The price shift has been happening for months now. My favourite to watch (for obvious reasons) is OOL-SYD. There's just been another $6 increase on the normal saver fare (by normal I mean the cheapest available that's not on sale) which means in the past year, OOL-SYD fare has increased by 14%. Not too dramatic
but this fact compounds with a few other sneakies, like the once plentiful really good sale fares have pretty much disappeared and it does seem the "normal" base saver fare bucket has become shallower, pushing us onto higher priced saver fares.
I've one more rtn OOL-SYD to do on DJ (to retain gold for another year) and then it's open slather for my flying. Interesting that the OP compares only against QF but also mentions price is dominant. Price is once again becoming dominant for me, so my comparisons will be all and sundry, not just DJ and QF. JQ and TT will also get my business. In fact TT only this week released a
statement saying they are going to use price points to regain customer faith and loyalty. They claim they'll be offering $30 OOL-SYD fares which, let's face it, are low enough for me to capitalise on. JQ also roll out frequent promos like a recent one OOL-SYD for $13. Yes, I know these fares aren't sustainable, but they are genuine promos which DJ don't come close to.
As I've suggested before, if price is the most important factor in determining an airline, DJ will start losing business (mine at least). Do DJ care about that.....I'd suggest not at all, in fact the scrooges of the flying public are probably more of a PITA than anything and DJ are in fact displaying all the signs that they want to ditch us anyway. Free up more seats in both lounges and planes to accommodate those who don't mind spending more of their bosses money on overpriced fares. (That was tongue in cheek....here's the wink
)
