SO has anyone on AFF actually booked a 737 service with Rexy yet???!!
It wouldn't surprise me if someone's booked on the first service but aside from that why would anyone want to book Rex right now, unclear borders and cheaper flights on other carriers don't make them that attractive.
The first flight from MEL-SYD is full in business but every other flight that day has business seats available. In Economy on the first MEL-SYD service, just 32 seats have been selected (probably more booked but haven't paid the extra for seat selection). The SYD-MEL first flight still has business seats available and just 27 preselected economy seats.
Given the initial launch promotion was for 100,000 economy tickets at $79 and they're still selling $79 seats I suspect they still haven't reached the 100,000 ticket goal. At 18 flights per day with 168 economy seats, that's 3024 seats per day, and with bookings, up until 21 December (295 days), it totals 892,080 economy seats available but less than 100,000 booked. Before someone says I'm being unreasonable, Qantas/Jetstar was able to sell 70,000 tickets in 5 hours during last year's sale so it's not impossible.
I see it as three main types of people traveling in Australia right now, loyal travelers (many of whom may have status with QF/VA and would be unlikely to shift), those who are looking for the best price, and those who are burning flight credits (on JQ/VA/QF). Rex doesn't appeal to any of travelers right now.
It remains to be seen but I think Rex is really going to struggle... Their product is currently a single route, on old non sky interior ex-VA aircraft which also happens to be more expensive than two other competitors in the market. Those people who are price-focused are likely to still pick Jetstar ($50-70 oneway) or Virgin which has dropped most flights to $77. Even Qantas starts at $110 which is cheaper than the prices Rex is pushing into online travel agents.
www.traveller.com.au
