Qantas dives deeper into holiday market with ‘premium packages’

Qantas is seeking to expand its share of the holiday market with new tour packages to ten destinations.

Ho Chi Minh City is one of the destinations being offered by Qantas in a new “tour package” format as the airline moves deeper into the travel space. Picture: iStock

Qantas is seeking to expand its already considerable grip on Australia’s holiday industry, offering premium overseas holiday packages in partnership with Byron Bay’s TripADeal.

The packages combine flights, accommodation and a range of extras such as meals, cruises and transfers.

Ten packages are initially on offer to destinations as diverse as Alaska, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Japan, Turkey, South Africa, Europe and Vietnam, with prices from $2999 per person.

Although the holidays are organised and operated by TripADeal, travellers will be able to earn three Qantas points for every dollar spent, or use their points to book a package.

Qantas Loyalty chief executive Olivia Wirth said the launch of package tours was designed for members who were looking for a ready-made premium travel experience.

“Our research has shown that two-thirds of our members are interested in tour packages, and the launch of our premium itinerary holidays will help meet and grow this demand,” Ms Wirth said.

The move into package deals follows Qantas’s acquisition in May 2022 of a majority stake in TripADeal founded by Norm Black and Richard Johnston.

Mr Black and Mr Johnston saw the deal as a chance to grow their business, through exposure to Qantas’ 14 million frequent flyer members.

Employing about 100 people, TripADeal was launched in 2011, and racked up $200m in sales in the year before Covid hit.

For Qantas, the acquisition was seen as an opportunity to maximise earnings from the pent up travel demand and preference for hassle-free holidays that were still special.

“With this latest expansion of the Qantas holidays portfolio, we’re giving frequent flyers more opportunity to make great holidays possible with their Qantas points and growing the ways they can boost their points balance,” said Ms Wirth.

Qantas was not the only airline seeking to inspire travellers to book a holiday in 2023, with Etihad Airways also releasing a range of sale fares on routes from Sydney and Melbourne.

After last year’s fare shock for many people, the sale was expected to be well received with prices starting from $1664 return for Sydney-Rome, and rising to $2286 for Melbourne-Dublin.

Business fares ranged from $7572 return for Melbourne-Paris, climbing to $9979 for Melbourne-Beirut.

The prices were on offer until Tuesday January 17, for travel from February 1 to October 31, 2023.

Etihad recently announced it was bringing back four A380 aircraft on Abu Dhabi-London routes, in response to demand.