Pacific fare war - How low can it go?

[Michael Morrison]

QF have fired another shot today.

$649 inc tax return! Thats pretty low... London is also $1080 return....

[Montague S]

makes you wonder how much the public was really getting raped..

though I am not seeing the $649 incl tax fare.

[Michael Morrison]

Ok false alarm - they loaded fares exc tax incorrectly for about 90mins tonight.

They are back to normal sale levels of $997

[Rhys Xanthis]

$900 return is as low as it will go i think...though American Airlines might go cheaper if they have to support loads on routes out of Japan...

At this rate, I'll have to book a holiday to the USA lol

[Ossian N]

i picked up PE seats on VA (syd-lax) leaving mid November returning mid December for $1997 -less than Qantas's economy fare by a few hundred

[D Chan]

Originally Posted by Montague S

makes you wonder how much the public was really getting raped...

and how much do airlines pay for new aircraft or to finance new fleet, keep refreshing inflight products every 4-5 years?

[Robert S]

Is there really any dispute that the Pacific routes were QF's cash cow? I mean it was costing roughly the same to get to the US West Coast as it was to Europe, despite the extra costs involved to Europe for the greater distance (fuel, crew, food) and refuelling stop (with the various expenses that go along with that, including ground handling expenses for those taking stop-overs).

[NickN]

The pacific route has been a 2 horse race for such a long time, would it be a stretch to imagine the Pacific route was in some way artificially inflated during this time?

Now with the amount of carriers on that route set to double the high fares can't be kept any longer. Competition always makes for lower prices, this is just the public winning back what has been taken from them for so long.