2-for-1 is not as quite as straight forward as that

[aplmac]

I was organising to fly with Mrsaplmac for a weekend away and get my sectors up, so I saw there were some $79 flight specials SYD-CBR, so I phoned Velocity to arrange this. Having already done a dummy booking at 2 x $79 return, I knew what the total was going to be, before I thought about 2-for-1. The first CSR I spoke to took the flight details, plugged it into his system, and said it didn't look right, put me on hold, and promptly dropped out. So I called back and spoke to another agent, who plugged in the details and came up with the final cost - which surprisingly was only a few dollars short of the full price I had from the dummy booking - so not 2-for-1 in the literal sense.

The explanation was that there are 5 classes of Saver fares, and the 'flight specials' are from the bottom cheapest class, but the '2-for-1' fares are calculated from the top more expensive class of that fare bucket - hence the disparity.

 

[medhead]

Yep 2for1 are not valid on sale fares. You might like to look around here to see some of the other pit falls.

 

[bcworld]

I was organising to fly with Mrsaplmac for a weekend away and get my sectors up, so I saw there were some $79 flight specials SYD-CBR, so I phoned Velocity to arrange this. Having already done a dummy booking at 2 x $79 return, I knew what the total was going to be, before I thought about 2-for-1. The first CSR I spoke to took the flight details, plugged it into his system, and said it didn't look right, put me on hold, and promptly dropped out. So I called back and spoke to another agent, who plugged in the details and came up with the final cost - which surprisingly was only a few dollars short of the full price I had from the dummy booking - so not 2-for-1 in the literal sense.

The explanation was that there are 5 classes of Saver fares, and the 'flight specials' are from the bottom cheapest class, but the '2-for-1' fares are calculated from the top more expensive class of that fare bucket - hence the disparity.

The 2 for 1 has always excluded sale fares. It used to be easier because prior to the Sabre roll out sale fares were explicitly shown in the online booking engine...therefore you knew exactly what price the agent would quote you. Now sale fares are not identified, or if they are they are not shown in their own column so you can't see what the next cheapest valid Saver Lite or Saver fare is. A further complication since Sabre is that a lot of agents seem to have great difficulties coming up with a price, the system doesn't appear to do it for them - last time I booked one it was talking so long they offered to call me back. There is plenty of evidence that agents have to calculate the total cost themselves...this can work in your favour(!) but in some cases they might also quote a price that's too high. As a Plat you should be speaking to good agents who can handle all this.

When Sale fares are available though using a 2 for 1 often didn't make a lot of financial sense (unless you want to book a flexi or business for the status credits / upgrade potential). The 2 for 1 makes a lot more sense for peak travel periods / flights when saver lite / saver are either totally sold out only the more expensive fare classes are available.

 

[totd]

Yep 2for1 are not valid on sale fares. You might like to look around here to see some of the other pit falls.

FWIW, I'd see the common pitfalls for new users of the card as being:

1. Cannot be applied to deep-discout (sale) fares
2. Must be booked 21 days ahead*
3. Credit card fees still apply, even though you basically have to pay with the credit card (I believe some vouchers are acceptable)

* Of course, they're looking at *enhancing* those cards from 1 December anyway - Virgin Flyer 2-For-1 - Significant negative changes from Dec 1

 

[Jama]

So I called back and spoke to another agent, who plugged in the details and came up with the final cost - which surprisingly was only a few dollars short of the full price I had from the dummy booking - so not 2-for-1 in the literal sense.

In many cases the 2 for 1 is a claytons discount. Its there to make the CC offer sound good.

As of the 1st Dec this will be even more often the case. Flexi bookings were more likely to provide some savings and these won't be valid, taxes will increase and you will have to book further ahead for fares that generally would have bigger discounts already.

 

[aupirate]

I booked BNE - SYD-DAR then DAR-SYD - BNE on 2 4 1 last night, I had previously checked the fares, there were saver and saver lite fares available. After coming back to me with a slightly higher figure ($50) than I had calculated it was reduced to the same figure that I had come up with. If saver lite fares were available I was sold these fares. Although the whole process took 2 days I`m happy with the result, I was charged 2 credit card fees of $7, not sure why as I was paying the whole lot on the single transaction.

 

[totd]

I was charged 2 credit card fees of $7, not sure why as I was paying the whole lot on the single transaction.

I believe that is a Sabre feature. It gets worse when booking multiple sectors for multiple guests...

 

[oz_mark]

Two service charges/credit card fees was pretty much what always happened.

 

[bcworld]

Yup.

In fact a simple 2 sector return for 2 was previously 4 * $4.50 charges whereas it's now 2 * $7.70 so actually a bit cheaper.