New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced 19 April as the start date for the long-awaited Australia-New Zealand travel bubble. From that day, travellers on both sides of the ditch will be able to visit each other quarantine-free – subject to no further COVID outbreaks, of course. Should an outbreak occur, it’s likely some temporary travel restrictions will be imposed.

In response to today’s news, Qantas and Jetstar have announced they will restart flying to all pre-COVID destinations in New Zealand. From 19 April, Qantas and Jetstar will initially operate up to 122 return flights per week across the Tasman on 15 routes, offering more than 52,000 seats each week.

Qantas’ schedule includes year-round direct flights to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown including direct flights from Brisbane and Melbourne to Queenstown, routes which Qantas traditionally only operated for the ski season peak.

A new daily service from the Gold Coast to Auckland will commence when the bubble opens, marking Qantas’ first ever international flights from Gold Coast Airport.

A new Cairns-Auckland route will launch in time for the June long weekend, operating three days per week. Flights will initially operate for nine weeks until late July, and Qantas will look to add more flights beyond this period if there is demand.

Jetstar will initially operate to Auckland from Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney, with schedules of both airlines connecting on to Jetstar’s New Zealand domestic network.

Jetstar will resume flights on the remainder of its pre-COVID routes from the middle of the year.

Qantas has also today extended its “Fly Flexible” policy, offering customers who book flights before 31 July 2021 added flexibility with unlimited fee free date changes when travelling before 28 February 2022. Jetstar offers the option of purchasing FareCredit on bookings which allow passengers to cancel flights for any reason.

Qantas Frequent Flyer will boost the number of Classic Flight Reward seats for frequent flyers, making all seats in all cabins across Qantas and Jetstar flights for the first three days available as a Classic Flight redemption. For the remainder of 2021, frequent flyers will also enjoy access to 50 per cent more Classic Flight Reward seats on Qantas’ trans-Tasman routes. Classic Flight Reward bookings made by 30 April 2021 for travel to 28 Feb 2022 can also be cancelled for free, with full refunds.

From 19 April, Air New Zealand will also be ramping up flights between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown and its main Australian ports.

Air New Zealand’s international flexibility policy was recently extended so customers with flights scheduled to depart before 11:59pm on 31 December 2021 have the ability to opt into credit or make a change to the date or time of the flight with change fees waived (fare difference may still apply).

Virgin Australia, whose international flights remain suspended, has issued a statement saying it looks forward to re-entering the Trans-Tasman market later this year.

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Virgin Australia reopened its Canberra airport lounge today, the final piece of the puzzle that is its slimmed-down domestic lounge network.

The move comes almost a year since the pandemic forced Virgin to shutter all of its airport lounges.

Under new owner Bain Capital, the airline has promised to continue to operate a domestic lounge network, albeit with a reduced size that focuses on the airports with the most frequent flyer travel.

As of today, Virgin is operating lounges in the following domestic airport terminals:

• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Brisbane
• Perth
• Adelaide
• Gold Coast
• Canberra.

The airline’s Cairns, Mackay, Alice Springs and Darwin lounge have been permanently closed.

Virgin Australia Lounge visitors currently enjoy complimentary snacks like sandwiches, salads and wraps, as well as drinks including barista-made coffee and alcoholic beverages (from noon).

Some facilities and services remain closed due to Covid, including showers, business centres and valets.

Virgin reopened its Adelaide lounge last month, which sports a fresh new look that will eventually be rolled out across the lounge network.

More information about Virgin Australia lounges, including the experience on offer and access rules, is available here.

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Australia’s struggling regional tourism businesses are set for a rush of new customers as part of a federal government $1.2 billion support package announced today.

At the core of the package will be 800,000 half-price airfares around the country. The government will subsidise flights from 1 April to 31 July to the following 13 destinations/regions:

• Gold Coast, QLD
• Cairns, QLD
• the Whitsundays and Mackay region, QLD
• Sunshine Coast, QLD
• Uluru, NT
• Alice Springs, NT
• Launceston, TAS
• Devonport, TAS
• Burnie, TAS
• Broome, WA
• Avalon (Geelong), VIC
• Merimbula, NSW
• Kangaroo Island, SA.

Flights, routes and the total number of tickets will be driven by demand. Qantas and Jetstar say they expect to offer around 550,000 of the discounted fares, with Virgin Australia and regional carriers expected to release the remainder.

The discounts will be off the average fare and will be available on airline websites from 1 April.

Only interstate travel will be covered by the program – so, for example, Perth residents won’t be able to get subsidised fares to Broome but will to the other destinations.

The support package announcement comes as the government’s JobKeeper program is due to end on 31 March, with fears of job losses across the tourism sector.

The package also includes loan extensions for small businesses, and funding to help Qantas and Virgin Australia maintain more than 8,000 core international aviation jobs until overseas travel resumes.

