Prepaying for multiple flights at once

[flyinghightoday]

Just wondering if anyone has done something like this before.

Looking at flying back to MEL every fortnight on a Friday and back to CBR on the Sunday. Doing this can be quiet expensive and even just the booking fee alone for CC does add up.

Anyone ever been able to ask or negotiate a price with QF and say, I want this flight down this flight back, same time every fortnight for the next 6 months or longer and I'll pay it all upfront right now.

 

[N860CR]

No way out of it unfortunatley. Given it's such a small number of flights I can't see them entertaining any special discounts and you can't book through the same city twice on a multi-stop ticket, so you're out of luck. If the credit card fees are annoying you, you could pay by another method.

 

[medhead]

As a regular commuter the best you can do is book your flights in advance. There is also the qantas business deal that gives something like a 2% rebate, but I think that is only for travel over $20,000 per year.

I would recommend against getting the same flights every week as a bit of variety is nice. On a short route like MEL-CBR I would also suggest a Monday morning flight option, depending on price and accommodation requirements.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

I'm not sure exactly how close Zuji's prices are to those found on the Qantas website for domestic travel, but they are always the same as what DJ offer - but Zuji don't charge any credit card or booking fees (so it's cheaper to book through them).

Drawbacks to this method include no Diners acceptance (if that applies to you) - as Zuji accept Visa/MC/AMEX, but Qantas accept Diners directly. Also, if you wanted to use a credit card that earns bonus points when charged directly by Qantas, you would miss out on the bonus points when booking through Zuji. Qantas may also be unwilling to make any flight changes to travel booked through other websites (WebJet, Zuji etc), and I have heard from others that it's quite hard (or impossible) to use points to upgrade on flights not booked directly with Qantas. Other than that, Zuji still allow you to input your QFF membership number when booking, so no problems with earning points or receiving status benefits from the flights.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Anyone ever been able to ask or negotiate a price with QF and say, I want this flight down this flight back, same time every fortnight for the next 6 months or longer and I'll pay it all upfront right now.

100's in not 1000's of people do long commutes every week. FIFO guys do east coast - PER every 7-10-14 days. MEL-CBR is very small $ to QF. Pollies do it every week or daily.

 

[bugayev]

Talk to a travel agent, see if they can do it for you for less money than the airline will charge in fees. That way, someone else is handling your booking and you don't have to waste your time, and you'll get everything organised.