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Both Qatar Airways and Emirates will soon upgrade their daily Boeing 777 flights to Perth to Airbus A380s.
This is good news on multiple levels. As well as more capacity in the market and an upgraded experience for travellers, Qatar Airways has just released a bunch of First Class award seats on the Doha-Perth route that you could book with Velocity points!
For Qatar Airways Business Class passengers travelling to or from Perth, this change could represent a slight downgrade due to the loss of Qsuites… but does come with the added bonus of an on-board lounge.
Qatar Airways to fly A380s to Perth from 6 December 2022
Qatar Airways currently operates Boeing 777-300ERs on its daily Perth-Doha flights with Economy and Business Class seating available. Business Class passengers are treated to the airline’s popular Qsuites.
From 6 December 2022, Qatar Airways will swap out its Boeing 777 for the larger Airbus A380 on the Perth-Doha route. The A380 features Qatar Airways’ older-style but still excellent Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone layout.
There are significantly more Economy seats on Qatar’s A380, which are also wider compared to the Boeing 777. But perhaps most interestingly, the reintroduction of the A380 on this route also signifies the return of First Class seating.
As an added bonus, Business and First passengers on Qatar’s A380 have access to an on-board lounge towards the back of the upper deck.
If you get in quick, you might even be able to book one or two of these First Class seats on the Perth-Doha route using Virgin Australia Velocity points. At the time of writing, there are up to 2x First Class reward seats available to book between Perth and Doha on the Virgin Australia website, for many travel dates between 16 January and 25 March 2023.
From 26 March 2023 onwards, Qatar Airways has not yet updated its schedules which continue to show the Boeing 777-300ER without First Class seating on the Perth-Doha route. This is likely to change soon.
And as Australian Frequent Flyer reported last week, there is a general blackout on Qatar Airways award seats around the World Cup and Christmas/New Year holidays.
These First Class award seats between January-March 2023 are also available to book using Qatar Airways Avios or many other Oneworld frequent flyer programs, but not with Qantas Frequent Flyer points.
Qatar Airways currently operates its Airbus A380s on flights between Doha and Sydney, Paris, London and Bangkok. These are Qatar Airways’ only other long-haul destinations with First Class service available, although Qatar does also offer First Class (instead of Business Class) to all its short-haul destinations within the Middle East.
Emirates to upgrade Perth to A380 from November 2022
Emirates recently announced that it will also upgrade its Perth-Dubai flights from a Boeing 777-300ER to an Airbus A380 service from 1 November 2022 – a month earlier than previously planned.
This represents an upgrade in the travel experience for Economy, Business and First Class passengers. Economy passengers can enjoy wider seats, while Business and First Class passengers will have access to Emirates’ on-board bar at the back of the upper deck.
Emirates First Class passengers on the A380 can also have a shower on board.
At the time of writing, there is a reasonable amount of Classic Reward availability on Emirates’ flights between Perth and Dubai, including in Business & First Class, for travel in November 2022. However, beware of Emirates’ very high fuel surcharges.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QR F award availability ex Perth
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