Tag Archives for airfare.
There’s a fare war to Tokyo going on from a variety of U.S. cities, and roundtrip fares start at just $198 roundtrip for Cleveland – Tokyo. Other great fares in the $200 – $250 range are available from Fort Lauderdale and Miami; St. Louis; Raleigh; Washington D.C.; Philadelphia; Dallas Fort-Worth; Charlotte; and Phoenix – and probably others. These fares aren’t going to last long.
Air France KLM just announced that they plan to move to ‘continuous pricing’ rather than filing fares and managing availability on specific flights. They think that, on average, they can charge consumers about 10% more for tickets than they do today.
Several other airlines are working on the same thing. Here’s how it works.
Kayak.com publishes daily data on consumer flight searches and this has been a reliable early indicator of future load factors, though of course people do book tickets and cancel more often now given the uncertainty in the world and greater flexible change policies that airlines have offered.
Something strange happened yesterday. On July 21 people searched for international travel 15% more than last year. What in the world is going on?
There’s likely to be greater variance in what happens to fares than we’re used to, because airlines build their schedules guessing what demand patterns are going to look like and those may be more volatile than we’re used to – airline revenue management tools are more likely to “guess wrong” than in the past because they’re dealing with new situations they haven’t encountered before.
Hotels are a different story. While hotels can leave entire floors closed to save on cleaning and heating and air conditioning costs during periods of low demand, it’s harder to mothball capacity.
Major U.S. airlines have waived change fees for new ticket purchases, to encourage customers to spend money in a world of uncertainty. You won’t be penalized for changing plans if you buy a new ticket now and need to change it later – you’ll retain a travel credit for future purchases with the airline.
They’ve been extending the policy little-by-little, ostensibly because it might only be necessary for a short time. It won’t be. These change fee waivers on ticket purchases are going to need to continue for many months, perhaps through the end of the year. That’s not just for the convenience of passengers, but so that people will be willing to buy tickets at all.
Roundtrip tickets used to be cheaper than buying two one ways. For the most part that isn’t true anymore. One way tickets, at least domestically, do not usually raise the cost of a trip.
Still many people book roundtrip travel because of change fees. But for the most part those do not apply right now.
Airlines aren’t a monopoly. Airfares inclusive of fees have fallen. Low cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier have been driving down prices.
United is offering non-stop Newark – Paris roundtrips from $257 roundtrip. And it’s not just for a few dates either, but across much of the schedule for about six months.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
