Jetstar - booking strategy

GordonR on 18/08/2014 - 13:02

I need to get specific flights PER-SIN and SIN-PER to get me and my daughter on the same Jetstar flights as her team-mates for a competition on Singapore in early November

Two weeks ago, the flights were about $275 return for each person (total of just over $500) but I couldn't buy them as I needed to get leave from work first. This only took about two days, but by then the flights had skyrocketed in price and are now about $900 per person.

They vary almost every day, some ups, some downs etc. which is really annoying. The return flight (only) was $94 last week and is now $395!

What is the best strategy?

(a) Book immediately and swallow the cost because the flights are nearly full, hence the high cost
(b) Keep hanging on, waiting for both flights to go on sale again
(c) Break it to daughter that she and Dad are getting the Tiger flight landing at 3am!

Basically I need some insight into the Jetstar pricing algorithm, because if the flights really are nearly full, then there's no point in hanging on.

Cheers

Gordon

Travel

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Comments

  • unco on 18/08/2014 - 13:35
    +4

    Can you take advantage of the Jetstar price beat guarantee using the Tiger flights as a comparison?
    You might actually be able to save a bit extra that way because they don't charge booking or credit card fees when doing a price beat.

    • Wampus on 18/08/2014 - 14:03
      +1

      Yeah thats a really good point, you've got nothing to lose. Write down the Tiger flights and then call Jetstar and quote them the pricing and times. I believe they've got to be within a certain timeframe to compare with the Jetstar flight in order for Jetstar to price match. If they say no, you're back to square one but won't have lost anything!

      • 2jzzzz on 18/08/2014 - 14:33

        Got to be within 1hour .

        • unco on 18/08/2014 - 14:43

          Yeah it has to be within an hour for intra-Asia flights.
          http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/what-we-offer/our-guarantees/pr…

          You can also do it via live chat by clicking the "Price beat my flight" link if you don't have time to chat on the phone.
          I did it last week through the live chat and it took about 15 mins to complete.
          They emailed me the itinerary 48 hours later.

    • GordonR on 18/08/2014 - 15:02

      Good idea, but the Jetstar flights aren't close to any of the other carriers… :-(

  • jerome on 18/08/2014 - 16:04

    If the flight is not within 14 days, just book and choose "direct deposit" as payment method.

    It'll be OK to pay after 2 days as long as your booking reference is still valid on the website.

    I usually log in to the booking & pay by POLI after 2 days to get instant confirmation.

    Never pay credit card fee as it is absolutely a rip-off!

  • melaco on 18/08/2014 - 16:54
    +1

    Not sure if it's true or not seeing as it's never happened to me, but I've heard that some airlines track your Internet activity to inflate their prices. So what I've been told to do is clear all my browser history and cookies so that they think it's a fresh booking. Or you can also open a new incognito tab on your browser. It's worth a try I guess

  • cheapfab on 18/08/2014 - 18:33
    +1

    Price beat the Tigerair flight mate - its not considered intra -asia … Its an International flight.

    Its PER to SIN and the other way around.

    As Per Jetstar price beat policy:

    Within the same calendar day if they’re international flights (excluding intra-Asia and trans-Tasman).

    Have done this a few times with Jetstar as the Tiger flight does not have a good arrival time.

    • GordonR on 19/08/2014 - 11:21

      That's a great idea…. however Jetstar has two flights to SIN on that same day; can I ask for the flights I want, or will they just give me the most inconvenient flight?

      • unco on 19/08/2014 - 11:52

        Pretty sure you can ask for it.
        Mine was a domestic flight so there wasn't a choice of multiple flights I could pick but they asked me which flight time on Jetstar I was comparing to the competitors flight.

  • GordonR on 20/08/2014 - 16:10
    +3

    unco and cheapfab - between you, you've saved me heaps ; unco for suggesting PriceBeat and cheapfab for clarifying that PER-SIN is not "intra-Asia".

    Just clicked on the "Price Beat" link, started up a chat, stated the flights I wanted and the Tiger fares on the same day, and he just booked me in with no problems.

    Cost if I booked same through Jetstar without price match: $1960 return w/baggage
    Cost actually paid: $640

    So, thanks again to both of you…

    • unco on 20/08/2014 - 16:39
      +1

      Awesome, glad to hear you saved so much!

      Now if only Tiger flew from Melbourne to Singapore so I could do the same price beat for my upcoming trip.. haha

  • travelwiz on 11/02/2015 - 10:43

    prices generally seem to "go up" as cheaper seats sell.

    Airline sets out many pricing buckets when flights are loaded.

    eg. say it's a 180 seat A320.

    They might have 10 fare buckets at 10 different fares.

    $100, $120, $140, $160, $180, $200, $220, $240, $260 & $280

    The higher fares have more flexiblility, ie, maybe no change fees or name change free or more baggage or earn Qantas ff points, but assuming most early buys are for cheapest.

    If each of 10 buckets has 18 seats each (in reality probably less in each bucket at lowest fare 7 more at higher fares)

    If 17 of the $100 sell before you get your act together & you search for 2 seats, it will only show $120 & above.

    It won't show the 1 x $100 fare & won't average the fares.

    This is why a price without a booking is completely meaningless.

    If an agent gives you a price without making a booking he/she is an idiot.

    Even if it appears in their computer reservation system that there are heaps of cheap seats (they can only see one digit so 9 maximum), a group could book 5 mins later & take all the cheap seats.

    So any agent worth his/her salt, makes a booking, which will then lapse in day or 2 usually (every fare has different ticketing time limits-cheapest usually shortest).

    So cost to client if they don't go ahead.

    Also if an airline has a sale, that sale fare may appear, but in most cases it doesn't say when the sale ends on that screen, you have to go looking.

    Also, there was a test a few years ago, where one domestic airline had a fantastic sale. Catch was it appeared that only 2 seats maximum per flight were on sale. Some flights had no seats at this sale price. So in reality les than 2% of seats at that sale price. If you searched for 3 seats, you would never ecve see any of the sale fare.

    MORAL is if chasing really cheap seats & don't use an agent, then search for number of people you need tickets for, say eg. 4. Then search for 1, 2 or 3.

    It maybe cheaper to buy separate tickets, but need to be fast, especially if a well advertised sale.

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