Qantas ratcheted prices in 2023?

[Dtrain]

In March of this year, I booked 2x return J class (flex) from MEL to FCO on the new QF5/QF6 routes for July of this year. Cost was approx $9500 each.
Have now returned from trip and have looked up prices for similar dates in 2023, but Qantas is telling me the cost will be as high as $18,850 each. Ummm what? Am I doing something wrong by booking this early? Is this something peculiar with the Rome direct flights? Should I just sit and wait for prices to become more sensible, or is this kind of price fluctuation the new reality of flying J internationally?

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Most premium fares are sky high. Around March/April demand surged and QF and other airlines realised no need to discount longhaul premium cabins.

I assume things will revert to normal (allowing for high fuel costs) next year once the pent up demand from the last couple of years is exhausted.

Longhaul business fares on many routes are significantly higher than pre-covid first class (discounted) fares.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

There is a price shock right now when it comes to booking flights out of many routes, particularly the popular ones. This is not a surprise given everyone was locked in their home for over 2 years and are now being let out of the house by said governments. In addition rising fuel prices spurred in large part to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine along with rising labour costs due to the great resignation of 2020 means it's getting more costly to operate an airline.

So how can you beat these high fares? Some tips for someone who regularly flies internationally in J for a couple thousand:

• Look into creative routings. So MEL > FCO may be sky high but what about MEL to ZRH or MEL to CDG? I know it doesn't get you to your final destination but once in continental Europe getting anywhere by train is fast and cheap.
• Begin your journey in odd airports. Ok so MEL > FCO is expensive, but what about ADL > FCO or AKL > FCO? Yes you may need to buy a ticket to position yourself there but sometimes the savings can be huge. In particular, I recall pre-COVID flying from Germany to Las Vegas to position myself for a cheap Y fare on United to Japan which had been upgraded using points to J.
• Relatedly it may make sense to cut up your itinerary. So if travelling to Europe why not stopover somewhere in Asia before continuing on. Sometimes two tickets are cheaper than one!
• Consider purchasing frequent flyer miles and redeeming them for award J flights. Last month I flew Sydney to Saint John, Canada and Toronto to Sydney all in Air Canada business class for $1800 CAD having bought $1500 CAD in Aeroplan Points in 2020 and then redeeming those purchased miles on AC J award tickets for 160,000 miles + $300 CAD in taxes & fees. More recently I spent $2800 CAD to buy 160,000 Aeroplan miles, transferred 60K AmEx points over to Aeroplan and proceeded to book SYD > MEL > AUH > ZRH, LAX > TPE > ICN > SYD all in J using said points.

Hope that provides some value.

-RooFlyer88

 

[PlaneCrazy]

There is a price shock right now when it comes to booking flights out of many routes, particularly the popular ones. This is not a surprise given everyone was locked in their home for over 2 years and are now being let out of the house by said governments. In addition rising fuel prices spurred in large part to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine along with rising labour costs due to the great resignation of 2020 means it's getting more costly to operate an airline.

So how can you beat these high fares? Some tips for someone who regularly flies internationally in J for a couple thousand:

• Look into creative routings. So MEL > FCO may be sky high but what about MEL to ZRH or MEL to CDG? I know it doesn't get you to your final destination but once in continental Europe getting anywhere by train is fast and cheap.
• Begin your journey in odd airports. Ok so MEL > FCO is expensive, but what about ADL > FCO or AKL > FCO? Yes you may need to buy a ticket to position yourself there but sometimes the savings can be huge. In particular, I recall pre-COVID flying from Germany to Las Vegas to position myself for a cheap Y fare on United to Japan which had been upgraded using points to J.
• Relatedly it may make sense to cut up your itinerary. So if travelling to Europe why not stopover somewhere in Asia before continuing on. Sometimes two tickets are cheaper than one!
• Consider purchasing frequent flyer miles and redeeming them for award J flights. Last month I flew Sydney to Saint John, Canada and Toronto to Sydney all in Air Canada business class for $1800 CAD having bought $1500 CAD in Aeroplan Points in 2020 and then redeeming those purchased miles on AC J award tickets for 160,000 miles + $300 CAD in taxes & fees. More recently I spent $2800 CAD to buy 160,000 Aeroplan miles, transferred 60K AmEx points over to Aeroplan and proceeded to book SYD > MEL > AUH > ZRH, LAX > TPE > ICN > SYD all in J using said points.

