International flights for unvaccinated: How to secure a direct flight to Perth?

International flights for unvaccinated people are becoming much harder to secure. How to secure a flight for your family if you have not been vaccinated? Can you even book a direct flight to Perth?

Paloma and her family have been trying to return to Perth after working overseas for a few months. After numerous flight cancellations, Paloma decided to look for support online. Skeptical about using the services of a travel agent, she meticulously compared each review online before contacting the Fly Me Home Program team.

Last week Paloma’s family has celebrated New Year Eve in Perth. With the help of World Travel Connections, she successfully secured a direct flight home despite not being vaccinated. She also dodged any further flight cancellation despite the rise of the Omicron variant.

Paloma, could you please tell us about your story?

In September 2021, we tried to leave California to fly to Perth, Australia.

• Initially, we could not find any flight to Perth so we decided to fly to Sydney with United Airlines. We were supposed to fly in September but our 1^st flight got cancelled.
• We got rescheduled for October, but once again it got cancelled.
• So we decided to wait a little bit longer and we try to reschedule to the 11^th of January.
• It was always expected that we would face a hard time once we get to Sydney to cross the border to Western Australia because of the heavy restrictions on the border. This is why I have been looking for someone who could get us directly to Perth.
• Initially we had secured flights with United Airlines on the 11^th of January 2022. Once World Travel Connections confirmed we could get direct flights to Perth, we cancelled with United Airlines and worked with Nicolas to switch to the 29^th of December 2021.
• After 4 days of the booking being made, the Omicron became rampant. We then contacted Nicolas again to check if it would be a good idea to travel earlier. Nicolas agreed and he booked us on the 13^th December 2021 instead of the 29^th of December.
• It meant a lot to us to have this flexibility on our booking because without World Travel Connections we would have arrived to Sydney and we would not have been able to cross the border with WA. If we had waited for the 29^th of December, our flight could have been cancelled because international caps were reduced and a lot of flights were cancelled due to the Omicron variant.
• Now we are in Perth and we are able to spend new year with our family. It was very crazy because we had to get ready within a week and half with 2 little kids. Now we have arrived, we feel extremely relieved.

International flights for unvaccinated – You wanted to be vaccinated directly in Australia, what motivated you to make this decision?

There are a number of reasons:

1. First, we prefer to be close to the family and go through the vaccination process in Australia because this is where we live.
2. We did not want to be vaccinated in a foreign country where requirements  could be changing all the time. We did not want to be in a position in the future where the vaccine would not be accepted.
3. We did not have any support around us if anyone would have gotten sick from the vaccine.
4. Overseas, we were in a very good position and quite isolated from big cities. So we did not fear catching Covid-19.
5. Finally, we did not feel too comfortable with the Covid-19 vaccine currently available on the market. We are currently waiting for a different vaccine coming out in January which has been approved in Australia.

International flights for unvaccinated – How complicated is it to return to Australia if you are not vaccinated?

Right now it is very complicated for a number of reasons:

• Before NSW re-opened the borders, it was a little bit easier because they were accepting more people into quarantine.
• Now they have re-opened the borders, these numbers are much lower and it much harder to get into those flights and a lots of airlines are not flying unvaccinated people.  
• We were quite lucky because with United Airlines, when we rescheduled for January, they knew that we were unvaccinated. Because we were on the waiting we managed to secure a flight.
• What we were told is that they could only accommodate 4 unvaccinated passengers per week which is a very small number. It was pretty much just the 4 of us filling in the weekly allowance allocation number in one week.
• Finally, having to quarantine in a hotel is something we were prepared and willing to do. But there are very few unvaccinated people who are willing to go ahead with it, because it adds extra expenses to the trip on top of the difficulty to get into the flight itself.

When I started looking for a flight to Perth by myself, without any travel agent first, I could not find any flight to Perth taking unvaccinated passengers (e.g. Singapore airlines on their website states that they were not taking unvaccinated passengers). However, we could go through them thanks to World Travel Connections services, so it is definitely worth taking the time to contact Nicolas Delacharlerie for advice. 

Did you ever feel left out by the Australian government for making your travel so complex?

Yes, 100%. I think the government has been leaving Expats and Australian overseas behind. The effort that the Australian Government has put to bring Australians home has not been that big and they made things very complicated, even for those who    were not vaccinated. It was very difficult to go through this without the support of the Australian Government. 

International flights for unvaccinated – How did you find out about World Travel Connections services?

It was actually thanks to one of the interviews I have read which was published in one of the Facebook groups called “Australians Stranded Overseas”. I started looking for reviews. I checked out the Fly Me Home Portal. I went through a number of groups and I realised a lot of people have used his services so it was worth contacting him and see if he could help us out.  

I think it is important for people to know that Nicolas was very quick at finding us our  flight. We originally booked with him on the 29^th of December. Once we saw that the Omicron variant was going around and what was happening, he straight away got us flight on the first day that we were actually able to travel. He asked us “What is the first day you are able to travel?” We told him the 13^th of December would be the first day we could leave. He then managed to change the flight to that day. It was actually amazing to have this option.

Now that we are here in Perth Australia, we realise that it was the best choice and he supported us through that choice. Indeed, International caps have now been reviewed again. We don’t know if we would have made it.

Sometimes, making these decisions is hard because it feels that you may make them out of fear. But Nicolas instead was using facts. He had experience on how the borders have been working over the past two years, his advice was actually spot on. He helped us to get new flights and now we are here, I don’t know if we would have made it without World Travel Connections.

International flights for unvaccinated – Did you try to contact other agencies?

Yes, I did. I contacted one agency and we did not get any help, at all. I think it was because of our lack of vaccination. That other agency said he could not help us, I am not exactly sure why.

Would you have succeeded to return without World Travel Connections assistance?

Coming back to Australia: yes. But managing to come back to Western Australia on my own: NO

How valuable was it to have a travel agent available all-along by your side?

It was incredibly valuable. I recommend 100% World Travel Connections to anyone. I honestly do not use travel agents too often in normal times. At the beginning when we started looking for flights, we were very sceptical of trying to contact a travel agent because all the flights could be booked directly with the airlines. But now that we used the services of a travel agent, we realise even more how important it is. It was a very big trip to organise and a very long flight, but despite this, everything went so smooth. I am convinced that it is thanks to Nicolas at World Travel Connections that we are in Perth. Because it was so well thought and organised, and it gave us confidence that it was going to happen. More importantly that we could call on his service should we have an issue.