Absoludichris

So in booking a lot of trips Delta is pricing themselves out of what I am allowed to book, I am starting to wonder if Delta notices this?

Couple points on this, this is not necessarily non stop flights but ones that have connections. In addition I know people will say Delta is going after the "high dollar business travelers" but in reality how many are there? My corporate booking portal has restrictions on costs compared to other airlines and more times than not Delta is showing up as way over the rules. I would assume that the majority of folks have some sort of cost restrictions when booking for business travel, or am I in the minority with this? I would assume ones whose clients book flights on their dime would especially have cost restrictions in place?

jamiestr

First of all, it depends if the business filters out E fares or not. Delta has a domestic revenue premium that they guard carefully. I know I've had to book AA t'atl a couple of times recently because of the cost difference.

ethernal

Obviously they're pricing some people out, but you reference the fact that you are talking about flights with connections. For a flight with a connection, that literally means Delta is marketing dozens (potentially hundreds) of different "products". What I mean by that is that FLL->ATL->SFO is a different product than CLT->ATL->SFO - and a different product from ATL->SFO.

Delta is going to focus on trying to find the "products" that they can use to sell seats at the highest price, and then use that price as the floor for other "products" because they can fill those seats at higher prices elsewhere.

So you might be priced out, but for the person in ATL, MSP, or SLC where Delta is the only non-stop option, they can sell that same seat for $1100 because policy says you can book a non-stop. Or at a smaller airport with less competition, Delta can also charge a premium because there are no other flights for other carriers that leave and get to the destination at a reasonable time. In your case, it sounds like there are many roughly equivalent options - which is where policy kicks in and says you can't book Delta's more expensive ticket. But Delta doesn't care, because there are other airports/"products" where they can get that price (or higher) - so they aren't trying to compete for your money for that product.

Lastly, in general some travel policies are more or less liberal than others, so just because you might be constrained does not mean that others are equally constrained.

CloneCones

If you're using Concur you can adjust the times needed to fly and other settings to make your flights "green". Time constraints is one of our reasons for picking more expensive flights though. The whole work-life balance thing.

The Situation

Our portal flags flights that are outside company policy, but they are still bookable. We are empowered to use our judgment to balance what is best for our sanity, work-life balance and the bottom line. Spending a bit more on a flight here and there for a company that does not do a lot of travel is not going to break the budget.

Cory6188

Very true. We have a warning that pops up in Concur if we're not selecting the lowest fare, but unless it's egregiously more, nobody says a word about it (reasonable schedules, work/life balance with connections vs. non-stops, and all that). I think it just varies a lot by company as to how picky they are.

My company does a ton of TATL travel, and DL/KL/AF and DL/VS happens to be our contract carrier. I have noticed that DL can be crazy expensive versus the competition TATL for fares when I look up schedules on DL.com (not even just compared to bottom-of-the-barrel WOW Air pricing, but sometimes even Aer Lingus or AA/BA can be half the cost).

However, when I pull up the flights I want on Concur, the negotiated fare (for plain old Y) can be 20-30% off what shows up on DL.com. Clearly, DL is willing to make some concessions on their pricing when it's a large enough corporate contract, so that could be another factor influencing airline choice with regards to price competitiveness.

puck021

Flying out of MSP, I have recently noticed the DL flights pricing out much higher for regular economy non-stops to locations that AA and UA fl (like PHL, DCA, LGA, JFK). This wasn't the case last year.

xliioper

If your company is filtering out E fares, it is likely due to DL now offering E fares on fares all the way up to K class. Last year, they were typically only offered on U/X/V fare classes.

A Sunday-Thursday trip with less than one week advance on MSP-PHL is $721 on both DL and AA. But's DL's fare is a basic economy while AA 's main cabin. You have to upfare to a $770 ticket to get main cabin on DL (K outbound, L return). Same is true with DCA (AA), LGA(AA), and EWR(UA). DL is simply matching AA/UA's main cabin fares with a basic economy fare and in order to get main cabin on DL you will pay more (typically $50 - $60 roundtrip).

SouthernBanker

It really depends on where you are originating most of your flights. I fly every week. I have to book thru Concur. Delta is hands down the cheapest on 90% of my flights. American can get in and get cheaper on a rare occasion and then United is not even in the game. Flights the often cost $350 on Delta would be in the low to mid $400s on American and $800 or more on United. In other markets it's just the opposite.

About the only flight I book on a regular basis that isn't on Delta is a quick direct to Charlotte.

ATLMike1234

Is Delta a preferred airline for your company? If not, you may be seeing negotiated fares from the other airlines compared against Delta's publicly available rates.

SouthernBanker

My company has no preferred air partner that I am aware of, it is noted in Concour that Hilton is the preferred hotel provider and that Hertz is the most preferred rental car with National being preferred as well.

BobH

How far out are you buying your tickets and are you flying at peak times?,

It can make a difference.

Bob H

puck021

[QUOTE=LBJ;29497811]If your company is filtering out E fares, it is likely due to DL now offering E fares on fares all the way up to K class. Last year, they were typically only offered on U/X/V fare classes.

I think that this is exactly what is happening. Our setting is to filter out E fares and DL and AA are preferred airlines. So both being preferred makes it tough to justify the DL fare for $70 more than the AA fare. Interesting.

CO-PLAT

You can adjust departure times as well as arrival times. You can search segment by segment combined with specific departure or arrival times to make the flights that you want appear to be the most cost effective.

My company doesn't force us to book the lowest cost option. If we select an option that is more than $200 over the lowest cost option, we have to cite a reason for doing so.