Have domestic special fares increased in the last few weeks?

[Jleno]

Hi

I do quite frequent domestic flights Syd-Bne return and Syd-Mel return and am always watching the special fares but I've noticed that both Virgin and Qantas domestic advertised special fares seem to have increased by about $10-20 in the past month (for future flights). Wondering if this is a price creep that is here to stay (or increase).

Anybody know if there's been any official announcement by any of the airlines about prices? Or maybe this is the pre-emptive strike against the credit card surcharge reductions they need to make soon.

 

[serfty]

It's likely to be related to Carbon Tax that starts in a few days along with fuel fine increases as announced by Qantas back in February.

Qantas have introduced a zonal system.

Qantas Environment - Climate Change

I note that MEL/SYD just sneaks into band 2 at 707 km.

[TABLE="class: grid"]
[TR="class: alt"]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH]Zone[/TH]
[TH]Distance (km)[/TH]
[TH]Charge
AUD including GST per sector[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]1 - 700[/TD]
[TD]$1.82[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: alt"]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]701 - 1200[/TD]
[TD]$2.79[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]1201 - 1900[/TD]
[TD]$4.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: alt"]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]1901 +[/TD]
[TD]$6.86[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[oz_mark]

Sale fares do seem to go up and vary between sales, with the fare often ending in a 9!

Being sale prices, I doubt there is any announcement other than the advertising.