Qantas Error Fare: First Class to Los Angeles from Sydney $4,299 return @qantas.com (several dates incuding xmas holidays)

[kpc]

I guess you're going to go ahead with it and keep the business fare?

Still deciding....my leave and +1's leave availability pending as we are in Europe for 3 weeks til early April, and away to Indian Ocean Islands (Seychelles, Madagascar,Mauritiius and Reunion) from late May and this trip with Qf is 1-11 May.

...and we do both work FT.

 

[VPS]

It’s even on the BBC

Qantas accidentally offers cheap first-class fares

The airline said it will refund or rebook passengers who bought wrongly-priced tickets due to a coding error.

www.bbc.com

 

[henrus]

It’s even on the BBC

This one for Qantas has gone spectacularly. 300 ish fares which one website has said is about a $2.4 million "loss" but the amount of press coverage from news.com.au, Bloomberg, BBC, The Australian, The Guardian, Stuff (in NZ), The Straits Times it's actually quite incredible.

 

[Quickstatus]

Who is to say it was an error?. Why cant it be a genius marketing ploy.
.....
It also consistent with the airline's practice of enhancing something and making it fairer and simpler

 

[SydneySwan]

Who is to say it was an error?. Why cant it be a genius marketing ploy.

Genius marketing ploy is not part of the Qantas playbook.

 

[snabbu]

I also requested the full cancellation and refund on Sunday and overnight it came through. Quick and painless process although still bummed the fare wasn't honored.

 

[Sunnyj]

I do wonder if it was only 300 tickets why they did not honour it? I am sure it would have done more in terms of publicity for them? I get that for some of the tickets, it’s a loss esp over the peak period but I reckon $4k is almost or close to what it would cost them given that it is not a special flight or anything…it’s their usual flight to the US and back…

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Who is to say it was an error?. Why cant it be a genius marketing ploy.
.....
It also consistent with the airline's practice of enhancing something and making it fairer and simpler

Whether it was an error is a matter of fact.

The options open to the passenger and QF then depend on the conditions of carriage and contract law.

 

[CaptJCool]

I do wonder if it was only 300 tickets why they did not honour it? I am sure it would have done more in terms of publicity for them? I get that for some of the tickets, it’s a loss esp over the peak period but I reckon $4k is almost or close to what it would cost them given that it is not a special flight or anything…it’s their usual flight to the US and back…

With the usual airfare Sydney - LAX being


That’s 18.8% of usual fare
Noting travel industry / QF employee opportunities might be 10% plus standby

 

[muppet]

It was a bit over 1000. Media watch, once one news network says something it's easy for the others to repeat rather than investigate themselves to validate.
I guess as well better to meet half way because there will be a next time and doesn't create a precedent.

How do we know it was over 1,000?

Considering there are only 5,000 SYD-LAX F seats in the schedule.

 

[Sunnyj]

With the usual airfare Sydney - LAX being
View attachment 405009

That’s 18.8% of usual fare
Noting travel industry / QF employee opportunities might be 10% plus standby

I get that but does F fly full all the time? I did think well maybe it would allow them to upgrade passengers who want to use points to upgrade to F thereby decreasing the number of points that may or may not be used…

With the PP who said it was 1000 tickets…where did that figure come from? I mean 300 seems plausible given it was not exactly a cheap fare…cheap when compared to F but I suspect not a lot of people were willing to fork out $4k per ticket…which makes the 300 sound reasonable…esp at it was only out there for maybe 3-4hours early in the morning here in Australia?

 

[Princess Fiona]

How do we know it was over 1,000?

Considering there are only 5,000 SYD-LAX F seats in the schedule.

Wasn’t just SYD-LAX.
Also MEL-LAX

 

[Sunnyj]

Wasn’t just SYD-LAX.
Also MEL-LAX

I think it also included flights to NY and Dallas maybe?

 

[CaptJCool]

Far more would be willing to fork out $4,299
Especially when the current Syd - LAX Y fares range from
High of


Current low


1,000 fares sold might be 300-500 buyers many who purchased for 2 or more PAX

Even the straw pool here suggests this likelihood
And then there’s the word of mouth leaks…

 

[Sunnyj]

Far more would be willing to fork out $4,299

I am not sure as most people would not have considered to compare the costs…they did not have time to do so…it was a buy now think later scenario…as the fares could be pulled at anytime during the purchase process…so yeah now comparing when deciding to take up the revised offer, we can do a comparison and work out whether it is worth it and I am sure some people will keep the deal as it is a great offer if you got the dates you want, want to fly BC at a lower cost and more importantly want to go to the US…for us it was more experiencing Qantas F and having tried BC on numerous occasions with Qantas…it was not something we wanted to proceed with esp as we have other places we would rather travel to and other airlines we prefer to travel on…

 

[Quickstatus]

Whether it was an error is a matter of fact.

it was more of a conspiracy theory level nudge.

I get that but does F fly full all the time?

Why not?. F on a A380 represents less than 3% of the seat capacity of an A380, and less than that for the combined AU-US QF seat capacity if you include the 787.
In the 2023 annual report, Seat factor in premium cabins for QFi was 92% (seat factor = revenue passenger km divided by available seat km). Note this was based on revenue passengers

I suspect not a lot of people were willing to fork out $4k per ticket

Why not?.
The Y fare can be up to $4K and the W (premium econ ) fare can be up to $7k especially during peak period travel.
So even with with revised cabin to J, it is still a very compelling price.

most people would not have considered to compare the costs

There are a lot of customers who are aware of the price differentials

 

[Muppet501st]

Just booked 2 return over new years.

Whilst disappointed, we wont get to try F, still pleased with the outcome,
The prices for the same flights we're on ( just before and after the new year peak )
J = $27800
Y+ = $16100
y = $7056

Also will be the first time we've flown on an A380 ! i know i know, but not many fly out ex BNE, i really hate the dom-int SYD transfer.

 

[Sunnyj]

The Y fare can be up to $4K and the W (premium econ ) fare can be up to $7k especially during peak period travel.

See I did not know that…as I have not been interested in travelling to the US…I did know having travelled BC to other places that a $4k FC fare was a great deal…lol…

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I get that its what they say, but was it really? (conspiracy theory)

It’s not what any airline ‘says’, it’s a matter of fact as to whether it was an error or not. The airline would need to provide evidence of this in any legal proceedings.

An error or mistake would not be ‘yeah, that was the fare, but we soon realised it was too popular and withdrew it’. It actually needs to be a request to load a fare at ‘x’ and someone mistakingly entered ‘y’.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Whilst disappointed, we wont get to try F, still pleased with the outcome,
The prices for the same flights we're on ( just before and after the new year peak )
J = $27800
Y+ = $16100
y = $7056

Also will be the first time we've flown on an A380 ! i know i know, but not many fly out ex BNE, i really hate the dom-int SYD transfer.

presumably that’s for two passengers, not each. Otherwise you’d be flying first class on SQ or JL!

Those fares might be artificially inflated for a short time while yield management works out the impacts of 300-1000 unexpected tickets!