Australia has been extremely aggressive in fighting coronavirus. Some feel their lockdowns have gone too far (and they vary by state) while others simply commend the tenacity of the nation to keep things at bay as their day to day life, aside from travel restrictions, is pretty normal now.
There are 14 new COVID-19 cases in all of Australia today compared to 141,034 new cases today in the United States.
No wonder, then, that it’s been been said for some time now that aside from perhaps some local Asian travel bubbles, most of the world won’t be flying to Australia any time soon.
Qantas isn’t currently offering service to the United States at all. But when they do resume service, expect to need to show proof of your COVID-19 vaccination.
CEO Alan Joyce was on a local Australian TV channel (channel 9) and said that “proof of vaccination would likely be stored in an electronic ‘digital passport'” and this is in line with an earlier statement from their government on November 13th that I missed which stated that “There may however, be circumstances where the Australian Government and other governments may introduce border entry or re-entry requirements that are conditional on proof of vaccination.” (as reported by Executive Traveller).
The electronic digital passport is certainly the way to go, as I have already seen people on Twitter joke (they weren’t joking) about phony vaccination certificates if required to fly. That alone shows why countries like Australia are taking such a firm-footed approach.
You’d only need one contagious passenger with a fake certificate to undo months of progress against the virus.
Qantas has a fantastic First Class product that I had the pleasure of reviewing in 2017. While they have tightened up partner availability, it’s less difficult to book via their own currency if it’s on your bucket list. I’d love to fly it again sometime soon….
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