Qantas Delays Santiago Relaunch

Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile. Photo: Alisha Lubben from Pexels.

Qantas has delayed the restart of its flights to Chile, with all Sydney-Santiago flights now removed from sale until 31 October 2022.

Earlier this month, Qantas had been selling seats on its QF27/28 services between Sydney and Santiago from late March 2022. But all Qantas flights on this route have now been “zeroed out” until late October, meaning seats are no longer available for sale. Passengers with existing bookings will likely be informed in the next few weeks that their flights have been cancelled.

Qantas’ partner LATAM Airlines is still selling seats on its Sydney-Auckland-Santiago route from 30 March 2022. Qantas codeshares with LATAM Airlines on these flights, LA800 (QF3877) from Sydney to Santiago and LA801 (QF3876) in the other direction. Seats are currently available for sale on these LATAM-operated flights under the “QF” flight number.

Passengers who had originally booked on the Qantas-operated non-stop services to/from Santiago may be rebooked on LATAM Airlines via Auckland.

At this stage, LATAM Airlines plans to fly from Sydney to Santiago via Auckland 3x weekly from 30 March, using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. But further changes are possible, with Australia’s borders still not reopened to anyone other than Australian citizens, permanent residents, their immediate family and specific eligible visa holders. Airlines may also be concerned that there is not yet enough demand from Aussies and Kiwis wishing to travel to South America.

Qantas Boeing 747 at Santiago Airport
Qantas flew Boeing 747s to Santiago before COVID-19. Photo: Matt Graham.

Chile is currently open to vaccinated tourists from overseas, with negative COVID-19 tests required before departure and upon arrival. Vaccinated arrivals also require travel insurance and need to complete a “Traveler’s Affidavit” form issued by the Chilean government.

No direct flights to South America

For the relatively small number of passengers that are currently travelling between Australia and South America, it’s a frustratingly long and arduous journey.

There are currently no direct flights on any airline, with Qantas and LATAM Airlines yet to restart flights and Air New Zealand having permanently axed its Auckland-Buenos Aires route. Therefore, the only commercial flight options are via North America, the Middle East or Europe – with double or even triple the usual travel time.

South America is now the only continent other than Antarctica without a direct connection to Australia. So when LATAM and Qantas do eventually restart their flights to Chile, this will be welcome news for people who need to make this trip.

Qantas not even accepting online bookings from South America

Although Qantas is now selling tickets on its own flights to Chile from late October 2022, even this date is not set in stone. It’s just an arbitrary date that marks the start of the IATA northern winter scheduling period.

Unfortunately, given the Qantas website is no longer even offering tickets for sale from South America at the moment, the airline is clearly not planning to return in a hurry.

You can't currently make a booking on Qantas' Chilean website
You can’t currently make a new booking on Qantas’ Chilean website – only manage an existing one.

The Qantas website also no longer even lets you search for Classic Flight Reward availability departing from Santiago, Chile (or elsewhere in South America).

The Qantas website is unable to accept bookings for flights departing from Santiago
The Qantas website can’t find Santiago – one of Qantas’ own destinations.

Other Qantas international routes are also delayed

Since Australia’s international border partially reopened in November 2021, Qantas has resumed international passenger services to London, Los Angeles, Singapore, Vancouver, Honolulu, Nadi, Auckland, Johannesburg and Bangkok. The flying kangaroo has also added new service to Delhi and announced a new Perth-Rome service that will operate during (our) winter.

But Qantas is still yet to return to 17 of its pre-COVID international destinations:

  • Santiago
  • Dallas/Fort Worth
  • San Francisco
  • New York
  • Hong Kong
  • Shanghai
  • Tokyo
  • Osaka
  • Sapporo
  • Jakarta
  • Denpasar (Bali)
  • Wellington
  • Christchurch
  • Queenstown
  • Port Moresby
  • Noumea
  • Manila

Many of these destinations will be back in the coming months, including Dallas which is now just weeks away from seeing its first Qantas flights in almost two years. But some markets will take much longer to recover.

Qantas no longer has any of its own flights scheduled to New York, Osaka or Sapporo, and the airline is currently only selling full-fare “Y” class on its flights to Shanghai – an indication that it’s not yet fully committed to running this route.

