Bluesky

I was doing research on the airfares. I was disappointed with the airfares as they are too expensive. It would be better for me to fly around the world rather than return flight. I am wondering when Qantas and Emirates alliance will announce the new airfares? I know it's due to regulatory approval but I need to know WHEN?? Hope that it will be available by next month!

Mwenenzi

Err !! Where do you want to fly from / to / when / what class ? (does help to answer your question)
QF and EK alliance starts April 2013 if its approved by the regulatory authorities.
RTW can be good value if you many many stops.
I would not expect new QF / EK airfares to be cheaper. EK ex Aust tends to less now for business & first
QF will still fly into LHR. Just more destination cities in Europe, including UK, with EK by transferring in Dubai

Dave Noble

Last thing I would expect is for the fare collusion to lead to lower fares, if anything I can see EK raising their fares to match QF

Where do you want to go and when?

also when comes to airlines, don't be blinded with just one carrier... do any carriers have decent fares to where you want to go?

Dave

Bluesky

I will be flying between May and July 2013. Economy. I dont know which cities I will fly to but somewhere in Europe. From BNE to either MAD or Zurich or Rome. Then back from either Zurich or Geneva to BNE. I haven't made up my mind yet...it depends on the tours and business.

I only know that chinese airlines have got very cheap airfare but they don't have our australian airlines frequent flyers.

Well...i do hope that it would be a lot cheaper than other airlines! lol cross my fingers

Thanks so much!

Mwenenzi

IMHO no show that will happen with QF fares

In Europe trains go almost every where and then there are low cost airlines between Eu cities
Freg flyers points earned from economy are not worth much.
If price is the main factor just go with the cheapest airline,

VHOEJ

The airlines will be working on it as soon as possible but probably won't be able to announce anything until they get the approval from authorities.

DownUnderFlyer

This is the big fear of all the EK flyers. Coordinated fares meaning agreeing on the highest denominator.

serfty

Note that fares from non UK ports will not attract the onerous APD which is no less than Ł65 for flights to Dubai (Ł130 for premium).

Aisle Seat H

I have been thinking about this a bit.

At certain times of year from certain places EK Y and J (and F ?) fares are so cheap relative to all major other carriers bar other Gulf airlines, and so much cheaper than QF.

Surely EK are not going to just raise all their fares to QF levels, which could mean huge jumps as QF fares can be absurdly high - this would not only be immediately obvious to their regular pax. and is likely to alienate them big-time, but would make no business sense. If EK wanted or needed higher fares they would have introduced them on their own by now - indeed they have become the power they are by having much cheaper fares than so many other carriers while still making money and filling their planes, and I simply can't believe they would have signed a deal with another airline that contractually requires them to radically change this.

So the only logical answers I can come up with is that, in order to coordinate their fares as they say they will, EK will raise theirs a bit, maybe slowly/incrementally, and that QF will drop theirs a bit, and they will meet somewhere in the middle.

The way this might be done would be for them to agree that fares always have to be, say, within a 5% or 7% or whatever range of each other (with regular coordination and checks), with some fares/sales/etc coordinated at the same prices.

This would be good for QF flyers like me, not good for EK regulars.

But this all assumes that 1) I am actually being logical about this, and 2) that logic will have anything whatsoever to do with this!

Maybe EK just have not realised yet how high QF's fares are, especially in the premium cabins !

What do others think?!?

Traveloguy

Will be very interesting to see the take the ACCC has on all of this. Is putting the strongest two airlines in a single alliance really good for the travelling public?

Not to mention the effect it will also have on TT flights.

VH-RMD

TT is where I think the regulator may have the difficulty, not so much with the other routes as there is lot's of competition.

I would not be surprised to see EK having to hand off TT to QF, which would be very sad.

Himeno

It hasn't been filed with the ACCC yet. The only Qantas related submission currently pending on the ACCC website relates to Jetstar.

Dave Noble

I would since my understanding is that it works out better for EK than to leave the aeroplane parked in Sydney long term parking for the day

VH-RMD

the regulator may not really care about that.

Dave Noble

I would doubt that the regulator would tell EK that they are no longer allowed to fly to Auckland given that they are operating DXB-AKL via SYD