across the Tasman. Off-topic but I remember reading (mid-last year) that Emirates was thinking of operating some Trans-Tasman bubble flights, they got the rights and AU/NZ crew so all they'd need to do is get them quarantined for 14 days first.

 

[PineappleSkip]

When I flew BNE-DOH-BNE in Jan (out) and March (return) I asked the FAs about whether they were aiming to fly to BNE permanently, and got told they were working on it on the outbound, and told that it was a done deal on the return.

cheers skip

 

[henrus]

I asked FAs about this and got told they were working on it on the outbound, and that it was a done deal on the return.

Sorry, can you explain what you mean here?

 

[PineappleSkip]

Sorry, can you explain what you mean here?

yeah, not so clear, I've edited my post. Cheers skip

 

[henrus]

yeah, not so clear, I've edited my post. Cheers skip

Cheers, good to know that they're wanting to fly to Brisbane all year round. I guess QR has always wanted to but COVID has given them the perfect opportunity. Now they've become Australia's de facto national airline it'd be great to see them around a bit longer in Brisbane.