Calculating the true cost of an airfare

[Stargazer]

I am all new to this and am finding it to be unduly complex. I just played around with Skyscanner. Just a simple return flight MEL/MCY. I picked a flight and was transferred to Jetstar. The flight was cheaper than Webjet and Qantas. I clicked on the fare details and the following were extra - checked baggage,seat allocation, in flight meal deal. These were add on costs that could be booked as part of the booking process. But how do you determine the full price of a trip with getting to the point of actually making a booking?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I am all new to this and am finding it to be unduly complex. I just played around with Skyscanner. Just a simple return flight MEL/MCY. I picked a flight and was transferred to Jetstar. The flight was cheaper than Webjet and Qantas. I clicked on the fare details and the following were extra - checked baggage,seat allocation, in flight meal deal. These were add on costs that could be booked as part of the booking process. But how do you determine the full price of a trip with getting to the point of actually making a booking?

It probably comes down to experience. When booking ‘low cost carriers’ such as jetstar you generally get a basic airfare and have to pay for bags. Bags will cost you around $30, but that varies. Other extras such as seat selection will cost you more. Once you do a couple of bookings you’ll ‘know’ that you have to add $30-60 for the extras tou want and do a mental calculation before deciding to book, or not.

When booking a ‘full service’ carrier those extras are generally included - although not always. Some legacy carriers have introduced ‘basic’ or ‘lite’ fares to compete with the low cost carriers and these fares will also have to have bags added if you don’t have status. Again, after one or two bookings you’ll get to know how much these extras cost and you can account for them before going down the booking path.

 

[encryptededdy]

Agreed with above. If you're looking at Australian domestic, there's generally a max of 4 carriers flying your route, so it's pretty quick to get an idea of the rough extra charges (if any) you would expect to pay with each carrier.

International is certainly a bit harder, given the large number of routings often available, and a much wider range of pricing available through online travel agents. Personally for those I use ✈ FlightConnections - All flights worldwide on a flight map! to check for what routings are available with the number of stops I'm happy with (and airports/countries I'm willing to transit through!), and then manually go look those up on the respective airline websites.

I generally avoid online travel agents (OTAs) such as those you're routed to through Webjet or Skyscanner. If there's a big discount through those travel agents, I will try to use the Airline's Price Match if they have one. Usually they involve booking through the airline and sending them an email with a screenshot of the cheaper price. I would not rely on this though, since the fares sold through the OTAs may be different fare classes from those on the airline website, so I generally just treat it as a happy bonus if the price match clears.

 

[Stargazer]

Thank you for your detailed replies. I had a look at Flight Connections but the search engine did not recognise Maroochydore so couldn’t search for flights. I had the same problem when I checked the Virgin site. I know that Virgin flies to Maroochydore. Why did this problem occur. What am I doing wrong?

 

[encryptededdy]

Thank you for your detailed replies. I had a look at Flight Connections but the search engine did not recognise Maroochydore so couldn’t search for flights. I had the same problem when I checked the Virgin site. I know that Virgin flies to Maroochydore. Why did this problem occur. What am I doing wrong?

They have it as Sunshine Coast, so search that or MCY. With that said, Flight Connections is more for international flights than domestic.