Qantas to fly Sydney-Vancouver all year round
Formerly a seasonal service, Qantas is giving Vancouver a year-round upgrade based on expected demand as travel resumes.
By David Flynn, September 15 2021
Qantas is upgrading its Sydney-Vancouver flights from a seasonal service to run throughout the year, challenging Air Canada to satisfy pent-up demand for travel once Australia's international borders reopen.
In addition to Australians heading for the cosmopolitan harbour city and gateway to the Canadian Rockies, the airline expects plenty of Canucks to be lured down under.
Canada only this month began welcoming back international travellers, who must be fully vaccinated at least 14 days before entering the country with a vaccine recognised by the Canadian government: this includes the AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer jabs being used in Australia, along with North America's single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot.
Qantas is scheduling three flights a week between Sydney and Vancouver from December 18, with a Boeing 787-9 taking on the 15-hour trek.
The Boeing 787's Business Suites are a welcome step up from the old Boeing 747's SkyBed seats.
As Executive Traveller reported earlier this week, Air Canada plans to restart its Sydney-Vancouver route on December 17 with four Boeing 777 flights per week.
Both Qantas and Air Canada tempt premium travellers with a fully lie-flat bed in business class, where the 1-2-1 seating layout also offers direct access to the aisle.
Ahead of their flight back to Sydney, Qantas' business class travellers and top-tier Qantas Frequent Flyers holding Gold, Platinum and Platinum One status will enjoy access to the Vancouver lounge of Oneworld partner Cathay Pacific.
Cathay Pacific's Vancouver lounge features The Noodle Bar for preflight dining.
Designed along the same elegant yet relaxed 'residential' lines as Cathay's The Pier lounges in Hong Kong, as well as other CX lounges in London/Heathrow, Tokyo/Haneda, Bangkok and Taiwan, the space includes the airline's signature Noodle Bar along with self-serve area The Pantry.
At the time of writing Cathay Pacific's Vancouver lounge remains closed, as do most of the airline's lounges around the world.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
QF
04 Apr 2014
Total posts 210
And don't forget that passing through Vancouver to US destinations allows you to pre-clear US immigration in Vancouver, avoiding delays at the US end of the trip. This can be quite a time saver.
07 Apr 2021
Total posts 51
Quick hop to the PNW as well so you can have some good beers, bad coffee that is meant to be good, and a quick riot. Makes for a good trip.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 May 2019
Total posts 38
hi David, any news on throwing a bone - i.e. direct flights to Canada from Melbourne?
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
No word on that front, alas – if Air Canada had shared info on Melbourne-Vancouver we'd definitely have included this in the article, so let's cross fingers for that route to return in early-mid 2022.
22 Jan 2018
Total posts 98
Vancouver isn’t the gateway to the Rockies, Calgary is.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Aug 2015
Total posts 34
Hopefully this will provide some competition on air fare prices, QF premium economy sale fare for late janurary 2022 is still over 4500.00 return with Business more expensive than syd lax was pre pandemic at 7.5K each way
15 Sep 2021
Total posts 6
Great start, but if they are serious about competing with AC they need to build this to daily.
05 Mar 2015
Total posts 422
Well Air Canada isn't restart as daily either but yes, in the longer term, daily should be the goal and it makes a big difference, although there will be a lot of Qantas flyers who will always go with QF due to innate loyalty or the benefits of points & status, they will plan their itinerary around the QF schedule and maybe Qantas reckons there are enough of those people to make the 3x/week schedule solidly profitable but not a 7x/week schedule. I remember when Qantas used to fly the 747 to San Francisco, it was only maybe 4x/weekly for a long while but the plane was always packed because people would adjust their schedules to fit flying QF rather than United's daily service. Never underestimate the 'loyalty' of passengers to a home airline.
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 1429
It won’t be daily until the A380 comes back. It will share with SFO most probably.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Jun 2014
Total posts 209
Hopefully that can come as more B789's are delivered.
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