Unique Routings To Make NonRev Travel Easier & More Interesting!
NonRev Options You Need To Know!
Fifth Freedom Routes… Maybe you have heard of them and maybe not. What are these mystical flights called fifth freedom? Fifth freedom flights refer to those flights from Country B to Country C that originate in Country A. For example Ethiopian Airlines flights from Addis Ababa to Seoul with a stop in Hong Kong. The route from Hong Kong to Seoul would be a fifth freedom route.
Why are fifth freedom route of interest to NonRev Travelers? These are little known routes, routes operated by airlines one normally would not consider booking. I mean who would think of looking for Ethiopian Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Seoul.
These are also wonderful ways to experience exotic foreign airlines that you might not normally experience. They offer great rates, often are wide open and a chance to upgrade to business or first class seats.
There is also a few fifth freedom flights in the USA which operate but cannot carry local passenger traffic. The most obvious of these is QANTAS to and from New York JFK to Sydney with a stop in Los Angeles. QANTAS flies a 747-400 on this route. Since they pick up passengers in Los Angeles they will have seats empty from JFK. The reverse will aslo be true from Los Angeles back to JFK. So if all other trans-cons are full, QANTAS will have seats and you as an airline employee can by a ZED fare on these flights. Cool huh?
Another example would be on what is called the Kangaroo Route from Sydney to London. No airplane can currently serve that route nonstop. So for years QANTAS flew Sydney to Singapore and then Singapore to London and Visa Versa. Now days QANTAS stops in Dubai allowing for more connections to Europe via Emirates. None the less you can fly Dubai to London and back on QANTAS vs Emirates or British Air, the logical airlines on that route.
So how can fifth freedom flights really benefit you, the NonRev Traveler? Often times, Fifth Freedom carriers will serve a certain destination pair with much larger aircraft than the home carriers will. Let’s go back to the example of Auckland- Sydney. This route is served by Australia-based carriers like Virgin Australia and QANTAS as well as Air New Zealand. The aircraft on this route include narrow-bodies like the Boeing 737, Airbus A320, and some Boeing 767 and Boeing 777 on certain flights.
However, It’s also served by Dubai based Emirates, which flies the route with its Airbus A340. Emirates tags Sydney-Auckland to the end of its Dubai-Sydney flight, while LAN tags Auckland-Sydney to the end of its Santiago-Auckland flight. What a great way to experience the Airbus 380 and Emirates Airlines by flying them from Sydney to Auckland.
Also Fifth Freedom Flights can be the way to and from Europe in the Summer when all of the traditional airlines on those routes are running full. For instance, are you aware that Emirates flies from JFK to Milan or Jet Airways flies from New York Newark to Brussels? Just might be the way to get to Europe and back this summer. Better yet how about Singapore Airlines from JFK to Frankfurt on the Airbus 380!
ZED fares are available on almost all of these routes just check with yoru pass bureau or online at ID90T or MyIDTravel.
So how do you find Fifth Freedom Flights? Well Google it of course! Well not actually, but do use Google. Type in flights from HKG to BKK and see what you get:
It even tells you what days of the week the flights take place. How many of you would have looked for Royal Jordanian or a Sri Lankan flight on that route?
How the only problem with the Google search is if you are entering a route to or from a city in the USA. Google will give you a different look but it is still workable. You just have to watch out as the results include codeshare flights such as Lufthansa LA to Chicago, which is really operated by United. You can usually tell this is the case as both the United and Lufthansa flight arrive and depart at the same time.
A flaw in this research is when you are looking for flights where the airline is not allowed to sell tickets to the public (but can sell ZED fares to airline employees. These routes show up nowhere. What you have to look for there are flights which make a stop. Typically these will be flights within the county (USA for example). Check the routing and see where the flight stops. So in the case of QANTAS 108 from JFK to Sydney it makes one stop. Where? L.A> But if you pull up JFK to LAX, QF108 is nowhere to be found. This is because they cannot sell revenue seats on the route. But was we said they can sell nonrev ZED fares on that route and you can almost always count on seats being available since they will board local traffic in LA going to Sydney and disembark traffic at LAX on the way from Sydney to JFK!
Here is a list we compiled of Fifth Freedom routes around the world. Fifth Freedom routes change all of the time so the list below may have routes no longer served or may be missing routes.
