Ouch! Fare jump!
Mar 30, 2015, 6:41 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Programs: AA PPro, Mariott Gold Elite, Lowly kettle across every other loyalty program.
Posts: 778
Ouch! Fare jump!
Last week STL-SJU went up by 150%, and the number of flight options went down. Absolute lowest price isn't the determining factor for me, but a $400 difference in coach is ridiculous.
Mar 30, 2015, 7:08 pm
#2
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
I am guessing that you are simply hitting spring break. Fares haven't jumped radically, but availability of the cheaper fare buckets is low and what there is has been purchased.
Mar 30, 2015, 7:11 pm
#3
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: LAS, ZQN
Programs: UA PP (2MM), BA gold
Posts: 2,202
That is why you grab good fares when they appear.
Mar 30, 2015, 7:37 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Programs: AA PPro, Mariott Gold Elite, Lowly kettle across every other loyalty program.
Posts: 778
This is actually for December 18.
Mar 30, 2015, 7:39 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 1999
Posts: 12,097
You are looking at it way too early. 4 months is the earliest that leisure fares go down on anything but Thanksgiving or Christmas etc. breaks.
Set a Yapta alert and don't think about it until the mid-September "sales".
Set a Yapta alert and don't think about it until the mid-September "sales".
Mar 30, 2015, 8:11 pm
#6
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: DCA, EGE, IAD
Programs: MR LTT, BA Gold, AA LTP, UA Silver
Posts: 6,077
December 18 is the Friday before Christmas week. Don't hold your breath for a sale as that is end of week business travel coupled with peak leisure Christmas holiday travel. You may have already seen the low fares for that date. Perhaps others who have purchased for a similar Friday before Christmas week in previous years can shed light on their experience. Either way, good luck.
Just out of curiosity, when is the return date?
Just out of curiosity, when is the return date?
Mar 30, 2015, 8:14 pm
#7
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
It doesn't sound like a fare increase, it sounds like others snagged the lower fare buckets available for a high demand season. To be sure, we'd have to know the bucket counts before vs. now, perhaps using a tool like ExpertFlyer.
Mar 30, 2015, 9:21 pm
#8
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP...couple hotels and cars too
Posts: 4,548
While FARES must be 'published' and can be changed from time to time, the underlying INVENTORY of seats (ie L, Q, V, S, O) can be adjusted by a computer - up and down- whenever they want.
We tend to think "oh the cheap fares were snapped up, yesterday there were 3 and now it is 0", it could simply be AA revenue management playing with inventory. Maybe squeezing inventory on one section of your route will create more yield for AA on other routes? Or just cause people to jump.
(My travel agent is convinced that AA knows what he looks at and adjust inventory based on how many times he looks!
)AA1199 to AA395 has some L inventory on 12/18, but none of the flights have anything less than M. Ugly....
Mar 31, 2015, 7:58 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: St. Louis, MO, USA
Programs: AA PPro, Mariott Gold Elite, Lowly kettle across every other loyalty program.
Posts: 778
After a little more investigating, it looks like it's my specific O/D pairing. Still cheap fares from hubs.