Qantas to mount repatriation flights from four cities to Australia

Flights from Auckland, Hong Kong, London and Los Angeles to Australia will be available for those looking to return to Down Under

Qantas has announced a series of rescue flights to bring back Australians to Australia over the next few weeks.

Four cities are chosen: Auckland, Hong Kong, London and Los Angeles – arguably the most significant city for Australia in each continent – where there will be at least one flight a week.

Qantas said that these flights are mounted to facilitate essential travel as well as for Australians who with to return home. For those who wish to book, you will have to book direct on Qantas.com.

The fine print

Given that these flights are mounted under extraordinary circumstances, there are some caveats for these flights, which Qantas has listed on their page. In essence:

Only economy class seats will be available for booking.
There will be limited onboard food and beverage service – which we can presume
There will be no in-flight entertainment, as Qantas has suspended its licencing agreement with the supplier at the moment
No Qantas Frequent Flyer benefits will be given. This means that the flight will not earn status credits and Qantas points, nor will seats be bookable with points.
Seat selection is also unavailable to enable Qantas to allocate seats factoring in social distancing requirements.

Full schedule

The schedules and fares are as follow:

Sector	Dates of ops	Flight no.	Dep / Arr (flight time)	Aircraft	Fare (one-way, Economy)
HKG-BNE	15, 17, 22, 24 & 29 Apr; 1 & 6 May	QF98	1930 – 0615 (+1) 8h 45m	B787-9	HKD3499
HKG-MEL	18, 20, 25 & 27 Apr; 2 & 4 May	QF30	1930 – 0655 (+1) 9h 25m	B787-9	HKD3497
BNE-LAX	16, 23, 30 Apr	QF15	1000 – 0600 13h	B787-9	AUD749
LAX-BNE	17 & 24 Apr, 1 May	QF16	2230 – 0520 (+2) 13h 50m	B787-9	USD461
MEL-LHR	19 & 26 Apr, 3 May	QF10	1515 – 0505 (+1) 22h 50m	B787-9	AUD1335
PER-LHR	19 & 26 Apr, 3 May	QF10	1850 – 0505 (+1) 17h 15m	B787-9	AUD1335
LHR-MEL	22 & 29 Apr, 6 May	QF9	1210 – 1855 (+1) 21h 45m	B787-9	GBP721
BNE-AKL	16,18, 23, 25 & 30 Apr; 2 May	QF119	0925 – 1435 3h 10m	B787-9	AUD335
MEL-AKL	19, 20, 26 & 27 Apr; 3 & 4 May	QF151	1030 – 1535 3h 5m	B787-9	AUD335
AKL-BNE	16,18, 23, 25 & 30 Apr; 2 May	QF126	1715 – 1855 3h 40m	B787-9	NZD320
AKL-MEL	19, 20, 26 & 27 Apr; 3 & 4 May	QF156	1610 – 1805 3h 55m	B787-9	NZD320

Qantas has tentatively listed that it will be using the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to operate these flights, but I will imagine that it will deploy an aircraft that will best suit the demand closer to date.

For instance, for the Hong Kong and Los Angeles services, Qantas can possibly deploy the A380 if there’s a huge demand, while still maintaining a social distancing policy on the flight.

How do these fares compare?

Virgin Australia is also mounting some flights to Hong Kong and Los Angeles from its Brisbane base.

Virgin’s fare is somewhat comparable to Qantas’, with the biggest difference being about AUD100 between the two:

Sector	Qantas fare	Virgin Australia fare
Hong Kong to Brisbane	HKD3499	HKD2983
Brisbane to Los Angeles	AUD749	AUD855
Los Angeles to Brisbane	USD461	USD475

Unlike Qantas who is only selling seats on the Hong Kong to Australia sector, Virgin Australia is also selling flights from Brisbane to Hong Kong at AUD625, one way.

Comparing these to regular fares before COVID-19 consumed the aviation industry, the fares can be a little pricier than usual, given that you can get a return sale fare from Hong Kong to Australia from HKD3500.

But of course, these are extraordinary times, so the price is very reasonable for a rescue flight, and even more reasonable than the AUD1000 that Qantas originally wanted to charge passengers on its Wuhan rescue service back in January (this was later retracted when the government footed the bill).