Paying premium for flights out of Australia?

[777]

You can always buy a one way J ticket back if you can get over there on points. I had enough VA points for 3 o/w AUS-EUR J rewards which wasn't quite enough for 2 people. Managed to flight a *very* good value o/w J ticket back on EY.

 

[amaroo]

My indignation has nothing to do with FF! Im willing to pay hard cash for a J ticket !! I just want REAL competition in long haul Prices!! this is not about bashing QANTAS or any airline in particular all im asking is a fair pricing structure both ways ! on the same airline ! on the same route !!!!

If you shop around there are plenty of bargains....we have just returned from a return trip to LHR in F with BA plus 3 additional international sectors in J for less than the cost for SYD-BKK-SYD in J with a well known local airline

Right now you can book BA in J and get a one way upgrade in F I'm sure there are plenty of other airlines that offer better prices compared to others.

My point with a FF scheme is that it limits many customers from a competitive market - but, thats their choice.

 

[Awesom Andy]

I did drop an email to ACA but they haven't responded as yet !!

What did you say in the email? If it said airlines in general, it might get ignored. If it says Qantas, I would (sadly) expect the response to be a lot quicker.

Last year, I used points to position myself to TPE to take advantage of the lower CX J fares. Apart from this, doing some creative routings/bookings may also help - a couple of years ago, I had 3 flight tickets with unused return sectors at the same time. :shock:

 

[Simo]

IMO domestic flights are way too expensive in Aust.

I also believe that our international flights are probably 20% dearer than they should be.

 

[rechoboam]

The strategy of buying return airfares from overseas usually requires a "sacrifice" one-way flight out of Oz which we all know is (a) expensive because it is Australia after all, and (b) one way usually costs more than half the price of a return airfare (except for budget airlines).

But what if one uses their FF points for the one-way out? When redeeming points, one way usually costs exactly half the number of points than a return redemption. (I know that's the case with SQ anyway - except SQ is probably a bad example since they will rape you with airport taxes and surcharges that you can't use points for).

If someone is in the position to use the above strategy, then
(a) they can get their one-way out of Oz without feeling ripped off (since it is a points redemption) and
(b) they can start saving big time on return flights in and out of Oz.

Just a thought.

EXACTLY what i'm doing, economy to a hub on points and buy business return here from there. Then cheap flights around Asia or Ok flights to europe etc return. I can use the hub every year.

 

[yo yo ma]

Another way of looking at it:-

If you buy a packet of chips or a bottle of coke at Woolworths you will pay substantially less than buying the very same product from a Woolworths owned & operated fuel station.....same product sold by the same company in the same suburb - but at very different prices!

Very true... another way to look at it is supply & demand.

 

[spudseamus]

Very true... another way to look at it is supply & demand.

but I want to buy the bag of chips in europe (from the same shop ) but start to eat them in Melbourne to London !!

 

[TonyHancock]

The strategy of buying return airfares from overseas usually requires a "sacrifice" one-way flight out of Oz which we all know is (a) expensive because it is Australia after all, and (b) one way usually costs more than half the price of a return airfare (except for budget airlines).

But what if one uses their FF points for the one-way out? When redeeming points, one way usually costs exactly half the number of points than a return redemption. (I know that's the case with SQ anyway - except SQ is probably a bad example since they will rape you with airport taxes and surcharges that you can't use points for).

If someone is in the position to use the above strategy, then
(a) they can get their one-way out of Oz without feeling ripped off (since it is a points redemption) and
(b) they can start saving big time on return flights in and out of Oz.

Just a thought.

that is exactly what I'm doing. A JASA/FASA to LHR and then a series of return flights from LHR-MEL. If you have a regular route it is pretty easy to set up.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

Even Airasia rip us off.

I was able to book their lay flat seat for Oct 21 from KL to SYD. With upgrade to 30KG of baggage, skybus ticket it was 1064 RM ~ $300

To fly SYD - KL the same day was going to cost me $510 - 70% premium

I've long known with AirAsia that it's best to book one way flights with them as the return leg to Australia is significantly cheaper than the outward leg.

