Jetstar and VirginBlue Sale

Jetstar and Virgin Blue are having a domestic sale right now. Fares start from $36. Travel period is next year.

For Jetstar, the travel periods are from

• 15 January to 18 March 2008
  
• 29 March to 25 June 2008
• 22 July to 31 August 2008 (selected destinations)

Sale ends 22nd of October for Jetstar. More info click here.

Virgin Blue's travel periods are from

• 15 January to 15 March 2008
  
• 29 April to 26 June 2008.

Sale ends 25th of October for Virgin Blue. More info click here.

Note that Jetstar is also having an international sale as well.

Melbourne Airport

Well, it seems like Tullamarine (Melbourne Airport) has been having a few 'parties'. Today, the 'jumbo' plabe, Airbus-A380 landed in Melbourne as a part of a test flight. It arrived around 11am local time, 40 minutes ahead of schedule.

The plane was flying from Dubai. Anyway, the first (commercial) flight as you know will be done late this month by Singapore Airlines. It will be flying from Sydney to Singapore and back. The tickets are auctioned on eBay (by SIA themselves, not scalpers) to raise funds for charity. I am not sure whether there are still tickets. Check here.

More pictures of the A380 in Melbourne here.

Another special event at Melbourne Airport was the opening of its newest terminal, Terminal 4. This happened last Monday. The new terminal is for Tiger Airways, the newest airline to service the Australian domestic market.

As part of the launch, the airline (Tiger) made 15,000 seats available for an exclusive price ($10 to Launceston, $20 to Gold Coast, etc). The deal was snapped up pretty quick and have now sold out.

picture from theage.com.au

$49 to Perth

The Age just reported that Jetstar will have a sale tonight only for flight to Perth. The sale is only happening from 6pm until midnight (or until sold out).

The fare will be $49 one way and valid for travel between 15th of November and 15th of December 2007.

Full article here.

Cheap Flights

Air Asia is having a sale for tomorrow and Sunday only. Fare to Kuala Lumpur from Gold Coast is only $99 one way. The travel period is between 2 Nov and 14 Nov 2007.

The flight is still subject to regulatory approval though. Further conditions about the flight can be found here.

This is probably the first route that is announced for Air Asia X, the first low-cost long-haul airline. Air Asia X will fly between South East Asia and Australia, China and Europe. For more info on Air Asia X, click here.

A380 Makes a Move

Everybody knows about the new mega-jumbo plane from Airbus. the Airbus-A380. One word can describe the plane, it is MASSIVE. Even Singapore needs to make another terminal to accommodate the new plane.

If you don't know what I am talking about then you should Google "A380" and you'll find a lot more info about the plane. If you want to check the Wikipedia entry, click here.

There has been a delay in the production of the planes. This made a bit of a trouble for Airbus cause some of the airlines was suing for compensation of the delay. Anyway, the plane is highly anticipated all around the world. A lot of airlines have ordered them to add to their fleet. I believe the airline with the most order is Emirates and Singapore Air is second.

However, the first airline that will fly the plane for public (commercial) is going to be Singapore Airlines aka SIA aka SQ. The plane's first commercial flight will be taking off from Sydney to Singapore in 63 days and you can get in this first flight if you want to because the tickets/seats will be auctioned on eBay, how convenient. For ticket scalpers, you don't have to do any work, SQ has done it all for you. Of course, the purpose of the auction is not income revenue but charity and maybe a bit of media frenzy.

The auction starts in a couple more days, 27th of August 2007 to be exact. The A380 will be flying from Sydney to Singapore on the 25th of October and returning to Sydney the next day. Each journey will be auctioned separately, in other words if you are planning to come back to Sydney, you will need to bid on the other journey.

All 3 classes (new economy, new business and suites) will be available for auction. You can also bid on multiple tickets as a package. To check out the packages, click here. Because the auction is via eBay, you will need an eBay account to participate in the whole bidding process.

If you don't like the auction process, guaranteed seats will be available (I think it's like a Buy It Now kind of thing) but it does come with a premium charge as well.

At this stage, there is no information about the pricing details or how much the auction is going to start. But the FAQ of the auction can be accessed here.

To get more info about this event/auction, click here.

picture from SIA website

New Qantas Logo

Do you know that Qantas has just launched a new logo ?

The old logo is on the left and the new one is on the right of the picture. Similar ? Yes, but not the same. In the new one, the kangaroo is more aerodynamic. This is done so that the plane can get less resistance from the wind and therefore, fly faster to the destination. Also, the new logo allows the kangaroo legs to be seen instead of being split by the aircraft, see picture below.

Nice ? No word on how much the re-painting job is going to cost though.

Disclaimer: the new logo will not make the plane go any faster, not even a little bit.

Pictures courtesy of The Age

Tiger vs Jetstar

As mentioned before, Tiger Airways (one of Asia's low budget airline) is coming to Australia and will be based in Melbourne. As a follow up, they will start flying Australian domestic routes from November 2007.

Their first announcement (a couple of weeks ago) was Melbourne to Darwin and a special fare was introduced at $79.99 one way. They then launch more routes around Australia. Up until today, they have:

• Melbourne - Gold Coast ($49.95 one way)
• Melbourne - Mackay ($59.95 one way)
  
• Melbourne - Rockhampton ($59.95 one way)

I'm pretty sure that there will be more routes available so keep an eye out at their website www.tigerairways.com and select Australia.

