US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Financing comes in Fares go up

Since the announcement was made fares LGA-STL shot up from $118 - $128 to $260+ I'm sure it went up in other markets too

Well London is still 186 before taxes. You have to remember also. If many people are taking advantage of the sale or what ever you want to call it. There are only so many seats they are going to sell so cheap.

Probably coincidental. More fares have been found heading downward lately rather than upward.

-JC

Suggestion book now while some markets are still cheap. When most people start getting word of this I am sure they are going to start booking.

I am in a good mood today :)

I am in a good mood today :)

Too bad you are not in town. We could go out for chorums & KKs tonight. :D

FWIW, the PHL-FRA sale fares I'm looking at have been extended from today to 1/18. I'm curious as to why they don't promote these super low European fares on their homepage.

FWIW, the PHL-FRA sale fares I'm looking at have been extended from today to 1/18. I'm curious as to why they don't promote these super low European fares on their homepage.

Guess what, today I go in and lo and behold the $255 fare is GONE. :mad: Why do they extend the date and then pull it? Serves me right, I should have booked it as soon as I saw it. Morale: never trust an airline's fare rules?

Guess what, today I go in and lo and behold the $255 fare is GONE. :mad: Why do they extend the date and then pull it? Serves me right, I should have booked it as soon as I saw it. Morale: never trust an airline's fare rules?

What probably happened is they sold all the seats they were going to sell at that specific price. They are only going to sell so many seats at a cheap price and once they are gone you will get bumped to the next price level. Looks like other people beat you to those seats. NEVER wait when there is a sale. Sales can always end before the date if the seats are sold out.

I don't know... Looks like they did jack up the fares after financing came in. I have been flying PIT->EWR a lot lately for a project. Last Thursday I caught a sale window for $166.90 for a Wed -> Thurs overnight. The cheapest fare listed in U.S. pricing tool is now $252 plus taxes and requires a 3 day stay. Cheapest fare for an overnight is now $818 plus taxes which is even higher than $802.70 (including taxes and fees) I have typically been paying on the project. Still looks like predatory fare pricing to me.

On a related note, I visit my family on LI a few times a year. I used to fly to LGA all of the time. They reduced the frequency, converted to mainly smail RJ's (e.g. not E170's), and sent the fare north of $200 a while ago. No longer made sense for my wife and I to fly and we started driving. Now we're in the habit of driving for family visits. Must admit I haven't checked the fares in a while. For grins, I checked fare pricing for my next upcoming visist to my family in April Thurs -> Monday. Currently showing as 408 plus taxes for the dates I need as the minimum fare. Best fare is $264 plus taxes if you fly Sat/Sun only. Guess we'll be driving again....

The great circle milage for these runs (one way) is 319 for PIT-> EWR and 334 for PIT -> LGA. Even at 0.25 per mile plus taxes and fees these fares should be <= $200. Guess we won't see that until SWA comes into PIT in May ;)

--Jon

Maybe I'm missing something ... we all want US to survive their financial crisis, but then we get pissed when they don't give their seats away.

Repeat after me ... they're a business, and they're in business to make money. They've done about all they can do on the cost end, and they have to work on the price end in order to have any hope of profit.

It was an unannounced sale. Further more like I said, usually there are so many seats they are going to sell at a cheap price. When they full up then boom. That is it. When ever I see a sale like that I buy right away. I don't wait at all. Especially with international flight. US still has the 186 round trip fare to LGA right now and many other EU destinations are still cheaper than flying to CA.

If you ever see a sale again on USAirways.com buy it right then and there. You always have 24 hours to cancel it or change it without penalty. That way you can ask whom ever else and coordinating dates ect. I bought quite a few tickets the days of the sales and I had to change 2 of the tickets dates. But I did it within th 24 hour window with no problem via the website. You can't expect US to sell all their seats at that low price can you? Many of the tickets I bought were below the price of the Go Fares. I bought a ticket from DCA to FLL for 96 dollars after taxes!! And when I looked on Expedia to see who else was coming close. The next closest was Spirit at 130.

You have got to remember many college students are looking at tickets now for the spring break semester as well. And with expedia being the most popular website to buy airline tickets (according to many magazines.) tickets are going to sold very fast.

T

I don't know... Looks like they did jack up the fares after financing came in. I have been flying PIT->EWR a lot lately for a project. Last Thursday I caught a sale window for $166.90 for a Wed -> Thurs overnight. The cheapest fare listed in U.S. pricing tool is now $252 plus taxes and requires a 3 day stay. Cheapest fare for an overnight is now $818 plus taxes which is even higher than $802.70 (including taxes and fees) I have typically been paying on the project. Still looks like predatory fare pricing to me.

On a related note, I visit my family on LI a few times a year. I used to fly to LGA all of the time. They reduced the frequency, converted to mainly smail RJ's (e.g. not E170's), and sent the fare north of $200 a while ago. No longer made sense for my wife and I to fly and we started driving. Now we're in the habit of driving for family visits. Must admit I haven't checked the fares in a while. For grins, I checked fare pricing for my next upcoming visist to my family in April Thurs -> Monday. Currently showing as 408 plus taxes for the dates I need as the minimum fare. Best fare is $264 plus taxes if you fly Sat/Sun only. Guess we'll be driving again....

