Article: Why International Flights Are So Expensive Right Now

[clifford]

Re your last para - members of the new Government are certainly clocking up their share of the growth...

Well, one in particular comes to mind...

 

[exceladdict]

Also quoted ‘Air Tavel is at the top of people’s priority list” for spending and likely last thing to get cut (in relation to will airfares remain high).

I wouldn't be travelling for leisure ATM if I wasn't flying on points.

Other than some pent-up VFR, I doubt people will choose holidays over paying their mortgages which are continually increasing.

 

[JohnK]

I wouldn't be travelling for leisure ATM if I wasn't flying on points.

Other than some pent-up VFR, I doubt people will choose holidays over paying their mortgages which are continually increasing.

My mortgage is increasing. I'm not getting younger. Leisure is all I've got in this warped simulation.

 

[Lawrage]

Does seem a bit excessive at the moment. Looking at Perth - Los Angeles in January, roughly $3500 a ticket

Post automatically merged: Oct 6, 2022

My mortgage is increasing. I'm not getting younger. Leisure is all I've got in this warped simulation.

Yup, cant stop living just cause everything is more expensive

 

[exceladdict]

My mortgage is increasing. I'm not getting younger. Leisure is all I've got in this warped simulation.

Fair point. And I guess people have had two years to spend discretionary income on things other than travel so may cut clothes, TVs and eating out for the sake of travel.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think fares are expensive simply because of the ‘Australia tax’. There are regular deals and promotions outside australia in all classes that airlines simply don’t make available in reverse (out of australia).

Or there are comparable flight lengths and class of service that are half the price we pay ex Australia.

If an airline can fly you DPS/MNL/BKK/CGK to europe or USA return for $2200-$3000 it doesn’t cost them an extra $5000 or $6000 to tag on the extra few hours to Australia.

It’s not lack of competition, we have plenty of international airlines flying here. They choose to offer the lower fares on a return basis from overseas and charge the aussie market top dollar.

Glad to see some carriers such as cathay coming back with sensible $1200 return fares in economy to europe for next year

 

[Warks]

I just ran a multistop booking to Europe for May 2023 through Singapore's site and got a fare of just under $2K (Y of course). Ran the same dates and cities through Webjet and it was just under $6K with about 20 Lufthansa itineraries at the top of the list.

 

[JohnK]

Swings and roundabouts @Warks.

I've been looking at SQ website for return to Thailand end this month and airfares were $1900+, $2200 and higher.

Looked at Skyscanner, Webjet last night and it was the same. Then around 3:00am Webjet airfare dropped to $1515. I thought it was too good to be true. So I held off.

Then earlier today Webjet was still $1515 but I still hesitated. Then it went up $1719 so I booked.

Turns out it's Economy Flexi (earning double Velocity SCs) and is confirmed. And the best part is using Afterpay so pay in full after 6 weeks when I return from trip.

 

[irv]

IMO the airlines were always going to try to increase revenue over passenger numbers. Simple basic business analysis, if you are starting from go, which realistically is what happened, then you buy the market share (to an extent) before you rebuild the profitability.

 

[laffer]

Interesting observations. I always expected Late Dec and Jan to be high season and I am usually prepared to pay an additional premium. But at the moment - that premium is ridiculous.

Picking up on a helpful post in another thread (which Mattg kindly contributed to), I was looking at picking up a good value from BKK to CDG in Jan. I also found a slighly small expensive option out of JKT.

However, getting to BKK and or JKT (or even trying to get to any other close enough Asian airport) in Dec and Jan is ridiculous and well above what might be considered to be the usual premium. Circa $3k to Jakarta. Circa $3.5k to BKK (and thats on Air Asia) or $4.8k on QF. Well over the odds for me (unfortunately for me but if the Airlines are getting people to pay it then I suppose it works well for them?)

Query is, if some of the observations above are true, whether they are, in fact, getting people to pay these fares?

 

[Miksmith]

Nice article.

It was a shock to me checking flights from BNE-BKK return for end of March 2023 until mid-April 2023.

I started checking a few months back in July and prices were about $900 return per person. Now they are $1200-$1300 return per person and the more popular days are $1500-$2000 return per person.

That's a huge hole in the budget.

I looked at going to Tokyo from Perth in March and it’s like drug money over $5K for return economy on QF

 

[wandering_fred]

14 Mar PER(0225)-KUL-NRT (0715+)
21 Mar NRT(1005)-KUL-PER(0125+)
Google prices at AU$1013
CX is slightly more expensive
If you want some QF flights fly PER-SIN and use separate tickets. Overnight in SIN does not have to be $$$$
Keep wandering
Fred

 

[serfty]

14 Mar PER(0225)-KUL-NRT (0715+)
21 Mar NRT(1005)-KUL-PER(0125+)
Google prices at AU$1013
CX is slightly more expensive
If you want some QF flights fly PER-SIN and use separate tickets. Overnight in SIN does not have to be $$$$
Keep wandering
Fred

Qantas have a "sale" on that finishes November 21st.

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/flight-deals/travel-deals-and-packages.html?alt_cam=au:qd:in:edm:redemail:sale-deals:14Nov22:int:CONTENT:fd:heroimage-0-default:ht&cid=DM129137&bid=294388180

 

[laffer]

It is madness. I was scouting around for some fares recently. Stumbled on a flight from CGK to LAX via Sydney (CGK to SYD in QF J and SYD to LAX in United J) for $4k. The flight from SYD to LAX booked alone was $11k on United. I was tempted to find a cheap on way in Y to CGK and then just not fly the final leg back to CGK (or nest it by pushing that leg out as far as possible if that was possible) as there are some great deals out of CGK lately and QF is generally extortionate.

 

[burmans]

There appears to be some movement. Going to a wedding in NZ (Wellington) mid Jan, fortunately wife and I got FF seats as my daughters didn’t book early and flights about $1450 return, which is just ridiculous. But then last night noticed the flights had dropped by $500 so suggested they book straight away so maybe prices are starting to drop. One data point only of course.

 

[Dr4manyspecies]

There appears to be some movement. Going to a wedding in NZ (Wellington) mid Jan, fortunately wife and I got FF seats as my daughters didn’t book early and flights about $1450 return, which is just ridiculous. But then last night noticed the flights had dropped by $500 so suggested they book straight away so maybe prices are starting to drop. One data point only of course.

I just booked ADL -DFW for nearly $5k in Y... it's ridiculous. Having said that, I'm hoping they take my upgrade requests to premium for the longhaul legs (oddly only 19600pts each LAX leg?).
I'm hoping fares drop for my planned trip this winter.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Another example this morning via LoyaltyLobby of the unfair pricing and raw deals we get here in Australia SQ has launched return business class fares NRT-SYD for USD2166… or around AUD3300. From Australia we get slogged an extra $1000.

The sale ex NRT comes at a time when those paying full whack for business class can’t even change their flights due to limited availability into Australia.

Dunno why we get so heavily penalised.

 

[transpactraveller]

It's not just international flights, my upcoming domestic fares within Australia are about double what I paid pre-pandemic.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's not just international flights, my upcoming domestic fares within Australia are about double what I paid pre-pandemic.

Depends on the airline! Rex and VA are pretty rock bottom. Fares on major trunk routes from $79 Business from $349.

 

[burmans]

Personally I think prices have peaked and are starting to come down. Pre Xmas flights to NZ were $1500, just got a mail today of flights to ZQN for $350. Certainly nothing like what they were but trend seems to be starting to come down.