lokijuh

In true style, QF poured some money into advertising in the weekend papers (at least in MEL) for a Y fare to LHR [using QF31 from SYD] for $1999 (inc taxes) during second half of August. So with late August holidays in mind - I rang up to check availability, however with the fare only being available on 31 Aug, gets me thinking why bother advertising it?

Obviously they are trying to put b#ms on seats on QF 31 - and plenty of N availability for that flight. However somebody in QF obviously forgot that all connecting flights from places like MEL would be at peak times (and therefore no N only a month out), hence 0 availability. So I rang back, and some questioning showed availability by using lunchtime services from MEL-SYD, rather than 7pm and therefore OK on other dates as well. But still begs the question, why bother advertising if standard use of the res system, or even you're own agents (premium desk at that) don't know how to be a bit creative to get the right availablity?

number_6

This is why the commercial res systems like Expedia and Orbitz are often able to find lower fares than you are offered by booking directly with the airline. Up to 50% lower if you search hard enough. Luckily the computer does all the work so anyone can do a pretty thorough search with only a minute's effort (and save a few hundred dollars, pretty good hourly yield).