Airfare rip-off: Thread closure

[ferris]

This thread
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting-points/414842-great-australian-airfare-rip-off.html

was closed by the moderator, with the note that it was hardly "airline news". Ahh, well, my reading of the description of this forum on the top of this page is
"Airline and RPT issues in Australia,.."

This is certainly an airline issue, concerning Australians. So why close it? Is it some sort of industry secret that isn't supposed to be raised? I was hoping someone in the industry might have a legitimate reason for what looks like clear "cartel activity". I am going to make a complaint to the ACCC, anyway.

Strange.

[FGD135]

ferris, in the other thread, you said:
The blog offers the reason that it maybe due to 'what the market will bear'. I just think it is a blatant rip-off. And they are all into it.

Did you come down in the last shower?

Commercial enterprises (a.k.a businesses, companies) are all about making money. The whole point is to make money. The most sensible way to do that is to charge what the market will bear.

Your post boils down to your opinion that travellers aren't getting value for money. I am not surprised that such expression of such opinion was deemed worthy of the padlock.

[ferris]

Your post boils down to your opinion that travellers aren't getting value for money Well, they certainly aren't getting value for money, that's for sure (when an in-out costs $1600 and the same thing out-in costs $2750, it isn't value for money for the suckers in oz). But that isn't the issue. It isn't just one airline- they are all doing it in what certainly appears to be an orchestrated fashion. That is cartel behaviour. Especially when open competition is not possible in the regulated environment that is international air travel.

Your post, FGD135, boils down to "they are there to make money, and if they can get away with it, it's ok".

[Ixixly]

Not sure of the entire discussion here as I didn't see the original post but i'm assuming your discussing the fact that an airfare one way can often cost more than the same route in reverse.

Sometimes some routes do cost more going one way that the other. They average out the routes and find that going one way takes longer than going the other way and as such it costs more.

Sometimes this is because the route they are required to take is longer, sometimes they have to take into account more holding time at one end than the other. Sometimes its a simple matter of one flight will be full and the other won't. Sometimes its a matter of the winds giving a better run one way than the other on average, this can be especially true when dealing with jet streams.

Its not just airlines that do this sort of thing. Take hotels for example, same room one night might cost $100, next it'll cost $150 and the next it might only cost $50. Its not really news, and if it was this blatant i'd like to think one of the governing bodies would have said something by now.

Just my humble opinion of course.

[ferris]

Useful suggestions, however, none apply.
-Into the wind might wash for westbound flights eg. ME, Europe etc. But why are flights to the US cheaper inbound to OZ? So, that's out. Not only that, we are talking about return trips, so both type of fare involve one leg "into the wind".
-Holding delays. Holding fuel is not going to run into the hundreds of dollars per pax, every flight. Nope. And the return leg thing applies.
-The hotel example....that's yield management. Yes, airlines do that ie. you pay more as the flight fills up. But if hotels start charging Australians more than say, Americans, for the same type of room on the same day, and you find all the hotels are doing it, then you might jack up. That's what I am getting at- the base fare for one direction (inbound) is cheaper (than the base fare outbound).
-One direction is full: We are talking return airfares, so unless there is a net migration of millions of people leaving oz every year, that's doesn't wash. In fact, with a net annual inbound migration in the order of 200,000, the opposite should be true. There's not that many coming by boat!

ACCC complaint lodged, for whatever that's worth.

[Tidbinbilla]

Indeed, Ferris. You have a complaint against airfare structures. That is not IMO, airline news.

You/ve taken your complaint to the ACCC. That is not IMO, airline news.

I wish you luck with your complaint.

Regardless, it doesn't belong in Airline News. Maybe Agony Aunt, or JetBlast....:)

TID