Paying premium for flights out of Australia?

[serfty]

... (Wow, Seat+Bag fare with 34" all economy seat pitch (ANZ A320 160 pax, Jetstar A320 same route 179 pax, I wish ANZ flew Oz domestically) booked through Virgin Australia to fly back to Sydney from Christchurch NZ. That translated on my AMEX bill to $A115 each.
...

Having flown on these 15+ times this I can assure you the AirNZ 320's are not ALL 34" - 12 seats may be 35-36", another 20 may be 34", but the rest are 30".

The reconfig. occurred earlier this year.

You other points are valid; my wife and I travelled on a Air NZ LAX-xAKL-MEL vv fare for AUD950 each - as a Gold Elite Air NZ member, I was able to confirm upgrade to BP on the AKL-LAX segments well in advance of the flights.

 

[qantas38]

Fair enough serfty however I can only speak from experience.

The A320 flight in each direction was the same seat pitch with row 9 outbound & row 26 inbound.
Last April I found the Auckland-Wellington-Christchurch domestic ANZ 737-300 legs experiences to be of roughly similar quality. Gotta admit their safety-vid info is much funnier also!

In that experience my company paid significantly more to/from NZ (still a best price for QF special discount) to travel via QF on their brand new NZ run Jetconnect run 737-838's to get to/from NZ featuring a QF seatpitch that is Jetstaresque at somwhere between 29-30" therefore my 185cm frames knees were well & truly jammed into the seat in front of me for the whole 3 hours each way, not to mention that ALL A320 economy seats with any airline are fractionally wider than economy 737 seats.
It beggars belief that QF run 737s & Jetstar run primarily A320's. 737's must have much lower operational costs is the only reason I can put to logic.

I'd still happily trade my national airline in QF who I have a lot of points with therefore loyalty with for the far more innovative small player in ANZ.
Being a lounge member that get's me into both pubs I always load up on food & drink into the carry on bag so 'seat & bag' with no meals fare doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Duffa]

Waiting for the extension of this thread to everything that is priced differently here and abroad... (Cars? Boats? whatever?)

....:mrgreen::mrgreen:

Fair point, trooper.

But at least we can do something about flights i.e. buy from Europe to Aus rtn.

I tried to buy my dream Aston in the UK and ship it here (45k v 120k) but after taxes, luxury car tax, import duty and a load of other rip-off Australian government fees the UK deal blew out to about $110k - way out of my budget and not worth the hassle even if I could afford it.
Nothing I can do about that other than emigrate or buy a 5 yr old Nissan.

 

[Rebekkap]

I'm always quite surprised at how the Australian consumer is able to afford the high cost of living nowadays (especially for those not lucky enough to be in the "boom" industries). I'm actually now looking to set up ways in which I can buy whatever I need online (and overseas) as much as possible, taking advantage of the sub AUD1,000 GST free for imports wherever possible.

.

We earn more. Average weekly earnings in Australia - over $1026 a week. In the UK, it's £500, and in the US $951. Minimum wage in Australia $15.51 an hour; in the UK £6.08, in the US (for jobs covered by the federal minimum wage -there are exceptions and state minimums as well) $7.25.

Part of the reason things cost more in Australia is because we pay people comparatively decent wages, so our labour costs are higher.

 

[The Rok]

I'm going to do what I can to try to avoid just bending over and taking it without a concerted effort at finding ways around it.

I may need to this trip to Ireland soon and I have been looking at pricing for J and I have been amazed at the price difference !! I am also trying my hardest not to be caught bending over but --- it feels like the rough end of the pineapple to me!!!!

I have priced Emirates PER-DBX-DUB in may next year and I could get it for $6500 in J. That's about as good as you are going to get.

 

[Duffa]

Average weekly earnings in Australia - over $1026 a week. In the UK, it's £500

Eh yes, and when the pound was $2.50 for the greater part of the last 20 years the Poms were on $1250 a week, comparatively speaking!!! It's only recently that the AWE argument holds any water with the pound at $1.60.
We (well you) are getting ripped off.
I have already worked out how to beat them at their own game.

 

[DaleS]

When I got my email this morning I thought this may have been a interesting read.
I was sadly mistaken - just the usual whinging

 

[nonscenic]

I came across one blatant case of the reverse effect (ie cheaper to book starting in Oz) in 2010 when I was arranging bookings for work visitors to come to Melbourne for a month (flying J) from various destinations in the US. Our hapless corporate travel provider is always making interesting wrong bookings (like getting the airport codes wrong and booking a flight for one visitor to return to Port Hedland instead of Portland, Oregon) and on one occasion booked the correct flights on the same dates between HBT and Paducah, Kentucky ,but had him leaving Hobart on the day he should have been leaving Paducah and then returning from Paducah when he should have been going home from Hobart.
Anyway the quoted price starting from HBT was about $9500 while to book from Australia starting in the USA cost $17000. Unfortunately "policies" meant that we couldn't ask the visitors to book themselves with us reimbursing them, so our organisation had to pay the big$.

Note how many of the airline websites make it difficult or impossible to go to their website for a different country. Some use IP filtering to block access while others ask for mailing addresses in the other country or only accept credit cards domilciled in the far country.