Hope that provides some value.

-RooFlyer88

Some great tips there. I’ve been looking into Australia-South America for business class travel in December and found it fruitful to a) search often as prices/fare bucket availability fluctuated frequently b) book a codeshare ticket and c) utilise the Amex platinum discounted airline ticket program (which really does become a discount when fares are high).

With a little flexibility on desired travel dates booked an I class fare sold by LATAM, largely operated by Qantas for $6.4K which was $7.4K when I looked a few days previously and were largely $12k otherwise.

 

[offshore171]

have looked up prices for similar dates in 2023, but Qantas is telling me the cost will be as high as $18,850 each. Ummm what? Am I doing something wrong by booking this early? Is this something peculiar with the R

A few comments:

Have you tried checking prices for a couple of days either side? Long haul business travel demand is lowest midweek, and prices ca. vary accordingly.

Your flights last March would have been priced pre the Ukraine invasion. Fuel prices and global inflation have jumped a lot since then.

Also try the google flights search engine for next years itinerary. See what other airlines are offering.

 

[RichardMEL]

Good suggestions above. I also use Skyscanner myself to get an idea of fares in a market and options. Google works too.

Air airlines are struggling with demand v supply issue plus, as above, soaring costs (fuel, staff) and supply issues - plus the uncertainty of the war and other global concerns (pandemic still ongoing). Not really unique to QF imo.

I would set an alert for sales in the market. Also consider (and since you're able/willing to pay fairly high value/flex fares you can likely afford to wait a bit) other airlines with better capacity both out of Oz, and into europe/Rome - I'm thinking of QR/SQ/EK as options. Certainly going via the ME probably is not adding too much overall transit time as going via PER.

It's likely more carriers will ramp up service and capacity too (QR upgrading to 380 as example) which should also lower some price points.

if you're absolutely wedded to QF then hold tight. I'm sure there will be a sale before too long.

 

[jase05]

Are you absolutely wedded to QF or prefer the direct flight?
Otherwise it would be far cheaper with better airlines.
You could fly to SIN on QF and then get QR SIN-DOH-FCO for instance if you don’t mind 2 stops otherwise SYD-SIN-FCO on SQ is probably even cheaper and far superior IMO

 

[bussyboy]

if you're absolutely wedded to QF then hold tight. I'm sure there will be a sale before too long.

...and hopefully a DSC promo! It's been a long while!

 

[Mattg]

If you really want to fly Qantas to Rome, wait for a sale later in the year.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Perhaps I'm missing something here but I still see QF flights from MEL to FCO in June next year at around $9K return per passenger. In addition, unlike their pedestrian 787 they've got A380s to take you there:


On a related note, I'm surprised how much QF has extended their route network in recent months. Just last week I was in Glasgow and spotted a Qantas bird and even Qantas club!

-RooFlyer88

 

[Mattg]

Perhaps I'm missing something here but I still see QF flights from MEL to FCO in June next year at around $9K return per passenger. In addition, unlike their pedestrian 787 they've got A380s to take you there:
View attachment 287270

On a related note, I'm surprised how much QF has extended their route network in recent months. Just last week I was in Glasgow and spotted a Qantas bird and even Qantas club!

-RooFlyer88

I realise your post is tongue-in-cheek, but those are Emirates codeshare flights?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I realise your post is tongue-in-cheek, but those are Emirates codeshare flights?

Yep and they are bookable via the QF website with QF flight numbers. The big benefit there is you'd have access to your QF benefits and will accrue QF status credits (along with having better customer service and hard product).



Alternatively if they really want to fly the Roo to Europe they could always try to LHR which from there it's a short plane ride to FCO or wherever they want to go in Europe:



One other thought for them to consider given the amount of money they are setting aside for the trip per person would be to consider flying First class. Yes it won't be Qantas but I can assure you the Dom/Krug on board an SQ F Suite to SIN will help quell that agony:


-RooFlyer88

 

[SYD]

If you really want to fly Qantas to Rome, wait for a sale later in the year.

