Delta Pricing Lost Its Mind
 

Just looking at last minute pricing for DTW-PVG and RT business is pricing out at $17,833. How can they with a straight face have a price like this. This is over $500 an hour of flight time.....how can they do this??

I believe you answered your own question by stating its last minute pricing.

If it makes you feel any better, I priced out a few days from DTW-PVG starting today and UA is $20k-$28k on avg with only 1 segment in F (everything else in J or domestic F).

Any airline can mark up the price. If someone needs to get there, it will happen, regardless of airline.

Last minute pricing for intl business class is often crazy, and this is hardly limited to DL. Last minute US-China/or HKG in F is often over $20,000 USD on UA or CX.

The airlines know that someone booking a US-PVG flight in biz for tomorrow pretty much has to be there and can either expense it or bill it out (ie not price sensitive).

Seems insane to pay $17k for a plane ticket, but can be a small cost relative to a multi-million dollar deal or the cost of not bringing an idled facility back on line etc etc.

Pricing has been weird. Bought a ticket on Friday $600+. Canceled Saturday. Repurchased Sunday (exact same itinary) for $450+. Even booked the exact same seats.

If you think $500/hour of flight time is obscene, then you haven't priced an LUT ATL-DFW since FL/WN pulled the route!

Also, worth noting that a LOT of last-minute J/F travel is corporate, on corporate discounts. Took a quick look, and my company's price for a departure on that route tomorrow is ~25% off what Kayak's showing me.

Its not just last minute fares. Checked into flight to nepal booked 9 months out and First was $25K. (It was during climbing season though so that may have had something to do with it)

I am finding transcon flights about a week out at +/- $200 each way.

Second that. Booked and travelled on a last minute TATL last week. BE over the pond was wide open but they wanted $8k+ for a crappy recliner between DTW and AMS (763). Y was $780 a/i r/t from TX to Germany. In flight, only around 10 BE seats were occupied. But with that difference in price, unfortunately there is no reasonable way how I can justify buying BE.

Current pricing is absolutely crazy! As I mentioned last week I'm being forced to use other options that are on the same routes but that are 30-40% less expensive.

^^ I've been in several situations where the client's question is "How fast can you get here?", not "How much is it going to cost?"

It's an understanding of typically who's buying what at the last minute.

supply and demand

Had a couple of people on here call me stupid for suggesting that. Delta has lost its mind.

IMHO - The airlines are shooting themselves in the foot with this kind of pricing. First it just pisses people off to be treated like suckers and idiots. Second, you get enough of this kind of idiocy, and it changes your travel philosophy. You get people resigned to flying in Y, or not traveling, or traveling somewhere else, or traveling on another carrier with more transparent pricing.

And BTW - corporate travel policies that allow this kind of irresponsible pricing are mostly to blame. If I were a shareholder and found out someone was buying a $17k air ticket on a commercial carrier, I'd have them fired.... regardless of the circumstances.

If the supply is at that price, the market price of other providers will necessitate purchasing from them. Long live the free market.