Australians haven’t travelled long haul en masse since last March.
There is one place in Australia from which you can now fly a fair distance though: Perth.
Frequent flyer (and owner of Flight Hacks) Immanuel Debeer recently experienced this, taking advantage of the relatively new trans-Tasman travel bubble, and flying from Perth to Auckland.
This trip takes roughly 6 hours. The pointy end connoisseur took to Instagram recently to share what it was like.
“Not sure who let this guy on but it’s nice to be back! Flying Perth to Auckland NZ onboard the Air New Zealand B787 Dreamliner,” Debeer captioned the post.
“I booked this flight using Aegean Miles + Bonus miles (usually hard to find availability with Air NZ). A one way set me back 21,000 + $109 in taxes. You can also book this using Virgin Atlantic miles which is a steal at only 15,000 miles + taxes. Alternatively, business seats are currently on sale for just a smidge over AU$900 (one way) which is half of what it used to cost!”
“Looking forward to more travel bubbles this year.”
Image: Google Maps
“Hope you drank them dry,” one follower commented, in reference to an Instagram story Debeer has posted earlier, asking followers whether he should sleep or sink beverages.
“I’m always modest,” Debeer replied to the comment.
There was also an interesting discussion over the cabin’s unique business class design, which sees the seats sit at almost a 90-degree angle to the wall.
“This cabin layout though. Nothing I would look forward to fly to be very honest,” one Instagram user wrote.
“Used to be a ground breaking design… not so much these days,” Debeer replied.
Whatever your take on the layout of the plane, we can all agree this 6-hour flight is probably the longest flight most Australians will be taking this year (unless, of course, the Singapore travel bubble comes to fruition soon).
Though Qantas has stated it hopes to resume overseas flights from October 2021, and though some are taking this as an indication of when long haul travel will resume, it isn’t determinative.
Experts predict normal rates of air travel won’t return until 2023 or 2024 at least.
The Australian government has put a travel ban in place that prevents Australians from travelling overseas without an exemption. This ban is in place until June 2021 (though it may be extended).
The Department of Home Affairs has yet to give a firm timeline on when Australians will be able to travel freely overseas again.
Vaccination rates are likely to prove crucial to the process.
