Flight that made me sell my Taylor Swift ticket

Surge pricing is bumping up travel costs for Swifties.

When Perth mum of two Bec Comac secured tickets for herself and two girlfriends to see Taylor Swift in Sydney, she was stoked. “We were super pumped to have a girls’ trip together,” she says. In hindsight, Bec realises she should have booked her return flights to Sydney right away. “But with young kids, you’re always thinking ‘Oh, I’ll just wait a bit. I’ll just sort things out with them first’,” she says.

Christmas came and went, and Bec jumped online in early January to try to book return flights from Perth to Sydney for the February 23-26 weekend. What she found shocked her. “The tickets were about three grand,” she says. “And then I realised I’d have to find a hotel or a friend to stay with.” She was crestfallen. “I suddenly realised what else I could be doing with the cash.”

In fact, when Bec added it all up she estimated she could probably take her whole family to Bali for a short, but all-inclusive holiday for the same amount of money. “Including massages and cocktails.” she says.

Regretfully, Bec decided to give up her ticket. “It would have been so nice for us all to have a weekend together but it was not to be,” she says.

A lot is often made of “Swiftenomics” or the “Taylor Swift Effect” where the singer’s mere presence in a city for a concert boosts the local economy by millions of dollars. Venues NSW chief executive Kerrie Mather told ABC Radio that the Shake It Off hitmaker’s four concerts in Sydney are likely to inject almost $140 million into the local economy from spending on hotels, transport, food and more.

That sounds great on paper but the reality is that for regular people who spent hundreds of dollars to secure a Tay-Tay ticket in the first place, the add-on expenses could price them out of the experience altogether, particularly as airlines and hotels jack up their rates in response to demand.

Airlines and hotels have jacked up their rates in response to increased demand around Taylor Swift concerts. Picture: Taylor Hill/Getty Images.

A search on booking.com reveals a weekend stay at Sydney’s Kimpton Margot Hotel when Swift is in town costs almost $2500. The weekend before will get you the same room for $1050. It’s the same situation in Victoria’s capital. Two nights in a Deluxe Station View room at the Savoy On Little Collins on the weekend before Swift’s arrival will set you back $650. Fast-forward to February 16-18 when Swift is performing and you’ll shell out more than $1500.

Airline prices are the same. Escape managing editor Kelli Armstrong has splurged $1500 to fly from Brisbane to Sydney to see Swift with her seven-year-old daughter. “I was a bit late booking flights just last month, and when I saw the prices, well, there was no turning back. I can guarantee we will remember the experience for a lifetime and the cost will soon be forgotten,” she says.

The hotels and airlines aren’t doing anything wrong. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, they are merely practising what’s known as “surge pricing”, when businesses temporarily increase their prices in line with demand. It’s the same as Uber jacking up ride rates on New Year’s Eve or a rainy Wednesday during peak hour: frustrating but not against the rules. “Surge pricing is not illegal but businesses must be clear about the price consumers will pay,” the ACCC’s website explains.

Swifties who are yet to work out where they’ll be staying may struggle to find anywhere at all. Picture: Taylor Hill/Getty Images.

At this point, prices may only be part of the issue for keen out-of-town Swifties who are yet to work out where they’ll be staying when America’s Sweetheart arrives on our shores. They may struggle to find anywhere at all. Most hotels are close to full capacity: the Ovolo South Yarra, for example has filled all 123 of its rooms on the night of Saturday, February 17, though there are still a few left at Ovolo Laneway. Oakwood Premier Melbourne is also at full capacity.

Oakwood’s general manager Mathias Waas suggests that anyone still looking for accommodation could look at some of Melbourne’s outer suburbs, particularly those on train lines with access to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the show.

For the lucky fans of course, there’s the friends and family option. Byron Bay business owner Angela Honeywell had planned to book a hotel when she arrived in Sydney for Tay Tay but prohibitive prices means she’s now bunking down in her two-year-old niece’s bed.

Which got me thinking. I’ll be interstate during the Taylor stampede in Sydney. Perhaps I should Airbnb my apartment … and retire on the proceeds.

Originally published as Flight that made me sell my Taylor Swift ticket