Qantas scraps child fares for domestic fares.

[Princess Fiona]

I mostly recall having a discount when booking for my children. But this confuses me because I would have mostly booked the cheapest fares.

I'm the same. We usually book Red-e-deals when available but sometimes when booking late for school holidays we booked higher fares and there were definitely child discounts.

 

[Princess Fiona]

So your kid is going to have to pay 20% more to sit in Business Class or hold a fare that needs to be flexible for some remote reason. And that is if you have that kind of money to disburse for such privileges for an individual under 12 years of age.

Big deal IMO really. Take that, Master W Fysh II.......

Actually I think it's a little more than this.
If a Red-e-deal is not available (like many flights in school holidays) then a family will be paying 20% more for each child fare.
Might be no big deal to you but it will be to others.

 

[medhead]

So your kid is going to have to pay 20% more to sit in Business Class or hold a fare that needs to be flexible for some remote reason. And that is if you have that kind of money to disburse for such privileges for an individual under 12 years of age.

Big deal IMO really. Take that, Master W Fysh II.......

As I mentioned up thread. I've had one experience of cabin crew trying to talk me out of taking a business meal for my children, in fact wanting to bring up a Y meal for them. I am pretty certain this was to provide the salmon salad to staff traveling in J. It would be a big deal if that happened when my children had paid full fare.

The compromise was that I took the less desirable meal, and we had one Y meal for the youngest. So I didn't insist even if I thought it was a very ordinary request.

 

[amaroo]

Last time I was in Qantas business with the children, the FA wanted to bring the kids a Y meal so that other J passengers (most likely staff) could have the Salmon salad. One child loves salmon so this was rather annoying. But at least now if the kids are pay full rate then no problems demanding the J meal.

Very poor form indeed. Was this an upgrade where catering is not assured?

 

[harvyk]

Two things,

1. The cost for QF to fly a child from A to B is the exact same price that it would cost to fly an Adult from A to B. (That's not to say I don't like the idea of a kids fare, esp since I have a large family, however see point 2)

2. Domestically I don't think my kids have flown anything other than Red-E-Deals which means that they have never received a child's fare discount. Even internationally since we tend to use sale fare, the discount is basically $100 per child on a $1200 fare. Nice to have (as that means $400 more in our pocket) but again hardly going to make the difference between going and not going.

At least from my point of view, I don't exactly see this as a disaster, and I'm unlikely to take the kids in J anytime soon.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Two things,

1. The cost for QF to fly a child from A to B is the exact same price that it would cost to fly an Adult from A to B. (That's not to say I don't like the idea of a kids fare, esp since I have a large family, however see point 2)

is it? a child weighs half an adult.... so the cost will be different. And no alcohol.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Child fares internationally will go eventually too. Not only for Qantas but everywhere

 

[harvyk]

is it? a child weighs half an adult.... so the cost will be different. And no alcohol.

A non-drinking adult doesn't drink alcohol, is there a discount there? (well yes, if the airline charges for booze, but then the airline is ideally making money from the booze sales)
Also yes a child typically weighs less than an adult, so there is marginly less fuel used (although that margin could be eaten up by unfavorable winds), but outside of that they still use the same resources, aka 1 child = 1 seat no longer available for adults, 1 child = 1 meal, 1 child = 1 pax's worth of FA time. Whilst yes there is no alcohol spent on the child, I remember from my days flying as a child, we could go through the coke cans faster than any adult, so there is still a cost there.

 

[medhead]

Very poor form indeed. Was this an upgrade where catering is not assured?

A relevant question. They were discussing and arranging the meal choices rather than saying no meal was available. We could have all had the not salmon option and they would've been happy.

 

[medhead]

A non-drinking adult doesn't drink alcohol, is there a discount there? (well yes, if the airline charges for booze, but then the airline is ideally making money from the booze sales)
Also yes a child typically weighs less than an adult, so there is marginly less fuel used (although that margin could be eaten up by unfavorable winds), but outside of that they still use the same resources, aka 1 child = 1 seat no longer available for adults, 1 child = 1 meal, 1 child = 1 pax's worth of FA time. Whilst yes there is no alcohol spent on the child, I remember from my days flying as a child, we could go through the coke cans faster than any adult, so there is still a cost there.

