Paying premium for flights out of Australia?

[Awesom Andy]

I was just checking some airfares for trips I'll need to undertake in the near future... QF/VA SYD-CBR is actually more expensive SIN-HKG on 3K. SIN-HKG (3.5 hours per trip) return can be had for $270SGD ($210AUD), while QF SYD-CBR (50min per trip) is $265.70AUD.

And I seem to see quite a lot of the $888SGD special for SIN-SYD in Y (roughly $690AUD) during non-peak seasons. Either they are selling most of their Y tickets at this price, or they can never find anyone to buy the tickets at all, despite being roughly $200 cheaper than SQ. And it's interesting to see that QF is equal to or cheaper than JQ in price for SIN-MEL when JQ is not having any promotions.

 

[Ansett]

Hi Folks

just changed location from Australia to UK on Qantas website and their is a special Lon-Mel J Class for POUNDS 2834.00 return (AUD $4360) and we sure as hell cant get fares like that here. The cheapest I can see from Oz is around 9k if travelling single and 6.5K if as a companion fare. and well F Class from as little as 4334.00 pounds booked LON-MEL return.

Go Figure....... Good to see an Ozzie Airline looking after the Ozzies :evil:

 

[straitman]

Hi Folks

just changed location from Australia to UK on Qantas website and their is a special Lon-Mel J Class for POUNDS 2834.00 return (AUD $4360) and we sure as hell cant get fares like that here. The cheapest I can see from Oz is around 9k if travelling single and 6.5K if as a companion fare. and well F Class from as little as 4334.00 pounds booked LON-MEL return.

Go Figure....... Good to see an Ozzie Airline looking after the Ozzies :evil:

This has been explained many times. Airlines are a business and it has nothing to do with looking after anybody.

 

[ozmille]

Not sure this is true.

We've booked BA with a couple of QF code shares.....(J)BNE-SYD on QF....(F)SYD-LHR....(J)LHR-MAD...(J)CDG-LHR....(F)LHR-BKK....(F)BKK-SYD....(J)SYD-BNE on QF....all for $8,900 for adults & $6,900 for the kids.

No way thats 50% more than coming the other way.

In all honesty that was a pay business fly first promo

I have done the comparison on BA for me personally;

J class BA SYD-BRU-SYD AUD9289
the same J class fare on BA BRU-SYD-BRU would costs me AUD6800 per person so about AUD2500 more expensive for the privilege to fly from SYD...

If I then compare these to the fares my TA offers me, companion fare QF/BA for a total cost for 2 J BRU-SYD-BRU at AUD7500 I know what I take.

 

[ozmille]

Hi Folks

just changed location from Australia to UK on Qantas website and their is a special Lon-Mel J Class for POUNDS 2834.00 return (AUD $4360) and we sure as hell cant get fares like that here. The cheapest I can see from Oz is around 9k if travelling single and 6.5K if as a companion fare. and well F Class from as little as 4334.00 pounds booked LON-MEL return.

Go Figure....... Good to see an Ozzie Airline looking after the Ozzies :evil:

which dates are you looking at? I can't see those fares

 

[amaroo]

In all honesty that was a pay business fly first promo

I have done the comparison on BA for me personally;

J class BA SYD-BRU-SYD AUD9289
the same J class fare on BA BRU-SYD-BRU would costs me AUD6800 per person so about AUD2500 more expensive for the privilege to fly from SYD...

If I then compare these to the fares my TA offers me, companion fare QF/BA for a total cost for 2 J BRU-SYD-BRU at AUD7500 I know what I take.

Correct. But price structures change all the time & specials come & go with great frequency therefore, if you can book with some flexibility (either long or short term) there is no way one should be paying over the top for a flight from OZ.

However, if you have no choice but to fly on a given day - you're most probably buggered.

The fly F for J is wonderful & given the loads in BA F cabins I'd say many took advantage.....just like us:mrgreen:

 

[ianbaker]

Having lived overseas for many years and about to move back next year, I can't help but wonder if Australia has now become one of the world's most (unjustifiably) expensive places to live. One aspect of this is in airfares.

