Qantas’ Kangaroo Route from Sydney to London will once again feature the Airbus A380 from June 19, 2022 – which also means the return of first class on the nearly 24-hour trek.
And if you’re sitting on a stash of Qantas Points that’ve piled up during the not-flying-anywhere pandemic, the superjumbo’s return also represents arguably your best chance ever to snare a first-class Classic Flight Reward seat on the superjumbo.
That’s because the Boeing 787-9 was previously showing as QF1/QF2 through to the end of 2022, until the A380’s return was locked in.
Overnight, Qantas updated its schedule to show the A380 on that route, flooding the route with scores more seats, and notably those first-class suites.
Treat yourself (and a friend) to first class on the Qantas A380 from just 216,900 points.
Many of those are now open to a points-based Classic Flight Reward booking at just 216,900 Qantas Points.
You’ll still want to be a bit flexible with your travel dates, but the upshot is that you can land a Sydney-London first class return trip for around 433,000 points.
All of the returning red-tailed A380s will have been upgraded with the latest business class and premium economy seats, along with two new ‘premium lounges’ at the front of the upper deck and refreshed first class suites.
All of the returning Qantas superjumbos will have been refreshed with new business class suites and upper deck lounges areas.
London will be the second destination for the red-tailed superjumbo after it takes wing on the Sydney-Los Angeles route in late March 2022, with Qantas planning to turn both A380 routes into ‘points planes’ for a limited time, with every seat from economy to first class available for the lowest number of ‘classic reward’ frequent flyer points.
The airline put its double-decker jets into hibernation in California’s Mojave Desert in the early days of the pandemic, with the expectation that demand for international travel wouldn’t reach the pre-Covid levels needed to fill the 485-seat airliner until 2023-2024.
However, a surge of bookings as Australia’s borders reopens without quarantine for fully-vaccinated flyers has provided a shot in the arm for the superjumbo’s prospects.
Qantas now plans to have six A380s in its Sydney hangars by the end of next year, with four more slated to return to service by early 2024 – although the airline says two of the 12-strong superjumbo fleet will be retired “because they will be surplus to requirements.”
