Though the Airbus A380 might have vanished from many airlines during COVID-19, happily Emirates isn’t one of them. The Dubai-based carrier has long been the biggest operator of the superjumbo, even during the pandemic.
And with Australia’s international borders fully open from 21 February 2022, Emirates is kicking things up a notch with daily A380 flights to Brisbane from 1 March 2022. The airline also previously announced daily A380 services to Melbourne and a double-daily connection to Sydney.
These resplendent double-decker jets are outfitted with 14 First Class Suites and 76 lie-flat Business Class seats on the upper deck, plus 426 Economy Class seats on the main deck. If you’re looking to put your points to good use, all cabins are bookable with Qantas Points as reward seats.
Emirates A380 Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane schedule in 2022
With New South Wales and Victoria open for international travel, Sydney and Melbourne are the first two cities to welcome back the Airbus A380. Brisbane joins that list from 1 March 2022. Here are the details of the current A380 flights (all times are local):
| Route | Departure | Arrival |
| EK412 Dubai-Sydney EK413 Sydney-Dubai | 10:15 am from DXB 9:45 pm from SYD | 7 am in SYD 5:15 am in DXB |
| EK414 Dubai-Sydney EK415 Sydney-Dubai | 2:00 am from DXB 6:00 am from SYD | 10:30 pm in SYD 1:20 pm in DXB |
| EK408 Dubai-Melbourne EX409 Melbourne-Dubai | 3:00 am from DXB 10:30 pm from MEL | 11:20 pm in MEL 5:40 am in DXB |
| EK430 Dubai-Brisbane* EK431 Brisbane-Dubai* | 2:50 am from DXB 8:55 pm from BNE | 10:40 pm in BNE 5:30 am in DXB |
In the meantime, Emirates is still flying the smaller Boeing 777-300ER to Perth three times a week, with plans to ramp up later on when demand increases. At this stage, WA Premier Mark McGowan is expected to announce a new border re-opening date by the end of February 2022.
Booking Emirates flights with Qantas Points
Apart from Emirates Skywards Miles, Qantas Points remain one of the only ways to book Emirates First Class reward seats. Availability throughout the year is patchy, but the seats are there if you’re flexible. Economy and Business Class reward seats are more plentiful.
At the time of writing, we see some availability in First (and occasionally, Business) class on the new Brisbane-Dubai Airbus A380 flights from April 2022 onwards.
Read more: booking Emirates reward seats with Qantas Points →
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Summing up
Emirates’ Airbus A380s are regarded as one of the most comfortable ways to travel. Because of the real estate across two floors, Economy is reasonably spacious while First Class is extravagant – we love the onboard shower spa! Its Business Class seat isn’t the most competitive, but Emirates does stand out with their onboard bar.
We can only hope that Perth services return to the Airbus A380 and Emirates puts Adelaide back on the map this year, if all goes well. And we hope to bring you fresh reviews of Emirates flights later on in 2022!
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Hi Brandon- Thanks for another great article. I’ve been looking for business reward availability into Australia for October/November and can’t seem to find any. Can you confirm the availability mentioned in the article is actually OUT of Aus (as per the picture in the article).
Hi James, indeed I saw seats from Sydney to Dubai on 10 Oct 2022 and other dates. I haven’t had a look at seats into Australia yet, but if there aren’t any, then keep checking book every week or so because I know Emirates releases in batches.
Brandon, You must get special access to special point redemptions as every time I have looked for Business the minimum points has been at least 490.000 one way but more than likely closer to 650,000 to 800,000 points Sydney to London. I have just looked after reading this article and the minimum points I can see is 450,000 going over and coming home 650,00 to 1000000 with Emirates or any other airline Compare that to pre pandemic times when a round the world business fare cost 380,000 return. As someone once sort of famous said, “ please explain”!
Hi Libby, all members should see the same Emirates reward availability! I can confirm I see the same seats when not logged in.
It seems you are seeing expensive ‘points + pay’ seats rather than reward seats.
If you’re searching via the main Qantas website, ensure you click/tap ‘Rewards only’ on the top left corner of the flight results page (as in my screenshot) to see reward seats in all classes.
Otherwise, search through the Qantas multi-city tool with points to also only see reward seats.
Brandon, thanks for the reply – I must admit I didn’t select “rewards only” in the top left hand corner . That is an added step since my last redemption so I did indeed miss that. In the past and for domestic redemptions you don’t need to select this next step – domestically “use points” is all that’s required and in the past pre pandemic it too was the only step required internationally.
It is indeed the reason why we follow sites like these to get the heads up. Thanks again and I would also like to say due to your recent review of the Ghan, we have just booked seats in June!
Thanks for reading Libby! Yes you’re right, this ‘rewards only’ change is quite recent and does make it a bit more complicated to find those reward seats.