Originally Posted by Bagels
Yes, they are. NW's matched NK's price only on a flight deparing DTW & DCA near the same time as NK's departures. Unless you're willing to travel on those flights, which makes a same-day return impossible unless you want to turn around with the aircraft, you're going to pay big bucks.
Somewhat right, somewhat wrong. I have, for example:
11/24 NW239 DCA-DTW @2000 T
11/28 NW240 DTW-DCA @2103 L
Cost to me, $168. Certainly not NK's times.
Perhaps there was a honeymoon of sorts that is somewhat over. NW prices were slashed to $144 across the board after Spirit started service, and I took advantage of that almost monthly during this past summer.
Now on a given day there are only a couple flights in the market set at $144, with many more set at $190. Searched over a number of days in November and December, and there's no discernable pattern...though I saw the flights scattered between morning and evening departures from both DCA and DTW, so it's not purely tied to NKs flight times.