Coming home for Christmas

[Maisy33]

Hey everyone,
I know crystal ball stuff, but would appreciate your thoughts.

Wanting to bring my kid home from MSP to PER using points if we ever get out of lockdown. Booking points or sit tight to see if specials come?.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Aust govt's CMO says Aust lockdown will be for a long time yet.
Minneapolis Airport, US, that would mean having to transit LAX/or Asia, assuming Aust's international border will be open by then.
Even if the Aust states open their borders, if the kids are Aust citizens, they might be able to come in, and not do self iso, but if not Aust citizens, will be hard.
Right now, even Aust citizens have it hard flying out, but by Dec, they might let Aust citizens travel to NZ only.
OR they might open the borders to Aust citizens coming in and going out, but not other citizens.
More info needed, as to the citizenship of the kids, and yes, not forgetting that crystal ball.
Can't say what will happen to VA, but as this is the QF branch, so you would be aiming for AA/QF/LA(TAM) via South America... if international flights from the US to Aust have restarted by Dec 2020!
Sorry for the waffle, but I think it might be best to put all international travel to Aust on hold, till maybe Jul/Dec 2021 at the least.
I am grounded, not even able to make plans to go to NZ at this stage.
Edit: if you are only QF NB, your chances of using points to get award seats, are very tight, as you are down the status pecking order, if they reopen flights, maybe pay using $.
There is a news snippet on msn.com from the Aust tourism minister, that the border will not open till 2021 at the earliest, FlightCentre boss says it will open in 3/4/5 months, ...

 

[Maisy33]

Aust govt's CMO says Aust lockdown will be for a long time yet.
Minneapolis Airport, US, that would mean having to transit LAX/or Asia, assuming Aust's international border will be open by then.
Even if the Aust states open their borders, if the kids are Aust citizens, they might be able to come in, and not do self iso, but if not Aust citizens, will be hard.
Right now, even Aust citizens have it hard flying out, but by Dec, they might let Aust citizens travel to NZ only.
OR they might open the borders to Aust citizens coming in and going out, but not other citizens.
More info needed, as to the citizenship of the kids, and yes, not forgetting that crystal ball.
Can't say what will happen to VA, but as this is the QF branch, so you would be aiming for AA/QF/LA(TAM) via South America... if international flights from the US to Aust have restarted by Dec 2020!
Sorry for the waffle, but I think it might be best to put all international travel to Aust on hold, till maybe Jul/Dec 2021 at the least.
I am grounded, not even able to make plans to go to NZ at this stage.
Edit: if you are only QF NB, your chances of using points to get award seats, are very tight, as you are down the status pecking order, if they reopen flights, maybe pay using $.
There is a news snippet on msn.com from the Aust tourism minister, that the border will not open till 2021 at the earliest, FlightCentre boss says it will open in 3/4/5 months, ...

Poochie, thank you for taking the time to respond. My kid is Australian, he’s currently there for college. We will just sit it out like everyone else we are the lucky ones here in Australia.

 

[tomlee1986]

I think the situation wont be as easy - the international flights are not operating as of yet.. and likely to take longer time to recover than domestic services

 

[drron]

There are still occasional International flights flying into SYD at least.QR seem to be almost daily.I see ANA and UA at times though UA are going to stop.
So it should be OK getting a flight home especially on QR.And it is an OW member.
The problem would be getting a flight back out of Australia as we have a ban on Australians leaving for OS but there can be exemptions and maybe you could enquire whethher going back for education purposes would be allowed.

 

[tomlee1986]

There are still occasional International flights flying into SYD at least.QR seem to be almost daily.I see ANA and UA at times though UA are going to stop.
So it should be OK getting a flight home especially on QR.And it is an OW member.
The problem would be getting a flight back out of Australia as we have a ban on Australians leaving for OS but there can be exemptions and maybe you could enquire whethher going back for education purposes would be allowed.

I agree with that.. but i thought those are government funded flights to mainly allow australians to get home

 

[drron]

I agree with that.. but i thought those are government funded flights to mainly allow australians to get home

Not the QR flights though.And UA and ANA unlikely to be for Australians coming home as they have usually had the pre Covid flight numbers.

 

[tomlee1986]

Not the QR flights though.And UA and ANA unlikely to be for Australians coming home as they have usually had the pre Covid flight numbers.

Thanks for the information

 

[bcworld]

The problem would be getting a flight back out of Australia as we have a ban on Australians leaving for OS but there can be exemptions and maybe you could enquire whethher going back for education purposes would be allowed.

There is an exemption for anyone who ordinarily lives outside Australia, which they would qualify for.

However not much point coming for Xmas if the 14 day quarantine on entry is still in force.

