"The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

[Camtender]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com..._blg=1,1319592

It's going to cost you more to fly the not-so-cost-friendly skies.

AMR's (AMR) American Airlines raised fares by up to $16 round trip, FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney wrote in a note on the company's Web site late Wednesday, a fare that Continental Airlines (CAL) and Southwest Airlines (LUV) matched late Tuesday, followed by Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest Airlines, as well as UAL's (UAUA) United Airlines and US Airways (LCC) on Wednesday.

The fare increase is the fourth since June but also the fourth for the year.

American Airlines confirmed the price increase to Seaney:

• 0-450 miles - $3 one way / $6 round trip
• 451-750 miles - $5 one way / $10 round trip
• 751+ miles - $8 one way / $16 round trip

The price increase comes just in time for the holidays, which will bring with them a targeted peak surcharge of $10 each way. Still, there have been fewer increases this year than in years past. There were 15 fare increases in 2008 and 17 in 2007.

[Slimprofits]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

From The Los Angeles Times
03:10 PM PDT, October 09, 2009

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/l...rt11-2009oct11

Take Southwest Airlines. When this low-cost leader announced a winter sale at the end of last month, it offered fares from $59 to $149 each way on select dates through Feb. 11, for purchase by Thursday.

Tom Parsons, chief executive and founder of BestFares.com, noticed a big difference.

"Airfares that once sold for $99 one way, or $198 round trip, system-wide, are now $149 one way, or $298 round trip," he said.

[c1ue]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

Domestic air fares seem to be creeping up a bit, but international air fares are dirt low.

Just got a last minute ticket for Russia (for someone else) that was $745 round trip. That's lower than ever before - even the February 2005 trip.

Air fares to Asia have jumped up in general while air fares to Europe have apparently fallen - with the exception of the UK and its monster airport taxes.

[zoog]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

Domestic air fares seem to be creeping up a bit, but international air fares are dirt low.

Just got a last minute ticket for Russia (for someone else) that was $745 round trip. That's lower than ever before - even the February 2005 trip.

Air fares to Asia have jumped up in general while air fares to Europe have apparently fallen - with the exception of the UK and its monster airport taxes.

I typically fly only once a year, at Christmas, so this anecdote is limited. However, I have been making the same (domestic) trip for nearly ten years, through the same airports, and almost always on the same airline. I usually buy the tickets well in advance; August or September, maybe October. I fly coach.

From 2000 to 2005, the round-trip tickets cost me $350 to $400. From 2006 to 2008 they cost $500 to $550. This year: $700.

[don]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

Domestic air fares seem to be creeping up a bit, but international air fares are dirt low.

Just got a last minute ticket for Russia (for someone else) that was $745 round trip. That's lower than ever before - even the February 2005 trip.

Air fares to Asia have jumped up in general while air fares to Europe have apparently fallen - with the exception of the UK and its monster airport taxes.

Hope they're not booked on the Polish airlines that Hudson "enjoyed".

[c1ue]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

I typically fly only once a year, at Christmas, so this anecdote is limited. However, I have been making the same (domestic) trip for nearly ten years, through the same airports, and almost always on the same airline. I usually buy the tickets well in advance; August or September, maybe October. I fly coach.

From 2000 to 2005, the round-trip tickets cost me $350 to $400. From 2006 to 2008 they cost $500 to $550. This year: $700.

I can tell you that one thing I have noticed this year is that tickets are cheaper closer to departure dates rather than farther away.

In past years the 'cheap' window would be roughly 6 weeks out (assuming of course the flight isn't full). Today that window is 2 weeks or less. The last ticket was bought 1 week out; it was actually cheaper to cancel the previous ticket, take the $150 hit, and buy a new one.

Hope they're not booked on the Polish airlines that Hudson "enjoyed".

I have never flown LOT. Not because of any other reason than I am building my 1M BIS (butt in seat) miles on United. 180K to go...

After that I'll round out my 1M lifetime miles on American - but that is just miles earned...much easier!

You might say I fly a lot, but not on LOT ;)

[don]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

On the other hand...err, wing....

October 16, 2009

Holiday Travelers Who Wait to Book May Pay More

By MICHELLE HIGGINS

Last year, procrastinators were rewarded when they finally got around to booking flights for holiday travel. Back then, airlines were not prepared for the sharp falloff in travel and offered last-minute deals to fill up empty planes.

This year? Dilly-dallying, even waiting just a few days, could carry a steep price tag.

Fares, though still lower now than at this time last year, are rising with each passing day, a trajectory that began more than a month ago.

In the last week alone, overall fares for Thanksgiving travel rose 6 percent, according to Bing Travel, part of Microsoft’s search engine. Ticket prices for the most popular itinerary, departing Wednesday, Nov. 25, and returning Sunday, Nov. 29, are up 10 percent in the last week.

In recent weeks, some flights have risen even more. From New York, a round-trip American Airlines flight to Chicago that cost $354 on Sept. 14 was $454 on Wednesday, a 28 percent jump, according to Yapta.com, which tracks fares.

