ClimbGuy

correct me if I am wrong but the letter is for the 7th through the 21st, are we expected everything will be done on the 7th or will they drop cities throught the two week period. If i book a flight on the 7th am I safe?

mid

I wouldn't do that.

It looks like instructions have been given to move all planes back to IAD as soon as possible. Thursday is the day they are talking about. A flight on DH for 1/7 probably will never get off the ground.

BTW, I had DH tickets booked for 1/3 and 1/10. I ended up buying tickets on UA because my figure of confidence that those flights would be problematic wasn't high. I wasn't happy about buying the tickets again but I would have been less happy about getting stranded in BOS or having for wait for standby flights on a second carrier.

Happy New Year!

ClimbGuy

Why not level with the customer? People are canceling their flights left and right, If they just told everyone when the last flight was people would know when the can and can't book.
also, for the date of having every plane and Dulles whats your source and that and since they just turn every plane around and send it back, would I be safe with a 1/6 flight?

ILv2Fly

Where did you hear that they are planning on moving all the planes back to IAD on Thursday?

mid

There was a post on aca-lounge.com about it. I might be wrong about the date but my advice would be the same for any flights that week.

I have basically said that I will not fly on DH in the New Year and I'm advising people of same. If you are like me and you travel for business, you can't get stuck on a non-flying airline at any time. I'm sorry to see them go but given that the best information we have is rumor from an unofficial employee website, I'm running with it.

ScottinHooville

Tomorrow is my last flight on Indy -- booked months ago looks like I'm safe with my reservations for tomorrow (IAD-BOS).

chicaloca453

Yep, and it won't cost you $700 RT either! If you need to be there for business or whatever, some people PREFER flying to driving. Driving takes too much time and energy. But there should not be a $700 convenience fee just to fly.

DHAST

It's all about market economics. Even on the DC-NY shuttle (no WN there!) A walkup is $200 one way. Or was a couple of years ago. For kicks and grins, I've priced out short trips like MKE-ORD rt. That comes in at $300! Don't like the price? Don't fly.

ClimbGuy

The whole situation is really simple, DH had fairs that were too low. Now that they will be gone fairs go up. I would rather fly than drive, however when fairs go up I might chainge my mind. Anyway, we need to get use to the higher fairs because thats what it cost to run the biz.

chicaloca453

Since you never spent more than $400, you obviously have the luxury of planning ahead. Fares are rather decent (although not as good as BNA) when planning ahead. It's those fares booked within the 14 day window that will get you. The airlines take advantage of last-minute business travelers, but they can't do it as easily with a LCC in the market.

Case in point:

TYS-PDX leaving 1/2 and returning 1/3: $1687
BNA-PDX leaving 1/2 and returning 1/3: $637

Both fares are on UA and feature one connection via ORD. The difference is that TYS has no LCC to PDX whereas BNA does.

Another illustration:

TYS-IAD leaving 1/2 and returning 1/3: $238
BNA-IAD leaving 1/2 and returning 1/3: $233
CHA-IAD leaving 1/2 and returning 1/3: $533

Both TYS and BNA have DH right now, but CHA does not. The TYS and BNA fares are on UA. The CHA fare is on US. And the CHA fare is what last-minute fares to IAD from TYS will look like post-DH.

If you look at dream maps, CHA has eight fares under $200. None are under $150. And that's with a 14 day advance. TYS is a little better with 11 under $150 and 1 under $100. BNA, in contrast, is much better. Even the West Coast plus Phoenix and Vegas are under $200. PHX and LAS are $123. Some of the West Coast fares are lower than fares to Florida.

The fares at TYS are OKAY if you can book in advance. However, as an independent consultant, that is not usually possible for me. And many of the fares I book are on my own dime trying to woo new clients. Booking last-minute out of TYS is about to get too expensive, and that will cause me to have to drive 3 hours to BNA just to maintain my business. Even when I fly on the company's dollar, they will not want to deal with me any more because of the ridiculous last-minute fares they will have to pay to meet with me. They'll choose someone else in a more affordable market unless I drive to Nashville.

You're very fortunate to have never paid more than $400 out of TYS. But you must have done the majority of your travel while planning ahead. I believe you'd feel differently about how reasonable TYS is if you'd done more last-minute flying.

I'm not singling out UA for jacking up prices because they all do it. DL single-handedly ran Air Tran out of this market by making fares lower than Air Tran. You used to be able to fly to ATL at the last minute for $100. Now, it's $800 last minute. And I know you think you should not fly to ATL, but when you need to be somewhere, you need to be there. And often times, you have to leave that city and go on somewhere else. Driving is a luxury many of us either hate or can't afford time wise.

From your perspective, your points are understood. However, having been a last-minute flyer out of TYS both before and during DH, I can testify to the fact that it got a whole lot more economical with DH in the mix. And just look at the IAD fares from CHA, and you'll see what I mean in what TYS will be like sans DH.

chicaloca453

Between ORD and MKE, I wouldn't fly. I'd drive or use Amtrak. But I see your point. I just don't think it costs $400 each way to transport people from TYS-ATL for example. DH made a huge mistake in pricing itself out of business. I think we all can agree on that. The sad part is that UA and the others will take advantage of that as a reason to raise prices to levels beyond the stratosphere.

It is very unfortunate that last-minute travelers pay so much more for tickets. If I buy TYS-PDX at the 14 day point, it will cost me $343. But If I buy it today for tomorrow, it's $1600. That's what gets me. I understand some mark-up. But hotels do not mark up 5 times over just for booking late. And airline seats are perishible just like hotel rooms. It is like they use last-minute business travelers to pay for the early birds who get the discount seats.

Mrp Alert

Maximum 14 LAX-LAS outbound flights and 13 LAS-LAX return legs on Southwest daily http://www.southwest.com/cgi-bin/requestSchedule. Potatoe=potato

DHAST

I made a post somewhere that questioned how a "fair" fare should be determined. What benchmark should be used to determine a "fair" fare? Is it CASM adjusted for load factor? If not, what? I have a difficult time using the cheapest fare, as that can be extremely low given the routing, such as flying NW LAX-DFW or LAX-FLL.

For walkup fares to come down, advanced purchase fares must go up.

MJonTravel

Press release just issued... last flight is Thursday night.

See flyi.com for details.

jaguar

The company is seeking bankruptcy court approval to automatically refund customers with reservations for flights scheduled to depart after January 5th.