Fares to AFL and NRL grand finals

[basso]

AFL & NRL GF's are part of 'being Australian'. Don't feature anywhere else. Being part of a global market economy doesn't necessarily mean you have to adopt greed as a mantra. An Australian company will always function within the expectations of Australian culture and morality much better, if led by an Australian. There is nothing wrong with making a fair and honest profit; but to exploit West Coast & FNQ fans desire to simply want to follow their teams in this wide-spread land isn't reflective of the Aussie values that I was brought up to follow in the 50s/60s. Virgin, hotels and others are similarly guilty of the same 'scalping'. I don't feel guilty about following the theme of the OP and highlighting exactly where these 'types' (to conform to your language) are going wrong in this country. Greed is greed no matter how you dress it up. (and what better time than the 21st century under a new PM to start to recapture some Australian identity before it is absorbed into someone else's set of values)

The thing is, with the airlines, the ticket prices you are seeing are always there - they get masked by the cheaper tickets that are available. It is quite normal to see these prices if you are trying to buy a ticket on a popular route within a week of travel, especially during school holidays. It's no so much that the airlines jack prices up, it is more that the cheap options have been snapped up.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

The thing is, with the airlines, the ticket prices you are seeing are always there - they get masked by the cheaper tickets that are available. It is quite normal to see these prices if you are trying to buy a ticket on a popular route within a week of travel, especially during school holidays. It's no so much that the airlines jack prices up, it is more that the cheap options have been snapped up.

Very good point.
Unfortunately the attitude of the ACCC has been that as long as the discount fares are offered, they don't pay any attention to the actual book fares.

 

[Orca]

I have no issue with the airlines cleaning up when the demand is there. It's called business. Those who are willing to pay, will pay.

 

[RichardMEL]

Very good point.
Unfortunately the attitude of the ACCC has been that as long as the discount fares are offered, they don't pay any attention to the actual book fares.

yes but that's stupid. The fares can technically exist in a market, but if there's zero inventory then that's not relevant.

Same with the hotels... I was looking at a hotel in SIN the other day for a trip I am considering. The hotel has standard rooms, deluxe rooms, executive level and so on yet for the date I wanted, they had no standard or deluxe rooms available so the "cheapest" rate was the exec room. Yeah it's annoying, but that's the way it is. If the inventory is fully booked you need to go to the higher level.

YES I KNOW people will say "but an exec room in a hotel is a better/different product to a standard room so of course you pay more, but a Y seat is a Y seat no matter if you paid $200 or $2000" and yes, that's a valid point absolutely but the analogy holds on the basis of if I want a *room* at that specific hotel on that date, it's no different to wanting transport from A to B on a specific date.

I am certain if the ACCC did have some sort of "show cause" enqury all the airlines need do is show the booking history for the various days to show X seats booked 3 months out, 1 month out, 2 weeks out and so on to show how each service has filled well before anyone knew who was playing in what game. case closed imho.

 

[wandering_fred]

Interestingly J* seems to be sold out on SIN-MEL...
And Scoot times don't seem to fit. And even the ill-timed flights are not inexpensive.
MH flights KUL-MEL are sold out.
CX is offering only full flex fares HKG-MEL (Something over HK$25K)

I would say that people learned about alternative routings the last time a Perth team qualified for the finals...

Enjoy the TV presentation. Pity there isn't the creative TV advertisements similar to that which are bundled with the (US) NFL finals...

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[dajop]

Interestingly J* seems to be sold out on SIN-MEL...

More do to with school holidays, people returning from summer in Europe etc. According to expertflyer (selecting UK point of sale, which seems to be more accurate) there are very few - and on many days zero - eonomy seats for sale on the almost 7 x daily flights from SIN to MEL until Sunday 11 October, other than the odd single seat here or there. Even with one up-gauged SQ service (to A380). And it was like this last week as well. I suspect the grand finals have almost nothing to do with it.

 

[hdfb]

AFL & NRL GF's are part of 'being Australian'. Don't feature anywhere else. Being part of a global market economy doesn't necessarily mean you have to adopt greed as a mantra. An Australian company will always function within the expectations of Australian culture and morality much better, if led by an Australian. There is nothing wrong with making a fair and honest profit; but to exploit West Coast & FNQ fans desire to simply want to follow their teams in this wide-spread land isn't reflective of the Aussie values that I was brought up to follow in the 50s/60s. Virgin, hotels and others are similarly guilty of the same 'scalping'. I don't feel guilty about following the theme of the OP and highlighting exactly where these 'types' (to conform to your language) are going wrong in this country. Greed is greed no matter how you dress it up. (and what better time than the 21st century under a new PM to start to recapture some Australian identity before it is absorbed into someone else's set of values)

The <redacted> CEO has shareholders and board members to please as well too.

 

[basso]

The <redacted> CEO has shareholders and board members to please as well too.

A point I missed the first time around. The company is run by an Australian.

 

[Red Roo]

The <redacted> is no different from vendors selling 1.25 litre bottles of water for $8 during the bushfires. Not the Aussie way of doing things.

The <redacted> CEO has shareholders and board members to please as well too.

I'm saddened that this opprobrious sentiment still exists!

To my knowledge leprechauns are always Irish, and like the reference to them in this conversation, completely irrelevant to the topic being discussed.

 

[eminere]

I'm saddened that this opprobrious sentiment still exists!

To my knowledge leprechauns are always Irish, and like the reference to them in this conversation, completely irrelevant to the topic being discussed.

I stopped reading that post when I got to that racist, wholly unnecessary turn of phrasing. Ignorance 1, Credibility 0.

