To George Hobica,

Let me vent a little since you are too shy to call us out by name in your latest blog post — http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/4097371/enough-already-with-news-reports-about-those-10-fare-hikes/ — after all, we are the ones breaking these news stories you are evidently not fond of (and, yes, you can say FareCompare on your blog, we don’t mind).

First, you call on journalists to dig deeper – might I suggest as a journalist you should also dig a bit deeper (maybe with a shovel instead of a spoon next time).

Let me enlighten you on the facts:

In 2009 there were 4 successful airfare hikes (all since June and include the one by United you mention at the end of 2009).

Domestic airfare prices were in free fall from November 2008 to May 2009 where they hit a decade-long bottom.

By contrast, there were 15 successful airfare hikes in the first 3 quarters of 2008 (subsequently prices were higher regardless of whose calculator you use), as oil prices were at century highs and airlines struggled to survive as their operating cost for fuel doubled.

You conveniently cherry pick an example of Denver to the West Coast; what you failed to mention is that Southwest stepped into the Denver market during that time frame and added dozens of flights a day in direct competition with United and Frontier which drove down the price on those limited routes — your example doesn’t even remotely reflect 99.9% of the rest of the country…

You follow that up with more misrepresentation by stating the scope of these hikes was not quantified.

On our airfare hike release of 31-Dec, which reported on the mostly $6 roundtrip hikes — with some $10 roundtrip increases — we noted the following: A) the hikes were not placed on winter sale fares for travel thru early March and, B) were not applicable on most low cost airline routes as they hadn’t matched and legacy airlines spared those routes.

These airfare hike releases were intended for the financial markets who want to know air travel pricing trends; consumers can also benefit from understanding trends as most wonder why they get wildly different prices every time they get a quote for their trip.

I could go on but I think you get my point.

Rick Seaney

CEO, FareCompare.com