It's cheaper to fly to South America instead of South Dakota this Summer.
 

Either DL is tripping on some grams, or there must be some unannounced dairy/cattle convention occurring in Rapid City, South Dakota this summer where flights from the East Cost are averaging from $600-$1200 RT on Economy.

With that said, DL also has flights to various South American countries this summer, where the cost averages $278-$600 RT on Economy.

This is going to be fixed soon...right? Will they add more planes to service those US domestic routes to bring these prices down?

South Dakota can demand high fares in the summer due to tourism, especially if the airlines keep the supply low. Check the variance in hotel rates between the summer and winter. I drove through South Dakota in December one year and paid about $80-$90 for a hotel while driving through to move to Washington. My wife drove through the following summer on her way out and nothing anywhere near Rapid City was affordable. She had to stopover in Wall, SD to get a hotel that was even remotely affordable before continuing onward to Washington because even budget motels were around $250+ per night. With outdoor travel options having been even more popular the past couple years, it’s no surprise fares to SD are incredibly expensive.

Check that the Sturgis motorcycle rally isn't happening at the dates you're looking at. Otherwise, it's simply supply and demand--people are traveling domestically much more than internationally right now. This is especially true to a place like Rapid City, which is close to two national parks, two national monuments (including a rather famous one), a national historical site, an amazing state park, and a place that turned a small town into a total tourist trap by offering free ice water. (Seriously, if you haven't read the story of Wall Drug, I highly recommend it. It's fascinating.) All that said, if you can wait until late September, RC gets much cheaper and the weather is still good.

Pricing is based on demand and competition.

I lived in GFK for college, and frequently went home to SAT. IT was cheaper to book GFK-MSP-LAX/LAX-MSP-SAT than GFK-MSP-SAT. As NW/DL was only carrier to GFK, fares were whatever NW/DL wanted. However as LAX/MSP was competitive a broken fare GFK-LAX and LAX-SAT was cheaper than GFK-SAT.

What was funny, I would get off the MSP-LAX flight and fly right back with same crew. Also meant I got 2 extra meals and free drinks that otherwise would've needed pay for.. (while waiting on ground at MSP)

Bottom line,, distance doesn't factor sirectly into fare..

FWIW, I have couple manual (hand written) bag tags because of this.. They would write manual tag so bag did not fly MSP-LAX-MSP and get left at LAX. They did so few manual tags that they still said NW ORIENT in 2008!

The DEN and ABQ rt award tickets I booked back in December for less than 25K each for summer 2022 travel are now 65K or so each with corresponding high cash prices to match.

I also booked some MUC award tickets during that December weekend and got them repriced a few weeks ago because they were now 32K each cheaper.

I wonder if uncertainty over the Ukraine situation is resulting in slightly softer transatlantic demand for the summer than what the airlines had originally hoped for.

Supply and demand.

I was contemplating a trip from SFO>any hub>RDU in June which ended up being around $100 more expensive than SFO>LHR>SFO on the same dates! Guess where I'm going to...

I think once you factor in hotels and meals, you'll see a difference, but I'd make the same choice.

And also please remember that our summer is infact South America's winter so not many people like traveling during this time of the year.

Airfare has been roughly constant as a function of distance for quite a while now. I can pay more for MSP-LEX than YVR-MRU.

This is to be expected. SD is prime summer location and South America… well it’s winter!

I don't think many people fly TO the Sturgis motorcycle rally (isn't the point to show off your bike?), but perhaps some of the locals fly OUT of SD to escape during this period.

Rapid City is especially popular around patriotic holiday weekends such as July 4th.

BTW, did you ever look at Williston (ND) fares during the heyday of shale oil? I've been told that Minot (also ND) can also be extremely expensive.

Low South American fares/
 

I fly from Europe to MSP/FSD and back a few times a year. It is most of the time a lot cheaper (as in $300 to $400 cheaper) to buy a ticket from Europe to South America with a stop over in MSP/FSD than a straight up r/t to MSP or FSD. So I stop in Lima or Sao Paulo for a night and a nice dinner, courtesy of the revenue management system at Delta. Go figure.

Wow, what an uninformed statement.