Now this is daft….. (airline ticket pricing)
Back to Forum- This topic has 14 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 26 Feb 2015
at 19:45 by DavidGordon10.
-
- Author
- Posts
- Skip to last reply Create Topic
-
AMcWhirterParticipantIt’s crazy, I know. But if an QR wishes to enter the CPT market it has to price in relation to what the market demands …and that becomes an issue when it undercuts the fare to your hub.
Another example is when you fly with BA from AUH to JFK. BA has to match the non-stop flight fare and then discount the price to entice passengers onto its indirect flight.
It means that AUH-LHR-JFK-LHR-AUH will usually cost less than LHR-JFK-LHR based on fares not requiring a Saturday night stay.
25 Feb 2015
at 20:23
goalie11ParticipantThe Gulf airlines really want you to use them as a hub to the rest of their network, for them point to point is regarded as a necessity for the customer and therefore attracts fares that reflect that.
To get to EDI I regularly do a Muscat run from Abu Dhabi with Etihad to attract a hub fare that is often some £2000 cheaper to Manchester than a point to point fare on the same aircraft. 40 minutes there on a cheap economy ticket and return on the same aircraft in business is a no brainer.
25 Feb 2015
at 20:37
IanFromHKGParticipantI am in the UK now, halfway through my two tickets, having spent about HK$5,000 to do HKG-BKK-HKG and another HK$30,000 to fly BKK-HKG-LHR-HKG-BKK (all in business class).
The first leg of the first ticket was a positioning flight for the second, on which I am on the exact same flights as I would have been if I had spent HK$55,000 (the cheapest fare available) to fly HKG-LHR-HKG.
25 Feb 2015
at 21:15
esselleParticipantStep forward please anybody who understands how airlines price their tickets. I won’t say who it was, but I went to Australia recently with a carrier who offered a return ticket to go all the way from UK to Oz via their home airport, that was cheaper ( by some margin) than just going on a return to their home airport…………….
25 Feb 2015
at 21:17
FlightlevelParticipantThis procedure is what UA is going to court about in the USA. Buying single tickets in the same way & with hand luggage only means you save a lot on the first sector fares. You just walk off after the first sector. There is a website providing such data & they are in court with UA.
It makes sense for the airlines to do it to compete with the direct route, except arguably not environmentally!25 Feb 2015
at 23:40
AnthonyDunnParticipantit’s not just the BA continental dog-leg ploy, it’s CX charging my travel partner appreciably more just to fly him LHR-HKG-LHR than they did to fly me LHR-HKG-SYD-HKG-LHR last Summer. when we were on the exact same flights booked at the same time. Likewise, I have just noticed that it is some £2K cheaper to fly J in CX AMS-HKG than LHR – HKG. This really is an exercise in “pricing to market” (or is it price gauging?)
QR have the same issue: it’s cheaper to fly on beyond DOH than terminate there…
This is all about airlines wherever trying to attract as much hub and spoke business as possible – and their making it worth your while to do so. So, if you derive some vicarious entertainment value, as I do, at gaming airline pricing schema, then just go for it, count the loyalty points, pocket the travel miles and smile inwardly at how much you have saved yourself from playing the system that others have devised.
26 Feb 2015
at 01:29
eyeintheskyParticipantThat is why I always check nearby airports for better prices. The difference can be enormous.
26 Feb 2015
at 02:18
stevescootsParticipantAlways this way, just look at the Ex EU flights for BA. if i use CX HKG to LHR I start out in CAN as it often saves 30% of the ticket price
26 Feb 2015
at 06:02
AlexthegreatParticipantIn my view it’s the classic situation whereby airlines protect their point to point (P2P) high yield traffic (First/Business/Premium Economy) from/to their hub and play in other markets to capture their competitors traffic.
The 3 letters LHR = big bucks for the airlines. If a route originates/ends in London (notably LHR) then then the P2P fares are guaranteed to be high. When airlines operates to both LHR & LGW, then promo/cheaper fares are restricted to LGW (and very noticeable when QR operated to both and EK still does). LH has in the past routed cheaper fares via MUC than FRA. In addition to EY/EK/QR, AF/KL & LH appear to also be strong players in the UK market chasing the P2P market and route it via their hub.26 Feb 2015
at 12:14
AMcWhirterParticipantEmirates serves LGW but QR cancelled its LGW flights a couple of years ago.
26 Feb 2015
at 12:22
Ah,Mr.BondParticipantThis is standard issue with most airlines. Especially with QR who have no competition on the LHR-DOH route [BAs useless indirect route is not worth looking at].
Try and break your journey in DOH and see what happens with the fare!26 Feb 2015
at 12:55
canuckladParticipantI wish I could remember who posted, or had the time to find the paint analogy on the forum…very funny indeed!!
The supplement for ex-Scotland departures seemed rather crass. Especially when applied onto flights across the North Atlantic.
Or why its more expensive to fly on certain days, seems bizarre, one assumes cabin crew and fuel costs rise on those days……I wonder why supermarkets don’t increase the price of beans for those of us who shop in their stores on a Saturday?And talking of food, why should my cookies influence the price of a ticket bought on-line.
And, just when you think you’ve bagged a bargain, by clicking on a departure date, your inbound journey shoots up?
26 Feb 2015
at 16:17
DavidGordon10ParticipantI think the paint story was Martyn, Canuck. Still makes me chuckle.
26 Feb 2015
at 19:45 -
AuthorPosts
