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Ridiculous flight ticket prices

J

jtvang125

Diamond Member
If you've ever searched on those travel search engines (expedia, travelocity..ect) and go all the way to the bottom results, the prices on those are insane.

Example I searched for Sacramento to LA for a weekend in the middle of Aug. Cheapest is a reasonable $280. At the bottom there are a few $800 and one at $1100. Even if you bought a ticket last minute I doubt it'll be that much. I don't get it. So who are these targeted for? They're just coach class seats.
 
More desirable times? Supply and demand law?

For my vacation trip cheapest ticket had departure time at 6AM. When you add 30 mins before flight to board the plane, TSA checkpoint, etc, pretty much it means it is night flight. All tickets with nice morning hours (like after 8AM) were considerably more expensive.
 
Probably overbooking those flights. They really don't have a seat to sell but if you're willing to pay enough they might ask for volunteers to back out.
 
Or maybe the accusations about "capacity discipline" have merit!

I've put up over 650K air miles in the last 8.5 years and for most of that time just about every flight has been full or nearly full. Purposelessly limiting the number of seats by limiting the number of flights and/or using smaller planes guarantees that there will be fewer available seats and the airlines can charge more per seat. Of course, in order for this to work ALL the major airlines need to be playing the same game.


Brian
 
Before we got Porter Airlines here it used to cost over a grand to fly to Toronto. Porter charges a bit under $100 which is WAY more reasonable. I think AC brought their prices down to around the same level too to compete. Comes to show how much money they were racking in before.
 
Brian Stirling said:
Or maybe the accusations about "capacity discipline" have merit!

I've put up over 650K air miles in the last 8.5 years and for most of that time just about every flight has been full or nearly full. Purposelessly limiting the number of seats by limiting the number of flights and/or using smaller planes guarantees that there will be fewer available seats and the airlines can charge more per seat. Of course, in order for this to work ALL the major airlines need to be playing the same game.


Brian
Click to expand...

In 1989 I had to go to Tucson for a TDY from vegas. Flew to Phoenix for the connection. Got on the connection it was a 727 stretch and I was the only passenger on the plane. Free first class on a 30 min flight lol.
 
isekii said:
i just go to google flight and check the pricing there by the days to see which is the cheapest
Click to expand...

Didn't even know Google flight existed. I thought only kayak.com could do the prices by day thing. It's a neat feature.
 
Brian Stirling said:
Or maybe the accusations about "capacity discipline" have merit!

I've put up over 650K air miles in the last 8.5 years and for most of that time just about every flight has been full or nearly full. Purposelessly limiting the number of seats by limiting the number of flights and/or using smaller planes guarantees that there will be fewer available seats and the airlines can charge more per seat. Of course, in order for this to work ALL the major airlines need to be playing the same game.


Brian
Click to expand...

Or you could just as easily argue that the airline that used larger planes and had 30 extra seats on each flight would have to charge more for each ticket to cover the extra fuel and would then be forced out of business by its rivals.

This is why taxi drivers don't drive buses incase 50 people all want a cab to the same place.
 
And I remember flying from Norfolk VA to Honolulu HI for about 600 dollars back in the good old days.

3-4 hundred miles, I'd just drive it.
 
Puppies04 said:
Or you could just as easily argue that the airline that used larger planes and had 30 extra seats on each flight would have to charge more for each ticket to cover the extra fuel and would then be forced out of business by its rivals.
Click to expand...

Seems to be working OK for emirates.
 
jtvang125 said:
If you've ever searched on those travel search engines (expedia, travelocity..ect) and go all the way to the bottom results, the prices on those are insane.

Example I searched for Sacramento to LA for a weekend in the middle of Aug. Cheapest is a reasonable $280. At the bottom there are a few $800 and one at $1100. Even if you bought a ticket last minute I doubt it'll be that much. I don't get it. So who are these targeted for? They're just coach class seats.
Click to expand...

It's for business related travel.

If I have to be at a client meeting by X time... I have to leave at an appropriate time. No question. Unless it's VEEERY early, in which case I may fly in the night before. But then you are paying for a hotel room instead of an early flight, so take your pick.
 
rh71 said:
Didn't even know Google flight existed. I thought only kayak.com could do the prices by day thing. It's a neat feature.
Click to expand...

yea it's pretty cool, i usually use that and pull up the maps to see what the prices are line all around the carribean. Planning a vaca in december 😉
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
What was that site for flights that was getting in sued because it was finding ways to get where you want through connections - but not taking the connection?

Nvm - it's SkipLagged https://skiplagged.com/

Way better then any other price comparison site.
Click to expand...

For sure.

Just don't do it too often, especially with United. Once or twice a year is fine, but from reading flyteralk you could find yourself with cancelled tickets and no way home if you use it too often. That emergency last minute ticket one-way ticket home could wipe out any savings you had.
 
Exterous said:
No real surprise - demand is up, load factors at or near all time highs and competition is down
Click to expand...

Or profits are razor thin and by definition its very difficult to get a good indication if any particular flight is profitable or not because of so many unknown variables, so airlines have incentive to keep prices relatively constant.
 
jtvang125 said:
If you've ever searched on those travel search engines (expedia, travelocity..ect) and go all the way to the bottom results, the prices on those are insane.

Example I searched for Sacramento to LA for a weekend in the middle of Aug. Cheapest is a reasonable $280. At the bottom there are a few $800 and one at $1100. Even if you bought a ticket last minute I doubt it'll be that much. I don't get it. So who are these targeted for? They're just coach class seats.
Click to expand...

I am seeing Sacramento, CA to Los Angeles - $182 and higher. for Aug 15-16.
You should look at priceline and see if you can get this price via american airlines.
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
It's for business related travel.

If I have to be at a client meeting by X time... I have to leave at an appropriate time. No question. Unless it's VEEERY early, in which case I may fly in the night before. But then you are paying for a hotel room instead of an early flight, so take your pick.
Click to expand...

I don't really think it's that. They all seem to have 1 or 2 layovers. I would think that for a business trip you'll want to get to your destination as quickly as possible. The $1100 has a stop in Seattle for almost 3 hrs. Nice if you want to see city but what can you reasonably do in 3 hrs?
 
jtvang125 said:
I don't really think it's that. They all seem to have 1 or 2 layovers. I would think that for a business trip you'll want to get to your destination as quickly as possible. The $1100 has a stop in Seattle for almost 3 hrs. Nice if you want to see city but what can you reasonably do in 3 hrs?
Click to expand...

What dates are you looking for travel, you should look at priceline to see if the price is better than the other two.
 
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