shawneve

I'm sure there are many examples of this but I thought I would share as I consider this interesting...

I had booked a return flight about 3 weeks ago for YYZ-DFW for end of this month.
Most flights still had Tango available but the times I required only had Flex and were a little pricey - just over $900 (fare only) This suited me fine as our Concur policy will show us Tango fares, so anytime I can get Flex without calling in is a good thing
On a random impulse I decided to check to see how much the fare was for the flights I booked - and I noticed that fares were cheaper, but more interesting - Business Lowest was pretty much the same cost I paid for my Flex tickets.
I immediately phoned Amex and had the agent change my ticket to Business and it cost me a whole $25!! (put it on my personal card of course)
The agent did not know at first that this type of change does not require the $200 change fee so he called AC to confirm.
The current delta between the Flex and Business lowest was $239 though, so I was the beneficiary of temporary high pricing, or revenue management.(and technically my employer was the 'victim' here, but obviously not planned this way)
I guess the lesson is whenever you buy a ticket well in advance and it seems pricey, check back later and you may be able to 'upgrade' for cheap.

canadiancow

I've seen and done this on many airlines.

I recently upgraded YQM-YHZ-YOW-YUL-YYZ-SFO (YOW/YUL may be out of order there) for about $150.

I also upgraded YTZ-YUL-LGA for about $17.

I had a friend the other day call in to change some DL flights, and ended up getting $200 back and moved from Y to F on all of them.

Always keep checking

jc94

That's a good price but I've noticed how certain routes have much cheaper J, likely due to load.

That said, and I route I know tends to be 40% more for J (YYZ->AUS) on Sept 2nd is $491 flex and $512 in business. Crazy! You can guarantee the LMU would be more than that so I'll check it in the future.

jc94

Any idea why? I assume loads come into play.
For $21 (or $25) I'd say it's worth it just for the meal on board, not to mention the TB MLL pickles non withstanding. What I consider a decent (as in not AC's BOB) sandwich costs $15-18 at YYZ.

canadiancow

There are a lot of P fares published for the summer, presumably because of less business travel.

For example, there's a $745 P fare for YYZ-SFO (actually it expires at the end of November, so who knows the reason).

But December 1, you're looking at twice that.

But Flex prices aren't discounted nearly as much. For a flight of that length, it's about $90/hour to go from G to P right now, which is below most people's LMU threshold, but this includes the COS bonus, avoids ML*1, gives you free SDC, and better IRROPS handling.

Then you get into a situation where G isn't available and you end up in a higher fare class, and the price gap narrows further.

At $25 I'd upgrade any flight, even if there's no meal. Two drinks and the COS bonus are worth it

yyznomad

So you paid an LMU for $25?

Oh, you paid for the J cabin.

There are times Flex is even higher than P. Happens often.

Nitehawk

Ya I flew on a $825 P fare (tax in) the other day YYJ-YYZ. $200 more than flex for a tcon is a no brainer. I'll save my flight pass for later with those prices. I've never seen domestic business fares like that on AC.

Adam Smith

I don't know that I'd say it's often, but from time to time, yes. I see it at least a couple times a year on YYC-IAH (or IAH-YYC) when short-dated Flex bookings (<2 weeks out) can be very expensive if loads are fairly high, but very few seats in J are sold. I think last year I did IAH twice on P/Z fares that were cheaper than whatever the cheapest Flex was - north of $1100 one-way though.

Jumper Jack

900 Bucks for <= 3 Hour flight in economy sounds like a ripoff(Actually No lol, it IS a ripoff) in the first place

shawneve

Definitely, but I love high prices on flights my employer is paying for, helps me get the AQD I need.

Jumper Jack

A clear display of Principal–agent problem

Shanqx

what showed on your concur account?

D582

On YYZ-DFW, AC publishes a bunch of discounted business fares that are tied to the availability of other Flex buckets. For example:

So what happens in your case is when you buy your flight, there is 0 inventory in these classes so these fares are not available. Then if AC decides to open up these classes, these fares become available, and since you paid a higher fare before, the differential to move to one of these fares becomes small.

Adam Smith

Jack, your Tango4Life philosophy is all well and good for a leisure traveller who books flights months in advance and has flexibility in schedule.

But I really wish you would acknowledge and appreciate that not everyone lives in the same world.

For those of us who travel on business, tickets often need to be booked on short notice. At that point, your analysis of $900 for <3 hours in Y is irrelevant. The questions are:

• What is the cost?
• What is the cost of alternative routes?
• Does the value of going to the meeting/conference/whatever exceed the cost?

If the answer to the last question is yes, then the ticket will be purchased. That's why AC (and every other airline) has expensive last-minute fares.

I've gone to IAH last-minute on more than one occasion where the lowest economy fare was >$1100 (for a 4-hour flight in Y on a CRA). Would I ever do that my own dime? Probably not, because I wouldn't be looking to go to Houston on a Monday morning with 3 days' notice. But if I did, I would go through the same list I did above. And if the alternatives weren't much cheaper (or the inconvenience wasn't worth the money), and I really needed or wanted to go, I'd do it.

Carping about what you see as the poor value of the OP's flight doesn't add anything to this discussion.

KenHamer

Airlines perfected the art of taking hostages years ago.