iahphx

LAX-Bay Area is definitely an aberrational market, in that it has real competition ($59 is a great fare for that market these days, though).


People talk about the "financial crisis" as a great drop in fares but, really, the big drops were in int'l fares. Like I remember flying to Moscow for little more than $200. There was more domestic inventory in the USA, but the fares weren't really cheaper than what we'd seen since the '80s. The real triggers for domestic increases are the industry consolidation and WN's decision to abandon cheap pricing. This has been a noticeable trend for several years, but it picked up steam in 2013 and, by this year, has resulted in very few domestic travel deals. Like it's practically put the flyertalk "mileage run" forum out of business.

OverThereTooMuch

No it is not. Plenty of cheap fares to places people want to travel to.

cbn42

I think the biggest reason for rising airfares is what the industry calls "capacity discipline". The days when carriers would undercut each other on prices in order to build market share are over. Each airline is now content with its market share and avoids starting fare wars. The only exceptions are the ULCCs like Spirit.

This capacity discipline became possible due to the mergers. Six years ago, NW, CO, US and FL accounted for about a fourth of the domestic market. All have been acquired by competitors.

OskiBear

True, but I'm also flying one-way LAX-JFK in November for $175 on AA

BadgerBoi

I'm neither rich nor do I travel for business, but domestic airfares are perfectly affordable for me, if anything they have become relatively cheaper over the last few years.

KatW

Heh, okie dokie, here you go, in the last year or so I have transited these airports, usually more than once: LAX; CDG; IAH; SFO; PTY; EWR; SJC; SJD; ATL; ORD; BTV.

I recently collected a friend's traveling teens at the bus terminal in San Francisco. I expect I've adequately assimilated the ethos which confirms my original post. Thankee.

Might I inquire when last you experienced a Grey Hound or other bus terminal? Tit for tat, after all, fellow poster.

Yikes, three of those are international, very sorry, disregard those codes but do keep the eight domestic uppermost.

KatW

--I see mostly upper middle class and above ; quoted from iahphx

In an airport in the US? Seriously?

lhrsfo

Agreed. Certainly the UA hubs, which I frequent, are more ghetto than a country club. And not just because I'm there.

And you can tell by the preponderance of fast food outlets rather than healthier choices. Even SFO isn't all that healthy in terms of its food outlets with a couple of notable exceptions.

iahphx

$175 ow on a transcon would not, in flyertalk circles, traditionally be a great fare. We'd want that roundtrip.

I don't know what time of day you guys are flying, or what your experience in America is, but there's no way any USA airport I've been to in years looks "ghetto." It's not the 1% flying, but it's definitely the "20%."

satman40

Being RICH, is no problem, just spend less than you make.

If you can not afford to fly, stay home the plane ticket is just a small cost of your trip.

10 million I Phone 6's sold, money must not be too hard to come by.

pinniped

Oh, I've been in a *lot* of airports that look pretty shabby, independent of the people passing through them.

I think the presence of fast-food restaurants is a function of how air travel has developed in recent years for domestic travel. If I have to connect at a hub, it's a tight connection, usually RJ-to-RJ. I don't have time for a 5-star dining experience.

I'd expect slightly better restaurants at the international gateways, where more RJ-to-widebody connections are happening.

While a $350 R/T is kind of a lousy fare, I'll at least give a small shred of credit to the U.S. airlines for (generally) allowing one-way purchases these days. 10-15 years ago, it was common to be forced to buy the R/T and just no-show the return. (In fact, I still see this in Europe on occasion.)

Dadaluma83

The most run down or "ghetto" terminal I have ever been in was IAH terminal B. Haven't flown through there in a year and a half now since moving to AA, but it felt like a bus station, and when I tried to get some BBQ at this BBQ joint in the food court there was just two people in line. Me and someone in front of me. I forgot exactly what was going on but the employees didn't know how to run a credit card, or were just generally extremely slow. After waiting about 3 minutes I just walked across the food court to just grab a big mac from Maccers.

OskiBear

Indeed, but I'd hardly say that a $350 transcon r/t is only for the RICH or Business travelers.

piper28

My own personal experience, which is entirely personal travel for vacations, I do feel airfares are up some, but for most of the time of the year, not necessarily a huge amount. I have certain routes that I travel more often than others, so can compare past experience on those with current. DTW to FLL is a pretty common route for me, and for the most part, for the past few years, I've been able to get something close to $300 r/t regardless of the time of year that I've flown. It's probably up slightly from a few years ago, but not too bad.

Now, that said, holiday travel does seem to be an exception this year. That same DTW to FLL route is absolutely insane for this year around the holidays. Admittedly, I'm restricted to some specific days I can do it, and they're some of the busier days, but that's also been true in the past when I was doing that route. This year, that round trip during the holidays has been pushing $850+ (I think in the past, the *worst* I did was about $400/rt for the holidays, traveling on equivalent days).

As a result? We're driving one way for this trip, and flying back from MCO instead of FLL. Even doing that one way is more than I've ever paid r/t for the route, but it was far more palatable than the r/t fares were, and we've got the spare time this year.

Ironically, I have found that the prices between coach and first have been much closer together. As a result, I've flown first a fair number of times, because the difference was worth it for me. Heck, that $850 r/t for DTW-FLL? For just a couple of bucks more it was available in first - and I mean that literally, it was about $2 more at the time. (FWIW, the fares have changed some of course since I broke down and booked the way I did, but it's still about $650-$700 r/t for coach, first is up some though.)

enviroian

My brother always asks me why it is so much cheaper for Europeans to fly within Europe. Seems like one can fly just about anywhere for $50 on some airlines vs US airlines. What is the reasoning? Different models? Too much overhead?