Federal air travel tender to hit Qantas

[esquire]

I must admit as a regular traveller on government tickets (with best fare of the day) - DJ is usually more expensive than QF - which suits me fine . QF also have much more stabdard luggage allowance than DJ - and don't charge booking change/cancellation fees like DJ.

The route by route thing is also a difficult concept to manage. How about connecting flights? At the moment if you fly QF and want a connecting DJ flight you have to have a minimum 1.5 hours between them - even if you have hand luggage!

I think DJ (who I happily fly for leisure/holiday flights) needs to consider where it wants to be in the market. Is it possible to be a LCC and aim at business travellers at the same time? :?: Does anyone know of other airlines that have achieved this?

 

[serfty]

A rather large national Quasi Government organisation I did some work for around 10 years ago had a contract with Qantas. Standard fares were charged, but on a monthly billing basis the organisation would get a blanket 20% discount/rebate on all charges.

Points & TC's/SC's were awarded for these fares.

 

[samh004]

I know it hasn't been raised yet, andI suppose it's not really something the government should be looking at, but wouldn't lounge access have a huge bearing on the decision? And I'm speaking mainly from the point of view that QF has a lot more lounges spread around Australia than DJ's 5.

 

[medhead]

I know it hasn't been raised yet, andI suppose it's not really something the government should be looking at, but wouldn't lounge access have a huge bearing on the decision? And I'm speaking mainly from the point of view that QF has a lot more lounges spread around Australia than DJ's 5.

Not really, IMO. the vast majority of public servants don't get paid lounge access. The renumeration is pretty rigid and doesn't generally include package of benefits like lounge access. Basically, any public servant in the lounge is most likely in there because they have acquired status or have paid themselves. Of course, government departments do arrange bulk discount deals, such as Defence, but the staff still have to pay of the lounge membership, even at the discount rate. And other government departments that might have a corporate lounge scheme don't advertise this to employees at all.

Overall, while every public servant might have access, it shouldn't be an official consideration. (I think)

 

[pauly7]

To add to this from today's Australian:
Also need to consider the fact that federal government most often book the fully flexible fares. At the high end on the few routes that I have checked the top DJ fare is significantly less then the QF fare.

Yes but as others have pointed out, what is on the website is not what corporates and govt departments pay.

One employer I contract for who is gets a set % discount of a std flexi saver with all the benefits of a fully flexi and books into B/Y class. Then there are the rebates for hitting thresholds on top of that.

 

[medhead]

Yes but as others have pointed out, what is on the website is not what corporates and govt departments pay.

Did you read my reply when others pointed that out?
The government department I work for does pay the full price as per the website. Maybe the state government gets a rebate at the end of the month from the government TA. But my government department does not see a single cent of that rebate.

Some government departments do pay the price on the website from their budget, and the rebate goes back to consolidated revenue.

 

[Flashback]

Did you read my reply when others pointed that out?
The government department I work for does pay the full price as per the website. Maybe the state government gets a rebate at the end of the month from the government TA. But my government department does not see a single cent of that rebate.

Some government departments do pay the price on the website from their budget, and the rebate goes back to consolidated revenue.

This is the experience with a large mining conglomerate I have worked with also. You book at and pay the full price (this is what is allocated to your cost centre) and the rebate is then given back to the business (but not allocated to your cost centre ) in one big chunk along with all other travel that has been carried out that month.