Qatar Airlines – Australia Dec 2025

[TaraCM]

Newbie here, trying to figure out how to get to Aus next Xmas along with a million other peeps I’m sure!

So far I’m thinking Qatar might be our best chance without long layovers to keep the connections easy.

Am I right in thinking that the chances of getting Business Class seats for x3 is near impossible? And if there are 2 available that the likeihood is that they will be double points because of the time of year? Is this the same for Economy?

Are the seats released 355 days in advance like BA?

Do I need to book outgoing and return separately to ensure we snag the reward flights even if we have to go for economy?

Any other tips or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, should I perhaps be considering other routes and carriers?

I appreciate the help, trying to wade through and create a plan is quite daunting!

[NorthernLass]

QR often release seats a full 12 months out, but not always, so you need to start tracking what’s appearing on their website. They will more than likely appear on QR before BA, so if you haven’t done already, make yourself a QR account and link it with your own (HHA’s don’t transfer, so you’d need to have enough avios of your own for the booking).

It’s very likely QR will want double points at this time of year. I would keep my options as wide open as possible!

You may well manage to get business class to DOH then need to change to economy for the rest of the journey.

[TaraCM]

That’s super helpful, thank you. Yes just looking it seems as though all school holiday times are double points required which makes it quite an expensive option in terms of points even for economy.

I might need to look at other routes, was considering London to Hong Kong BA on a 241 and points return and then onwards to OZ with Cathay but I can’t work out Cathay’s reward flight system – when I try and do a sample route it doesn’t look like they release their reward flights that far in advance?

I’d be open to other ideas!

[NorthernLass]

Have you done some cash fare comparisons for this year? I know Rob’s posted on here that cash fares to Oz can make more sense than redemptions – though this may not be the case over Christmas!

[Jess]

For next year they are currently booking up to November 16th so 360 days ahead. The date can show at double Avios for a couple of days but then appears to drop to the standard amount.

[phantomchickenz]

I flew to Melbourne last December, and will be looking to book Auckland for Dec 2025. Finding two seats in business is ‘probable’ if you time it right, and you’re also likely to get an extra one if you’re willing to pay the double Avios. We got four of us there for 90+90+180+180k. Or nab two seats for your companions, and pay cash yourself and get almost enough tier points for Silver status with BA.

Yes, outgoing and return are booked separately, but finding a return in early Jan (if that’s what you’re thinking) could be very difficult.

If you can’t find seats from Heathrow, try other departure locations. Birmingham, Brussels, Paris, or anywhere else that is relatively easy to get to (probably cheaper taxes too) – although it’s possible that if the DOH-Oz leg is fully booked then in that case changing departure location won’t help.

Best advice is to play around as much as you can in advance with dummy bookings to get a feel for how it all works, so you’re ready when the seats open up.

[phantomchickenz]

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[TaraCM]

phantomchickenz wrote:

I flew to Melbourne last December, and will be looking to book Auckland for Dec 2025. Finding two seats in business is ‘probable’ if you time it right, and you’re also likely to get an extra one if you’re willing to pay the double Avios. We got four of us there for 90+90+180+180k. Or nab two seats for your companions, and pay cash yourself and get almost enough tier points for Silver status with BA.

Yes, outgoing and return are booked separately, but finding a return in early Jan (if that’s what you’re thinking) could be very difficult.

If you can’t find seats from Heathrow, try other departure locations. Birmingham, Brussels, Paris, or anywhere else that is relatively easy to get to (probably cheaper taxes too) – although it’s possible that if the DOH-Oz leg is fully booked then in that case changing departure location won’t help.

Best advice is to play around as much as you can in advance with dummy bookings to get a feel for how it all works, so you’re ready when the seats open up.

