Interesting Prices

[Quickstatus]

Interesting Prices;

Dec16 to Jan 17
Wednesday departures both ends

SYD-LAX-SYD on A380 QF11/12 J = $5200
SYD-HNL-SYD on A330 QF3/4 J = $6600


One way
AA US site LAX-DEN AAeagle F USD$285 = AUD$407
AA AU site same flight/day F AUD$738

 

[Mark3000]

Yes definitely much higher prices on AA AU site. Last time I booked through US site it rejected my credit card and I had to call to pay. Beware they may try to get you to pay a phone booking fee. They tried to add it in without telling me but they removed it when I insisted

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Interesting Prices;

Dec16 to Jan 17
Wednesday departures both ends

SYD-LAX-SYD on A380 QF11/12 J = $5200
SYD-HNL-SYD on A330 QF3/4 J = $6600

My completely uninformed opinion on this... SYD-HNL has so few paying J class passengers (many/most are platinums and P1s requesting award seats to be released) that QF makes as much as they can from the couple of people actually willing to pay.

LAX has plenty of people willing to pay, and has to be competitive.

Just a theory.

 

[JohnPhelan]

My completely uninformed opinion on this... SYD-HNL has so few paying J class passengers (many/most are platinums and P1s requesting award seats to be released) that QF makes as much as they can from the couple of people actually willing to pay.

LAX has plenty of people willing to pay, and has to be competitive.

Just a theory.

You're quite wrong on the number of paid J tickets on the HNL route. In fact, there are often very few - or no - award seats. (I was once told I was the only pax in the J cabin on an award ticket that day.) Certainly some points upgrades for unsold seats. But QF does quite well on HNL commercially. As AJ has said publicly, HNL is an unusual port in that it makes money for both QF and JQ.

The ridiculous prices QF charges for J seats to HNL in school holidays are just the icing on the cake. Also bear in mind there will be substantially fewer J seats on the refurbed A330s than there are on the current aircraft.

 

[Quickstatus]

You're quite wrong on the number of paid J tickets on the HNL route. In fact, there are often very few - or no - award seats. (I was once told I was the only pax in the J cabin on an award ticket that day.) Certainly some points upgrades for unsold seats. But QF does quite well on HNL commercially. As AJ has said publicly, HNL is an unusual port in that it makes money for both QF and JQ.

The ridiculous prices QF charges for J seats to HNL in school holidays are just the icing on the cake. Also bear in mind there will be substantially fewer J seats on the refurbed A330s than there are on the current aircraft.

I think QF is the only full service airline doing the SYD-HNL route. VA doesn't. I think that's the key. It's the lack of competition . JQ corners the budget and leisure end of the market in competition with Hawaiian.

I wonder since VA discontinued the MEL-LAX route what happened to the 2 773?

 

[madrooster]

I think QF is the only full service airline doing the SYD-HNL route. VA doesn't. I think that's the key. It's the lack of competition . JQ corners the budget and leisure end of the market in competition with Hawaiian.

I wonder since VA discontinued the MEL-LAX route what happened to the 2 773?

HA is roughly a mid point between QF and JQ I would say in terms of service. You've got high, mid, low really.

The MEL/LAX service was dropped due to UA entering the market, so VA now serves BNE daily instead of 4x weekly.

 

[Himeno]

HA is roughly a mid point between QF and JQ I would say in terms of service. You've got high, mid, low really.

The MEL/LAX service was dropped due to UA entering the market, so VA now serves BNE daily instead of 4x weekly.

UA was already in the MEL market. They just had a stop in SYD on the way.

Didn't VA only have 3 flights/week on MEL-LAX? IIRC, the aircraft were operating in MEL-LAX-BNE-LAX-MEL patterns.

 

[RichardMEL]

The current sale includes LAX/DFW/JFK, but not HNL at that time, hence the cheaper J price.

AA AU site is well known for charging much more and being more restrictive in terms of fares available.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Pricing is practically an art.

Differentiated pricing is around us everyday where you can be quoted a different price than the next guy.
Insurance, Real Estate, Cars, Planes.... but once a player drops the price - the party is over for everyone.

