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Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

cheapair.com

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Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#111

Post by Fuzzwah »

earlz wrote: post #42
zrail wrote: post #26

Southwest, as far as I can tell, doesn't change rates once they've published. Three rate tiers, optional early check-in to get a better boarding order position, and free baggage. The most striking difference is that, in general, the flight attendants are happy . They smile. They joke around. Sometimes they sing songs. I was on a flight a few months ago where the entire plane played a game because it was someone's bir…

I'm not 100% sure it is "legal", but I had the pleasure of flying on southwest with them half-singing half-joking throughout the mandatory safety stuff.. it was a pretty hilarious change of pace. Unfortunately, Southwest, though fairly cheap for where I go, has 2 stops minimum no matter what where as everywhere else can make it 1 stop

Had a similar experience on Southwest when flying from Phoenix to Vegas.

I initially cringed as the attendant started talking on the the mic and making a joke, as any world weary traveler probably would. I soon found myself laughing as the rest of the crew joined in with mimes and singing and call backs. It was definitely one of the best flight experiences I've ever had.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#112

Post by dageshi »

jusben1369 wrote: post #93
thedufer wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a deeply misleading summary of the data. The table excluding inflation is meaningless in the context of parent's comment, so I won't even touch that. Real prices have dropped 14% in the past 19 years, and have been basically flat since 2004, except for an obviously anomalous dip during the financial crisis (2009/2010). The prevailing trend lines are a steady drop of 1.7% per year from 1995-2004 and then a flat…

Airfares are most definitely higher than they were in the mid 2000's. The global recession saw a big cut back in capacity and that capacity hasn't been added back in to the system to offset the ever stronger economy. Flights are fuller than they've been in a long time meaning higher fares etc.

How much of that is down to taxes and fuel prices? Oil has dropped recently but for most of the past 5-6 years it's been much much higher than it was back then.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#113

Post by geverett »

solutionyogi wrote: post #109
geverett wrote: post #90

I've always thought it was ridiculous that people would go to a site like Expedia or Kayak, type in a date and destination, and just hope that they get the cheapest fare. As this article explains so well, prices are fluctuating constantly and the chances that you'll be lucky enough to be searching for the flight at the optimal time are close to nil. Most flight search engines now let you set up alerts to track prices…

This is a great idea. Two questions: 1. Why is it an App and not a website? 2. As you noted in your other comment, it would be best if you can have my credit card on file and buy tickets on my behalf automatically.

1. We want to be both (and have a website coming soon!) but started with app because it's so important to get these notifications on the go and ideally be able to book immediately. and 2. we're working on it! You can keep track of where we are if you have any interest by subscribing at blog.hitlistapp.com.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#114

Post by gaius »

exelius wrote: post #64
Someone1234 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a government imposed minimum seat pitch. The current distance between the back of one seat and the front of another is too small for the top 10% in terms of height of the population, disabled people, and older people. Then airlines cannot use "competition" to argue why they should make seats smaller and smaller, as all competition would have to adapt also. I don't care if they're a private business. T…

> I don't care if they're a private business. That means nothing to me. When all airlines have the same tiny seats and no alternative that isn't 5-10x more expensive, that is collusion, not competition. It's not collusion, because air travel is effectively a commoditized market. That means there is continuous downward pressure on pricing exactly because the product is nearly identical everywhere. It is a zero-sum gam…

Indeed. Everyone says they want legroom! then everyone goes on the internet and just buys whatever's cheapest. Same with people who talk about workers rights then go shop at Primark.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#115

Post by namiller2 »

monksy wrote: post #57
jcfiala wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a parent, I fly Southwest so that I can take advantage of the two free checked-in bags you get per ticket. Not having to wrestle several overfull bags of clothes on and off of the plane makes Southwest a great bargain for my piece of mind.

If each kid has a ticket, you can check a bag under their name. Why do you need 2 bags?

As in, if they had to pay to check bags, they would bring them all as carry on, where with southwest they can check them for free and not deal with. I'm not paying to check bags either.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#116

Post by Throwaway1224 »

zrail wrote: post #26

Southwest, as far as I can tell, doesn't change rates once they've published. Three rate tiers, optional early check-in to get a better boarding order position, and free baggage. The most striking difference is that, in general, the flight attendants are happy . They smile. They joke around. Sometimes they sing songs. I was on a flight a few months ago where the entire plane played a game because it was someone's bir…

This is incorrect. WNCO has a big revenue management department, meaning they change pricing based on supply and demand. I believe they use PROS, but I can't recall 100%.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#118

Post by Bahamut »

geverett wrote: post #90

I've always thought it was ridiculous that people would go to a site like Expedia or Kayak, type in a date and destination, and just hope that they get the cheapest fare. As this article explains so well, prices are fluctuating constantly and the chances that you'll be lucky enough to be searching for the flight at the optimal time are close to nil. Most flight search engines now let you set up alerts to track prices…

I like going to airline price search sites for the simplicity - camping various sites for cheaper prices takes time and effort.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#119

Post by pacofvf »

rspeer wrote: post #4

I was hoping for something that explained the part where they get you to pay a higher fare by tracking you on the Web. But maybe an insider site like this wouldn't be willing to talk about that. There are many sites that describe this happening, such as [1]. And I've seen it happen to me: a fare would go up by $50 while I was searching, and opening a private browsing window would make it go back down. [1] http://www.…

1. search a flight.

2. search it again.

3. the price has surged.

they don't track individual users, they track the search queries, this makes me wonder if flight search services are just rising the entire market prices, instead of a user only searching once, they constantly search the same query.

Re: Air Fares 101 – Why do fares change all the time?

#120

Post by kangaroo5383 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #13
phantom784 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People buy first class tickets just for the lounges? Usually, you can just pay $30 or so for a day pass to a lounge.

$30 for a day pass to a first class lounge? I can't believe that at all. Can you show me which airports and lounges offer that because I'm going to take them up on it.

Lounges can be between $30 - $100-ish depending on location, quality, amenities etc. There are lots of really great lounges that can be had without expensive flight tickets - http://www.plaza-network.com/ it's interesting that most people don't know about independent lounge providers. These lounges have massages, showers, tasty food, etc. For people who don't travel enough to warrant a membership but still wants a nice experience it's pretty awesome.

I started using airport lounges when I joined LoungeBuddy (since I had no idea it's even a thing worth checking out before), and it's definitely is a much better experience.

(disclosure - I do iOS work at LoungeBuddy and we pretty much have all the information on all the lounges on the entire planet, including access rules and entry price of they offer walk ups etc. http://www.loungebuddy.com/ )

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