Sorted by Airlines
Air Berlin
Abu Dhabi – Phuket
Air Canada
Buenos Aires – Santiago
Air China
Madrid – Sao Paulo
Munich – Athens
Air France
Los Angeles – Papeete
Air India
Hong Kong – Seoul
Hong Kong – Osaka
Air New Zealand
Los Angeles – Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Los Angeles – London
British Airways
Singapore – Sydney
Colombo – Male
Doha – Bahrain
Abu Dhabi – Muscat
Antigua – Saint Kitts
Antigua – Tobago
Antigua – Punta Cana
Antigua – San Juan
Nassau – Grand Cayman
Nassau – Providenciales
Saint Lucia – Port of Spain
Saint Lucia – Grenada
British Airways affiliate Sun-Air of Scandinavia flies the following routes:
Aalborg – Oslo
Aarhus – Gothenburg
Aarhus – Oslo
Aarhus -Stockholm (BMA)
Billund – Bergen
Billund – Brussels
Billund – Dusseldorf
Billund – Munich
Billund – Oslo
Billund – Stockholm (BMA)
Brussels Airlines
Abidjan – Monrovia
Bamako -Ouagadougou (Only one-way. And take the hike to the Dogon Country in Mali, near the border with Burkina)
Freetown -Banjul
Conkary -Banjul
Cathay Pacific
Bangkok – Delhi
Bangkok – Karachi
Bangkok – Mumbai
Bangkok – Colombo
Bangkok – Singapore
Singapore – Colombo
Taipei – Fukuoka
Taipei – Osaka
Taipei – Seoul
Taipei – Tokyo
Vancouver – New York JFK
China Airlines
Rome – Delhi
Amsterdam – Bangkok
Brisbane – Auckland
Singapore -Surabaya
Hong Kong – Jakarta
Hong Kong – Jakarta
China Eastern
Colombo – Male
COPA
San Jose (Costa Rica) – Guatemala City
Managua – Guatemala City
San Jose -Managua
San Pedro Sula – San Jose
Tegucigalpa – San Jose
Delta Air Lines
Amsterdam – Mumbai
Tokyo – Koror (Palau)
Tokyo – Saipan (and only carrier on this route)
EgyptAir
Bangkok -Kuala Lumpur
Emirates
New York JFK – Milan
Buenos Aires -Rio de Janiero
Colombo – Singapore
Colombo – Male
Kuala Lumpur – Melbourne
Bangkok – Sydney
Bangkok – Hong Kong (A380)
Singapore – Brisbane
Brisbane – Auckland
Sydney 0 Auckland *A280)
Melbourne – Auckland (A380)
Sydney – Christchurch
Harare – Lusaka
Accra – Abidjan
Malta – Larnaca
Malta – Tripoli
Conakry – Dakar
Ethiopian
Lome – Rio de Janeiro (787) (via GRU Eastbound)
Lome – Sao Paulo (787) (via GIG westbound)
Bamako – Dakar
Bujumbura – Kigali
Cotonou – Abidjan
Malabo – Douala
Kigali – Entebbe
Delhi – Hangzhou, China
Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur
Cairo – Stockholm
Hong Kong – Seoul
Etihad
Beijing – Nagoya
Singapore – Brisbane
EVA Air
Bangkok – Amsterdam
Bangkok – London Heathrow
Bangkok – Vienna
Iberia
San Salvador – Guatemala City
Jet Airways
Newark – Brussels
Toronto – Brussels
Kenya Airways
Dubai – Hong Kong
Bangkok – Guangzhou
KLM
Dammam – Kuwait
Doha – Muscat
Singapore -Denpasar
Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta
Korean Air
Los Angeles – Sao Paulo
Honolulu – Tokyo
Vienna – Zurich
Auckland – Sydney
Madrid – Frankfurt
Miami – Punta Cana
Miami – Caracas
Lufthansa
Ho Chi Minh City – Bangkok
Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok
Baku – Ashgabat
Malaysia Airlines
Toronto – Vancouver
Las Vegas – Vancouver
QANTAS
Dubai – London
New York JFK – Los Angeles
Royal Jordanian
Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur
Bangkok – Hong Kong
Monteal – Detroit
Qatar Airways
Buenos Aires – Sao Paulo
Budapest – Zagreb
Baku – Tbilisi
Bucharest – Sofia
Johannesburg – Maputo
Kigali – Entebbe
Kuala Lumpur – Phuket
Bangkok – Hanoi – Trip Resort
Bangkok – Ho Chi Minh City
Singapore – Denpasar
Singapore Airlines
Manchester – Munich
Los Angeles – Tokyo (A380)
San Francisco – Hong Kong
Houston – Moscow
New York – Frankfurt (A380)
Sao Paulo – Barcelona (no fuel surcharge from Brazil)
Dubai – Cairo
Athens – Istanbul
South African Airways
Accra – Abidjan
Washington DC – Dakar
SWISS
Dubai – Muscat
THAI
Karachi – Muscat
Hong Kong – Seoul
Taipei – Seoul
Taipei – Hong Kong
Los Angeles – Seoul
Los Angeles – Osaka (KIX)
Turkish
Bishkek – Ulaanbaatar
Bahrain – Muscat
Djibouti – Mogadishu
Ho Chi Minh City – Bangkok
Sao Paulo – Buenos Aires
United Airlines
Koror (Palau) – Manila
Koror – Yap (Micronesia)
Tokyo – Guam (not really a 5th freedom, but still interesting)
Honolulu – Guam via Majuro, Kwajalein, and the Caroline Islands
Kuwait – Bahrain
Dubai – Doha. I guess in case Emirates and Qatar go bankrupt.