EWR-CLE... what is going on with these fares?
New to the forum because I've officially become perplexed over how they come up with the fares between EWR and CLE. If you try and book a flight and the time between your departing flight and your return flight is any less than three days the fares jump anywhere from $600-800. It doesn't matter what actual days your flights are on or how far in advance you try and book, its almost as if they're making you stay a certain amount of time.
I've been dealing with this for the last 6 months or so for work and so far it wasn't too big a deal for me because most trips were at least 3-4 days. But now I have to be out there 1/3 and because of this strange fare structure they have I HAVE TO fly out the morning of 1/1 and return 1/4 which is incredibly frustrating due to the holidays and all. The most perplexing part is if I try a EWR-PIT flight with a stop in CLE departing 1/3 and returning 1/4 the price is $249 whereas if I go direct EWR-CLE its ~$1200!!!!! How does that make sense? the connecting flight to PIT is the SAME flight as if I went direct to CLE?
Now that the rant is over, does anyone know why this is? I have never experienced anything like this flying out of EWR in the last 7 years of travelling to all parts of the country for both work and vaca.