SEA-BOS more expensive than last year?
 

I feel like this route has been significantly more expensive than in 2018. Often I'm seeing flights with only Y/S/B availability that are $600+ one way, even a few weeks out, and very few sub-150 fares. Obviously this is not the most thorough analysis but in November and December last year I would easily find ~$99-119 fares one way, and double that r/t, for a weekend trip (I'm comparing then-economy with today's Saver, so the price hike is even more significant when including the $30 elite tax). To top it off Delta and JetBlue seem to be consistently cheaper. Anyone else feels this way?

It really is high time Alaska added a third daily winter flight (and fourth during the summer), or just had 3 year-long. Another annoying thing is that AS12 is now an 8am departure (used to be 7am)...

I haven’t researched in as much depth, but most of my search results (one-ways SEA-WAS/NYC; occasionally BOS and PHL) have come back with similar results

as good as those extra flights would be for you, there’s more demand for the seats elsewhere in the network

And this is why I've moved on to JetBlue/Delta with their consistent better pricing on the same route during the same time. Alaska you can find $100-150 pricing each way during fare sales, but otherwise they ridiculously price their seats compared to other direct flight options.

So, I do avoid the super expensive flights, but at the end of the day the FF program is worth it enough for me to be flexible and fly at inconvenient times when not for work. For now it's still worth it to do that, but last year it was a lot easier than this one from what I remember.

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Alaska added a 4th flight on this route. I'm talking about frequent full flights on relatively high fares. I've flown a number of other AS routes that definitely don't fill up nearly as much at not-much-higher prices, so I'd assume that as soon as Alaska has the planes (and slots?), this additional frequency will be one to look at.

I have also noticed this. A bit surprising given there's multiple strong competitors. What market here is driving demand? Fintech?

No idea. The first couple of times this year I assumed I had hit some weekend with a conference going on or something. But there's only so many conferences that can happen (I've flown this r/t maybe around 10 times this year with more to come, and it's been unexpectedly expensive for 6+ of those weekends).

No, I booked several $99+30 fares to Boston already. Last time I checked, there were several dates to choose from. They do have less frequencies than 2018 for some days but it's out there.

Jiburi

I got a round trip for sub $300 mid November. It’s all about timing and available seats in each fare bucket. In general I agree AS prices have creeped up a bit. I used to be able to find first class (P) fares in the high $200s for one way midcons. Now the cheapest I see is closer to $330-$350.

SEA-STL used to be $329 for P fares consistently. Now you can't find it for less than $509.

Just spent over $800 to fly RT PDX-BOS in December; granted there is holiday traffic and loads are high but at those prices I'm even avoiding peak days (which would have pushed the fare above $1000). Alaska is clearly making money with these PNW Transcons to BOS.

AS only needs to fill a 1/4 to 1/5 of the seats at that price, more or less, to break what they're taking from $198 RTs.

So, looking over my spreadsheets, I fly about 40 segments each year going SEA-BOS. I normally fly out on Thursday evening/red eye (AS 736/AS 24) and come back Monday afternoon/evening (AS 15). for 2018, my average flight cost was close to $200 per segment. This year, I am flying about the same number of segments and my cost is about $150 per segment. If I paid cash for around Christmas, the rates have been astronomical and would have raised my per segment cost (they have hovered around $600 per segment for the times I need to fly), so I did the x-mas trip on miles.

So for whatever reason, this year for me is slightly less expensive.

I normally consider 150-220 per segment a good price.