Airlines now charge you more if you’re traveling alone than if you’re part of a group of two or more passengers. This isn’t on all routes or all flights. Instead, they’ve quietly introduced new fare rules that require at least a second passenger to be eligible for the cheapest fares.
I first wrote about Delta doing this. Thrifty Traveler finds that it is a new practice at United and American as well.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC shares that American was actually first to do this, and their internal project codename for it is P2 (for two passengers, natch).
…business travels to pay more* than leisure travelers who typically travel in groups or have a weekend stayover, and it's a pretty core element of AA's new "pricing strategy"
* the airline would probably rather describe it as discounting for leisure travel 😉
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) May 29, 2025
one person adds "I would be pretty surprised to see DL or UA put it in somewhere AA didn't initiate it (not to say it couldn't or hasn't happened.)"
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) May 29, 2025
In some cases, you can pay 70% more – and even higher – if you book a ticket for yourself than you would pay for each passenger when two people travel together on the same reservation.
Here’s What This Looks Like
Google Flights shows the cheapest fare for two passengers flying from Charlotte to Fort Myers at $422:
Two passengers traveling together, though, could pay as little as $210 apiece.
In this case even if one person was flying alone, booking two passengers would be cheaper by $2 than buying just one ticket! You’re paying a surcharge of $212 to fly alone.
Why Airlines Are Charging Higher Fares To Solo Travelers
Airlines try to charge more to business travelers than to leisure travelers, and they think that business travelers are much more likely to travel alone on a reservation. Or, at least, they believe that business travelers do not fly together on the same reservation so they can offer the cheapest fares when more than one passenger books together and avoid giving the cheaper fare to a business customer whose employer is paying.
American Airlines launched their devalued AAdvantage Business program with the restriction that you could only receive credit for flights if you were alone on the itinerary. They hard-coded the logic that more than one passenger on a reservation meant that it was a leisure trip, not a business trip. Business travel is more likely to be ticketed separately, even if employees are traveling to the same place at the same time.
How Airlines Charge You As Much As You’re Willing To Pay
Airlines have done more than just about any industry to price discriminate, charging different amounts to different customers.
- They will take almost anything for a seat they are going to fly anyway but that would otherwise go unsold. The cost of adding an extra passenger to a flight is almost zero (very little extra fuel, catering and compute). Meanwhile, once a plane takes off with a seat empty, that seat can never be sold again.
- But they don’t want to sell the seat for less than someone is willing to pay. If a customer will pay $499 for a seat, there’s no reason to sell it for $99.
- So they want to sell for $99 to the most price-sensitive customers, while selling the same product to less price-sensitive customers for $499.
The simplest way to differentiate price-sensitive customers from price-insensitive ones is to draw a circle around leisure travelers and business travelers.
Leisure travelers paying out of their own pocket may be very attuned to price. They’ll fly if it’s cheap, won’t fly if it’s expensive, and adjust their trip to get the lowest price. That’s not true in every case, but it mostly works.
Business customers, flying on Other Peoples Money, do not usually care what a ticket costs (small business owners are more commonly like leisure travelers). They care more about schedule than price, suffer from principal-agent problems where they’ll pay more to get their preferred miles since it’s someone else’s money, and there’s usually a theory about how the trip creates more value than it costs – usually by a lot.
Historically, airlines separated out leisure travelers (to offer cheap fares to) and business travelers (to charge exorbitant prices to) based on things like Saturday stays, roundtrip requirements, and advance purchase rules. Those largely went by the wayside for domestic itineraries as ultra-low cost carriers gained prominence and didn’t impose those restrictions. Airlines couldn’t hold price for last minute business travelers when discounters offered the same itineraries cheap.
So airlines came up with basic economy to segment their customers. Price-sensitive customers get inflexible tickets, boarding last so they waste time gate checking carry-on bags and have to sit at baggage claim, and get the worst seat assignments. Meanwhile, business customers pay more and get the usual experience they expect.
Now they have a new tool in their toolkit – solo traveler surcharges, or technically just excluding solo travelers from eligibility for the cheapest fares (on some routes).
What New Airline Pricing Means For You
This new pricing strategy doesn’t yet exist on all routes or all flights. But if you’re traveling with friends or family, you will want to search for fares both with one passenger in an itinerary and with two passengers to see whether it is cheaper to book together.
Traditionally it was cheaper to book separately because there might be only one seat left at the cheapest price and everyone in a reservation has to have the same fare. That meant two people traveling together would both be charged the higher fare, rather than one having the cheaper price and the other ticket being more expensive.