 

[jb747]

And, it really doesn't matter who you are flying with, but if you are paying less than $60 per hour for the journey, then you aren't even paying for the fuel used.

 

[Stephen65]

Part of the reason things cost more in Australia is because we pay people comparatively decent wages, so our labour costs are higher.

That is true only to the extent that the Australian price involves a significant labour component. It does not explain the huge discrepancies that exist in prices for items that have either little or no (e.g. software downloads from the USA) such component. Most of the overcharging that occurs here is because vendors have been able to get away with it due to lack of comparative pricing information and/or a captive market.

 

[wilco]

And, it really doesn't matter who you are flying with, but if you are paying less than $60 per hour for the journey, then you aren't even paying for the fuel used.

I don't intend to offend an airline captain, as I am only a CPL holder, but not quite.

Of course it depends on the aircraft and the length of the sector, but EK quotes the A388 burning 3.4l per seat per 100km and the A333 burning 4.0l per seat per 100km.

Using the A388:

With a cruise speed of M0.85, it burns approximately 29l per seat per hour (excluding T/O, but generally this extra fuel burn is compensated by the landing).

The average price for a barrel of JetA this year has been around the US$120 mark and contains 42 Us gallons (159l) (approx US$0.75/l) meaning that the fuel bill for each hour of cruise per passenger is in the order of US$22.

But I agree, anything less than $60 TOTAL/hour, the airline is barely breaking even.

 

[jb747]

I'll bet a lot of people wish the 380 were that economical. I make it about 20% worse. My understanding is that benchmark jet fuel prices are not what is actually charged to the airline, but as i don't see the bill i can't see the per litre cost.

 

[wilco]

I'll bet a lot of people wish the 380 were that economical. I make it about 20% worse. My understanding is that benchmark jet fuel prices are not what is actually charged to the airline, but as i don't see the bill i can't see the per litre cost.

both EK and LH are claiming similar consumption, but yeah, I suppose its difficult to independently verify the figures.

The US$120/barrel came from IATA, but are you suggesting that more or less is paid than the benchmark? I know it gets complicated with hedging etc but I think the total cost per seat per hour would be closer to your estimate.

 

[Awesom Andy]

I would think that airlines don't simply buy fuel in the barrels, but through their suppliers, who would have their own costs and, together with their profit margin, are passed onto the customers (airlines). Airlines also hedge their fuel costs, which also increases the overall costs of the fuel to a slight degree.

Although, going by the $60 per hour figure... it would appear that Qantas loses at least $300 every time I buy a class O SIN-SYD/MEL return ticket... (obviously it doesn't work out that way, but it looks like I'm frequently a "below-cost" pax).

 

[Terryi02]

I have just returned from 3 weeks in the UK and Paris (Thank you US dividend miles) and I agree that the stronger $AUD has not resulted in reduced prices at all!!
Also I bought the latest David Baldacci book in the UK for GBP3.50 and the same book costs $AUD 24.95

 

[oldenglishwhitemga]

A mate of mine needed to get to Czech Republic with spouse and two toddlers. He's an Aus, she has Eu passport etc, kids are Oz. He used a Czech travel agent and bought Business return tix for all via a half day layover in Tokyo ( 4 star accom included in deal) for HALF the best online fare from ANY airline out of Australia.

***Note to self. Must get name of agent and airline when friend returns!

 

[Lynnelanne]

I found out about this in an unpleasant way a few years back. I was doing part of my PhD in Singapore and on a student stipend, so money was tight. I had paid about $1500 AUD from memory for a long stay ticket MEL-SIN-MEL, through STA. I got really sick and had to come back to Melbourne for a month. I was so shocked when I found out the airfare SIN-MEL-SIN was about $600 AUD. I said, ah Ok, so that's one way and he said 'no, that's return'. I was gobsmacked. Now I often get to SIN however, and then book onward flights from there.

Oh, and BTW, cruises are also far far more expensive bought in Australia than bought in USA, for the exact same cabin on the exact same ship. We in Australia are being taken for idiots. Personally I play the globalisation card, I buy wherever is cheapest, there's this thing called the internet......

 

[Rebekkap]

That is true only to the extent that the Australian price involves a significant labour component. It does not explain the huge discrepancies that exist in prices for items that have either little or no (e.g. software downloads from the USA) such component. Most of the overcharging that occurs here is because vendors have been able to get away with it due to lack of comparative pricing information and/or a captive market.

Yeah, I wasn't for a second suggesting it explained all price differences - it was specifically in response to a comment asking how Australians afford to live when things cost more here.

 

[Blackadder]

Facing this issue at the moment looking at flights to LAX in June, returning in July flying QF is around $8,800 J rtn ($7,500 J rtn via AKL).
However if I fly JAL via NRT it is around $6,600 (and roughly 3* the number of SCs of LAX direct)

 

[markis10]

Facing this issue at the moment looking at flights to LAX in June, returning in July flying QF is around $8,800 J rtn ($7,500 J rtn via AKL).
However if I fly JAL via NRT it is around $6,600 (and roughly 3* the number of SCs of LAX direct)

Or $4000 in J with FJ if you match their J NAN LAX for FJD4800 offer with a $1500 QF NAN special.