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Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

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Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#161

Post by ghaff »

decimalenough wrote: post #153
ghaff wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't care to do research. I will say when I book on Marriott.com there's never a difference. I don’t use booking.com much though.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#162

Post by popalchemist »

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…

If it were the same, there would be no motive to do it.

One way or another, this increases profit for them.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#163

Post by the_third_wave »

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?

When travelling on your own just go to hostels instead of hotels and you-ll both pay much less (prices normally are per person, not per room) and you'll meet more people who are open to interacting with other solo travellers.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#164

Post by glitchc »

hypeatei wrote: post #99
IshKebab wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I used to think that until I had a family. In reality it's more like: 1. Taxes are more punishing because you're spending half your disposable income on children, and most of it probably comes from one earner. You can say "don't have children if you can't afford it" all you like, but you wouldn't be alive if nobody had children, so it's quite selfish of anyone to be anti-children. 2. For men performance expectat…

> 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.

While there are people who wish that "yes" was a "no" instead, they form an exceedingly small portion of the general population. Most people are happy they exist.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#165

Post by authorfly »

tuckerman wrote: post #103
darth_avocado wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We as a society already penalize people without families: 1. Higher taxes and fewer deductions 2. Higher workplace performance expectations 3. Higher costs in every aspect of life 4. Fewer options eat out, expensive solo tickets at events etc. This is just one more example in a long list of examples of how being by yourself is penalized in the society.

Is it possible to distinguish between society penalizing being single and society incentivizing having children? Since society's existence requires that people have children (even in the fairly short term, someone younger has to be around to take care of the older folks) it seems reasonable to incentivize it. I guess it's all relative, lower taxes for A compared to B looks like higher taxes for B compared to A, but I…

Single also differs from being in a childless couple e.g. in your early 20s.

To get on the ladder today, 5 years sharing rent is priceless. Then once you do, you get child benefits. Many people are single late in life too. So I don't think it's something you can equate.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#166

Post by shawabawa3 »

os2warpman wrote: post #135
sidewndr46 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really find this relevant in the US because airline pricing is already the ultimate brutal form of pricing. Not only are they allowed to bill you whatever they want, they are never under any actual obligation to put you on the plane.

>Not only are they allowed to bill you whatever they want, they are never under any actual obligation to put you on the plane. With exceptions, once you have paid for a ticket all commercial passenger airlines are obligated to transport you under their contract of carriage. All airlines must do this, I even looked up the contract of carriage for the shittiest airline I could think of and Frontier has this to say: >In…

"next available flight" could mean waiting 2 days in a random airport, hardly reassuring

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#167

Post by jeremyjh »

garciasn wrote: post #137
tshaddox wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Families who travel together also share rooms and facilities, so if that's a hard pass for you then you wouldn't be happy with the "discount" of traveling as part of a family either.

I appreciate the pedantry; but, there’s a significant difference between several random someone(s) having travelers diarrhea in a shared bathroom and my family.

The point is multiple people sharing facilities get discounts. It’s nothing more sinister than that. The hotel charges per room, and rooms include facilities. The costs for the hotel don’t depend on how many people are staying in that room.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#168

Post by mmustapic »

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?

> Traveling solo essentially costs double automatically because of lodging

Travelling with somebody else brings costs down. Hotel rooms have the same surface for single and double occupancy (in fact they are usually the same rooms!). Even if you remove the surface of one single bed, the room stays almost the same. So, it’s much cheaper for 2.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#169

Post by jajko »

darth_avocado wrote: post #37
muppetman wrote: post #13

I love how the author thinks they've discovered something super secret, when they have in fact just learnt about "Group Discounts". Author will lose their mind when they buy 10+ of the same thing from AliExpress.

2 isn’t exactly what you’d think of when you think of “Group discounts”.

You've never seen a 2+1 free or 3+1 free pricing in stores? We have them frequently here in Europe on some things. This is same thing and tbh I am surprised it took so long.

And as a father of 2 small kids not complaining at all, having multiple kids these days is brutal also financially, any small thing that helps is very much appreciated.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#170

Post by dlisboa »

layer8 wrote: post #151
dlisboa wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, that's just a necessity for the persistence of a society. Otherwise there's no point in even organizing as one. I'm not making a value judgment by the way, just an objective statement. I was also once part of a "DINK" and someone who thought would not have children, I have no qualms with that, but there's just no point in prioritizing that segment.
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