Qantas accused of bait advertising over impossible to book airfare

[PineappleSkip]

Article in today's Guardian about a punter who was unable to find an advertised airfare online, and call centre staff weren't able to either
Qantas accused of misleading conduct over advertising flight own sales staff could not find

Qantas has denied it is engaging in misleading conduct despite promoting a special return fare to London on its website that was scarcely available and which its own sales staff were unable to book for customers

The story might be just as much about the inability of some call centre staff being unable to find fares as about the availability of the airfare in the first place.

Cheers skip

 

[SYD]

Click bait story more like it. $2455 is hardly a bargain fare….

Nor is this but took 1 min to find….



There are flight options in the mid $2.5k range during Sep/Oct now and probably better several weeks ago…

 

[CaptJCool]

So there’s several things going on here

1. What was available during the advertised sale period - prime prices indeed. Just consider those paid J & F Fares to LHR and USA

2. As time has gone on, because family reunions post Covid have been done, QF has had to prune prices to bring customers on-board

3. Sales and Deals domestically have now needed to drop down to reflect the new market conditions.
Adelaide - Melbourne for example
Has been consistently $140 with sales prices of $125 and $130

4. Pricing has internally appeared to follow a strategy of cheaper advance non-refundable prices progressively moving higher the closer to flight departure date (subject to loadings)

5. Higher demand routings have clearly be charged Y flexi and J at the Fly Less Pay More pricing. Eg Sydney to Melbourne prices are for example more expensive than Gold Coast to Melbourne
This is similar to Auckland via Sydney to USA being cheaper than Sydney to USA

5. Peak times eg 4-6 pm see full planes at higher prices where the last seats sold are at even higher prices than the original advertised Y flexi and J

The multi billions profit likely to announced Thursday will confirm this strategy has in the short term been effective.

 

[Muppet501st]

but that is a different date period to what was advertised.

"The promotional offer, featured prominently on the London section of Qantas’ website, is only valid for flights departing between 1 September and 1 October, while its terms and conditions state the sale price is not available for all dates within the specified period. No window for return dates is specified."

Click bait story more like it. $2455 is hardly a bargain fare….

Nor is this but took 1 min to find….

View attachment 339833

There are flight options in the mid $2.5k range during Sep/Oct now and probably better several weeks ago…

 

[SYD]

but that is a different date period to what was advertised.

"The promotional offer, featured prominently on the London section of Qantas’ website, is only valid for flights departing between 1 September and 1 October, while its terms and conditions state the sale price is not available for all dates within the specified period. No window for return dates is specified."

Yes, but how long did that article take to filter through? Obviously booking Sep now is not going to be a Sale fare….

 

[PineappleSkip]

Also relevant is how long ago the punter looked at the ad and tried to book, which is not specified. It could be a month or two between that and when they complained to the ACCC.

Seems QF may have been quick in removing such offer. The website page is just showing me

We don’t have any offers for your selection at the moment.