Denis Carlin

My brother lives in Adelaide and has both UK and Australian citizenship but only a UK Passport, unfortunately our dear dad has terminal cancer and my brother wants to come back to Scotland to spend some time with him before dad passes away.
My brother will stay for some months but is concerned about being stranded as he has a young family in Australia.
What would be better to help ensure his return?
1) Book one way flight to UK via Singapore and then a separate one-way ticket to return at the time (allowing flexibility of route and carrier).
2) Book return and keep changing the return date depending on dad's situation.

Thanks in advance for your help.

kiwifrequentflyer

From what I understand of Australia, you don't book an MIQ spot. Instead, airlines can only sell tickets if MIQ slots exist. So if you have a return flight, then you have an MIQ slot. So it would make sense to get one now. I hear it is very difficult to get home from Europe as an Australian as the flights book out, unlike in America where you can always secure a ticket home. You can always cancel it later if you need to and book elsewhere.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Sorry about your dad. I would suggest that your brother checks the requirements for leaving Australia with your dual citizenship.

Regards

Tbs

Denis Carlin

Thanks, he has already applied for his exemption to travel but I did just mention that he should check if worth getting his Aussie passport before leaving in case it's advantageous

gameover98

My suggestion is to book a one way ticket to the UK. When it's time to return, pray that the situation has improved (both for your father and covid) and book another one way ticket to Australia based on whatever is available then.

I'm an Australian PR based outside of Australia. We get weekly updates from the embassy about flight availability going into Australia, and as @kiwifrequentflyer mentioned, seats open up depending on available quota slots. It's easier to get a seat as an individual and SQ tends to have slightly better availability but tickets are typically about 2x more expensive pre-covid and that's not taking into account the A$3000 quarantine fee

Denis Carlin

Thanks very much, at the moment there are flights in a couple of weeks with SQ for about A$1000 which although expensive, isn't too obscene, just waiting for the exemption to be approved then he can book.

MSPeconomist

If it's possible to get an Aussie passport before leaving, he should do so. If this doesn't work, he should consider getting one from the Australian embassy in the UK and plan ahead to bring necessary documents with him. Even though he might not need to prove dual citizenship now for his travel plans, this could change at any time. In fact, having the second passport could give him more routing choices for the return (for instance, HKG if a travel corridor is established or the same for SIN depending on rules at the time of travel--SIN connections on this SQ route seem to be allowed now, but this could change without much warning).

Mwenenzi

AU citizens are supposed to leave and enter on an AU passport. But some do not. It will/may be hard to re enter AU on a foreign passport
To me best if applies for an AU passport now. He can apply for an urgent passport: just costs more
https://www.passports.gov.au/
https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/

People leaving AU for 3 months or more tend to get approved. With what has happened in the last few days it will be hard to get permission to leave AU for a short time. May have 20% chance of success at very best. Be prepared for refusal. For example a federal MP was denied access to attend her fathers funeral in USA a few weeks ago.

The cost of one way flights from AU and to AU are very different. For flights into AU the airlines effectively auction seats(= hotel quarantine) to the highest bidder. About ~30 pax per flight. Unlikely to change much this calendar year.. Book the flight as UK-AU all on one ticket, to any AU airport that has availability. SYD has been more reliable than and other airport/state. ADL has been OK. MEL & PER the worst for state imposed flight restrictions-suspensions. . Separate tickets UK-XXX and XXX-AU could/would be asking for trouble.

FT master thread--> Australia’s response to Covid-19 [general border control thread]

bensyd

Sorry to hear about your father.

This. If he says he is leaving for >3 months on compassionate grounds he stands his best chance of getting approved. Failing that, there is always using NZ as a gateway and travelling on from there. The government has said it may enforce penalties on people who do that, but people seem to be doing it anyway.

elizacat

This is correct. I am a dual passport holder - when travelling a few years ago I lost my passport in the US the embassy told me I could not enter Australia on my UK passport as I wouldn’t have a visa and as a citizen you can not apply for one.
in the current climate I would not risk leaving Australia without an Aussie passport.

Denis Carlin

Thanks everyone, his approval came though quickly, he's looking at the possibility of getting an Aussie Passport before leaving, if possible.

Mwenenzi

Was fortunate to get approval at this time. There is a 3 month window for departure from AU
Will need that AU passport. Will make it 100 times easier to re enter AU.

kangarooflyer88

But surely from anywhere on the planet it's easy to return to Australia? My argument is they should position themselves to where the capacity is for return flights to Australia (e.g. LAX for SYD or Middle East if you want to fly BA, BA-lite or BA-OW back to Australia).

-Roo

mikeyfly

It’s the daily limit of arriving passengers which is the issue, not where you started.

Also, not sure what you are taking about BA from Middle East?

kangarooflyer88

While Australia does impose a daily limit on the number of arriving Australians from abroad, operationally those spots are likely to be divided up (potentially equally) amongst the numerous international long haul flights coming in each and every day. For instance, I doubt Australia will say Qatar gets the the bulk of a quota for a given day to say SYD and UA has DL can only bring in a dozen each or something like that. So then we're back at the same issue as before, it will be a function of what the demand is for each of the flights compared to the available capacity. There may be some routes which may have lighter demand (e.g. LAX to SYD) given the three airlines that fly out of there (AA, DL and UA). Again, given you can identify those markets and can get to those destinations with the various ongoing travel restrictions it may make sense. Why bother waiting several weeks in the middle east to find a seat open up on Qatar or Emirates when there may be several seats available tomorrow on UA from LAX?

I refer to Emirates as Bling Air or BA. Similarly, Etihad which arguably is the lighter end version of Emirates is called BA-lite and Qatar which is part of OneWorld is called Bling Air OneWorld or BA-OW.

-Roo