Flights booked - quick Qus

[LandM]

Hi there PIO

We have our visa and travel exemption- and flights booked. 
we fly London to AbuDhabi, then on to Melbourne. And finally on to Sydney. All with Etihad. 
 

my questions- if anyone can help:

 

1. do my 3 and 6 year old need a PCR test before we depart?

2. where will we quarantine? If Melbourne, we won’t be able to make that last flight. Luckily we can move the date of it I think for a small-ish fee. 
 

3. if you have been bumped from flights - how much notice do they give? (We are in economy )

 

thanks all!!! See you soon (hopefully!)

[DrDougster]

1 hour ago, LandM said:

Hi there PIO

We have our visa and travel exemption- and flights booked. 
we fly London to AbuDhabi, then on to Melbourne. And finally on to Sydney. All with Etihad. 
 

my questions- if anyone can help:

 

1. do my 3 and 6 year old need a PCR test before we depart?

2. where will we quarantine? If Melbourne, we won’t be able to make that last flight. Luckily we can move the date of it I think for a small-ish fee. 
 

3. if you have been bumped from flights - how much notice do they give? (We are in economy )

 

thanks all!!! See you soon (hopefully!)

At the present time, unfortunately you have probably just invested in Etihad with 0% interest. Tumultuous times for flying in at the moment.

[welljock]

2 hours ago, LandM said:

Hi there PIO

We have our visa and travel exemption- and flights booked. 
we fly London to AbuDhabi, then on to Melbourne. And finally on to Sydney. All with Etihad. 
 

my questions- if anyone can help:

 

1. do my 3 and 6 year old need a PCR test before we depart?

2. where will we quarantine? If Melbourne, we won’t be able to make that last flight. Luckily we can move the date of it I think for a small-ish fee. 
 

3. if you have been bumped from flights - how much notice do they give? (We are in economy )

 

thanks all!!! See you soon (hopefully!)

In answer to that question, you quarantine in the location you land, so it would be Melbourne. 

To get to the other city you have to go through customs and immigration, wander through a terminal building to a domestic terminal (which may even be in a different part of the airport), maybe waiting a few hours to get the connection, probably having something to eat or drink meaning no masks, touching lots of surfaces etc, all without tracking. It would be madness to allow this. 

[rtritudr]

3 hours ago, LandM said:

1. do my 3 and 6 year old need a PCR test before we depart?

2. where will we quarantine? If Melbourne, we won’t be able to make that last flight. Luckily we can move the date of it I think for a small-ish fee. 
 

3. if you have been bumped from flights - how much notice do they give? (We are in economy )

1. The 6-year-old needs a test while the 3-year-old doesn't.

https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-restrictions/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-international-travellers/coronavirus-covid-19-faqs-international-travellers-to-australia

Pre-departure test exemptions

Are there any exemptions from the pre-departure testing requirements?

Yes. Exemptions from the pre-departure testing requirements are listed below:

Pre-departure testing exemptions

1. Children aged under 5 years (4 years and younger) at the time of check-in for the scheduled flight departure

2. You will quarantine in Melbourne.

[rammygirl]

You should not have been sold a through ticket  to Sydney. You will be required to clear customs and quarantine in Melbourne.

[Jon the Hat]

When are your flights?  People who booked months ago are currently getting bumped, so I am surprised they sold you a ticket if this is in 2021. Or maybe I'm not, I think Eithad are one of the airlines who are only rolling the caps forward a month or two (up to the next Government review date).  I wouldn't get too excited to be honest.  We booked with Qatar for September cheap and shifted to Singapore airlines fully flexible Y code Economy on the basis they were booking to the caps, but now the caps halved we only have a 50% chance of getting on the flight.

[Ausvisitor]

Ultimately airline decisions on who to let on and who not to when it comes to bumping passengers are a balck art. It won't matter if you booked ages ago or the day before, it doesn't even really matter what you paid, they look for many factors and then make informed decisions.

You can't predict someone will or won;t make the flight based on the experience others have had as it won't be the same load manager making the decisions for all flights.

