Qantas have come to the party for fans of the northern winter holiday season and announced additional direct services Sydney-Vancouver during January 2015.
The airline is seeking to take advantage of the extra demand for the North American region at this time of year and grab back some of the market share lost to Air New Zealand across the Pacific in recent years. There’s a fair bit of competition going on at the moment with both QF and NZ recently announcing bulked-up flight schedules to Los Angeles also.
The extra flights to Vancouver are designed to provide non-stop easy access to Canada’s major ski resorts, with same day connections available from most Australian capitals (Darwin is the exception, although a very early start with Jetstar would achieve it) and flight times allowing travel to/from the ski resorts on the day of arrival into or departure from Vancouver. These flights will also work in well with Qantas’ new domestic partner WestJet who can offer connections through to Calgary and Edmonton.
As an added bonus, passengers who already hold tickets Sydney-Vancouver via Los Angeles or Dallas over this period of time will be able to alter their booking to the new direct service free of charge, a nice gesture of goodwill by the airline. If you’re looking forward to travelling on the A380 to Dallas though you may want to hold on to your original schedule. The extra Vancouver flights will run on Qantas’ Boeing 747 fleet with the standard three-cabin layout, reconfigured to include fully flat beds in Business Class and the most recent incarnation of the Economy and Premium Economy seating.