DrAlex

My GF (that's Google Flights, not Gluten Free or Girl Friend ) price alerts produced an interesting fare increase today. It looks like all of the one-way fares SFO-MSP after May 19th have sky-rocketed to $377 each way. Same thing on MSP-SFO. I have seen this as a precursor to a route deletion on other threads (IIRC it was PDX-MCI going seasonal and maybe SEA-COS). Anyone have any insight or ideas?

Maybe those SEA-COS or PDX-MCI flights got more pax than MSP (in fact, it's nearly guaranteed...).

Or, maybe UCDTim's daily e-mails to customer care finally paid off and their going PDX-OAK with the E175

seahawks10177

I really hope not

mrapollinax

DL has 5 non-stops and UA has 3 in both directions both offering cheaper options. AS one flight and it's timing is terrible for business travel. Even the connection options through the other carriers are better than AS which route you through SEA or PDX. When I first heard the news that the route was added I was excited. But after seeing the timing and frequencies of the flights I really don't know why they added the route in the first place.

DrAlex

It appears SAN-MSP is pricing out reasonably through the end of schedule, though. Much less competition on that route.

mrapollinax

Depending on the day DL has 3-4 non-stops between MSP-SAN. AS and SY are the only other non-stop options for the route and both only offer 1 flight in either direction and both are not ideal for business travel.

tphuang

On both of these routes, AS yields are horrible. Same with SFO/SAN-SLC. To give an example, average fare for OO on SFOMSP is $164 vs DL/UA both at $215. That kind of fare difference is okay if AS is putting on mainline, but regionals have much higher cost.

It's not easy adding flights into DL fortress hubs and sustaining them.

ucdtim17

3Cforme

That's an interesting observation.

At some point AS is going to need to ignore yields on a specific route in the strategic pursuit of being an adequately filled-out alternative to UA at SFO.

sfozrhfco

Given that they have already dropped SFO-ORD down to 1 flight a day, it seems it is only a matter of time before MSP is gone. SFO-ORD is obviously a much bigger market and a schedule with only one flight a day is not all that useful--especially when the connecting option through LAX just adds more time leaving earlier and arriving later. MSP already dropped from 2 to 1 before even giving it a chance. Flights between major cities operated once a day have a very difficult time succeeding. It would be different if it were some random small town with no other non-stop options but UA is big in SFO and DL obviously has a hub in MSP. How does AS expect to operate a terrible schedule with few connections on either end and think they are a viable competitor?

It is really difficult to see how AS is really going to make the VX network from SFO work. DEN/ORD/MSP are all weak--just to name three middle of the country cities with AS/VX service from SFO.

milypan

DrAlex

There's always SFO-ANC... still waiting on that one.

makfan

I agree about the timing. I flew back on Skywest today because I could do stuff in the morning at the hotel and at a lounge at MSP, but it would have been nice to have a 7 or 8 am flight out. The 6 am was awful for a night owl but it’s better than losing a whole day. The program I was at Wednesday ran too long even for the Delta nonstop, although they are adding back a later westbound SFO nonstop next month.

We were overweight due to extra fuel so the jumpseat pilot lost his seat and some passenger checked bags were offloaded, resulting in a delayed arrival.

Eujeanie

If/when an airline drops a route on which you have a reservation in the future, do they just refund your money and say "see ya!" or is there any accommodation on another carrier?

xliioper

The fare is not an "error", they've simply zero'd out all the fare buckets below M. You generally don't see accidental zeroing out of fare buckets, and in pretty much every case I have seen this is a preparation for dropping a route.

xliioper

They will offer to move you to an available connecting option or provide you with a refund. It's very unlikely they will offer to put you on another carrier for advance route cancellations like this.