Price discrepancy / location loading - what gives?

[lobo76]

So I was just looking for flights to Denpasar from MEL and just thought instead of a flight via SYD I might go visit family then fly from there instead - then noticed that Virgin are charging for example on Oct 15th:
MEL-DPS 5:35pm for $1198
MEL-SYD-DPS 1pm $854

But then when I check flights ex SYD I saw
SYD-MEL-DPS 2pm for $865

Guess what the 2nd leg is? The 5:35pm to DPS!

Part of me is annoyed at the rip off, waste of time, fuel etc. the other half is thinking of taking the extra SCs with a separate flight to SYD to see family the day before.

Why do they do this? o_0

 

[Saab34]

Just market dynamics at play.

Was a SYD-LAX flight I was once after, was $2500 one way. I could do MEL-SYD-LAX same flight number and was $1200. The reason I came to was the school holidays in NSW was a week later vs Melbourne which had ended.

Common behaviour seen in School Holidays also when the weeks don’t match up across the states. You might connect to another flight with the punters paying double what you have. Generally seen when flying to the US via NZ. Kiwi passengers get slugged more by starting the journey from NZ vs us who have started the journey in Aus.

 

[lobo76]

Airfares has no correlation with distance flown.

Airlines charge what the market is willing to pay.

It's the same flight though. The only difference is an extra flight before it. If I take a seat I'd still be displacing a MEL passenger on the international as well as a SYD-MEL passenger and the airline makes less money.

 

[lobo76]

Just market dynamics at play.

Was a SYD-LAX flight I was once after, was $2500 one way. I could do MEL-SYD-LAX same flight number and was $1200. The reason I came to was the school holidays in NSW was a week later vs Melbourne which had ended.

Common behaviour seen in School Holidays also when the weeks don’t match up across the states. You might connect to another flight with the punters paying double what you have. Generally seen when flying to the US via NZ. Kiwi passengers get slugged more by starting the journey from NZ vs us who have started the journey in Aus.

Looks like Oct 15th is middle of term for both VIC and NSW

 

[lobo76]

It gets better - the return flight via Melb is over $330 cheaper as a 2 leg so just no showing for the MEL-SYD leg is actually incentivised... :/

 

[Saab34]

I would look at it like, you are not actually saving cash by flying via Syd, that’s the normal price direct/or connecting. You are actually paying more for the direct flight in this situation, as airline has put a premium on the pricing of the direct flight due to a number of local reasons. A few reasons in the Melbourne market include, competitor problems on this route, people taking refunds and booking with the competitor. Capacity shortfall is likely the main reason, demand for the direct flight outstrips supply. Jetstar is downgrading flights over the next month leaving thousands of people displaced, many taking the refund and going elsewhere.