Tiger Airways - first Australian domestic route

[dajop]

This price has almost been achieved by Jetstar before. Last winter my parents flew to Darwin and back for $179 each on Jetstar. It was a two for the price of one deal. Net price $89.50 per person per flight. And that was in the dry, not the wet, which is of course high season for Darwin.

Also interesting that Tiger are proposing a daily service even over summer, where JQ reduce down from daily during the dry to 3/week during the wet.

 

[stryker]

They are not matching the $79 lead-in fare for every seat on the aircraft. Its just the same as when JQ offered $29 fare. These are lead-in fares with limited seat availability. You cannot judge the revenues to be earned just from the lowest fare offered on a flight.

And note that JQ has a policy whereby they will pay you twice the difference if you find a cheaper comparable fare on another airline. So if they did not match the Tiger fare they could be liable for a significant amount of refunds.

I seriously looked at booking a JQ flight MEL-DRW this morning for early Feb. The first time I looked at my preferred date the JQ website said that there was a $79 seat available on the flight I wanted. When I tried to book it, the website fell over. When I re-entered the website and tried to make the booking again, the fare had gone up to $199 or so (can't remember the exact amount). So guess what, I didn't bother.

I was also looking at flying MEL-SIN with TR in Feb, and discovered that it would be cheaper to buy 2 tickets, one MEL-DRW and the other DRW-SIN (fare AUD 2.60).

In the end, however, once I had added confirmed seating (AUD 50), the cost wasn't all that great, so I have decided to use my QFF points for an award flight to SIN instead (direct ex SYD). The TR / JQ option turned out to be too much hassle, and they will need to sharpen their pencils some more before they get my business to SIN.

 

[Hvr]

I'm looking forward to some competition on the Canberra/Sydney-Melbourne route which is currently a QF & DJ duopoly. Avalon is to Melbourne what Newcastle (Williamtown) is to Sydney so Jetstar, who consider themselves the only truly low cost airline in Australai up until now, hardly factor into the equation on Australia's busiest flightpath.

Given that these routes are primarily business travellers can you really see them wanting to fly J*?

Having flown them once for work was more than enough.

 

[JohnK]

I have been seriously contemplating purchasing one of these low airfares on TR or even JQ.

Is there something wrong with me?

 

[stryker]

I have been seriously contemplating purchasing one of these low airfares on TR or even JQ.

Is there something wrong with me?

Not if you just want to go to DRW and back...

 

[JohnK]

Not if you just want to go to DRW and back...

But I live in SYD and the special is only for MEL-DRW.

But I can incorporate another F lounge run SYD-MEL on QF and stay two separate nights in the Holiday Inns in DRW for extra PC points.

 

[N860CR]

And note that JQ has a policy whereby they will pay you twice the difference if you find a cheaper comparable fare on another airline. So if they did not match the Tiger fare they could be liable for a significant amount of refunds.

Not exactly, JQ dodged a bullet with this one. The JQ policy is only if the other carriers flight departs within an hour of theirs. The JQ MEL-DRW leaves at 2100, TT's is 2300 so the JQ price difference policy would not count on this route.

 

[Evan]

I have been seriously contemplating purchasing one of these low airfares on TR or even JQ.

Is there something wrong with me?

Yes very very wrong !
Only joking. If the price is right i would, just almost every time i think the price is right when i add it all up for some reason or another (eg extra trip to avalon) or extra night in hotel or whatever it just never seems to be a good as it seems.

I was looking at a Japan fare the other day and MH had a F/J combo fare at haff the price of JL or CX etc, 2400 vs 4800 dollars is a big difference, enough to get me to try MH again. As it happens i didn't end up needing to go.

Also since i now buy all my fare's ex SIN or somewhere else i find the costs more reasonable than ex AU cities so the difference is less... but 12 hours via Darwin... hmm maybe just once dince i have never been there, do a stop over for a day and check it out.

E

 

[JohnK]

Yes very very wrong !

As I would expect with most decisions I make.

Only joking. If the price is right i would, just almost every time i think the price is right when i add it all up for some reason or another (eg extra trip to avalon) or extra night in hotel or whatever it just never seems to be a good as it seems.

The price does not appear to be right unless someone can find fault in my calculations. I have been researching the TR airfares a little more and it seems that the times are all wrong. Most appear to be red-eyes and with 1-2 connections from SIN or BKK to MEL you would end up like a zombie at your destination.

I have just worked out that for the same price I can travel BA WT+ BKK-SYD return then if I did a combination of TR and QF for BKK-SIN-DRW-MEL-SYD.

 

[AlphaVictor]

To say that Jetstar matched this Tiger launch fare is not quite the whole truth (as I see it). Jetstar matched this fare at "times" when it suited them. They blacked out the most popular period of Christmas and school holidays.

Having watched Tiger closely out of SIN, I have noticed that in any of their big promos, they have not had any blackout periods during their local school holidays - just public holidays.

If Tiger keep this detail into the Australian market, which I hope they do, then they will soon be dubbed " The family friendly" airline.

As a parent with two kids who values their education, I've never really considered pulling them out of school early just to save a few bucks. If Tiger continues to offer promo fares during school holidays then they'll have my business (and I'm sure quite alot of other parents business as well)

Why should families, students and school employees be price-discriminated against when they travel during school holidays?

