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October 18, 2007

United Initiates New $10 & 20$ Roundtrip Airfare Increase

Filed under: Airlines, Airfare Increases — Rick Seaney @ 9:02 am

Travelers who have procrastinated on purchasing airline tickets for holiday travel can now be officially worried — amid the swirl of four domestic airfare increases since Labor Day weekend, last night in the 8:00pm EDT domestic U.S. airfare filing the proprietary FareCompare.com airfare tracking software noted a significant increase (fifth since Labor Day) by United Airlines…

This increase is broad based encompassing over 15,000 city pairs on both leisure (14 days or more advanced purchase) and business airfares. The number of new city pairs with an increase is larger than Uniteds recent matching of an American Airlines initiated $10 roundtrip increase late last week.

The United increase is $20 roundtrip ($10 one-way) for travel between cities that are more than 3,000 miles roundtrip (1,500 miles one-way) and $10 roundtrip (5$ one-way) for travel between cities that are less than 3,000 miles roundtrip (1,500 miles one-way).

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5 Comments »

Delta matched and so are Contiental and US Airways, Bloomberg is using us as definitive source on breaking airfare news.

Comment by Rick Seaney — October 18, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
Holiday Travel Procrastinator? Hold on there, buddy! Is it not your site that shows the following for SJC -> MCO Dec 21st - Dec 26th right now:

Best: $322-$354
Good: $355-$378
Fair: $379-$403

And aren’t you saying right there on your website:

“Right now, the cheapest available price is $660. This may not be a good price considering that the cheapest published price is from $322.”

$660?? $322??

I’m been checking since August when the cheapest available price was $500+. That’s still a long ways from $322 and I’m simply not going to believe that all Christmas tickets are gone by the end of August, so what gives?

I’m not procrastinating, I’m waiting for the airlines to match the usual holiday prices according to your fare trend graph!

Sincerely,
Tedd Hadley

Comment by Tedd Hadley — October 18, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
Greetings Ted, Comment #2

Of course there are always exceptions, but be aware that airlines are not likely to give up their 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th cheapest published airfares on peak holiday travel, they are going to charge 5th, 6th … because they can — demand high supply getting lower is not a good combination for waiting

As an update American and US Airways just significantly matched last night so those buying tickets on them are going to be $10 or $20 lighter in the wallet …

Comment by Rick Seaney — October 19, 2007 @ 9:20 am
Thank you for the reply, Rick.

I conclude that the numbers on farecompare are best applied to non-peak travel, then.

For what’s it worth, here’s a prediction. Consumer spending seems to be on a downward trend in the last few months in concert with falling home prices and reduction in credit availability. I predict the airlines will have some trouble filling the flights this holiday season at current prices, and will be forced to offer some deals.

TH

Comment by TH — October 19, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
Hi Ted, Comment #4,

I would tend to agree with you that economic indicators are not looking so bright, but that has not seemed changed demand much. In recent airline calls for the 3Q earnings they are all upbeat on demand in the Q4 including advanced bookings …

Airlines will always offer deals, in is in their blood, so don’t worry unless you are in a non-competitive airport.

Comment by Rick Seaney — October 19, 2007 @ 2:04 pm