FlightAware and Airline ticket cost

[poadeleted21]

I have a friend coming in tonight I have to go pick up at the airport.I'm Tracking the flight on flight aware.
can someone explain the cost differential that they list on there? I've never noticed this feature.

$52.83 to $1,480.02; average: $214.97

Seems like quite a price gap to for a 1hr 47min flight from A->B on a CRJ-200 and I'd love to know how to get those $52.80 tickets and avoid the $1,480.02. And how'd they get those numbers?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SKW6207

 

[denverpilot]

Probably from an aggregator like Expedia, Priceline, etc.

You'll drive yourself mad if you try to figure out the airline's algorithms they spent millions developing to supposedly squeeze the last possible penny out of purchasers of tickets and to cram butts in all available seats.

For me, all it does is prove they don't want my business if they can't develop a consistent fare structure that is predictable.

Best time to buy is usually about three weeks in advance from my playing around with it.

Prior to that they're scooping up people who are booking far in advance. After that, price climbs until only a few seats are left, then tends to drop a little to fill up the aircraft.

Those fares you quoted also include Business and First Class on cabins that have it, as well as differences in refundability.

Only the airlines could come up with a ticket system so convoluted that they ran out of letters in the alphabet to describe all the possible ticket options on any particular flight.

And then... turned all flights into the uncomfortable equivalent of hopping in a jammed City bus at rush hour.

It's really not worth figuring out. Get a good travel agent. Teach them the words "non-stop" and "sit" and "stay". Let them dig in the backyard for the airline's buried bones.

There was a cool CNBC show on American Airlines a few years ago. It included a discussion of the ticket madness, followed by the announcement that a fully-loaded transcontinental flight netted AA, $90 after expenses. No, I didn't miss a zero.

Think they might have better spent the money on SAABRE and all the wild ticketing on just servicing their customers? Seems to work for SWA...

 

[PilotAlan]

I'm guessing it's the:
1 - very cheapest, 90 day in advance, only 4 seats available at this price fares, no changes, non-refundable seat, vs
2 - walk up, first class, fully refundable and rebookable fare

 

[SCCutler]

Why I believe that, if I must fly commercial, I try very hard to fly Southwest. Three fare levels, and never, ever forfeited or change fee.

 

[poadeleted21]

Probably from an aggregator like Expedia, Priceline, etc.

You'll drive yourself mad if you try to figure out the airline's algorithms they spent millions developing to supposedly squeeze the last possible penny out of purchasers of tickets and to cram butts in all available seats.

For me, all it does is prove they don't want my business if they can't develop a consistent fare structure that is predictable.

Best time to buy is usually about three weeks in advance from my playing around with it.

Prior to that they're scooping up people who are booking far in advance. After that, price climbs until only a few seats are left, then tends to drop a little to fill up the aircraft.

Those fares you quoted also include Business and First Class on cabins that have it, as well as differences in refundability.

Only the airlines could come up with a ticket system so convoluted that they ran out of letters in the alphabet to describe all the possible ticket options on any particular flight.

And then... turned all flights into the uncomfortable equivalent of hopping in a jammed City bus at rush hour.

It's really not worth figuring out. Get a good travel agent. Teach them the words "non-stop" and "sit" and "stay". Let them dig in the backyard for the airline's buried bones.

There was a cool CNBC show on American Airlines a few years ago. It included a discussion of the ticket madness, followed by the announcement that a fully-loaded transcontinental flight netted AA, $90 after expenses. No, I didn't miss a zero.

Think they might have better spent the money on SAABRE and all the wild ticketing on just servicing their customers? Seems to work for SWA...

So, what you're saying is the airlines have successfully created a ticket fare system so convoluted that it has spawned a new market to figure it out? I actually figured that all the seats on these small regional flights were withing a couple hundred bucks of each other. 1st class on a CRJ-200? For a 1hr 47 min flight? 1480 bucks? YGTBFSM.

 

[poadeleted21]

Why I believe that, if I must fly commercial, I try very hard to fly Southwest. Three fare levels, and never, ever forfeited or change fee.

I used to drive from Memphis to Little Rock just to get on Soutwest Flights, they unfortunatley don't service Missoula, United/Allegient/Delta/Horizon are the only ones.

 

[denverpilot]

For me it was Frontier since they were the "home team". Now that Republic gobbled them up and laid off all the folks I knew there, SWA gets my money if I spend it.

Frontier's Lynx subsidiary was literally the only other tenant in my former employer's office building in Westminster, CO. I heard that my former employer re-grew to expand into their space when they were killed. (We had left that part of the building when Polycom acquired them, then Lynx moved in, then was killed, and back into the space they went... Or so I heard. Haven't been up there in a while.)

I'm one of those jerks bleeding Barclays and Republic by running lots and lots of bills through my Frontier card every month and paying it off instantly. Usually gets me one or two free rides on the commercial cattle cars per year, if I really have to fly commercial. I let someone else's 35% interest pay for my few cattle car flights. Not sure who gets hurt worse on that deal, Barclays or Republic but I have no love for either one.

Stiffing a European bank or stiffing the people who killed my hometown airline and stole their Marketing campaign which was awesome. Not sure it matters. Either way it feels great. Sooner or later they'll catch on and actually charge me more than $25 a year for the privilege.

I usually run the airplane fuel through the Amex since I get a much better kickback there, but once in a while a pump won't take Amex and a big airplane fill-up towards my next free commercial ticket is always nice. Haha.

