Introducing Early Bird Fares, save when you book in advance.

[Grimace1]

Just got an email from V-Mail Specials which is announcing that Virgin Australia are now offering Early Bird Fares as long as you book 60 days in advance.

http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/e...s&cmpid=VM_20160314_Specials_APFares_hero_qld

 

[Milefest]

Provides more options for cheaper flights, so I'm not complaining.

Though it's difficult for me to know my flight patterns more than 2 months in advance.

 

[Bagpuss]

I thought this was going to be something new which would stay around. Pretty sure there was something in the recent financial reporting that while load factors are OK, most bookings were closer to the travel date.
So this kinda made sense to stimulate earlier sales.
However, it seems it's just a sale they are running until the end of March.
Must be hard to come up with new names for a Sale, when they have Sales pretty much constantly.

 

[Milefest]

Yep, after reading the fine print, it seems to be a temporary sale:

* Fares are on sale until midnight 31 March 2016 unless sold out prior.

 

[JohnK]

The fine print got me.

*Selected flights only. Conditions apply.

 

[anat0l]

I have to admit being really confused by this promotion. What am I supposed to expect?

It just seems like another sale. Or am I missing something?

 

[Milefest]

I have to admit being really confused by this promotion. What am I supposed to expect?

It just seems like another sale. Or am I missing something?

Probably just another way to market a sale, but I don't really understand it either.

I thought you had to clearly state the offer was for a limited time only as per the ACCC guidelines not hidden in the conditions.

You must state clearly if the good is in short supply or on sale for a limited time.

And even if you don't have to display the end date of a sale on the advertisement, the expiry date isn't in the conditions when clicking the early bird sale ad off VA website.

Early Bird - 60 day Advance Purchase Fares
*Prices quoted are per person, booked on the internet. Fares must be purchased at least 60 days prior to departure and are subject to availability.

Surely they don't expect customers to remember the conditions from their emails which they might not have received or think that the "on sale until midnight" column applies to the early bird offer.

 

[JohnK]

I have to admit being really confused by this promotion. What am I supposed to expect?

It just seems like another sale. Or am I missing something?

It's another sale with availability limited to early morning and last flight of the night.

 

[anat0l]

It's another sale with availability limited to early morning and last flight of the night.

Right, so it's just another sale.


See, my understanding would have been, on face value, that it's basically like a "rolling sale". That is, you can get sale (or close to sale, viz. competitive and not full sticker) prices all year round, without needing to rely on "on sale" bulletin emails, but it only applies to fares that are 60 days or later from today's date. This would be rather similar to, say, hotels, where, for example, IHG have Advance Purchase rates but only if you book at least 21 days in advance. This doesn't necessarily guarantee that there will be Advance Purchase rooms available, but otherwise there is a somewhat consistent price all year around as long as you book far enough in advance. A sale bulletin may avail more rooms to Advance Purchase rates, temporarily lower the rate to a promotional one, and/or - rarely - offer them within time frames sooner than 21 days in advance.

I could even believe that Early Bird was a new fare type, perhaps with more restrictions or a reduction in earning.

If this is just another sale then it seems rather lame to introduce it as what seems a new fare.

The only main things which are unusual for a sale like this is the time frame, i.e. sale on until end of March, and the travel period, i.e. 17 May (or 60 days from today, whichever is later) until end of 2016.

 

[kalboy]

Personally I'd love to see "last minute fares" Skywest used to massively drop the fare ex Mel to KGI to around $180 about 6 hours before the flight and i'm pretty sure i've seen $80 KGI-PER on the 10PM Sunday night flight hours before departure. Since VA took over XR these fares float around 380 and 200 respectively (and dropped the meal service)

 

[Deleted member 29185]

When I saw this promo I though good, until I saw that I could book cheaper and that it wasn't for all flights. It's Ok if you absolutely need to book early, but holding off until a Thursday night sale fare works out cheaper in my limited experience, but that is a gamble of course. Very Ho Hum promo, this one.

I wonder why they don't do more flexi sales. Let's face it, flexi fares is big money for ordinary jam for VA so why not milk it a bit more with some sales to entice more punters?

 

[JohnK]

See, my understanding would have been, on face value, that it's basically like a "rolling sale". That is, you can get sale (or close to sale, viz. competitive and not full sticker) prices all year round, without needing to rely on "on sale" bulletin emails, but it only applies to fares that are 60 days or later from today's date.

That is what I thought when I first saw it but when I checked the airfares there were way too many limitations. Oh well.