Now, to be eligible for the cheaper fare – since the requirement for a companion in the reseration is now written into some fare rules – passengers have to be traveling together.
I’m 100% supportive of all incentives, everywhere in society, to get people paired up as opposed to going at it alone. Solo individuals are definitionally far more likely to be incels, odious or undesirable in some way (otherwise why don’t they have a friend or a partner with them?)
My mind immediately jumps to work-arounds. Anybody know if you can book for two at the cheap rate, then later cancel one of the travelers so that the remaining person gets the cheap rate as a solo traveler? In theory, if you cancel within 24 hours you could get a full refund?
I’m sure the airlines have thought of this, and either have something in place to prevent it or are hoping that most people won’t mess with it.
Yahtzee! Two posts on the same topic on the same day!
@Unintimidated — Takes one to know one, I suppose… Oof.
1990
actually, Gary has learned that DL isn’t the only airline that does this.
and the point is still that these are in leisure markets where they can target price sensitive leisure passengers and sometimes also gain an advantage against lower cost carriers.
sometimes you get BOGO coupons at a merchant and other times they are not available.
It is called strategic pricing and plenty of industries do it.
@1990 — I specifically avoid solo leisure travel because I’ve seen too many incel nebbish solo travelers and I don’t want to be associated with them.
If I have a girlfriend I travel with her. If I’m single I just don’t travel except on business (and it’s obvious I am doing so as I dress in sharp professional attire that cannot be mistaken for leisure, plus I’m carrying my firm issued Thinkpad X1 everywhere).
One day I’ll be married and traveling exclusively with my wife and kids.
What’s even more bizarre is on the delta side if you use sky miles on these routes they charge more if your traveling solo! On American and United this seems to not carry to award tickets.
I used to fly all the time as a single. Weekends in London or Los Angeles or somewhere else. None of this was business travel. Don’t want to me as a passenger, fine.
As a couple, I haven’t flown that much. Usually, it’s a week, almost never a weekend.
The airlines who do this are shooting themselves in the foot.
It will also make bookings more tedious. I wonder if there will be a secondary market with Craigslist ads…..
Sample ad: NYC weekend of May 15-16? Book with me and get the 70% off 2 passenger fare. We split the difference. For example, round trip for one person is $350. Round trip for two people is $400, not $700. So we both pay $200. Write for details.
How about a couple traveling then coming home separately, one staying for a few more days? Are they punished?
It’s Deja Vu all over again!
Attempting to charge 2X fare for a solo passenger is a bit optimistic; might as well book an extra/adjacent seat for “J. Doe” to increase your odds of not being stuck in the middle seat of a 36 year old 757 like, say, 649DL…
So retired people who lost their spouse aren’t price sensitive?
@Tim Dunn — Wow, even the ‘thought leader’ is still learning. How humbling! As for the ‘official’ BOGOs, P2 and I keep our Delta Reserve Amex for the Companion Certificates, often getting at least $1,000 in value from those, each year (even better with the expanded routes in N. America, used ’em for SJU and SXM, very pleased).
@Unintimidated — Ah, fair enough. While I’ve also done my fair share of solo road-warrior-ing, it is often better to travel with others. Some of my best memories are trips with loved ones, friends, etc. May that sense of collective adventure never fade!
Guess I’ll book for 2 then cancel the 2nd seat close to the trip!
A bit harsh, don’t you think?
Sometimes, the best way to meet people is to get out of town for a while…
I was able to duplicate this on AA for CLT-TPA in June. $441 RT for one person, $724 RT total for two people. What they’re really doing is only offering a Basic Economy fare when searching for two tickets and not one. Main is cheaper for two, but only by $9/person.
@ Unintimidated — I’m guessinng that Tim Dunn is paying double to fly.
I wonder if this applies to business class where there are specifically 1-2-1 configurations? Don’t they expect solo travelers would prefer the single seats?
I’d be more accepting of this if the business program – which you should use whenever possible – didn’t force you to make separate reservations for each person.
I still think this is stupid since I’ll often take either a leisure trip or a combined purpose trip alone. Jacking up the price will just disincentivize me from doing so.
This sounds very illegal. They will be sued for this and someone will make a fortune. It’s illegal to discriminate based on marital status in the USA. These companies are so greedy, it too bad they didn’t all die during covid. We need innovative companies not this. If I ever see this in my fare rules I will immediately call my lawyer!
