golfingboy

This blog entry from Farecompare's CEO Rick Seaney announces that AA and AS will add surcharges to summer peak travel from June-August.

http://rickseaney.com/2010/01/26/ame...k-travel-days/

AS's fares are generally far more expensive than other carriers and to add this surcharge on top of their already high fares is absurd IMO. I was planning on doing a few trips to DCA for the summer, but now with the surcharge on top of $450+ fares.

eponymous_coward

Out of SEA? Not really. LAX-DCA, I can buy- but nobody else flies that route nonstop. You do have AA, VX and UA flying LAX-IAD, though, which should give you some choices.

My take is, hey, the market will tell Alaska if they're trying to gouge or not.

golfingboy

Yeah we will see. WN is looking more attractive for businesses who are trying to keep expenses to a minimum.

PDXFlyBoy

Please don't compare apples to oranges.

Southwest's perception is that their fares are lower, it might be, great from them. However, they do not compete directly in the LAX- DCA market. They fly to BWI or IAD and it is not non-stop.

The cost of the airfare, bag fee or no bag fee, wifi fee, change fee, upgrade fee (No First Class on WN) and so on must be considered, as well as, the routing and how many stops and the ground time.

WN or AS is not the savior to everyone. The attactiveness for businesses include all of the above and then some!

Sample airfares for LAX-DCA/IAD/BWI for July 25, 2010 (lowest air fare quote in SABRE):
DCA IAD BWI
WN N/A $212 $132
AS $194 $194(Codeshare) N/A
AA $194 $194 $132
UA $194 $194 $149

ANC

well contrary to what some on here think and what AS thinks, there are plenty of other airlines in this country to use. Lets just call it a "passenger inconvenience fee© " and make it daily year around. Since you inconvenienced our GAs, CSAs, FAs, and crew by booking a flight with us a $10 surcharge will be added to your purchase. Some will ride AS no matter what for personal travel or for work but some wont or eventually wont be allowed to if corporate T&E departments figure out there are way cheaper alternates. They can just disallow AS travel unless its cheaper at the click of a mouse. If you are a frequent flyer AS is still close to the top if not the top but if you are a peon flyer without the FF benefits, AS is no better off than any legacy carrier out there. WN was hammering home the no bag fees during the NFL playoffs. I wonder if they bought superbowl space as well? If so hopefully they poke fun at "holiday fees" too

golfingboy

$194++? r/t? I would be all over it if I could get $194++ on AS r/t, but on their site it is showing $272++ OW [not including surcharge] on July 25th, while the cheapest fare available is $142 on CO with a stop in IAH. That is what I can find [ITA] and most regular customers can find....

UpstateDave

Have any of you actually tried to verify this article?!?!?!

Go to AS.com and search some AS/QX-metal flights using the low-fare calendar and see what you find...

For July, SEALAX & SEABZN (just for starters) are the same price EVERYDAY! Check some other routes and you'll see that the lowest available fare is often available on days this article says have surcharges.... (of course there's always variation on given days due to demand)

Finally, check the Taxes & Fees items, you'll see they're constant (except if you happen to find a day you have to connect instead of taking the nonstop).

ANC

Well it said that they "will add" fees so Id give it a little bit before saying that its false. I guess the same holds true for those of us thinking its a done deal but where theres smoke theres usually a fire. I was surprised AS didnt join the holiday fee bandwagon last time

golfingboy

Still early... We will see when the time comes.

If this is untrue, I am sure the blogger will receive a call from AS and remove the article.

I am just hoping this is untrue or AS would change their mind.

ANC RED-EYE

Whatever...this seems kind of silly - what it really means is that they're going to jack up fares during peak travel times like they always do. If tickets aren't selling, they'll artificially run a sale fare with a tacked on surcharge. It's all just a game. If one airline adds the surcharge, likely all will, because otherwise it will look like they are running higher fares - say the surcharge is $25 each way on a transcon. Well, if you search by fare (say on travelocity), then maybe it would look like one airline was $50 more than the next for a r/t...but the reality might be the 2nd airline doesn't have a silly surcharge. A good example of this is TACA and Copa in central America. On discount fares, Copa's fares look much cheaper, but it turns out they add a $130 surcharge per round trip on promo fares...bringing the bottom line to the exact same as TACA's fares.

ANC

I couldve sworn when I read this bloggers article earlier it just said AA and AS. Now when I read it theres also DL added to this.

golfingboy

Yeah, it has been updated... Also, when I first read it, it was only 2 paragraphs and did not include the calendar in the bottom. Also, when I first read it, it said "will add surcharges" now they claim that it is definite.

We shall see...

ANC

well its close to game over for that trick. Fortunately travel sites are figuring out ways to show the consumer the real costs with features like calculate my fees ^ It works for bags and preferred seating fees. I imagine if these stupid fees remain travel sites will add them in too ^

UpstateDave

The article says that AS, AA, and DL have done the same. Please note that DL and AA are AS codeshares and hence AS-coded, no AS-metal flights could be affected by the actions of AA and DL.

Also, why would the blogger know in advance? If he was told by the airlines in advance, that would be 'price signaling', an illegal practice. It has either happened or it hasn't and I can't find a single example of it on AS.

ANC

airline fees are hardly ever implemented effective imediately. I too considered the codeshare possibility though