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Hot on the heels of the announcement yesterday that Qantas and Jetstar plan to resume international flights in October, we thought it was worth highlighting to our readers that it’s possible to speculatively book some reward seats now and then change or cancel them later for free if necessary.

Given that reward seats are limited, especially during peak travel periods like Christmas and school holidays, and there is a lot of pent-up demand for travel, if you’re planning to use Qantas Points to fly, you should book sooner rather than later. The offer of free changes and cancellations is another incentive to do so.

Under Qantas’ Fly Flexible policy, when you use Qantas Points to book a Classic Flight Reward on Qantas or Jetstar flights before 30 April 2021, you can change your plans until 31 January 2022.

If you wish to change your travel dates, Qantas will waive the change fee. Otherwise, if you wish to cancel, Qantas will waive the cancellation fee and the total Qantas Points used and any taxes, fees and carrier charges paid will all be refunded.

This policy applies to both domestic and international flights. Qantas and Jetstar plan to resume flying to almost their entire pre-Covid international networks by October, as we covered yesterday.

More information about Qantas’ Fly Flexible policy is available on its website here.

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Qantas and Jetstar are now planning to restart regular international passenger flights to most destinations from 31 October 2021 – a four month delay from the previous (and overly optimistic) estimate of July, which had been in place since mid-2020.

The date change aligns with the expected timeframe for Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout to be effectively complete.

Capacity will be lower than pre-COVID levels, with frequencies and aircraft type deployed on each route in line with the projected recovery of international flying. International capacity is not expected to fully recover until 2024.

Qantas says it remains in close consultation with the Federal Government around the reopening of international borders and will keep customers updated if further adjustments are required. Federal officials have recently suggested borders may be closed until the end of 2021.

Qantas is assessing the use of digital health pass apps to help support the resumption of COVID-safe international travel. The CommonPass and IATA Travel Pass smartphone apps are being trialled on the airline’s international repatriation flights.

Qantas network

Qantas is planning to resume flights to 22 of its 25 pre-COVID international destinations including Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Johannesburg from 31 October 2021.

Qantas won’t initially resume direct flights to New York, Santiago and Osaka, but remains committed to flying to these three destinations eventually. In the meantime, customers will be able to fly to these destinations under codeshare or oneworld arrangements with partner airlines.

Jetstar network

Jetstar plans to resume flights to all of its 13 international destinations. Frequencies will be adjusted in line with the projected recovery of international flying.

Trans-Tasman

Qantas and Jetstar are planning for a significant increase in flights to and from New Zealand from 1 July 2021 as travel bubbles open.

Additional flexibility and extension of credit vouchers    

Qantas has today announced additional flexibility for international bookings to enable customers to book flights with confidence.

Qantas’ updated Fly Flexible policy (previously only available for domestic and trans-Tasman flights) now applies to international flights booked from today until at least the end of April 2021. Customers will be able to change the dates of their flight for free to any available date (up to 355 days in advance).

Qantas has also extended credit vouchers to enable travel until 31 December 2023 on domestic or international flights, with Jetstar doing the same for vouchers issued due to COVID-19 disruptions.

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Virgin Australia reopened its Adelaide lounge today after a much-anticipated multi-million dollar makeover.

Designed by Brisbane’s WMK Architecture, the stylish 283-seat Adelaide space sports a fresh look that will eventually be rolled out across the lounge network.

Virgin says it sought to remain true to its brand by creating a warm, authentic and inviting environment for frequent flyers.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka commented: “We know our capital city lounges are highly-valued by our frequent flyers and we’re reimagining the experience in a very Virgin way. Not only is the new Adelaide Lounge the best airline lounge at Adelaide Airport, but it’s fun, relaxed, and a place that everyone will feel welcome and comfortable.

“We plan to make significant investment in our lounges over the next few years. The new lounge we’ve unveiled today will be the foundation for the Virgin aesthetic and experience we will roll out across the network.”

Guests are greeted by a bright, airy entrance and foyer before moving into the versatile space.

The lounge features a central café seating area which transforms into a wine bar at night.

Separate dining areas with diverse functionality have been built adjacent to servery areas to cater to guests’ eating preferences, including large social tables, and banquette seating for more private dining.

A dedicated work area dubbed The Library features workstations with PCs, printing facilities, power sockets, and desk lamps, offering a functional environment to work on the fly – or at least it will when Covid restrictions permit.

A chill-out zone adjacent to The Library called the Gallery Lounge offers up lounge chairs and a large flat-screen television. Meanwhile, another space called the Sunroom features a mixture of other seating arrangements.

And another area dubbed The Long Stay is tucked away from the main entrance and provides more seating options.

The bathrooms look quite stylish as well.

To coincide with the opening, Virgin Australia has today launched a new and fresh menu for guests, featuring a selection of sandwiches, salads, wraps and healthy snacks, prepared on site. An enhanced menu will be implemented at all Virgin Australia lounges in the coming weeks.

The lounge is now open for eligible travellers. For all the info on how to get in, visit Virgin’s website here.

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