{"id":899905,"date":"2026-09-21T09:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899905\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T09:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:22:16","slug":"afl-grand-final-sends-melbourne-airfares-soaring-as-interstate-fans-scramble-for-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899905\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Grand Final sends Melbourne airfares soaring as interstate fans scramble for seats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell us about your experience. <\/p>\n

Return airfares to Melbourne have hit $6,000 ahead of Saturday’s AFL Grand Final as Fremantle and Brisbane fans scramble for seats.<\/p>\n

The eye-watering prices come despite airlines adding extra flights to meet the surge in demand.<\/p>\n

Fremantle fan John Cooke said he knows of supporters paying $1,900 for a one-way flight from Perth.<\/p>\n

“I’ve also seen people saying that you’re better off getting flights to Europe or the US and spending a day shopping and sightseeing overseas and then coming back into Melbourne,” Mr Cooke said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Cooke got in in early, but says airlines are ripping off fans. (Supplied: John Cooke)<\/p>\n

The lifelong Dockers supporter booked his flights month ago and avoided the worst of the surge, but said many others were not so lucky.<\/p>\n

“It’s not like there are five or six different airlines all competing for airfare seats. They’re pretty much all knowing that they’re going to be full,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just profiteering.”\"A<\/p>\n

Lions fans are paying up in the hope of seeing their team claim a historic three-peat. (AFL Photos via Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)<\/p>\n

Brisbane Lions fan Wendy Elson has also been tracking the fares.<\/p>\n

Ms Elson has attended more than a dozen grand finals and has booked a one-way flight to Melbourne, but is still without a ticket home.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been to 10 grand finals, so we’re pretty good at working things out, but this year the flights have really hiked up. They’re very expensive,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wendy Elson (left) is yet to work out how she’ll get back home. (Supplied: Wendy Elson)<\/p>\n

Ms Elson said prices jumped dramatically once the finals combination was announced.<\/p>\n

“I said to my son, we may end up having to hire a car and drive home \u2026 or hitch a ride with someone,” she said.<\/p>\n

How airlines set the price<\/p>\n

Griffith University aviation industry expert Justin Wastnage says airlines are using increasingly sophisticated dynamic pricing systems to maximise revenue from a limited number of seats.<\/p>\n

“Airlines have a duty to their shareholders to maximise profits,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Wastnage said the major events could be factored into those systems and that airline booking systems analysed geographical information.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Airlines are using sophisticated dynamic pricing systems to maximise revenue from a limited number of seats. (AAP)<\/p>\n

“If the booking platform knows your postcode and if it knows that postcode is within the territory of a home sporting club, it could even rank-jump those fares from searches from that sort of geographical area,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Wastnage described some of the less understood aspects of dynamic pricing as “dark arts”.<\/p>\n

“Some studies have suggested that if you book from a Mac computer, airfares could be about 15-20 per cent higher because there was an assumption that you’re a higher revenue passenger,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Similarly with postcodes.”<\/p>\n

\"AFL<\/p>\n

Fremantle fans chant their way from Melbourne’s Federation Square to the MCG in 2013, the last time Fremantle reached the grand final. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Airlines add capacity<\/p>\n

The airlines have responded to the demand by adding extra services.<\/p>\n

Stronger protections for airline passengers<\/a><\/p>\n

The federal government has announced nearly $40 million to fund an overhaul of aviation consumer rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qantas added 13 flights between Perth and Melbourne after Fremantle’s preliminary-final win, with one-way fares advertised from $766.<\/p>\n

Qantas and Jetstar also added seven Brisbane-Melbourne flights, while Virgin added 4,000 seats between Perth and Melbourne and another 1,000 from Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Flight Centre said bookings to Melbourne from Brisbane and Perth were already up 126 per cent on the same time last year.<\/p>\n

The federal government has announced nearly $40 million to fund an overhaul of aviation consumer rights.<\/p>\n

These include a new watchdog and complaints system that could lead to compensation for disrupted passengers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tell us about your experience. Return airfares to Melbourne have hit $6,000 ahead of Saturday’s AFL Grand Final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49418,468340,64,63,3237,468338,468339,119934,10124,85],"class_list":["post-899905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-afl-grand-final","tag-airline-price-gouging","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-brisbane-to-melbourne-airfare","tag-dockers-lions","tag-dynamic-pricing","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}