Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

thriftytraveler.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 533 posts

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#361

Post by threeseed »

twoodfin wrote: post #306
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.

Why is anyone forced to reverse engineer the pricing scheme? Simply decide if the ticket is worth the money to you. You typically have other airlines to compare to, other fares on the same airline for different itineraries, and other modes of transit entirely. Just because some people won’t buy anything that isn’t on a coupon doesn’t mean coupons are bad.

Because lack of transparency in pricing affects competition.

Which is bad for consumers and the broader economy.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#362

Post by phinnaeus »

singleshot_ wrote: post #317
m463 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Are you at all concerned the airlines will remove the air from the cabin if you try this, just to emphasize that you’re not going to get a refund this way? Anyway I’ll be across the aisle with hydrogen balloons paying less than you either way. Enjoy your flight!

I’ll be up in first class with my negative mass doppelgänger who travels with me so we both get a free flight.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#363

Post by Fernicia »

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?

Unsurprisingly airlines imposing a fat tax is not an optimal marketing strategy.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#364

Post by kccqzy »

layble wrote: post #9
eduction wrote: post #4

I would guess this is about middle seats. No one wants them but if you’re part of 2+ party you’re much more likely to take one. The alternative is two aisles side by side but those are tricky to get as the plane fills up.

The business traveler who is less price sensitive and almost always books a solo itinerary.

> less price sensitive

As a business traveler I actually want the price to be as high as possible while satisfying the company rules on airfare. The fare is fully reimbursed, so a higher fare means I get more points on my credit card.

Now the company rules on airfare will probably reference something like the least-cost logical fare. So it is in a business traveler's interest for all airlines to raise prices simultaneously.

Business travel is weird.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#365

Post by kimos »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #351
kimos wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> They also have the poorest who have cheap credit cards subsidize the richest who have the best cards and receive most of the rewards. This is false. https://x.com/patio11/status/1902555603534295115

Right. This isn't about interchange fees. But you're right I wasn't clear. It's the points/rewards/miles systems that are.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#366

Post by AnthonyMouse »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #355
yadaeno wrote: post #222

Earlier 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.

To get full value of your money takes time and information in every market. It’s not unique to this space. If you want to buy anything and just pick the first option then you probably will have worse results than someone that did research. Or someone that used coupons. Or someone that waited for a sale. Or someone that bought used. Etc etc We obviously shouldn’t make all those behaviors illegal. There is an inherent…

In general markets are pretty good at arbitrage. If you can get a $50 discount for a product by doing X, someone is going to set up a service whereby they do X for you, resell the product for a $45 discount and put $5 in their own pocket. At which point nobody would pay full price to the original seller and the convenience fee for not doing it yourself is $5 instead of $50.

The problem comes when the original seller doesn't want their price discrimination scheme to be thwarted by efficiency-improving arbitrageurs and takes measures to prevent that, because that's rent-seeking behavior and shouldn't be tolerated.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#367

Post by ghaff »

ceejayoz wrote: post #353
ghaff wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who fly any amount don't pay for checked bags if they check anything at all.

People pay billions in bag fees alone every year. https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airlines/us-airlines-highe... It’s hardly the only fee, either.

Which doesn't contradict what I wrote. I daresay a lot of families who travel once a year at Christmas pay bag fees for their big bags. Lots of people who travel on a regular basis don't. And a lot of it seems to be on discount airlines. (Which I admittedly never fly.)

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#368

Post by AStonesThrow »

histriosum wrote: post #320
m463 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And I think that you may mean volume.. :-)

Mass and volume both count, in an aircraft, don't they? And many oversize humans present logistical and safety challenges:

- Taking up more than one seat with girth, needing a seatbelt extender.

- Fitting through narrow passages, tight turns, limited headroom

- An unconscious person may need to be lifted, and transported somehow

- Toilets and life vests and other safety equipment, rated for your "standard average man size"

- Total mass of passengers/cargo, and its distribution on the aircraft itself

Elevators in the US have a maximum weight and maximum occupancy rating.

Arguably, if obesity is a disability, then appeal to the Americans with Disability Act or similar regulations, but from a standpoint of safety and the common good, it does not seem unreasonable for airlines to charge extra to cover their expenses above.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#369

Post by diebeforei485 »

crazygringo wrote: post #154
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 a…

Taxi companies, moving companies, and rideshare are all considered utilities and there are generally multiple choices of provider. Being a monopoly is not a requirement to be a utility.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#370

Post by autumnstwilight »

carabiner wrote: post #268
mobilemidget wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally think it's fair if they charge by weight. The post office does it, why not airlines?

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.

In most cases the cost of fabric itself is a pretty minor part of the garment price- you're paying for someone to design the clothes, assemble them, ship them, and operate a store that sells them, and those costs are pretty much the same for small and large sizes. Adjusting the price based on the amount of fabric used would probably end up being a dollar or so for the things most people wear on a daily basis.

Unusually large or small sizes can end up more expensive (and/or only manufactured in limited quantities) because they're not commonly bought and they take up space on the shop floor and in inventory which could be used for things with higher turnover. (Edit: Also at the extreme ends of sizing simply enlarging or shrinking the pattern won't work well, you have to redraft it so it sits correctly on a petite or plus-sized frame).

Post reply on HN