andrewpartyman

I live in Metro Detroit, and often find myself driving up to Flint just to hop a 20 minute flight back to DTW because fares out of DTW are insane and by starting in Flint I can often save hundreds of dollars.

http://www.freep.com/article/2011092...text|FRONTPAGE

3Cforme

I'm doing the same thing for a trip to PEK next month. I won't feel so clever if I have a misconnect on the outbound. If things work out this values my time at about $35/hour.

Fares are set by competitive forces. If Delta gets more for DTW-departing itineraries than it does for FNT/LAN/GRR departures, it's because AA/UA/FL/US let them.

mersk862

Not necessarily on all routes. On shared non-stops, most definitely the competition has a big say in it. On routes where Delta is the only non-stop though, and on other airlines you have to connect, Delta might charge a premium for the nonstop, as there might be enough demand to pay extra for the time/convenience offerings than dealing with another competitor. AA could very well offer a $180 rt BOS-DTW over ORD/BOS; DL could be pricing it at $500. Delta's banking on enough passengers being willing to pay the $500 price (and fill the rest of the seats with flow) rather than taking the $180 customer - they'd be more than happy to let American take that passenger if they want it.

For what it's worth, when you take a look at Delta's hubs for international travel, it tends to be Delta being the primary driver - nonstops vs single connects; single connects over AMS/CDG/NRT vs double-connects over a domestic and international hub. Atlanta, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Detroit and Salt Lake all are pretty much SkyTeam dominated overseas (ATL has a token BA and LH flight; DTW has the LH flight; MSP has a FI flight). Look at other airlines - United has EWR (more than ample NYC service from OA), IAD (again, more than ample Europe service from OA), ORD (AA plus quite a bit of foreign traffic going in each direction), SFO (quite a few foreign carrier flights to both Europe and Asia) and LAX (same thing). AA has Miami, New York, Chicago and Dallas - the only one that could command a good hub premium is Dallas.

WhiskeyBravo

I find that for most of my TATL flights FNT is cheaper than DTW. There is an extra bonus for TATL flights too --- Europe->ATL->FNT is a lot farther than DTW->AMS->SomewhereInEurope so you get more miles ^

3Cforme

The 'non-stop convenience premium' is the routine rationalization offered in response to the OP's observation. It can happen, but it's easily punctured by published fare realites:


Lowest published fare FNT-PEK, 11/1-11/15:

UA $592
AA $592
DL $592

Lowest published fare DTW-PEK, 11/1-11/15:

UA $852
AA $852
DL $852

Like I said, the hub premium occurs where competitors let the dominant carrier get away with it. One can look at many city pairs and find that non-stop vs. connection has no effect on lowest published fares (and that's the fare FlyerTalkers commonly seek when spending their own money).

mersk862

Depends on the route though. UA is matching Delta's $1090 base fare on DTW-NRT on 11/1, but AA is undercutting at $730 as an example.

It also depends greatly on the cat-and-mouse games that pricing departments are playing with each other. A lot of game theory goes into it.