Originally Posted by
bubbashow
Remember the fares on DTW-HND? Couldn't be lower than a 20% LF with $520 round trips.
Yeah, but that was with the crappy nighttime departures. With comparable times, I can't imagine that XXX-HND fares would be less than XXX-NRT. The only question for DL is whether they have trouble filling the plane without beyond NRT connections. But if they can't fill one-three flights from the US to a major destination even if it's effectively an outstation with few connections, they're in trouble.
The upshot of this experience, to me, is that HND isn't so much more convenient than NRT that customers are willing to pay a premium to arrive and depart in the middle of the night just for the "convenience" of HND. Duh. I'd fly into IAD over DCA if the choice were to arrive at IAD at 1605 or to arrive at DCA at 2300 and depart at 1650 vs 0500. But I wouldn't take any more away from the failure of the nighttime HND flights than that.