 

[dajop]

It will require planning and definitely count on the 14 day isolation - by then not sure at who’s expense or where it will need to take place. If semesters were timed like they are here - it would be a no brainer, but the break in US is probably quite short over Xmas? I’d be looking at doing it on the longest possible break, due to the potential 14 day isolation.

Leaving again should not be a problem, he just needs to prove he ordinarily lives overseas.

 

[bcworld]

I agree with that.. but i thought those are government funded flights to mainly allow australians to get home

Most of the inbound QR flights are close to empty. I saw some numbers quoted that for a period they carried 4k pax into Australia and 32k out. Can't provide a source for that though.

 

[tomlee1986]

Sorry.. to clarify.. i was thinking of the QF and VA international flights operating atm being funded by the federal government.. but I dont have info on other carriers

 

[Gremlin]

I'd expect the requirements to be a moving feast. Also bear in mind that WA has quite strict travel restrictions at the moment, beyond those of the rest of the country. We'd all like for them to be relaxed by Christmas, but we just don't know.

WA border restrictions

Based on the current rules, it would be challenging for him to be approved for entry. But none of us know what the situation will be in seven months time.

 

[StevoQFtraveller]

Could be quarantined for 14 days at Rottnest over Christmas. Many people would fight for that opportunity!!

 

[RichardMEL]

Really it's far too early to know. The situation is evolving weekly if not daily in some cases. It is likely by then(but by no means certain!) Australia will be far more open than it is now, possibly with more regular scheduled flights to NZ and maybe Asia and internally I would expect the restrictions for self isilation and border closures will be done with..

... unless there's a big 2nd wave or things turn a way we can't forsee.

What about the US? They seem in a far more difficult situation than we are right now.. and as they will then be headed into their winter who knows what the situation could be, Hopefully much better.

By all means if you can find a scheduled QF flight with a seat available for the december timeframe I would probably grab it knowing that scheles could well change (hopefully more flights than less!)... but there are obviously no guarantees here. We can't really know where we will be at in August let alone the end of the year, so there's going to be a lot of guesswork involved and obviously being prepared to throw it away if/when things change (by that I mean cancel or change the points booking with maybe the usual penalty).

The other thought may indeed be that say things resume to some extent between the US and AU by say Oct/Nov I would say the demand would NOT be high and while the airlines would be selling less seats due to social distancing policies (I don't think that will change by then.. just hope your son wouldn't have to cross the pacific for 14 hours wearing a mask!) so it may be wise to hold off on trying for a points booking as possibly more options will open up. It's a difficult call. If it were a normal year I'd be saying for December peak grab any seat you can find and hold on to it like gold, but this year.. who knows.

It's a really difficult situation you're in with wanting to get your son home (incidently I believe a lot of US colleages may not be having on campus classes into the new school year there? Maybe look to get him out earlier?)

 

[Maisy33]

Thanks everyone for your input. It's greatly appreciated.

Post automatically merged: May 16, 2020

Really it's far too early to know. The situation is evolving weekly if not daily in some cases. It is likely by then(but by no means certain!) Australia will be far more open than it is now, possibly with more regular scheduled flights to NZ and maybe Asia and internally I would expect the restrictions for self isilation and border closures will be done with..

... unless there's a big 2nd wave or things turn a way we can't forsee.

What about the US? They seem in a far more difficult situation than we are right now.. and as they will then be headed into their winter who knows what the situation could be, Hopefully much better.

By all means if you can find a scheduled QF flight with a seat available for the december timeframe I would probably grab it knowing that scheles could well change (hopefully more flights than less!)... but there are obviously no guarantees here. We can't really know where we will be at in August let alone the end of the year, so there's going to be a lot of guesswork involved and obviously being prepared to throw it away if/when things change (by that I mean cancel or change the points booking with maybe the usual penalty).

The other thought may indeed be that say things resume to some extent between the US and AU by say Oct/Nov I would say the demand would NOT be high and while the airlines would be selling less seats due to social distancing policies (I don't think that will change by then.. just hope your son wouldn't have to cross the pacific for 14 hours wearing a mask!) so it may be wise to hold off on trying for a points booking as possibly more options will open up. It's a difficult call. If it were a normal year I'd be saying for December peak grab any seat you can find and hold on to it like gold, but this year.. who knows.

It's a really difficult situation you're in with wanting to get your son home (incidently I believe a lot of US colleages may not be having on campus classes into the new school year there? Maybe look to get him out earlier?)

Hi Richard,
At this stage my son's College is hoping to be open by end of August?? I think we'll leave him there until we know more.....

 

[tomlee1986]

@Maisy33 Glad we can help to answer your query, as this group helps me a lot, I am more than willing to pay it forward to others who might need our assistance as well

 

[laf2er]

Funnily enough I was planning on flying over to MSP next Jan to catch up with friends as I went to college in Minnesota as well. Let's hope that it is possible in the near future.