US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Poor E-Saver pricing

For last weekend, both American and US Airways posted e-fares for their RDU-DCA flights. AA had a base fare of under $90 and offered all RJ service while US priced theirs at $139 on Dash-8's. I flew AA. Why not at least match? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif


As an aside, AA did not offer beverage service to the 8 passengers on my Sat. afternoon flight to DCA because of the "short duration" of the flight. How long does it take to serve 8 Sprites?

On yesterday's return, the same no beverage announcement was made to the 11 passengers on the flight but one passenger politely convinced the FA that he could sneak us all a beverage and we'd never tell so we ended up getting sodas. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Please try and remember the F/A is there for your safety. LOL!! hope you recognized the sarcasm .....

Hey geo, I hope you enjoyed that AE RJ. I have found the service is more spotty on AA but I guess there is more time to serve a drink on the Dash 8 I was on coming back on Friday because despite an oversold flight, the FA managed to get everyone their drink. No Finlandia though. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I do think the lack of US RJs hurts getting the business traveler out of RDU and I thought US would have matched the AA pricing this past weekend. There was a small incident, for some reason I counted 8 pax who had to use the lavatory on this flight including one who violated the no bathroom rule from DCA-RDU (one of the stupidest the TSA has kept). I thought we would have to divert to RIC and was taken aback that a business pax would stand up. The FA had already blocked the aisle with her cart so no danger of anyone getting to the flight deck. Based upon my observation, most were leisure pax as I explained to my seatmate who wondered how come I knew so much about the operations. I told her I fly a lot but did not tell her I was a FT geek.

I get to be on a 330 next week!

Re. pricing, I've noticed that airlines don't match others' internet fares, even though one can predict prices based on patterns of fares over years.

Generally I've found that dollar-per-mile, the airlines rand something like this:

Cheapest: Delta
America West
United
American
US Air
Northwest

Continental's fares are so sporadic, I don't count them.

So, if UA and NW both offer IAD to DTW, I'll bet my bottom dollar UA will be cheaper by some $50!! Delta will likely offer transcons for $208 while AA is at $238 or so. Things like that.

Who knows why they haven't caught on. In the NW case, it really begs the question of who even pays for CyberSavers anymore since they often quite exceed excursion fares.

Well, I still pay up to $100 more for USair because I know I'll get home more close to being on time and with less stress than on Delta. Flying through Atlanta is a guarantee of some screwup, either printers stop printing at the gate, flight attendants get knocked out by doors closed too early, pilots get mysteriously "sick", engines go out and require 5 hours of blow-torch maintenance of some sort, plane has odor of smoke after takeoff - you think I am exaggerating all of the above happened in 5 weeks and five flights on Delta. If I don't pay close enough attention and my travel agent books me on Delta - or if significant price differences exist and I am forced on Delta - I get diarrhea as soon as I see my itinerary.

There is more an airline ticket than just the price. Although I understand with the current American Wal-Mart mentality alot of people are either in denial or consciously refuse to believe it.

[This message has been edited by Heinrich (edited 05-27-2003).]