Visit Australia Pass
 

Has anyone booked this pass recently?

http://www.emirates.com/ca/English/d...alia_pass.aspx

I've called EK 4 different times including the UAE call centre asking for information about this pass and no agent could help me. Lots of being put on hold though.

I know that Virgin Australia recently changed their domestic premium economy to domestic business class, so I want to know if the premium economy pricing on their website is actually for business class now, or if the prices have changed because it's a better product now.

I called Virgin Australia on the slim chance that they might know something, but they referred me to EK because they're the ones selling the tickets.

I don't understand why no one at EK reservations knows anything about the pass despite it being featured on the front page of their website.

Given that the booking classes are different, I would doubt that the Premium Economy rates would be usable except on any of the routes still offering premium economy

http://www.virginblueairpass.com might help you with your booking queries

Dave

The rates shown on the EK website are still valid.
I suggest you call EK in Australia (I know it sounds weird, but that's where I called and got this organised for a colleague who had a ticket originating in DXB).
PE or Business makes no difference to EK, the booking classes are changed internally as I'm told.

I would have been surprised if they now allow business at the PE rate given that on the table on the website, the rate where business is offered rather than PE is significantly more than the others

zone 4 - Economy $175, Premium Economy $350
zone 5 - Economy $175, Business $930

Assuming not in Australia, I would try the virgin website 1st and see what it says the prices are as a starting point

The OP is referring to EVAP (Emirates Visit Australia Pass) as opposed to the Virgin Blue Air Pass. Last time I spoke to EK about the evap (it was through an email to a local EK office staff) I was told these fares are correct to the end of the promotion (31 March 2012). I was also told that this year the promotion will be most likely terminated but if it continues there will be a revision of the zones/fares.

Fair enough; I had made an assumption that it was just a rebadge of the same fare

The EK fares quoted do specify premium economy rather than business class for all routes other than zoine 5; if they are still valid fares but usable in business I would be surprised though would make extremely good value offerings and worth nabbing

Dave

The airpass website only sells economy tickets, is still more expensive than what EK offers, allows 3-8 sectors vs 2-4 for EK, and 23 kg baggage vs. 30 kg for EK.

Good idea, I'll try calling an EK Australian office. For now I've left it with a TA here in Canada to see what she comes up with. I've Googled this pass and it seems to have been offered in previous years. MEL-CNS in domestic business is going for $1099 AUD one way, so if EK is offering the same seat for $350 USD, it's a steal. Do you know if O class in the old premium economy now maps to new business?

This is the only official info I can find, but it's from last year: http://www.hot-travel.de/EK-Australien

I just want to post an update in case someone comes across this post in the future.

I went to 4 travel agents here in Canada and none were able to help me. Maybe the commission is really low compared to the amount of work required. Anyway, I still couldn't find direct phone numbers to a local EK office either in Canada or Australia, so I called the 1-800 reservations number again. This time the agent put me on hold for about 5 min when I asked to get the pass, but she came back and was able to do it.

I wanted SIN-MEL-CNS-SYD-BNE-SIN, and at first I was told that MEL-CNS was not a valid sector. I pointed out that it was in Zone 4 listed as CNS-MEL (alphabetically), she was able to find it, thanked me, apologized, looked up the flight, then said there are no seats available either in economy or premium/business. I don't understand why because there are still tickets available on DJ's website at normal prices (including the airpass site). I changed the routing to SIN-MEL-SYD-CNS-BNE-SIN instead. The EVAP sector pricing was in USD, but since SIN-AUS is priced in SGD, the sector pricing was converted to SGD and added together with the EK price. Came to $1197.10 SGD which is what I was expecting. I asked the agent to also price out if I had the SYD-CNS segment in premium/business. It's supposed to be $130 USD more, but the total price became $1800 SGD something so I'm not sure that premium pricing on EK.com is still accurate. I declined and kept it in Y all the way. I was sent an itinerary by email to look over and confirm. It took another 20-25 minutes to finish up the ticket as it had to be done manually, the whole call took about 75 minutes.

In the end this trip cost $150 SGD less than QF, QF doesn't fly overnight from Australia to Asia so EK is better for me based on schedule, 30 kg baggage on EK is better than 23 kg on QF, and all my DJ flights will be on new 738s :)

I flew SIN-MEL-SYD-DRW-ASP-MEL-SIN the other day and told the SIN based travel agent that I would prefer DJ but in the end - the schedule didnt work for me. Yes, yes, I could have flown SIN-DRW direct on Jetstar but I had such a bad experience last time I did this, I needed a good lie down and a wash in Vodka. Vowed never to do it again. Too old and too grumpy.

Anyway, this booking was combined where my QF domestic sectors were available to view via EK.com - but the funny thing was that I couldnt use online booking on any of the QF sectors (via QF's mobile site or normal site). To be honest, it was a dogs breakfast and I will never let the agent combine the bookings again. It was also horendously expensive.

When I was searching online for available options on EK.com, the system was always displaying QF as the domestic option (rather than DJ) which I thought weird.