Government to halve flight prices in $1.2bn tourism plan

[AdMEL]

Good to see Virgin IT is up to its usual standard - my numerous searches result in no flights found!

 

[AIRwin]

QF search flights function keeps crashing on me...

 

[risaka]

JQ and QF can't handle the booking traffic at the moment...

 

[Must...Fly!]

$90 MEL-HBA each way on QF. Not good at all.

MEL-CNS for $154 is decent.

Solid pass from me I think. Burning points is still the better way - hardly need to exchange more good currency for monopoly money...

 

[Daver6]

QF search flights function keeps crashing on me...

Logging in to the phone app is stalling too.

 

[Mattg]

I haven't been able to find a single half-price airfare on the Virgin Australia website, although I have been getting a lot of error messages.

Qantas website is also very slow but at least it's functional.

Meanwhile, I can't find any half-price fares on Rex's MEL-BWT or MEL-MIM routes, which should qualify. But Rex is offering "half-price" $59 fares on MEL-ADL as part of the TANS program. Rex was selling MEL-ADL fares for $55 yesterday so their "half-price" fare is actually more expensive (and costs taxpayers money).

I thought airlines had to have operated a route for the past two years to get funding? I guess not, because Qantas is somehow offering half-price flights on the MEL-MIM route as well, even though Rex is not.

 

[Mattg]

The Jetstar website is also having issues.




Edit: Got through on the Jetstar website after about 4 minutes in the queue. Looks like the Jetstar bundles are also 50% off. Availability does look very limited, though.

E.g. AVV-ADL is $32 for a Starter fare, $53 with a Plus Bundle or $74.50 with a Max Bundle. Keep in mind that the Max Bundle earns 1,200 Qantas points and 20 status credits.

 

[AIRwin]

I haven't been able to find a single half-price airfare on the Virgin Australia website, although I have been getting a lot of error messages.

VA's Half Off (and Holiday Here This Year) sale has just started at midnight AEST:

Cheap domestic flights | Virgin Australia

Book great value domestic flights with Virgin Australia. Good times, great fares. We can't wait to fly with you.

specials.virginaustralia.com

 

[dajop]

I thought airlines had to have operated a route for the past two years to get funding? I guess not, because Qantas is somehow offering half-price flights on the MEL-MIM route as well, even though Rex is not.

Was it "for" the last two years, or "within" the last two years? Big difference. The last three days are "within" the last two years.

 

[wendlle]

Virgin seem to have the best fares as far as I can see with the most amount of options
Most of the others have terrible flight times for the cheaper fares
SYD-OOL for $60 seems a good deal to me and there’s around 6 flight times to choose from daily unlike Jetstars 1

 

[Aus ATC]

In other news... Qantas to double fares on some routes

Not exactly, but they haven't missed increasing the fares either (before the 50% reduction). In my case a flight to Adelaide was $231 a couple of hours ago, but was selling at "1/2 price" for $128 - so a mark up of $25.00 for QF. Didn't stop me booking it though - we were going anyway.

Virgin may have "gouged" more on this route (BNE-ADL) - $165.00 fares at half price are $110.00

Now to cancel our previously booked Virgin flight which had changed to unpleasant timings - late morning flight cancelled and replaced with an 0600 flight - not ideal for a holiday!

 

[Mattg]

Was it "for" the last two years, or "within" the last two years? Big difference. The last three days are "within" the last two years.

Hmm, you may be right. The info from the government is ambiguous on this, but a few articles I found do refer to "in the last two years".

I'm still unsure why I can't find any half-price seats on Rex to Burnie, Kangaroo Island or Merimbula, which should all be covered.

Also, I've found that the availability of discounted seats on Jetstar is very, very limited. The cheapest seats will likely sell out fast. I haven't found the same issue with the other airlines.

 

[dylarr]

Yes Jetstar have not released a great deal at all — you can see how many they half price sale seats for each route and date range from this page here (for some routes / dates less than 23 seats were released!):

https://www.jetstar.com/au/en/deals/half-off-flights-sale

I did book a couple of trips with Qantas. SYD - ASP ($175 o/w) and SYD - BME ($299 o/w). Have always wanted to go to both destinations so decided to bite.

 

[hydrabyss]

I had 4 trips to cairns organised this year and am unable to get Virgin fares for both directions. So would work out to be $108 one way and $199 to get back as there are no half price tickets available. Could they have sold out on so many this early.

 

[MooTime]

Hmm, you may be right. The info from the government is ambiguous on this, but a few articles I found do refer to "in the last two years".

I'm still unsure why I can't find any half-price seats on Rex to Burnie, Kangaroo Island or Merimbula, which should all be covered.

Also, I've found that the availability of discounted seats on Jetstar is very, very limited. The cheapest seats will likely sell out fast. I haven't found the same issue with the other airlines.

Rex's chairman John sharp was 3AW last night money hour & stated that the gov's original condition was had to fly the route for the full previous 2 year period. This was changed by the gov recently & doesn't apply now he said as would preclude rex from its current routes for this sale.

Guess didn't really make the news as to the public is not newsworthy.

 

[wendlle]

Not a single Merimbula flight on Rex
What gives?
I fly in and out of there a few times a year

 

[jakeseven7]

Not a single Merimbula flight on Rex
What gives?
I fly in and out of there a few times a year

Qantas had some specials - I think off their own back, snapped a few up for work!

 

[blackcat20]

No issues searching QF at 3am and the Mel-CNS prices were decent but not on the days we need to travel (and we already booked VA).

 

[PineappleSkip]

Just booked the invert of the SYD--MCY route (MCY-MEL-SYD-MCY) with direct flights offered $93 each way, and also used a flight credit to pay most of it. The MEL bit because she is now accompanying my modest DSC status run. I think the outbound pricing was $100 MCY-MEL and $105 MEL-SYD

So booking the reverse of the advertised routes works, as does using a voucher.

As for the benefit, for end May QF was offering MCY-SYD for $119 till 29/3. On 30/3 the price jumped to $185, and at midnight the sale price was 'halved' to $93. On those numbers I'd reckon the marginal benefit to the punters at $26, and to QF at $66. The 'average price' appears to factor in flex fare travel and possibly J as well, $185 is as expensive as I've seen for MCY-SYD e-deals.

cheers skip

update: just grabbed a couple more midweek bargain MCY-SYD bookings. Weekends now mostly gone in mid april.

 

[jb747]

Half price flights to nowhere, perhaps….