Today both Qantas and Emirates have held a partnership update day and with this comes quite a few announcement and one of them is very surprising. Both of the airlines held an update back in May of this year and with that came the news that Emirates would discontinue it’s Sydney – Auckland flight with the A380 and would instead be replaced with more Qantas trans-tasman services and would instead be operated with A330 aircraft. That means a lot less seats and a lack of First Class which made a lot of people disappointed. Emirates often had amazing prices on First to and from Auckland which racked up status credits quite quickly.

Today the carriers announced that they have applied to extend their partnership until 2023 but the biggest news of today is that Emirates will be cutting it’s Brisbane and Melbourne – Auckland legs from March 2018. Fortunately, the Middle Eastern carrier will be keeping it’s Sydney – Christchurch flight with the A380.

Emirates A380 First Class

The carrier is cutting the trans-tasman flights to focus more on it’s long-haul flights from Dubai to Auckland. Emirates also stated that they are even looking at adding more flights from Dubai in the future, knowing Emirates, they probably will.

Due to Emirates pulling out, Qantas will be taking over these services. Qantas will be adding an extra seven services with A330’s and 737’s to and from Melbourne and will also be adding an extra two services to and from Brisbane.

On top of this, Emirates state that they will be changing their flight times from Australia to make connections in Dubai and beyond easier.

Qantas A330

Tickets for the new Qantas services will be on sale from Tomorrow onwards. If you’re booked on the Emirates services past March 2018 from Melbourne and Brisbane – Auckland, you’ll need to contact Qantas and they’ll either refund your booking if you’re in First or move you onto one of the Qantas services.