new slant on mystery flights

[moa999]

Did see something similar on a vlog, but even more fully organised

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But as I understand they mostly use the LCCs in and out of SIN and KUL

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The name of the mystery carrier would be all over OZ bargain within about 5 minutes. And then over other sites like AFF.

You'd have a rude shock if you found yourself on Etihad with tiny meals and no water, drinks or snack outside mealtimes unless you pay for them under the very expensive buy-on-board menu.

With airlines such as SQ and QR already offering fares in the $1000 range to Europe, not sure how much cheaper these 'secret deals' would be to have to entice people away from top tier carriers.

Now if they were to market mystery flight times, but known carrier, that might be interesting. For example $1000 guaranteed on Singapore, or Qatar or Emirates, but your flight times aren't advised until the day before travel... that could be appealing. (You book for 15 August, but don't find out until 14 August whether you're departing Australia at 0600, 1300 or 2350, ect.)

 

[ozfflyer]

The name of the mystery carrier would be all over OZ bargain within about 5 minutes. And then over other sites like AFF.

You'd have a rude shock if you found yourself on Etihad with tiny meals and no water, drinks or snack outside mealtimes unless you pay for them under the very expensive buy-on-board menu.

With airlines such as SQ and QR already offering fares in the $1000 range to Europe, not sure how much cheaper these 'secret deals' would be to have to entice people away from top tier carriers.

Now if they were to market mystery flight times, but known carrier, that might be interesting. For example $1000 guaranteed on Singapore, or Qatar or Emirates, but your flight times aren't advised until the day before travel... that could be appealing. (You book for 15 August, but don't find out until 14 August whether you're departing Australia at 0600, 1300 or 2350, ect.)

but only those who buy tickets would know who they are flying with & if 2 airlines involved, then it could be either.

From SYD to LHR there are a whole bank of flights leave in late afternoon/evening. To name a few ... QF, QR, SQ, EK, EY etc.

Fares around the edges of peak season, often don't sell as well as peak season or low season, as the price is often close to peak season pricing, rather than low season pricing.

School holidays start mid to late November. So say someone wanted to fly to London 30 November & come back 2 weeks later. Not peak season, but prices are increasing right now to $1400, $1500 or more, on one stop options. (the chinese airlines might offer something cheaper, but with poor connections) & the airline came out with a $999 fare, with the only extra being for payment by any credit card of say $20 & limit baggage to 1 x 23kgs, which can be increased for additional say $50.

Personally I hate it when I see a sale price advertised for departures eg. 30 Sept to 31 March, when you know there are none at all in December or 1st half of January, but some people waste hours searching online for seats at a certain price, that don't exist. Airline yield managers/marketing must work off the theory, that if they advertise a certain price (with stuff all seats) but they put some seats out there at eg. $200, $300 more, then a certain small % of people, will go,

"oh that's not what I was looking for but still a good price"

& buy at that higher price.

I think people get really annoyed fast with these deceptive adverts.

So you might be told in advance, your flight departs between 1800 & 2200 on a certain day & arrives LHR within 25 hours & if you are getting a connecting flight from anywhere, we can advise the latest arrival time into SYD, so in other words, your flight out of SYD will be on one of these airlines ...........

They could also offer a price for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 passengers & so on, where the more seats you buy the cheaper they get/each. They could do away with child fares altogether & just have a stipulation, that 1 of group must be 18 years or whatever.

For those with really tight budgets, the airline could say, you can ever spread out payments over few months with a credit card only, (authority to charge card automatically for a $20 handling fee per payment, so instead of paying $999 + $20 fee = $1019, simply pay $260 a month for 4 months, which would help those who don't have the readies now.

The more I think about the idea, the better it sounds.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think the airline consumer is not as naive as you make them out. People know peak times have peak airfares. Most, if not all airline sales I can remuer clearly state the blackout dates, which almost always includes school holidays.

Advertising a sale fare, and its dates, might be he,paul for those who are flexible. Perhaps the person intending to fly on 15 November can actually make the flight on the 14th. But you would rather that they aren’t told?

 

[ozfflyer]

I think the airline consumer is not as naive as you make them out. People know peak times have peak airfares. Most, if not all airline sales I can remuer clearly state the blackout dates, which almost always includes school holidays.

Advertising a sale fare, and its dates, might be he,paul for those who are flexible. Perhaps the person intending to fly on 15 November can actually make the flight on the 14th. But you would rather that they aren’t told?

naive ? about what ? Aren't told what ?

Say there are seats on some airline at $x departing SYD at between 1800 & 2200 on such date & you can come home on choice of dates departing LON between 1900 & 2300 (SYD curfew kicks in again)

Quite a few times I've got email from airline such as saying $700 return SYD/LAX for departures 30 Sept to 31 March with no stated blackout dates & minutes later I've had a look for availability online & even called airline to find there were seats at this price departing in Oct & Nov & Feb & March, but coming home was tricky in that most return dates at that fare(booking class) meant you could only stay away 7 days or so, or pay another $200.

Not the same as above, but Air NZ are often doing fares aimed at upsell & you find to get that fare to LAX you have to spend 7 hours or more at AKL airport in each direction, but you can pay $200 extra & get a much better connection like hour or 2 in both directions.

Airline marketing depts have to do something different apart form just dropping the price. They can reduce the number of flights, but they still have to pay lease payments on leased aircraft & as soon as they reduce frequency they risk losing high paying business types.

A bit off topic, but .........

There has been talk of EY & EK amalgamating. Financially at least this makes a lot of sense. What % of passengers from OZ, actually want to go to AUH or DXB ? A huge % must just be connecting there.

Sure there are huge numbers of low paid works from asia working in AUH/DXB but they are very low yield & can easily be put on a bus between AUH & DXB. Have never done it, but understand it takes around 90 mins.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don’t think aussie consumers are as naive as you make them out to be. While your personal experience might be that you find it frustrating that a special isn’t available every single day of the promo period, I’m not sure that’s shared by the majority of passengers.

The majority of passengers, particularly those with kids, well understand that peak periods, such as school holidays are likely to attract a surcharge, and that the cheapest fares won’t be available. And if they didn’t know, they soon do. 99% of travellers also understand that peak periods such as getting home for christmas attract a surcharge, and they won’t get the cheapest fare in the few days prior to christmas. Or they book early.

A lot of the frustration and difficulty you describe seems to be unique to you.

 

[ozfflyer]

I don’t think aussie consumers are as naive as you make them out to be. While your personal experience might be that you find it frustrating that a special isn’t available every single day of the promo period, I’m not sure that’s shared by the majority of passengers.

The majority of passengers, particularly those with kids, well understand that peak periods, such as school holidays are likely to attract a surcharge, and that the cheapest fares won’t be available. And if they didn’t know, they soon do. 99% of travellers also understand that peak periods such as getting home for christmas attract a surcharge, and they won’t get the cheapest fare in the few days prior to christmas. Or they book early.

A lot of the frustration and difficulty you describe seems to be unique to you.

don't think you understand "the public". If you work in retail for decades, think you get a better understanding. Had a very well off lawyer(who should have known better) tell me recently, that he got 50% off some accommodation & said 50% off what ? It turned out the 50% off, was off a rack rate & rates we were able to get at a more normal price, if there is such a thing these days, was way less than his 50% off, but people still get sucked in by % off sales.

We're getting a bit off topic, but remember when VA & DL starting flying SYD/LAX, at same time as GFC. They starting offering $999 return fares in peak season. For years after that people kept asking us, when will the $999 return fares in peak season be out. So they created a bit of a benchmark for which some never wanted to pay any more.