I go to Thailand about two or three times a year, sometimes going on to Europe.

My airline of choice is Thai Airways (Star Alliance); one good reason is its comprehensive network; it has regular flights non-stop from Melbourne to Bangkok. Occasionally I fly Singapore Airlines (also Star Alliance).

I have found that sourcing flights in BKK is often cheaper than the same flight bought in Melbourne; the current status of the $A helps.

To be able to work things out so one can use BKK as one's personal 'hub', you need to start off with a one-way from Melbourne to BKK e.g. a budget ticket on Jetstar or AirAsia, or use reward points to buy the one-way on Thai.

From that time on, just book on the web direct with Thai. Also check the big travel agents in BKK (newspaper 'Bangkok Post' is a good source).

Hint, EVA have good prices from BKK to London, Amsterdam and Vienna.

 

[Limewood]

Checking some AUG 2012 J prices SYD/LAX/SYD on VA $6700 on Qantas $11000! why such huge a difference?, Qantas price is a real premium.

 

[Stealth]

My parents have been flying out here from the UK annually for the past 20 years, always J. Their UK sourced fare has been consistently less by a good margin than what I could get here. They have flown QF, SQ, BA and EK. The difference applied on all occassions. True that exchange rates have gone from around 2.65 to 1.60 to the pound, but in the past I've always calculated at a notional 2:1, as it relected a truer comparison based on the respective cost of living. I say in the past, because thats now invalid due to the raging underlying inflation in Australia.

If anyone is in doubt about inflation, there was an interesting article on the ABC recently:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/au...rt/3730444

 

[RobJ]

It's a slightly different issue, but I recently experimented with a dummy booking Oz-UK premium economy. I wasn't surprised that BA was cheaper than Qantas, as most think the BA premium Y is inferior; but one booking used Qantas for all segments and was many hundreds of dollars cheaper, just for going through the BA site.

 

[Duffa]

I have a definite and recent example.

Dublin-Mel return Etihad $4320 in J. (I booked and paid for relative to come to Oz.)
Had heard about this issue in the past so did a price comparison just out of interest.
Mel-Dub return in J $7300.

We are being ripped off, no two ways about it! "cost structure" my a**e!

 

[trooper]

Waiting for the extension of this thread to everything that is priced differently here and abroad... (Cars? Boats? whatever?)

..and of course the inclusion of complaints that some things are cheaper here.. therefore all those foreign buyers are getting "ripped off"....:mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

[The Rok]

I have a definite and recent example.

Dublin-Mel return Etihad $4320 in J. (I booked and paid for relative to come to Oz.)
Had heard about this issue in the past so did a price comparison just out of interest.
Mel-Dub return in J $7300.

We are being ripped off, no two ways about it! "cost structure" my a**e!

Surely in this case demand would be a big driver? I would imagine that demand for return flights from Aus to Ire and far higher than Ire to Aus, particularly in J. I do know that Etihad are going hard at the marketing and pricing in Ireland in an attempt to ward off the incoming Emirates who start their Dublin to Dubai flights in January, 3 years since AerLingus dropped it.

 

[rsellens]

About 3 months ago I travelled OW DONE 4 originating in Hobart. The QANTAS price was a shade under 14K. As I could get there on an industry ticket I also priced the exact same routing ex Abu Dhabi, all legs on the same airlines, and it was between 10 and 11K. Catch was I had to pay for it at the BA office in Abu Dhabi within 3 days of booking. It was even cheaper from South Africa to purchase a DONE5 to cover the same stopovers. I would like to know how Alan Joyce can justify the price difference! Earlier this year when the Australian Dollar kept rising so did the Qantas RTW fares.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

I think the issue is that for flights the cost structure is near identical - esp if the booking is made online - where as say importing physical good can cost more to Australia since we tend to send a lot of empty cargo containers out of the country whereas a lot of countries have a more balance import / export of manufactured goods so companies are not paying so much for freight.

So in theory the pricing should be pretty much the same which ever point you start the flight at - labour / fuel / food etc should all cost the same for a return journey.