It actually was on “sale” up until the other day but from memory circa high $7k ex-SYD. Even now, SYD-FCO is showing $8906 thru to late Aug 23 and MEL $8959. But as pointed out before, that could well be EK code share prices? I‘m not about to pay that much, but if it was the same price (preferably much cheaper in a proper sale) to go on QF metal or EK metal - personally, I’d probably take EK also.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

What I don't understand and maybe I am an out of touch, FoTSG, is how one could spend so much on international J. Perhaps I am a cheapskate of the highest order, but having flown a number of times now internationally on either upgraded J (from a cheap Y fare) or bought a stack of points when an airline is running an sale on frequent flyer miles and proceeded to make a ton of bookings with said points. Case in point, I'm flying SYD > ZRH (via MEL, AUH) on VA/EY J, then TP J to YYZ, then for the return I'm flying LAX > ICN (via TPE) and ICN > SYD on BR/OZ J for like $3000 CAD simply by buying Aeroplan Points when they had their sale.

All I'm saying is that from my experience, rarely does one get a good "deal" buying a revenue international J ticket. The only recent notably exception in my mind was my recent trip flying KL J from YYZ to GLA for $1900 CAD return, and I suspect some might even argue I overpaid there!

-RooFlyer88

 

[SYD]

All I'm saying is that from my experience, rarely does one get a good "deal" buying a revenue international J ticket. The only recent notably exception in my mind was my recent trip flying KL J from YYZ to GLA for $1900 CAD return, and I suspect some might even argue I overpaid there!

We live in interesting times and not a good indicator of VFM fares at the moment. Plus there’s plenty (like a lot) of discussion here about not being able to use points in premium fares (those of us who redeemed before borders reopened were lucky given the sovereign risk!).

At the end of the day, if you want to guarantee (as best you can) a J seat or suite room, you need to pay for it.

Besides, those of us here on the status hamster wheel need to spend to attain/retain….

 

[kangarooflyer88]

We live in interesting times and not a good indicator of VFM fares at the moment. Plus there’s plenty (like a lot) of discussion here about not being able to use points in premium fares (those of us who redeemed before borders reopened were lucky given the sovereign risk!).

I will concede that finding Premium Cabin awards now is not as easy as say even 6 months ago when people were still weary of travelling. In addition, even in good times, finding award J availability requires a concerted effort and a decent amount of research something not everyone has. But from my experience having made award bookings now and pre-travel surge I will say that you can find good J award deals provided you spend the time. Certainly I wasn't going to pull the trigger on buying $2800 CAD on 160,000 Aeroplan Points unless I was darn sure I could redeem it for J award flights to Canada via Europe.

At the end of the day, if you want to guarantee (as best you can) a J seat or suite room, you need to pay for it.

You're quite right there. Only cash can completely assure you will get the flight and product you want without restrictions. Perhaps I'm just being a cheapskate!

Besides, those of us here on the status hamster wheel need to spend to attain/retain….

I am also on the status hamster wheel x 3 having status on OneWorld (Qantas), Star Alliance (United) and Sky Team (Delta). What I will say is there are ways to earn top tier and certainly mid tier status with these airlines for pennies. For instance, with Qantas something as simple as booking trans-Tasman during a double status credit promotion, with connections in BNE, ADL and PER for good measure is an easy way to rack up status credits to earn QF Gold there and then. There are also some oddities in the QFF status credit chart that make weird routings in North America favourable such as flying LAX to SFO via DFW on AA J which is also the most direct way of flying between those two cities if you must transit in Texas!

-RooFlyer88

 

[Happy Dude]

High prices suggests high demand. Why QF would be in high demand is baffling.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

High prices suggests high demand. Why QF would be in high demand is baffling.

People don't know better. They'd rather fly on the brand they know and trust than some foreign airline whose processes are unfamiliar. Same thing when I was living in Canada, folks would fly Air Canada all the time internationally despite better carriers like KLM or United offering cheaper fares and a better quality product in every respect. When I was living there I would go out of my way to avoid flying Air Canada, even flying United domestically within Canada thanks to a little known loophole in Canadian cabotage law.

-RooFlyer88

 

[RichardMEL]

It could also be as simple as a demand and supply issue. What if other carriers to a certain destination are $more expensive or sold out leaving QF as the "cheaper" (relatively) option (yes, that does seem a bit farfetched ) and/or the convenience factor (eg: PER-LHR n/s vs PER-SIN/DOH/DXB-LHR) o even the good old status handcuffs (as above).

 

[SYD]

On the supply side, or lack thereof….

Absence of Chinese airlines in Australia pushes up cost of flights to Europe

Why does a flight to Europe cost so much? Mostly, it's down to China's airlines

www.traveller.com.au