Emirates & Qantas Business Class: Christchurch to Melbourne at €375/NZ$655 (Oneway Fare)

Gulf carrier Emirates only has a single hub, Dubai, and made it to a top-10 airport in terms of traffic almost on its own. But the airline also operates some interesting fifth-freedom-flights around the world. These are always an opportunity to score some cheap premium tickets with a decent travel time.

For example, the carrier currently sells tickets from Christchurch, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia for just NZ$657 (~€364). Emirates will take you from New Zealand to Australia on their own Airbus A380 before Qantas takes over with their own business class to Melbourne.

Our availability calendar highlights all possible flight dates at the lowest price for trips up to 28 days. It will forward you to Emirates with your selected flight dates. You can also check what OTAs have to offer, as they sell these tickets up to €20 cheaper.

Emirates usually operates an Airbus A380 between Christchurch and Sydney. You might also see a Boeing 777 at the gate, with an identical business class product. After three hours in their business class, you will board a Qantas plane. We recommend choosing connection operated by an Airbus A330, as these planes also have a lie-flat business class. The flights operated by Boeing 737 aircraft only feature recliner seats. Please be aware that Qantas can swap planes at any time.

Search & Book

According to the fare rules, tickets are not bound to a sales period. There is fairly good availability from today all the way to March 2024.

You can find additional flight dates with the help of Google Flights. While you may find cheaper tickets with OTAs, we strongly recommend booking directly with the airline.

Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?

More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:

Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.

If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.

This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.

Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.

This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.

To get the best possible experience, make sure you select flights with Qantas Airbus A330 between Sydney and Melbourne. You can see the airplane type on Emirates’ website:

Mileage

Emirates issues tickets for all flight segments in booking class O. You can expect the following mileage for the first leg:

The last leg is a bit tricky, since Emirates marketed flights operated by Qantas are not credited by many airlines.

Cover Picture: © 2023 The Emirates Group