The great circle milage for these runs (one way) is 319 for PIT-> EWR and 334 for PIT -> LGA. Even at 0.25 per mile plus taxes and fees these fares should be <= $200. Guess we won't see that until SWA comes into PIT in May ;)



--Jon

You missed my point. $800 roundtrip PIT -> EWR is ridiculous period! Pick some figure per mile above CASM that gives them a reasonable profit (i.e so they can stay in business) and charge that amount. If desired, occassionally offer sales for less than that figure. So again for approx. 650 mile roundtrip, they can't need over a 1$/mile to make a reasonable profit. Even if it was 0.50/mile it would still be roughly a $350 fare including taxes and fees. $350 while still high for the mileage involved would be fine for business. For the leisure market that is still too high. People will tend to drive for the distances involved, especially couples or families. Still think they ought to be able to offer a fare at <= $200 for leisure travel (e.g. Saturday night stay). Soon SWA will force them down to that level when the startup in May. Somehow they still consistently make a profit. $800 for business and $400 for leisure is just extortion and short sighted (The fortress at PIT is in the process of being over run). My two cents...


P.S. I would prefer that US does stay in business. I am even willing to pay a small premium (10% to 20%) over the LCC's for better service. I can justify that to my clients and our corporate travel department (e.g. ability to work on the flight versus dead time in a cattle car). When I was flying the PIT -> PHX route frequently last year US and UA were competitive with HP on that route. Other than when my timing worked out so that only HP made sense, I flew US or UA. US got the lions share of the business.

P.P.S Heck I only switched over to UA program the 2nd half of last year as a hedge against US longevity to protect my miles. If they make it and have reasonable offerings, I'd be happy to switch back to US. Right now they aren't giving me much incentive to do so. They are doing better on the longevity issue; however, the fortress hub pricing is still in place at PIT. If I am going to have to connect anyway for many flights now, UA (or DL or AA or NWA) become viable options. Since I still prefer Star Alliance, I went with UA. The current US/UA agreements on accuring mileage also makes it a no brainer to choose UA. I like E+. I'm sure I'd like frequent upgrades to First on US as well; however, consistently getting E+ is very good in it's own right. In some ways it is better than the first or bust (steerage) class model of US. Bottom line, give me reasonable pricing from PIT and a reasonable likelihood they are going to make it and I'll hop right back on the US bandwagon.

I don't know... Looks like they did jack up the fares after financing came in. I have been flying PIT->EWR a lot lately for a project. Last Thursday I caught a sale window for $166.90 for a Wed -> Thurs overnight. The cheapest fare listed in U.S. pricing tool is now $252 plus taxes and requires a 3 day stay. Cheapest fare for an overnight is now $818 plus taxes which is even higher than $802.70 (including taxes and fees) I have typically been paying on the project. Still looks like predatory fare pricing to me.


and

You missed my point. $800 roundtrip PIT -> EWR is ridiculous period! Pick some figure per mile above CASM that gives them a reasonable profit (i.e so they can stay in business) and charge that amount.

You have answered your own question. People like you are obviously willing to pay $800 to fly that route. Why lower the airfare? If you stopped buying those tickets, that'd send the message, not complaining then stepping up to buy another one.

I don't have a choice for this particular business engagement. It does breed a great deal of ill will and causes me to look at other options elsewhere. It also greatly reduces their market. The PIT -> EWR planes have been fairly empty. This is especially true for the leisure market with fares in the $400+ range. I have family in the NY Metro area and would consistenly buy 6 to 10 tickets/ year (3 to 5 trips for my wife and I), if the fares were reasonable. We use to do just that. We have bought zero tickets for lesiure on the PIT -> LGA route in the last two years due to pricing and poor schedules. So we did indeed vote with our wallet on that one.

Back to the business side, my destinations vary a lot depending on the particular project I am working on at the time. Being gouged on routes where US has a monopoly (or virtual monopoly) makes me more likely to look elsewhere for other trips. I have started doing that with UA. Thats how I got use to E+. I am sure they have gouging fares as well. So far I haven't flown to those markets. Only recently got into the miles and points game. Use to collect them anyway but didn't fly much for work. Now I am in road warrior mode. With extortion pricing, I may be forced to re-evaluate the benefits of status (and miles) versus flying the cheapest carrier. This applies to more than just U.S. All carriers need to get out of the extortion pricing model and generally try to make a profit in each market they serve (leave government subsidized service out of the picture for the moment for simplicity). Status and perks due cost money. No doubt. Charge a reasoanable premium for them. The days of extortion pricing making sense are over. The airline exec.'s should read the book "Who Moved My Cheese". It is very applicable to the current situation in the air travel industry. They need to adapt to the current market place. End of rant...

--Jon