A JetBlue flight to Orlando that was $524 on Sept. 24 was $614 on Wednesday, and a Continental flight from Newark to San Francisco that was $504 on Sept. 18 was $770.

That does not count all the extra fees — some added just for holiday travel days — that airlines are charging this year

The professional crystal-ball gazers on fares agree fliers should not wait to book their tickets.

“Travelers should be shopping now,” said Joel Grus, who tracks airfares at Bing Travel. “If a price seems good to them, they should get it.” “Bottom line,” said Rick Seaney, chief executive of Farecompare.com, in his online Holiday Travel Guide, “holiday travel procrastinators do so at their own peril this year, and practical travelers should be shopping now and buying before the end of October.”

Anne Eddy is kicking herself for waiting. In August, she paid $313 for a round-trip flight from Providence, R.I., to Houston to take her son Duncan to Rice University, where he is a freshman. A week later, she paid $632 — roughly double — to buy him a ticket home for Thanksgiving.

“I felt behind the game,” said Ms. Eddy, a health care administrator from Needham, Mass.

Determined to get ahead of it, she immediately booked another flight for him at Christmas. It was $309 round-trip. A recent online search showed that if she had waited any longer for the Thanksgiving reservation, she might have had to pay more than $800 — if she could get a seat at all.
The lesson? “If you book way in advance, you can get really good deals,” she said.

Airlines now have an advantage in the endless game of cat-and-mouse with travelers. Because of the recession, they have been grounding planes. Fewer seats for sale gives them more power to set prices, since they are less desperate to get even modest fares to help fill up planes.

The number of domestic seats for sale is down 5 percent this month, compared to October last year, and they are down 21 percent from October 2000, according to OAG, an aviation-data firm.

“Essentially, that’s creating a sellers’ market,” said Jeff Pecor, a spokesman for Yapta.com, which alerts fliers to price drops even after the ticket has been bought so travelers can call the airline to claim a travel credit.

“While we’re tracking roughly the same number of flights for this holiday season as last year, we have issued fewer price drop alerts on flights,” he added.
All of this means travelers who plan early and are flexible in their schedules are more likely to get a bargain this year.

Marisa W. Green, an orchestral conductor from Hightstown, N.J., was able to lower the cost of her Thanksgiving flight to Cleveland by about $75, to $226 round-trip, by leaving from Newark and returning to Philadelphia.
It also helped that she was able to avoid the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after and is making a stop in Baltimore on the way there.

“The worst thing that happens is I miss my connection,” she said.
“The best thing that could happen — one of those flights is oversold and I get bumped,” she added, because she is in no rush to get home and would be willing to give up her seat and endure a delay in exchange for a voucher for a free flight.

She may get her wish. The rate at which passengers were bumped in the second quarter of this year rose about 40 percent compared with a year ago, according to the Department of Transportation, even though that agency last year doubled the penalties airlines must pay passengers who are denied seats.

Passengers are generally reluctant to give up seats when trying to get home for the holidays. But they may be even more disinclined to raise their hands this year because they may have trouble getting a seat on another flight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/bu...6fares.html?hp

[c1ue]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

The NY Times fails to mention why: the number of flights is down a lot.

Using SeatCounter.com or some such is a great way to monitor the open seats on a flight - as the lower fare classes fill up you'll know when the time to buy arrives.

[GRG55]

Re: "The spiraling cost of airfare" spiraling up that is............

I can tell you that one thing I have noticed this year is that tickets are cheaper closer to departure dates rather than farther away.

In past years the 'cheap' window would be roughly 6 weeks out (assuming of course the flight isn't full). Today that window is 2 weeks or less. The last ticket was bought 1 week out; it was actually cheaper to cancel the previous ticket, take the $150 hit, and buy a new one...

This change is an indication of a market becoming more rational...one would expect a perishable commodity to be discounted more the closer one gets to the "Best Before" date. I take this as a clear indication that [over] capacity is finally being taken out of the system...and that is also why aggregate pricing is going up as a number of posts above indicate.

Airline seats are a "perishable commodity" because the value of an empty [unsold] seat plummets to zero the instant the wheels leave the ground. In a rational market an airline should have an incentive to keep discounting unsold seats as the flight departure time approaches, because a bum in the seat paying "anything" [even One Dollar] is more valuable than an empty seat on the flight [for simplicity I am not taking into consideration such things as the cost of handling that incremental passenger luggage, the extra fuel burn for the added weight of the passenger, etc].

A world in which airlines offer bigger discounts to those who purchase seats earlier, is a world in which there is too much capacity on that route...and the airlines know it, so they want to "cut" the capacity by selling as much of the expected surplus as early in the process as possible.

The fact that you [and I too] have seen this shift is an indication that, just like the auto manufacturers, the days of chronic overcapacity being tolerated by the capital markets is over. And just like the car companies, it's the low cost producer [supplier] that is ultimately going to win [even when that low cost status is the result of heavy government subsidies; General Motors and Abu Dhabi's Etihad airline come to mind ]...

Hope everybody enjoyed that deflation while it lasted.