The child will still have a fuel saving margin over an adult with an unfavorable wind. They still weigh less and hence still require less fuel to move, even if the flight uses more fuel overall.

I tend to do much of the work looking after my children that an FA would normally do for an adult. A slight time saving.

 

[markis10]

Also yes a child typically weighs less than an adult, so there is marginly less fuel used (although that margin could be eaten up by unfavorable winds), but outside of that they still use the same resources, aka 1 child = 1 seat no longer available for adults, 1 child = 1 meal, 1 child = 1 pax's worth of FA time. Whilst yes there is no alcohol spent on the child, I remember from my days flying as a child, we could go through the coke cans faster than any adult, so there is still a cost there.

A child costs significantly less to fly than an adult when you take into account freight opportunity cost, eg. 60Kg of airfreight that can be loaded in place of an adult would more than likely be more than the full price airfare in terms of revenue. Now Qantas are getting the benefit of that additional weight uplift without any less of passenger revenue.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Now we could start debating fat people should pay more again.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

A child costs significantly less to fly than an adult when you take into account freight opportunity cost, eg. 60Kg of airfreight that can be loaded in place of an adult would more than likely be more than the full price airfare in terms of revenue. Now Qantas are getting the benefit of that additional weight uplift without any less of passenger revenue.

Isn't this getting to the realm of charging passengers by weight argument?

The I way XX KG and pay the same as someone who weighs xx_ KG, but I have a few extra KG of luggage I pay more argument comes along too.

 

[markis10]

Isn't this getting to the realm of charging passengers by weight argument?

The I way XX KG and pay the same as someone who weighs xx_ KG, but I have a few extra KG of luggage I pay more argument comes along too.

It certainly is, but is that not the reason why they gave Child discounts in the first place, considering they count 11 and under as child so very unlikley to approach an adult in mass??

I suspect if airlines could charge by weight they would, just like they do freight.

 

[Ansett]

Did any one else pick up that in the chart provided by Princess Fiona they talk of Minimum points Gaurantee being 1000 where as it is now (or very soon to be) only 800 for the red e deals?

And I agree it is a little low on QF behalf to remove child discounts on the remaining fare types

 

[harvyk]

Did any one else pick up that in the chart provided by Princess Fiona they talk of Minimum points Gaurantee being 1000 where as it is now (or very soon to be) only 800 for the red e deals?

That discussion has been done in another thread... Needless to say I'm not happy as a good number of my points are thanks to MPG...

 

[harvyk]

It certainly is, but is that not the reason why they gave Child discounts in the first place, considering they count 11 and under as child so very unlikley to approach an adult in mass??

I suspect if airlines could charge by weight they would, just like they do freight.

Agreed, I forget my exact weight at 11, but it was certainly much less than it is now.
I still love it how according to the rest of the world, a child becomes an adult at 18 (and in some cases it's even as high as 25 eg, insurance), and yet in the travel industry it's not unheard of for a child to be called an adult before they have even hit double digits.

 

[marki]

This is the latest Dom Fare Structure from Qantas which appears to confirm the tweet
http://www.qantas.com.au/agents/dyn/qf/policies/DomRetailClueCard240414.pdf

They have taken it down page no longer exists on this server

Hmmm

 

[Ansett]

They have taken it down page no longer exists on this server

Hmmm

Just used the link ad it came up for me no problem Sagest try again

 

[RooFlyer]

They have taken it down page no longer exists on this server

Hmmm

I can still access it.

This article in The Oz The Australian quotes a QF spokes person confirming seniors discounts are gone too. Bewdy Alan.

Bit of a lack of acumen here on Qantas' part. If they delayed these announcements for 2 weeks (ie Budget night) - no-one would have noticed