While it may sound like another revenue-generating “flight to nowhere“, this new concept conjured up by the brainiacs at Qantas goes against the trend. Imagine, you buy a plane ticket, you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know what you’re going to do at the location. All you’ve been told is what to bring and which airport to turn up at. It’s like Love Island meets Russian roulette with a far lower probability of getting shot down. Sounds exciting right?
The Qantas flights are due to go to three unknown, unannounced locations with a flight leaving Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, in that order. The kinky twist in Qantas’ itinerary is that these flights will land at three mystery destinations. Most “flights to nowhere” have been made possible during Covid due to the fact they did not land anywhere. Once at the mystery location, passengers will get involved in a day full of activities.
You could be sipping chardonnay amongst the grapevines of an award-winning vineyard, dipping your toes in the turquoise waters of a tropical island, or enjoying country hospitality at its finest. Whatever you end up doing, it will involve a scrumptious lunch. – Qantas stated.
Economy seats are retailing at A$737, and no, unfortunately I don’t think that Qantas have intentionally cracked as Boeing pun, fortunately, this fare is all-inclusive. For Qantas Frequent Flyers, the flight will fetch you 2,400 Qantas Points plus 40 Status Credits. You can fly in business too with the all-inclusive fare set at A$1,579 with 5,000 Qantas Points plus 80 Status Credits up for grabs.
Our new mystery flight adventures will offer a private charter Qantas B737 flight to and from the surprise location and a tailored itinerary on the ground to ensure you get the most out of your day trip. We’re working behind the scenes to create some truly wonderful experiences both on the ground and in the air. – Qantas said in a statement.
The adventure offers up plenty of value with exclusive merchandise, gift bags, inflight food and beverages as well as scenic flybys. On the ground, you will get to experience an activity that best showcases the destination, ready with a specially prepared lunch. While Qantas mentioned additional benefits for business passengers, they’ve been very vague about what these benefits are. This makes the additional A$848 a very questionable proposition.
While Qantas is intentionally building suspense around the mystery locations, they have hinted at what to roughly expect from each destination. In true reality-television style, the destination matchmakers have left clues as to what you will do at your destination. Choose the flight departing Brisbane for country hospitality, gourmet food and wine with Australia’s great outdoors as a backdrop. Opt for Sydney’s departure if saltwater on your skin, sunbathing in the tropics and lunching on the beach is more your style. Melbourne’s getaway involves a small hike in Australia’s wilderness, regional farmers markets and naturally, gourmet food and wine.
We last offered mystery flights back in the 1990s where passengers would arrive at the airport and be placed on a scheduled flight to any destination across the Qantas network.
While these mystery flights provide a great adventure to those partaking, it also allows out of work Qantas staff to return to work. The scheme also injects some tourism in regional areas of Australia that have been heavily impacted by the Covid19 pandemic. Another positive takeaway is that all mystery flights will operate with net-zero emissions. Qantas stated that 100% of carbon emissions will be offset.
