On Friday I bought a ticket for SFO_EWR in September, a W fare for $359 plus tax.

The seatmap is wide open. I am practically the only person booked.

Today, the fare jumps to a B fare at $1165!

More "changes that you'll like"... I guess.

PS: They did this for all the flights sept-dec.
Yesterday the prices were normal.

You are way too early to find any September deals.
Most airlines are just wishing and hoping with fares at this point.

Right, some of the LCC's don't publish schedules more than 5 months or so out, so there is zero incentve to match a LCC's fare when the LCC isn't even offering it. Same reason applies to sales. Few carriers know how therir bookings are coming in so far out, so y would they reduce the price from "retail" to stimulate bookings? If noone launches a sale, noone else is going to match it.

Plus, what are your dates, what is your min stay? I just booked a dummy wed out and wed (1 week later) return for sept from SFO-EWR and back and it came to $368 (prior to clicking all the way through, just on the 1st page.) Perhaps you should change your minimum stay, and maybe the fare won't be the sum of (2) one ways, but you get a discounted round trip fare, like I did.

9/12-17, I always go either Mon or Tues to Saturday. Usually pay about $318-$339 plus at so $359 was within reason.
My point is, why jack it up to a B fare with an empty plane?
The intersting thing is that for all the same dates, the UA SFO-JFK are mostly $318.
These are PS service and usually cost more than the CO flights.
Screwy!

Plenty of V fares at $528 on those dates, no need to book B at 2x the price.

This is not that interesting. JFK is part of the NYC market. EWR is not, so the fares are set separately.


Not in my experience. JFK is usually less expensive than EWR due to the additional competition at JFK.

SFO-JFK is flown nonstop by UA, DL, AA, B6, and VX.
SFO-EWR is flown nonstop by UA and CO.

Lower fares to JFK is not surprising at all.

They knocked them down to V fares late last night from the B fares yesterday.

They must've read your post!

Because they can.

And they can have an empty plane.

I noticed that the prices for SFO-JFK are much higher in November and December than the SFO-EWR....so it reverses again.

Uhh, that's how fares work. Two weeks ago a PHL-IAH-PDX same day roundtrip was $215ai then it went to $450 then $290 then back to $450 then $700. Fares change frequently, this is nothing new nor is it anything worth noting.


As for why it jumps even up to B prices is because the large majority of fliers are not FT'ers and aren't nearly as knowledgable about price fluctuations so they will look and just buy thinking that is the price. It is a win for CO/UA if they can get a few average Joe's to buy B fares 4 months out.

Sure it is. It's run by the same authority, and from a passenger standpoint, EWR closer to Manhattan than JFK.

From CO's perspective, channa is correct. CO has always created separate fares for EWR due to its hub presence there. It is very common for huge differences between LGA/JFK-xxx and EWR-xxx fares to exist because of this.

Geographically of course, you are correct

Geography has nothing to do with it in this case. JFK is less than 10 miles from Manhattan, but it could take an hour to get there.

Being under the Port Authority also is irrelevant.

I've flown all three, and would go to JFK only if absolutely necessary.