Pricing with a code share.
 

I am going back to BNE from London in September with EK and have found a very good price in J.

I also wanted to add a couple of code shares to the flight, Qantas domestic flights in economy costing in total about £190 from Qantas.

Because the timings are quite close (my arrival in BNE and the departure of the domestic flight) there seemed an advantage in adding them to my EK booking, in case a delay on the inbound meant that I missed my connection.

Has anyone got any idea why adding the domestic flights (costing £190) should have increased the price of the trip by nearly £2000.

It seems very odd and is there a way round it?

Thank you.

Not all fares can be combined. So when you try to add your cheap Qantas ticket onto the same booking as your cheap Emirates ticket, the cheap fares that were available when booking each separately are no longer available, and the ticket has to be priced for a totally separate routing and involving multiple carriers.

Why not just book the next available Qantas domestic flight - as the EK flight arrives at BNE at 06:40 then there must definitely be at least one more flight on your route that day! - which will still save you the guts of £2,000?

Thank you for the explanation.

Unfortunately my next Qantas domestic flight is at 16.50, hence the attraction of the early one (at 8.10am - which is cutting it a bit fine although the EK434 is typically early).

So I shall forget the code share, which was really only a protection if the inbound was late and I therefore missed the 8.10 ie someone else would have to sort out the problem!!

And I shall either book on my own the Qantas flight and gamble on having enough time or ten hours at BNE beckons...deep joy!!

I've often got to fly ahead with Qantas. I turn up for a much later flight and they're happy to accommodate me on the earlier one. I even once had a reward booking SYD-CBR-MEL (With 3 hours in CBR) the check in agent put me on a direct which was boarding!

So I'd say book the later flight and if you turn up in time, think 40 minutes before departure time (you can do this at the international arrivals, Qantas has a check in area for transferring passengers).
How about DJ, doesn't DJ fly that route?

Thanks again for the advice.

Only Qantas do the flights from BNE to where I am heading, HVB. Virgin fly to HVB non stop from Sydney.

I might just alter my arrival date as the departure times of the domestic flights are different each day and some days the second flight is much earlier. In which case I could, as suggested, book the second flight and hope to transfer to the first.

I really dont want to hang around in Brisbane for 10 hours, I could almost walk to HVB in 10 hours (slight exaggeration perhaps!!),

The EK434 does consistently get in earlier than its 6.40 am arrival time, when I did the trip in April we were in an hour early, today it got in at 6.05.

Or alternatively I could fly into Sydney and DJ up from there. I shall go and check prices and see how competitive they are against the BNE prices.

Thanks again.

Why does it need to be a codeshare? Have you priced the flights on a third party site like Expedia?

I can buy the flights from Qantas, no problem, and will do.

I was only going for the codeshare to get the domestic on my EK ticket so if the EK inbound was late and I missed my connection, it would be down to EK to sort out. I was then thrown completely by the increase in cost!!

My experience is that EK codeshare flight numbers are useless. If you want to book them, fares typically skyrocket and only high fare buckets are admissible.

I once wanted to book DXB-Seoul-DXB. Inexpensive when exclusively on EK metal, but when I tried to book one of the flights with EK flight number on KE metal, the fare tripled. Although "officially" lower booking classes were available (but no fares issued below full fare).

Yes, I have given up on the code share.

By changing my arrival day I can find an earlier second domestic departure, which gives me, at worst, five hours at BNE which is fine.

I will book the second one and, if early arriving, see if I can get on the 8.10. It certainly helps that Qantas have a domestic check-in at the international terminal.

The EK434 is consistently and significantly early - in at 5.56am this morning. In April I was from the plane to outside the airport in under twenty minutes.:)

Thanks for the advice.

Following on from last year, nothing seems to have changed despite EK/QF getting together.

I was on the EK website pricing another trip to Oz from the UK, LHR to BNE, out in early April back three weeks later. This, in First, came to £5416.49.

As not only will EK and Qantas be loved up by then but they shall also be at it, I thought I would add a couple of to and fro Brisbane domestics on, via Qantas Link as it might be convenient for them to be on the same ticket and I doubt it would cost any more. These via Qantas come to 261AUD, about £180.

I was given two options on the EK site as a result of adding the domestics...priced at £12903.55 and £16690.99. Interestingly the two options seemed to be on exactly the same flights..so I am guessing Saver and Flex fares were being quoted.

I thought that after the EK/QF arrangement the pricing of such a trip, particularly as appropriate to discounted fares, would be more straightforward. I would simply be able to add the cost of the domestics (in Y) to the original First quote.

Was I being daft to have expected that or is the EK website just not yet geared to such calculations?

When you book a ticket on the EK site, it will ( from what I can tell ) try and find a through fare that meets that journey

If you are travelling to a place to which EK publishes a fare, then all fine, but if trying to book a fare to a destination where it doesn't, then it will often just take a full fare to that destination rather than piece together fares

Where are you trying to get to? EK seems to be adding additional destinations within Australia that they sell tickets to, but some seem to have no business/1st offerings

Thanks Dave...Fraser Coast/Hervey Bay. HVB.

I had thought that following the EK/QF link this would be a piece of cake. But to add £7000 or £11000 to my initial fare because I added an OZ £180 domestic return on QF seems odd, to say the least.

And I think it is rather too much (!!!!) for the convenience of checking in at HVB all the way to London.:)

The QF domestics are both in Y (no other options) and the two enormous quotes both showed that as being the case.

It looks like EK doesn't publish a fare in 1st or business class to HVB which is probably causing the issue. You could try phoning EK and seeing if a human can piece together the 2 fares into a single itinerary

I will. Thank you.

And just for fun - F fares booked ex LHR via the EK website appear to be 5 or 6 times more expensive if the first leg is on a QF 380 than an EK 380...