A reason to buy a seat for Fluffy, the amazing emotional support wonder dog.
The gouging never stops. Please furnish a list of all of the airlines doing this, then I will know what airlines I will not fly.
@ David R. Miller — Your beloved Southwest has been doing this for nearly 30 years with their Companion Pass, so why shouldn’t other airlines?
This is ridiculous, I understand the airlines need to make a profit but stop insulting us. Just price it fairly and stop the silly games, it’s insulting to their PAYING customers.
Can you work around this scam by booking 2 passengers and then cancelling one passenger? Of course you will end up with airline scrip but that’s not a problem for frequent travelers.
Typically airlines do not reprice when you cancel one ticket on a reservation record.
So now I’m being penalized because my wife of 31 years died and won’t be in the seat next to me? Shame on you!
I used to fly solo to meet my international friends and also friends and family here in the states. Not sure what sort of single traveler is causing a ruckus. I dress in style and buy my clothes and more importantly shoes when I get there. Why not just add fees to business class then? I’m soooo sick of the single tax for everything gah! Just because someone’s flying solo doesn’t mean they’re staying that way! Guess I’ll stick to not flying anymore. Used to be fun. Really.
Congress should pass a law making this illegal and subject to heavy fines and/or executive imprisonment for violators. This is clear discrimination against singles. While a solo traveler surcharge makes sense for cruises (since a single person uses a full room just like a couple), a single person takes just one airplane seat. They should not have to pay more because of the misfortune of not finding a partner yet.
Is booking an extra seat a workaround?
Is this true for business class fare? Non basic economy?
And they wonder why people do skip-lagging and other things…
My companion is named Harvey. He’s a big rabbit. Oh, yeah, he’s invisible, but very real. (Donnie Darko for the younger readers).
Steven,
calm down.
other industries do BOGO pricing all the time.
Congress deregulated economic regulation of the airline industry almost 50 years ago. The market can figure out what works and doesn’t.
and in many cases the price of the two seats is the same or more than a single ticket. Airlines that are pricing the two seats less than a single ticket are doing it wrong.
if only of the two passengers boards, then the value remaining in the remaining ticket is zero.
For people that want to use the deal to get a second seat which will remain empty, it would be interesting to hear other people’s experience with how that works but I would bet they can get by with it unless the airline pricing systems specifically have been coded to not allow extra seats for the 2nd passenger.
I just experienced this on Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, it was $360 per person for two passengers or 715 for one passenger, my colleague had to cancel at last minute, and we were able to separate the reservation and just cancel his,
This feels likely to result in effectively discriminating against people based on marital status (family status) which is illegal.
Besides, it’s ungrateful. The American taxpayer floated these airlines billions during the pandemic and the post 2001 situation. Fire the managers responsible for this. And, deport them to CECOT.
Whether it’s better math to charge people based on their individualized yield curve, it’s wrong morally.
No wonder I’ve decided not to fly as much since my husband of 31 years passed away. Solo travel is hard enough and higher prices for airfares are the last straw.
Solo travelers aren’t price conscious? I just spent over 2 years flying to Houston every few weeks, by myself, for cancer treatments. So, I’ve been very price conscious. And I’ve met many a solo traveler who is doing the same — flying to Houston for treatments. I guess the new strategy for the price conscious consumer will be to book two tickets and then cancel one.
@AJ Valdez (and others) – simmer down. This isn’t illegal and no one is going to sue over it (well they could sue but wouldn’t win and few ambulance chasers would take it). This is an established fare basis. There is no discrimination AJ for married travelers since it only states 2 people on the same booking – they don’t have to be married. There are plenty of businesses that charge more for a single than half the price of 2 people (book a cruise ship cabin for one and see what price you pay). Even Amtrak charges a token amount (if anything with some annual sales) for a 2nd person in a bedroom cabin.
Bottom line is there are plenty of examples exactly like this. You may not like it but no one is going to win a lawsuit or get Congress to pass a law limiting the fare classes and associated rules airlines can deploy. Think about it, if that was the case there wouldn’t be different fare codes and prices for the exact same seat on a plane. You may pay $500 for your seat and the person next to you paid $250 because they got a different fare class. This is simply an extension of that.
This is an unethical practice. Pure and simple.
Well just a few scenarios off the top of my head. A Widow, or a individual Traveling to a wedding or funeral. Partners work schedule doesn’t align so you travel separately. Going to get a medical procedure overseas.