Qantas opens Dubai-London bookings ahead of Emirates tie-up

Does anyone know if this will include redemption tickets with QF FF Points?

I noticed on the QF press release info about Frankfurt being extended to October 2013....interesting, will it re-rout through Dubai? And if so maybe the EK traffic they could pick up will save the route? Interesting development for a route loosing $50 million a yr.....

I'm not too clued in on Emirates schedule for flights from Dubai to Europe, but my understanding is that most don't leave until around 9am in the morning, at best.

This would mean a frustratingly long overnight layover if wishing to travel QF to Dubai, and then EK onwards to Europe.

Is it likely that there will be further QF flights direct and terminating in Dubai added to the schedule at a later date, to better tie in with connecting EK flights?

Given the new schedule times of QF through Dubai, you would likely NOT choose Qantas to Europe continent destinations (codeshares) northbound because of the overnight layover, unless you deliberately wanted a stopover in Dubai. By comparison EK-EK in Dubai transfers are seamless with about 2 hours. The extended layover in Dubai with QF is so significant (about 8 hours overnight) that it's bizarre given the whole codeshare concept of better coverage to Europe.

Well those timings don't look bad at all, but I'll be more interested in how the connections to other European destinations fall, there might be some long layovers there!

I would suggest that these times, as per the previous Kangaroo Route via SIN, are determined by QFs current landing slots at LHR... I would also suggest that once more details of the code share and alliance become available we may see adjustments go times.  The current scheduling suggests preparation is being made, and I bet if you book a QF flight to say Copenhagen u will prob still go through LHR and onwards with BA at this stage

Looking at the EK timetable, there are only a handful of European destinations accessible with less than a 4 hour Dubai layover from the QF flight from Sydney (worse for Melbourne flight) -off my memory it includes Paris, Manchester, Gatwick & Frankfurt. Otherwise, as has been mentioned, the majority of EK Euro flights leave  in the morning around  8-9am.

I'll guess that you'll be able to fly to DXB from Aus on the better-times EK metal with a QF ticket if you are seeking destinations that have a long layover. The alternative is that EK will retime some European flights... some minor changes are possible (and I think we'll see some minor tweaking), but big changes to open up the major european network would be unlikely.

I'd suggest that the main reason to catch these QF A380 flights would be to go all the way through to London.

If you're after an onwards flight from Dubai to anywhere else in Europe, you'd be more likely to catch an Emirates flight (booked as a QF codeshare so you earn status credits as well as frequent flyer points) from any Aussie city, to give you a shorter transit time (and at a better time of the day) for the second leg of your journey.