F-flyer
The comparison was the cheapest fare on offer for both airlines available at the time on their respective websites. I am aware that the Qantas rules are very strict ie use it or lose it and that Virgin you can pay the $30.00 to have the remainder held in a ‘credit shell’ for the 12months. Incidentally it doesn’t have to be you who ends up using the credit as it is transferable to anyone be it your grandma, neighbour or whomever.
I will say that I still got burned (ie forfeited the fare) after paying a ‘fully flexible’ fare with DJ. I only found out the night before I wouldn’t be traveling but as it was after 2100 QLD time, their guest contact centre was already closed so I was unable to amend my booking giving the required 12 hours notice. To compare apples with apples if it had been a full economy fare or one of the other high yield economy fares with Qantas I could have no-showed & still been able to rebook or get a full refund.
topend3
I'm sure you're correct in that a walk up fare with DJ would be cheaper than QF. It may well be the case now that if someone has the opportunity to travel at short notice they will pay the $920.00 fare on DJ rather than elect not to travel at all if faced with paying a more expensive full fare on QF.
OpsNormal
The demise of AN seriously impacted the availability of seats on flights into/out of AS to the tune of 50% and naturally would limit the amount of cheaper seats by the same figure. It's a case of supply and demand.
While there may be more choice with the number of flights ex DN the fares would be fairly similar to those ex AS. If you're travelling to BN then flying DJ is certainly an option however to SY or ML their fares are considerably higher than QF so the latter will usually be a more viable option.
Until earlier this month I had not been out of the NT for 14 months so there is a tendency to go a little stir crazy & feel the need for some Southern Culture.
One would hope that after 05 June the increased capacity will give the people of AS greater flexibility and choice of fares, schedules and carrier when ''escaping Alice''.
Btw, how did you & your colleagues go with arranging the medical for your ATPL?