Qantas has delayed the restart of its Sydney-San Francisco route yet again, with the tentative restart date for QF73 and QF74 now pushed back to 27 March 2023.

Prior to COVID-19, Qantas flew non-stop from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to San Francisco. These routes were all suspended during the pandemic – along with all other Qantas international routes. But during the second half of 2021, the airline had been selling seats from Sydney and Brisbane to San Francisco based on a planned resumption date of 14 February 2022.

In mid-December 2021, Qantas announced that its San Francisco routes had been “paused” due to the Omicron outbreak. All Sydney-San Francisco flights were cancelled until the end of July 2022, and the Brisbane-San Francisco route was scrapped entirely. (As United Airlines has since announced it will fly from Brisbane to San Francisco from next month, it’s now unlikely Qantas will ever return to that particular route.)

Over recent months, Qantas has been progressively pushing back the relaunch of Sydney-San Francisco flights even further. In May, the 30 July 2022 restart date became 30 October 2022. Then, in July this year, Qantas stopped selling seats on all Sydney-San Francisco flights scheduled to operate from 30 October until 30 November 2022. Around two weeks ago, all Sydney-San Francisco flights from 1 December 2022 until 29 January 2023 were also “zeroed out”.

Finally, earlier this week, Qantas also removed all SYD-SFO flights from its schedule between 30 January and 26 March 2023. At the time of writing, there are still seats available for sale for travel beyond 27 March 2023.

So, what’s going on?

Australian Frequent Flyer asked Qantas if they had any updates to share about when the airline may finally return to San Francisco, but they don’t have any announcements at this stage. The last public update from Qantas about the San Francisco route was on 26 May, when the airline said the restart of this route had been pushed back to 30 October 2022.

So, it’s not really clear whether Qantas is now committed to restarting this route on 27 March 2023, or if this is yet another placeholder date that will be changed again in the coming months.

It’s worth noting that 27 March 2023 is the start of next year’s IATA northern summer scheduling period. The start of a new scheduling period is often used as a placeholder in airline scheduling, although Qantas has in the past launched new routes (or restarted existing ones) based around these dates.

Until Qantas commits to a firm date for the restart of flights to San Francisco, we’d suggest booking with another airline or with Qantas to another destination. Within North America, Qantas is currently operating flights to Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, Vancouver and Honolulu. Otherwise, you’ll run the risk of having your flight cancelled and needing to rebook (or get a refund) down the track.

Qantas customers who’ve already been affected by cancellations on Qantas’ San Francisco route have had mixed experiences. Some have been rebooked via Los Angeles, with connecting Los Angeles-San Francisco flights provided on a partner airline. But others who had booked Qantas Classic Flight Reward tickets to San Francisco were simply rebooked on a Qantas flight to Los Angeles and not offered a new flight to San Francisco or any alternatives.

Other Qantas international route updates

Sydney-Santiago flights will return from the end of next month as QF27/28.

From December, Qantas will also launch new non-stop Boeing 787 flights from Melbourne to Dallas/Fort Worth. These flights were originally scheduled to operate 4x weekly, but have just been cut back to 3x weekly.

Other new international Qantas routes being launched over the coming months include Sydney-Bengaluru, Sydney-Seoul, Perth-Johannesburg and Perth-Jakarta. Qantas recently announced that it will start Sydney-Auckland-New York flights in June 2023.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: SFO routes dropped?

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.