New routes and air alliances can mean more travel options, so what’s new in the air and on the ground this week?
Farewell frequent traveller passports
The Australian Government is reportedly planning to phase out the Frequent Traveller passport, much to the dismay of international business travellers.
With 66 usable pages, the document has been incredibly popular among frequent overseas business travellers, allowing for almost double the number of immigration stamps and visas. The standard passport has only 34 usable pages and costs $254, while the Frequent Traveller version costs $382 – clearly much better value for money.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade executive Brek Batley told Melbourne’s Travel Industry Exhibition that the government intended to “phase out” the larger passports as part of an overhaul of the Australian passport system.
Thankfully other changes were slightly more positive, including the removal of fees for replacing lost or stolen passports.
Follow this story at Australian Business Traveller and tell us what you think in the comments below.
Singapore Airlines Airbus touches down in Melbourne
Singapore Airlines has announced that, from September they will begin Airbus A350 flights to Melbourne. It’s the first Australian destination for the A350, which currently flies to Amsterdam and Johannesburg with Dusseldorf on the agenda from late July.
From 1 September, the A350 will fly daily departing Singapore at 07:45 and landing in Melbourne at 17:10 on flight SQ 207, and flying from Melbourne at 19:25 and arriving into Singapore at 00:15 on flight SQ208.
Sadly, this Melbourne to Singapore flight will only run for a seven-week stint, until 22 October, when they will go back to being serviced by a Boeing 777-200 jet and the A350 switches to a new daily Singapore – San Francisco service.
As they say better make hay while the shine shines …which I hear it does a lot in Singapore …
Read more at Australian Business Traveller.
SJ is a regular travel contributor to YourLifeChoices. Her favourite travel ritual is an afternoon Aperol Spritz, preferably enjoyed pool or beach side.
