Emirates vs. Qantas. What's nonstop worth to you?
 

I'm trying to decide between two flight options for next year. I'm flying from Sydney to Singapore.

The best two options:

SYD-SIN nonstop on Qantas $650 (USD)

SYD-MEL-SIN. Two hour layover in Melbourne, flight from MEL-SIN is on Emirates $420.

How is the service on Qantas vs. Emirates in economy? I've flown Qantas once, and thought it was a nice airline. How is the food on Emirates? The service?

I generally try to get nonstop flights whenever possible, but the cost savings is rather tempting, and I think the layover is long enough that baggage loss/delay is low risk (I hope).

Its not too bad on QF. This route will be serviced by a A330, the metal is 12-16 years old but the cabins have been updated. If you can stretch to J I would recommend QF hands down, their new J cabin is really great.

If you go via MEL you will have to change terminal, and since you've not mentioned status to gain lounge access (I'm assuming you don't have access), its just more time to spend money on overpriced airport amenities trying to alleviate boredom.

There isn't a huge difference in economy quality

Is $230 saving worth the extended journey time

The MCT in Melbourne is 60 minutes, so it is possible to get connection of 70 minutes. Leaving at 16:15 from SYD to get into SIN at 23:50 for a total of 10 hrs 35 mins. If extending to a 2 hour connection in Melbourne , that would bring it to 11 hrs 25 minutes

Non stop on Qantas would be 8hrs 25 minutes.

If just paying for myself, I would take the nonstop

I would avoid the 2 hour connection and get it down to 70 mins if choosing to go via MEL; enough time to connect but not so long as to be a tedious wait

I agree with the sentiments above. In economy the two airlines are similar. I would say the one distinct difference is the IFE which is far better on Emirates.

I would argue that in business Emirates is the better option because this route is serviced by an A380.

I definitely agree that EK's business class is much better than Qantas's but adding 35% to journey time whilst having to spend 90 minutes in domestic business class of Qantaas would not offset the better Emirates product for me - there would have to be a good cost saving

Depends on who you’re crediting the flights to. Qantas > Alaska 100% flown miles. Emirates 25-50% probably

That's a good point Dave

Even as a fan of Emirates I would take the QF non-stop option if facing this particular scenario.

(I'm not sure the business class comparisons are either relevant or helpful here, so I'll avoid them ! When someone states clearly at the outset that they are travelling in economy, it's invariably a clear-cut decision based on their budget for the trip, or simply personal spending priorities)

I initially leaned towards non-stop but given the times quoted by Dave I'd go Emirates. I general fly Economy and while I'll pay a small premium for EK and try shuffle and scavenge to make flying EK Work (My alternative usually being ET with longer flight times and no benefits due to lack of status).

However all things equal 230$ even for 3hrs longer translates to over 70$ an hour. In South Africa as an IT professional I can barely charge that (sadly software developers and associated project management in SA generally charge in the 35-60$ range/hr). The question whether you collect miles or status also factors in then, I'd say the savings swings it slightly towards EK, also if you look at the savings as a percentage of the overall Qantas ticket cost it's not insignificant. People jump through hoops for 10% off on a flight on here.

Thank you. I should mention that no matter what, I will be sitting around airports for a while. If I take the earlier departure at 2:30 on QF/EK I will spend time in MEL and not arrive until 11:50pm. With the nonstop on QF, at 3:55, I'll just have more time to sit around SYD but will arrive in SIN an hour and a half earlier at 10:15. I have no where else to go, disembarking a cruise that morning. I won't risk booking morning flight though as it will take time to get off the ship, get to SYD, and get checked in on an international flight.

Singapore Airlines has a nonstop option at 11:00 but it's a LOT more expensive and I think 11 might be cutting it too close.

Sadly, business class is not an option.

The frequent flyer miles issue is a good one to bring up though. QF is definitely a better option for me, if I can earn AA miles. That's what I'm leaning towards now, after reading all your responses. I wonder what the odds are of the price coming down in the next few months.

Do you want to spend an extra 3 hours travelling and save $230? if yes, go for it

AA FF mileage earning is available on QF flight numbers but not on EK flight numbers

The base AA FF miles earned are likely to be at 25% earning though, so with an earning of 977 base miles, I wouldn't treat that value as making a difference of value

If inflight entertainment is important to you, I think the Emirates option is better, even though there is a connection involved. You get a huge screen and a lot more movie and TV options compared to Qantas.

But if you are not too bothered about IFE, being in SIN on time is important to you and you don't want to risk missing the connection, then go for QF.

For the EK flight the entertainment is better - however to ge the entertainment for the 7.5 hours, it is necessary to spend over 1.5 hours on an aeroplane with very little entertainment pus 2 hours in an airport with no entertainment

I wouldn't class the QF entertainment as so poor as to make that a great benefit.

I also would not say that EK's video screens are much larger than Qantas's in economy - doing searches on it, they both seem to be 10.6"

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I am in almost the same situation. I have to fly MEL-SIN next month and trying to choose between QF, EK and SQ in economy. SQ is about 50% more expensive but QF and EK are almost the same price. Is there a noticeable difference in Economy between QF A330 and EK 777-300ER?

I'd probably do QF in this case. 8 across rather than 10 will be more comfortable.