Why is Domestic J so damned expensive????

[amaroo]

Interestingly we have yet to unearth any AFFer who pays J fares domestically at full tote odds out of his or her own pocket.

I'm sure there are plenty. I've been happy to pay when I've needed a few SC or, had one of those juicy DSC offers.

We had Club Europe on BA between Rome and Gatwick the service was good, seats were ok but not what you would expect after an Australian domestic business class seat.

The best thing about CE - those lousy SC. Lucky it's cheap. LHR-ATH/IST-LHR was only £487 ... you could get it even cheaper - if you could be bothered.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

And DAD I bet they are expert at making you feel that !
Let them suffer, it's good for their soul. !!!!!!

I think if someone can afford to fly, they don't need to fly economy if they don't want to. Plenty of people are happy to (fly economy), but otherwise with a little bit of planning you can be flying premium for the same price. Friends bought SIN return on JQ star class for $650 or whatever in the last sale round... that's just a fraction more than QF was charging for economy. Same applies to Japan (etc).

Buying miles you could/can fly business class across australia for an extra $100 over economy.

however... many people prefer the ease and convenience of being able to buy any ticket, on any carrier, at the times they want, so paying economy rather than fussing with miles suits their needs.

 

[BAM1748]

Charge what the market will withstand. If nobody is paying it then the price will change pretty quick.

matt

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Charge what the market will withstand. If nobody is paying it then the price will change pretty quick.

matt

Another way to look at this is the sheer number of folks buying miles. What this says is pax are happy to pay $4k to Europe in biz, but because that option isn't commercially available the next lowest price point is economy for <$2k and that's what they buy. If that aircraft departs with an empty or ID pax in biz it's $$ flushed straight down the drain for the airline.

Knowing what each individual pax is willing to pay is the key to long term profitability for airlines imo.

 

[Flying mermaid]

And DAD I bet they are expert at making you feel that !
Let them suffer, it's good for their soul. !!!!!!

No they really don't! I just seem to be an expert in feeling guilty over everything.....Mr FM doesn't seem to have this problem, so I tend to hide my extravagances over the kids from him......

 

[Zephyrana]

Interestingly we have yet to unearth any AFFer who pays J fares domestically at full tote odds out of his or her own pocket.

I do.

So bring on the withering criticisms!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Buying miles you could/can fly business class across australia for an extra $100 over economy.

Except no SCs that way. I've been buying J and flexi, admittedly to retain status and I've now committed to actually spending more to gain and keep status with both dom majors. I do recall you mentioning the reality of forgoing status previously and I think maybe I need to revisit that concept. I'd have no problems with not having status if I could pay an extra $100 and fly J transcon or in fact, any flight over, say, 2 hours (let's face it, I'm doing that anyway to retain the handcuffs). Is your assessment very generalised, based on all the planets being aligned, or is it a very real scenario? Buying VA points is neither easy or cheap (AFAIK) so I assume you're speaking of QF points bought? My QF status year starts again at the end of this month, so I'm keen to explore this avenue before that, so I buy what I need.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I think if someone can afford to fly, they don't need to fly economy if they don't want to. Plenty of people are happy to (fly economy), but otherwise with a little bit of planning you can be flying premium for the same price.

Friends bought SIN return on JQ star class for $650 or whatever in the last sale round... that's just a fraction more than QF was charging for economy. Same applies to Japan (etc).

Buying miles you could/can fly business class across australia for an extra $100 over economy.

however... many people prefer the ease and convenience of being able to buy any ticket, on any carrier, at the times they want, so paying economy rather than fussing with miles suits their needs.

Oh you mean the ones who you try and explain the art of buying miles to fly J who then respond with "yeah, nah, it's all too hard I'll just book with Flight Centre."

Then you say under your breath "well don't come crying to me when you sit up all night in an economy seat when you could have had a flat bed and lounge access for less mobey."

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Except no SCs that way. I've been buying J and flexi, admittedly to retain status and I've now committed to actually spending more to gain and keep status with both dom majors. I do recall you mentioning the reality of forgoing status previously and I think maybe I need to revisit that concept. I'd have no problems with not having status if I could pay an extra $100 and fly J transcon or in fact, any flight over, say, 2 hours (let's face it, I'm doing that anyway to retain the handcuffs). Is your assessment very generalised, based on all the planets being aligned, or is it a very real scenario? Buying VA points is neither easy or cheap (AFAIK) so I assume you're speaking of QF points bought? My QF status year starts again at the end of this month, so I'm keen to explore this avenue before that, so I buy what I need.

I was referring to buying former USDM miles, and to some extent, current AA miles. Also avios (particularly for airlines that allow avios+pay, such as CX and QF).

However, if you do a lot of domestic travel I suppose at some stage you might run out of miles, and status may be useful.