I'm sure airlines are able to make pricing changes daily to account for currency fluctuations.

I suppose the only argument an airline could make is that demand from point A on a certain day was higher than point B, therefore the trip starting at point A is higher due to the way they milk demand for the extra $. I don't see how that could apply on a nearly constant basis though.

I'm amazed at the pricing of J class fares from LAX / SFO to Asia. For around the 4K return mark I'd be definitely looking at upgrading my travel experience far more often. that's nearly like flying SYD LAX for 4K

 

[wilco]

I suppose the only argument an airline could make is that demand from point A on a certain day was higher than point B, therefore the trip starting at point A is higher due to the way they milk demand for the extra $. I don't see how that could apply on a nearly constant basis though.

Flawed argument. The best scenario could have every flight on the same day except the first or last. Imagine 2 of the same RTW routings, 1 that started in SYD the other in JHB. The first fare would obviously have a flight from SYD-JHB and then all the flights would coincide with one another, until the second fare got to SYD and then had to continue on to JHB. I don't accept that 1 flight can alter the price to such a degree. It is nothing more than the airlines price gouging whatever they think the market can bear.

QF is currently experiencing the effects of such pricing structures, i.e.: people aren't flying them (or more correctly, they are flying other airlines)!!

 

[Jleno]

I'll indulge trooper and say that yes, almost everything else in Oz is more expensive (oftentimes much more) than overseas and one of my aims this year is to try to avoid buying anything locally if I can help it.

Back to point, I don't think it's Qantas that charges more for ex-Oz flights. All the international airlines do it. Theres obviously the issue of demand driven pricing, but i think it's also probably a direct (taxes etc) and indirect (high min wage levels, high cost of operations due to over regulations etc) effect of the government, so im laying some of the blame on them rather than fully on the airlines. I may well be wrong of course since it's just my unverified hypothesis. Whatever it is though, I'm going to do what I can to try to avoid just bending over and taking it without a concerted effort at finding ways around it.

 

[spudseamus]

I'm going to do what I can to try to avoid just bending over and taking it without a concerted effort at finding ways around it.

I may need to this trip to Ireland soon and I have been looking at pricing for J and I have been amazed at the price difference !! I am also trying my hardest not to be caught bending over but --- it feels like the rough end of the pineapple to me!!!!

 

[kiddus]

This statement is a definite YES. I bought CBR/SYD/Narita through JTB as a special priced fare on JAL back in September, departing 19 December return 28 January.Cost me $1241.12 (the airfare was $330 the rest was taxes etc kept my eye on the net and lowest quoted fare was $2600 from Qantas, did not try Jetstar as the add ons are prohibitive as are the layover times in either Cairns or GC.The highest was also from Qantas at $6500, there were at least 3 other international airlines whose prices were on par with Qantas.Have been flying since 1968 on and off , can remember flying from London to Australia for $2100 one trip one way.After that prices dropped radically for many years , I noticed the jump in prices around 1980. A return airfare to Bali used to cost me $300 not sure what it is now.I still manage to find the occasional reasonably priced airfare to Japan every year , pays to buy well ahead and adjust your holidays accordingly.

 

[qantas38]

For several years now be it a low cost economy fair or a biz class fare I religously (for want of a better expression) book my return flights through the airines web site of the country I'm returning from as it saves so much money. For example HK to Sydney on the overnight redeye last October was $A1600 per person cheaper than booking biz class via the QF AU web site as the return flight.

In November my wife & I paid $NZ150 each on a very pre-booked (12 weeks ahead) Air NZ flight (Wow, Seat+Bag fare with 34" all economy seat pitch (ANZ A320 160 pax, Jetstar A320 same route 179 pax, I wish ANZ flew Oz domestically) booked through Virgin Australia to fly back to Sydney from Christchurch NZ. That translated on my AMEX bill to $A115 each.

I've been practising this for years. I only wish I could book the forward jouney from AU offshore also. It's not just QF. It's all airlines travelling to/from Oz.