Price rises after codesharing agreement
Aug 25, 2002 | 7:51 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: MI
Programs: NW/DL Plat->Gold->Silver, AA EXP 1MM
Posts: 855
Price rises after codesharing agreement
The Honorable Norman Minetta
Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Sir: Re: Delta, NWA, Continental Codesharing
I urge you to reject this pact as highly anticompetitive.
As an example of the problems this agreement poses, I have been looking at several trips in the upcoming months on the NWA website. On August 23, the day after the codesharing announcement, all of my proposed trips saw their fares rise by $100 or more. For example, DTW-MAD rose overnight from $538.61 to $638.61.
Remarkably, the price quoted on the NWA, Delta and Continental websites is now identical to the penny. If the airlines would do this even before the pact is approved, imagine what they would do after.
I assume that you would agree that your primary responsibility is to the travelling public, and not to the pilots, CEOs or shareholders of the airlines. It seems clear to me that this pact will not benefit the public.
Cc: Travel Editor, New York Times
Aug 26, 2002 | 8:39 am
#4
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Programs: UA Platinum, AA Lifetime Platinum, DL Platinum, Honors Diamond, Bonvoy Ambassador, Hertz Platinum
Posts: 8,179
It's difficult to be more specific without knowing your travel dates, but the current cheapest published fares from DTW to MAD are:
CO: $422.00
NW: $514.00
DL: $532.00
Of course, the price you end up paying will be more once the taxes and international fees are added, but this will be the same for each carrier.
As you can see, each carrier has a different price. Is it possible that the cheaper seats on a particular flight you were looking at happened to sell out, bumping that flight to a higher fare?
It's funny when it comes to the pricing of codeshare flights: no matter what the situation, a large group of people is screaming about it being inequitable. If the prices are the same, then people complain about price collusion, even though prices are often identical on non-codeshare routes (hint: airlines can see each other's published fares in the CRS's without using collusion). If they are different on codeshares, then another group of people pipe up and point to this being yet another example of the screwy airline pricing model - after all, how can prices be different from two carriers that are selling seats on the same plane?
On DTW-MAD, both AA and CO have $422 fares right now. I hardly think this is too expensive for a trans-oceanic flight. They are about $100 cheaper than the cheapest NW flight, but that's common pricing for non-dominant carriers in a particular route or market (it's called competition).
CO: $422.00
NW: $514.00
DL: $532.00
Of course, the price you end up paying will be more once the taxes and international fees are added, but this will be the same for each carrier.
As you can see, each carrier has a different price. Is it possible that the cheaper seats on a particular flight you were looking at happened to sell out, bumping that flight to a higher fare?
It's funny when it comes to the pricing of codeshare flights: no matter what the situation, a large group of people is screaming about it being inequitable. If the prices are the same, then people complain about price collusion, even though prices are often identical on non-codeshare routes (hint: airlines can see each other's published fares in the CRS's without using collusion). If they are different on codeshares, then another group of people pipe up and point to this being yet another example of the screwy airline pricing model - after all, how can prices be different from two carriers that are selling seats on the same plane?
On DTW-MAD, both AA and CO have $422 fares right now. I hardly think this is too expensive for a trans-oceanic flight. They are about $100 cheaper than the cheapest NW flight, but that's common pricing for non-dominant carriers in a particular route or market (it's called competition).