The Tide Has Turned
 

I just saw a $240 from the west coast to Honolulu. The tide has turned. Its now a buyers market. They've been hosing their customers for 2 years with outrageous fares and new fees, and hence, load factors have diminished significantly. For 2 years they've made sure you know who the boss is, now it's time to hose back

Just another contributing factor: the holiday season is approaching and I hear the 'vog' has gotten bad again.

There was a $290 fare from the East coast to Hawaii in May. I don't think this is a major shift so much as sale fares loading up. Plus, it is just Hawaii.

Delta is selling $155 transcons from NYC to SFO/LAX now. Does that mean that the bottom is dropping out of that market? Maybe, but there are still plenty of flights that are pricing at more "normal" fares, too.

Wake me when TATL and Mexico/Central America fares come down from ridiculous levels for Jan/Feb travel. I know you can't judge the load on a flight entirely by the seat map, but it's presently looking like a lot of TATL flights will be going out near-empty in January and February.

The post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

Don't count on TATL getting much lower. A good chunk of that is taxes and fees these days, especially for the UK and now soon to happen in Ireland I believe.

I'm not looking at flights to the UK. I have a feeling there will be prices lower than $715 on the nonstop TATL flights from Houston this winter. I wouldn't be surprised to see sales for Sub-$600 all-in by December or January.

Yes and no. The UK APD is down to $125 for premium cabin long-haul departures. It was over $155 earlier in the year. That is a $30 savings just on exchange rate shifts in the past couple months. The Euro is similarly weakening which makes the fees slightly more tolerable. They are still a sizable chink of the fare, but the fares themselves are still way higher than they have been from past years.

Load factors have diminsihed significantly?Maybe the price of oil has something to do with the price of fares.All the experts that said loads would go down and prices would go up are nowhere to be found now that oil is tumbling.Airlines are addicted to giving away seats.Nothing has changed.

It would be nice to see a buyer's market.

That said, I no longer have any real loyalty to Continental, other than flying them enough in the next two months to stay on course for Platinum. Not sure which carrier I'll wind up with next year--possibly CO but just as likely DL.

I felt slighted by CO using temporary surges in fuel costs as justification to restructure OnePass. Of course half the people on this board thanked them for doing so in lieu of levying fuel surcharges. So silly...

Speaking of LAX-HNL, the eastbound on Thursday night and westbound Friday morning has been restore to 764, for now.

+1

I think it's always been like this during the months of October and November and the first two weeks of December. Most people aren't vacationing to HI during these months and fare sales are needed to give people an excuse to travel.

Peak travel times to Hawaii are always during school holidays and the summer. And January for the Japanese market.

Huh?

If fares are predicated on the visibility at the destination, then buy your tickets tonight. Writing to you from HNL tonight and the vis was 4 miles in vog today. Tradewinds coming in tomorrow will clear it out......fares must be headed up tomorrow..... :rolleyes:

DRW

What? People on Flyertalk being CO-obsequious with overlooking it when they get screwed?

No way. I don't believe it. ;)