Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups • Hacker News Board

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#421

Post by wapeoifjaweofji » Fri, May 30, 2025, 4:38 AM UTC

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…

If these things aren't advertised or even made visible in any way other than the user happening to discover them, they're not sales tactics, they're just scumbag business tactics to prevent pricing transparency.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#422

Post by hiAndrewQuinn » Fri, May 30, 2025, 4:43 AM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #160

tshaddox wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that their brutally anti-consumer business is also not even that profitable for them is really no consolation to the consumer.

Yes it is, because it's the reason why air travel is extremely cheap relative to historical norms.

That's actually exactly the consolation I look for as a consumer, thanks.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#423

Post by valleyer » Fri, May 30, 2025, 5:06 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #397

fireflash38 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mm, it feels unfair. I was trying to reason through why I think it's an ethical problem and that's what I've come up with. You're not treating people equally - whether it's in person bartering where you make assumptions about them based on snap judgements or via airlines seen here. There's an even bigger fairness issue when there's such a huge data knowledge gap between the parties, both knowing that there is this hi…

> It's price discrimination. You know the thing people fucking hate when trying to buy a car Transparent pricing worked as a positive differentiator for cars. (Saturn. Tesla.) I believe airlines have tried their hand at it. But it doesn’t budge the needle. If there is a single enduring truth to at least American airline demand, it’s that most consumers will pick the cheapest ticket. Almost nothing else matters, when…

> If there is a single enduring truth to at least American airline demand, it’s that most consumers will pick the cheapest ticket. Almost nothing else matters, when it comes time to pay for it, to almost all of the flying public.

Perhaps that's because all the U.S. airlines have engaged in such a race to the bottom on quality that there's no other distinguishing factor. I'd happily pay more for a more pleasant experience, but no one offers it.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#424

Post by gnatolf » Fri, May 30, 2025, 5:58 AM UTC

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.

Some shoes (Meindl Boots) actually go up in price for larger sizes (>46 EUR, 13 US I think) due to the additional cost of material.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#425

Post by Klaus_ » Fri, May 30, 2025, 6:04 AM UTC

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Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#426

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 30, 2025, 6:49 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #386

postalrat wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There hardly is such thing as "discounts" in airline pricing. I mean, formally, there is, there's a lot of them, but, well, it's complicated… In all honesty all this thread is people complaining about something they don't have a clue about. Airline pricing is insanely complicated, and this is for a reason. Airlines are not a luxury business, they barely manage to survive. If not all this dynamic pricing, special cont…

[deleted]

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#427

Post by anal_reactor » Fri, May 30, 2025, 7:23 AM UTC

spauldo wrote: post #404

anal_reactor wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moral argument: it's a sexist strategy. Yet another situation where men pay more and get worse service. Economic argument: fat people are more likely to make use of on-board food service despite high markup, so you want as many of them as possible.

Speaking as a fat person, air travel is horrible and I'll happily drive a couple thousand miles to avoid flying. On a flight to Greenland I spent six hours smashed up between the window and a stranger (constant, sweaty, skin-on-skin contact) because they put three fat guys right next to each other on a full flight. I'd rather have taken a couple months of vacation and ridden the icebreaker in.

Fly business class next time.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#428

Post by ghaff » Fri, May 30, 2025, 7:53 AM UTC

listenallyall wrote: post #417

ghaff wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

United these days has AFAIK pretty generous cancellation though it's in credit rather than outright refund.

Yes, most domestic US airlines have eliminated change fees. But as you point out, it's not possible to get your money back and it's not easy to make changes if you don't have an alternative trip in mind. Cancellability is valuable (see hotel bookings), and yet, people over-value the option - sometimes out of laziness, or they forgot, or they go with the original plan. I have difficulty believing airlines would lose v…

A lot depends on your travel habits. Credit on my usual airline (United) is pretty much a no-brainer within the year--I'll use it barring circumstances where losing some airline dollars are the least of my problems. Less so than it used to be but still.

For hotels, I still tend to pay the premium. I don't expect to cancel but, especially for an extended city stay, it can be a fair amount of money and the premium usually isn't that huge.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#429

Post by ghaff » Fri, May 30, 2025, 7:58 AM UTC

nradov wrote: post #345

arp242 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once tried to book a flight with the same-day return; the price for the return flight was mad expensive. The same return flight was a few hundred euros cheaper if you booked the initial flight a day earlier. My theory is that most same-day travel is for business, and businesses are far less price-sensitive than consumers and will just pay whatever. I suspect this is what's going on here. Most solo travellers are fo…

At times it has also been common for airlines to charge lower prices for round trip tickets that extend over a Saturday. The thinking being that business travelers usually return home on Thursday or Friday and they're less price sensitive so airlines could use that as a way to discriminate. Leisure travelers typically stayed through a weekend and received lower prices.

My anecdotal experience is that this sort of discount doesn't really exist any longer. At least it isn't obvious to me when I book for the most part. Saturday night stay discounts for flights used to be very pronounced.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#430

Post by 4gotunameagain » Fri, May 30, 2025, 8:03 AM UTC

spauldo wrote: post #404

anal_reactor wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moral argument: it's a sexist strategy. Yet another situation where men pay more and get worse service. Economic argument: fat people are more likely to make use of on-board food service despite high markup, so you want as many of them as possible.

Speaking as a fat person, air travel is horrible and I'll happily drive a couple thousand miles to avoid flying. On a flight to Greenland I spent six hours smashed up between the window and a stranger (constant, sweaty, skin-on-skin contact) because they put three fat guys right next to each other on a full flight. I'd rather have taken a couple months of vacation and ridden the icebreaker in.

I mean, it is kind of optimal. Fat guys will experience constant, sweaty, skin-on-skin contact in a flight anyway, so placing them together reduces the total constant, sweaty, skin-on-skin contact experienced.