To the OP, you've done all you can, you've booked your flight, you are now "in the wind" hoping that it goes to plan, don't stress too much about that as there is absolutely nothing you can do to influence it over and above what you already have (I suppose you could upgrade to Biz seats, but that would add about 25K to the cost and only a marginal increase in the overall likelihood that you go)

[psuwara]

On 07/07/2021 at 00:41, LandM said:

Hi there PIO

We have our visa and travel exemption- and flights booked. 
we fly London to AbuDhabi, then on to Melbourne. And finally on to Sydney. All with Etihad. 
 

my questions- if anyone can help:

 

1. do my 3 and 6 year old need a PCR test before we depart?

2. where will we quarantine? If Melbourne, we won’t be able to make that last flight. Luckily we can move the date of it I think for a small-ish fee. 
 

3. if you have been bumped from flights - how much notice do they give? (We are in economy )

 

thanks all!!! See you soon (hopefully!)

Regarding Question 3

If you bought your ticket this week, after the announcement of the caps. Etihad has adjusted all of their flights accordingly. I would say at this stage, your are highly likely to arrive.

The problem would have been if you bought your ticket last week, with your ticket being for a flight during the July 14-August 31 period, that you would have had issues.

Etihad has made it clear they have capacity and are flying to Australia at this stage, with reduced flights and intake. However, everything you see scheduled will likely happen.

I haven't seen 1 flight cancellation on flight tracker flights coming from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne.

You can see flight results here : http://flightstats.com

Also, given the time period, people will have 2+ weeks of notice.

Etihad have done well with this one. I cannot comment on other carriers, except I have heard that Qatar will likely drop most, if not all flights. They are too focused on the World Cup at this stage to be concerned with Australia.

 

 

[psuwara]

On 07/07/2021 at 10:17, rammygirl said:

You should not have been sold a through ticket  to Sydney. You will be required to clear customs and quarantine in Melbourne.

It's likely you will end up in Sydney then have on-ward tickets after Quarantine.

But check with Etihad about this. There could be connecting flights for international arrivals going to Melbourne.

[Nemesis]

2 hours ago, psuwara said:

It's likely you will end up in Sydney then have on-ward tickets after Quarantine.

But check with Etihad about this. There could be connecting flights for international arrivals going to Melbourne.

The OP is flying into Melbourne, and will need to quarantine there. People can't board connecting flights to other parts of Australia until they have completed quarantine. 

[Jon the Hat]

3 hours ago, psuwara said:

Regarding Question 3

If you bought your ticket this week, after the announcement of the caps. Etihad has adjusted all of their flights accordingly. I would say at this stage, your are highly likely to arrive.

The problem would have been if you bought your ticket last week, with your ticket being for a flight during the July 14-August 31 period, that you would have had issues.

Etihad has made it clear they have capacity and are flying to Australia at this stage, with reduced flights and intake. However, everything you see scheduled will likely happen.

I haven't seen 1 flight cancellation on flight tracker flights coming from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne.

You can see flight results here : http://flightstats.com

Also, given the time period, people will have 2+ weeks of notice.

Etihad have done well with this one. I cannot comment on other carriers, except I have heard that Qatar will likely drop most, if not all flights. They are too focused on the World Cup at this stage to be concerned with Australia.

 

 

You won't see the flights cancelled, because they are mainly still flying only without passengers only with cargo.

I find it hard to believe given Etihad will have reduced numbers that they have capacity, but as you say, they may have booked just before the cap reduction and got lucky - someone has to!

Edited July 8, 2021 by Jon the Hat

[Mcguinnessp1968]

OP I wouldn’t be in any hurry to get up to Sydney at the moment

[psuwara]

6 hours ago, Mcguinnessp1968 said:

OP I wouldn’t be in any hurry to get up to Sydney at the moment

Better than Russia.   They did the EURO Cup with 26,000 per stadium as cases rocketed, then after the EURO cup finished, oh, no more than 75 people in one place. $$$ .

Very few people here in Russia trust the vaccine and only now, even in our small group of extended family and friends, are people thinking it's a good idea to vaccinate, given I got the Sputnik 5 vaccine (Similar to the AstraZeneca in design) and didn't die.

[mt9754]

On 08/07/2021 at 21:54, Nemesis said:

The OP is flying into Melbourne, and will need to quarantine there. People can't board connecting flights to other parts of Australia until they have completed quarantine. 

It really depends on the Etihad flight.  If it’s the same flight number the whole way there and you don’t have to get off the plane at Melbourne (with no domestic travellers boarding in Melbourne) then you may be able to quarantine in Sydney.  Singapore Air and a few others have some flight routes like this.