Tiger is also offering an international route from Melbourne to Singapore via Darwin. This is currently on offer at $499 return, making this probably the cheapest flight to go Asia from Melbourne. If you go to New Zealand or Fiji, it will cost you around about the same. Even Jetstar's international fare would still be around $700 return to Thailand.

The only bad thing about flying to Singapore with Tiger is the time it take to reach there. It takes 11 hours to reach Singapore and I'm guessing it's because of the stopover.

Anyways, Jetstar did not stay quite but they launch a series of attacks to countermeasure Tiger. Jetstar has discounted the fare from Melbourne to Gold Coast to just $39 (which has already sold out). They also made the fare to Darwin to be the $0.99 cheaper than Tiger at $79.

Jetstar also sold $1 tickets yesterday for two hours (between 10.00am and 12.00pm). The offer was available for email subscribers and include routes Melbourne - Tasmania (Hobart, Launceston), and Melbourne - Adelaide.

Basically, this will continue on and it will surely create a new pricing point for domestic travel (and maybe international as well) in Australia. We just hope that the plane will always be checked before flying.

Note: the sale fares are for Nov 07 until March 08. Further details, please go on the website for each company: www.jetstar.com.au and www.tigerairways.com.

Tiger in Melbourne

Only yesterday I mentioned that Tiger Airways is coming to Melbourne and was still deciding its base. Well today, it has been decided. It will be in Melbourne. This decision is expected to open more jobs for Victorians and bring a bigger price wars between the budget airlines.

Tiger Airways is 49 percent owned by Singapore Airlines. It is believed that the airline will start operating within months however no exact date is confirmed.

Jetstar Sale

Yesterday, I told you that there was an exclusive 3 hours sale for Jetstar email subscriber. Well now they have another sale to celebrate their 3rd birthday. It's "Take a Friend for $3 Sale". Basically on selected routes, you can take another person with you for an extra $3.

The sale is not only for domestic but also for international routes. For example:

• Melbourne - Christchurch : $111 per person one way
• Melbourne - Bangkok : $221 per person one way
• Sydney- Osaka : $251 per person one way
  

Sale ends 7th of May so be quick to grab the bargain. It's not valid for all dates, check the website for offer validity. The normal terms and conditions apply (such as credit card surcharge, etc), again check on the website. For more info go to their website, http://www.jetstar.com/sale-fares.html.

May oh May

Wow, it's already May, nearly halfway through the year. I think they'll be selling Christmas trees pretty soon. I don't think I've done anything much this year. But anyway let's check what's making headlines.

NO Interest Rate Rise
This morning, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to put the interest rate on hold. This is good news for all home buyers/owners that has a mortage. Although it is 'safe' for another month, we will never know what is coming ahead.

A New Attraction
Melbourne will soon have a new attraction for tourists. It is a glass box. Now you may ask how can a glass box be a tourists attraction. Well, it can if it is sticking out from the 88th floor of the new Eureka apartment (Eureka is currently the tallest building in Melbourne). But this is not for the faint-hearted, don't believe me ? Just have a look at these pictures (picture: Herald Sun),

So far from the pictures we know that it can suspend 1 person safely. If I was inside, I would make sure that I'm the only one inside.

Budget Airline Ticket-fight
Yesterday night, between 8pm -11pm, Jetstar made a huge sale. $3 to fly on selected routes. Yup, only $3 and nothing more. It was only offered to Jetstar email subscriber, Jetmail (I read the email an hour late so all I could do was cry). Anyway, some sources said that this (very low ticket prices) might be more common when the new budget airline, Tiger Airways, enter the Australian market. Tiger is currently flying in South East Asia and based in Singapore. There is still no details when Tiger will start operating in Australia or which route it will cover. So I say, bring on the competition.

Domestic Airfare Easter Sale

It's on now until the 2nd of April. As usual, Virgin Blue and Jetstar (not to forget Qantas) are having a domestic sale. The sale if for travel between the 24th April and 21st of June 2007. So if you haven't planned your June holiday, now is the time to grab a bargain.

For more details, go to their website
www.virginblue.com.au
www.jetstar.com.au
www.qantas.com.au

Domestic airfare ON SALE NOW

Jetstar and Virgin Blue are doing it again. They are on a price war. Their latest sale will end at 6th of November 2006. So, grab it soon. Unlike previous 'wars', now Virgin and Jetstar are completely different sale.

Virgin has the normal, price cut sale. Travel is between 16 Jan 07 - 29 Mar 07. Some of the specials from Melbourne are as follows,

• Melbourne to and from Sydney: $79
• Melbourne to and from Gold Coast: $69
• Melbourne to and from Hobart: $55

Full details check out www.virginblue.com.au

Jetstar has two sale, one for domestic and one for international.

The domestic one is a bit different. You must travel in twos to take advantage of the offer. Travel is between 01 Feb 07 - 31 Mar 07. Some of the specials,

• Melbourne to and from Hamilton Island: $169 for 2
• Melbourne to and from Sunshine Coast: $109 for 2
• Melbourne to and from Gold Coast: $109 for 2
• Melbourne to and from Hobart: $79 for 2

For weekend dates, I think there's only a few left but there's still plenty on the weekday.

For the international fare (note: Jetstar will start flying international end of November), the travel must be done between 22 Jan 07 - 31 Mar 07.

• Melbourne to and from Christchurch: $199
• Melbourne to and from Bali: $299
• Melbourne to and from Bangkok: $329
• Melbourne to and from Honolulu: $429

For full details, check out www.jetstar.com.au

Qantas has a sale as well but obviously it will be a bit pricy as compared to Jetstar and Virgin Blue.