Jetstar: beachhead or bunk?.
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Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - 8:58 PM HAST Thursday
Jetstar, which this week announced introductory fares for its coming service to Hawaii, got great press Down Under, less so up here.
"Jetstar in Honolulu stampede," read the headline in the Australian. "The low-cost carrier caused another fare stampede yesterday as it offered $249 one-way fares to Honolulu between February and May to mark the December start of its new U.S. services."
The newspaper said Jetstar "intends to use Honolulu as a beachhead to build its brand in preparation for services to the West Coast of the U.S. once it takes delivery of long-range 787s in 2008."
KHNL, however, reported that viewers called saying they couldn't find a ticket on the company Web site at the prices quoted in Honolulu. The television station reported that it also failed at that attempt.
Jetstar will operate three times weekly between Sydney and Honolulu and twice more between Melbourne and Honolulu, beginning on the last week of December. Jetstar is owned by Qantas Airways, which already serves the corridor. Also flying between Hawaii and Australia are Hawaiian Airlines and Air Canada.
Did anyone here manage to get one of the low cost tickets to HNL?
Someone on FT reported success. Unfortunately the site was so overloaded, it was impossible to use for most. By the time many regained access, the cheap tickets were sold out.
Hi,
Thanks to a note on a thread here, several people were able to get tickets the first morning the AUD$44 (+$179 surcharges/taxes each sector) tix were on offer, at least until 9AM of the first sale day.
For a SYD-HNL RTN for 2 people, it worked out at under $911, including a $16 CC surcharge. That's without any extras sold on-board.
On the seat allocation maps, before 9AM there was plenty of available seats mapped. I think we reserved row 29/30 (had to re-do the purchase as my first go was 'sold' before QF accepted the card payment).
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Re: Jetstar: beachhead or bunk?
The sale was first advertised here and/or Flyertalk around midnight I believe.
Plenty of time to scope and reserve tickets if you had that hankering and were awake
I looked, but couldn't find a good enough special to go. No FF points bites for the el cheapo ticket, and until some time that morning only SYD and MEL departures were being offered.
I told workmates about the deal before the emails came out from jetstar, but suprisingly there was little interest.
(BTW, you can often get super deals to HNL from Qantas and Hawaiian airlines - especially if you prepay AU$400 or so in hotel etc. The prices are only about $600 each or so).l
The sale was first advertised here and/or Flyertalk around midnight I believe.
Plenty of time to scope and reserve tickets if you had that hankering and were awake
I looked, but couldn't find a good enough special to go. No FF points bites for the el cheapo ticket, and until some time that morning only SYD and MEL departures were being offered.
I told workmates about the deal before the emails came out from jetstar, but suprisingly there was little interest.
(BTW, you can often get super deals to HNL from Qantas and Hawaiian airlines - especially if you prepay AU$400 or so in hotel etc. The prices are only about $600 each or so).l
Exactly right, you can nearly always get very cheap fares on QF by going through Qantas hols. The Jetstar thing is a promotional gimmick and great for the few who snapped up the cheapies. The real issue is the long range pricing and my bet is that QF dumps the route around April next year (hope not & discussed ad nauseum elsewhere here) and at that time the JQ fares will be pretty close to existing discounted QF fares. We shall see.
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I was "fortunate" to be at work at 5am that morning, and looking on the smh.com website, noticed their article about Jetstar cheapo flights to HNL. So I went to the Jetstar website an put in a few random dates for 2 people, and almost every flight was showing availability at $44 plus surcharges, so I really think that they had a lot of seats available. I knew my sister wanted to go to HNL with her family so I called her and told her - she wasn't exactly thrilled about the 6am phonecall, but she managed to pickup 4 seats during the April school holidays for around $1800. She finished booking around 7.30am I think. I told another friend who looked around 9am, and there they couldn't find anything. I guess my sister and her family were lucky I had to work early that day!! As for me - I'm getting a bit too spoilt, and will probably add it on to a J class ATW in the next few months (provided Qantas still fly there by there then!!!)
Exactly right, you can nearly always get very cheap fares on QF by going through Qantas hols. The Jetstar thing is a promotional gimmick and great for the few who snapped up the cheapies.
Jetstar non sale fares for SYD-HNL return using random dates in May 2007 cost ~$1140 for days with direct flights or ~$1440 on days with flights via MEL, without food, pillow or headset.
QF fares, assuming that QF still operate the route, for the same week are ~$1420 with fully inclusive service, SC's and FF points.
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