CGNC

Just curious if anyone else has been looking at US-LHR prices recently and have found VS/DL to be at all competitive. For a four-day trip with a Saturday night stay included from several points--IND, ORD, JFK and DTW, I'm seeing fares that are anywhere from 50-125% more than UA, AA and others. I know sometimes airlines do this because they can fill the seats from more profitable points of origin, but I was surprised to see even the JFK fares as high as they were.

kop84

It seems to me that DL releases their lower fares slightly closer in than most other airlines....so if you're looking for next summer, it may just be earlier than DL wants to open their lowest inventory buckets.

xliioper

I'm guessing you are only looking at Saturday depatures. Try leaving on a Wed, Thu, or Fri instead. Many of the cheaper DL fares have the following min stay provision.

"TRAVEL FROM INBOUND TRANSATLANTIC SECTOR MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SUN AFTER ARRIVAL AT TURNAROUND."

This means if you depart on a Saturday, you'd have to stay for a whole week to qualify for these fares (since you'd be arriving on a Sunday). The exception would be the VS daytime flight for JFK-LHR which arrives on the same day (so a Saturday departure would still arrive on a Saturday, not Sunday). Basically, the fares are requiring a Saturday night stay at your destination, rather than simply a Saturday night stay from point of departure.

Orange County Commuter

I think it's just the look of the timing. I have a flight booked where Delta/VS were hundreds cheaper than any other option out there....

Grogs

I ran into this for a trip I took to LHR in June. The cheapest DL flight was around $600 more than the cheapest AA flight out. I couldn't see any good way to justify that cost difference, plus the DL flight schedule was less convenient, so I ended up flying AA.

xliioper

Look, you can always find anecdotal or one-off cases where one of the legacies is considerably higher than the others. But OP is claiming that DL is ALWAYS higher that the other two by a considerable margin (50% to 125%). Looking at pricing between the legacies using Google Flights, I will call BS on that. We still have yet to hear from OP about precisely which dates and times he is looking at.
There is a small window where DL can be consistently higher from the airports mentioned when doing Saturday departures for less than one week stays. As I mentioned above, the Saturday night stay requirement is actually for a Saturday night stay at the destination, not from the origin. If you are doing a weekend trip and depart on a Wed, Thu, or Fri, instead of a Saturday, DL is competitive with the other carriers. UA has the exact same fare rule as DL --

"TRAVEL FROM LAST STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SUN AFTER ARRIVAL AT TURNAROUND."

However, UA has a Saturday flight from IND (6179) that arrives in IAD in time to catch the daytime flight for IAD-LHR (flight 122). DL has no early flights from IND to JFK on Saturdays where one can catch the VS daytime flight to LHR (VS 26). Nor does ORD or DTW. The only way to get the cheaper fares on DL with a Saturday departure is to depart directly from JFK on VS26.

AA also has early Saturday morning flights to ORD from both DTW and IND where one can catch AA's daytime flight to LHR (AA 90). AA's fare rules are also a bit more relaxed on the min stay requirements than DL's or UA's in that staying 3 days or more at the destination also qualifies --

"MINIMUM STAY - TRAVEL FROM INBOUND TRANSATLANTIC SECTOR MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN 3 DAYS AFTER ARRIVAL AT THE TURNAROUND. OR - TRAVEL FROM INBOUND TRANSATLANTIC SECTOR MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SUN AFTER ARRIVAL AT THE TURNAROUND."

steveholt

Just testing for a seven-night stay on the 5th of each upcoming month on GF from NYC-LHR:

September: UA $607, AA $607, DL $645
October: UA $476, AA $559, DL $585
November: UA $554, AA $564, DL $585
December: UA $494, AA $564, DL $585

xliioper

And looking at 4 night stay weekend trips (Fri - Tue) in September with a 50 day advance purchase --

DTW-LHR DL $1170, AA $919, UA $1175
IND-LHR DL $1142, AA $1139, UA $1142
ORD-LHR DL $1132, AA $636, UA $907
JFK-LHR DL $710, AA $700, UA $700 (EWR-LHR)

The only route I see where DL is a significant outlier is ORD-LHR.

FSUnole03

Um, so DL is $225 more than the cheapest option on ORD-LHR and $251 more than the cheapest option on DTW-LHR, but ORD-LHR is the only route you see where DL is a significant outlier?

xliioper

No, I don't see DL as a significant outlier on DTW-LHR pricing given it's hub position there and the fact that is has the only non-stop's to LHR. And we are talking about 25% higher not "50% - 125%".

Intheair2night

I'm seeing this a lot too. Have been searching primarily M-Th rt's for JFK-London-JFK, and between Delta, Vir Atl as well as AA/BA, I'm not seeing anything under 2k ranging from late Sept to mid Nov

MikeMpls

Does DL still have a couple landing slots at Heathrow? While the others are still landing at Gatwick? That would be a plus for many.

8-9 years ago (around the end of the bankruptcy) Delta abandoned the classic pricing model of charging less far out and raising them as the day of travel gets closer. They now charge high prices far out and only lower them if they have to.

xliioper

Given that M-Th trips do not have a Saturday night stay, that is completely normal pricing for the legacy airlines. It has been that way for ages. It is a form of price discrimination for less price sensitive business flyers who don't want to spend the weekend at a destination vs. price sensitive leisure flyers are willing to spend a weekend to get a cheaper fare. It is becoming less common on domestic flights as WN fare rules do not require Saturday night stays to get cheaper fare classes. Although their flights are generally less for Sat, Tue, Wed travel. The legacies will frequently match WN pricing on routes where they go head to head.

fliesdelta

I noticed a "London Sale" banner at delta.com earlier today, so I clicked on the link, the sale goes until tonight, I think.

Nothing great out of my home base (RDU), but I saw LAX-LHR for $720 in September, October and November (various dates, seemed like mid-week departures with a weekend stay). In contrast, RDU-LHR is $1200 for those dates.

CGNC

Wow. I'd love a $720 fare!

To the point that was made further upthread about fares being on par with other legacies on non-Saturday night stays, I've just found the opposite to be true. For whatever reason I'm seeing DL coming in at $2700 when UA is $1100. Who knows, it could be the two particular weeks I'm looking at and loads are heavier than other weeks. In the end, as we all know, it all makes sense if you're in revenue management!