Footy fans filthy as airfares soar ahead of grand final

AFL fans are facing soaring airfares to Melbourne for Saturday's Grand Final, with return flights from Perth reaching up to $6,000. The prices for flights surged after the Fremantle Dockers and Brisbane Lions won their respective preliminary finals over the weekend. What's next? Airlines have added extra flights and thousands of seats, but fans are still reporting huge price jumps. Return airfares to Melbourne have hit $6,000 ahead of Saturday's AFL Grand Final as Fremantle and Brisbane fans scramble for seats. The eye-watering prices come despite airlines adding extra flights to meet the surge in demand. Fremantle fan John Cooke said he knows of supporters paying $1,900 for a one-way flight from Perth. "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. The lifelong Dockers supporter booked his flights month ago and avoided the worst of the surge, but said many others were not so lucky. "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. "It's just profiteering." Brisbane Lions fan Wendy Elson has also been tracking the fares. 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. "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. Ms Elson said prices jumped dramatically once the finals combination was announced. "I said to my son, we may end up having to hire a car and drive home … or hitch a ride with someone," she said. How airlines set the price 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. "Airlines have a duty to their shareholders to maximise profits," he said. Mr Wastnage said the major events could be factored into those systems and that airline booking systems analysed geographical information. "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. Mr Wastnage described some of the less understood aspects of dynamic pricing as "dark arts". "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. "Similarly with postcodes." Airlines add capacity The airlines have responded to the demand by adding extra services. Qantas added 13 flights between Perth and Melbourne after Fremantle's preliminary-final win, with one-way fares advertised from $766. 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. Flight Centre said bookings to Melbourne from Brisbane and Perth were already up 126 per cent on the same time last year. The federal government has announced nearly $40 million to fund an overhaul of aviation consumer rights. These include a new watchdog and complaints system that could lead to compensation for disrupted passengers. [Image text:] HEAR US ROAR HARLEY CHARLIE Brisvo LIONS HOSTPLU