Meanwhile, Qantas has just suspended its Sydney-Honolulu route for two months – presumably due to a lack of demand – and many of its flights to Delhi have been cancelled in recent weeks due to new Indian government entry requirements.

 

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Future of QF27/28 travel post covid

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'm sure flights to and from Santiago will come back but they'll be among the last to return, probably only when Qantas take delivery of those last 3 Dreamliners currently sitting at Victorville.

From my experience on QF27/28 a majority of passengers are connecting to other destinations such as Brazil, Argentina and Peru. While Chile has done a good job with their vaccination campaign the same can't be said for many other nations in Latin America.

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Not to mention, Air New Zealand has permanently cancelled its AKL-EZE route. That was the only other direct flight from our region to South America.

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Although Chile has reached 70+% vaccinations a lot are with Sinovac.At 3 weeks post dose 2 it's effectiveness is 66% but at 4 weeks post dose 2 antibody levels start falling consistently.So I doubt a bubble will be forthcoming.

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Although Chile has reached 70+% vaccinations a lot are with Sinovac.At 3 weeks post dose 2 it's effectiveness is 66% but at 4 weeks post dose 2 antibody levels start falling consistently.So I doubt a bubble will be forthcoming.

Seems to be working at the moment with a very low case load, especially compared to its neighbours.

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Seems to be working at the moment with a very low case load, especially compared to its neighbours.

Perhaps. But since the Sinovac vaccine is not currently recognised by the Australian regulator, it is unlikely that the Australian government will extend whatever reduced quarantine/entry requirements will soon apply for vaccinated arrivals to people from Chile who have only received a non-TGA approved vaccine.

We're also still waiting for details about the Chilean e-visa that was supposed to be rolled out to Australian citizens (replacing the reciprocity fee) on 9 May 2020.

I'm sure QF27/28 will return when there is sufficient demand (due to entry requirements on both sides of the South Pacific Ocean being sufficiently relaxed to allow "normal" resumption of travel).

Reply 2 Likes

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Perhaps. But since the Sinovac vaccine is not currently recognised by the Australian regulator, it is unlikely that the Australian government will extend whatever reduced quarantine/entry requirements will soon apply for vaccinated arrivals to people from Chile who have only received a non-TGA approved vaccine.

We're also still waiting for details about the Chilean e-visa that was supposed to be rolled out to Australian citizens (replacing the reciprocity fee) on 9 May 2020.

I'm sure QF27/28 will return when there is sufficient demand (due to entry requirements on both sides of the South Pacific Ocean being sufficiently relaxed to allow "normal" resumption of travel).

It's not really any great danger to Australia if tourists have Sinovac or Pfizer - just the individual themselves. Neither completely stop transmission. The UK are being petitioned to accept Sinovac and I've heard Gladys is already pushing the same.

Biggest issue for QF is lack of widebodies to fly the route, but if NZ still can't travel seems logical for LA to flying SCL-SYD non stop at least every other day.

The AKL QF F lounge was bad enough, I don't want to try this new hellish covid transit lounge.

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It's not really any great danger to Australia if tourists have Sinovac or Pfizer - just the individual themselves. Neither completely stop transmission. The UK are being petitioned to accept Sinovac and I've heard Gladys is already pushing the same.

This isn't my opinion, it's just the current position of the Australian government - they are only recognising vaccines authorised by the TGA. If this changes, it will make travel from certain parts of the world easier.

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This isn't my opinion, it's just the current position of the Australian government - they are only recognising vaccines authorised by the TGA. If this changes, it will make travel from certain parts of the world easier.

Screech alert:
Please think of the children, love Queensland 😂

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But since the Sinovac vaccine is not currently recognised by the Australian regulator, it is unlikely that the Australian government will extend whatever reduced quarantine/entry requirements will soon apply for vaccinated arrivals to people from Chile who have only received a non-TGA approved vaccine.

However, if they want to host international students from China then they will have to recognise Sinovac.

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However, if they want to host international students from China then they will have to recognise Sinovac.

and/or insist on a booster
without wandering
Fred

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