If the flight is separate and you have to disembark in Melbourne then you will definitely have to quarantine in Melbourne and will miss your Sydney flight by around 14 days as rules currently stand.

 

[BeauVinyl]

On 07/07/2021 at 09:09, Jon the Hat said:

When are your flights?  People who booked months ago are currently getting bumped, so I am surprised they sold you a ticket if this is in 2021. Or maybe I'm not, I think Eithad are one of the airlines who are only rolling the caps forward a month or two (up to the next Government review date).  I wouldn't get too excited to be honest.  We booked with Qatar for September cheap and shifted to Singapore airlines fully flexible Y code Economy on the basis they were booking to the caps, but now the caps halved we only have a 50% chance of getting on the flight.

Hi Jon, I have been onto Travel Centre regarding our Singapore flights just now. They tell me that, at present, Singapore never had their planes 100% full anyway for flights in case of unforeseen events (how on earth Singapore knew this is beyond me), we booked to go to Adelaide, and we fly via Singapore. Our flight is booked for the 10th of August, landing in Adelaide on the 13th (a Friday). I have been told just now that we are currently on this flight to Singapore and onto Adelaide although the flight from Singapore to Adelaide has 29 passengers on it and we are four of them. We are currently in Economy so we hope not to get bumped / cancelled and as positive news as it is we are still very nervous about it as the Flight Centre person also told me that they can cancel up to 2-3 days before you fly. I won’t relax until I’m on that Singapore - Adelaide flight. We booked the flight 6 weeks ago and then had to change the flight as Singapore changed flights 3 weeks ago so we hope that as we’ve been messed about with already, they’ll take pity on us.

 

[Jon the Hat]

17 hours ago, BeauVinyl said:

Hi Jon, I have been onto Travel Centre regarding our Singapore flights just now. They tell me that, at present, Singapore never had their planes 100% full anyway for flights in case of unforeseen events (how on earth Singapore knew this is beyond me), we booked to go to Adelaide, and we fly via Singapore. Our flight is booked for the 10th of August, landing in Adelaide on the 13th (a Friday). I have been told just now that we are currently on this flight to Singapore and onto Adelaide although the flight from Singapore to Adelaide has 29 passengers on it and we are four of them. We are currently in Economy so we hope not to get bumped / cancelled and as positive news as it is we are still very nervous about it as the Flight Centre person also told me that they can cancel up to 2-3 days before you fly. I won’t relax until I’m on that Singapore - Adelaide flight. We booked the flight 6 weeks ago and then had to change the flight as Singapore changed flights 3 weeks ago so we hope that as we’ve been messed about with already, they’ll take pity on us.

You can check your flight on the SIA schedule.  Looks like the below at the moment.

[BeauVinyl]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

You can check your flight on the SIA schedule.  Looks like the below at the moment.

Thanks for this Jon, I have the app and refresh it 10/15 times a day.

[Jon the Hat]

Just now, BeauVinyl said:

Thanks for this Jon, I have the app and refresh it 10/15 times a day.

Join the club!!   I think if you are in August and it is there now you have a decent chance!  I am banking on the fact that the flight we have in September SQ223 is the one that continues daily into perth in July / August.  Fingers crossed.  It wont stop me booking a DFAT flight if I can get one as backup.

[BeauVinyl]

4 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Join the club!!   I think if you are in August and it is there now you have a decent chance!  I am banking on the fact that the flight we have in September SQ223 is the one that continues daily into perth in July / August.  Fingers crossed.  It wont stop me booking a DFAT flight if I can get one as backup.

My feeling is that the closer you are to your flight date the better chance you have of flying but I have been told of people being cancelled the day before their flight, so it really is cutting it fine. The DFAT flights look good to go for but reading about the quarantine centre in Darwin (Howard Springs) I am not too sure I would want to put my two kids through that, the stories I have seen are worrying. I do hope that our flights to Adelaide and Perth both go ahead. Another thing I was told by the Flight Centre was how amazed they were that Scott Morrison only gave the airlines a week to sort out the halving of the already minimalised cap. The told me that if they only gave a weeks’ notice on that then they may only give a weeks’ notice on relaxing it or tightening it further, it is bananas.