This is really helpful, thank you, did you book your trip last year with Qatar or another airline? Did you fly back out of Melbourne same route?
That’s interesting re more seats coming up for double in BC, we could do that. I just don’t fancy paying double for all seats, particularly if we end up having to book economy.
Yes, I had thought about the return being tricky, it’s a bit of a risk but worst case senario we pay for the return and try and find a cheap deal!
I do wonder if it’s going to be a nightmare trying to book for Dec 25 given it’s the Ashes as well!

[NorthernLass]

If you haven’t flown QR economy before my best tip would be to get bulkhead/exit seats by whatever means you can. Loads of legroom – I felt they were easily the equivalent of BA PE, especially the window pair I managed to bag last year.

[TaraCM]

NorthernLass wrote:

If you haven’t flown QR economy before my best tip would be to get bulkhead/exit seats by whatever means you can. Loads of legroom – I felt they were easily the equivalent of BA PE, especially the window pair I managed to bag last year.

I’m 6ft so this is absolutely essential for me and would 100% pay the additional if we travel economy! My husband was super lucky last year when he travelled with Qantas in economy to Oz, he hadn’t booked a seat and was allocated bulkhead on arrival at the airport!
Do you know if the legroom seats are bookable with Qatar? The only other issue is travelling with a 9 year old and have a feeling kids aren’t able to book the exit seats due to safety…

[phantomchickenz]

We booked our redemptions directly with Qatar, under two separate bookings (the 90k seats when they first popped up, and the 180k ones a few weeks later when I concluded we weren’t going to get any more at 90k). We were then lucky enough to also choose seats such that the four of us had a Quad in the Qsuite from DOH-MEL, but not LHR-DOH (I sat with one child, mum sat with the other).

We paid cash for the return flight (from AKL) on Singapore (booked via Air NZ) as I couldn’t find any QR availability the first week of January. £10k for four people was a hit to the wallet, but I felt it was a good deal, particularly at that time of year.

[NorthernLass]

@TaraCM, you can select them as soon as you book the flight, you need to pay if you haven’t got the requisite status but I think it’s less than on BA.

You might be able to book 2 x window plus 2 x middle, certainly there was a family in the middle 4 on my DOH-MAN last year (there was a story behind that!), but one or more of those might not be available for pre-booking unless you’re using the bassinet.

QR app has 360 degree-style videos of its various cabins so you can see what the individual seats look like.

[phantomchickenz]

Managed to book two outbound redemption tickets to Melbourne in J (well, U) for 6th December 2025 today – more than the expected 355 days. A little frustrating that I got all the way through the process then failed at the payment stage. Then I remembered that having Avios in my BA account isn’t good enough, and they have to be moved into the Privilege Club account first.

That done, went to rebook… and the redemption seats were gone. D’oh! Or maybe they were still ‘held’ from my initial attempt? Fine, I’ll give it an hour and try again. D’oh! No dice.

Frustrated, I thought I’ll have to try again tomorrow for 7th December instead. But, I gave it another whirl at lunchtime, and voila! We’re off to Oz! Now I just need to hope that two more come available (expecting Flexi), and figure out how we’re going to get home.

So two key tips:
1. Ensure your Avios are moved over to Privilege Club first to avoid gremlins
2. If said gremlins appear, give it a good 3-4 hours before trying again.

[rams]

I’m trying for Aus mid-Dec 2015 for 3 of us (including 2 year old). From what I can see Melbourne is easier than Sydney. 2 seats are available at normal 90k rate but 3 are not. So it may be better to buy 2 and then get the 3rd separately. That presumes the 6th Dec availability is similar in a week or so’s time for 12th Dec departure.

[phantomchickenz]

Yes, only two seats available at a time, so nab them for one adult and child. Then in a few weeks (months?) hope that additional seats are released, but you’ll have to pay double Avios (flexi). Alternatively you’ll need to pay cash.

[dundj]

If you are not aware then next December is the Ashes so all flights from the UK to Australia will attract a premium over and above the normal December price points.

