Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - MEL-AKL-MEL - will the prices get lower?

I'm looking for some return ticket from Melbourne to New Zealand. Going there on 10 Feb 2009, back 8 Mar 2009. Current price to Auckland on VirginBlue is 380AUD. Any chance to get it lower? Any airport in NZ will do. Is this route included in VirginBlue's happy hours?

Let's see if we can get some help for you by moving this to our Travel->Australia and New Zealand forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I'm looking for some return ticket from Melbourne to New Zealand. Going there on 10 Feb 2009, back 8 Mar 2009. Current price to Auckland on VirginBlue is 380AUD. Any chance to get it lower? Any airport in NZ will do. Is this route included in VirginBlue's happy hours?AUD 380 is low for a return. Would not expect it to get lower. From MEL options are limited: Jetstar.com.au, airnewzealand.com.au, qantas.com.au, emirates.com. You could MEL-CHC or MEL-WLG but most traffic from MEL is on the MEL-AKL route, so likely to be best price

AUD380 is a cheap non happy-hour price.

Yes the route will appear on Virgin Blue's Happy Hour. Don't expect it to be cheaper though.

You may find it cheaper to buy two one-ways. For the dates you're looking at:

MEL-AKL-MEL is AU$380

MEL-AKL is AU$209
AKL-MEL is NZ$189 = ~AU$156
total is AU$365, so not much different at all, and it will probably be somewhat eaten up by currency exchange rates.

If you want to buy the oneway (from AKL) during Pacific Blue's Happy Hour, they are only visible on pacificblue.co.nz

Also, if you're not an Australian, you might want to look into Virgin Blue's Airpass (http://www.virginblueairpass.com/) which should be out soon. This should give added flexibility for around the same price.

"AUD380 is a cheap non happy-hour price."

I thought that maybe something lower is possible. I've bought PER-MEL for AUD114 (Tiger Airways) and it's moreless the same distance. With 3-4 airlines operating on such a popular route as MEL-AKL I'd also expect some special prices even below the operator's costs :)

edit: Is it like in Europe, that domestic routes have some additional costs (like sales tax / VAT tax) which are not added to foreign routes?

Thing is, for AKL-MEL taxes take up a good portion of the fare. Fares can get lower on this route, but not much. Note that February is a busy travel month - still lots of tourists, and also business travel has resumed after the Christmas/New Year break.

The only time it'll be much cheaper is if/when it appears on Grabaseat Oz (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=709755). NB, this hasn't run for a while, and even then you're probably looking at AU$280-$300 anyway, assuming the fare each way is only a couple of bucks.