Qantas to Buenos Aires. What's going on?

[philflyer]

I've been watching the prices on the QF flights from Sydney to Buenos Aires for the past couple of months. I want to fly in October. It has been sitting at around $2000 (econ) for the 13.5 hour flight.

I don't understand how they are holding the price this high (actually higher than the much longer flight to Europe) when ExpertFlyer shows that the flight is half empty over the next few weeks! It seems odd that they wouldn't lower the price and fill the seats. Unless of course the plane is carrying a lot of other cargo.

It is actually around the same price to fly SYD to LAX and the onward to Buenos Aires with AA and back again.

Perhaps Qantas is about to ditch Buenos Aires. I hope not. I like the non-stop route to Argentina.

Any thoughts?

 

[Flashback]

I've been watching the prices on the QF flights from Sydney to Buenos Aires for the past couple of months. I want to fly in October. It has been sitting at around $2000 (econ) for the 13.5 hour flight.

I don't understand how they are holding the price this high (actually higher than the much longer flight to Europe) when ExpertFlyer shows that the flight is half empty over the next few weeks! It seems odd that they wouldn't lower the price and fill the seats. Unless of course the plane is carrying a lot of other cargo.

It is actually around the same price to fly SYD to LAX and the onward to Buenos Aires with AA and back again.

Perhaps Qantas is about to ditch Buenos Aires. I hope not. I like the non-stop route to Argentina.

Any thoughts?

My thoughts are that you should be going via LAX for the extra SC!

It would be interesting to see what their loads have been like since they launched the route, maybe cargo is bringing in a considerable amount of revenue.

 

[markis10]

Dont forget expertflyer is fare buckets for sale in the US, the actual yield on that route would not be indicative of what expertflyer shows.

 

[Sethor]

Pricing is normally determined by the market rather than flight distance/duration. QF is the only airline serving this route non stop so they are going to charge a premium, the SYD-LAX route is about the same distance but competition has forced everyone to drop their prices to a point where I don't think they even make money. It's annoying I know, to me QF charge more ex PER than from the east coast for example PER-JNB is $2103 vs SYD-JNB $1665 (flights to & from PER are at least 2hrs shorter each way) & PER-LHR $2013 vs SYD-LHR $2036 (ex PER flights are about 2.5hrs shorter)

 

[harvyk]

Yeah, but unlike here to Europe, or here to the US, they don't have a massive amount of competition on the AU - South America routes...

Infact the only other one I can think of is LAN. Everyone else goes via North America.

So that may have something to do with $2K+ Y flights...

 

[Siegfried]

Infact the only other one I can think of is LAN. Everyone else goes via North America.

And LAN don't fly from Aus to EZE - they codeshare with QF, the same as QF codeshares on the LAN flight to SCL. They've got the South American market pretty well sown up (at least as far as direct flights go)

 

[chrizzz14]

i agree.... MEL-LAX-EZE much better route!!! far more SC's

 

[philflyer]

Okay... so I never factored in how many SCs I would get by going the long way round.

The question I have always wanted to ask... how do you calculate the SCs you would get by going from LAX to EZE (via Dallas I would imagine) on AA? Is it just a matter of working out the miles and using the Qantas SC table?

 

[serfty]

... Is it just a matter of working out the miles and using the Qantas SC table?

.. and the QFF AA earn table.

See this post:

• http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...lp-maximise-scs-syd-lax-24284.html#post339807

 

[dajop]

i agree.... MEL-LAX-EZE much better route!!! far more SC's

Long way there in economy though.

 

[Flashback]

Long way there in economy though.

It's not so bad, I did PER-MEL-SIN-FRA on my last trip to Europe in whY. I got upgraded at the last minute by QF for MEL-SIN to J, but I still would have been prepared for a nice easy flight in whY all the way

 

[dajop]

It's not so bad, I did PER-MEL-SIN-FRA on my last trip to Europe in whY. I got upgraded at the last minute by QF for MEL-SIN to J, but I still would have been prepared for a nice easy flight in whY all the way

Yeh but PER-MEL-SIN only adds 5.5 hrs in aircraft. MEL-LAX-DFW-EZE adds 12 hrs or nearly double... and don't know what AA is like in whY long haul, it can't be that much worse than QF? Can it?

 

[docjames]

and don't know what AA is like in whY long haul, it can't be that much worse than QF? Can it?

DFW-SCL in AA Y class on the 767 was a shocker. QF looks awesome in comparison. AA Y was like stepping back to 1985........ which looked like the last time the plane was updated.

FWIW - LAN via AKL and SCL is another option and is typically cheaper. Have not looked at your dates however, but LAN Y is WAY better than AA Y. QF Y (on 744) is marginally better than LAN Y (A340).

SCL-EZE runs regularly (?5/day) in 763s and 340s.

I'd take QF as # 1, LA if the price was >$200 cheaper.

I'd avoid LAX and AA at virtually any cost difference. :shock:

 

[PineappleSkip]

what AA is like in whY long haul, it can't be that much worse than QF? Can it?

Yes it can be much, much worse. JFK-CDG on AA was enough to declare 'never again'. The horror! The horror!

Cheers skip

 

[kamchatsky]

QF Y is much better than AA Y. It really makes QF look like a premium airline .....

 

[philflyer]

Finally a bargain on the Australia to Argentina route! LAN has announced $1000 fares from Sydney to Buenos Aires. For me the MEL-EZE-RIO-EZE-MEL for $1100 is purrrrfect!

Qantas dropped theirs to $1700 last week. Hardly a competition there.

 

[browski]

Finally a bargain on the Australia to Argentina route! LAN has announced $1000 fares from Sydney to Buenos Aires. For me the MEL-EZE-RIO-EZE-MEL for $1100 is purrrrfect!

Gee, that LAN Chile fare really is a bargain. I'm guessing the ever inflating Argentinian Currency is the cause here - looks like they are desperate to get their hands on some hard currency. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[airbound]

Finally a bargain on the Australia to Argentina route! LAN has announced $1000 fares from Sydney to Buenos Aires. For me the MEL-EZE-RIO-EZE-MEL for $1100 is purrrrfect!

Qantas dropped theirs to $1700 last week. Hardly a competition there.

What are the sale dates and destinations for this bargain? It looks very cheap!

 

[philflyer]

The dates are March to August with LAN and the sale ends at the end of this month. Sorry I should have included the link to the details on BestFlights (who I will never buy a flight from but they are a good resource to find the flights).

Lan Airlines - South America SaleSizzling South America Sale to 15 Cities Mar-Aug

I also found the $1100 flights on Expedia.