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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

#291

Post by chgs »

kaikai wrote: post #184
patcon wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Saying all this with respect for those who value privacy more than me ) Hostels are for this market, no? Share physical infra (bathroom/heating/walls) with other humans (aka strangers) and you get the same family discount. You're not obligated to pay the premium unless you want your own bathroom and own personal space like families tend to want As in: families don't get a discount, they just amortise the cost of pri…

There’s a very big difference between sharing sleeping space with multiple complete strangers and sharing space with family.

The point is you are paying for one bed, one living area, one bathroom, whether you are a single traveller or as a couple. I’m in a hotel room at the moment with a bed and a sofa, can host 4 people or me, it’s the same size. At breakfast I usually sit on a table which can seat 4, but certainly one that can seat 2. I use almost all the resources a couple do, and spend less at the bar in the evening, so I’d expect to pay the same or even more.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#292

Post by m463 »

mobilemidget wrote: post #250
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 personally think it's fair if they charge by weight. The post office does it, why not airlines?

You mean mass.

Otherwise I would buy seats for my personal helium balloons on either side of me.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#293

Post by m463 »

owlbite wrote: post #277
carabiner wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if larger sizes of clothes were priced higher, since they use more material? I wear a small in almost every case so wouldn't affect me, but man it'd be nerve wracking for a lot of Americans.

They already are?

lol. Having done the laundry, I think women's clothing has significantly higher cost:weight ratio.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#294

Post by SonOfLilit »

postalrat wrote: post #280
p1necone wrote: post #269

I feel like people are suspending their reasoning in order to maximally shit on airlines in this thread (because yes, they do have a history of predatory pricing practices). The problem with this isn't the difference in prices - charging less for buying in bulk is a normal thing that's probably been done by merchants since the invention of money. The problem with this is the lack of communication. There's no advertis…

Are these discounts compared to prices before the change or did they raise the price for individual travelers?

Are grocery store discounts for six packs compared to prices before the change or did they raise the price of single items?

Here they don't even advertise it as a discount, so there's no ethical problem with raising the individual traveler price by x and lowering the family price by y so that the total profit remains the same.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#295

Post by chgs »

dlisboa wrote: post #91
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.

You are correct. As much as we like to bash airlines and their decisions, and liking low fares and quality service myself, it's objectively one of the worst businesses imaginable. Extremely high risk, low margin. Every year about a dozen airlines go bankrupt, get merged or bailed out. A small increase in the price of oil is a major risk for most of them. Most of the more profitable markets have high competition not o…

As the saying goes. The best way to be a millionaire running an airline is to start as a billionaire.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#296

Post by chgs »

mike_d wrote: post #192
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…

> Yeah I used to think that until I had a family. It is amazing how blatantly people will just admit "I agree with politics that benefit me even if they exclude others." > Taxes are more punishing because you're spending half your disposable income on children I probably spend on my dogs what you do on your children. Gosh life sure is hard because of my decisions. Where are my discounts and tax refunds? > It's called…

Who do you think will look after you when you are 70? Who will grow your food, make your car, fly your plane etc?

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#297

Post by darkhorn »

What is next? Charge iPhone users more than Android users? Charge users with email address on custom domain more than on free emails? Charge Jews more than Mexicans?

You go to a bakery and he charges more because you wear a suit. You go to Europe, a guy in front of you buys a bread for €1, but same bread is €3 because you are tourist? Then you go to buy a toilet paper and same thing happens again because your ass is worth more?

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#298

Post by chgs »

prerok wrote: post #124
AlotOfReading wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely uncommon in my experience, to the point where I've really only heard of it happening secondhand. I've seen people eating alone everywhere from fast food to Michelin star restaurants and done it myself many times. Where have you seen it?

In my experience as well, never been denied dining. But... maybe different parts of the world have different customs.

I’ve eaten alone in hundreds of places in dozens of countries, not sure where these mythical places are.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#299

Post by SoftTalker »

stackskipton wrote: post #248
_heimdall wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boeing is, for better or worse, pretty critical to our military. I'm not sure why they'd consider any one airline company critical though.

Because most airlines have become monopolies at their respective hubs so their loss would severely inconvenience a ton of people so government is encouraged to prop them up. For example, if Delta went under, Atlanta, Detroit and Salt Lake City would lose a total of 50%+ of their flights. That would be absolutely devastating.

If Delta went under another carrier would buy their planes and gate access at those airports, it might be chaotic for a short time but if there is enough demand to fly from point A to point B someone will provide the flights.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#300

Post by avidiax »

Matheus28 wrote: post #249
dbuxton wrote: post #140

I find it weird that this is news and not: - That it's still way cheaper in most instances to book a return (especially where the "trip" straddles a weekend) rather than a one-way fare when travelling long haul - even if you just throw away the return flight. - That you can sometimes get access to totally different inventory by booking a package including accommodation, even if that accommodation is one night in a sh…

Do you have any examples of a one way direct being more expensive than a round trip, with both of them sharing the same outgoing flight?

I had this a year ago on ZRH->SFO.

One way business 6,032 Swiss francs.

Round trip business (with a return 6 months later) was 2,530 Swiss francs. So I screenshotted the horrible one-way price to go in my expense report, and then booked the round trip ticket.

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