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Hello,
Pondering whether to fly from Sydney to Christchurch in Qantas business using avios. Is it worth it?
The flight is only about 3 hours and in Europe for a flight of this length I’d probably just fly Ryanair or easyJet.
The other options are cash tickets in economy with Air New Zealand or Emirates (who I’ve never flown with in any class).
Cheers
Up to you. Very personally subjective – and whether it’s “worth it” will of course depend on cash fares at the time. To be fair, I quite like using Avios on Qantas domestic because availability is generally good – you’re getting the flight you want rather than your behaviour being controlled by availability.
The majority of short haul Qantas flights have 2-2 recliner seats that are basically generic Premium Economy seats except less good than that (no IFE etc). There are a few A330s and even a 787 or two knocking round on domestic and short-haul international and they’re a whole different ball game and would definitely be “worth it” as they have international class lie-flat seats. Mainly found flying west to Perth I think, but have been known to pop up elsewhere. You’ll have to see what’s scheduled on your route – always with the proviso that plane swaps can and do happen.
Here’s a view of your different potential outcomes – big differences!
https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/qantas-business-seat-guide/
The in-air food on all Qantas short haul routes is dire in every cabin, so factor that in at zero value. The lounges on the other hand are reasonable from Qantas hubs; think a a bit nicer than BA Galleries with MASSIVELY better coffee.
My view…. I won’t pay extra for Club Europe either in cash or Avios. Sitting in the same seat as economy doesn’t do it for me.
Qantas – other than the really short flights, I’d happily pay the extra Avios for business (though not cash, which is usually eye-wateringly expensive). Lounges are fine, staff are very attentive and the seat is great (compared to economy or CE). I haven’t flown QF business for a while though so will take TSS’s word for the food, but last time I did go business, I thought the food was quite good. Maybe I’m just easy to please!
Flew an a330 up to Cairns from Sydney, on a business redemption via BA avios and it was definitely worth it. It was an international jet as had arrived in from one of the Asian cities before hoping up to Cairns.
Super comfy chairs that go in to lie flat and good food.
I flew this exact route on QF J recently.
The on-board food was pretty good. The QF J lounge was extremely crowded and not really a pleasant experience (but this depends on the timing of your flight), the CHC lounge was lovely.
I think it will almost always be a B737, as the trans-Tasman flights are operated by NZ crew. Priority benefits are not really required.
In the past when I was BA silver/gold I would never bother with CE redemptions as the only benefit of real value to me is lounge, however since my covid status extensions expired I have found it cheaper and more convenient to just pay the extra avios for CE than to bother with tier points.
In the case of my trip to CHC, avios J was actually cheaper than the cash Y price at the time I booked, and allowed me to take the sensibly-timed flights (which are obviously priced higher in $) at the same price as the 6am/midnight ones
I wanted to do this in the opposite direction, purely for the extra luggage allowance, but no business seats were available.
I can’t even pay for extra luggage in advance, as booked through BA (and the website tells me I can’t do this). Some of my luggage is medical equipment, so am planning on contacting them directly to try and get some guidance.
Have taken around a dozen flights over the last couple of years around Australia, NZ and across the Tasman. The best was Sounds Air – but very limited routes and seats! – followed by AirNZ and Jetstar. Qantas was the worst. Food. Forget it. If you can get a business seat, I would take it. We left it too late as there were only about 6 on the planes we took – they are US style. We always seemed to get the 737-max when we were down the back. They were much more tightly packed than Singapore Airlines and both seat pitch and width seemed much worse than BA! If you were sat in the window there was no gap between the window and the tiny armrest which you usually get on BA. We’re quite slim and felt squashed. If there were 3 larger people in the seats, it would have been very squashed. Three and a half hours across the Tasman on a full plane was awful – and it was not cheap. See if you can get one of the wide bodies to fit in with your schedule. As someone else has pointed out, if you are travelling at a busy time, the lounge is likely to be busier than Galleries T5! And all of our flights were late. They were also very strict on weight of hand baggage – handbag, coat, anything they could see got weighed with small carry on suitcase! Jetstar and AirNZ didn’t seem bothered.
We always seemed to get the 737-max when we were down the back.
Qantas doesn’t have the 737 MAX, it’s the 737-800
We always seemed to get the 737-max when we were down the back.
Qantas doesn’t have the 737 MAX, it’s the 737-800
It might not have been the Max. However if it were the Qantas 737-800 as you say, it is a plane I don’t ever wish to fly on again. 5 times in 18 months was 5 times too many.
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