Cell phone lines only $30/line when you buy six. What, you don't have a family of six? Weird.
Or when you switch to an MVNO :)
Then it's one line, $10 / month.
Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
251–260 of 533 posts
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
You can’t freeze a hotel room.
Hotel rooms can’t get spoiled.
You can always stay in Motel 6 for $20/night.
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#253Earlier 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.
Airfare is the cheapest it has been in the entire history of commercial aviation except for immediately after 9/11 and the initial weeks of the global covid lockdown-- but both you and I know those periods don't count. Most people are ok with terrible service because they save money. Doesn't stop them from complaining, though. And yes, "cheapest" includes taxes and all fees. You can fly from New York to Paris non-sto…
If calling you a liar gets me a no-stop ticket from America to Paris for only 150 bucks, then you're a liar.
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#254Here 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.
They also have the poorest who have cheap credit cards subsidize the richest who have the best cards and receive most of the rewards. The inequality is baked into the system.
Which is adjacent to: Nearly everyone loses, because the house knows the odds and controls the terms and conditions of the rewards.
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#255I wonder if this could be abused by purchasing 2+ refundable tickets, and then canceling all but 1.
Fully refundable tickets are an entirely different fare (and much more expensive)
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#256I 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.
Imagine realising that everyone on Earth you don't know is a random stranger with that mentality, even surrounding you on a non-private flight.
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 grant…
Not saying you're wrong exactly, but https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/anatomy-of-credit-car... does a good job of explaining the mechanics of rewards programs. It is more complicated/interesting than what you describe IMO.
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#258Here 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.
And groceries are planning a similar strategy!!
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 grant…
Evil tracking is half of it, but the nominal "loyalty" benefit is there too. If I have a bunch of points with one company, I'm likely to accept a slightly worse deal from them relative to a competitor where I have none in the hope that I'll acquire enough for an award.
Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups
#260[flagged]