Pacific Blue Announces Perth-Phuket Direct for $299 - then un-announces it...

[forgetabowdit]

This is a funny one :) Late last night on the VB Website flashing up with their 9th birthday sale thing, they had in one of the slides: Perth - Phuket DIRECT with PACIFIC BLUE for a special price of $299.

Thismorning... GONE! Viola!

VB Crews had been anticipating Phuket as the next 737 destination for a while and many will be surprised to hear of the 777 going there instead so it made sense that they would do that route from the only real route in Aus that they can (except DRW), Perth - and V would do the Melb, BNE and I'm sure eventually SYD...

Did someone push the ENTER key by accident :p

Watch this space...

[Sunstar320]

I also saw this around 8am this morning on that interactive flash banner, but wasn't available in the drop down menu...

:bored:

[Comoman]

Fingers crossed - that would be very good news.

[Goat Whisperer]

It may explain repainting a -700 in Pac Blue paint, it would have slightly longer legs than an -800.

Here's hoping, HKT overnights for 737 crew as well as 777.

Ah, the repainting seems to have been deferred...

[Dunnza]

No IASC clearance!

[Daneil Lawrence]

Also advertised in this morning's West Australian. Though still not avaliable on the website. Ad said avaliable from yesterday... must be something going on.

[Comoman]

The ad says flights start 14th November.....

[apacau]

Just went onto the PB website and can book flights - $299 there, slightly less back.

Looks like 2x weekly (Tue/Sat) from mid November, ops by Virgin Blue. Also looks like the aircraft stays almost 24hrs in HKT before returning home (return on Wed/Sun) - minimise crew cost and maybe costs less to park an otherwise unutilised plane in HKT than in oz?

Both are daylight flights which will be popular with the punters and well suited to hotel check-in/out times.

[Goat Whisperer]

The schedule is a little odd.

Bit of a stretch for the 800. Especially with holding ie the usual TSRA in the wet season.

Maybe the aircraft will be doing something as-yet unannounced in the mean time.

Editted for speling.

[porch monkey]

I really don't know why you'd want to sit in a 737 seat for that length of time. Defies logic.

[air doris]

To be honest I'm with you, who in their right mind would want to fly that far on a 737 considering the cheap options on other carriers. Maybe on V but not Pac or Blue.

[Goat Whisperer]

...because it's cheap.

I know the A330 is a more comfortable aircraft but if the 738 can do it, it's probably the most economic way to go.VB's 738s burn just over half the fuel on DPS-SYD flights that JQ's 330s do often with similar loads.

[7378FE]

Q....What's the difference between a Y seat on a 737 vs A330.

A....Nothing

7378FE

[Boomerang_Butt]

787FE True, however the cabin room is an added plus for both pax & crew on longer flights.I can see that many pax would be happy to pay a bit more to fly on a widebody for anything over 5 hours (Watch what happens on a PER-BNE on a 737 & see what I mean!)