 

[cove]

Wondering if there are any folks desperate enough to buy AA miles with a 15% bonus. I haven't seen such an ordinary deal since we joined AA a couple of years ago. That said I think a 35000 mile redemption for coast to coast travel with this latest offer would cost about $1,000 for business class return on Qantas. It is a deal if you have run out.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Wondering if there are any folks desperate enough to buy AA miles with a 15% bonus. I haven't seen such an ordinary deal since we joined AA a couple of years ago. That said I think a 35000 mile redemption for coast to coast travel with this latest offer would cost about $1,000 for business class return on Qantas. It is a deal if you have run out.

Friends of mine live in Melbourne but are from WA - so travel back for all the usual 'family' things like Easter, Christmas, birthdays. Last Christmas they were faced with $750 return fares in economy. Award seats were available on the same flights (in fact there was more choice with awards!)... $1000 would represent reasonably good value (although last year the award tickets were in the same ball-park as the actual fare)

 

[opusman]

Wondering if there are any folks desperate enough to buy AA miles with a 15% bonus. I haven't seen such an ordinary deal since we joined AA a couple of years ago. That said I think a 35000 mile redemption for coast to coast travel with this latest offer would cost about $1,000 for business class return on Qantas. It is a deal if you have run out.

It's a 15% discount plus a bonus.

 

[Bundy Bear]

I'm interested in this question, my thoughts exactly, cause I cant see what the big deal is with either airline - for that type of $$$.

Does anyone actually pay those amounts?

Yes there are people who pay these amounts.

I think I made about 30 trips between the east and west coast and about half were in business class, I think the most I paid was around $600 but that did get me flying business, so long JASAs they were a life saver.

This year alone I have completed 9 flights between Brisbane and Perth only 2 were in business, my average is slipping.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's a 15% discount plus a bonus.

with both of those combined still gives you ~AUD1000 (bit less) for AU domestic business.

 

[cove]

Yes thanks for the correction on the AA discount and bonus. It is not as good as the previous one and getting a $4000 domestic business class ticket for sub $1,000 is still acceptable for PER-SYD-PER.

 

[SponsorSFC]

I have 2 upcoming PER-SYD-PER booked on QF one from AA bought earlier in the year and one from one of the last USDM 100% bonus offers pre merger as well as a PER-SYD-NOU-SYD-PER from the same USDM offer.

To me these are definitely worth it as it worked out at just under $500 per person each way on AA and about $350 on USDM (the AUD was significantly stronger and only 30,000 points required for a return redemption)..

VA is is possible to buy points for a transcon redemption with VX however these bonuses seem to be less often and not quite as economical the last one was about $600 per person each way.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I was referring to buying former USDM miles, and to some extent, current AA miles. Also avios (particularly for airlines that allow avios+pay, such as CX and QF).

However, if you do a lot of domestic travel I suppose at some stage you might run out of miles, and status may be useful.

Yes thanks for the correction on the AA discount and bonus. It is not as good as the previous one and getting a $4000 domestic business class ticket for sub $1,000 is still acceptable for PER-SYD-PER.

I must be doing something wrong. I've only searched AA at the moment and from what I can see, the current point purchase deal (15% + 27000 bonus) puts each point at approx. US$0.022 which is pretty close to AU$0.03. By my reading of the AAdvantage site, all intra Oz redemptions in J are 17500 (Is this correct? Every sector the same price?), which equates to approx. AU$520 + whatever taxes they add, plus CC exchange costs. For that I get a J seat but no points or SCs. Through the QF website, I can buy BNE-CNS for AU$599 which gives about AU$40 worth of points and 60SCs. If that's right, a person would have to be a mug to do that redemption.

I'm assuming I've mucked up the whole thing somewhere, so can someone steer me in the right direction please?

 

[SponsorSFC]

That seems about right

$838.67 USD to purchase 35,000 Miles (30,000 + 5,000 bonus) = $1,129.36 AUD according to current xe.com rates = $0.3226 AUD per mile.

The fees and taxes for the redemption are about $30.00 AUD on transcon so call that $1,160.00 for neatness.

Obviously terrible value for any travel within the East Coast but still pretty good value for J transcon or West Coast Aus to NZ as it is exactly the same cost.

USDM was even better as it included the South Pacific as well for the same 30,000 points return cost as within AUS/NZ.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

That seams about right

$838.67 USD to purchase 35,000 Miles (30,000 + 5,000 bonus) = $1,129.36 AUD according to current xe.com rates = $0.3226 AUD per mile.

The fees and taxes for the redemption are about $30.00 AUD on transcon so call that $1,160.00 for neatness.

Obviously terrible value for any travel within the East Coast but still pretty good value for J transcon or West Coast Aus to NZ as it is exactly the same cost.

USDM was even better as it included the South Pacific as well for the same 30,000 points return cost as within AUS/NZ.

Many thanks for the confirmation. So in a nut shell, long haul dom might be OK but short haul is not worth it.

 

[opusman]

If that's right, a person would have to be a mug to do that redemption.

Not worth it for east coast flights, but for east coast-PER or T/T can be better value than buying the ticket if that's your only other option.