[Jon the Hat]

6 minutes ago, BeauVinyl said:

My feeling is that the closer you are to your flight date the better chance you have of flying but I have been told of people being cancelled the day before their flight, so it really is cutting it fine. The DFAT flights look good to go for but reading about the quarantine centre in Darwin (Howard Springs) I am not too sure I would want to put my two kids through that, the stories I have seen are worrying. I do hope that our flights to Adelaide and Perth both go ahead. Another thing I was told by the Flight Centre was how amazed they were that Scott Morrison only gave the airlines a week to sort out the halving of the already minimalised cap. The told me that if they only gave a weeks’ notice on that then they may only give a weeks’ notice on relaxing it or tightening it further, it is bananas.

 

Yes Howard Springs doesn't look great.  Not that keen on 12 and 8 years old having their own rooms with outside access.  I can well image the 8 year old going exploring for a start.  Unfortunately we might not have a choice, I finish up work at the end of August.

[BeauVinyl]

1 minute ago, Jon the Hat said:

Yes Howard Springs doesn't look great.  Not that keen on 12 and 8 years old having their own rooms with outside access.  I can well image the 8 year old going exploring for a start.  Unfortunately we might not have a choice, I finish up work at the end of August.

Yeah, totally agree, I have a 12- and 9-year-old and they are both 'explorers'. I finish my job on the 6^th August, we are living with my parents at present and the kids finish school next week. If we don’t get out there this year we’ll knock the idea on the head due to my age, time taken and jobs etc…

[Craig Colas]

We booked our flights last week, £4,500 for 4 of us for November the 8th. Late morning flight from Heathrow with Singapore. Looking at the flights now, most of those flights on some days around that date are now gone, but some are still available and the price on the same day as us is now £16,000. Has me a bit worried that we booked at the right time but very likely will get bumped off if someone is willing to pay that for an economy flight. 

I wonder if they have just put those prices up on the off chance someone is willing to pay that and just remove the ones that paid less just to make more money. Has anyone else seen their flight times price sky rocket and then be bumped off?

[BeauVinyl]

53 minutes ago, Craig Colas said:

We booked our flights last week, £4,500 for 4 of us for November the 8th. Late morning flight from Heathrow with Singapore. Looking at the flights now, most of those flights on some days around that date are now gone, but some are still available and the price on the same day as us is now £16,000. Has me a bit worried that we booked at the right time but very likely will get bumped off if someone is willing to pay that for an economy flight. 

I wonder if they have just put those prices up on the off chance someone is willing to pay that and just remove the ones that paid less just to make more money. Has anyone else seen their flight times price sky rocket and then be bumped off?

Hi Craig, what what I've read I think you could be correct in thinking that if someone were to come along and pay £16,000 for those seats you'll get bumped, it's the same fear I have with us. We fly on the 10th August on the same route as you but our seats, for four of us, cost £3,600. Currently we are 4 of 28 people on that plane from Sinigapore to Adelaide but money talks and if someone wanted to get out desperately and they had the £££ we'd be bumped / cancelled. It's all up in the air still. Good luck to you and yours though, hope you get over.

[Craig Colas]

2 hours ago, BeauVinyl said:

Hi Craig, what what I've read I think you could be correct in thinking that if someone were to come along and pay £16,000 for those seats you'll get bumped, it's the same fear I have with us. We fly on the 10th August on the same route as you but our seats, for four of us, cost £3,600. Currently we are 4 of 28 people on that plane from Sinigapore to Adelaide but money talks and if someone wanted to get out desperately and they had the £££ we'd be bumped / cancelled. It's all up in the air still. Good luck to you and yours though, hope you get over.

Yes I think you are right. Good luck to you too, we move out next month into my parents for a couple of weeks as we are renting our house out and our stuff is being shipped end of next month as well. So will be here with nothing basically waiting to go. Hopefully it all works out in the end for us all!

[Canbush]

On 15/07/2021 at 16:19, Jon the Hat said:

Yes Howard Springs doesn't look great.  Not that keen on 12 and 8 years old having their own rooms with outside access.  I can well image the 8 year old going exploring for a start.  Unfortunately we might not have a choice, I finish up work at the end of August.

There were several families around us with young children but we never saw a problem.  The huts are partitioned into fenced sections so children can’t wander too far.  The WiFi was decent enough, and each hut has a TV.  The camp also has guards wandering through regularly keeping an eye on everything.  I’m sure problems do occur, but we saw nothing in our two weeks and had families with toddlers to teenagers in our hut group.