Yield management madness - J Class on VA is cheaper than Y class😔

[Paralax]

As airlines continue to max the fares while they can, they are really pushing the envelope. On looking into flights MEL/DPS/MEL for Christmas I found Economy is more expensive than Business class!!!!!

Seriously how dumb do they think we are? And VA J Class is certainly not an International J Class offering.

thoughts/comments?

 

[muppet]

Yes a Business cabin seat is cheaper than Economy, but it’s not J class being cheaper than Y.

Perhaps a D class is cheaper than Y.

Certainly unusual but if demand is greater for Economy than Business …. plus there’s probably only a couple of seats available at that price. Before it goes up to the C and J class pricing.

 

[Denali]

I got similar last year when we had a conference in Darwin and my boss lets me book my own flights & accomm. Everyone flew Y except for myself and hubby. Score for us!

Grab them while you can.

 

[oz_mark]

It is what it is.

 

[dajop]

If you assume a certain portion of travellers look and book through a non-airline portal, that may require seperate searches for different classes of travel, and might not even think of looking at a business class fare for the journey, then why not revenue maximize in economy, whilst maintaining "competitiveness" (and I use that term loosely) in business?

 

[Quickstatus]

I recently booked BA J cabin short haul international which was cheaper than Y cabin on the same flight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

While probably not applicable to DPS, it’s fairly common to see economy higher than business class on business travel routes. Many companies have an ‘economy class only’ policy, regardless of the price. The airline can charge high fares in economy, and sell business class to leisure travellers, freeing up seats in economy for high-paying corporates.

 

[Gremlin]

When Emirates used to go across the ditch between BNE and AKL, previous employer would cover Best Economy price for Qantas or Virgin only. You could book others, but you had to present available prices for above and they would reimburse according to the cheapest.

Regularly booked Emirates in Business class and made a profit as the Y prices on QF and VA were higher than the Emirates Business price. It was great.

 

[Forg]

When Emirates used to go across the ditch between BNE and AKL, previous employer would cover Best Economy price for Qantas or Virgin only. You could book others, but you had to present available prices for above and they would reimburse according to the cheapest.

Regularly booked Emirates in Business class and made a profit as the Y prices on QF and VA were higher than the Emirates Business price. It was great.

The only time I’ve ever flown in First was EK return to AKL … was actually cheaper than QF full-price economy at the time.

 

[funnybrus]

I flew BNE-MEL on boxing day last year - cheapest flight in any cabin on any airline was VA biz for $299.

 

[lovestotravel]

Lots of people use Flight Centre etc, they request economy and get the airfare

 

[odysseus]

Checked and in the week leading into Christmas, only Flex is available on Economy for flights to Bali - a popular Christmas holiday destination.

So it's comparing that against discount Business. Cause most travellers to Bali don't book business class. But all the cheap seats - which would be half or less the price you see - are sold out.

If you check most flights across many of their routes, VA's discount business is cheaper than full Y - Flex.

 

[TravelingJ]

Can confirm Y prices to Bali at Xmas are through the roof. Needed to get to Bali for a positioning flight and certainly paid a premium for economy on Jetstar. Just hoping that I arrive reasonably close to day of booking given the performance of JQ on the route (ive left a few days gap between originating flight and departure).

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to posting on AFF @Paralax

You’d only be dumb if you didn’t book the business class seat, wouldn’t you?

 

[flyingfan]

Think I’ve seen this much more with VA than QF. Pays to check out the J fares in case the difference is minimal, and not automatically assume it’ll always be more expensive or out of reach.

 

[SydneySwan]

Last week Mrs SS flew to Melbourne return on VA in J with tickets booked in January. Flex Y was $399 each way and J was $349 each so this was an easy decision.