Think about pricing on AU-US 10, 15 years ago - $8-10k for biz was normal.

 

[RichardMEL]

Sorry - let me clarify my earlier post.

HNL is on sale BUT the sale periods are different, and during peak time Dec/Jan it's excluded, unlike the LAX one, which is basically straight through - this suggests QF have paid demand already during those peak periods (which surprises me really, but that's their call)

eg:
HNL

02 May 2016 to 13 Jun 2016	$3499*Ends 15 Feb 16
16 Jul 2016 to 05 Sep 2016	$3499*Ends 15 Feb 16
10 Oct 2016 to 30 Nov 2016	$3499*Ends 15 Feb 16
02 Apr 2016 to 01 May 2016	$4828*
14 Jun 2016 to 16 Jun 2016	$4828*
05 Jul 2016 to 15 Jul 2016	$4828*
06 Sep 2016 to 08 Sep 2016	$4828*
04 Oct 2016 to 05 Oct 2016	$4828*
06 Oct 2016 to 09 Oct 2016	$4828*
01 Dec 2016 to 10 Dec 2016	$4828*
10 Jan 2017 to 30 Jan 2017	$4828*
12 Feb 2016 to 01 Apr 2016	$5828*
17 Jun 2016 to 04 Jul 2016	$6128*
09 Sep 2016 to 03 Oct 2016	$6128*
11 Dec 2016 to 09 Jan 2017	$6128*

LAX

01 May 2016 to 31 Dec 2016	$5999*Ends 15 Feb 16
02 Apr 2016 to 30 Apr 2016	$8457*
01 Jan 2017 to 30 Jan 2017	$8457*
04 Mar 2016 to 01 Apr 2016	$9157*
22 Feb 2016 to 03 Mar 2016	$9857*
12 Feb 2016 to 21 Feb 2016	$11357

These are ex-MEL, but you get the idea

 

[JohnK]

Differentiated pricing is around us everyday where you can be quoted a different price than the next guy.
Insurance, Real Estate, Cars, Planes.... but once a player drops the price - the party is over for everyone.

The airlines are terrible for differentiated pricing. There's every possibility that no 2 people in a cabin have paid the same price for their seat.

Think about pricing on AU-US 10, 15 years ago - $8-10k for biz was normal.

Not sure what to make of pricing today. Is it cheaper? It may well be cheaper.

From memory I booked a basic round the world in 1990 for ~$2200. SYD-ATH-JFK-CVG-LAX-SYD with Qantas, TWA and Delta. Stop in ATH and CVG. Could you get that cheaper today?

 

[Abdul_A350]

From memory I booked a basic round the world in 1990 for ~$2200. SYD-ATH-JFK-CVG-LAX-SYD with Qantas, TWA and Delta. Stop in ATH and CVG. Could you get that cheaper today?

That is worth over $4000 in today dollars, though.

 

[jpboyce]

I've been seeing some weird price movements as well. I had fare watches setup for PER-LAX and PER-SFO (business return) for later this year. This is what I've seen in the last month or so:

16/01
PER-LAX - 6109
PER-SFO - 5399

24/01
PER-LAX - 6110
PER-SFO - 5406

01/02
PER-LAX - 8879 (+2769 increase)
PER-SFO - 9637 (+4231 increase)

04/02
PER-LAX - 6376

09/02
PER-SFO - 6399

10/02
PER-LAX - 5609
PER-SFO - 5631

It's worth mentioning that I also checked Virgin's pricing during the big price spike and their prices were around the same amount. The price spike was also about a week before a recent sale by Qantas that included LAX and SFO. Not really sure what's going on with this to be honest.

 

[RichardMEL]

Well there was a sale on in Jan also where the prices were lower, so the rise was more due to a period in between sales.

 

[Abdul_A350]

Looking at sale fares for Brisbane to Canberra on Qantas, I see

28 Apr 16 to 23 Jun 16

$135*Ends 14 Feb 16

but then I have no trouble finding $135 fares for other dates that should be $199 according to the same chart. I do not understand why they would offer the cheap fares and not advertise them properly.