Latest news

Queensland Border to Reopen on 10 July, But Not to Victorians

Queensland will proceed with its plan to reopen the state’s border on 10 July to travellers from all Australian states and territories except Victoria. It comes as the Victorian government announces lockdowns of 10 Melbourne postcodes for four weeks, starting from tonight, following a localised COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, Queensland will not allow even its … Continued

1 Jul 2020 Coronavirus and Travel

Qantas Reopening Domestic Lounges from 1 July 2020

After being closed for more than three months due to COVID-19 restrictions (and a lack of passengers), Qantas will begin to reopen its Qantas Club and domestic Business class lounges from tomorrow. But the experience will be a little different, with social distancing and other health measures in place. Qantas will initially reopen 11 of its … Continued

30 Jun 2020 Qantas

Qantas Says Final Goodbye to Boeing 747 after 49 Years

Update: It appears that VH-OEJ, the last Qantas 747, is now scheduled to leave Australia on 22 July. Before this, Qantas will operate 3 domestic joy flights – one each from Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. Tickets are expected to sell out quickly. The decision to put on the 3 joy flights was made at the last … Continued

29 Jun 2020 Qantas

Podcast #39: Noise Cancelling Headphones & US Credit Cards

On long-haul flights, sometimes silence is bliss. That’s why so many frequent flyers use noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the noise of aircraft engines and fellow passengers. Noise-cancelling headphones may seem like magic, but there’s some very sophisticated science that goes into providing the perfect listening experience. Many years ago Hossein Seif Zadeh, who has a … Continued

27 Jun 2020 AFF on Air Podcast

How Noise Cancelling Headphones Work – AIR039

  For frequent flyers, noise-cancelling headphones are the ultimate travelling companion. But have you ever wondered how they actually work to cancel out noise? In this episode, aerospace engineer Hossein Seif Zadeh (a.k.a. hossein_au on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum) explains how noise-cancelling headphone technology works and the difference between a $100 and a $600 pair … Continued

27 Jun 2020 AFF on Air (blubrry)

Bain Capital to Buy Virgin Australia

The search for a new owner of Virgin Australia is finally over with Bain Capital, a U.S. private investment firm based in Boston, announced as the successful bidder. The other bidder in the running, Cyrus Capital Partners, reportedly withdrew this morning after submitting its final offer last Monday. Virgin’s administrators have now entered into a … Continued

26 Jun 2020 Virgin Australia

COVID-19 is Accelerating the Transition to a Cashless Society

Many frequent flyers prefer to use credit cards for every possible transaction in order to earn points. But there are still around half a million Australians that don’t have a debit or credit card, preferring to pay for everything with cash. Slowly but surely, this number has been decreasing. Over the past decade, cash transactions … Continued

26 Jun 2020 Travel Money

Qantas to Axe 6,000 Jobs, Raise $1.9b Equity

Qantas Airways Limited entered a trading halt on the ASX this morning as CEO Alan Joyce announced a three-year COVID-19 recovery plan that’s harsh but necessary. The cost-cutting and job losses are far greater than those announced in the last major shake-up back in February 2014, when 5,000 jobs were cut. Today, Qantas announced 6,000 permanent … Continued

25 Jun 2020 Qantas

Retired Planes Repurposed by Creative New Owners

At the end of this month, Qantas will retire the only Boeing 747 left in its fleet. Most of the flying kangaroo’s remaining jumbo jets have already been sent to the aircraft boneyard in Victorville, USA, and the aircraft with registration VH-OEJ is set to join them on 30 June. (For the aviation geeks out … Continued

25 Jun 2020 Travel Lifestyle

Velocity to Refund Cancelled Reward Seat Bookings

Velocity Frequent Flyer will finally refund Virgin Australia reward seat bookings that have been cancelled, for travel booked until 30 September 2020. This had already been Velocity’s policy prior to Virgin Australia entering voluntary administration. Throughout April and the first half of May, Velocity always said that it would refund the Velocity points & taxes paid … Continued

24 Jun 2020 Virgin Australia

Travel Agents in NSW Must Disclose Commissions, Incentives

From next week, travel agents operating in the state of New South Wales will need to disclose any commission, referral fees or incentives they receive from their suppliers. The new rule is part of increased disclosure obligations that will apply to NSW businesses, including intermediaries such as agents. The new state-based laws also require businesses to … Continued

23 Jun 2020 Planning & Booking

Australian International Flights Down 98% in April 2020

There was a 98% reduction in international passengers travelling to and from Australia in April 2020, compared to the previous year, despite a surge in people leaving Australia on repatriation flights. Almost half of those passengers flew with Qatar Airways. There was also a 97.2% reduction in domestic airline passengers travelling within Australia in April 2020. … Continued

22 Jun 2020 Coronavirus and Travel