Bailey Macklinshaw said he was surprised to see the price of Qantas airfares changing from $612 to $942 when he went to book this week. (Source: Instagram/baileym__/Getty)
A Qantas customer has shared his frustration after he went to book interstate flights with the airline and noticed the prices kept changing by more than $300. Dynamic pricing is an established practice in air travel and tourism, with prices fluctuating according to demand and other factors.
Sydney man Bailey Macklinshaw said he was “seething” after he went to book the return flights from Sydney to Melbourne on Tuesday night. The 28-year-old told Yahoo Finance the flights were originally $618 return on his phone, but when he went to log in via his frequent flyer account, they suddenly jumped up to $942.
“Part of the checkout process, it says, ‘Do you want to log in?’ Logged in, prices jump up. I thought that’s so strange,” he recalled.
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Macklinshaw checked the fares on his partner’s phone and found they were still available for the lower $618 price. However, when he went to log in again, they once again jumped back up. When he logged out again, they were still the same higher price for the same Red eDeal tickets.
“I did the incognito and did a different browser, so went from Safari and Chrome to see if that changed it, grabbed my laptop and it was still the same,” he said.
Macklinshaw said he also noticed fares for about four different times had also jumped up in price at the same time.
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Bailey shared screenshots of the price differences, which showed the price at $618 on one phone and $942 on another at the same time. (Source: TikTok/Instagram/@baileym__)
“It’s not the first instance either. I fly regularly, I’m a gold Qantas member so this is my 58th flight with them this year. One [flight] a week at this point, if not two a week. It’s not ideal,” he said.
Macklinshaw said he called the Qantas customer service line for help, but claimed he was hung up on midway through the call.
The business development manager was travelling for work so ended up booking the higher-priced flights, worried they were going to increase in price further.
Macklinshaw said it was difficult to contend with the sudden price changes when running a business and trying to keep things cost-effective.
“It gets a bit hard when you’re coming down for a job to do this and then your flights have literally doubled in a span of an hour, two hours or one minute, which is the crazy part,” he said.
To make matters worse, Macklinshaw’s flight to Melbourne was cancelled a few hours before its scheduled departure. He ended up getting put on a later flight, which was actually offered for a cheaper price at the time of his booking.
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Qantas was contacted by Yahoo Finance who declined to comment but advised it was investigating the matter.
Qantas said it does not employ dynamic pricing.
Macklinshaw shared a video about his experience on social media and was flooded with responses from other Aussies who couldn’t believe the price difference.
“$942 for an interstate flight is diabolical,” one wrote.
“Qantas rewarding loyalty by fleecing you,” another said.
A number of other Aussies said they had also experienced price changes when booking airfares, with many questioning whether dynamic pricing was at play.
Some suggested booking flights incognito, clearing your history or cache could help.
“Always search for flights in a private browser to avoid this,” one wrote.
“Clear cache and private browser always,” another agreed.
Dynamic pricing is legal in Australia and businesses are able to change prices to reflect demand and supply in the market.
RMIT University senior lecturer in economics Dr Meg Elkins told Yahoo Finance dynamic pricing did happen with airlines, along with accommodation, concert and event tickets, and even Ubers with surge pricing.
“Where people get really upset, and this is what happened with the Oasis tickets as well, is when you log on and it’s one price and then during that time [before payment] the price lifts,” she said.
“This is that murky area around dynamic pricing. How can people budget for going out, having holidays, if the price is changing.
“The more data they have in the algorithm, the more they’re going to know about you, and dynamic pricing is based on demand.”
RMIT University senior lecturer in economics Dr Meg Elkins said dynamic pricing happened with airlines, accommodation, concerts and even Ubers. (Source: RMIT)
The ACCC notes that businesses must be clear, not misleading, about the price consumers will pay.
The Australian government announced last year it planned to crack down on dynamic pricing, after the tactic came under fire with regard to concert ticket prices.
Tickets for American band Green Day’s tour rose up to $500, with the pricing tactics also used for the Australian Grand Prix and Australian Open tickets.
Over in the UK, the biggest pub chain Stonegate Group announced it would introduce dynamic pricing during peak hours like evenings and weekends.
With airlines, Elkins said there wasn’t much choice available in Australia and less choice meant the more people were locked into copping price surges.
“Flights are messy at the best of times. So the more that you can be flexible, I think with your flights, the better,” Elkins said.
“If you need to be somewhere at a certain time, that’s when you can get taken advantage of. So if you’re putting into that algorithm that you can only fly at this time, this day, in the morning or at this period, then it’s easier to know that that person is more vulnerable to taking what’s given.”
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