[LV2000]

rams wrote:

I’m trying for Aus mid-Dec 2015 for 3 of us (including 2 year old). From what I can see Melbourne is easier than Sydney. 2 seats are available at normal 90k rate but 3 are not. So it may be better to buy 2 and then get the 3rd separately. That presumes the 6th Dec availability is similar in a week or so’s time for 12th Dec departure.

I’ve just secured 2 seats to Australia from the UK but competition for redemption seats has definitely increased over the last day or two. Either that or a reduction in the number of avios seats being released. From previous years I know they’ve stopped releasing seats at 1x avios around the 12th but good luck.

[rams]

Looks like 2x90k seats to Aus were available all the way up to 13th. Not that it mattered for me as I’m locked out of BA and they don’t know what the issue is so can’t book any seats. Incredibly frustrating.

Luckily I have lots of MR points so hoping to book Singapore Airlines in next few days. Seems like they have 3 seats most days which is ideal. Hopefully BA account is fixed soon so can book Qatar return. Seems like JAL has some availability on dates too per my BA checks.

[Kuestrian]

Anyone know when the 2nd daily Virgin Australia-sourced flights will be available to book?

According to this QR press release they should have been bookable from 11th Dec but it’s still only showing one flight per day when trying to book:

https://www.qatarairways.com/press-releases/en-WW/245216-virgin-australia-flights-to-doha-on-sale-now

Or are they only bookable through the VA website, and therefore not available for reward seat bookings?

[phantomchickenz]

rams wrote:

Looks like 2x90k seats to Aus were available all the way up to 13th. Not that it mattered for me as I’m locked out of BA and they don’t know what the issue is so can’t book any seats. Incredibly frustrating.

Luckily I have lots of MR points so hoping to book Singapore Airlines in next few days. Seems like they have 3 seats most days which is ideal. Hopefully BA account is fixed soon so can book Qatar return. Seems like JAL has some availability on dates too per my BA checks.

Don’t use your BA account, book direct with Qatar.

Singapore only offer economy redemption seats to/from London.

[rams]

phantomchickenz wrote:

rams wrote:

Looks like 2x90k seats to Aus were available all the way up to 13th. Not that it mattered for me as I’m locked out of BA and they don’t know what the issue is so can’t book any seats. Incredibly frustrating.

Luckily I have lots of MR points so hoping to book Singapore Airlines in next few days. Seems like they have 3 seats most days which is ideal. Hopefully BA account is fixed soon so can book Qatar return. Seems like JAL has some availability on dates too per my BA checks.

Don’t use your BA account, book direct with Qatar.

Singapore only offer economy redemption seats to/from London.

unfortunately my Qatar account isn’t linked to BA and that’s where my miles are. My Ba account has had this issue for over 6 weeks and they’ve not bothered to look into it/slow to resolve.

On Singapore you can get business flights to Aus via Singapore all on business. Costs 130,500 points one way

[phantomchickenz]

That does sound annoying. Let us know how you get on with the SQ redemptions. How many are you trying to get? Interested to know if you need the Krisflyer points to enable searching, or you can look speculatively.

[rams]

phantomchickenz wrote:

That does sound annoying. Let us know how you get on with the SQ redemptions. How many are you trying to get? Interested to know if you need the Krisflyer points to enable searching, or you can look speculatively.

Can look speculatively. Just need a membership account. Got my 3 seats last night. 2 adults plus 1 kid leaving on Thurs 11th Dec

[Kuestrian]

Kuestrian wrote:

Anyone know when the 2nd daily Virgin Australia-sourced flights will be available to book?

According to this QR press release they should have been bookable from 11th Dec but it’s still only showing one flight per day when trying to book:

https://www.qatarairways.com/press-releases/en-WW/245216-virgin-australia-flights-to-doha-on-sale-now

Or are they only bookable through the VA website, and therefore not available for reward seat bookings?

I figured this one out – they ARE bookable through the Qatar Airways site but because they are listed as true VA flights they are only bookable up to T+330 and are not eligible for Avios redemptions.

[rams]

No seats from Sydney to London even in Economy in early Jan 26. Not seen that before