Qantas offering travellers a switch from Emirates to Qantas on flights out of Heathrow

Hey fellow travelers,

Been an avid reader for some time and now have an interesting question.

I made a booking for return flights to Australia from London about 4 months ago for this forthcoming October, with my departing flight being from Gatwick to Dubai and onward to Sydney, both on EK metal. My return is on QF1. At the time of booking, the EK option was some 200 Stirling cheaper and thus a no brainer, plus the opportunity to fly EK and see what they were like compared to QFi and CX.

Today however, I received an email from Qantas asking me if I would like to change my flight outbound to Heathrow and fly on QF metal solely, offering a 'smother transition through DXB, at no cost. Obviously this is a bit of an eyebrow raiser, so my Question, or probably more appropriately questions are:

1. Should I stick with my original booking and give EK a go for the sake of it, or will I gain more by going QF only? (I am a QFF and wife is a BA exec, which would mean she earns pts being qf metal) but realistically, the layover in DXB is much of a muchness to me.

2. Has anyone received the same email or similar?

3. Opinions on whether this request is because QF are struggling to fill their planes or is something NQR with the EK/QF hook up?

It's funny you mention this email, I booked a couple of flights through Qantas departing Sydney to LHR in September. We are flying EK from SYD to LHR and QF2 return. 

My wife is a silver QFF and I am gold, she received an email asking if she would like to change the EK flight to QF1, but I did not receive it.  I booked the flights as one ticket, so it confused me as to why she would be offered it but not me. I too wondered if there may be trouble brewing with the partnership.

Even if I had received the email it wouldn't suit because the EK flight is 6am out of Sydney arriving the same night in LHR and we have booked our hotel already. The Qantas flight arrives the next morning so we would need to change our hotel booking. I like the idea of a night arrival for time adjustment reasons. 

In your case, it's a matter for yourself to decide, the points for your wife would be good, it's much of a muchness really. It depends on bookings you may have made and how many changes you may need to make.

LondonAussie,

I'm confused. Did you book and were ticketed by Qantas? I presume you were since Qantas emailed you with the offer. If you were booked and ticketed with Qantas and your flights had Qantas flight numbers (even if you flew on EK metal) you (QFF) and your wife (BAEC) would earn miles/points  and sc/tp respectively. i.e. Issue no.1 is a moot point.

The option to fly on QF metal is purely then a matter of timing and preference (LGW or LHR).

Actually for a QF flight operated by EK, you will earn no points/tp with BA. So LondonAussie's wife will benefit from the swtich to QF2.

QF/EK apparently have a revenue sharing agreement on "trunk routes" so they would both benefit from switching you from EK to QF (if QF is looking empty that day).

You are absolutely right madge. Thank you!

I had a look at the accrual rate for QF on BAEC and noticed that they have indeed excluded non-OW QF codeshare flights, unlike Aadvantage, which does not discern between the two, allowing all QF codeshare flights be in OW codeshare or non-OW codeshare (and there are a fair few e.g flights to the South Pacific with Fiji Airways etc.).

Hi LondonAussie,

If you are flying economy, I think it is much of a muchness.  I personally prefer QF's A380 seats and food to that I've had on Emirates, but Emirates does have better in-flight entertainment.

If you are sitting in business, I would switch to Qantas if either of your legs is on the Emirates 777.  The seats aren't lie flat and to me feel a little cramped comparted to the upper deck of the a380.  If your only stint on the 777 is from LGW to DXB, then it's less of an issue as the flight is fairly short.