US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - ORF - DCA or BWI fare silliness

I'm now having the need to fly from ORF to BWI (or I'll take DCA I suppose) every so often. Southwest flies to BWI for about $149 or so roundrip from ORF. US does not fly direct to BWI but they do fly Dash-8s to DCA. For $700 on Monday morning. Now who in the WORLD is paying $700 to fly on a Dash-8 to DCA from ORF when you could fly to BWI on Southwest for $149?? I've checked weeks in advance. Why are fares like this?? They've been doing this apparenty for years. Who is paying $700 to fly for a 3 hour drive? I just don't get it... What's nuts is that often when I go to Laguardia I connect to the Shuttle via the same Dash-8 for $99 or $149 roundtrip!!! Heck I'm going to Laguardia and connecting THROUGH this Dash-8 for $99 on Friday!!


Departure Flight
Norfolk, VA (ORF) to Washington DC Reagan (DCA) on Monday, April 21

Return Flight
Washington DC Reagan (DCA) to Norfolk, VA (ORF) on Friday, April 25
Fare for selected flights is: US$ 698.50

Think:

USA military on military biz b/w Norfolk and the Pentagon. US knows no regular business traveller would ever buy this fare. Nor is there a real market b/w these two airports. However, if this is the "average ticket price" for a r/t between these two points, the government will pay the fare. Hence, profit for US.

[This message has been edited by geo1005 (edited 03-01-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Heinrich:

Departure Flight
Norfolk, VA (ORF) to Washington DC Reagan (DCA) on Monday, April 21

Return Flight
Washington DC Reagan (DCA) to Norfolk, VA (ORF) on Friday, April 25
Fare for selected flights is: US$ 698.50

</font>

Why wouldn't you simply drive? Its not more than a 3 hour drive and when you factor in the wait at the airport and actual flying time it couldn't save you that much time. You could rent the nicest car Hertz has for the roundtrip and avoid all of the hassle as well as a $700 fare.
DAN

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1005:
If this is the "average ticket price" for a r/t between these two points, the government will pay the fare. Hence, profit for US. </font>

For most routes, the idea that government rates could be lucrative wouldn't hold up, but US certainly seems to profit on DCA-ORF.

The U.S. General Services Administration negotiates special government rates for nearly every city-pair in the nation. In most city pairs -- at least the one's I've noticed -- the government rates are pretty nice (like $34 unrestricted LGA-DCA on the DL shuttle).

According to GSA, the US Airways federal rate for DCA-ORF is $285 restricted or $335 unrestricted each way. Southwest got the government contract for BWI-ORF: $64 unrestricted each way or $60 restricted.

[This message has been edited by DCAview (edited 03-01-2003).]

Pardon me. I work for the government and travel between DC and Norfolk pretty often- in my car. I live 4 miles from DCA and the office I go to in Norfolk is a mile from ORF. No way would I even think of asking the government to pay $700; and I know a lot of other government travelers between these 2 cities that also always drive. The REASON this fare is so high is because one airline flies the route and they can charge what they want. If USAirways was smart like WN and dropped this fare to $200 rt, they'd have to upgrade the flights to 737s and probably add a flight or two a day to keep up with the demand. I'll bet you 90% of the pax flying ORF-DCA are connecting on to other cities. There are plenty of other eggregious fare examples out there. Look at DCA-PIT; DCA-DTW; DCA-ATL (get the picture?). Everyone gets ripped off on these routes (business, govt, the public) and we all know why. Please cut the govt some slack. Thank you.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by danl08:
Why wouldn't you simply drive? Its not more than a 3 hour drive and when you factor in the wait at the airport and actual flying time it couldn't save you that much time. You could rent the nicest car Hertz has for the roundtrip and avoid all of the hassle as well as a $700 fare.
DAN</font>

If it were for personal reasons, I would, and have, driven. But I have to go from ORF to near Baltimore. Driving, I hear, from others down here, can be a mess on the other side of DC. Going to Baltimore from ORF does, in fact, just barely, qualify for my company to fly me as far as miles apart. IN addition, even though I could STILL drive if I wanted, I am not flying that much this year, so doing a connection and landing in BWI will help me retain CP this year. I will fly a lot next year. Starting off with CP will make life easier for the hassles of flying about 4-6 trips to Baltimore this year. That's 8-12 segments that I will need. But the allure of Southwest in this market is strong. The gate is PACKED full of people flying up there every flight I've ever walked past the Southwest gate. Company will NOT pay $700 to fly up there. In fact, for about $149 I am connecting through PHL to BWI on US.


[This message has been edited by Heinrich (edited 03-01-2003).]

All this talk about government fares made me interested to see where I could find it, poking through the GSA site I found http://www.fedtravel.com/GSA/ which if you put in a city-pair it'll tell you the contract fare (if any). It is interesting..

For example: New York-DC ranges from $34 oneway as mention on DL (LGA-DCA) to $237 oneway on UA (JFK-IAD). What a difference two nearby airports can make, $400 more R/T that taxpayers pay for http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif