Cheaper options than qantas.com and virginblue.com

[simongr]

OK I need to book two flights for 3+1 people (the one is a small child - not an infant):

BNE-SYD 21 Dec
SYD-BNE 3 Jan

As some people will be aware I dont book these flights so am not sure of the cheapest way to do this. I went to QF and DJ (JQ is not of interest nor is TT) websites and was offered $120/$140 (each way - the higher being the upgradeable fare I think) on QF with plenty of availability and $149 on DJ with only availability on the return flight.

Am I missing a trick - is this the cheapest way to book the fares without waiting for sale fares?

Cheers

Simon

 

[serfty]

It's peak holiday season! There are unlikely to be ANY sales for travel on those dates.

More than that; often the cheaper fares disappear quite early (O class for QF).

 

[simongr]

I was thinking that - but do others like flightcentre have flights discounted.

Amusingly when I saw the QF price was cheaper than the DJ and both included the +++ I thought the prices were not bad

 

[AlphaVictor]

qantas.com and virginblue.com.au are the cheapest for domestic airfares in Australia - full stop. A travel agent such as Fright Centre should be able to get the same fares for you with a small service fee.
Forget about online travel agents such as Webjet who charge a whopping $20 - $30 fee for any domestic booking. (what the?)

About a year ago NRMA Travel was discounting online airfares with Virgin Blue for Members by 3% with no credit card fees or booking fees, but I rang recently to book again and was told that the deal was pulled by Virgin B (I wonder why lol!)

Domestic - go direct, forget the rest
International, be rational - use an agent

 

[simongr]

Thanks again - I will get the go ahead from the family and book the QF flights I think - might get the more expensive flights and see if I can upgrade the parents.

Now to enroll them for QFF and grab the 8K points from this trip through family transfers

 

[straitman]

Thanks again - I will get the go ahead from the family and book the QF flights I think - might get the more expensive flights and see if I can upgrade the parents.

Now to enroll them for QFF and grab the 8K points from this trip through family transfers

Just a reminder that you can only transfer once per year from each person.

 

[serfty]

Last year I had to purchase travel MEL/BNE for 4 people up on 23DEC back on 26DEC.

I knew this in January and kept an eye on things; waiting until O availability stated to reduce significantly before purchasing.

At no stage did a sale happen for the dates I needed (although the Price did drop from $165 to $160 pp) sometime early in the year.

 

[serfty]

Just a reminder that you can only transfer once per year from each person.

... and a minimum of 5K per time.

You transfer:

• 5k from your account to ac1,
• then transfer 7k from ac1 to ac2,
• then 9k from ac3 to ac3,
• then 11k from ac3 to ac4,
• then 13k from ac4 back to your account.

 

[simongr]

Last year I had to purchase travel MEL/BNE for 4 people up on 23DEC back on 26DEC.

I knew this in January and kept an eye on things; waiting until O availability stated to reduce significantly before purchasing.

At no stage did a sale happen for the dates I needed (although the Price did drop from $165 to $160 pp) sometime early in the year.

Thanks for this - looks like it is a "this weekend" thing to do to lock in dates etc.

Good points re the transfer - now is it worth the hassle for 8K points ... I think we know the answere to that

And it is red-e-deals that cant be upgraded yeah?

 

[straitman]

... and a minimum of 5K per time.

You transfer:

• 5k from your account to ac1,
• then transfer 7k from ac1 to ac2,
• then 9k from ac3 to ac3,
• then 11k from ac3 to ac4,
• then 13k from ac4 back to your account.

serfty,

I had not thought of that option and so simple really.

 

[littl_flier]

And it is red-e-deals that cant be upgraded yeah?

Yep, when you select the flights, the next screen will tell you down the bottom whether or not. For super saver it says "Upgrade Awards are classified as Discount Economy". If you buy Red-e-deals, it will say upgrade awards unavailable.

 

[simongr]

Hmm - having rechecked the super-saver are in fact $180 - so that's an extra $60 for the chance to spend points to upgrade.

But there plenty of award seats available as well - so plenty of UG opportunities...

The challenge as this is a whY flight where two people are connecting from Emirates in J is that they might get tripped up by local whY baggage allowances...

They are overnighting in BNE as they arrive at 23:30 or something like that. I wonder if they might be able to check their bags all the way through?

 

[littl_flier]

The challenge as this is a whY flight where two people are connecting from Emirates in J is that they might get tripped up by local whY baggage allowances...

QF give you one bag in Economy at 32kgs and extra bags are only $20 each.

And if they're connecting through Flight Connections, then QF will probably waive it anyway. And there's something about QF giving you the most flexible allowance on your itinerary, but Dave will probably argue that because they're not on the same ticket that they're not the same itinerary. Either way, it's only $40.

 

[serfty]

I would not normally bother with paying an additional 50% for the chance to upgrade.

However, if 4 upgrade seats are available NOW and you pay the extra to book super-saver or flexible fares, then you can upgrade immediately the bookings are ticketed. (this may take up to 30 minutes after booking in the normal scheme of things)

 

[serfty]

... The challenge as this is a whY flight where two people are connecting from Emirates in J is that they might get tripped up by local whY baggage allowances. ...

Of course, if they reside out of Oz/NZ, there is no cost to join QFF.

 

[simongr]

Cheers again - I will see what they want to do re the upgrade options. I actually dont have a heap of points lieing around at the moment to upgrade them anyway (many many points spent on our luxury RTW trip in July).

Given that it is holiday time I would be a little surprised in J sells out but nothing is guaranteed of course

The other question is whether I fly up there to greet them and give my mum the J seat I would have...

 

[wallacej]

I was thinking that - but do others like flightcentre have flights discounted.

Amusingly when I saw the QF price was cheaper than the DJ and both included the +++ I thought the prices were not bad

Our company always books on the cheapest price available on the day of booking.

Last Friday flights were booked for Monday week MEL-BNE, then Friday 29th BNE-MEL.

We have taken to not bother with looking at QF recently as DJ has always been cheaper over the last few months.... however we did check and I ended up going MEL-BNE on DJ and BNE-MEL on QF.

The price difference between DJ and QF was aorund the $70 mark which actually took me by surprise...

 

[Mal]

The only option you have is if you have access to Corporate discount fares that are discounted when booking (rather than a rebate later).

Flight Centre a few years ago managed to sell online some discounted J fares, AA used to do well with discounts via the web too but the fuel surcharge found it's way in eventually.