Big Changes to Qantas’ Samoa Service

Qantas will make major changes to its service to Samoa from July 2023. Instead of a daytime Airbus A330 service to and from Sydney, it will become an overnight Boeing 737-800 service out of Brisbane.

Qantas began serving both Tonga and Samoa last year, filling gaps left by Virgin Australia. (Virgin has since resumed flights to Samoa, but not Tonga.) Both routes have had reasonably good Classic Flight Reward availability, making it easy to book a holiday to both Pacific Island destinations using Qantas points.

Currently, Qantas flies on Fridays and Sundays from Sydney to Apia via Brisbane, with the return flight running direct to Sydney. This is the current QF197/198 schedule:

• QF197 Sydney 06:00 – Brisbane 07:30 / Brisbane 08:50 – Apia 16:30
• QF198 Apia 17:50 – Sydney 20:45

These flights are currently operated by Airbus A330s configured with lie-flat Business Class seats. The Sydney-Brisbane tag flight also departs from the international terminal, meaning Platinum frequent flyers can use the First Lounge prior to departure (albeit for a very short time, due to QF197’s early departure time).

Qantas’ new Brisbane-Apia route from July

From 18 July 2023, the Sydney-Brisbane tag will be dropped. In fact, the whole route will switch to a Brisbane-Apia service in both directions.

Unfortunately, according to Aeroroutes, Qantas will downgrade the aircraft to a smaller Boeing 737-800 with reclining Business Class seats. The route will also switch from a daytime flight in both directions to a redeye departure from Brisbane. The flight back to Brisbane will leave Samoa’s capital at 5.05am.

The good news, though, is that Qantas will operate this new schedule three times per week instead of two. The flights will depart Brisbane on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Here’s Qantas’ new Apia schedule from July 2023:

• QF197 Brisbane 20:10 – Apia 04:05 (+1 day)
• QF198 Apia 05:05 – Brisbane 07:45

In late October, Qantas will push back the departure times on both sectors by around two hours.

Qantas won’t be able to carry as much freight or passengers on the Boeing 737-800s, but perhaps the extra weekly frequency will go some way to compensating for that. It also frees up some Airbus A330 flying time for that aircraft to be used on other routes. Plus, the crew would presumably be able to immediately turn around in Apia back to Brisbane.

Virgin Australia has returned to Samoa

Virgin Australia resumed flights from both Brisbane and Sydney to Apia in March 2023, using Boeing 737-800s. Both flights were also originally scheduled to operate as redeye flights on the outbound leg. Virgin’s Brisbane-Apia flight still is, but the Sydney-Apia flight is currently running during the daytime.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 80 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.