Article: Qantas Slashes Domestic Business Class Fares

[AFF Editor]

Qantas Slashes Domestic Business Class Fares is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Qantas Slashes Domestic Business Class Fares

Qantas has substantially reduced its Business Class fares on numerous domestic routes within Australia including Melbourne-Sydney and Perth-Adelaide.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Revenge]

The benefits of competition in a market

 

[GrahamBRI]

Not sure I have seen any reductions……. June, July and Aug 2023 I was purchasing Brisbane to Cairns for $532 (for dates 2 to 6 month out). Now $591 as you note, so it has gone up slightly for the BNE-CNS route. I have experienced same experience as you with travel agents pricing for Qantas Business……Amex travel adding another $16 to these fares.

 

[jakeseven7]

Interesting but personally I’ve never seen those Mel/Bne prices or those Mel/Syd prices (looking now on weekends a couple of months out).

From a business point of view, we get a decent % off and also on a QF rebate structure which drastically reduces the J fares. But sadly I can’t use that for personal travel

 

[RooFlyer]

I was looking at Hobart to Sydney in August and September yesterday and did a double-take when I saw business for $500.

Booked a couple to join up to some international departures and arrivals .

 

[dylarr]

I noticed the $449 SYD - MEL J fares last night when doing some research. I'm so used to seeing $900+ I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!

 

[Chalkie]

Me too. I've started booking some MEL-SYD runs.

Unfortunately though not available via the Amex site, which leaves one in a bit of a quandary about how to use the flight credit!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Good news!

These fares - most recently - came out during the ‘three day sale’ (or whatever it was). Then they launched the double SC promo and I thought those fares would disappear at the same time, but no! They’ve stayed!

This really opens up the SYD-MEL market for me. Rex is a great alternative to VA, but didn’t have a 7pm MEL-SYD for example. Now I can use QF for that.

 

[justinbrett]

OOL is included too for capital city routes (same price as BNE)

I would say this is more a reflection of declining business travel across the board than anything else. In any case I wish QF offered a non-flexible J option like they do on US airlines, where you can get some very cheap fares if you’re willing to lock them in early.

 

[serfty]

In any case I wish QF offered a non-flexible J option like they do on US airlines, where you can get some very cheap fares if you’re willing to lock them in early.

In the USA there is more competition and most fare can be changed for no fee.

With AA for example, post COVID, all fares other than Basic Economy can ce cancelled to be held as credit. (You can pay more on booking to make them fully refundable.)

 

[justinbrett]

In the USA there is more competition and most fare can be changed for no fee.

With AA for example, post COVID, all fares other than Basic Economy can ce cancelled to be held as credit. (You can pay more on booking to make them fully refundable.)

Yes but they still sell two tiers of J fares where only one is fully refundable. The refund to travel credit might work for some, but not all - and how long until they go back to the old ways?

 

[serfty]

how long until they go back to the old ways?

I guess the legacy airlines are "eyeing each other" off".

 

[clifford]

OK, so Qantas have "slashed" stupidly expensive J fares to just expensive (in some cases).

Fair enough, but I would never buy one unless having to use up my $450 Amex credit or being rather desperate.

 

[Peso]

Saw this post having bought a J fare earlier during DSC for a trip I'd normally make with JQ thinking I must have bought it under the inflated price. Happy to see that I did buy it at the reduced price, and for DSC!

 

[Daver6]

Yet QF want ~$2.8k for PER-SYD J on a 737 Who is paying that price?!

 

[wandering_fred]

There was a message board article on American Airlines business class fares.... initial post in 2019
AA offers TOD “tens of dollars” First Class & Upgrades
I suspect you can easily find it with your favorite search engines
More recent posts cover the "fall-out" where the high earning AA frequent fliers are finding that the business cabins are full of paid fares (or paid upgrades) and the free upgrades due to their status are much diminished.
And given that checked baggage fees in the USA are a "thing" (and free bags are limited even with status)
paying for the better seat is becoming more common as then the checked bag(s) are "free"
I wonder how a change like this in Australia will affect my future wandering
Fred

 

[markus2578]

I had a $1000 flight Centre gift card to use, thought I would use it to book business class return adl-per. On Qantas website it was 699 each way, FC could only manage $1800 each way. Now I need to work out what to use the voucher on, really not a fan of FC!

 

[CaptJCool]

Aside the MEL-BRI $499
HOB-SYD $500

These J fares have been in the market for sometime now sliding along UNTIL around 45 days out from date of travel so it’s interesting to see it drop to 28 days on some routes

Had I not been in need of a few SCs to get to LTG I would probably already shunted my spend to the competition


Especially with this old/new way of booking

Same flights vastly different pricing offered up for one way v multi-city !!


Which by the way is $60 cheaper than Adelaide - OOL via Melb

Similarly pricing Hobart - Adelaide
Noting Hobart - Brisbane prices up similarly both ways

 

[dvb2000]

likewise, I've flown quite a few business class flights around Australia in the past year, and NONE of them were on the ridiculously priced Qantas fares.

Virgin is definitely the go to airline, these days, also Qantas is on the nose, so no skin off my nose to reject them.

 

[Gary169]

I recently (Feb 7, 2024) purchased $499 to Mel-Bris.
Bought another for April at same fare - taking advantage of double SC credits prior to end June.