Originally Posted by
gooselee
Really?
Just off the top of my head, because I recently flew it, I did a search for ATL-MEM - out 5/12, back 5/15. The return is actually four full weeks from today.
DL has the only nonstop for $553. A 1-stop on DL is $452, and the only thing lower is FL at $422. Not exactly a gigantic difference, and you're spending over 7 hours travelling each way for that cheaper FL fare (shorter connections, still over 4 hours total transit time, are $446).
With the 500 mile minimum, the DL nonstop is a bit over $0.50 cpm. Doesn't take many of those to get your average CPM up to where OP's stats are.
If your employer doesn't think it's worth an extra $110 to save you 6 hours of travel time (or $130 to save 12 extra hours), they probably shouldn't be asking you to travel in the first place.
Those are really cheap fares. Try pricing MSP-OKC or even RST-OKC. And my spend is almost half of the OPs. I'm paying way higher fares that $553 lately.
I use Concur and it will green light any fare within about $150 if it's a connection. If it's direct, I can book any flight over a connection if the connection saves less than $200 or adds more than 2 hours.