dgwright99

I've noticed this before, but today it is worse than ever.

I'm bringing my MIL over from the UK this fall; searching on continental.com for BRS-SAN I see fares of $537 = ~$700ai for late Sept/early Oct. Not bad, but not great.

"Nearly Airports" shows fares from $301; WOW, thinks I, and I click through and am presented with a matrix of airports, with some great fares - LHR-SAN for $301, BRS to LAX for $324, BRS to SNA for a shade more than that....and so on.

But all those fares are non-existent Not even close

In fact, searching around, I find that $700ai is absolutely the best deal available on any airline from any airport in the UK to SoCal in late September/Early October !

Anybosy else noticed this ?

Any theories as to why they seem to be just making up fares, and wasting their cutomers' time ?

ctownflyer

Yes, I've noticed that for flights to TLV that the "nearby airports" can be off by as much as $700!

trm2

IIRC, it is the fuel surcharge that is missing on the nearby airports when searching international routes.

cvarming

I think this is true everywhere. It is like the price suggested for nearby airports is the best price ever seen going there. It feels like they don't consider the specific dates you want to go, or that certain fare buckets are not being offered / are full.

channa

Sounds like something worth reporting to the DOT. The DOT does not take this sort of thing lightly and has fined other carriers for not including fuel surcharges in displayed fares.

dgwright99

That does sound plausible; I just checked BRS-LAX, and OtheNearby Airports shows BRS-SAN at $324. Which means that the fuel surcharge would be $213 !

However, it does seem odd that even in the Nearby Airports matrix the original route includes the surcharge (if that is indeed the cause), but the alternatives doen't.

They never actually offer the fare as such - they just show a table of options, so I can't see what DOT interest would be.

And I'm not somebody who goes crying to teacher about this kind of thing in any case.

channa

That's for the DOT to decide. If they say its $301, then you click and it's $525 + taxes, that's false advertising. Someone may have left the site had they seen the accurate price, but now they're still hanging around.

lhrpitlhr

irrespective of any CO.com problems I would say that $700 / £500 inc tax from a UK regional airport to SoCal is a decent price.

dgwright99

It's OK. I fly them over a couple of times per year, and I've often been able to get ~$600ai. Which may explain why CO is apparently killing the route from November.

USFreak

UA and CO are advertising prices without the fuel surcharge. I saw that while doing an flight search on travelocity.

Aliquot

That's exactly why the DOT would be interested in it. If they actually offered the fare there would be no issue.

CAL PHL FLYER

I think channa would report his own mother to the DOT if he could..lol @:-)

channa

If she treated me the way CO treats me, of course I would!