Originally Posted by
ryan182
for some locations maybe but not all. I’m in Caribbean for the past month, my flight home was booked as O/W two months ago on UA as they were the only airline operating in the day I wanted to travel for ~$800 in J. This week I decided to stay a couple more weeks and on the new departure day AA was $1200 in J for the same city pairs, with far better connections/layovers. So while 1,200 > 800 it’s not 2-3x and it was much shorter notice.
Sorry, I probably wasn't clear.
The 2-3 reference was to double the cost now for a J ticket vice 2-3 months ago. Not that the difference between a UA and AA ticket were 2-3x. I'd just mentioned the non-stops on my routes from IAD on UA were frequently less now than the connecting AA flights.
It used to be fairly easy to find a one-way J ticket to the Caribbean on AA (from DCA) in the $400-$600 range, if you had some flexibility. Even usually the week of travel. It was rare in my experience for a J ticket to be over $800-$900 tops, unless a holiday peak period close in or the last seat on the plane.
Now, the J tickets seem to start in $900-$1000 range. Frequently up to $1200-$1300. Last week I saw some very full flights at $3000. (Which I would never, no not ever, pay to go to the Caribbean. Happy for AA to sell it to someone else or an EXP to grab the upgrade. LoL.) There was one for $795 that I wish I'd grabbed - it was as close to the good 'ol days as I'd seen in a month.