Western Australia will finally reopen its border to the rest of Australia and the world next week, with quarantine-free travel once again permitted from just after midnight on Thursday, 3 March 2022.

A lot of flights into Perth next Thursday are already looking quite full. Clearly, a lot of people have been waiting a long time to return to WA. But if you’re really keen to return home or reunite with loved ones in Perth as soon as possible, Qantas has just added the perfect flight for you to its schedule!

Qantas adds specially timed Sydney-Perth Points Plane

Next Wednesday evening, a unique Qantas flight will depart Sydney for Perth at 22:15. This Airbus A330 flight isn’t a regular fixture on the Qantas schedule. In fact, it’s only running next Wednesday.

The flight is unique for two reasons:

1. It’s timed specifically to arrive in Perth at 00:05 – just four minutes after the WA border reopens
2. Qantas is making every single seat available to book as a Classic Flight Reward with Qantas points

It’ll cost you 18,000 Qantas points + $44 for an Economy seat on the specially timed QF653. Alternatively, if you feel like celebrating the return of travel to WA in style, you may be able to snag a Business Class seat for 41,500 Qantas points + $44 (if the cabin isn’t sold out yet, that is).

This isn’t the first time Qantas has launched a “Points Plane”, where every seat is available to book as a Classic Reward, to celebrate borders reopening. When the trans-Tasman bubble launched last year, every flight to New Zealand was a Points Plane for the first three days. Qantas has also offered Points Planes to London and Los Angeles as it resumed flights to those destinations last November.

Singapore Airlines’ border-busting flight to Perth

It looks like it will be a competition between Qantas and Singapore Airlines for the first cross-border flight to land in Western Australia after the state’s border reopens. Singapore Airlines also has a flight scheduled from Singapore to Perth which is due to land five minutes after midnight on 3 March.

On days when SQ215 operates, the Boeing 787 service is normally scheduled to land in Perth at 23:55. Singapore Airlines has pushed the departure time back by 10 minutes on this particular day, for obvious reasons.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Keen to get to Perth? Qantas’ Points Plane will get you there 5 minutes after WA border reopens

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.