Free Qantas Melbourne-Perth Premium Economy Upgrades

Qantas Boeing 787 Premium Economy seat pair
Qantas Boeing 787 Premium Economy. Photo: Qantas.

Qantas mainly uses its Boeing 787-9s on international routes like Perth-Rome and Sydney-New York. Designed for long-haul flying, these jets are fitted with a Premium Economy cabin as well as Business and Economy.

From time to time, Boeing 787s also appear on domestic routes. These are usually tag flights flown as part of a longer international journey, which depart from the international terminal. The Sydney-Perth leg of the QF33 Sydney-Perth-Paris flight is a current example of that. On these flights, Qantas sells Premium Economy as a separate class of travel and with differentiated service.

Very occasionally, Qantas also uses Boeing 787s on regular domestic flights. The airline does not sell Premium Economy on domestic services, but the seats are obviously still there. So Qantas lets some lucky Economy passengers select a Premium Economy seat for free.

In these circumstances, you would still get the regular Qantas Economy Class service on board, including Economy meals and drinks. You won’t get a Premium Economy amenity kit, pillow or blanket. But you do get to enjoy a larger, more comfortable seat.

The legroom is better, you get more space, the seat reclines further and the in-flight entertainment screen is larger than in Economy. It’s a pretty good way to fly, especially if you’re paying for a Qantas Economy seat and upgrading for free!

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Qantas’ weekly Melbourne-Perth 787 flights

Qantas used to offer a daily Melbourne-Perth-London flight as QF9, returning as QF10. These flights would depart from the international terminals in Melbourne and Perth, meaning frequent flyers eligible for lounge access could access the Qantas international lounges. You could book a seat just between Melbourne and Perth, if you wanted to.

QF9 and QF10 now operate only between Perth and London, so that international tag flight no longer exists. However, Qantas now regularly schedules a Boeing 787-9 on one weekly domestic flight between Melbourne and Perth on Thursdays.

These are the two flights where you’ll find the Boeing 787-9 operating each Thursday:

  • QF773 Melbourne 13:25 – Perth 14:30
  • QF776 Perth 15:20 – Melbourne 21:55

Note that this schedule is subject to change.

The reason Qantas has scheduled these seemingly random flights is to rotate Boeing 787s around the network. For example, the plane operating QF773 could then continue to London that evening, while QF776 might be formed by the 787 that just arrived into Perth that morning from London.

Qantas 787 in Centenary livery
These flights help Qantas shuffle planes around the network, for example, into or out of heavy maintenance. Photo: Qantas.

Who can choose the Premium Economy seats for free?

Qantas is making the Premium Economy seats available on these flights for top-tier frequent flyers to select in advance at no charge. You don’t even need to be a politician to get this free Qantas upgrade! 😛

For example, at the time of writing, as a Qantas Platinum member, the Qantas website gives me the following choice of Economy seats on a Thursday QF773 service later this month:

QF773 Qantas seat map with Premium Economy seats sold as Economy
Seat map on the Qantas website for a MEL-PER flight on 28 November.

Premium Economy on the Qantas Boeing 787-9 is between rows 20 and 23.

Qantas Platinum One and Chairman’s Lounge members would also get free choice of the available upgraded seats.

I’m not sure if Qantas Gold members would also be able to select from the Premium Economy seats at the time of booking. Let us know in the thread comments if you are a Gold member and are able to pick one.

Even if you don’t have status, Qantas is likely to open up any remaining seats in the Premium Economy cabin for general selection around 80 hours before departure. You’ll just have to hope that some are left.

This trick also works on some Finnair flights

Qantas’ Oneworld partner airline Finnair similarly has Premium Economy on its wide-body Airbus A350s, which are primarily used for long-haul flights. But Finnair also occasionally uses wide-body jets on some intra-Europe routes, including from Helsinki to London, Amsterdam and Gran Canaria.

Finnair's new Premium Economy seat
Finnair Premium Economy seats. Photo: Finnair.

Finnair doesn’t sell Premium Economy within Europe, so it offers those seats to Economy passengers as Economy “Premium” seats. These are available for any Economy passenger to select for a surcharge. However, if you have Oneworld Emerald status – such as Qantas Platinum – you get to select Premium and extra legroom seats on Finnair for free.

Finnair website showing seat map of a HEL-LPA flight
As a Qantas Platinum member, I can choose a Premium Economy seat at no extra charge on this Finnair flight from Helsinki to Gran Canaria.

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 aviation, economics & 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.
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I took QF773 MEL-PER on 24 OCT, booked about 2 months beforehand
As QF Silver I selected a W seat around 3 days out, but later got upgraded to J

Overall was a great option in the Dreamliner, if only this was available more frequently given the high demand and cost on PER fares currently.

Interestingly, even though it wasn't a tag flight, it still arrived through QFi terminal (i forget the T numbers) rather than the Domestic. But a least there was no customs rigmarole to go through.

Reply 1 Like

I took QF773 MEL-PER on 24 OCT, booked about 2 months beforehand
As QF Silver I selected a W seat around 3 days out, but later got upgraded to J

Overall was a great option in the Dreamliner, if only this was available more frequently given the high demand and cost on PER fares currently.

Interestingly, even though it wasn't a tag flight, it still arrived through QFi terminal (i forget the T numbers) rather than the Domestic. But a least there was no customs rigmarole to go through.

T3, not unusual for flights into PER.

Reply Like

Interestingly, even though it wasn't a tag flight, it still arrived through QFi terminal (i forget the T numbers) rather than the Domestic. But a least there was no customs rigmarole to go through.

There's only 4 gates showing as capable of B789 over T3&4, 3 of which are T3 (13 @ T4 and 17A @ T3 are dom only, 18A and 20A T3 are DOM/INT). As the whole point of the 789 being on these flights is to get it to PER for international flights, why wouldn't they park it on one of the international capable gates?

Reply 1 Like

get it to PER for international flights, why wouldn't they park it on one of the international capable gates?

They do park it on the international gates. Eg. yesterday's QF773 parked at gate 18 and left from gate 18.

Reply 2 Likes

They do park it on the international gates. Eg. yesterday's QF773 parked at gate 18 and left from gate 18.

Uhh, that's what I was saying

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As a passenger, without any heads up on landing (that i catched) it was a little disorientating after disembarkation. Not a big deal though

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i dont know why PER / QF dont drop the numbering of "T3" and have a standalone T4 which is basically how it operates, particularly for people unfamiliar with PER and might think a convoluted terminal change is required.

Reply 3 Likes

On the topic of 787 domestic, I see QF499 SYD - MEL on 16 NOV is a 787. Not sure i've seen a 787 on SYD - MEL before? Could be a once off?

Reply 2 Likes

On the topic of 787 domestic, I see QF499 SYD - MEL on 16 NOV is a 787. Not sure i've seen a 787 on SYD - MEL before? Could be a once off?

It has happened before - I flew in the 787 on QF499 back when they'd just taken delivery of the first one and were doing crew familiarisation flights! But yes, it's not a normal thing.

Reply 1 Like

Used to be a nice reliable A330 run the old QF497 timing at 22:05 now called QF499 at 22:00 and usually a 737. I enjoyed those quiet A330's back in the day, plenty of seats in business available

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