This was my main route until recently. It's not good, ignoring the SC issue right now, the problem is that in peak times they just don't have the capacity. In quiet periods however I frequently found the direct flights with E & O bucket availability until the last day. They were meant to be increasing capacity with an extra flight but this has become merely an afternoon flight on Mondays & Wednesdays:!:. On Saturday there is only two direct flights! The booking engine still displays mostly indirect routes because there are no good options in the first place.
As for us here, this route has changed a lot. Last year direct = no E bucket, around $175 for O while direct was frequently available for $130-$140 in E ie. it was cheaper to go indirect. Eventually they opened up E fares for the direct route but now you're looking at $164 direct. I'm looking at flights as low as $300 in the coming months now.
There seems to be some poor management of capacity from ADL to MEL & BNE, either empty planes or heavy prices. As for JQ... it departs ADL after the Airtrain has already stopped in BNE... joke after joke.
