Higher fares for flight changes

[jaysquared]

I am generally happy to travel on Jetstar. Crews are very friendy most of the time and with the XL seat I get a very good short haul flight experience at significantly lower prices.

Today I stumbled upon their rules. I booked a Starter fare for $249 to Bali for June 2018 some months ago. The fare rules state, that the flight can be changed for a fee of $75 and the fare difference. At the moment Jetstar has a Starter fare to Bali for $189. However if I try to change the flight online to another date, the Starter fare is $449 and thus I would have to pay $275. Does not make much sense to me and the customer service confused me even more, by stating, if the price in the same fare class is lower than the price paid for the original ticket, the next higher fare class will be chosen. But it is still all Starter fares without any bundles.

As Jetstar allows for inbound flights to be taken even when forfeiting the outbound, I considered to cancel the original booking and make a new one. I then asked for a refund of the departure taxes. This was denied with the reasoning, that they would have to pay the tax wether I travel or not. Is that true?

I am well aware that I booked a non-flexible fare, but letting me change the booking for $75 while having a sale, would mean free additional revenue. Shortly after the support chat, the fare for new bookings for that particular date and time also went up to $449...

On another note, I just returned from Queenstown with Jetstar. Booked 30kg of baggage and the scale showed exactly 30 kg when leaving Melbourne. Had exactly the same baggage on the return and the scale showed 32 kg for my two bags (It also showed 0.5kg with nothing on it...). The check-in agent made a big deal out of it and I told him I could easily take something out of my first bag, which he unfortunately already sent away. He swiftly considered starting a lengthy search for the first bag, so I could go through with my offer... He then made me weigh my small backpack, which was well under 5 kg. Frustrated he gave up, but not without arguing several times. The line behind us got longer and longer.

So far I thought if you stick to the rules, you will have a decent flight experience with Jetstar. Apparently that is not always the case

 

[Must...Fly!]

It is very common that when changing fares, the new fare must be equal to or higher than the original fare purchased. This is to protect the integrity of inventory/revenue management.

 

[jaysquared]

It is very common that when changing fares, the new fare must be equal to or higher than the original fare purchased. This is to protect the integrity of inventory/revenue management.

Ok thanks for this insight, but that does not make any sense to me. The friday evening flight costs $299 in Starter. I could change online for only $50 fare difference + change fee. The Saturday morning flight costs $189 in Starter. I would expect to change for $0. No refund, but also not some arbitrary higher fare.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

I experienced the same thing trying to change a Starter with Plus bundle a number of years ago.

I distinctly recall the following fare rule:-

Fare Difference applies per passenger, per flight. Your new fare will be at least the amount of the fare you originally booked and may be more.

Which I read to mean that I could change to an available cheaper flight at no cost (obviously not winning any money back). But of course when I tried to change the prices were all higher.

I don't know if the rules/clarification below existed at that time or were added later:-

You cannot change to a lower fare.

Fare Difference for changes to other bookings is the difference (if any) between the fare or fare with bundle originally booked and an available fare or fare with bundle on the date of change which is at least the same fare or, if not available, the next available higher fare.

The wording is quite poor but in any event the gist of it is quite simple - you can't beat the system and will pay the arbitrary higher price.

Booked 30kg of baggage and the scale showed exactly 30 kg when leaving Melbourne. Had exactly the same baggage on the return and the scale showed 32 kg

On one trip I weighed my carry-on bag at home and it was a bit over 7kg including laptop, entirely consistent with my standard HLO outfit. The JQ luggage belt claimed it was 8kg excluding laptop ...

Couldn't be bothered arguing as I had checked luggage allowance anyway, so instead got to wait 20 minutes at the carousel at the other end.

So far I thought if you stick to the rules, you will have a decent flight experience with Jetstar.

If you pay a low price and manage your expectations, you can have a decent experience with Jetstar

 

[Must...Fly!]

Ok thanks for this insight, but that does not make any sense to me. The friday evening flight costs $299 in Starter. I could change online for only $50 fare difference + change fee. The Saturday morning flight costs $189 in Starter. I would expect to change for $0. No refund, but also not some arbitrary higher fare.

I am only guessing for this bit, but I presume airlines would fall foul of consumer protection laws if they refused refunds when exchanging for what is essentially a cheaper product. They would therefore be forced to issue a refund (or perhaps credit) for the difference.

Why does this matter? Well if you think about it, say there at 25 seats on a plane. 10 people book a fare at $199, 3 months out from departure. The airline then increases the fare to $299.

For the next 2.5 months, they don't sell a single seat at the high price. Revenue management have all the details of fixed unit and variable costs, and the competition pricing (let's say a comparable flight time, at $159). They know they can sell another 3 tickets at a low price of $149 without losing money. So they make these available.

Currently the average revenue per seat is $199. Let's say 3 passengers already booked notice the cheaper fares, and take advantage of changing their ticket. Because they can't pocket the price difference, the airline refunds $50 each.

After those three tickets are sold, the tickets then rise back to $299. However you still have only 10 seats sold, but the average fare is now $184 (7*199+3*149).

The airline could, in theory, continue to discount, but in a perfectly informed market, the other passengers continue as the first 3 did. Eventually you end up with all 10 passengers doing the same, and an average fare of $149.

If you stop this behaviour, and things happen as revenue originally intended, you end up with 13 passengers at an average of $187.50. Yes it's less than before, but remember that revenue knows these extra three pax will not lose the airline money - in theory - because they are aware of the costs, some of which are fixed. You also get other benefits such as increasing overall load % and revenue figures.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Ok thanks for this insight, but that does not make any sense to me. The friday evening flight costs $299 in Starter. I could change online for only $50 fare difference + change fee. The Saturday morning flight costs $189 in Starter. I would expect to change for $0. No refund, but also not some arbitrary higher fare.

Yes, there are seats at $189, but the airline is not letting you access those because of the fare rules on your current fare.

Fares come in bands on a flight. Some at $189, some at $299, some at $399 etc (or whatever the exact amounts are, but you get the idea).

As other have said, the terms and conditions of your current fare is that if you want to change, the new fare must be equal or higher than the one you have paid. That rules out the $189 fare, there is no equal fare in this case, so you are only left for the next band up. The fares aren't variable so they can just charge you what you already paid, it must be in the next band.

 

[ksthommo]

Not sure what happened when I changed our CNS/ADL/CNS Starter Plus return flight to a day later. Both were sale fares, initial booking made during August sale, changed the return flight during December sale. Surprised that there were no additional charges when confirming changes.