EWR - PBI Fares Question
 

Hi -

I am Gold Elite on CO and have wanted to try Jet Blue for a while and finally have an opportunity where I'm flying with my kids between 2 cities B6 serves. Anyway, I was searching available dates/flights on their website for EWR-PBI in February and the rates are almost double the price on CO ($399/each way vs. about $408 RT)! I was shocked. I was hoping someone here could lend some insight. Have they pretty much conceded this particular market to CO? Why would there be such a HUGE disparity in fares?

Thanks
dc

I'm not sure whether you mean to say that B6 is double CO, or the other way around. One possiblity that could cause the fare difference is if one airline is seeing much higher bookings than the other and is sold out of the lower fare classes. For instance, if B6 was the one that was double CO, it's possible that B6 is seeing a much higher booking rate than CO on this route, for those dates. In terms of February, and why that time might be so expensive, you've got V-Day in there, as well as many northeast (or maybe just NY) school districts have a winter break sometime in February, and it's possible many families go on vacation during that week.

As the poster above points out, Feb. is peak travel season to Florida, especially during President's week when schools are closed.

Also, jetBlue's fare cap is $299 o/w on the NYC-Florida routes...so $399 o/w can't be pososible.

Yes, I realize it's a busy travel time. I have traveled the same week for the last 7 years with my kids during their school vacation, exclusively on Continental, and I am more than willing to pay a premium for that time (compared to a random week some other time). My point was not the amount in absolute terms, but in relative terms - in other words, why is it approximately $400 (ranging to a little over $500 for Y) to fly on CO while it is $800 ($399/each way) on B6 on the same days? CO has availability on all of its flights the days when I was searching and we're not talking "low" fare buckets - H, K and Y. I really wanted to try the B6 experience with the more comfortable seats and IFE . . . just not willing to pay $1600 more for 4 tix - I could fly FC for much less than what B6 is charging for coach ($608 RT for FC on CO vs. $798 coach on B6), so I just was looking for an explanation.

Thanks

Jetblue uses the "bucket" system, which, in simple terms, the less seats that become available, the higher the prices. So, if it is $399 one way, there are probably less then 10 open seats on the flight. It all depends on the day of week and time of year that you are flying. I recently booked the same flight (EWR-PBI) for December 25th, and the rountrip total came to just over $500, while Continental was $550. If the fare difference was similar to yours, I would definitely go with Continental.

I have no specific knowledge of EWR-PBI but here's some additional thoughts fwiw

I frequently fly from NYC (LGA or JFK) to PBI. Ever since JB started up, I've checked fares in hopes to see what the buzz was about. Until VERY recently, every time I flew either Delta or American had significantly lower fares on those routes (when I was looking to buy & fly).

Another factor to consider is that the number of flights on ALL airlines flying those routes (NYC - PBI) appears to have dropped dramatically from recent years past (especially since the demise of Song). Some like American up service a bit during that peak holiday time but overall i believe the supply of seats to PBI have diminished thereby impacting demand & price.

Indeed. Furthermore, most of the fares on that route are identical:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.5.3/Platinum - Sabre: Fares/DotRes/US-USD]
[KVS Availability Tool 2.5.3/Platinum - Sabre: Fares/DotRes/US-USD]

KVS - I appreciate your looking into this, but with all due respect, kindly look at 2/16 EWR-PBI and 2/24 PBI-EWR. It is, in fact, $399 each way.

JetBlue website prices the outbound flight at $299 (which is correct), and the return flight at $399 (which must be some kind of a glitch, as that fare does not exist).

I don't know why thosoe fares are $399. Maybe the fare cap on Florida was poushed up again...I doubt it, but maybe it's even a mistake.

If you're at all flexible, a Thursday morning departure on the outbound would drop the fare to $234 for that one way segment, a signifigant savings of $165 per person. Also, are you able to fly in to OR out of JFK, LGA or FLL? For example, try other routings between NYC and South Florida.

It must be a glitch:

http://www.jetblue.com/about/corptra...pAveFares.html

Airport Code City Pair Avg.Fare* Highest Freq.**
EWR/PBI Newark, NJ - West Palm Beach N/A $299 1

**frequency is 2 for peak season as is now.

I just checked jetBlue.com today and infact they did update their site to reflect the $399 fare from EWR-PBI while maintaining that average fares are around $88. For the person looking to fly during Presidents week... you should be made aware of the fact that in NYC this is a very high density period for the airlines as many people go away during this time. All NYC Public School have off for the week so many people go away. I am fly EWR-PBI on 12/26 and thankfully got in before the fare increase went into effect and only paid $356 r/t. Obviously that doesn't help you, and the person that mentioned the "bucket" system is quite right, the less seats on the plane the higher the price goes. So unfortunately some unlucky people get stuck with higher fares. Just a quick note that I have experienced last minute deals with jetBlue... where the prices were a bit higher and by waiting it out I actually was able to pay less, which is contrary to what you would do on most airlines, but for jetBlue they can throw random sales so be on the lookout.