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

By David Flynn, October 4 2012
Qantas opens Dubai-London bookings ahead of Emirates tie-up

Qantas is putting the next stage of its historic hookup with Emirates in place this week as bookings for Sydney-Dubai-London (QF1/QF2) and Melbourne-Dubai-London (QF9/QF10) go online for travel from 31 March 2013.

The revised Kangaroo Route will hop over its traditional Singapore base, landing instead at Emirates middle-eastern hub.

Both flights will run on the Red Roo's flagship Airbus A380.

The daily QF1 will depart Sydney at 4.05pm, arriving into Dubai at 12.35am. After a 90 minute stopover, travellers will bid farewell to Dubai at 2.05am and hello to London at 6.35am.

Qantas says the Melbourne-Dubai-London QF9 flight will be wheels up from Melbourne at 3.30pm, landing in Dubai at 10.30pm, then begin the second leg of the journey at 1.10am to reach London at 5.40am.

Read: What the Qantas-Emirates alliance means for London and UK travel

Frankfurt stays until October 2013

Qantas has also revealed that it will retain its services to Frankfurt via Singapore to October 2013, as well as codesharing on British Airways flights from Singapore to London.

New flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Singapore are also being introduced – click here for all the details.

The revised timetable comes as the ACCC considers the proposed Qantas-Emirates partnership, which remains subject to regulatory approval.

In a statement issued to the media, Qantas said "today’s schedule changes do not involve coordination between the airlines and do not require ACCC approval."

"By releasing our schedules now, travellers can book their trips beyond March 2013 with confidence based on the new Qantas international route map" says Simon Hickey, CEO of Qantas International.

Qantas will start initial work with Emirates on its proposed partnership from today, following discussions with the ACCC and withdrawal of the airline’s request for interim authorisation. The ACCC is now considering the airlines’ substantive application for authorisation.

Qantas says it will will contact passengers whose existing bookings to Europe or the UK after 31 March 2013 are affected by these changes, and offer them alternative flights. Customers with bookings prior to this date are not impacted by the change.

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David

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.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer Plat

21 Apr 2011

Total posts 39

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

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

20 Nov 2011

Total posts 186

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.....

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

20 Nov 2011

Total posts 186

Just noticed the info on this post lol

17 Nov 2011

Total posts 27

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?

17 Oct 2011

Total posts 2

I'd suggest they won't. Part of the reason for the timings of these flights will be to ensure they don't compete with Emirates' flights out  of Australia. 

AT
AT

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

14 Sep 2012

Total posts 381

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.

AlG
AlG

04 Nov 2010

Total posts 670

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!

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

20 Nov 2011

Total posts 186

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

07 Oct 2012

Total posts 1251

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.

24 Oct 2010

Total posts 2559

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.


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