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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

#441

Post by mec31 »

Uehreka wrote: post #402
FabHK wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in terms of simple economics: Without price discrimination, there is one price, and then there are two triangles "left" of the price: What consumers would have paid, but don't need to, that's the consumer surplus (between price and demand), and what producers would have sold for, but got more for, that's the producer surplus (between price and supply). With price discrimination, what happens is that the producer…

I don’t trust that any modern company would actually “use the surplus to subsidize products for poorer consumers”, that sounds like the kind of College Economics fact that isn’t actually true in the real world.

That’s not the way to look at it. The airline has a total cost hurdle for the flight to make sense. If they don’t cover that the flight doesn’t happen. So in a very real sense, your seatmate paying half what you are could be the difference between the flight going or not. As long as they are covering the direct costs of their flight (fuel, etc.) they are helping the flight take place at all. Since the assumption is the business travelers ‘really, really want that flight’ everyone benefits here.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#442

Post by joshstrange »

anal_reactor wrote: post #267
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?

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.

> Yet another situation where men pay more and get worse service.

Is this some kind of satire? In many cases (for a whole slew of things), I feel like men pay less and get better service.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#443

Post by tekla »

Molitor5901 wrote: post #80

Airlines are always doing a negative to consumers. Squeezing passengers, gouging, treating them like they're numbers on a spreadsheet - knowing their options are limited - seems modus operand by the airlines. We need a passenger bill of rights, not just for the airlines, but also how passengers are treated in airports, by security, and concrete cause of action for consumers when airlines misbehave.

Yep, we gotta make all tickets much more expensive.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#444

Post by msgodel »

Fernicia wrote: post #363
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?

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

As someone who's not overweight I don't think I would care. What I really wish they'd charge for is overhead luggage. I wish they'd charge so much that no one bothers with it.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#446

Post by bumby »

WalterBright wrote: post #241
NegativeLatency wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Airfares were much more expensive when the government regulated them.

This is a half-truth. The flying experience was much different back then. As another commenter posted, airlines competed on amenities then, they compete on prices now. Look at the ads from that era; you see full roasted turkey being served and even an in-cabin piano bar! Your statement lacks nuance and is comparing apples and oranges to shoehorn in a “regulation is bad” narrative.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#447

Post by ghaff »

amrocha wrote: post #438
ghaff wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The incentive is right in the term loyalty points. Tending to stick with one airline, if you travel a lot, has all sorts of status and rewards incentives. Which you can augment with things like branded credit cards, etc.

Sure, if you value those things then by all means, but it’s strictly speaking a poor financial decision

For people who travel by air a lot, even things that make that travel even marginally more comfortable are worth it.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#448

Post by mr_toad »

arp242 wrote: post #335
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…

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…

> "we think you can pay more, so we'll charge you more" type of thing. Is that a good/bad/ethical/predatory thing?

Econ101 says it’s a bad thing because of the deadweight loss occurring versus a single market price.

It also arrogates a lot of consumer surplus to the producer (the airline), which many would argue is bad from an ethical and inequality point of view.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#449

Post by mr_toad »

ListeningPie wrote: post #439
yosito wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airline ticket prices have been highly individualized for at least a decade. I live a nomadic lifestyle and I'm often traveling with friends from various countries. We can sit next to each other in the same café and search for the same plane tickets on the same website at the same time, and get entirely different price offers. This is one of the reasons that I never buy plane tickets without using incognito mode or s…

I've also heard that depending on what country you're buying from the price changes, but using VPN I've never been able to replicate the results. Pricing based on individuals sounds illegal.

> Pricing based on individuals sounds illegal.

It happens in every car dealership. And in enterprise sales. And in some countries in nearly every market and store.

Re: Airlines are charging solo passengers higher fares than groups

#450

Post by carlosjobim »

sgerenser wrote: post #401
carlosjobim wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to bring your own sheets and breakfast as well?

I don’t know about yours, but my spouse is OK with sharing sheets with me.

Depends on region. In many places a hotel room for two guests has two beds that are either separate or together. So make sure you book a king size bed, and also buy one of those fake moustache-and-glasses for your wife so nobody suspects anything at breakfast. Or she can wait in the room and you'll sneak some scrambled eggs and bacon from the buffet in your coat pockets for her.
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