Originally Posted by
FWAAA
Don't know for sure, but perhaps the difference is that NYC and WAS are much, much larger metro areas than the CLT metro area; presumably, the NYC and WAS flights are filled with O&D traffic while the CLT flight relied on connecting passengers. Typically, nonstop passengers are willing to pay higher average fares than are connecting passengers.
^^^^
This is exactly what I was going to say. And actually, I was living in Hawaii during the beginning of the UA/CO merger, and when I visited family in ORD, it happened to be the last month CO was doing free food on the Hawaii flights, so I wanted to do EWR-HNL. Nonstop it was almost $2,000 return, whereas, if I booked HNL-EWR-YYZ, it was only $500. (Then booked an AC return to ORD for less than $200) Point being that the O&D traffic commands a premium fare, and CLT is not a major hub for O&D traffic, especially to Hawaii. And if people have to transit, why transit in CLT and take USAir, versus Delta or CO, which, if memory serves, still both had free meal service at that time, and in-seat entertainment, as opposed to overhead monitors. And my cabin crew friends (who worked for regionals and got benefits on numerous airlines, but at a very low position) always took this flight to get to HNL, because it was the one route that always had space.