Qantas upgrades Singapore – Perth route to an A330-200

Aircraft upgrade, frequency downgrade

From 23 July 2018, Qantas is reducing the frequency of its Perth – Singapore flights from 10 flights a week to 7 flights a week. However, to compensate for the reduced frequency, Qantas is upgrading the type of aircraft which will be deployed on the route from a Boeing 737-800 to an Airbus A330-200. This represents a huge upgrade for passengers in Business Class as the A330-200s from Qantas feature their flagship Business Suites product, offering a much superior hard product than the recliner seats which are found on the Boeing 737-800s.

Here’s the schedule for Qantas flights to Perth effective 23 July 2018:

• Singapore – Perth
  • QF72 (Daily)
  • DEP 1840 ARR 2355
• Perth – Singapore
  • QF71 (Daily)
  • DEP 1150 ARR 1720

Singapore Airlines has a flight departing to Perth at 6.45pm daily and that flight is operated by the brand new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft featuring their latest regional Business Class seat. With this change from Qantas, you’ll really be scratching your heads in deciding between Qantas and Singapore Airlines if you are looking at an evening departure to Perth. If you choose to fly on Qantas, you will have the privilege of enjoying the Qantas Singapore Lounge which has gotten rave reviews from the MileLion himself.

Redemption options

You can redeem flights on Qantas using miles from various frequent flyer programs. Here’s a list of frequent flyer programs which you can redeem your miles and points on using miles transferred from credit card partners in Singapore. Quoted mileage figures represent one-way journeys and return journeys cost twice the amount shown:

• Qantas Frequent Flyer:
  • 20,000 Qantas Points (Economy)
  • 50,000 Qantas Points (Business)
• Asia Miles:
  • 15,000 Asia Miles (Economy)
  • 30,000 Asia Miles (Business)
• British Airways Executive Club:
  • 12,500 Avios (Economy)
  • 37,500 Avios (Business)

Of the three programs highlighted above, The best option is actually Asia Miles if you are looking at a Business Class redemption and British Airways Executive Club if you are looking at Economy Class redemption awards.

Award availability is excellent at the moment with almost 9 award seats available for booking both ways based on ExpertFlyer (and if you want to know how to use these tools efficiently, check out the Power Award Search workshops) and this is doubly verified when searching with the British Airways search engine.

Concluding Thoughts

It’s great to see the Singapore – Perth route being serviced by the A330-200 featuring the Qantas Business Suites, this move will definitely provide travelers with more options (and headaches) in deciding which carrier to pick when flying to Western Australia. While several other blogs reported this as a temporary move due to staff shortages, I really hope this aircraft rotation to the A330-200 will stay on.

Which carrier would you pick for flights to Perth? 

[H/T : Routesonline]