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Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

thriftytraveler.com

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Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#151

Post by layer8 »

dlisboa wrote: post #141
hypeatei wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you wouldn't be alive if nobody had children, so it's quite selfish of anyone to be anti-children. It gets into philosophical territory, but the default "having a pulse = good" thinking is pretty shortsighted IMO. Life is inherently suffering and no one got a yes/no prompt before being born.

For a society it's not philosophical. If it wishes to exist past a few decades then it needs children, simple as that. Therefore societies are (and should) be skewed towards that.

“No children” and “single” isn’t the same, as evidenced by DINKs. That set aside, you’re just confirming that singles are (or should be) penalized.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#152

Post by dlisboa »

garciasn wrote: post #120
soperj wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't you just stay in a hostel? or rent a room on airbnb?

For two reasons: 1. I don't want to stay in a hostel. See below for more on this; but, hostels, at least the ones I have researched, have bunk rooms and shared facilities. Hard pass for me. 2. I don't like sharing a bedroom and, especially, a bathroom in someone's home when they may be there. There's simply a different level of security (potentially false, I understand) in a hotel vs a rented room in a house.

Reframing it to how it sounds to me: you'd like to temporarily reserve a massive amount of real estate (relative to your human body) from a city's housing reserve and not be forced to pay any more for that than the family who would put 4 people in that same footprint.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#153

Post by decimalenough »

ghaff wrote: post #113
MichaelZuo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn’t they care? I imagine 2 people use roughly twice the bedding, towels, toiletries, etc., on average.

Well, they mostly don't. They're often using the same bedding. Most toiletries are squirt containers these days. I don't think toilet paper is that expensive. And another towel or two to wash is probably not a big deal. And to the degree the hotel has a restaurant or bar they probably come out ahead. Your hotel may take a different approach but it's near universal (perhaps outside of resorts) that hotels charge the s…

Citation needed. In my experience it's entirely the opposite: it's nearly universal that hotels charge more for two guests than one.

You can easily verify this on Booking.com, where the search results show price per room and how it varies based on how many people are in that room and whether they're adults or children.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#154

Post by crazygringo »

lvl155 wrote: post #118

Airlines need to be regulated and treated like public utility which is exactly what they are.

No they aren't. Public utilities generally give you only one choice of provider, which is why they need to be regulated because of their monopoly status.

When you fly, you usually have a choice between lots of airlines. So there's nothing "public utility" about it whatsoever.

Airports, on the other hand, are considered public infrastructure. There are also sometimes routes that are only served by one airline, which are sometimes regulated accordingly. But that isn't the general case, nor should it be.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#155

Post by anigbrowl »

n8cpdx wrote: post #20
Aurornis wrote: post #2

I never would have understood this as a young, single person. Now that I have a family there are several times per year where we price out the cost of a solo ticket for one parent, the price of taking one or two kids, or the cost of all of us going for something. Having a quantity discount would absolutely tip the scales for us for certain trips. People will look at this as penalizing single travelers and want everyo…

Traveling solo is already brutal because hotels and Airbnbs are priced on the assumption of two travelers. Traveling solo essentially costs double automatically because of lodging, and it kind of sucks there’s a double whammy with airfare where, unlike lodging, the penalty doesn’t actually make any sense. I guess as a family be grateful that all hotel rooms come with a 50% (or more) discount per traveler?

Looks like the deal is to find someone else who wants to go the same way and then buy the tickets together.

I'm pitching the movie to the Hallmark channel right now.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#156

Post by miltonlost »

Aurornis wrote: post #2

I never would have understood this as a young, single person. Now that I have a family there are several times per year where we price out the cost of a solo ticket for one parent, the price of taking one or two kids, or the cost of all of us going for something. Having a quantity discount would absolutely tip the scales for us for certain trips. People will look at this as penalizing single travelers and want everyo…

> People will look at this as penalizing single travelers and want everyone to have the lowest fare, but that’s not the real alternative. A flat fare would bring solo prices down and group rates up so the blended average is the same.

So it’s still penalizing being single. Single travelers are subsidizing group rates. They are being penalized for not buying multiple. You didn’t explain how it’s not a penalty to buy as one person

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#157

Post by authorfly »

reliabilityguy wrote: post #74
n8cpdx wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traveling solo is already brutal because hotels and Airbnbs are priced on the assumption of two travelers. Traveling solo essentially costs double automatically because of lodging, and it kind of sucks there’s a double whammy with airfare where, unlike lodging, the penalty doesn’t actually make any sense. I guess as a family be grateful that all hotel rooms come with a 50% (or more) discount per traveler?

You can make the same argument about food too: buying chicken at Costco is way cheaper per pound than in Whole Foods or Aldi. Are they also penalizing single people? No: buy more, pay less per unit.

What packs do you buy where it is much more cheaper?

Frozen > 5kg or so?

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#158

Post by School-Cotton »

marcosdumay wrote: post #144
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems surprising to me. I was under the impression that airlines are pretty low profit margin industries, pulling in only around 3-4% in a decent year, and that of that the airline tickets themselves are the lowest margin items percentage wise, with other things like baggage fees being much more load bearing.

They are a low profit business, and that kind of liberty is stuff that pushes their profits even lower. They also always fail to differentiate from one another and are always competing on only price and how much fees they can keep hidden. Personally, I do argue that it's worth it having tickets 10% more expensive and forcing the companies to always allocate all passengers, treat people humanely and etc. It's even wor…

> It's even worth it the 25% increase to make them let people carry luggage

You are asking for people who fly without checked luggage (as I usually do) to subsidize you.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#159

Post by al_borland »

ghaff wrote: post #104
al_borland wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to buy tickets to a comedy show last year and they wouldn’t let me buy a single ticket. I had to buy 2. It quite literally doubled the cost, and then a seat went empty. If someone were to buy 3 tickets, it could just as easily leave an orphaned seat.

I've never run into such a thing across many years. I buy single tickets to Broadway/West End shows a lot of the time and I often land great tickets.

I've seen it twice now, both times within the past couple years. I'm not sure if it is the venue of the performer that imposes it, but it's really bad. To get single tickets, people are basically left to sit and wait for all the other seats to be bought, then hope there are single person gaps they can fill.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#160

Post by School-Cotton »

tshaddox wrote: post #105
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems surprising to me. I was under the impression that airlines are pretty low profit margin industries, pulling in only around 3-4% in a decent year, and that of that the airline tickets themselves are the lowest margin items percentage wise, with other things like baggage fees being much more load bearing.

The fact that their brutally anti-consumer business is also not even that profitable for them is really no consolation to the consumer.

Yes it is, because it's the reason why air travel is extremely cheap relative to historical norms.
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