Best time to book

[Sparky123]

Is there a pattern to the pricing of flights with Jetstar? I checked a flight this morning, then checked again when the Friday Frenzy pricing came out. My flights fall outside of the sale dates but the price has increased $30 in 30 minute. Any thoughts on this?

 

[AisleSeat]

Seats in the fare bucket probably sold out?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Is there a pattern to the pricing of flights with Jetstar? I checked a flight this morning, then checked again when the Friday Frenzy pricing came out. My flights fall outside of the sale dates but the price has increased $30 in 30 minute. Any thoughts on this?

If you are looking for the cheapest possible fare, and aren't loyal to airlines your best bet might be to set up a price alert on Google flights for the dates you want to travel. Eventually you'll receive an email saying the prices have gone down quite a bit and are below average. That's your queue to book. Another option if you've collected Virgin and Qantas frequent flyer points from Coles/Woolies shops is to simply redeem the miles on a classic award. I have certainly got a lot of great value that way, particularly on last minute trips. For instance, I booked Brisbane to Longreach, QLD a week prior to travel using Qantas points. It cost me 16,000 miles + ~$60 in taxes and fees but saved me around $400 on airfare. Certainly a great value of Qantas points! Better yet, I've got Sydney to Lord Howe Island booked for June that cost 11,200 points + $160 in taxes and fees to book. Not bad considering that same return ticket would cost close to $1100 to fly out to Australia's Hawaii.

In terms of JetStar it seems like the pattern is they runs promotions every week. Your best bet is to sign up to the JetStar deals email to find out when such sales occur. If your travel date is outside of the date your best bet, if you can't make it be inside that date is to just wait it out until the next sale. For instance, one thing that ticked me off when JetStar was running the 50% fare sale late last year and until end of February was the travel dates were restricted to end of February at the latest. Whilst I was able to take advantage of the offer a few times including booking MAX fares from Adelaide to Melbourne in January, Gold Coast and Launceston in February and a couple of trips to Melbourne in November and December I wasn't able to use it for my Darwin trip I just returned from, nor the trips I have booked with them to Cairns in August, Perth in September, or Townsville in October. All of these trips were booked when a different promotion appeared with the travel dates that work for me.

As for fares increasing $30, I reckon a lot of that is a supply/demand issue. Remember, JetStar operates narrow body airbus A320s which seat 180 people and in many instances don't fly with the same regularity as a Qantas between popular destinations. Hence, when someone does take a seat (either by buying the ticket or redeeming QF points) it shouldn't come as a surprise that prices will go up. This leads me to the golden rule of travelling: when you see a fare you like pull the trigger. Doing this has enabled me to find incredible deals on flights like that $1100 AUD return flight from Heathrow to Sydney on United, $330 AUD return from Sydney to Darwin on JetStar on a MAX fare, or $2000 AUD flying KLM business class return from Toronto to Glasgow.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Hvr]

Two thoughts:

1) When you've decided to fly, book the ticket. As you've seen other people are also buying tickets and fare classes get sold out.

2) make sure you clean the cache between searches. Sometimes booking sites will see you've been there before and only offer more expensive seats. I use Ccleaner for a good clean between searches.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

2) make sure you clean the cache between searches. Sometimes booking sites will see you've been there before and only offer more expensive seats. I use Ccleaner for a good clean between searches.

Speaking of booking, one key thing everyone should do is always book direct with the airline. Often the prices are identical booking with an Expedia or AE Travel versus direct with Qantas. However, booking direct with the airline means you benefit from airline specific perks. For instance, booking direct with Qantas means you get free seat selection. Also later on if you want to make changes to the itinerary or upgrade a segment, you can deal with the airline direct and don't have to go through the OTA who has to play operator between you and the airline. In addition, booking direct also means you can take advantage of airline specific offers. For instance, on many airlines these days when you choose a cabin (i.e. Economy) you can choose various fare classes within the cabin that give you various benefits. On international long haul flights, it may even make sense to spend the extra $100 or $200 to get a fully refundable ticket which is something many OTAs don't offer or at least make as accessible. In terms of accruing frequent flyer points, it's much easier booking direct with the airline since you know where the inventory is coming from (i.e. direct from the airline) and therefore can accurately tell how many status credits or frequent flyer points you'll earn on a segment.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Sparky123]

Two thoughts:

1) When you've decided to fly, book the ticket. As you've seen other people are also buying tickets and fare classes get sold out.

2) make sure you clean the cache between searches. Sometimes booking sites will see you've been there before and only offer more expensive seats. I use Ccleaner for a good clean between searches.

Good advice! I booked today. Did my research and Jetstar was still the cheapest. As we will be travelling in school holidays, I figure the prices will only go up.

 

[Saab34]

Should be a birthday sale coming up soon, buy one get one free or something like that normally.

I have noticed with Friday Frenzy that they increase the prices about 2 weeks either side of the travel period. That is the algorithm simply working to get more revenue from those who wish to travel in one part of the sale window. They do the same with the BOFOF sale. Was annoying once as I forgot to buy a fare and had to wait until the sale ended to buy my fare, which dropped the day after the sale ended. I was travelling the week after a sale period.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Just a heads up JetStar is now running a sale on international fares on their network. I'm seeing JQ fares around $300 return from SYD to HNL but also a number of "domestic" international destinations too like Nadi and Auckland for comparable prices.

-RooFlyer88