 

[poadeleted21]

WHen I lived in Alaska, paying your cable bill, buying groceries, cell phone bill etc.. went towards miles on Alaska airlines, got a couple of freebie flights a year off "just living in Alaska"

 

[poadeleted21]

They looked like their groundspeed was a little low, just checked winds aloft, they're flying into a 121kt headwind @FL33, now that is the highest winds aloft on the chart WHY would the get or choose that altitude?

 

[MSPAviator]

Jeez, for $1480 I could get in one of those scary little propeller airplanes that crash all the time and fly there myself!

 

[denverpilot]

Jeez, for $1480 I could get in one of those scary little propeller airplanes that crash all the time and fly there myself!

That's why you need user fees you crazy rich person.

 

[MSPAviator]

They looked like their groundspeed was a little low, just checked winds aloft, they're flying into a 121kt headwind @FL33, now that is the highest winds aloft on the chart WHY would the get or choose that altitude?

That's how regional crews maximize their pay!

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Best time to buy is usually about three weeks in advance from my playing around with it.

Not any more - Now they're playing the fact that the three-week rule is so well-known.

Don't get me wrong, it still works... But I've found lower fares (compared to 3-weeks-out fares) as little as one week in advance. You'd better be paying attention, though, as they really start fluctuating - In both directions - close to the one-week mark.

Bing has a feature that tries to predict the chances of a fare going up or down in the near future. It's even right sometimes.

 

[woodstock]

Best time to buy is usually about three weeks in advance from my playing around with it.

There was a cool CNBC show on American Airlines a few years ago. It included a discussion of the ticket madness, followed by the announcement that a fully-loaded transcontinental flight netted AA, $90 after expenses. No, I didn't miss a zero.

...

I've seen three weeks in advance, but anecdotally I've seen that buying tix in January for May travel seems to really work out well (internationally). Not sure if it is b/c it is January (and travel any time in the spring/summer is priced to sell) or if it's a function of length of time away from travel.

For instance, last night I got two plane tickets to northern Italy, into Venice and out of Milan (open jaw IOW), for the latter half of May. 1000 bucks each all in. That isn't "cheap", but, for Italy, open jaw, late May, that's really good. I've had this happen a few times now. Not sure why.

I rarely see completely full TATL flights. The flight to/from Madrid last week was less than half full I'd say.

 

[astanley]

Revenue Management: Where Operations Research PhD's go to have fun with models.

 

[Matthew]

Some of our technical support guys used to fly to a particular location, a lot. The problem was, a flight from A to B cost $$$, but a flight from A-B-C was only $. So we did the old trick of throwing away that last leg of the ticket. Airlines eventually put a stop to that. Then we sent them from A-B-C with a rental car trip back to B and still came out ahead. The return trip was equally crazy - a 90 minute rental car drive from B back to C, then the C-B-A return flight.

 

[woodstock]

Some of our technical support guys used to fly to a particular location, a lot. The problem was, a flight from A to B cost $$$, but a flight from A-B-C was only $. So we did the old trick of throwing away that last leg of the ticket. Airlines eventually put a stop to that. Then we sent them from A-B-C with a rental car trip back to B and still came out ahead. The return trip was equally crazy - a 90 minute rental car drive from B back to C, then the C-B-A return flight.

Dang, I would really hate to work for your company.

 

[Everskyward]

Dang, I would really hate to work for your company.

That's what I was thinking too.

I guess they would really be opposed to having a company airplane, saving time instead of money and all...

 

[ChrisK]

I used to get flights from IAD to CLE by looking at around 11-10 days in advance and picking up a web-only fare from airline websites. It seemed (for that route at least) they sold their unbooked seats about a week and a half before a flight. I'd reverse ticket too (shh!) so I'd always have a Saturday stay.

If for some reason I couldn't get the $100ish fare I wanted, I'd drive.

 

[poadeleted21]

Some of our technical support guys used to fly to a particular location, a lot. The problem was, a flight from A to B cost $$$, but a flight from A-B-C was only $. So we did the old trick of throwing away that last leg of the ticket. Airlines eventually put a stop to that. Then we sent them from A-B-C with a rental car trip back to B and still came out ahead. The return trip was equally crazy - a 90 minute rental car drive from B back to C, then the C-B-A return flight.

Yeah, its a lot more expensive to fly from here to salt lake than it is to ride on the same flight with the intention of going to vegas on the next leg.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I've seen three weeks in advance, but anecdotally I've seen that buying tix in January for May travel seems to really work out well (internationally). Not sure if it is b/c it is January (and travel any time in the spring/summer is priced to sell) or if it's a function of length of time away from travel.

For instance, last night I got two plane tickets to northern Italy, into Venice and out of Milan (open jaw IOW), for the latter half of May. 1000 bucks each all in. That isn't "cheap", but, for Italy, open jaw, late May, that's really good. I've had this happen a few times now. Not sure why.

I rarely see completely full TATL flights. The flight to/from Madrid last week was less than half full I'd say.

That works well but one need to watch the airlines carefully, especially the code share where it could be one of two airlines that run the route. At least 2x recently, they've changed a flight on me but didn't update the conections. They had me connecting to a flight that left yesterday (caught & fixed before I left home). They don't always tell you either.

 

[Matthew]

Dang, I would really hate to work for your company.

That's what I was thinking too.

I guess they would really be opposed to having a company airplane, saving time instead of money and all...

Ahh, beancounters. Bless their hearts!