In other news, today's vocabulary word is "opprobrious". :mrgreen:

 

[straitman]

V-line prices for trains and buses into MEL & SYD for the GF's (from southern NSW) are unchanged. Some Australian values still linger. The greed of globalised society is governed by opportunity. The <redacted> is no different from vendors selling 1.25 litre bottles of water for $8 during the bushfires. Not the Aussie way of doing things. My tv will suffice this weekend. Go Eagles; go Cowboys.

AFL & NRL GF's are part of 'being Australian'. Don't feature anywhere else. Being part of a global market economy doesn't necessarily mean you have to adopt greed as a mantra. An Australian company will always function within the expectations of Australian culture and morality much better, if led by an Australian. There is nothing wrong with making a fair and honest profit; but to exploit West Coast & FNQ fans desire to simply want to follow their teams in this wide-spread land isn't reflective of the Aussie values that I was brought up to follow in the 50s/60s. Virgin, hotels and others are similarly guilty of the same 'scalping'. I don't feel guilty about following the theme of the OP and highlighting exactly where these 'types' (to conform to your language) are going wrong in this country. Greed is greed no matter how you dress it up. (and what better time than the 21st century under a new PM to start to recapture some Australian identity before it is absorbed into someone else's set of values)

Revolio,

Whilst I understand the point you are trying to make your posts show a total lack of knowledge of airline 'Yield Management.' Please don't ask me to explain as it really is a 'Black Art.' The following post from Red Roo is about as good a simple explanation as there is available. This is how all airlines world wide operate.

By the way Alan Joyce is Australian.

Over the weekend, Qantas and Jetstar announced additional services (including a special B747 flight) to get fans from Perth, Townsville and Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne for the AFL and NRL Grand Finals.

As suggested, high demand will always mean that the cheapest fares sell out quickly. However this year we’re talking about an already busy school holiday period, with both Grand Finals scheduled on the same weekend. It also happens to be a long weekend in Sydney, and for the first time in Melbourne.

Contrary to popular belief and media reports, Qantas and Jetstar don’t increase prices because of special events – Grand Finals or otherwise. As you may know, our system range allows seats to be booked nearly 12 months in advance. By way of example, I can share with you that approximately half of all Qantas customers flying between Melbourne and Perth have paid $275 or less each way.

Finally, and to state the obvious, the nature of the competition means we don’t get much notice about where the demand will come from. We have been keeping a close eye on results throughout the Finals series and had subsequently added services where necessary.

Good explanation Red Roo. Thanks.

 

[Danger]

I'm saddened that this opprobrious sentiment still exists!

To my knowledge leprechauns are always Irish, and like the reference to them in this conversation, completely irrelevant to the topic being discussed.

Quite possibly your best post ever, Red Roo. Keep it coming.

 

[hutch]

Note to self...Must find an opportunity to use the word 'opprobrious' this week.

 

[hutch]

Very good point.
Unfortunately the attitude of the ACCC has been that as long as the discount fares are offered, they don't pay any attention to the actual book fares.

What exactly would the ACCC prosecute the airlines for? Pricing a product at a price they consider the market is willing to pay?

 

[esseeeayeenn]

What exactly would the ACCC prosecute the airlines for? Pricing a product at a price they consider the market is willing to pay?

No they inquired into whether there was price collusion, and whether there was sufficient competition, but focused almost exclusively on discount fares.
They might have reached a different conclusion if they looked at the undiscounted, published fares.
Or they might not have, I'm indulging in mere speculation, and not pretending otherwise.

 

[hutch]

No they inquired into whether there was price collusion, and whether there was sufficient competition, but focused almost exclusively on discount fares.
They might have reached a different conclusion if they looked at the undiscounted, published fares.
Or they might not have, I'm indulging in mere speculation, and not pretending otherwise.

Let's remember that we are a country with a relatively small population. Reckon we can handle a 3rd airline group?

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Predicting where future traffic spikes in the network is like knowing next weeks lottery numbers. It's very much a re-active position in that not everything can be predicted. I agree with the general sentiment that all the airlines are doing their best to accommodate passengers where possible.

Just like when there are major world events with huge shifts in traffic (think ash clouds, snow cover) - inventory quickly sells out, leaving whatever remains and these prices were likely set months prior.

This is how all airlines world wide operate.

A little insight into how the big boys operate pricing models - How big data is changing the way you fly | SmartData Collective

 

[Isochronous]

The Eagles could always look at what Cronulla did and charter their own plane for their fans to come over.

 

[wandering_fred]

I haven't checked but if the various fares being offered and purchased are the regularly offered "B" class (fully flex) fares, then I have no qualms whatsoever with the actions of any of the airlines. If they are only selling YY (ie full slog fly any combination of airlines within the max permitted mileage Y) fares then I think the charges of "milking the situation" are worth discussing.

QF - Aren't you getting a bit tight on the plane utilization? Should there be some/enough minor scope for irrops coverage that would permit handling these sudden scheduling monstrosities with a bit more grace? The same as if you lost the use of a plane (or two or three).

As well, I suspect the AFL really shouldn't schedule the finals on the last weekend of school holidays. Unless they decide to contract the teams to the old VFL boundaries.

Happy wandering (as far as my TV console)

Fred

 

[clazman]

Airline and ticket pricing are determined by market forces, look at Domain stadiums AFL regular season pricing double of any ticket in Melbourne

Saying that once the new stadium is built i don't see ticket pricing falling.

Bottom line is we are screwed living in WA following the VFL game