I'm just happy that this time it's worked in my favour. I'll gladly pay $300 for a reasonably comfortable seat. I tried them out last year with the upgrade lottery and got a good 4 hrs sleep on the way to OOL.

 

[Jleno]

Just realised that one pitfall of booking flights from outside Oz is that the trip won't be eligible for travel insurance under credit cards. Just checked my credit card terms and conditions and it firstly needs to be a return flight, and the outbound needs to be from Oz.

Ok, add on costs of separate travel insurance, but I think it'll STILL be cheaper overall than an ex-Oz flight...

This is probably more suited to a travel insurance thread, but it does flow on from the above.

I just spoke to Zurich (which is the provider under HSBC's credit card travel insurance) and they confirmed that you don't actually have to buy an Oz-out and back flight to qualify for the travel insurance, as long as you have a ticket back before you fly out. Then the only condition is that the cost of that out and back is 90% paid by the credit card. Which means if you book a one way out, and then also a return (say, a SIN - SYD return) before you leave Oz, assuming you paid for it all on the same credit card, you will be covered by the travel insurance.

I wasn't aware that travel insurance seems to be more expensive when buying in Australia (I guess I shouldn't be surprised). True I could get a multi-trip but it does seem that credit card travel insurance can actually be better (from reading ausbt.com.au reviews).

The only remaining thing is whether I should actually be using my credit card to pay for the ticket to qualify for the travel insurance. My SIN-SYD return will be in SGD, and so I'll be subject to the rip off FX fees which I wouldn't otherwise incur with, say the 28 degrees card. Doing the maths though it's clear that the money I save from buying separate travel insurance will make up for the FX fees. Compared against an annual multi-trip policy though, the benefit is slightly less.

I've also noticed that airline flight prices don't seem to fluctuate based on FX movements, or if they do, it's only periodically and not nearly enough to take into account the strong AUD in the past couple of months. Which means it's actually more worthwhile now to be booking return flights from outside Australia (eg from SIN taking advantage of the AUD/SGD fx which has gone from 1.3 to about 1.35 in about 2 months).

Back on topic. I don't think anyone needs any convincing about the point being fares being more expensive out of Oz, I thought I'd provide another example which I've just looked up. Qantas Sydney - London (economy). Do you go SYD-LHR return, or do you go SYD-SIN return and then separately book a SIN-LHR return?

Assume travel dates are out 5 May, back 23 May for both scenarios.

Option 1
SYD-LHR return = 1026 + 1173 = AUD 2198

Option 2
SYD-SIN return = 477 + 446 = AUD 923
SIN-LHR return = SGD 528 + SGD 754 = SGD 1282 = AUD 950
AUD 950 + AUD 493 = AUD 1873

So some points to think about:
- you save AUD 325 with option 2.
- you might be inconvenienced with having to book 2 separate flights and deal with the issues of what happens if there is a delay on one leg, credit card travel insurance eligibility, time wasted on the layover (though note the next point).
- considering that QF flights in Option 1 stopover in SIN anyway, there really is no excuse for the price difference since it's the exact same planes.

FWIW

 

[serfty]

Just note that different underwriters for CC based travel insurance have different activation policies for different cards.

It is always important to understand the products PDS and to ensure you are actually covered.

Personally I do not take any chances - if travelling on nested bookings with some orginating in the counties overseas, I simply assume most basic CC insurance would not cover me. I would purchase separate TI in such circumstance.

I do believe though, the Amex Platinum charge card is different in that none of the travel needs to be purchased on it, simply the holder is in "good standing".

 

[Jleno]

I do believe though, the Amex Platinum charge card is different in that none of the travel needs to be purchased on it, simply the holder is in "good standing".

Got quite excited about the Amex travel insurance deal and just went to check it out and discovered the $900 annual fee. (Again, I should've known better). They do throw in 75,000 reward points, which they say is a SYD-SIN return (60,000 QFF points + $410.14 of surcharges/taxes). Unfortunately the $410 bit put it out of my range (that's 65% of a SIN-SYD return). Tks for the tip though - if my circumstances were different...