Want to fly from Cloncurry to Townsville? Then book a fare from Cloncurry to Cairns.
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Yes it’s twice as cheap to travel twice as far. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of dynamic flight pricing.
That was the strange scenario one would-be traveller discovered on Tuesday when they were looking at fares on Skyscanner for the following day.
Screen prints showed that Cloncurry to Townsville via Mount Isa leaving 8.20am and arriving 10.55am cost $487 and yet Cloncurry to Cairns via Mount Isa and Townsville on the same flight arriving 12.15pm the fare is almost half at $277.
Cheaper flights advocate Hamish Griffin noted the fact that there was flooding around Townsville and perhaps Qantas’s dynamic pricing model may have kicked in again.
“Qantas.... What are you playing at now, oh wait... road closures around Townsville??” he asked them on their Facebook page.
“Twice the distance for half the cost?
“This is blatant price gouging... this is exactly what I have been banging a drum about for the last two years.”
In March this year road closures between Townsville and Cloncurry led to a flight price spike, that time with Virgin flights.
The North West Star contacted Qantas who refused to comment saying the prices were a matter for Skyscanner and would have been different on their website.
The North West Star has been unable to ascertain what the prices were for those routes on the Qantas website for the day in question but a search for flights for Monday Cloncurry to Townsville via Isa one way cost $272 on the Qantas website red e-deal and $449 on the flex fare while Cloncurry to Cairns cost $327.
When Mr Griffin made his post on Facebook someone replied “I’d be booking to Cairns and getting off in Townsville.”
To which another person responded, noting a possible flaw in the strategy, “Good idea...but don’t forget your luggage.”
READ ALSO:Qantas resumes the afternoon flight
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
