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British Airways and Qatar Airways plan a JV to Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth

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British Airways and Qatar Airways have submitted a request to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to form a joint venture on nine routes to Australia from the UK.

Sydney is NOT included – I think both airlines know that such a request would be thrown out as damaging to competition.  Instead, it will cover the following routes:

  • Adelaide – Manchester
  • Adelaide – London
  • Canberra – London
  • Melbourne – London
  • Melbourne – Edinburgh
  • Melbourne – Manchester
  • Perth – London
  • Perth – Edinburgh
  • Perth – Manchester

What is a little odd about this joint venture is that British Airways brings virtually nothing to the party EXCEPT for its brand.  Apart from the BA flight to Doha, every other flight in the joint venture will be operated by Qatar Airways.

At present, anyone looking to travel from London to Adelaide would be routed on British Airways to Sydney and then onto a Qantas codeshare.  British Airways believes it can make more money by filtering passengers onto a Qatar Airways flight in Doha.  As this is a joint venture, rather than just a codeshare, British Airways should make more money.

There would be very little obvious difference if the joint venture was approved.  There may be some retiming of flights so that connection times in Doha are minimised.  British Airways Executive Club status members would receive a tier bonus on the Qatar Airways service from Doha, which is not currently offered.  Apart from that ….. little changes.

This doesn’t mean that approval for the joint venture is a given, of course, since it reduces competition into the four Australian cities.  It may also raise questions over the future of the British Airways Sydney service, with many potential passengers planning to connect onwards now siphoned off via Doha instead.

You can find out more on the ACCC website here.

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

Comments (152)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Shoestring says:
    25 Jan25 January 08:50

    Does it add reward capacity? ie we know about the 4+2 g’tee on BA points bookings – so are there now/ in future more routes than before where this will apply?

    I’m thinking that currently the Edinburgh/ Manchester BA flights to Australia would all route through London and end up on the same plane to Singapore/ HK (I guess???)

    Whereas now the Edinburgh/ Manchester flights will be ‘direct’ (via Doha) in their own right, ie additional reward opps. Is that correct?

    • Nick says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:34

      No because BA does not guarantee seat availability on partner airline flights (and nor can they, because it’s not their decision!)

      • memesweeper says:
        25 Jan25 January 14:13

        Indeed … the best we can hope for is a reduction in demand on HKG/SIN/SYD and a corresponding increase in availability for rewards on those routes. Will be very modest at best I reckon.

    • Mikeact says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:41

      I certainly hope that more reward availability opens up , particularly Business. But somehow I doubt it, as Qantas members down under have exactly the same gripes coming this way…lack of availability even for Premium members.

  • BJ says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:01

    The key question is how much would it cost to stay two or more consecutive nights including one of these sale rates? Still a good deal though for those requiring only one night.

  • Bill says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:06

    Press reporting flybe need 100 m GBP loan to get through the next 9 weeks

  • Oliver Smith says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:14

    This is a really terrible article. Look at the iPhone comments and only one negative relates to the actual update (which is purely a change to layout and colours of the home screen). All the other comments relate to the fact other things are wrong with it.

    So surely you should be saying, “looks like BA is starting to sort out the iPhone”. Seems to me to be some classic BA bashing from Rob.

    • Rob says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:40

      There are some better examples I could have used, admittedly, but those above made up a nice square block 🙂

      • Ben Johnson says:
        25 Jan25 January 10:02

        In total, 8 comments about the update. Out of 28 reviews since Wednesday. Clearly some people don’t like it but seems like you’ve picked a position before looking at the information. Like so much in the modern media, this is all about the headline and not about the actual facts.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      25 Jan25 January 11:09

      People are resistant to change.

      Personally the new look in much better but it obviously hasn’t been implemented everywhere yet. The BA website has been offering to try out the new look for months but it’s pages here and there exactly like the app.

      BA seem to be taking the piece meal approach compared to Virgin big switch over, which gave us a terrible site so I think I’ll live with BA’s flip flopping for now.

      • MT says:
        25 Jan25 January 11:18

        I feel the new layout is messy and difficult to read, personally a step back. And some glaring bugs in there too, I wonder if they did any user testing before rolling it out?

      • memesweeper says:
        25 Jan25 January 14:18

        Never mind the layout, have they improved the user experience by keeping me logged in? Apparently not. Made it easier to search for standard or award flights? Nope. Enabled me to manage my booking fully in the app? Missed that opportunity too…. so a change to the *appearance* but no improvement in the *design*. Oh dear.

      • Alan says:
        26 Jan26 January 23:39

        I find the new layout pointlessly spaced out, with less information than the old one. On the app they appear to show your seat twice, which seems redundant too.

  • Matt says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:32

    OT: I want to upgrade the return leg of a flight from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow from WTP to Club using Avios. How do I work out the amount of Avios required?

    • Rob says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:34

      Difference between a one-way WTP redemption and a one-way Club redemption. Answer depends on whether it is peak or off peak (off peak costs more oddly).

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      25 Jan25 January 10:00

      Use the avios reward flights section in your account, find availability with WT+ & CW then deduct the difference in points.

      • Matt says:
        25 Jan25 January 10:26

        Thank you. I see what you mean – peak is 20000 and off peak is 24000!

        • TGLoyalty says:
          25 Jan25 January 11:10

          Yep plus the difference in taxes, fees and surcharges which is about £50 each when I last looked.

  • Zara says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:33

    OT: has anyone made a BA Best Price Guarantee claim and any success? Just wondering whether it’s worth the hassle as the hotel schemes are always a real pain and hardly ever return successfully. Many thanks.

    • Paul says:
      25 Jan25 January 09:50

      I have once with success. And based on speaking to someone else, you can expect a better success rate than hotels

      • Shoestring says:
        25 Jan25 January 09:56

        it’s worth the hassle as BA can’t get out of it the way the hotels do – A BA fare class is enough for them to do a comparison (and you can also do comparisons of a cheaper higher fare class (in the same cabin) available elsewhere vs the flight you bought with BA

        • Zara says:
          25 Jan25 January 10:40

          Thank you both

        • h2d says:
          25 Jan25 January 11:21

          I have multiple times and always a smooth and relatively painless process. Remember to take screenshots exactly as requested by BA I.e. with the final payment amount including CC fees, and err on the side of too many screenshots. In my experience BA are surprisingly responsive.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      25 Jan25 January 11:16

      I’ve had a very high success rate with Hilton BRG. You can even claim before you book.

  • KBuffett says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:37

    I managed to get my Revolut annual limit raised to £500k just after Christmas.
    Shame!

    • Benilyn says:
      25 Jan25 January 10:34

      Is that a limit you see on the app? I don’t know what my limit is, did you message them for it? And is that a spending limit?

      • KBuffett says:
        25 Jan25 January 20:01

        No, you can’t see it in the app. My account was restricted twice for moving large amounts of money (£15-30k).
        During my second ‘verification’ process, I showed them my cash balance (I have a big pile from the sale of a company) and argued they need to base it on my cash reserves and not income. I asked them for £500k PA and they agreed.

  • Jtz says:
    25 Jan25 January 09:52

    OT how do I find a timetable of flights from LCY ?
    When I use reward flight finder, some flights for say BCN show up but when searching on BA, they don’t.
    Thanks

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