Yeah, sdm1130 and I were on an EWR-CDG flight that had maybe 50 people total on the entire plane.

The last time I paid $298+ for a TATL on a proper airline, it was on Pan Am in the winter of 1990... and I remember that trip (IAD-LHR) very well, because there were only about 50 people spread out on this sad old rattletrap 747. It felt like deep, dark doldrums then too.

I sure hope CO escapes PA's fate. Wouldn't be crushed if UA didn't. Nor, I suspect, would CO.

Well, there are often TATL fares that are pretty cheap, not just this year. Just probably not as widespread. I flew IAH-CDG on CO for about $350 all-in in 2004. And before it was cut, EWR-CGN had been pretty cheap during the winter.

PHL-IAH in January was fairly full. I was able to snag an exit row on the outbound at the 24-hour online check-in, probably from a just-upgraded elite.**

Regional jet IAH-BTR had a fair number of empty seats, but I've been flying that route for 3 years now and it's not all that uncommon.

The late Friday night EWR-LAS and Sunday night redeye return were both 100% PACKED, which is probably not all that surprising!

**I know that there are many people on this board who are upset that people on non-Y fares can do that, but I didn't know that at the time of that flight so I hope I didn't incur too much wrath - I was just sitting at my computer when the check-in email showed up and figured it was my lucky day!

However, maybe in a karma kickback, I did get my exit row aisle seat . . . but I was next to a couple who spent the ENTIRE flight (4+ hrs) making out and listening to rap music through their headphones at a volume which allowed me to hear every single note and beat. At 5'4", I probably didn't need the legroom THAT much. :-/

My flight from IAH to LGA on Tuesday morning had 4 open seats in F on a 738 mid-cabin lav config (20 F seats). My flights have pushed a number of times lately with open seats in F, though this was the worst. I can't imagine there wasn't another Elite in the back, but if not, this doesn't speak well for what load factors will look like for February.

Bill

Exactly - I routinely saw EWR/DCA-Western Europe prices for between $400-$450 all-in during the winter, even during high load factor years (2005, 2006, 2007). In February 2007, for example, I flew DCA-FRA in coach for something like $440 all-in.

I heard that the TATL flights were light this winter, except EWR-DUB. Fares from DCA-EWR-DUB had been $298 a/i ($198+fees), so those flights filled up. The airlines chose to keep fares high this winter with subsequent low loads.

No French
 

I'm on a flight back from Paris on Air France in 2 weeks and I am still the only person with a ticket for the forward cabin. This must be a treat for non-rev'ers... but is very depressing for the rest of us as it shows how bad things are out there.

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then there are days like this sat - where every ewr-iah and ewr transcon is at or near sold out. lot of volatility but still a lousy picture. hope some of it is because of more aggressive fare fencing .

ORD-EWR is for struggling these days. I have bi-weekly day trips to NYC for the next 6 months and I'm flying UA to LGA instead of CO because there are only ERJs all morning from ORD and there's no way I'm flying that.

That's exactly why all out of a sudden (without press release, and implemented within a day after the rumor hit various online forums) that they are selling upgrades at kiosks for domestic and non-BF intra-Asia flights.

You never see CO moves so fast...

There were about 35 people in coach (and 17 in BF) on yesterday's 777 (CO33) LHR-IAH. Pretty eerie seeing all those empty seats.

I was on flight 57 CDG-EWR yesterday. I would say BF was about 85% full althought Y looked very empty.

Just did EWR-HKG roundtrip this past weekend. Outbound to HKG was light in Y (lots of empty seats and folks with entire rows to themselves) and BF (everyone in BF for the most part had an empty seat next to them). Coming back though BF was 46/50 booked and Y was about 85% full.

Not much point in buying BF on a long haul if you can have a whole row in coach to yourself for true "lie flat" sleeping.