Photo: Qantas/Youtube

Watch: This Qantas Commercial About the Return of Travel Will Give You All the Feels

News Airports + Flying
by Olivia Harden Aug 24, 2021

Qantas Airways’ latest commercial tugs at the heartstrings in the hope to encourage more Australians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

While many other nations have opened their borders to foreign tourists, Australia’s have remained closed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. Besides a brief period where the country created a quarantine bubble with New Zealand, most Australian residents have remained at home, missing out on time with friends and family living outside the country, as well as international family vacations. And the limitations on travel will stay this way until the country reaches an 80 percent vaccination rate, Reuters explains.

The new commercial is part of Qantas’ “Be Rewarded” campaign, which offers discounts and incentives like Qantas points to vaccinated customers.

On Twitter, Dr. Nick Coatsworth, an infectious diseases physician and Australia’s former deputy chief health officer applauded Qantas’ commercial. “This is how you get people looking forward to what a vaccinated society looks like. Nice work @qantas,” he said.

The emotional commercial also brought many to tears.

As of August 24, 2021, only 24 percent of Australia’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.

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