domestic sales for 2011

[Henk]

Just got an email from QF reminding me about this sale coming to an end:

"...great fares around Australia on sale now available for departures from 11 January to 6 April 2011 and 3 May to 22 June 2011, unless otherwise stated..."

I've been wondering, how many people can take advantage of this sale now, (August 2010?) I do travel a lot domestically, but it's too early for me to plan my domestic flights in 2011. Have many of you taken advantage of this sale?

 

[medhead]

I could lock in some of my flights for January and February next year. But I haven't as yet. As I'll hold out for the next sale and defer the costs for a little while.

 

[samh004]

I’ll be booking some flights for May 2011 tonight, and it’s only a couple so I think I should be right, but I do agree it is very far into the future. It’s only like this to compete with DJ’s sale.

 

[Verde]

I booked a flight in June 2011, which seems like a long time away, but I thought I'd just get on with it and make it happen. Since it only depends on getting a day of leave so I can have a long weekend trip to Cairns I am pretty confident it will work out (really I just want a day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and to escape the cold weather around Albury at that time of year).

Other than that it wasn't too useful. If Qantaslink had joined in with sale prices it would have been much better for me - I just didn't fancy going Virgin Blue Albury to Sydney then changing to Qantas from there - so the cheaper Qantas flight to Cairns was countered by paying full fare Qantaslink to Sydney (though I was sorely tempted to drive to Melbourne for a flight to Darwin to see what Oz Fest would be like). I've just made it to Gold status with Qantas, so need to make sure I keep most of my flights with them to keep it for the following year (especially if I don't have any international flights... and I might have to resort to the Canberra-Syd-Hobart ASA option yet too - might be a great way to transport a 10kg box of chocolate back from the Cadbury factory!).

 

[markis10]

Most people dont plan ahead, despite the fact that we know school terms & holidays well in advance. However the average member here knows how good such fares are and will make sure they lock in the booking if there is a good possibility, such as OzFest in DRW !

 

[odysseus]

Most people dont plan ahead, despite the fact that we know school terms & holidays well in advance.

That doesn't help you since in most cases, including this one, they exclude main public and school holiday periods...

 

[markis10]

That doesn't help you since in most cases, including this one, they exclude main public and school holiday periods...

I thought Australia Day and the Queens Birthday as well as Labour day in some states were major holidays and that school goes back after 11th Jan, I think you get the point, while not all holidays are covered there are enough there, along with major events such as the tennis and Grand Prix in Melbourne, Clipsal in Adelaide, etc etc.

 

[Joshua]

Depends on the target market really, but clearly from every other airline and all the twitter & facebook marketing there are leisure travellers happy to book so far out. I generally don't book more than 6 months out, except in situations of TT & JQ offering fares for <$5 in which case I book a lot of them eg. I have 6 cent fares out of MEL for every weekend in Feb 2011 on JQ.

Personally I only buy well ahead during really significant sales that seem to happen infrequently - eg. Boxing day and Australia Day last year which had many routes very heavily discounted and also the occasional everything ~$50 sales on QFLink. Most sales JQ or DJ start, then the other + QF will do similar within 24 hours. They happen so often I just wait until 2-3 months out then buy during the next sale cycle. After a while you know to hold off, sale or not.

At least QF was decent enough to match DJ with some lesser discounts on the Oct-Dec period unlike JQ - saved me a bit for Oct.

 

[serfty]

I book most of my travel 6 or more months out and some years ago would devour a sale like this.

However, these days, 80% of my travel is international and this sale is of little use to me. As it is I already have enough travel booked to re-qualify WP next year.

 

[JohnK]

I could book all my flights commuting SYD-BNE through to June 2011 but unfortunately I simply cannot afford it right now.

I will book 2 return flights for travel in January 2011 though as this is usually an expensive time to travel.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Í booked one fare BNE-CBR return in January 2011. For Feb and beyond I am waiting on some dates that I need to work around. But don't have a lot of calls for au domestic travel anyway at the moment.

Are these sale travel dates getting further and further away? Are QF and others hungry for cash?

Cheers skip

 

[JohnK]

The travel dates do seem to cover dates further and further away.

I think the airlines must be getting desperate to lock in forward bookings.

I have not seen the latest load figures but if my flights over the last month or so are indication most flights are lightly loaded. Is August usually a slow month?

 

[Aikicoops]

Work wise this is no good at all.

As my budget starts in Jan 2011 (we are a subsidiary of an Italian company so our fin year is calendar), I have no funds to cover this. We normally book from Jan onwards.

I have not seen many sales start then.

Even personal it is difficult as I can never book in holidays this far in advance. I try and take advantage of sales when they come out but this far out is just not good for me.

I have also got WP covered for next year. This is being done within 4 months of my roll over period. Quickest I have ever made WP.

Coops

 

[medhead]

Well I just booked a return flight for January. Then I realised I hadn't worked out what I want to do for the Australia day week, being on a Wednesday and I only work 4 days a week.

In terms of the dates, I know that at least the last QF sale started on 11 Jan. I'm also pretty sure that the dates for 2011 where the same for the last 2 sales.