 

[StevePER]

Why should families, students and school employees be price-discriminated against when they travel during school holidays?

Supply and demand?

 

[straitman]

As a parent with two kids who values their education, I've never really considered pulling them out of school early just to save a few bucks. If Tiger continues to offer promo fares during school holidays then they'll have my business (and I'm sure quite alot of other parents business as well)

Great if you can afford this logic. A lot of people can't. :evil:

Why should families, students and school employees be price-discriminated against when they travel during school holidays?

As pointed out byStevePER 'Supply and demand'
...and supply and demand is not discrimination. It's economic reality :!:

I believe that this topic is also appropriate to look at in this discussion as the flight times look to have a greater impact than a day or two off school.
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/cheap-international-airfares/tiger-sin-aussie-cheap-10278.html#post131807

 

[AlphaVictor]

Supply and Demand works well for old world carriers such as Qantas / BA / SQ. LCC's are a whole new ball game, the rules have changed to a degree.

12 months ago you would have never seen a $400 return fare to Asia in School Holidays - and we have. Last week there was a $600 fare to Vietnam - in school holidays.

Jetstar in it's close ties to the old world model of Qantas will wake up to the pure LCC model being introduced from Asia. What was up is now down, what was left is now right.

Who benefits most? Probably those that have benefited least in the past - the Aussie family.

Let the juggernaut roll on....

 

[straitman]

Supply and Demand works well for old world carriers such as Qantas / BA / SQ. LCC's are a whole new ball game, the rules have changed to a degree.

12 months ago you would have never seen a $400 return fare to Asia in School Holidays - and we have. Last week there was a $600 fare to Vietnam - in school holidays.

Jetstar in it's close ties to the old world model of Qantas will wake up to the pure LCC model being introduced from Asia. What was up is now down, what was left is now right.

Who benefits most? Probably those that have benefited least in the past - the Aussie family.

Let the juggernaut roll on....

No disagreement here :!:

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

AlphaVictors right...things only now seem to be changing. There are capacity issues on the network at the moment. I flew Melbourne to Sydney on Virgin, Saturday night, inconvenient time of night and the flight was totally full. Not one empty seat. I look for a flight back to Melbourne, a month from now on a particular date I want to travel and already flights are showing up as booked out on Qantas and are prohibitively expensive on Virgin. Jetstar to Avalon (Geelong) are not an option for this particular flight.

 

[straitman]

AlphaVictors right...things only now seem to be changing. There are capacity issues on the network at the moment. I flew Melbourne to Sydney on Virgin, Saturday night, inconvenient time of night and the flight was totally full. Not one empty seat. I look for a flight back to Melbourne, a month from now on a particular date I want to travel and already flights are showing up as booked out on Qantas and are prohibitively expensive on Virgin. Jetstar to Avalon (Geelong) are not an option for this particular flight.

Is it near a weekend and are you clashing with the football crowds :?:

 

[jakeseven7]

Is it near a weekend and are you clashing with the football crowds :?:

yea i'd say that.

capacity for mel-syd at peak times (and peak special events) is always nightmarish however if you look at full day and week spread there is still heaps of room in the traditional off peak (e.g. mid morning to early pm flights during week)

capacity and slots in and out of sydney are usually the problem - i will be very interest to see how and when Tiger can actually access slots at Syd, have a feeling that they may be pushed to get decent peak flights in at any kind of scale...?

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

Swans played in Geelong that day yes.

 

[ethernet]

and supply and demand is not discrimination. It's economic reality :!:
No, it should be Scarcity alone.

Hmmm, if you beleve that, then you also believe it is OK if petrol jumps 12 cents before a long weekend. Funny how fare discounting goes in lock step like petrol, yet market abuse cannot be found.

Economic theory says new entrants should be allowed in, but the startup costs can be high, more if political interference artificially protects incumberants. Remember the dirty tricks when Virgin was not allowed to used empty terminal space when Ansett moved out.

A .sg dude told me the travel industry is profitably sick in asia, so now they focus on getting you to point B, then onselling services like accom and trips.
Fingers crossed, because a 10% supply increase can halve profits.

 

[NM]

Hmmm, if you beleve that, then you also believe it is OK if petrol jumps 12 cents before a long weekend. Funny how fare discounting goes in lock step like petrol, yet market abuse cannot be found.

There are significant differences in the two. Airlines do not increase their fares during times of higher demands. They always offer a large range of fares, but at times of high demand (such as school holidays) there is more demand for the lower fares which sell out very early, only leaving people with higher fare options to purchase. They may also limit the number of low fare tickets they will sell for high-demand flights, so the low fares sell out very early in the process. The result is that many (most??) people end up paying more to travel in peak times than at other times.

When it comes to buying fuel, we don't have the option to pre-purchase the fuel months in advance, but must by it on the day at whatever price the fuel companies decide they want to sell it for on that day. If you have a means of storing the fuel for later use, then you can avoid paying the higher prices by purchasing when the price is low. To some extent you have the ability to do that with air travel. But to get the cheap fares for travel at peak times you may need to be purchasing almost a year ahead of time.