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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

#231

Post by b112 »

yadaeno wrote: post #222
stmw wrote: post #194

Here is why I think these kinds of dynamic pricing practices are bad: it may be perfectly fair and legal, but it forces a non-negligible number of humanity to waste time and/or energy to figure out if it's happening, how to work around it if it is, and just generally waste human potential on something that should be a simple commodity.

Same with points systems. Why am I forced to understand your made up currency and status system to get the full value of my money. There might be some benefits to price discrimination (which is in effect what a point systems achieves) but the collective time wasted dicking around with points isn’t worth it. Make all point systems illegal.

The entire point behind reward cards, is to track every purchase you make. They're the original evil tracking device, so the airline makes money with those points.

They do it by selling data, by points expiring, and by often only allowing points when seats would be empty otherwise.

And often retailers pay more at POS terminals!

This all ties into any rewards program. It's part of the package, even if points are granted for use.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#232

Post by brian_herman »

_heimdall wrote: post #228
NegativeLatency wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when your industry is so "critical" that it has repeatedly received bailouts from the government.

Are you referring to bailouts for airline operators or Boeing?

Both

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#233

Post by josephcsible »

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.

This is different than most group discounts because the airlines aren't advertising it or making a big deal that they're doing it.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#234

Post by _heimdall »

geverett wrote: post #33

Tbh this makes perfect sense. As someone who worked in airline revenue management for 11 years, it always seemed a little odd that the sales tactics people use everywhere else - group discounts, BOGO, etc - weren't being used by airlines (yes, group bookings could often get discounts, but usually for much larger groups). What's remarkable here is that airlines waited this long to do it. Sad news for me as a usually s…

I usually expect to see BOGOs, group discounts, etc advertised. If airlines showed the seat price along with a group discount I don't think people would have a problem with the price difference.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#235

Post by b112 »

paxys wrote: post #97
paulgb wrote: post #6

I think this is fair play, they can charge how they want (within reason) and it’s not too different than other bulk discounts. But someone should totally make a site for finding strangers to book the same flight with :)

Any amount of premium is worth not having a random stranger on your itinerary.

Hi it's John! Is that you, Steve?

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#236

Post by vladimirralev »

paxys wrote: post #97
paulgb wrote: post #6

I think this is fair play, they can charge how they want (within reason) and it’s not too different than other bulk discounts. But someone should totally make a site for finding strangers to book the same flight with :)

Any amount of premium is worth not having a random stranger on your itinerary.

A company can figure out the premium and just average it out across the pax who book thru them. Further they could risk-manage no-shows or other bad behaviour based on ratings and feedback. It's just wasting everybody's time to go thru intermediaries.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#237

Post by ponector »

I had a different experience with Ryanair. When you book solo, they show you price with a tooltip: "last 2 tickets for that price!"

If you are going to book for 3 passengers they charge three of you with the next level, more expensive fare.

But so far my favorite is they force you to buy seat if you travel with infant. You cannot select free random seat as their planes have rules to allow infants only on the seat near the window.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#238

Post by JKCalhoun »

josephcsible wrote: post #227
paulgb wrote: post #6

I think this is fair play, they can charge how they want (within reason) and it’s not too different than other bulk discounts. But someone should totally make a site for finding strangers to book the same flight with :)

I can foresee that backfiring when you miss your connection and end up having to stay somewhere unexpected overnight, and then the airline will only pay for one room for both of you.

Sounds like the pretext for the opening of a great film.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#240

Post by sircastor »

josephcsible wrote: post #227
paulgb wrote: post #6

I think this is fair play, they can charge how they want (within reason) and it’s not too different than other bulk discounts. But someone should totally make a site for finding strangers to book the same flight with :)

I can foresee that backfiring when you miss your connection and end up having to stay somewhere unexpected overnight, and then the airline will only pay for one room for both of you.

Traveling together does not imply that you're rooming together. It's probably a bit of a fight with the airline to get them to pay for it, but then everything is a bit of a fight with the Airline.
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