Scoopon offers first group buying deal for flights
Scoopon has offered its first group buying deal for the air travel sector, with a flexible, direct return flight between Melbourne and Phuket going for $599.
The company said the move signalled the company’s intention to carve out a position as the ‘champion’ for the Aussie shopper with bigger, higher value items.
The deal goes live today, at noon.
That’s weird, I’m sure I saw a TVC the other day with that exact price – return to Phuket…
I don’t see the deal on their site. When does it go live?
Hi Scott,
The deal goes live in about 45 minutes – at noon today.
Cheers,
Robin – Mumbrella
Beware. Strategic are unreliable. my friend had her flight cancelled to phuket which was $400 and had to pay an extra $800 to get the next available flight which was $1200.
-if it looks too good to be true, it usually is!!
Strategic Airlines have real problems with capacity. When they have to cancel a flight due to technical or mechanical issues there are no planes available to replace the flight. In the past month they have left several plane loads stranded in Phuket, Melbourne and Brisbane.
They are cheap and the service is good, when they have planes that fly, so buyer beware.
Disclosure: I have flown with them recently and been stranded by them so probably a little biased.
Insurance would ease the pain of the additional costs but loss in time is a real drag to the start of a holiday.
I second that, last week returning from Bali the Strategic flight back to Aus was cancelled and the passengers were all scrambling to get on other flights (presumably having to pay). Luckily we were not flying with them.
You can check out the deal and how it’s going here: http://bit.ly/orJuZu
Was it Scoopon or Spreets that offered Good Vibes Festival tickets last year for a substantial discount?
This year, I am not going to buy tickets for Goodvibes. (I dont think anyone I know is going to.) We are going to wait, until we get a discounted price on a voucher site… 😉
They’ve still got a long way to go to catch up to Living Social overall.
Scoopon is making a few critical social media mistakes in managing this promotion. By claiming the true value of the flights were $2298 per person, a number of fans have questioned this and over the last 20 minutes Scoopon has censored or removed any criticism of the offer- details below (I have XXX’d surnames) $2298 is a highly inflated price to make the offer price better looking. Still, its working and over 450 bargain hunters have grabbed a fare but lost their credibility.
Betty Kxxxxx Normally over $2,000 to fly to Phuket? Who pays that much unless they’re going business class?
about an hour ago • Like • 7 people
Anna Sxxxx I flew to Phuket last month with Singapore Airlines for about $800 return.
59 minutes ago • Like • 1 person
Felipe RXXXX You normal can find deals even better that…. Its a misleading fellows…
58 minutes ago • Like • 5 people
Tracy Stxxxxx cheap 10 years ago ! Rubbish deal. You can get return flights and 7 nights accomm for $1100 !
54 minutes ago • Unlike • 1 person
These Social Buying Platforms (SBPs) are unregulated and can claim almost any price as the “normal” price.
so how do you book the return flight? shouldn’t it be a return flight not one way??
there’s always ppl that will trust whatever is being said and purcahse these sorts of deals, pretty poor form by scoopon to exploit it.
This is highly misleading.
As Adam said, $2298 is an inflated price.
I just conducted a few searches on Strategic’s website- doing return flights on a range of different dates- and the highest it came up with was about $1300.
You could get a 600 fare on a few other carries, and better carries I might add.
Haven’t bought anything from Scoopon, but after seeing them trying to take the piss on this deal, don’t think I will be anytime in the future either.