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frequentflierhound
16th Jul 2000, 07:42
Hi all

I'm a regular from the webflyer (frequent flyer) boards who visited here as a result of a post about this site.

Seeing as there are a number of airline employees on this board I was hoping someone could help me with a query relevant to many Australians at the moment.

There have been many rumors of extensive backfilling during the olympics and that super cheap seats will be available to the US and Europe from Australia. People know my interest in travel and ask me all the time whether there is any truth to the rumors. The airlines and some travel agents have said they don't think think there will be cheap fares but then they would say that wouldn't they?

The hardest facts I've been able to ascertain are that our travel authorities expect an influx of an extra 110,000 visitors to Australia from August onwards over and above usual visitors. That's a lot of passengers.

Seems to me that there will be a lot of round trips to ferry these passengers to Australia and later back again and that could mean a lot of potentially empty planes flying the return leg. The airlines will have a big incentive to fill those seats by dropping prices.

Are we Australians going to see cheap tickets available soon or is it all an urban myth? Anybody have any idea how low it will go?

cheers Peter

ExSimGuy
17th Jul 2000, 12:25
It certainly seems logical that there will be a lot of empty seats going out of Aus just before the games, and a lot of empty ones coming back after. It would make sense for the airlines to do some good offers for these.

Do you get Inclusive Tours out there? If so, that would be one way that the airlines could soak up the capacity without denting their normal Economy Excursion fares. If that's the case, it would be worth watching the travel agents for good holiday packages.

Any airline staff wanting to go on vacation around this time using "ID90" fares would also find it the ideal time to travel, and not risk being "bumped"!

Interesting to see how the carriers handle this one ;)

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Ah, the VC-10, Wasn't she lovely!