Today is the last day to score $200 tickets to Australia on Qantas
Update: Dallas/Ft. Worth fares are sold out. Thursday's deals will be available from Chicago to Brisbane starting at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The dates are 4/20, 4/22, 4/27, 4/29, 5/4, 5/6, 5/11, 5/13, 5/18, 5/20.
It's been a big year for Qantas, from two historic nonstop flights — New York to Sydney and London to Sydney — to the airline kicking off celebrations of 100 years since its founding. Now Qantas is announcing what could potentially be the best deal of the year, but you'll need a fast internet connection, quicker fingers -- and some blind luck -- to score.
From Monday, Nov. 18 to Thursday, Nov. 21, 100 economy tickets will be available at $100 each way when purchased as a round-trip. That's right — if you're lucky, you could score a ticket to Australia and back for $200. This is a big deal, as tickets to Australia from the U.S. aren't cheap.
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The sale will be available from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Chicago (ORD) with a new city going on sale each day at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The tickets will only be available on qantas.com/birthdaysale.
Los Angeles went on sale on Monday while San Francisco went on sale Tuesday; however many TPG staff, TPG Lounge Facebook members and readers reported that the site timed out shortly after 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Indeed, when I logged on at 5:02 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, I was immediately confronted with an error message. After trying for nearly an hour in vain with no luck, I gave up for the evening and resolved to try again another day.
Just before going to bed, however, a person in a Facebook travel group I frequent reported seeing Los Angeles to Melbourne deals on sale. I quickly navigated to the page, entered my information and payment, and snagged a $199 round-trip flight to Melbourne in early March. If you are interested in booking, I suggest not giving up until the Qantas page is updated to "sold out" as I was able to snag tickets even after reports said they were gone. Several readers said they got lucky by opening up the deal on multiple devices, such as a laptop, phone and tablet, so I'd suggest doing that if possible.
Qantas has provided updates on Twitter and Facebook. A Qantas spokesperson told TPG that it anticipated high traffic, and asked customers to "be patient during this time."
Qantas is the flagship carrier of Australia and the largest international airline coming in and out of the country. It flies to over 80 destinations around the world and is part of the Oneworld alliance. TPG Global News Editor Emily McNutt flew Qantas' economy between San Francisco and Sydney and had a comfortable experience.
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Fares will be released at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) with a new city on sale each day until all are sold out. If you miss out on this deal, the airline is offering reduced fares to Sydney, Melbourne (MEL) and Brisbane (BNE) from $699 round-trip in economy, $2,399 round-trip in premium economy and $4,599 round-trip in business class. These fares are pretty steep, so you'll want to try and score one of these fares.
Note that seats are very limited and are not available on every flight. There's a seven-day minimum stay requirement and a maximum stay of 12 months. While the ticket is refundable, there's a hefty cancellation fee of $500 per person per ticket, so if you do manage to score a ticket, make sure you actually want to go. Customers who purchase a ticket in the U.S. may cancel their reservations and refund tickets without charge within 24 hours of ticketing when the purchase is made one week or more before departure of the first flight in the itinerary. Date changes are permitted for a fee of $250 per person per change, and the no-show fee is $500 per person per ticket.
A 50-day advance purchase is required for Los Angeles and San Francisco departures, and for Dallas/Fort Worth and New York departures, a 14-day advance purchase is required. Some routings may include Qantas codeshare flights operated by American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
Chicago and Brisbane flights are operated on QF86/QF85 and begin April 15, 2020. San Francisco and Brisbane operated on QF60/QF59, begin Feb. 9, 2020. Finally, there are several blackout dates including March 20-April 15, 2020, June 17-July 11, 2020, and Sept. 11-28, 2020.
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