"The sad truth about airfares"

[SmellyFarang]

Interesting read

 

"The sad truth about airfares"

http://fusion.net/story/214144/the-sad-truth-about-airfares/

 

 

Once upon a time, there were reasonably well-known ways to pay less for your airfare. Airlines had rules governing ticket prices, those rules were consistent across airlines, and almost everybody knew what the rules were. (If you booked further in advance, the tickets were cheaper. If you stayed a Saturday night, the ticket would be cheaper. That kind of thing.)

 

Those days, however, are long gone. Airline tickets are no longer priced according to simple rules: they’re dynamically priced according to insanely complex algorithms which, to the naked eye, make no sense at all. Cheap tickets still exist, of course—the problem is that there’s no reliable way of finding them. If you managed to luck into such a ticket a few weeks or months ago, good for you—but don’t for a minute expect that if you behaved exactly the same way today, then you would get a similar result.

 

...

 

The airlines and flight search engines have infinitely more information than you do, and that information asymmetry is always going to work to their advantage. If you find a cheap fare, good for you; if you don’t, it’s not your fault. The system is rigged against you. The battle of consumers against the airlines is over. And the airlines have won.

 

[patman]

Only airline tickets?  Have you shopped on Amazon recently?  Seems like everything has these variable prices.  Its a game.  I usually check the prices every week for 2 months before I book.  One thing I have found is the sweet spot for booking seems to be 8 to 10 week before your trip.

[nickatnight]

Its a game, but luckly there are apps for that! I would add hotels to the list. Those prices change hourly.

[Tarl]

Interesting read

[sinbad5]

Still, flying is way cheaper now than it was 15-20 years ago.

[nixonsbest]

Last weekend I booked FlyScoot return economy Melbourne - Singapore, fly out 24/12, fly in 14/1, just under a 1k, including meals, 20KG luggage and seat selection!..I thought that was a pretty good deal booking midway through October!

[hairball]

Still, flying is way cheaper now than it was 15-20 years ago.

I would wholeheartedly agree Sinbad.

Considering prices have stayed The same or in some cases gone down,and people are making more money now,you are bang on the money,that flying has indeed,gotten more inexpensive.

[Harry Brown]

Since code sharing has been in the airlines are constantly tweaking things, so instead of Qantas, Emirates etc flying an aircraft from their stables into the same route they fly one aircraft in and share the cost and profit and can push the prices up a bit more.

 

They are getting better and better at this all the time, as newer larger aircraft come on route there will bw more that can be done to maximise the market share and profit. The smarter airlines don't fly half full.

[BigVenz]

Every night I get home from work, I look at flights to where I think I might want to go in the next 6 months.

I have a good idea what I consider a great rate and when I see it, I grab it immediately, might not be the same tomorrow.

Sometimes they are up and down just like stock market.

[nixonsbest]

Since code sharing has been in the airlines are constantly tweaking things, so instead of Qantas, Emirates etc flying an aircraft from their stables into the same route they fly one aircraft in and share the cost and profit and can push the prices up a bit more.

 

They are getting better and better at this all the time, as newer larger aircraft come on route there will bw more that can be done to maximise the market share and profit. The smarter airlines don't fly half full.

Emirates out of Melbourne used to have some good deals until they formed an alliance with Qantas!..

[LRanger]

Use www.skyscanner.net  and www.momondo.com

[Harry Brown]

Emirates out of Melbourne used to have some good deals until they formed an alliance with Qantas!..

 

 

Qantas will be bringing some larger A/C on between now and the next few years, since early last year they formed a management team to specifically look and analyse all there International sectors, they were haemorrhaging money badly, they have now bought this under control , but will constantly look at switching A/C size depending on what events are happening

 

 

 

 this month you will see QF111 between Perth and Auckland come on line it will stop around April next year because the rest of the year is not profitable.  they just restored a while back QF71-72 from Per to Sin, a smaller A/C, there were 5 flights per week it was always full so it's just been increased to 7 days a week who knows if popular it could go to a larger A//C which is a good way to go, if demand is there they will fly, if not then they will let Jet Star do the cheap flights.

 

 

There is talk of BNE to Japan later as well. so hopefully they find more markets out of Aus.

[nixonsbest]

Use www.skyscanner.net  and www.momondo.com

Yes you have to use all the tools!

 

I like to wiki the airport, see who flies where and research, research and research more!

[niccodemi]

Another good website is "ITA Matrix". It's got a lot of search options and is also used by travel agents. However it is search tool only; you have to use other websites to actually book the ticket.

 

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